building boats for the expected expedition to Crown Point. Both sides of the lake from the fort up to Ticonderoga, or "Carillon," as the French called it, and beyond, was a debatable ground where a party of either side was likely to meet one of the other without warning. This scouting service was much sought after by the more adventurous, but was largely in the hands of the renowned Major Robert Rogers, who had filled the camp with stories of his feats of daring and hair-breadth escapes.

Soon came the British Captain Burton, sent by the commander-in-chief, to inspect the camps and forts. A pretty bad name, too, he gave to Fort William Henry. He said it was nasty, and the men were suffering the consequences. Even if allowances were made for a British officer not inclined to give provincials any more credit than he could help, the state of the sick list and the number of men who said they felt "poorly" showed that something must be wrong. The particulars which he adduced fully justified his epithet.

The men were raw, and such advance as they had made in the knowledge necessary for the soldier had been rather in the way of drill and maneuvers than of the rules required for a proper camp life. The surgeons were more skilled in the compounding of drugs than in measures for the preventing of infection. If smallpox once got a foothold, as it had done, it was almost impossible to prevent it from spreading. The beneficent discovery of Jenner was half a century in the future, and the crude resource of inoculation carried enough of danger with it to make it unsuitable for the camp.

Bates was put in charge of work for improving these conditions, but although he took hold of it with the enthusiasm that marked all his behavior, he soon tired and said that it was not the work for a soldier. He did not venture to make this remark to his major, for he knew that he would be answered with some asperity that it was the work

of an officer to obey orders and that these were very necessary for the welfare of the camp.

The work of digging trenches, carrying away offal and getting a supply of clean water near enough to the camp to make even the laziest man prefer it to dirty, could not occupy his mind sufficiently to keep the image of Kaatje's upturned face and swimming eyes from coming too often before him. He tried to escape by getting some more absorbing task which would make duty and danger drive away love, and was constantly asking permission to go with the scout parties ranging the woods every day. He could not get the opportunity he specially sought with the renowned Major Rogers, who took with him none but men of the toughest fiber, ignorant of fatigue or luxury, and tried in the devices of savage warfare. Major Baxter tried to persuade him that there would be enough danger for them all before he got through, and finally told him frankly that he was not yet the man to go with such fighters as John Stark and Israel Putnam. Bates was obliged to acknowledge the truth of this judgment, but said he hoped to learn, though without confiding to the major, who was a sort of monitor and guardian as well as commanding officer, the reason why he was so anxiously seeking to get away from distasteful duties. But at last he was allowed to volunteer with Captain Hodges, who commanded a company in his own regiment. Ensign Lincoln was going, too.

In the intervals of his tedious duty, Bates had had some confidential conversation with Lincoln and confided to him his infatuation with the pretty girl at Albany. Although this steady-going youth could not help being amused and not a little disgusted at this fickleness, he experienced in his own behalf a great sense of relief, for he had never been able to free himself from the suspicion that Bates's acknowledged fascinations had more to do with his own want of success with Miss Deborah Smith than was apparent upon the face of the thing. He heartily approved of Bates's plan for ridding himself temporarily from the image of

Kaatje, but still hoped that it would not be so thoroughly effaced that it could not be revived on occasion. It was better for his own future interest that there should be a counter-charm at a distance from Hingham.

On the first night of the expedition, as they were lying near each other before the camp fire, which they supposed it was safe to build, as they were still near their own fort, Bates entrusted to Lincoln a message of affectionate farewell for Kaatje if he should ever be able to find her.

"But what shall I say to Miss Deborah ?" said Lincoln. "She will need no consolation if you get back all right. What shall I tell her if I should be the lucky one?"

"Nothing from me. She would not care. But you may give my love to my sister and my old mother."

"And what to Mam'zelle at the Cove?" asked the ensign, again without an answer.

Two days later a sorely wounded man crept into Fort William Henry with tidings of disaster. He could tell but little except of a surprise, the death and scattering of the command. The death of Captain Hodges, after a brave fight, he had himself seen. He was the captain's townsman, as well as in his company. Bates and Lincoln he did not know very well, and had never spoken to them before the fight, but he remembered that they came as volunteers from another company. He saw them for a few moments near each other, but that was the last, and he could have no idea what had become of them. There were dead left upon the field, who or how many he could not tell. Major Baxter's two lieutenants did not come back.

CHAPTER VII

LIEUTENANT BATES AT ALBANY-RETURNS TO HINGHAM IN CUSHING'S SLOOP

A FEW days before the final muster by Henry Leddell, as the regiment was soon to march for home, Major Baxter had received a letter which gave him great joy. Bates had written from Albany saying that he had been, as perhaps the major had heard, severely wounded on the scout, but had succeeded in escaping from his captors through the woods. He could not walk very far without his old wound paining him greatly, and he knew he could not march home through the woods. His desire was ardent to serve, and he had shipped with Captain Cushing, who was willing to take him for his work on board the "Sea Flower." He knew the sloop would be going home before the river froze up for the winter, and then he hoped he would come, too. He hoped the major would assent to this arrangement and would be willing to continue his name upon the rolls for the rest of the campaign, as he would not be receiving any pay from Cushing until he was able to do more duty than now. The heavy load was taken from Baxter's heart. He wrote a letter of congratulation in reply and agreed to the arrangement proposed. His muster roll continued to bear the name of Joshua Bates as on duty and Jeremiah Lincoln as "dead or captivated."

How Bates had reached Albany he did not himself for a long time understand. He was told that he was out of his head with fever for some weeks, but he learned that he appeared there in the canoe of a Mohican, one of Sir Wil

liam Johnson's friends. Uncas had found him wandering between Lake George and the river and recognized a button in his sleeve-links as like one he had seen at the throat of a pretty girl in Albany, so that after landing him he had sought for her and showed her the mate to her button. She had humanely visited him in the hospital, simply as a very sick man, without her father and mother knowing who the special object of her attention might be until he was well enough to call at the house. Then his visits were strictly forbidden by Mynheer Vander Kaas. Nothing of this reached the major.

Late in September came to Boston despatch riders to report the disaster of Captain Hodges and the loss of so many men, but exactly whom they were could not as yet tell. There was no list of the volunteers. Some had simply disappeared, while others were known to have returned to Fort Edward instead of to the encampment at the end of the lake. The captain himself was found dead among the mutilated bodies of his men upon the field. It was known that there were many with him beside his own company, and these tidings spread the anxiety widely among all those who had friends in Colonel Gridley's regiment.

A week later came two men to Roxbury who had been so severely wounded about the head and arms that it was clear to the surgeons, whom they found two days after the surprise, that there would be no more fight for them before the winter, although their uninjured legs had allowed them to get back through the woods. It was thought best to let them take their chances in a leisurely return through the country than in the camp hospitals. These men reported positively that Major Baxter had not been with them, but as to the names of others they could not say. One of them had caught a glimpse of two young fellows, lieutenants, whom he had often seen before, both of rather light complexion, one stouter than the other, being carried off by the Indians.

Debby had at once started on horseback for Roxbury, and