Page 76 - A Hero of Ticonderoga

Warren and Sunderland and a hundred men set forth for the easy conquest
of Crown Point and its insignificant garrison, while, on Lake George,

another party took possession of Fort George and its garrison of a man, his
wife, and a dog.

Arnold hastily fitted out a schooner taken at Skeenesborough, and, with
Allen in a batteaus filled with armed men, sailed down the lake to capture

the British sloop at St. Johns. Job’s knowledge of the lake, gained in years
of ranger service upon it, made him valuable as pilot, in which capacity he

accompanied Allen; and where Job went there went Nathan. The brisk
south wind swiftly wafted Arnold’s craft far in advance of her sluggish
consort, whose crew saw their chances of glory lessening and fading with

the white wings of the schooner.

The voyage was a pleasant one to Nathan, for beyond the mouth of Otter
Creek everything was new to him, with strange and changing shores and
such an expanse of water as he had never seen. His old friend pointed out to

him notable landmarks and scenes of past adventure. Here was the cleft
promontory of So-baps-kwa and the opposite headland of Ko-zo-aps-kwa,

there the solitary rock of Wo-ja-hose. Then they passed the isles of the Four
Winds and Valcour, and Grand Isle’s low, wooded shore stretching along
the eastward water line. At last, as they were nearing the northern end of

the lake and saw on their right the ruin of an old French windmill, the only
vestige of civilized occupation they had seen except the ruins of Fort St.

Anne on Isle la Motte, they descried two sail rapidly bearing down toward
them from the north before the shifted wind.

For a few moments they were in an excitement of alarm, not knowing
whether these were friends or foes. Soon Allen, who had been watching

through a glass, lowered it, and, waving his cocked hat above his head,
shouted:

"Hurrah, boys, it’s our friends with the British sloop. Give her three cheers."

While the last lusty cheer was scarcely uttered, an answering salute from
the cannon of the sloop and schooner was thundered forth.