"Yes; he and his men are in those two, and there are seven birches after them. About thirty men. It's a pretty slim chance he's got. Now they're firing." Both parties were shooting at each other. As they neared the shore, we lost sight of them behind a point, but could still hear them popping away. Rogers said: "Captain Jacob is in a fix. Presence of mind is a good thing, but absence of body is a great deal better in a case like this, and we'd better light out of here at once, and get out of the way before they run across our trail. There's too few of us to help him. We must look out for our own scalps. Hurry up." We went back into the woods a long distance before we turned south to go to Lake George. We reached camp the next evening, and on the following day a wounded Indian came in and said that Captain Jacob and the other four Indians were captured. There was a report that he was sent to Montreal, but it is more likely that he was tortured and sang his death-song at the stake. At last the rafts were ready for the artillery, and on the 21st day of July the army embarked and moved down the lake in four columns. The Rangers headed the column on the right. To the left of us was a column of two brigades of regulars. The third column was mainly made up of boats and rafts carrying the artillery and provisions, and the provincials formed the fourth column. [Sidenote: THE ARMY EMBARKS] A raft called the _Invincible Radeau_, which carried nine twelve-pounders, led the army, and the _Halifax_ sloop brought up the rear. From these, signals were displayed which informed us what to do. The weather was hazy. There was a strong wind which made quite a sea, and put the artillery in considerable danger. Whenever the wind was favourable, we spread our blankets for sails, which helped us very much. There were in all about eleven thousand men,--regulars and provincials. CHAPTER XVI THE RANGERS TO THE FRONT--CAPTAIN STARK'S TALE OF CAPTURE--TO ATTACK THE ST. FRANCIS INDIANS We reached the outlet at night, and remained in the boats, tossed about on the water, which was quite rough. The Rangers were the first to land. We marched by the portage path to the sawmills, and crossed the bridge to the rising ground on the further side. A party of the enemy met us there, but we killed some of them, drove them off, and took several prisoners. Soon after, the grenadiers and light infantry came up, and were followed by the rest of the army, which remained over-night at the sawmills. The Canadians and Indians crept up again, and fired on us from the bushes. "S-Some of your Canawaugha friends, B-Ben, come to pay you a call." [Sidenote: RANGERS ADVANCE TO LAKE CHAMPLAIN] We got behind trees and bushes, and we and the French picked each other off till night came.