Then thirty or more were ordered ashore, the major going with them after he had given us lads permission to follow.
"That we will do, sir," I said, "if we are needed to lead the way."
"We would be poor frontiersmen if we failed to follow your trail, lads," Major Clarke said with a smile. "You shall do as you please."
Now it would have suited me better to remain in safety aboard the flat-boat, yet there was a chance that now I might show my desire to repair the wrong committed, and I replied as if my heart was full of courage:
"We may not be of much assistance, sir; but I should like it better if we had a hand in the work."
Whereupon Paul stepped closely to my side as if to say I had but spoken the thoughts which were in his mind.
Thus it was that we two followed the volunteers, knowing full well we might fall into an ambush, and certain we would soon be battling with our enemies.
Among these men led by Major Clarke, there was not one ignorant of how the work before him should be accomplished. No orders, were necessary.
The volunteers moved ten or twelve paces apart, stretching far up from the river until they were what would be called by military men a "skirmish line," and then began the advance, while the flat-boat remained moored to the bank and two settlers were paddling at full speed up-stream to warn the other craft.