"While the wind blows this way, and so strong, no one will get up the lake, therefore the garrison won't learn of the surrender of Ticonderoga unless some one goes across the country. However, we needn't bother, seein's our work is all cut an' dried, and we had better not waste too much time here." Isaac was beginning to entertain a very friendly feeling toward this lad now that he had changed his views so entirely regarding the value of his services, and, as a matter of course, Nathan could be a most pleasing traveling companion when it suited his purpose, as it did at present. The journey to Sudbury proved to be a longer one than was anticipated. A strong wind which blew directly down the lake, carried the boys fully two miles below the point at which they should have landed, and Nathan was much averse to following back along the shore in order to gain the trail which led to Sudbury. "It will be just that much useless labor," he said emphatically, "and I am not given to walking more than may be necessary." "But there's a chance of going astray if we strike across from here," Isaac suggested, for, as has already been shown, he knew little of woodcraft, and this traveling blindly around a section of the country where there was every reason to believe enemies might be found was not to his liking. "I'd be a mighty poor sort of a guide if I couldn't go across from here without straying from the course so much as a dozen yards," Master Beman said decidedly. "To walk up the shore two miles or more only for the purpose of striking the trail, is foolishness." "But the thicket is so dense here," Isaac suggested timidly, almost fearing to venture an opinion lest he should provoke the mirth of his companion. "It will be harder to make our way through than to go around." Nathan made no reply. He bestowed upon Corporal 'Lige's recruit a glance as of pity, and then, without further words, plunged into the underbrush. Master Rice could do no less than follow. Before the boys had traveled half an hour on the direct course to Sudbury, it is more than probable young Beman repented of having attempted to make a "short cut," for the advance was indeed difficult. At times it was really painful to force one's way through the tangled foliage, while now and again the boys found themselves floundering over swampy land; but Nathan made no complaint because he was responsible for having taken such a course, and Isaac hardly dared protest lest his companion should be angered. "I still maintain that it was better to come this way than travel two miles in vain," Nathan said as he threw himself upon the ground, and Corporal 'Lige's recruit ventured to suggest mildly: "I'd rather walk three miles on the shore than one here, where a fellow is obliged to fight his way through." "Perhaps you know this country better than I do, and would take the lead?"