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ered there, and leading some un-friendly Indians, kills one of the settlers and escapes to Quebec with his young daughter, Steve's sweet-heart. Steve and his father follow the murderers into the wilderness but fail in an attempt to rescue the girl. "The boy swears that he will hunt out Guerlac and lives for the time when he can go to Quebec. When the Colonies rebel against England and Arnold and Washington plan the expedition to Quebec, he with other Maine men, volunteer their services as guides. At last, after en-during the hardships of the journey through the forests, Steve manages to enter Quebec and there fins the sweetheart of his youth. But she is no longer the girl he knew back at Arundel and he is made to realize that he has not loved her, but only his dream of her. "The story, however, is only the smallest part of the novel. Looming above it are many vivid pictures, virile action, humor.

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"In the first part of the novel, Ro-berts draws a clear picture of life as it was lived in Colonial Maine--a human picture, unlike those pre-sented in patriotic history books and unlike those sketched by certain modern gentlemen who seek to be-little our forefathers, Roberts' pic-ture is colorful but it is honest enough to include the drab with the vivid, the sad with the gay and the had with the good. "Robert displays an unusual knowledge and understanding of Maine's Indians. He compares them favorably with Maine's settlers; in-deed, he often characterizes them as better people. The Abenaki Indians he tells us, were peaceful people, victimized by unscrupulous settlers who were responsible for most of the bloodshed that followed in the clashes between red and white men. He shows how the Indians were driven from their land, cheated, robbed, imprisoned, sold as slaves, beaten, taught to drink liquor, and drafted as fighters by both the French and English who fed them with lies. "We see conditions in Maine just prior to open hostilities between the Colonies and the mother country. There were many, we learn, who did not favor rebellion; many who would not support the rebel cause until the Sons of Liberty, resembling the Ku Klux Klan of Civil War days in some respects, began to function with tar and feathers, fire lashes and fists. We learn, too, that liquor played a great part in the lives of these patriots, and that labor ver-sus capital was one of the elements in the pre-war controversy.

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when war breaks out, we meet Washington, Arnold, Aaron Burr and many others who played prominent parts in the fight for freedom. We are with the armies encamped about Boston. We see Washington and Ar-nold plan the expedition to Quebec and return to Maine and the Kenne-bec River to watch the construction of the Bateaux for the Army.

"Then it is that we begin to read the greatest part of Roberts' story, the famous but ill-fated journey of Arnold's little army. "Roberts' account of the expedi-tion's progress thru Maine and into Canada and his picture of the gal-lant attack on Quebec are master-ful. He makes you live with that army, in the ranks, so that you ex-perience everything that it did. It is a great piece of historical writing. He reveals the horrors of that trip as they have never been revealed. I doubt that Roberts could have de-scribled the march any better had he taken it with Arnold."

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Against all odds those brave men pushed on. The fortification are gained, the enemy engage in hand to hand fighting. But the odds were against them. The British were be-hind solid fortifications. Their guns would not shoot. Their leaders were gone. Montgomery killed and Ar-nold wounded. Their comrades were dead and wounded in the darkness. Plans went wrong. Many were taken prisoner in the confusion and the attack failed. Their heroic march was in vain. Not only does the story grip the attention, but the characters become living and personal acquaintances--the rough and ready Captain Huff, Phoebe Martin, the game and ac-complished maid who followed the Army to Quebec and returned with Steve's heart; the Rev. Mr. Hook, whose treachery helped to ruin the expedition; Natamis, Paul Higgins, Jacataqua, Hobomok and other Indian friends of Steve and scores of others. Incidentally Roberts pre-sents an interesting picture of old Portland and of other places in Maine. It is a book every Maine person should possess.