UTNAM'S small band of rangers ascended the Mohawk with instructions to turn north after passing Schenectady. The captain and Willis, held on through Stillwater, Saratoga and Upper Falls without finding a trace of the girl.
“I've either guessed wrong or the girl is good enough ranger to serve with Rogers,” fumed Putnam as inquiry after inquiry see to bring them any information.
“She must have gone up the Mohawk,” sighed Willis.
“Then my men will find her trail and keep tabs on her. But reason tells me she must have come the most direct way. She didn't know she was suspected and would be trailed. She would try to run the lines before the forts and outposts could be warned to head her off. If she went up the Mohawk I'm disappointed in her. But if she come this way may the find her.”
Ahead of them was Fort Edward, so christened by William Johnson in honor of the King's grandson, although the New England provincials were better pleased with the original name of Lyman, the fighting Connecticut general. If they got no trace of the girl here they must trust entirely to luck as the lake with its thick forests was but fourteen miles away.
Once the girl got into the brush she could reach Ticonderoga by following either side of the lake or by stealing a canoe and traveling at night. Only the chance meeting with some of Rogers' rangers could stop her.
Putnam still insisted he wished the girl to get through the lines with her news that the English were to advance in force, but he was just as insistent on being at her heels so as to know when she entered the fort. Willis' fears that harm had befallen her were scoffed at by Putnam; yet the captain knew he would feel better once he learned she was clear of the bush. Spy she might be, yet she was a white woman, and should be kept from the Indians. As the two men approached the fort Putnam :
“There is General Lyman! But what's the matter with him? I've know Phineas long enough to tell when he's upset. See how he swing his fists as he walks back and forth! Must be taking the Oswego matter mighty hard. You can hold back a minute.”
As he approached the agitated general, Putnam was cordially greeted, Lyman's face lighting up as he gazed into the strong, open countenance of the ranger. Putnam from the beginning, when he had enlisted as a private, had made good. He bore a conspicuous part in the “bloody morning scout” and the defeat of Dieskau. Like Lyman he had urged pursuit of the baron's shattered forces, At bushfighting he had proven himself such an adept as to attract the attention of Rogers, who, no matter what weaknesses he was guilty of as a man, was invaluable to the colonies as leader of the rangers.
“Bad business, general,” said Putnam.
“Bad because it's so foolish. Now they'll blame Shirley, and he at least tried to make Oswego stout and to capture Niagara and Frontenac.”
“The damage should be repaired by a stout stroke,” declared Putnam, speaking with the freedom of a neighbor.
“That's what we're up here for,” was the terse rejoinder.
Then angrily:
“But me! I've lost another sentinel. The fourth to disappear within as many days.”
Putnam's eyes widened; so it was the loss of a sentinel rather than the calamity of Oswego that was disturbing the general.
Lyman read his thoughts and growled:
“Oswego isn't my affair yet. The missing sentinel is. It was at the small outpost below us; and it puts my wig in buckle. It makes a man's nerves cut up all sorts of capers.”
“The fourth to disappear. Not shot with an arrow as they do it at Fort William Henry, but disappears?”
“Just that. That's what riles me. When the first was reported missing, with neither hair nor hide of him to be found, I put him down as a deserter. The next morning the second vanished—and some blood was found. The mystery of it fretted the men. None was keen to stand guard that night.
“Number three goes into the air, More blood, but no sound of a struggle, no call for help. Now they report the fourth man has gone. I've given orders for the sentinels to always call out three times 'Who goes there?' at the least sound and then fire. Not one of the four men has fired his gun.
“The men have volunteered for the duty, but now the reports it'll be necessary to draft a man for each night, as no more are volunteering. It's bad for the men. They don't mind fighting against big odds but this business takes away their courage.”
“Any other news?”
