"Go on. We are like to run across more than one such snag, an', what is worse, don't have a clear idea of whether we shall come plump on to the fort, or go a considerable distance to one side of it." Again I advanced, making an even wider détour than before, and in ten minutes, perhaps, we were come upon a single sentinel,--a soldier,--who stood leaning against a tree as if half-asleep, and I was less careful in passing him because he did not appear to be particularly on the alert. Again and again we nearly stumbled upon a squad of men, small parties of Indians, or a single sentinel, until it seemed to me as if all St. Leger's force must be distributed throughout the thicket, and I began to despair of ever making our way through. Now we were where it seemed as dangerous to retreat as to advance, and I strove manfully to keep from my mind all thoughts of the perils that surrounded us, lest I grow faint-hearted at the very time when all my courage was needed if we would save our lives. To do this it was only necessary I think of Jacob and his hazardous venture, which could serve no good purpose even though he succeeded in avoiding the enemy, therefore my mind dwelt on the perils which confronted him, causing me in a measure to forget where I myself stood. To go on in such a manner was most wearisome, and I was well-nigh at the end of my strength when a faint lightness in the eastern sky gave warning that the day was near at hand. At the same moment I observed this fact, the sergeant gripped me by the arm, and, understanding he would have speech with me, I halted. "It is time we went into hidin', lad, although I did count we would come within sight of the fort before bein' obliged to call a halt." "Where can we hide here?" I asked, bitterly, and, strange as it may seem, I began to realize, for the first time since the general had explained what he would have us do, that we must remain concealed from view during all the hours of daylight, and that while we were literally surrounded by the enemy. "We must take our chances in the first dense thicket, wherein may be found a stout tree, that we come across," he replied, "an' now instead of tryin' to get a sight of the fortification, turn all your efforts toward findin' a hidin'-place." This promised to be as difficult a task as I had ever undertaken, for how would it be possible in the darkness to say whether one thicket was denser than another, and, without spending precious time in the examination, to learn if there was a stout tree within any certain clump of bushes? Because the sergeant had said we were to halt where was a tree, I believed he proposed spending the day amid the branches, and any one who has ever been in a forest can readily understand how few there are of such hiding-places.