re. But
we may meet on the front again, though we'll come by different routes."

"If you can't you can't, and that's an end of it, but I'm glad, Lennox,
that I've known you and Tayoga and Willet, and that we've shared perils.
I'm to meet the Philadelphians and the Virginians at the George Inn
again. Will you two come on?"

"Gladly," said Robert.

They found that the others had already arrived, and they were full of
jubilation. Colden, Wilton and Carson were leaving their troop with
regret, but the Royal Americans raised in the Colonies were a picked
regiment ranking with the best of the British regulars. Stuart and
Cabell, coming from the south, which was now more remote from the scene
of war, were delighted at the thought that they would be in the heart of
the conflict. They, too, were insistent that Robert come with them, but
again he refused. When he and Tayoga left them and walked back to the
house of Mr. Huysman the Onondaga said:

"Dagaeoga was right to stay. His world is centered here."

"That's so. I feel it in every bone of me. Besides, I'm thinking that
we'll yet have to deal with Garay and that slaver. I'll be glad though
when Willet comes. Then we can decide upon our next step."

Robert was too active to stay quietly at the house of Mr. Huysman. Only
their host, Tayoga and he were present at their supper that evening,
and, as the man was rather silent, the lads respected his preoccupation,
believing that he was concerned with the great affairs in which he was
having a part. After supper Tayoga left for the camp on the flats to see
an Onondaga runner who had arrived that day, and Mr. Huysman, still
immersed in his thoughts, withdrew into the room containing the great
chest of drawers.

Robert spent a little while in the chamber that he and Tayoga had used,
looking at the old, familiar things, and then he wandered restlessly
outside, where he stood, glancing down at the lights of the town. He
felt lonely for the moment. Everybody else was doing something, and he
liked to be with people. Perhaps some of his friends had come to the
George Inn. A light was burning there and he would go and see.

There was a numerous company at the inn, but it included nobody that
Robert knew, and contenting himself with a look from the doorway, he
turned back. Then the masts and spars in the river, standing up a black
tracery against the clear, moonlit sky, interested him, and he walked
casually to the bank. Some activit