“We have been sent here, lads, to hold this fort so long as may be against those who would do murder in the valley. By leaving our post of duty in order to aid one person, we are putting in jeopardy a thousand, mayhap, who depend upon our vigilance.” “But are we to stand here idle while those red wolves carry into captivity one of our neighbors?” Giles March, a member of the company, cried, angrily. And I replied as hotly as he had spoken: “What chance would we have if all of us went out in pursuit this moment? Think you, Giles March, that we are any match in woodcraft for those who have done this thing? In the darkness we could never find the trail, and I question if Daniel Hinchman is able to lead you to the place where his sister was taken.” “And because there is a chance we may not succeed, you, calling yourself the captain of this company, count on staying here behind a stockade?” Giles cried, passionately, and his words rankled in my heart, for it was much the same as if he had called me a coward. “Because I am the captain of this company, it is my duty to hold you all here within the fort, at least, until another day shall come. Even at this moment is Elias Shendle trying to make his way toward Wintermoot’s Fort, and we know beyond a peradventure that he must be nearabout where the Mohawks are, in ignorance of their presence. He is the dearest friend I have in the valley, and yet I would neither go myself, nor allow one of you, to warn him of the danger, because of the duty we owe the people who sent us here.” “And what may Elias Shendle be doing outside the stockade?” Giles March asked, angrily. I could do no less at that time than explain why the lad had gone, else might I have had a mutiny on my hands before I was well in command of a company which, I hoped, would one day perform great deeds in behalf of their relatives and friends. Immediately, and as I might have expected, there was a conflict of opinions boldly expressed as to the wisdom of weakening our small company by sending out scouts, and, to my dismay, I realized that at the very moment when it was needed that we exercise the utmost vigilance, and carry ourselves like soldiers so nearly as might be, was a mutiny brewing. Nearly half the company were in favor of going out immediately with Daniel Hinchman to search for the savages, who could conceal themselves as quickly and as thoroughly as a squirrel might in a dead oak, and a goodly portion of the remainder were becoming timorous, or so it seemed to me, because Elias had left us. At that moment I was convinced that the Minute Boys of the Wyoming Valley could not be kept together as an organization while I remained at its head, and I could have cried with vexation because this project of mine was like to come to so speedy an end, through my inability to hold the lads to their duty as I should have done.