atching over him. It was true of Willet too, and also of Mr. Huysman.
His mind, as ever, turned to the problem of himself, and once more he
felt that the solution was not far away.

The next day after he had received the letter Zeb Crane returned from
Quebec, into which he had stolen as a spy, and he told Robert and
Charteris that the people there, though suffering from privation, were
now in great spirits. They were confident that Montcalm, the
fortifications and the natural strength of the city would hold off the
invader until winter, soon to come, should drive him away forever.

August was now gone and Wolfe wrote to the great Pitt a letter destined
to be his last official dispatch, a strange mixture of despondency and
resolution. He spoke of the help for Montcalm that had been thrown into
Quebec, of his own illness, of the decline in his army's strength
through the operations already carried out, of the fact that practically
the whole force of Canada was now against him, but, in closing, he
assured the minister that the little time left to the campaign should be
used to the utmost.

While plan after plan presented itself to the mind of Wolfe, to be
discarded as futile, Robert saw incessant activity with the rangers and
fought in many skirmishes with the French, the Canadians and Indians.
Tandakora had gathered a new band and was as great a danger as ever.
They came upon his ruthless trail repeatedly, but they were not able to
bring him to battle again. Once they revisited the Chateau de
Chatillard, and found the life there going on peacefully within the
English lines. Father Drouillard had returned to Quebec.

Another shade of color was added to the leaves and then Robert saw a
great movement in Wolfe's camp before the Montmorency. The whole army
seemed to be leaving the position and to be going on board the fleet. At
first he thought the siege was to be abandoned utterly and his heart
sank. But Charteris, whom he saw just before he went on his ship with
the Royal Americans, reassured him.

"I think," he said, "that the die is cast at last. The general has some
great plan in his head, I know not what, but I feel in every bone that
we're about to attack Quebec."

Robert now felt that way, too. The army merely concentrated its strength
on the Heights of Levis and Orleans on the other side, then took ship
again, and in the darkness of night, heavily armed and provisioned, ran
by the batteries of the city, droppin