rendered him useful in a hand-to-hand fight, but he was altogether
unaccustomed to forest work, and his habit of bursting into fits of
laughter on the smallest provocation, as is the manner of his race,
enraged the scout to the last degree. Indeed, he had not left the
fort above an hour when he turned savagely on the negro.

"Look-ee here," he said, "if that's the way ye're a-going on, the
sooner ye turns yer face and tramps back to the fort the better. When
you were at Concord it done no harm to make as much noise as a
jackass braying whenever you opened that mouth of yours, but it won't
do in the forests. It would cost us our har and your wool ef yer were
to make that noise with the enemy anywhere within fifteen miles of
yer. I aint a-going, if I knows it, to risk my sculp on such a
venture as this; still less I aint a-going to see this young chap's
life thrown away. His father hez put him in my charge, and I aint
a-going to see him sacrificed in no such way. So ye've got to make up
yer mind; yer have got to keep that mouth of yours shut tight or
yer've got to tramp back to the fort."

Jake gave many promises of silence, and although at first he often
raised his voice to a point far exceeding that considered by the
hunters safe in the woods, he was each time checked by such a savage
growl on the part of Peter, or by a punch in the ribs from Harold,
that he quickly fell into the ways of the others and never spoke
above a loud whisper.

At a short distance from the fort they were joined by the two
Indians, who were also out on a scouting expedition on their own
account. They had previously been well known both to Peter and
Ephraim. They were warriors of the Seneca tribe, one of the Five