But we're right in believing that boat has come to spy us out.

I can see an officer standing up and watching us with glasses." "Let 'em come," said Willet.

"There's no war--at least, not yet--and there's plenty of water in the St.Lawrence for all the canoes, boats and ships that England and France have." "If they hail us," said Robert, "and demand, as they probably will, what we're about, I shall tell them that we're going to the Marquis Duquesne at Quebec and show our credentials." The large boat rapidly came nearer, and as men on board furled the sail others at the oars drew it alongside the little canoe, which seemed a mere cork on the waves of the mighty St.Lawrence.But Robert, Tayoga and Willet paddled calmly on, as if boats, barges and ships were everyday matters to them, and were not to be noticed unduly.

A tall young man standing up in the boat hailed them in French and then in English.

Robert, watching out of the corner of his eye, saw that he was fair, like so many of the northern French, that he was dressed in a uniform of white with violet facings, and that his hat was black and three-cornered.