ender."

"That can't be possible!" I cried, sharply. "There's never one among them
who does not know full well what the result will be if Colonel Gansevoort
surrenders the fort! St. Leger's promises would be as the idle wind when
Thayendanega's followers wanted victims for the stake!"

"True for you, lad, an' yet these cowards are ready to howl for
capitulation rather than fight as men should, in the presence of such an
enemy, to the last ditch," the sergeant replied, bitterly.

I could not believe that among the entire garrison might be found one
soldier who would willingly consent to a surrender, and said as much to
the old man, who replied, grimly:

"I haven't been around here for the past four an' twenty hours with my
eyes shut an' my ears filled with moss. Take a turn about the works,
listenin' to all that is said, an' you'll find I'm not wrong in my
figgerin'. The colonel knows as well as do I what's in the wind, an' I'll
agree never to eat sweet-cake agin if he ain't makin' ready for trouble
inside the fort as well as outside."

I remained silent a full minute, horrified by the bare possibility, and
then asked, in a voice which trembled despite all my efforts to render it
steady:

"Think you they can force him against his will, as the militia did General
Herkimer?"

"It is my belief that he'd shoot down a round dozen before consentin' to
give us all over to death; but there's no knowin' what a man may be forced
into when pressure enough has been brought to bear upon him."

At this moment Jacob came up, looking like his old self now that his
father was safe, at least, for the time being, and to him I put the matter
much as I had had it from the sergeant.

"Within the hour I have heard the same word from my father. He believes
there are a full hundred of the garrison who, when they have worked
themselves up to just such a pitch, will howl for surrender."

Even then I refused to believe in what was as yet no more than a
suspicion, and Sergeant Corney said, impatiently:

"It won't cost you much time to find out for yourself, lad. Take a couple
of turns around, an' I'll guarantee you'll agree that Peter Sitz an' I are
not tryin' to make mountains out of mole-hills."

"I'll go with you," Jacob said, promptly, and straightway we set out,
keeping our ears open whenever we came within speaking distance of a
group of men who appeared to be talking earnestly upon some particular
subject.

It was not necessar