“If but three boat-loads have landed, let us stand our ground like men; there will be time enough to take to the mountain when we see too large a force coming across the river to have a share in the scrimmage,” I said, quickly, eager for a pitched battle. “Jonathan Ogden is right,” Stephen Morley said without hesitation. “Thus far only about fifteen men have come ashore, and we can make the odds more nearly even when they first show themselves.” No one made a protest, and we took our stations, each for himself, but within easy distance of the others, and all where they could be hidden from view of those who were coming up. It was to be a battle in the night; but we who stood for the right could see as well in the darkness as those butcher’s curs, and had more of a heart for the fight, it was reasonable to suppose. “Fire whenever you see anything moving; but try not to waste a shot,” Master Bartlett whispered loud enough for all to hear, and then came those sounds, faintly yet distinctly, which betokened the advance of the enemy. “Now has come the time when we begin to tell John Butler that he has yet to reckon with the Minute Boys, before he can take possession of this valley,” Giles March, who stood next me, whispered, and before I could make reply the report of a musket broke the stillness. Another report, and another, but yet I could see no signs of the enemy, strain my eyes as I might, and in my impatience I moved forward two or three paces, when a bullet came singing past my head. The savages had been doing all the firing, as I soon believed, and it caused me no little shame when I realized that they were gaining the advantage which should have been ours. “Can you see anything?” Giles March whispered as he came to where I had sheltered myself behind a big oak-tree, and I replied, as a better understanding of the situation came into my mind like a flash: “They outwitted us by sending part of their force straight toward us, while the remainder sneaked up the river bank, counting that we would not be looking for danger from such direction. Face about, lad, and let us give them a bit of their own music.” Now instead of searching with our eyes to the south, we slipped from tree-trunk to tree-trunk until we were within perhaps thirty paces of the stream, and then we had targets in plenty before us. No less than five--two savages and three white men, as I made out--were coming warily up from the water looking for us, and heeding not the possibility that we might have made a change of front even as they had done. Crouching on one knee I fired, bringing down my game, and an instant later Giles March had winged another. The remaining three hunted cover in a twinkling, and when we had reloaded our weapons, I shouted to the others of our company: “They are coming up from the river! Have an eye out in that direction!”