"That would be their game most likely," responded Reuben, no less lightly; "but they're not going to do it all the same. The Major knows too much to be caught like a rat in a trap."
While the main body remained in the hollow, scouts were kept on all sides to give warning if the enemy should appear, and in the mean while Major Rogers, accompanied by a couple of his most trusted Rangers, ventured to ascend a very steep mountain, from the summit of which they could obtain a clear and full view of the fortification at Crown Point and of the surrounding country.
The Major was highly pleased at gaining this point of view without being discovered.
"Ah, ha!" he chuckled, as lying down upon his stomach, he peered over the peak and saw the whole place spread out before him like a map, with the French soldiers and the Canadians working away as busily as beavers, while the Indians loafed lazily about, or sat curled up in their blankets, as if they were quite above mere manual labor.
"Wouldn't it give our French friends a start if they knew we were watching them? And what a fine fort they are building, to be sure! I must make a plan of it to send to General Johnson. It's clear to me the place can't be attacked too soon. The longer it's left the harder nut it will be to crack. I must make the General understand that," and he shook his head in the decisive way that was characteristic of him.
The position of the Rangers exposed them to the full power of the wind and cold, but Major Rogers proceeded to make his plan of the fortification as calmly as if he were in a comfortable room, and did not stop until he had, in a rather rough yet quite intelligible fashion, completed a sketch that would be of great value in the event of an assault being made by the provincial forces in the future.
The rest of the Rangers "lay low" in their snug hiding-place, while their leader was in the mountain-top, but so soon as he returned they all moved out and made their way toward a little village situated about half a mile from the fort.
Here, just before night fell, they went into ambush, one-half the party taking their position on each side of the road connecting the village with the fort, and settling down for the night as best they could on the snow-covered ground.
Seth and Reuben curled up as close to each other as possible for mutual warmth, and feeling it impossible to sleep on account of the cold, talked through the long hours of darkness.
With the first break of day the Rangers were all awake and astir, staying their hunger with such scanty fare as their nearly depleted knapsacks provided, and seeing to it that their guns were ready for instant use.