"Well, if they ain't, what do you call them?" "They look to me like a crowd of folks what was goin' to have a fight pretty soon." "That's jest what I'm afraid of. Say, do you live near here?" "No, I came from Shoreham. We heard there was a crowd comin' to take Fort Ticonderoga, an' seein's how they didn't get along very fast, I thought I'd come an' hunt 'em up. Do you count yourself a soldier?" "I did when I left Pittsfield; but I've kind'er got over that feelin' now. What's your name?" "Nathan Beman." "Mine's Isaac Rice." "What made you come out with a crowd like this?" "All the folks 'round our way was enlisting, and they said it was the duty of everybody to fight against the king. Besides that the corporal was going, an' he agreed to put me through in great shape." "Who's the corporal?" "That's him over there with the red coat on." "Do you allow an old chap like him could put anybody through in very great shape?" "You mustn't talk like that about Corporal 'Lige where anybody will hear you. Why, he's a regular soldier; fought under General Abercrombie in '58, an' I reckon if it hadn't been for him the king's troops would have got it terrible bad." "An' that's about the way they did get it." "Well, Corporal 'Lige is here now, an' it'll be different. Did you ever see the fort?" "See it? Why, I'm over there pretty near very week. Our folks sell eggs an' chickens an' such truck to the garrison, an' I know the place jest like I do my own home." "Do you s'pose we can take it?" "There seems to be a sight of you here; but I shouldn't want to make a guess till after I'd seen whether there's going to be a row among all hands or not. Father says when thieves fall out honest men get their due." However frightened Isaac might be, he was not disposed to allow any boy of his own size to call the members of this army thieves, even though they were in a state of insubordination, and forgetting all his fears he demanded sternly: "Who are you calling thieves?" "Now, you needn't get so huffy, 'cause I didn't mean anything," Nathan replied quietly, and yet with no show of alarm; "but father is always sayin' that, an' I s'pose it means--well I don't know what, except that all hands of you are fightin' here, an' it looks like as if Captain Delaplace would get the best of it." "Who's he?" "The commandant of the fort, of course." "Well, see here, Nathan, it begins to look as though there was goin' to be a row for a fact, and I hoped you lived close by so I could go to your house till it was over." "But you're a soldier, ain't you?" "Not much of one." "Well, if you've enlisted, a fight is right where you belong," and Nathan appeared to think this settled the matter beyond any argument. "I ain't so certain of that; but even if I do belong in a fight I shan't stay in one. It seems like as if Corporal 'Lige had turned me off, an' all he's thinking about is helping our crowd get the best of the Stockbridgers."