Wyandotte

Chapter 24

"March--march--march!

Making sounds as they tread,

Ho-ho! how they step,

Going down to the dead."

Coxe.

The time Maud consumed in her meditations over the box and its

contents, had been employed by the captain in preparations for his

enterprise. Joyce, young Blodget, Jamie and Mike, led by their

commander in person, were to compose the whole force on the occasion;

and every man had been busy in getting his arms, ammunition and

provisions ready, for the last half-hour. When captain Willoughby,

therefore, had taken leave of his family, he found the party in a

condition to move.

The first great desideratum was to quit the Hut unseen. Joel and his

followers were still at work, in distant fields; but they all carefully

avoided that side of the Knoll which would have brought them