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Updated: June 4, 2025
"And I'll get Master Bolderwood to come an' be empire," declared Nuck, no farther out in his pronunciation of the word than some boys are nowadays. So the girls were allowed to come, and an hour or two after sun-up on the day in question the Harding place was fairly overrun with young folk of both sexes.
But the greater number of the defenders came, as did 'Siah Bolderwood and young Enoch Harding, soon after sun-up. This gathering of Grants men was a memorable one. Heretofore, the clashes with the Yorkers had been little more than skirmishes in which half a dozen or a dozen men on both sides had taken part.
"We've got to hurry," and Enoch, nothing loath, followed him across the creek and into the forest on the other bank. "Do you r'ally think there'll be fightin', Master Bolderwood?" he asked. "I hope God'll forbid that," responded the ranger, with due reverence.
He'd be an eel or a sarpint to wriggle out of them thongs." "A sarpint he is," declared Bolderwood, and strode away to look at the prisoner. Enoch followed him. There, sitting with his back against a tree, his ankles fastened together and a strong deer thong wrapped about his body and about the tree itself, was Simon Halpen. When he saw the ranger he scowled.
There could be no stuffed lamb on this occasion, however; sheep were too hard to raise and the pioneers tasted mutton but seldom, for the fleece was too valuable for them to kill the animal which supplied it. But Bolderwood had brought in a fawn which he had hung until it was of the right flavor, and this was dressed and roasted like a young kid.
"The God of Battles has been with ye!" exclaimed Allen, when the man had finished his report. "And if He is with us, as I believe, yonder fort and all it contains shall be ours before sunrise.... But hasten! Tell Baker to bring up his troops. Bolderwood, you and your scouts must go over first with us. Colonel Arnold, you will come in my boat if you wish.
The latter bore a brace of rabbits on his gun and Bolderwood guessed that he belonged to the canoe party and had left them to get this game for their dinner. "Umph!" returned the Indian and looked at him stolidly. "Your people?" asked the ranger, with a gesture toward the river. "Umph!" was the reply. It might have meant yes or no. Crow Wing seemed undecided.
The old ranger, lacking any regular abiding place of his own, often visited the Hardings and helped in the work of the farm. But he was a wanderer by nature and could not stay in one place long at a time. So, being off to the northward, the widow allowed Enoch to join him for a week or two. It was not wholly game that Bolderwood was after, however. At least, not game for present killing.
"And yet there was naught but the prints of the buck's hoofs in the soil here be sure of that. The ground was trampled all about as though the fight had been desp'rate as indeed it must have been." "But that blow on the head?" reiterated Enoch. "Ah, lad, I can't understand that. The wound certainly was mainly like a blow from a gun-stock," admitted Bolderwood.
"I know where there are three of 'em. And there may be others down the lake furder." "You shall have charge of this, Bolderwood!" the commander cried. "I make you our captain of scouts. Take any reasonable number of men with you and hurry ahead. Every moment is precious." "Good!" said the ranger. "With Smith and Brown I won't need but eight or ten more. And I'll begin by taking young Nuck here.
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