"Sit down, Dave," said Master Benjamin, "and you, too, Robert and Tayoga. I suppose you did not come to New Amsterdam—how the name clings!—merely to see me."
"That was one purpose, Benjamin," replied Willet, "but we had others in mind too."
"To join the war, I surmise, and to get yourselves killed?"
"The first part of your reckoning is true, Benjamin, but not the second. We would go to the war, in which we have had some part already, but not in order that we may be killed."
"You suffer from the common weakness. One entering war always thinks that it's the other man and not he who will be killed. You're too old for that, David."
Willet laughed.
"No, Benjamin," he said, "I'm not too old for it, and I never will be. It's the belief that carries us all through danger."
"Which way did you think of going in these warlike operations?"
"We shall join the force that comes out from England."
"The one that will march against Fort Duquesne?"