midnight
The task before Captain Colden 's slender force was full of danger . His numbers might have been five times as great and then they would not have been too many to build and hold the fort he was sent to build and hold . But he had no thought of turning back , and , as soon as Daganoweda and the Mohawks were gone , they started , bending their course somewhat farther toward the south . At the ford of a river twenty men with horses carrying food , ammunition and other supplies were to meet them , and they reckoned that they could reach it by midnight . The men with the horses had been sent from another point , and it was not thought then that there was any danger of French and Indian attack before the junction was made , but the colonial authorities had reckoned without the vigor and daring of St. Luc . Now the most cruel fears assailed young Captain Colden , and Robert and the hunter could not find much argument to remove them . It was possible that the second force had been ambushed also , and , if so , it had certainly been destroyed , being capable of no such resistance as that made by Colden 's men , and without the aid of the three friends and the Mohawks .