Fort Ti

In 1759, during the French and Indian War, Capt. Jedediah Horn and Sgt. Monday Wash of the irregular "Rogers' Rangers" fighting unit arrive in Albany, New York with a dispatch from their leader, English major Robert Rogers, to Gen. Lord Jeffrey Amherst. Rogers' dispatch calls for more men and reinforcements to keep the Indians out of the area until the army is ready to move north. Amherst approves it because the entire campaign can collapse if the army is stopped in the north. Amherst warns Jed to be careful in Albany as the identity of French spy Raoul de Moreau has not been ascertained. Jed and Monday visit Jed's sister Bess, but arrive after Indians have kidnapped her and her two young sons and torched their cabin. Jed learns that Bess's husband Mark Chesney was not at the house at the time of the attack, and when Jed finds him in a tavern, he slugs Mark for running out on his family. Mark then visits Moreau, demanding to know the whereabouts of his wife and children. Moreau threatens to have Mark's family killed should he himself be harmed and says that they were kidnapped to keep Mark from deserting. Mark returns to Jed and confesses that four months earlier he agreed, in order to save his own life, to join various committees to get information for the French, but that he told Moreau before his family was kidnapped that morning that he was through spying. Moreau, Mark reveals, now expects him to join up as one of the new Rogers' recruits and gather information on the number of men that the British plan to use and the route they plan to take on the march north to Ticonderoga and Quebec. Despite his inclination to shoot Mark as a spy, Amherst agrees that he can earn his freedom by providing information that will not do any good nor harm to the French. On the march to meet Rogers' outfit, Jed and Monday rescue a woman from an Indian about to rip off her blouse. The woman, Fortune Mallory, says she is English and that she has not eaten for three days, having escaped from Fort Ticonderoga, but Jed is suspicious. They plan to put Fortune to work at the Leroy farm, where uniforms and supplies for the British troops are secretly made, and they isolate her so she cannot speak with Mark, whom they still suspect. In the middle of the night, Jed sees Mark wake her. Mark asks if she saw his wife and children at the fort, and she says they were all right. The next day, as Jed takes Fortune to the Leroy farm, he protects her during an Indian attack, then kills one Indian with a tomahawk throw. As another Indian is about to shoot him, the Indian is shot by French Canadian François Leroy, who then hugs Jed in friendship. Leroy's young Indian wife, Running Otter, kisses Jed passionately, not having seen him for four months, and Leroy explains to Fortune that she thinks of Jed as a father, as he had found her when she was orphaned and starving in the wood. Leroy, whose first wife was killed by Indians aligned with the French, brought Running Otter up like a white girl and later married the beautiful girl. At the farm, Fortune and Jed engage in a tender kiss, but when she says he needs a woman, he replies abruptly that he will think about what he needs only when the war is over. At night, back at the encampment, Monday, on patrol, sees Mark leave for Fort Ti and informs Jed. At the fort, Mark tells Moreau that, as it is now six weeks since the abduction, he wants some assurance that his wife and children are safe. Moreau promises that if Amherst's attack is crushed, using Mark's information, he will be able to join his wife before the summer is over. Mark then explains to Moreau and French general Montcalm that Amherst has brought in hundreds of engineers to build a road twenty miles east of Lake George; while a small force will use the lake in order to deceive the French, the bulk of the army will take the new road. Montcalm decides to concentrate his forces twenty miles east. Moreau then offers 5,000 English pounds if Mark will kill Rogers. When Jed sees Mark return, he questions him roughly until Rogers arrives. Mark relates that he gave Montcalm the information that Amherst asked him to relay. When Rogers learns from one of his scouts that the French have built defenses east of the river, he realizes that Mark has told the truth. During a raid, Jed rescues Mark as he is about to be killed. Jed then returns to the Leroy farm to tell them that supplies must be ready in three days, and Running Otter, oblivious to her husband, embraces Jed. At night, when Jed rejects Running Otter's advances, she accuses him of wanting a white woman instead, suspecting that he desires Fortune. Later, Running Otter witnesses Jed and Fortune exchange glances during a song by François, and when Jed is alone with Fortune, they kiss. Jed returns to his encampment, and after Running Otter visits Fort Ti, French troops raid the Leroy farm, and Running Otter accuses Fortune of being a French spy. Jed, Rogers and others successfully battle the French and disarm them. Fortune pleads innocence, but Jed does not believe her. François, who realizes that Running Otter betrayed them to the French, blames himself and tries to comfort his wife as she cries, but she tells him not to touch her, and as he kisses her, she takes his knife and stabs herself to death in the stomach. Rogers, Jed and the Rangers attack the French at the river. Afterward, Jed, Fortune and Monday enter the fort, and Fortune leads them to Bess and her children. They escape the fort pursued by the French to an Indian burial cave. The next day, Jed and Monday defend the cave against the French and Indians, and as they are running out of ammunition, the cannon sounds of Amherst cause the French to retreat. Soon, Mark is reunited with Bess and their children at the Rangers' camp. Montcalm has left for Quebec with his forces, and Jed kisses Fortune by a tree.