There were open fields on the island, and a white house with eaves that curved upward as if warped in the damp air of the place. The singular thing of which I speak lay in the actions of the people working in the fields. As soon as we came in sight, they ran like frightened rabbits, and vanished; so that the whole island, as we passed, might have been deserted.

Cap Huff scratched his head. “By Godfrey,” he said, “that don’t look right! These Frenchmen up here in Canada, they like us. Least-ways, they always have. It was them as learned me my French songs, and how to drink cider with brandy in it! What’s got into ’em, I’d like to know?”

He was aggrieved as we drew up toward the hindmost bateau—a sort of scow with a swivel gun mounted bow and stern; and the greeting we received was not calculated to calm him. A man in the stern pointed his swivel at Cap’s stomach.

“Where you from and where you going?” he shouted. “What’s your business?”

I ran off to larboard to let Cap talk to him. “Detachment of scouts for General Arnold,” Cap roared. “Going to Quebec! What you want to be so damned military about?”

The man in the stern swung his swivel gun to one side and jerked his head by way of inviting us to come closer.

“Where you been?” he asked, as I laid the canoe alongside him. “You been in jail or something?”

“We been coming over the trail from Maine,” Cap said.

“You must ’a’ denned up somewhere if you ain’t heard the news,” the man said. “You ain’t going to see Quebec this trip.” Grimly he added, “Nor any other trip, neither, the way things look now.”

“You mean they licked Arnold?” Cap asked.

“Arnold? No, not Arnold! They ain’t got around to him, yet! Arnold left Quebec when Wooster came down there to take command, in April. There wasn’t any room for Arnold after Wooster showed up, the damned old woman, so Arnold went back to Montreal and took command there.” He stared at us balefully, muttering “damned old woman” under his breath.

“Who’s a damned old woman?” Cap demanded.

“Wooster! He’s out now. They threw him out. He was an old woman. General Thomas tooken his place.”

“Thomas!” Cap growled. “Thomas! I never heard of him! Where do they get all these generals I never heard of! They must grow ’em on bushes! Why didn’t they leave Arnold where he was? There wasn’t nobody as good as Arnold!”

The scow-man slapped his swivel gun. “There ain’t nobody knows why anybody does anything up in this stink-hole! If ever there was a pack of fart-wits running things, it’s here and now! Congressmen running an army! Hell!” He spat furiously in the river.