At Plattsburg Rolf and Quonab met with another Albany
acquaintance in General Wilkinson, and from him received
despatches which they brought back to Albany, having covered the
whole distance in eight days.

When 1812 was gone Rolf had done little but carry despatches up
and down Lake Champlain. Next season found the Americans still
under command of Generals Wilkinson and Hampton, whose utter
incompetence was becoming daily more evident.

The year 1813 saw Rolf, eighteen years old and six feet one in
his socks, a trained scout and despatch bearer.

By a flying trip on snowshoes in January he took letters, from
General Hampton at Ticonderoga to Sackett's Harbour and back in
eight days, nearly three hundred miles. It made him famous as a
runner, but the tidings that he brought were sad. Through him
they learned in detail of the total defeat and capture of the
American army at Frenchtown. After a brief rest he was sent
across country on snowshoes to bear a reassuring message to
Ogdensburg. The weather was much colder now, and the single
blanket bed was dangerously slight; so "Flying Kittering," as
they named him, took a toboggan and secured Quonab as his running
mate. Skookum was given into safe keeping. Blankets, pots, cups,
food, guns, and despatches were strapped on the toboggan, and
they sped away at dawn from Ticonderoga on the I8th of February
1813, headed northwestward, guided by little but the compass.
Thirty miles that day they made in spite of piercing blasts and
driving snow. But with the night there began a terrible storm
with winds of zero chill. The air was filled with stinging,