els, and for a moment all stood silent and motionless,
waiting to learn the cause of the alarm.

Then it was that the sentinel with whom the sergeant and I had already
spoken, came running into camp, for it seemed a favorite trick of his to
desert a post of duty whenever inclination prompted.

It was Colonel Cox who asked, advancing:

"Did you fire that gun?"

"Ay, sir; I saw two Indians in the thicket, coming as if from the
direction of this camp."

"Did you kill either of them?"

"I do not think I even scratched 'em. The wood is too dense for much good
shooting."

Colonel Cox wheeled around as if the information was of no especial
importance, when even a boy like me understood somewhat of its import,
and, carelessly saluting the commander, reported that the troops were
ready for the word to march.

The general, who was mounted, spurred his horse on to the head of the
column, Sergeant Corney and I following as best we might, and once in the
lead he gave the command.

"Is nothing to be done toward finding out whether the Indians whom the
sentinel saw, succeeded in getting back to their own camp?" I asked of my
companion, and he replied, grimly, with what was very like a smile of
satisfaction on his wrinkled face:

"These officers who have so much wind to spare in camp cannot afford the
time to consider such trifles as a few scouts skulkin' around to make
certain of what we are doin'."

"An' we are like to find ourselves ambushed!" I cried, in dismay.

"Ay, that's what we are, lad, an' I'm thinkin' there will be no way out of
the difficulty until some of these insubordinates are killed off, which
will be greatly to the advantage of the command, accordin' to my way of
thinkin'."

I will set down here that which I read in a book several years after the
day Sergeant Corney and I followed General Herkimer on what we believed to
be a most ill-advised and hazardous march, in view of Colonel Gansevoort's
request, and from the words it will be seen that I am not the only person
who lays blame of all that happened upon those loud-mouthed, imitation
soldiers who were so soon to show themselves cowards.

"The morning was dark, sultry, and lowering. General Herkimer's troops,
composed chiefly of the militia regiments of Colonels Cox, Paris,
Visscher, and Klock, were quite undisciplined, and their order of march
was irregular and without precaution. The contentions of the morning had
delayed their advance until abou