CHAPTER 14: Scouting On Lake Champlain.
One morning, Colonel Monro sent for James.
"Captain Walsham," he said, "there are rumours that the French are gathering at Crown Point in considerable force.

Captain Rogers is still disabled by his wound, and his band have suffered so heavily, in their last affair with the enemy, that for the time they are out of action.
It is important that I should learn the truth of these rumours, for, if they be true, I must communicate at once to the general, in order that he may get together a sufficient force to relieve us, if Montcalm comes down and lays siege to the fort.

Will you undertake the business ?" "I will do my best, sir," James replied.

"Do you propose that I should take all my company, or only a picked party ?" "That I will leave to you, Captain Walsham.

I want trustworthy news, and how you obtain it for me matters little." "Then I will take only a small party," James said.