George Washington, the young colonel of colonial troops, was one of the few men who may truly be said to have taken an active and patriotic interest in the thirteen States as a whole in those eventful months when Steve and his friends fought Jules Lapon and his Indians in the forest, or hunted and trapped along the river at the risk of losing their lives. Young though he was, this courtly colonial gentleman, whose name at this day is held in honoured memory by Americans and Englishmen alike, had already taken an active part in the events which had slowly and insensibly led up to a conflict between the French and the English. Steve looked at him as he lolled on the rough wooden form, and could scarce credit the fact that he was speaking with George Washington, openly spoken of at that period as the colony's chief champion, and well known to be one of the first to have crossed swords with the enemy. "What do you advise me to do, Colonel?" he asked, as he refilled his wooden pipe. "I must work, of course, or else I shall starve, and the work I want is something in connection with scouting. Then there is my father. I do not fear that anything has happened to him, but am naturally anxious that he should learn that I have crossed the Alleghanies." "You have a letter for Charlestown; is that not the case?" asked the Colonel. "I can have that delivered for you, and I will make a point of warning all the men stationed at the crossings over this range that they are to stop your father and tell him what has happened. If you consent to that, then I have work for you." He pulled at his pipe and stared across at the young trapper between half-closed lids. "He is just the lad we want," he was saying to himself. "He is called the Hawk, and I know that no Indian would give him such a title if he were not worthy of it. He has friends, too, who will help him. Yes, he has come in the nick of time. Well," he went on, speaking aloud, "what do you say to this proposition? I will take care that your father is warned, and I have work for you, work which is of the utmost importance, and which every patriotic man would eagerly undertake." "Then you may put my name down for it, Colonel," said Steve quickly. "I have seen enough of these Frenchmen to make me sure that every trapper will have to fight if he wishes to get back his possessions. They have robbed us all in the most barefaced manner, and I for one mean to get back what they have taken. Then, they say that these enemies are determined to drive us altogether out of the country. That means that England is in danger of losing her colony, and every man, or lad for the matter of that, should take a hand in defending the country."