"This is how it must be done: Let them as come with Colonel Easton, stick to him; the Green Mountain Boys shall hang to the tail of Colonel Allen's coat, and the Stockbridge men may follow Colonel Arnold. That makes three bands of us. Now, mark you, lads, there are three sides to that 'ere fort--one apiece. Let us meet here at whatever hour you will, and then start on the minute, each troop taking a different course, an' them who arrive first an' capture the fortification, gets the credit." "But we are needing what Colonel Arnold brought with him," someone cried. "Ay, and you would have heard me fix that if you'd waited. Where did this 'ere Massachusetts Committee of Safety get these munitions of war an' this money? Why, they got it out of the province, of course. And where did we come from? Why, we come from the province of Massachusetts, of course. Then who does this money and these munitions of war belong to? Why, they belong to us, of course. Now, as near as I have heard, there are only fourteen following Colonel Arnold. How long will it take us to lay our hands on all that stuff? Then I guarantee that Colonel Easton--for if he wants me to do it I'll help him in conducting the campaign--will march straight through an' take Ticonderoga before you've had time to say Jack Robinson. Never mind what the Green-Mountain Boys do, an' as for the Stockbridge men, they ain't enough for the countin'." The advice which Corporal 'Lige had given met with the unqualified approval of all whom he addressed, and instantly shouts were raised in his honor until those recruits who were not in the secret looked about them in alarm and dismay as if fearing an attack. Isaac was frightened, of that there could be no mistake. It seemed to him as if an immediate and unquestionably dangerous encounter could not be prevented, for already were the men hanging about Corporal 'Lige in a dense body as bees hang about their queen when swarming, all urging that he lead them on to wrest from the Stockbridge men the property which he had proven did not belong to them. Isaac glanced this way and then as if trying to determine in which direction it would be safest to flee, but at this moment his eyes fell upon a lad of about his own age, who had come in from the highway and was staring about him in perplexity. CHAPTER V. NATHAN BEMAN. In his fear and trouble it seemed to Isaac as if this stranger might render him some valuable assistance. It was as if he stood alone amid the recruits, now that Corporal 'Lige had been claimed, so to speak, as leader of the Pittsfield faction, and the lad needed some one to whom he could appeal for advice. Therefore it was that while the new-comer was staring about him as if distracted by the tumult, Isaac approached in the most friendly manner as he asked: "Are you a recruit?" "What do you mean by that?" "Do you belong to the soldiers here?" "Do you call these soldiers?" the stranger asked almost contemptuously.