about noon
`` Yes , the preparations for defense made an attack by him hopeless , and when his vanguard was defeated in the forest he gave up the plan . '' They did not stop long , as they knew the great war band behind them was pressing forward , but they felt little fear of it , as they were able to make high speed of their own , despite the weight of their packs , and for several days and nights they traveled over peaks and ridges , stopping only at short intervals for sleep . They had no sign from the band behind them , but they knew it was always there , and that it would probably unite at the lake with the force the rangers were facing . It was about noon of a gleaming summer day when Robert , from the crest of a ridge , saw once more the vast sheet of water extending a hundred and twenty-five miles north and south , that the Indians called Oneadatote and the white men Champlain , and around which and upon which an adventurous part of his own life had passed . His heart beat high , he felt now that the stage was set again for great events , and that his comrades and he would , as before , have a part in the war that was shaking the Old World as well as the New . In the afternoon they met rangers and before night they were in the camp of Rogers , which included about three hundred men , and which was pitched in a strong position at the edge of the lake . The Mountain Wolf greeted them with great warmth .