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Episode Number: 9, according to broadcast order.
It is late spring, and Elizabeth’s young nephew Andrew is riding along the track through the woods to Fort Bennington. He is coming to visit her from Richmond, and he is her favorite nephew, the son she never had. Though looking forward to seeing him, she fears for his safety, as there are persistent rumors of an impending attack on the fort by the French.
He stops to make a quick sketch of a flower he sees, and hears men talking in the forest. Noisily making his way towards them, he sees a white man in civilian clothing talking to two Indians. They see him, and the white man tells them to kill him. As Andrew runs in panic from them, Hawkeye and Chingachgook appear to save him. The Indians, who are Huron, go back to the white man, who gives them a piece of paper in exchange for money. They leave, and he takes a British sergeant’s regimental coat out of his haversack, and puts it on.
Elizabeth sees Andrew being escorted by Hawkeye and Chingachgook in safety through the gates of Fort Bennington. Running to Andrew and embracing him, she gratefully thanks them for helping him escape from the Huron, and they go to her quarters to exchange news. He tells her of impending marriages for their friends, and gives her a music box as a gift.
Hawkeye and Chingachgook tell Colonel Monro of the encounter with the Huron, and as they talk, we see the white man who was in the woods. He is Sergeant Porter of Monro’s command, and he is given the task of strengthening the southeast bastion of the fort, but he is obviously a traitor. Hawkeye and Chingachgook meet Andrew outside the Colonel’s headquarters, and Hawkeye asks Andrew if he can describe the man he saw, who seemed to be neither English nor French. Andrew takes his sketchbook and draws the encounter he witnessed, and as he does so, paintings of flowers fall to the ground from his book. When Chingachgook asks why he paints them, Andrew answers that he is beginning to wonder why, indeed.
The sketch is no help, as Andrew did not see enough of the man to identify him, so Hawkeye and Chingachgook compliment him on his work, and leave. But we see Sergeant Porter watching Andrew with unease. He does not know if the boy saw enough to put him in danger, but is going to take no chances of spoiling what is to come.
McKinney and Peevey see Andrew coming into the trading post, and offer to introduce themselves to him. When Elizabeth hears of their friendliness, she is pleased that they would go out of their way to befriend him. But their plan is to get him to join them in a game of cards, and win his money. As he does not know the game, the outcome is inevitable for Andrew.
Later in the tavern, buying drinks for all with the money they have won, Peevey lets it slip that the money is Andrew’s to Hawkeye. McKinney pulls him away, and Hawkeye sees Bradstreet, a friend, come in to join him in a drink. He and his hired hand Zachary have been pressed into the British Army’s service for the coming attack by the French, and are disgruntled. Sergeant Porter enters the tavern and announces that all soldiers must return to barracks. He shoves a reluctant Bradstreet, who drinks falls into Hawkeye’s lap. He and the Sergeant almost come to blows, but Hawkeye lets him leave.
Next morning, Elizabeth watches Andrew sketch the drilling soldiers. She is dismayed to learn that he is having doubts about his intended career of going to Harvard University and becoming a naturalist. He tells her he came to visit her to get her help in explaining to his parents his desire, which is to experience the life of a soldier. She cannot change his mind, and reluctantly asks Hawkeye to dissuade him. Hawkeye says he cannot, as the boy is following his own path, but he will look after him, to Elizabeth’s gratitude.
Andrews joins the militia, and drills and drills, under the instruction of Sergeant Porter. While the men are busy, he inspects Andrew’s sketchbook, and finds the sketch of his meeting in the woods with the Huron. Later, the sergeant challenges Hawkeye to a shooting match to prove the army’s training over the militia, and is dismayed to have Hawkeye beat him time and time again.
That evening, while she watches her beloved nephew sleep, Elizabeth writes in her diary “I remember how I envied my sister when she gave birth to Andrew, but I suddenly comprehend what a terrible price she paid for that child. For when I think of Andrew in danger, the chill through my heart can be only a fraction of the dread my beloved sister has yet to live with, all these years.”
Outside the fort, Sergeant Porter meets with a scouting party of French and Huron, and tells them they must kill Andrew. When he sends Andrew, Bradstreet and Zachary to get some water during the next days’ drill, they are attacked. Bradstreet and Zachary are killed and scalped, but Andrew runs in terror and manages to elude the Huron. After the burial of the two men, Andrew returns to Elizabeth’s quarters and begins to pack his belongings. He tells her he must leave this place before any of the people learn of his cowardice, as he cannot face them with such shame. Elizabeth tries to get him to understand that what he did was not shameful, but only a reasonable need for survival, and that if he runs away, he will never be able to face anyone again. She
tells him she will prevent his leaving, but he says she cannot keep him here forever. Defeated, Elizabeth again approaches Hawkeye for help, but this time not to dissuade Andrew, but to privately tutor him in the means of defending himself in battle. When Hawkeye reluctantly agrees, he tells her that will mean teaching Andrew to kill, and if he does that she may not like what he sends back. “That is a problem that I will have to deal with,” she says, and thanks him.
Hawkeye and Chingachgook take Andrew into the woods, and teaches him to fight against musket and war club, so that Andrew begins to regain his confidence. He asks their advice about gambling, and with their advice he beats McKinney and Peevey at poker. But Sergeant Potter has met again with the French, and advises that when they attack Fort Bennington, to strike at the southeast bastion, which he has made sure is in a weakened state.
The French and Huron attack that night, while the soldiers and militia are resting. As the men run to defend the fort, Hawkeye tells Elizabeth to stay inside her quarters, but she says she has to help. The French bombard the fort with shot and shell, and Hawkeye watches as Andrew helps to defend the parapets bravely. He also sees Sergeant Porter leave his men, and go off alone. Before he can follow, a French cannon shot knocks down the gates of Fort Bennington, and French soldiers and Indians rush inside. The fighting is hand to hand, and Hawkeye wades into the thick of it, knocking down French and Indian alike. Andrew, seeing the melee grow wilder, starts to panic, and a French soldier, seeing him cringing in terror, begins to attack him. Elizabeth, who is helping the wounded British soldiers, sees him in danger and cries out his name. The Frenchman hears her, and turns to attack the helpless Elizabeth instead.
Andrew, seeing the danger to his beloved aunt, finds his courage, and runs to save her. With a swinging blow from his musket he knocks out the Frenchman who is about to tomahawk Elizabeth. Saved by her nephew, she then sees him follow Hawkeye into the hand to hand combat, fighting fiercely. The French are driven from the fort by the disciplined British soldiers, who capture their colors. The battle almost over, Sergeant Porter sees his chance, and takes aim at the breathless but confident Andrew. He is stopped by Hawkeye, who accuses him of being a traitor, and captures him.
The next morning the French prisoners captured in the battle are being escorted to Albany, along with Sergeant Porter, who has been stripped of his rank and has the sign ‘TRAITOR’ around his neck. Elizabeth and Andrew watch the procession with satisfaction, but Andrew still has doubts about his bravery. He tells Elizabeth that he can find no purpose in the events of the battle. Elizabeth tells him that he performed with pride under fire, and having saved her life, can certainly return home now. But he says he was terrified, and feared her death more than his own. As Andrew and Elizabeth watch Hawkeye and Chingachgook ride out of the fort, Andrew says he cannot return home until he perform without fear, like Hawkeye.
Hawkeye sees Andrew and Elizabeth, and tells Andrew that he has a stronger power, the power to teach, the power to leave footprints for others to follow. ‘When I’m gone, I’ll leave no foot prints….you did very well, Andrew” he says. Later, Elizabeth writes in her diary that “Andrew went home two days later to enroll at Harvard, as Planned. He writes me that he has found his calling, that he wants to be a teacher, as he puts it to leave his footprints upon the minds and lives of others, so that they may follow them.”
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