Chapter IX: Doing Damage to the Enemy

Although Major Rogers had entirely succeeded in the chief purpose of his expedition, namely, to obtain a full understanding of what the French were about at Crown Point, and had, moreover, captured one of their soldiers, who was quite ready to tell all he knew, provided his life was spared, he was not content to return to Fort William Henry without leaving behind evidence of his visit that would make it remembered by the enemy. Accordingly, after what he deemed a sufficient period of lying low, he said to his men:

"If I'm not mistaken there's a good store of grain in that village, which, as we can't take it away with us, we'll have to burn up so that the Frenchies and their friends won't have it to depend upon, and we might kill off a few of their cattle, too. They mustn't be allowed to live too well here or they'll be too anxious to stay."

The Rangers laughed at their leader's way of putting things, and replied that they were ready to do whatever he had in mind.

"Let us take a good look at the village, then, and see where it's best to begin," said the Major.

Breaking up into parties of ten, they advanced upon the village from different directions, and at sight of them the terrified inhabitants fled to their houses, in which they shut themselves without any thought of offering resistance.

"I hope we won't have to set the houses on fire," whispered Seth to Reuben as they drew near a rude dwelling, which he judged sheltered women and children. "I don't mind how many barns we burn, but I don't want to have a hand in hurting the poor people."

"Oh, surely Major Rogers won't do anything to them!" Reuben exclaimed under his breath. "We're not Indians."

They had no need to be anxious upon this score, however, for the Major, while merciless enough in his methods where it seemed necessary to be so, had no thought of following the shocking example set by the French in their harrying of the borders. He waged war against men, not against women and children.

But as much damage as possible had to be done, so the torch was applied to the barns, and the cattle were killed in the yards, and when the Rangers departed they left that part of the village in flames.

"What can the garrison of the fort be about that they haven't come after us?" queried Reuben naturally enough, when at last they turned their faces homeward; but no one could answer him. Whatever was the reason, whether they imagined the invaders to be in much greater force than they were, or whether they had no stomach to try a brush with them in the forest, certainly the French kept within their own defences and allowed the daring Rangers to go away unchallenged and unscathed, leaving the burning village as a hint of what they would do to Crown Point itself at the first opportunity.

Just ten days after they had set out they were back at Fort William Henry, whose commander warmly praised their leader for the success of his undertaking and the exceedingly important information he had secured.

A period of quiet followed, during which the garrison made shift to while away the time with such sports as were possible in mid-winter. They had snow fights, and snowshoe races, and they practised shooting at a mark, and they had wrestling matches, and whatever other amusements could be devised for either outdoor or indoors.

Into all this Seth entered with keen zest, and being so active and agile of both brain and body, rather more than held his own with the majority of his associates, which fact did not pass unnoticed by the all-observant Major, and no doubt had much to do with the pleasant surprise that he gave him when he sent for him one morning in March.

Seth found the Major in his room with a letter before him, from which he lifted his eyes to look him over with a searching glance that gave Seth a nervous feeling, and caused him to wonder in his mind what was on the carpet.

"Have you ever been to Boston, young man?" he was asked in a tone that afforded no hint of the purpose of the question.

"No, sir," replied Seth, "I have not."

"How would you like to go there?" was the next question.

Now to a frontier lad, who had never set foot in a city of any size, Boston naturally loomed very large and wonderful, and the idea of seeing it for himself could not be otherwise than highly attractive, so that it was without hesitation Seth answered:

"Why, very much indeed, sir. Do you want to send me there?"

"I don't want to _send_ you, but I have some notion of _taking_ you," the Major responded in his brusk way, and then went on to say that the letter in his hand was from General Shirley, Commander-in-Chief of the King's forces in North America, who was at Boston making preparations for the ensuing campaign, and had desired Major Rogers to wait upon him at Boston to receive his instructions.

Seth listened with eager ears. To have the trip to Boston, and there to see not only the famous city, but the great General, under whose command the war would be carried on, this certainly was an opportunity such as he had not dreamed of, and his heart beat quickly as he waited for the Major's definite instructions. When they came, they were characteristically brief and to the point.

"I'll take you with me," he said. "You can be of use to me. We'll start this afternoon. Get your things packed and be ready right after dinner."

In great glee Seth hurried off to tell the good news to Reuben, who warmly congratulated him upon his good luck, while he frankly expressed his envy.

"I've been wanting to go to Boston for ever so long too. I wonder when my chance will come," he said ruefully. "You seem always to get the good things first."

"Oh! your turn will come all right!" responded Seth, patting him on the back. "We'll go to Boston together some fine day, see if we don't."

The summons of Major Rogers to the presence of the Commander-in-Chief aroused much curiosity at the fort, and many were the conjectures as to what it meant, but if the veteran Ranger had any idea of his own he shrewdly kept it to himself.

They set out early in the afternoon, directing their course for Albany, on the Hudson River, and as the danger of being attacked by Indians in league with the French had to be considered, Major Rogers deemed it prudent to have ten of his Rangers accompany them that far, and then return to Fort William Henry.

To Seth, whose experience of the world was so slight, even Albany, then little more than a thriving town, was a revelation, and he would have been glad to spend some days there seeing the sights and getting acquainted with the people, but the Major was not the man to dally by the way. To him Albany was of slight consequence. Boston filled his mind, and if there had been any lightning express trains in that day as there are now connecting the two cities, he certainly would have taken the first one leaving the railway station.

But there was nothing better then than the lumbering stage coach, that jolted its slow way over the New Connecticut Road, as it was called, which wound its somewhat devious course from Albany to Boston.

"Confound the old rattle-trap!" growled the short-tempered Major as the heavy coach swayed and pitched over the rough coach road. "I wish we had taken horse. We'd save time and have more comfort."

Seth, however, although he was too discreet to say so, did not at all agree with his chief. It was his first long ride in a stage coach, and it gratified a desire cherished from his earliest boyhood, and even if the vehicle was clumsy and the roads were rough, he was enjoying himself in no small degree.

From Albany to Springfield, thence to Brookfield, and so by Worcester and Marlborough the post road ran, but before reaching their destination in Boston they had an adventure which aptly illustrated the unwisdom of waking up the wrong passenger.

They travelled all night as well as all day, for the coach carried the mails, and about half-way between Worcester and Boston, on a particularly lonely spot, where the road lay along the bottom of a ravine, shut in by tree-clad hills, rising steeply on either side, the slow-going conveyance was suddenly brought to a full stop, in obedience to the command of two masked men on horseback, who covered the driver with their pistols as they sternly shouted:

"Stop! or we'll shoot you!"

Quite convinced that discretion was the better part of valor, the driver promptly reined up his horses, whereupon the men, dismounting from theirs, said roughly to the alarmed passengers, most of whom had been awakened from a doze:

"Come now, hand over your purses, and be quick about it!"

None of them had been more soundly asleep than Major Rogers, and on first awaking he did not at once grasp the situation, so that Seth whispered in his ear:

"It's robbers, sir; they want our money."

At this the veteran scout understood, and instantly set his quick wits to work to meet the emergency.

"Don't speak or move until I tell you," he whispered to Seth, "but get your pistol ready."

The Major then lay back in his seat again, as though paralyzed with terror.

Meanwhile the other passengers were fumbling in their pockets and getting out their purses, one of the highwaymen holding a lantern up in his left hand so as to make sure that all were obeying orders.

Warmly wrapped as everybody was, with their purses and watches in their innermost pockets, the process of getting at them could not be a very quick one, and the highwaymen swore fiercely at them because they were not so expeditious as they thought they might be.

Not one of them made any show of resistance. They seemed thoroughly cowed by the levelled pistols, and when their valuables had been extracted from the depths of their pockets, handed them over to the rascals as meekly as if it was quite the proper thing to do.

At last only Major Rogers and Seth were left, and the larger of the two highwaymen, who was evidently the leader, emphasizing the order with a full-flavored oath, shouted at them:

"Now then, you two, hand over your money, and be quick about it!"

Without stirring in his seat the Major whispered to Seth:

"I'll take the man with the lantern. You take the other."

And then suddenly rising, he pointed with his left hand beyond the robbers and called out joyfully:

"There they are! They're just in time!"