“A retreat!” the general cried. “In case of a retreat! Don’t you people talk about anything but retreat, for God’s sake? There’s to be no retreat before an enemy no person has seen!” He laughed, pretending to a joviality that his eyes denied.

“My orders—–” I began; but he banged his desk.

“I cancel ’em! No ship timbers leave here until I know whether we need ’em or not! That’s why I’m here—to rectify the blunders that have been made—recover the ground our former troops so shamefully lost! I don’t want the word ‘retreat’ mentioned in this army!”

I knew enough about discipline to keep my mouth shut; and when the general had mopped his face once more, he beamed on me as though we had a joke in common. “Here,” he continued, “I take it you’re regularly on scout duty, aren’t you? Well, I’ll put you to doing something more useful than stealing ships! Go around this section and find out what the Canadians are saying about us: how they feel. That’s valuable! That’s what we ought to know! Tell General De Woedtke what you learn, and he’ll tell me.” He coughed importantly. “That’s all. You can go.”

I saluted and went out, feeling as though I had been kicked. Once outside, I stole a glance at the lieutenant to see whether he considered the general’s orders as foolish as they seemed to me. Apparently he didn’t, and had no further interest in me or my affairs, so I saluted him as punctiliously as I had saluted the general, and made myself scarce.

We had more beer that night, Tom Bickford and I and the York troopers; and by the time it was half gone we agreed that Sullivan’s orders applied to no one but myself, and that the others were free to do what Arnold wanted done.

“He ain’t got no control over us!” the ringleader of the York troopers said virtuously. “You let him get a dozen rods out of town on the road to Sorel, and we’ll have these timbers aboard a bateau before you can kiss a duck!”

As to investigating the feelings of the French, I already knew how they felt, and so did everyone else with any sense. And I knew there was no need to tell that drunken sot De Woedtke anything, because he wouldn’t remember whether I had or not. The thing for me to do was to keep out of sight as much as possible, so that I might not be subject to discipline, or to more of Sullivan’s orders.