Nathan made no reply.
He bestowed upon Corporal ’Lige’s recruit a glance as of pity, and then, without further words, plunged into the underbrush.
Master Rice could do no less than follow.
Before the boys had traveled half an hour on the direct course to Sudbury, it is more than probable young Beman repented of having attempted to make a “short cut,” for the advance was indeed difficult.
At times it was really painful to force one’s way through the tangled foliage, while now and again the boys found themselves floundering over swampy land; but Nathan made no complaint because he was responsible for having taken such a course, and Isaac hardly dared protest lest his companion should be angered.
“I still maintain that it was better to come this way than travel two miles in vain,” Nathan said as he threw himself upon the ground, and Corporal ’Lige’s recruit ventured to suggest mildly:
“I’d rather walk three miles on the shore than one here, where a fellow is obliged to fight his way through.”
“Perhaps you know this country better than I do, and would take the lead?”
“Not so. You left Ticonderoga as guide, and it would not be seemly in me, who am a stranger here as well as a lad unaccustomed to this sort of warfare which is now being conducted, to do other than follow your lead; but——”
The remark which was intended to soothe the irritation in the guide’s breast was not concluded, for Isaac was interrupted by the sudden and unexpected appearance of three 183 men, who came upon the boys as if from an ambush.