Then Jamie, acting as spokesman for the two, told him briefly but clearly his history, commencing with the sea-fight, his capture, and how he spent his time at Quebec, his adventure with the Iroquois on the St. Lawrence, and his escape by the steep pathway that led up on to the Plains of Abraham, and how that Jack had accompanied him in that and all the other adventures he had met with on the frontiers.
"Good!" exclaimed the General, into whose eyes the fire had leapt as the lad described his adventures, especially the fight with the French frigate.
"Pass me that chart of the river and the Plains, Monckton. There, that will do! Just show me, lad, the spot where you landed that day and climbed to the Plains. Here, take hold of this chart!"
Jamie took the chart, spread it out on the ground, and knelt down by the couch.
"There," he said, pointing to a tiny dent in the northern shore, "is the spot where we made our escape. It is a league or so above the city."
"And if I sent you down there with a boat in the dark, could you find it again?" said the General in a soft voice.
"Yes, sir, I could!"
"And if I ordered you to land a boat-load of soldiers on the top of the cliffs there before dawn to-morrow morning, how would you set about it?"
Jamie flushed with pride at the thought of such a commission, but he answered quietly and firmly--
"General, if you trusted that boat to me I would wait till the second ebb tide to-night, then, under cover of darkness, I would drop down with the current, keeping in mid-stream till nearly opposite the cove, then, edging in to the northern bank, I would run the boat ashore at the inlet, and lead the men up on to the Plains two hours before dawn."