:

"If you an' I told the truth, lad, as we know we did, then a detachment of
three hundred is way off more than enough to take care of all St. Leger's
army in its present condition; but if we made a mistake, or if in some way
it turned out to be a big trick intended for our undoin',--though I don't
see how it _can_ be,--then have men in plenty been taken from the garrison
here."

"All of which means that you're entirely satisfied with everything this
night?" I said, with a laugh, for the capture of the Tories had pleased me
so thoroughly that my mouth was stretched in a grin nearly all the time.

"That's about the size of it, lad, though in this case I couldn't find
anythin' to be disgruntled with, however soreheaded I might be. The
colonel is sendin' out men in plenty."

It was Captain Jackman who led the force, and I knew full well that if it
was possible to punish the Britishers he was the one above all others to
tackle the job, for a braver, more cool-headed man I have never seen.

It is well that I make the story short, so far as our own movements were
concerned, for what we said or did before visiting the enemy's camp in
force is of very little importance.

We set off within an hour after Sergeant Corney and I brought in the
prisoners, and were marched boldly across the plain on a bee-line for the
batteries without hearing a single note of alarm. It seemed to me that
even the noises of the orgy had died away.

Arriving at the batteries, Captain Jackman ordered thirty of his force to
take possession of the guns and hold them until the last possible moment,
in case the enemy rallied sufficiently to do anything toward caring for
their own safety.

A few yards farther on, at the redoubts covering the batteries, thirty
more men were left, and, since there was an ample supply of ammunition for
the big guns as well as the small arms, we who were entering the
encampment would have a fine support in case of trouble.

All these precautions were proper, and the captain would have been a poor
soldier indeed had he failed to take them; but, as was soon shown, they
were needless.

When we arrived near General St. Leger's quarters we saw the last of the
army fleeing as if panic-stricken in the direction of Oneida Lake, no
longer preserving any semblance of military formation, but each man for
himself, and, what was yet more puzzling, their Indian allies were in
close pursuit, striking down laggards whenever the oppor