His lips took on that puckery look. “Another chance at ’em? What did you have in mind? Popping at ’em from behind trees?”

“No sir,” I said. “There’s pines on both sides of Wood Creek—as big pines as ever I saw. There isn’t one of ’em that wouldn’t make a mainmast for a 74-gun ship. Give me some men and some axes, General, and I’ll lay those pines across the creek and across the road so thick that—–”

Schuyler stopped me with an upraised hand. “Don’t bother to explain. I can see you got your training under General Arnold. When I next see him, I’ll tell him you learned your lesson well.” He reached for a sheet of paper. “What do you need besides axes?”

“There ain’t nothing we don’t need,” Doc said. “Personally, I ain’t had any pay since last September, and if I could get me a little on account, and an axe and a musket and a pair of dice, and maybe a blanket and a kettle, I guess prob’ly I wouldn’t need much of anything else.”

The general glanced up at him briefly, at which Doc looked apologetic. I saw that Schuyler considered Doc too old for an axe-man, and so said quickly that he was not only a good scout, but lucky, and that if I couldn’t have him with me, I’d consider it unfortunate.

Schuyler handed me the orders, which authorized us to draw fellingaxes, muskets, powder, shot, hats, shoes, shirt—which classified us, also, as scouts acting under instructions from the commanding general.

“Listen to this, now,” Schuyler said. “There are two roads to Fort Ann. Go up the northern road. Go to every farm on it. Tell ’em to drive off their cattle, burn their standing crops: destroy, hide or remove all food. You’ll find Tories among ’em. The country’s full of Tories! Tell ’em that to give aid or comfort to the enemy will be treason to the United States.

“When you’ve done that, circle around to Fort Ann. Get as close to it as possible: then do whatever you can to make the road and the creek impassable. By the time you get there, I trust you’ll find other of our detachments at work. Work with ’em. Work under the commanding officer in charge of the detachments. I want that country wrecked! I want it torn to pieces, so there’ll be no nourishment in it except for mosquitoes and squirrels.”

Doc Means cackled gaily.

“What are you laughing at, sir?” Schuyler demanded.

“Well, General,” Doc said, “it looked for a while as if this was a pretty sick war we’d took so much trouble to get back to, so it’s a relief to see it sitting up and taking nourishment.”