"I have stationed you on this eastern face with your friends and with fifteen men. Monsieur de Catinat, will you command the party?"
"Willingly."
"I will take the south face as it seems to be the point of danger. Du Lhut can take the north, and five men should be enough to watch the river side."
"Have we food and powder?"
"I have flour and smoked eels enough to see this matter through. Poor fare, my dear sir, but I daresay you learned in Holland that a cup of ditch water after a brush may have a better smack than the blue-sealed Frontiniac which you helped me to finish the other night. As to powder, we have all our trading stores to draw upon."
"We have not time to clear any of these trees?" asked the soldier.
"Impossible. They would make better shelter down than up."
"But at least I might clear that patch of brushwood round the birch sapling which lies between the east face and the edge of the forest. It is good cover for their skirmishers."
"Yes, that should be fired without delay."
"Nay, I think that I might do better," said Amos. "We might bait a trap for them there. Where is this powder of which you spoke?"