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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/15608-8.txt b/15608-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..87f018e --- /dev/null +++ b/15608-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12138 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, In the Days of Poor Richard, by Irving +Bacheller + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: In the Days of Poor Richard + + +Author: Irving Bacheller + +Release Date: April 12, 2005 [eBook #15608] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE DAYS OF POOR RICHARD*** + + +E-text prepared by Al Haines + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 15608-h.htm or 15608-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/6/0/15608/15608-h/15608-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/6/0/15608/15608-h.zip) + + + + + +IN THE DAYS OF POOR RICHARD + +by + +IRVING BACHELLER + +Author of _The Light in The Clearing_, _A Man for the Ages_, etc. + +Illustrated by John Wolcott Adams + +Indianapolis +The Bobbs-Merrill Company +Publishers +Press Of Braunworth & Co +Book Manufacturers +Brooklyn, N. Y. + +1922 + + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: A young John Irons and Margaret Hare in the forest.] + + + + + +TO MY FRIEND + +ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE + +Discerning Student and Interpreter of the Spirit of the Prophets, the +Struggle of the Heroes and the Wisdom of the Founders of Democracy, I +Dedicate This Volume. + + + + +FOREWORD + +Much of the color of the love-tale of Jack and Margaret, which is a +part of the greater love-story of man and liberty, is derived from old +letters, diaries, and newspaper clippings in the possession of a +well-known American family. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + +BOOK ONE + + I The Horse Valley Adventure + II Sowing the Dragon's Teeth + III The Journey to Philadelphia + IV The Crossing + V Jack Sees London and the Great Philosopher + VI The Lovers + VII The Dawn + VIII An Appointment and a Challenge + IX The Encounter + X The Lady of the Hidden Face + XI The Departure + XII The Friend and the Girl He Left Behind Him + + +BOOK TWO + + XIII The Ferment + XIV Adventures in the Service of the Commander-in-Chief + XV In Boston Jail + XVI Jack and Solomon Meet the Great Ally + XVII With the Army and in the Bush + XVIII How Solomon Shifted the Skeer + XIX The Voice of a Woman Sobbing + XX The First Fourth of July + XXI The Ambush + XXII The Binkussing of Colonel Burley + XXIII The Greatest Trait of a Great Commander + + +BOOK THREE + + XXIV In France with Franklin + XXV The Pageant + XXVI In Which Appears the Horse of Destiny and + the Judas of Washington's Army + XXVII Which Contains the Adventures of Solomon + in the Timber Sack and on the "Hand-made River" + XXVIII In Which Arnold and Henry Thornhill Arrive + in the Highlands + XXIX Love and Treason + XXX "Who Is She that Looketh Forth as the + Morning, Fair as the Moon, Clear as the Sun, + and Terrible as an Army with Banners?" + XXXI The Lovers and Solomon's Last Fight + + + + + +BOOK ONE + +CHAPTER I + +THE HORSE VALLEY ADVENTURE + +"The first time I saw the boy, Jack Irons, he was about nine years old. +I was in Sir William Johnson's camp of magnificent Mohawk warriors at +Albany. Jack was so active and successful in the games, between the +red boys and the white, that the Indians called him 'Boiling Water.' +His laugh and tireless spirit reminded me of a mountain brook. There +was no lad, near his age, who could run so fast, or jump so far, or +shoot so well with the bow or the rifle. I carried him on my back to +his home, he urging me on as if I had been a battle horse and when we +were come to the house, he ran about doing his chores. I helped him, +and, our work accomplished, we went down to the river for a swim, and +to my surprise, I found him a well taught fish. We became friends and +always when I have thought of him, the words Happy Face have come to +me. It was, I think, a better nickname than 'Boiling Water,' although +there was much propriety in the latter. I knew that his energy given +to labor would accomplish much and when I left him, I repeated the +words which my father had often quoted in my hearing: + +"'Seest thou a man diligent in his calling? He shall stand before +kings.'" + +This glimpse of John Irons, Jr.--familiarly known as Jack Irons--is +from a letter of Benjamin Franklin to his wife. + +Nothing further is recorded of his boyhood until, about eight years +later, what was known as the "Horse Valley Adventure" occurred. A full +account of it follows with due regard for background and color: + +"It was the season o' the great moon," said old Solomon Binkus, scout +and interpreter, as he leaned over the camp-fire and flicked a coal out +of the ashes with his forefinger and twiddled it up to his pipe bowl. +In the army he was known as "old Solomon Binkus," not by reason of his +age, for he was only about thirty-eight, but as a mark of deference. +Those who followed him in the bush had a faith in his wisdom that was +childlike. "I had had my feet in a pair o' sieves walkin' the white +sea a fortnight," he went on. "The dry water were six foot on the +level, er mebbe more, an' some o' the waves up to the tree-tops, an' +nobody with me but this 'ere ol' Marier Jane [his rifle] the hull trip +to the Swegache country. Gol' ding my pictur'! It seemed as if the +wind were a-tryin' fer to rub it off the slate. It were a pesky wind +that kep' a-cuffin' me an' whistlin' in the briers on my face an' +crackin' my coat-tails. I were lonesome--lonesomer'n a he-bear--an' +the cold grabbin' holt o' all ends o' me so as I had to stop an' argue +'bout whar my bound'ry-lines was located like I were York State. Cat's +blood an' gun-powder! I had to kick an' scratch to keep my nose an' +toes from gittin'--brittle." + +At this point, Solomon Binkus paused to give his words a chance "to +sink in." The silence which followed was broken only by the crack of +burning faggots and the sound of the night wind in the tall pines above +the gorge. Before Mr. Binkus resumes his narrative, which, one might +know by the tilt of his head and the look of his wide open, right eye, +would soon happen, the historian seizes the opportunity of finishing +his introduction. He had been the best scout in the army of Sir +Jeffrey Amherst. As a small boy he had been captured by the Senecas +and held in the tribe a year and two months. Early in the French and +Indian War, he had been caught by Algonquins and tied to a tree and +tortured by hatchet throwers until rescued by a French captain. After +that his opinion of Indians had been, probably, a bit colored by +prejudice. Still later he had been a harpooner in a whale boat, and in +his young manhood, one of those who had escaped the infamous massacre +at Fort William Henry when English forces, having been captured and +disarmed, were turned loose and set upon by the savages. He was a +tall, brawny, broad-shouldered, homely-faced man of thirty-eight with a +Roman nose and a prominent chin underscored by a short sandy throat +beard. Some of the adventures had put their mark upon his weathered +face, shaven generally once a week above the chin. The top of his left +ear was missing. There was a long scar upon his forehead. These were +like the notches on the stock of his rifle. They were a sign of the +stories of adventure to be found in that wary, watchful brain of his. + +Johnson enjoyed his reports on account of their humor and color and he +describes him in a letter to Putnam as a man who "when he is much +interested, looks as if he were taking aim with his rifle." To some it +seemed that one eye of Mr. Binkus was often drawing conclusions while +the other was engaged with the no less important function of discovery. + +His companion was young Jack Irons--a big lad of seventeen, who lived +in a fertile valley some fifty miles northwest of Fort Stanwix, in +Tryon County, New York. Now, in September, 1768, they were traveling +ahead of a band of Indians bent on mischief. The latter, a few days +before, had come down Lake Ontario and were out in the bush somewhere +between the lake and the new settlement in Horse Valley. Solomon +thought that they were probably Hurons, since they, being discontented +with the treaty made by the French, had again taken the war-path. This +invasion, however, was a wholly unexpected bit of audacity. They had +two captives--the wife and daughter of Colonel Hare, who had been +spending a few weeks with Major Duncan and his Fifty-Fifth Regiment, at +Oswego. The colonel had taken these ladies of his family on a hunting +trip in the bush. They had had two guides with them, one of whom was +Solomon Binkus. The men had gone out in the early evening after moose +and imprudently left the ladies in camp, where the latter had been +captured. Having returned, the scout knew that the only possible +explanation for the absence of the ladies was Indians, although no +peril could have been more unexpected. He had discovered by "the sign" +that it was a large band traveling eastward. He had set out by night +to get ahead of them while Hare and his other guide started for the +fort. Binkus knew every mile of the wilderness and had canoes hidden +near its bigger waters. He had crossed the lake on which his party had +been camping, and the swamp at the east end of it and was soon far +ahead of the marauders. A little after daylight, he had picked up the +boy, Jack Irons, at a hunting camp on Big Deer Creek, as it was then +called, and the two had set out together to warn the people in Horse +Valley, where Jack lived, and to get help for a battle with the savages. + +It will be seen by his words that Mr. Binkus was a man of imagination, +but--again he is talking. + +"I were on my way to a big Injun Pow-wow at Swegache fer Sir Bill--ayes +it were in Feb'uary, the time o' the great moon o' the hard snow. Now +they be some good things 'bout Injuns but, like young brats, they take +natural to deviltry. Ye may have my hide fer sole luther if ye ketch +me in an Injun village with a load o' fire-water. Some Injuns is +smart, an' gol ding their pictur's! they kin talk like a cat-bird. A +skunk has a han'some coat an' acts as cute as a kitten but all the +same, which thar ain't no doubt o' it, his friendship ain't wuth a dam. +It's a kind o' p'ison. Injuns is like skunks, if ye trust 'em they'll +sp'ile ye. They eat like beasts an' think like beasts, an' live like +beasts, an' talk like angels. Paint an' bear's grease, an' squaw-fun, +an' fur, an' wampum, an' meat, an' rum, is all they think on. I've et +their vittles many a time an' I'm obleeged to tell ye it's hard work. +Too much hair in the stew! They stick their paws in the pot an' grab +out a chunk an' chaw it an' bolt it, like a dog, an' wipe their hands +on their long hair. They brag 'bout the power o' their jaws, which I +ain't denyin' is consid'able, havin' had an ol' buck bite off the top +o' my left ear when I were tied fast to a tree which--you hear to +me--is a good time to learn Injun language 'cause ye pay 'tention +clost. They ain't got no heart er no mercy. How they kin grind up a +captive, like wheat in the millstuns, an' laugh, an' whoop at the sight +o' his blood! Er turn him into smoke an' ashes while they look on an' +laugh--by mighty!--like he were singin' a funny song. They'd be men +an' women only they ain't got the works in 'em. Suthin' missin'. By +the hide an' horns o' the devil! I ain't got no kind o' patience with +them mush hearts who say that Ameriky belongs to the noble red man an' +that the whites have no right to bargain fer his land. Gol ding their +pictur's! Ye might as well say that we hain't no right in the woods +'cause a lot o' bears an' painters got there fust, which I ain't +a-sayin' but what bears an' painters has their rights." + +Mr. Binkus paused again to put another coal on his pipe. Then he +listened a moment and looked up at the rocks above their heads, for +they were camped in a cave at the mouth of which they had built a small +fire, in a deep gorge. Presently he went on: + +"I found a heap o' Injuns at Swegache--Mohawks, Senekys, Onandogs an' +Algonks. They had been swappin' presents an' speeches with the French. +Just a little while afore they had had a bellerin' match with us 'bout +love an' friendship. Then sudden-like they tuk it in their heads that +the French had a sharper hatchet than the English. I were skeered, but +when I see that they was nobody drunk, I pushed right into the big +village an' asked fer the old Senecky chief Bear Face--knowin' he were +thar--an' said I had a letter from the Big Father. They tuk me to him. + +"I give him a chain o' wampum an' then read the letter from Sir Bill. +It offered the Six Nations more land an' a fort, an' a regiment to +defend 'em. Then he give me a lot o' hedge-hog quills sewed on to +buckskin an' says he: + +"'You are like a lone star in the night, my brother. We have stretched +out our necks lookin' fer ye. We thought the Big Father had forgot us. +Now we are happy. To-morrer our faces will turn south an' shine with +bear's grease.' + +"Sez I: 'You must wash no more in the same water with the French. You +must return to The Long House. The Big Father will throw his great arm +eround you.' + +"I strutted up an' down, like a turkey gobbler, an' bellered out a lot +o' that high-falutin' gab. I reckon I know how to shove an idee under +their hides. Ye got to raise yer voice an' look solemn an' point at +the stars. A powerful lot o' Injuns trailed back to Sir Bill, but they +was a few went over to the French. I kind o' mistrust thar's some o' +them runnygades behind us. They're 'spectin' to git a lot o' plunder +an' a horse apiece an' ride 'em back an' swim the river at the place o' +the many islands. We'll poke down to the trail on the edge o' the +drownded lands afore sunrise an' I kind o' mistrust we'll see sign." + +Jack Irons was a son of the much respected John Irons from New +Hampshire who, in the fertile valley where he had settled some years +before, was breeding horses for the army and sending them down to Sir +William Johnson. Hence the site of his farm had been called Horse +Valley. + +Mr. Binkus went to the near brook and repeatedly filled his old felt +hat with water and poured it on the fire. "Don't never keep no fire +a-goin' a'ter I'm dried out," he whispered, as he stepped back into the +dark cave, "'cause ye never kin tell." + +The boy was asleep on the bed of boughs. Mr. Binkus covered him with +the blanket and lay down beside him and drew his coat over both. + +"He'll learn that it ain't no fun to be a scout," he whispered with a +yawn and in a moment was snoring. + +It was black dark when he roused his companion. Solomon had been up +for ten minutes and had got their rations of bread and dried venison +out of his pack and brought a canteen of fresh water. + +"The night has been dark. A piece o' charcoal would 'a' made a white +mark on it," said Solomon. + +"How do you know it's morning?" the boy asked as he rose, yawning. + +"Don't ye hear that leetle bird up in the tree-top?" Solomon answered +in a whisper. "He says it's mornin' jest as plain as a clock in a +steeple an' that it's goin' to be cl'ar. If you'll shove this 'ere +meat an' bread into yer stummick, we'll begin fer to make tracks." + +They ate in silence and as he ate Solomon was getting his pack ready +and strapping it on his back and adjusting his powder-horn. + +"Ye see it's growin' light," he remarked presently in a whisper. "Keep +clost to me an' go as still as ye kin an' don't speak out loud +never--not if ye want to be sure to keep yer ha'r on yer head." + +They started down the foot of the gorge then dim in the night shadows. +Binkus stopped, now and then, to listen for two or three seconds and +went on with long stealthy strides. His movements were panther-like, +and the boy imitated them. He was a tall, handsome, big-framed lad +with blond hair and blue eyes. They could soon see their way clearly. +At the edge of the valley the scout stopped and peered out upon it. A +deep mist lay on the meadows. + +"I like day-dark in Injun country," he whispered. "Come on." + +They hurried through sloppy footing in the wet grass that flung its dew +into their garments from the shoulder down. Suddenly Mr. Binkus +stopped. They could hear the sound of heavy feet splashing in the wet +meadow. + +"Scairt moose, runnin' this way!" the scout whispered. "I'll bet ye a +pint o' powder an' a fish hook them Injuns is over east o' here." + +It was his favorite wager--that of a pint of powder and a fish hook. + +They came out upon high ground and reached the valley trail just as the +sun was rising. The fog had lifted. Mr. Binkus stopped well away from +the trail and listened for some minutes. He approached it slowly on +his tiptoes, the boy following in a like manner. For a moment the +scout stood at the edge of the trail in silence. Then, leaning low, he +examined it closely and quickly raised his hand. + +"Hoofs o' the devil!" he whispered as he beckoned to the boy. "See +thar," he went on, pointing to the ground. "They've jest gone by. The +grass ain't riz yit. Wait here." + +He followed the trail a few rods with eyes bent upon it. Near a little +run where there was soft dirt, he stopped again and looked intently at +the earth and then hurried back. + +"It's a big band. At least forty Injuns in it an' some captives, an' +the devil an' Tom Walker. It's a mess which they ain't no mistake." + +"I don't see why they want to be bothered with women," the boy remarked. + +"Hostiges!" Solomon exclaimed. "Makes 'em feel safer. Grab 'em when +they kin. If overtook by a stouter force they're in shape fer a +dicker. The chief stands up an' sings like a bird--'bout the moon an' +the stars an' the brooks an' the rivers an' the wrongs o' the red man, +but it wouldn't be wuth the song o' a barn swaller less he can show ye +that the wimmen are all right. If they've been treated proper, it's +the same as proved. Ye let 'em out o' the bear trap which it has often +happened. But you hear to me, when they go off this way it's to kill +an' grab an' hustle back with the booty. They won't stop at +butcherin'!" + +"I'm afraid my folks are in danger," said the boy as he changed color. + +"Er mebbe Peter Boneses'--'cordin' to the way they go. We got to cut +eround 'em an' plow straight through the bush an' over Cobble Hill an' +swim the big creek an' we'll beat 'em easy." + +It was a curious, long, loose stride, the knees never quite +straightened, with which the scout made his way through the forest. It +covered ground so swiftly that the boy had, now and then, to break into +a dog-trot in order to keep along with the old woodsman. They kept +their pace up the steep side of Cobble Hill and down its far slope and +the valley beyond to the shore of the Big Creek. + +"I'm hot 'nough to sizzle an' smoke when I tech water," said the scout +as he waded in, holding his rifle and powder-horn in his left hand +above the creek's surface. + +They had a few strokes of swimming at mid-stream but managed to keep +their powder dry. + +"Now we've got jest 'nough hoppin' to keep us from gittin' foundered," +said Solomon, as he stood on the farther shore and adjusted his pack. +"It ain't more'n a mile to your house." + +They hurried on, reaching the rough valley road in a few minutes. + +"Now I'll take the bee trail to your place," said the scout. "You cut +ercrost the medder to Peter Boneses' an' fetch 'em over with all their +grit an' guns an' ammunition." + +Solomon found John Irons and five of his sons and three of his +daughters digging potatoes and pulling tops in a field near the house. +The sky was clear and the sun shining warm. Solomon called Irons aside +and told him of the approaching Indians. + +"What are we to do?" Irons asked. + +"Send the women an' the babies back to the sugar shanty," said Solomon. +"We'll stay here 'cause if we run erway the Boneses'll git their ha'r +lifted. I reckon we kin conquer 'em." + +"How?" + +"Shoot 'em full o' meat. They must 'a' traveled all night. Them +Injuns is tired an' hungry. Been three days on the trail. No time to +hunt! I'll hustle some wood together an' start a fire. You bring a +pair o' steers right here handy. We'll rip their hides off an' git the +reek o' vittles in the air soon as God'll let us." + +"My wife can use a gun as well as I can and I'm afraid she won't go," +said Irons. + +"All right, let her hide somewhar nigh with the guns," said Solomon. +"The oldest gal kin go back with the young 'uns. Don't want no skirts +in sight when they git here." + +Mrs. Irons hid in the shed with the loaded guns. + +Ruth Irons and the children set out for the sugar bush. The steers +were quickly led up and slaughtered. As a hide ripper, Solomon was a +man of experience. The loins of one animal were cooking on turnspits +and a big pot of beef, onions and potatoes boiling over the fire when +Jack arrived with the Bones family. + +"It smells good here," said Jack. + +"Ayes! The air be gittin' the right scent on it," said Solomon, as he +was ripping the hide off the other steer. "I reckon it'll start the +sap in their mouths. You roll out the rum bar'l an' stave it in. Mis' +Bones knows how to shoot. Put her in the shed with yer mother an' the +guns, an' take her young 'uns to the sugar shanty 'cept Isr'el who's +big 'nough to help." + +A little later Solomon left the fire. Both his eye and his ear had +caught "sign"--a clamor among the moose birds in the distant bush and a +flock of pigeons flying from the west. + +"Don't none o' ye stir till I come back," he said, as he turned into +the trail. A few rods away he lay down with his ear to the ground and +could distinctly hear the tramp of many feet approaching in the +distance. He went on a little farther and presently concealed himself +in the bushes close to the trail. He had not long to wait, for soon a +red scout came on ahead of the party. He was a young Huron brave, his +face painted black and yellow. His head was encircled by a snake skin. +A fox's tail rose above his brow and dropped back on his crown. A +birch-bark horn hung over his shoulder. + +Solomon stepped out of the bushes after he had passed and said in the +Huron tongue: "Welcome, my red brother, I hear that a large band o' yer +folks is comin' and we have got a feast ready." + +The young brave had been startled by the sudden appearance of Solomon, +but the friendly words had reassured him. + +"We are on a long journey," said the brave. + +"And the flesh of a fat ox will help ye on yer way. Kin ye smell it?" + +"Brother, it is like the smell of the great village in the Happy +Hunting-Grounds," said the brave. "We have traveled three sleeps from +the land of the long waters and have had only two porcupines and a +small deer to eat. We are hungry." + +"And we would smoke the calumet of peace with you," said Solomon. + +They walked on together and in a moment came in sight of the little +farm-house. The brave looked at the house and the three men who stood +by the fire. + +"Come with me and you shall see that we are few," Solomon remarked. + +They entered the house and barn and walked around them, and this, in +effect, is what Solomon said to him: + +"I am the chief scout of the Great Father. My word is like that of old +Flame Tongue--your mighty chief. You and your people are on a bad +errand. No good can come of it. You are far from your own country. A +large force is now on your trail. If you rob or kill any one you will +be hung. We know your plans. A bad white chief has brought you here. +He has a wooden leg with an iron ring around the bottom of it. He come +down lake in a big boat with you. Night before last you stole two +white women." + +A look of fear and astonishment came upon the face of the Indian. + +"You are a son of the Great Spirit!" he exclaimed. + +"And I would keep yer feet out o' the snare. Let me be yer chief. You +shall have a horse and fifty beaver skins and be taken to the border +and set free. I, the scout of the Great Father, have said it, and if +it be not as I say, may I never see the Happy Hunting-Grounds." + +The brave answered: + +"My white brother has spoken well and he shall be my chief. I like not +this journey. I shall bid them to the feast. They will eat and sleep +like the gray wolf for they are hungry and their feet are sore." + +The brave put his horn to his mouth and uttered a wild cry that rang in +the distant hills. Then arose a great whooping and kintecawing back in +the bush. The young Huron went out to meet the band. Returning soon, +he said to Solomon that his chief, the great Splitnose, would have +words with him. + +Turning to John Irons, Solomon said: "He's an outlaw chief. We must +treat him like a king. I'll bring 'em in. You keep the meat +a-sizzlin'!" + +The scout went with the brave to his chief and made a speech of +welcome, after which the wily old Splitnose, in his wonderful +head-dress, of buckskin and eagle feathers, and his band in war-paint, +followed Solomon to the feast. Silently they filed out of the bush and +sat on the grass around the fire. There were no captives among +them--none at least of the white skin. + +Solomon did not betray his disappointment. Not a word was spoken. He +and John Irons and his son began removing the spits from the fire and +putting more meat upon them and cutting the cooked roasts into large +pieces and passing it on a big earthen platter. The Indians eagerly +seized the hot meat and began to devour it. While waiting to be +served, some of the young braves danced at the fire's edge with short, +explosive, yelping, barking cries answered by dozens of guttural +protesting grunts from the older men, who sat eating or eagerly waiting +their turn to grab meat. It was a trying moment. Would the whole band +leap up and start a dance which might end in boiling blood and tiger +fury and a massacre? But the young Huron brave stopped them, aided no +doubt by the smell of the cooking flesh and the protest of the older +men. There would be no war-dance--at least not yet--too much hunger in +the band and the means of satisfying it were too close and tempting. +Solomon had foreseen the peril and his cunning had prevented it. + +In a letter he has thus described the incident: "It were a band o' +cutthroat robbers an' runnygades from the Ohio country--Hurons, Algonks +an' Mingos an' all kinds o' cast off red rubbish with an old Algonk +chief o' the name o' Splitnose. They stuffed their hides with the meat +till they was stiff as a foundered hoss. They grabbed an' chawed an' +bolted it like so many hogs an' reached out fer more, which is the +differ'nce betwixt an Injun an' a white man. The white man gen'ally +knows 'nough to shove down the brakes on a side-hill. The Injun ain't +got no brakes on his wheels. Injuns is a good deal like white brats. +Let 'em find the sugar tub when their ma is to meetin' an' they won't +worry 'bout the bellyache till it comes. Them Injuns filled themselves +to the gullet an' begun to lay back, all swelled up, an' roll an' grunt +an' go to sleep. By an' by they was only two that was up an' pawin' +eround in the stew pot fer 'nother bone, lookin' kind o' unsart'tn an' +jaw weary. In a minute they wiped their hands on their ha'r an' lay +back fer rest. They was drunk with the meat, as drunk as a Chinee +a'ter a pipe o' opium. We white men stretched out with the rest on 'em +till we see they was all in the land o' nod. Then we riz an' set up a +hussle. Hones' we could 'a' killed 'em with a hammer an' done it +delib'rit. I started to pull the young Huron out o' the bunch. He +jumped up very supple. He wasn't asleep. He had knowed better than to +swaller a yard o' meat. + +"Whar was the wimmen? I knowed that a part o' the band would be back +in the bush with them 'ere wimmen. I'd seed suthin' in the trail over +by the drownded lands that looked kind o' neevarious. It were like the +end o' a wooden leg with an iron ring at the bottom an' consid'able +weight on it. An Injun wouldn't have a wooden leg, least ways not one +with an iron ring at the butt. My ol' thinker had been chawin' that +cud all day an' o' a sudden it come to me that a white man were runnin' +the hull crew. That's how I had gained ground with the red scout I +took him out in the aidge o' the bush an' sez I: + +"'What's yer name?' + +"'Buckeye,' sez he. + +"'Who's the white man that's with ye?' + +"'Mike Harpe.' + +"'Are the white wimmin with him?' + +"'Yes.' + +"'How many Injuns?' + +"Two.' + +"'What's yer signal o' victory?' + +"'The call o' the moose.' + +"'Now, Buckeye, you come with us,' I sez. + +"I knowed that the white man were runnin' the hull party an' I itched +to git holt o' him. Gol ding his pictur'! He'd sent the Injuns on +ahead fer to do his dirty work. The Ohio country were full o' robber +whelps which I kind o' mistrusted he were one on 'em who had raked up +this 'ere band o' runnygades an' gone off fer plunder. We got holt o' +most o' their guns very quiet, an' I put John Irons an' two o' his boys +an' Peter Bones an' his boy Isr'el an' the two women with loaded guns +on guard over 'em. If any on 'em woke up they was to ride the +nightmare er lay still. Jack an' me an' Buckeye sneaked back up the +trail fer 'bout twenty rod with our guns, an' then I told the young +Injun to shoot off the moose call. Wall, sir, ye could 'a' heerd it +from Albany to Wing's Falls. The answer come an' jest as I 'spected, +'twere within a quarter o' a mile. I put Jack erbout fifty feet +further up the trail than I were, an' Buckeye nigh him, an' tol 'em +what to do. We skootched down in the bushes an' heerd 'em comin'! +Purty soon they hove in sight--two Injuns, the two wimmin captives an' +a white man--the wust-lookin' bulldog brute that I ever seen--stumpin' +erlong lively on a wooden leg, with a gun an' a cane. He had a broad +head an' a big lop mouth an' thick lips an' a long, red, warty nose an' +small black eyes an' a growth o' beard that looked like hog's bristles. +He were stout built. Stood 'bout five foot seven. Never see sech a +sight in my life. I hopped out afore 'em an' Jack an' Buckeye on their +heels. The Injun had my ol' hanger. + +"'Drop yer guns,' says I. + +"The white man done as he were told. I spoke English an' mebbe them +two Injuns didn't understan' me. We'll never know. Ol' Red Snout +leaned over to pick up his gun, seein' as we'd fired ours. There was a +price on his head an' he'd made up his mind to fight. Jack grabbed +him. He were stout as a lion an' tore 'way from the boy an' started to +pullin' a long knife out o' his boot leg. Jack didn't give him time. +They had it hammer an' tongs. Red Snout were a reg'lar fightin' man. +He jest stuck that 'ere stump in the ground an' braced ag'in' it an' +kep' a-slashin' an' jabbin' with his club cane an' yellin' an' cussin' +like a fiend o' hell. He knocked the boy down an' I reckon he'd 'a' +mellered his head proper if he'd 'a' been spryer on his pins. But Jack +sprung up like he were made o' Injy rubber. The bulldog devil had +drawed his long knife. Jack were smart. He hopped behind a tree. +Buckeye, who hadn't no gun, was jumpin' fer cover. The peg-leg cuss +swore a blue streak an' flung the knife at him. It went cl'ar through +his body an' he fell on his face an' me standin' thar loadin' my gun. +I didn't know but he'd lick us all. But Jack had jumped on him 'fore +he got holt o' the knife ag'in. + +"I thought sure he'd floor the boy an' me not quite loaded, but Jack +were as spry as a rat terrier. He dodged an' rushed in an' grabbed +holt o' the club an' fetched the cuss a whack in the paunch with his +bare fist, an' ol' Red Snout went down like a steer under the ax. + +"'Look out! there's 'nother man comin',' the young womern hollered. + +"She needn't 'a' tuk the trouble 'cause afore she spoke I were lookin' +at him through the sight o' my ol' Marier which I'd managed to git it +loaded ag'in. He were runnin' towards me. He tuk jest one more step, +if I don't make no mistake. + +"The ol' brute that Jack had knocked down quivered an' lay still a +minit an' when he come to, we turned him, eround an' started him +towards Canady an' tol' him to keep a-goin'! When he were 'bout ten +rods off, I put a bullet in his ol' wooden leg fer to hurry him erlong. +So the wust man-killer that ever trod dirt got erway from us with only +a sore belly, we never knowin' who he were. I wish I'd 'a' killed the +cuss, but as 'twere, we had consid'able trouble on our hands. Right +erway we heard two guns go off over by the house. I knowed that our +firin' had prob'ly woke up some o' the sleepers. We pounded the ground +an' got thar as quick as we could. The two wimmen wa'n't fur behind. +They didn't cocalate to lose us--you hear to me. Two young braves had +sprung up an' been told to lie down ag'in. But the English language +ain't no help to an Injun under them surcumstances. They don't +understan' it an' thar ain't no time when ignerunce is more costly. +They was some others awake, but they had learnt suthin'. They was +keepin' quiet, an' I sez to 'em: + +"'If ye lay still ye'll all be safe. We won't do ye a bit o' harm. +You've got in bad comp'ny, but ye ain't done nothin' but steal a pair +o' wimmen. If ye behave proper from now on, ye'll be sent hum.' + +"We didn't have no more trouble with them. I put one o' Boneses' boys +on a hoss an' hustled him up the valley fer help. The wimmen captives +was bawlin'. I tol' 'em to straighten out their faces an' go with Jack +an' his father down to Fort Stanwix. They were kind o' leg weary an' +excited, but they hadn't been hurt yit. Another day er two would 'a' +fixed 'em. Jack an' his father an' mother tuk 'em back to the pasture +an' Jack run up to the barn fer ropes an' bridles. In a little while +they got some hoofs under 'em an' picked up the childern an' toddled +off. I went out in the bush to find Buckeye an' he were dead as the +whale that swallered Jonah." + +So ends the letter of Solomon Binkus. + +Jack Irons and his family and that of Peter Bones--the boys and girls +riding two on a horse--with the captives filed down the Mohawk trail. +It was a considerable cavalcade of twenty-one people and twenty-four +horses and colts, the latter following. + +Solomon Binkus and Peter Bones and his son Israel stood on guard until +the boy John Bones returned with help from the upper valley. A dozen +men and boys completed the disarming of the band and that evening set +out with them on the south trail. + + +2 + +It is doubtful if this history would have been written but for an +accidental and highly interesting circumstance. In the first party +young Jack Irons rode a colt, just broken, with the girl captive, now +happily released. The boy had helped every one to get away; then there +seemed to be no ridable horse for him. He walked for a distance by the +stranger's mount as the latter was wild. The girl was silent for a +time after the colt had settled down, now and then wiping tears from +her eyes. By and by she asked: + +"May I lead the colt while you ride?" + +"Oh, no, I am not tired," was his answer. + +"I want to do something for you." + +"Why?" + +"I am so grateful. I feel like the King's cat. I am trying to express +my feelings. I think I know, now, why the Indian women do the +drudgery." + +As she looked at Him her dark eyes were very serious. + +"I have done little," said he. "It is Mr. Binkus who rescued you. We +live in a wild country among savages and the white folks have to +protect each other. We're used to it." + +"I never saw or expected to see men like you," she went on. "I have +read of them in books, but I never hoped to see them and talk to them. +You are like Ajax and Achilles." + +"Then I shall say that you are like the fair lady for whom they fought." + +"I will not ride and see you walking." + +"Then sit forward as far as you can and I will ride with you," he +answered. + +In a moment he was on the colt's back behind her. She was a comely +maiden. An authority no less respectable than Major Duncan has written +that she was a tall, well shaped, fun loving girl a little past sixteen +and good to look upon, "with dark eyes and auburn hair, the latter long +and heavy and in the sunlight richly colored"; that she had slender +fingers and a beautiful skin, all showing that she had been delicately +bred. He adds that he envied the boy who had ridden before and behind +her half the length of Tryon County. + +It was a close association and Jack found it so agreeable that he often +referred to that ride as the most exciting adventure of his life. + +"What is your name?" he asked. + +"Margaret Hare," she answered. + +"How did they catch you?" + +"Oh, they came suddenly and stealthily, as they do in the story books, +when we were alone in camp. My father and the guides had gone out to +hunt." + +"Did they treat you well?" + +"The Indians let us alone, but the two white men annoyed and frightened +us. The old chief kept us near him." + +"The old chief knew better than to let any harm come to you until they +were sure of getting away with their plunder." + +"We were in the valley of death and you have led us out of it. I am +sure that I do not look as if I were worth saving. I suppose that I +must have turned into an old woman. Is my hair white?" + +"No. You are the best-looking girl I ever saw," he declared with +rustic frankness. + +"I never had a compliment that pleased me so much," she answered, as +her elbows tightened a little on his hands which were clinging to her +coat. "I almost loved you for what you did to the old villain. I saw +blood on the side of your head. I fear he hurt you?" + +"He jabbed me once. It is nothing." + +"How brave you were!" + +"I think I am more scared now than I was then," said Jack. + +"Scared! Why?" + +"I am not used to girls except my sisters." + +She laughed and answered: + +"And I am not used to heroes. I am sure you can not be so scared as I +am, but I rather enjoy it. I like to be scared--a little. This is so +different." + +"I like you," he declared with a laugh. + +"I feared you would not like an English girl. So many North Americans +hate England." + +"The English have been hard on us." + +"What do you mean?" + +"They send us governors whom we do not like; they make laws for us +which we have to obey; they impose hard taxes which are not just and +they will not let us have a word to say about it." + +"I think it is wrong and I'm going to stand up for you," the girl +answered. + +"Where do you live?" he asked. + +"In London. I am an English girl, but please do not hate me for that. +I want to do what is right and I shall never let any one say a word +against Americans without taking their part." + +"That's good," the boy answered. "I'd love to go to London." + +"Well, why don't you?" + +"It's a long way off." + +"Do you like good-looking girls?" + +"I'd rather look at them than eat." + +"Well, there are many in London." + +"One is enough," said Jack. + +"I'd love to show them a real hero." + +"Don't call me that. If you would just call me Jack Irons I'd like it +better. But first you'll want to know how I behave. I am not a +fighter." + +"I am sure that your character is as good as your face." + +"Gosh! I hope it ain't quite so dark colored," said Jack. + +"I knew all about you when you took my hand and helped me on the +pony--or nearly all. You are a gentleman." + +"I hope so." + +"Are you a Presbyterian?" + +"No--Church of England." + +"I was sure of that. I have seen Indians and Shakers, but I have never +seen a Presbyterian." + +When the sun was low and the company ahead were stopping to make a camp +for the night, the boy and girl dismounted. She turned facing him and +asked: + +"You didn't mean it when you said that I was good-looking--did you?" + +The bashful youth had imagination and, like many lads of his time, a +romantic temperament and the love of poetry. There were many books in +his father's home and the boy had lived his leisure in them. He +thought a moment and answered: + +"Yes, I think you are as beautiful as a young doe playing in the +water-lilies." + +"And you look as if you believed yourself," said she. "I am sure you +would like me better if I were fixed up a little." + +"I do not think so." + +"How much better a boy's head looks with his hair cut close like yours. +Our boys have long hair. They do not look so much like--men." + +"Long hair is not for rough work in the bush," the boy remarked. + +"You really look brave and strong. One would know that you could do +things." + +"I've always had to do things." + +They came up to the party who had stopped to camp for the night. It +was a clear warm evening. After they had hobbled the horses in a near +meadow flat, Jack and his father made a lean-to for the women and +children and roofed it with bark. Then they cut wood and built a fire +and gathered boughs for bedding. Later, tea was made and beefsteaks +and bacon grilled on spits of green birch, the dripping fat being +caught on slices of toasting bread whereon the meat was presently +served. + +The masterful power with which the stalwart youth and his father swung +the ax and their cunning craftsmanship impressed the English woman and +her daughter and were soon to be the topic of many a London tea party. +Mrs. Hare spoke of it as she was eating her supper. + +"It may surprise you further to learn that the boy is fairly familiar +with the Aeneid and the Odes of Horace and the history of France and +England," said John Irons. + +"That is the most astonishing thing I have ever heard!" she exclaimed. +"How has he done it?" + +"The minister was his master until we went into the bush. Then I had +to be farmer and school-teacher. There is a great thirst for learning +in this New World." + +"How do you find time for it?" + +"Oh, we have leisure here--more than you have. In England even your +wealthy young men are over-worked. They dine out and play cards until +three in the morning and sleep until midday. Then luncheon and the +cock fight and tea and Parliament! The best of us have only three +steady habits. We work and study and sleep." + +"And fight savages," said the woman. + +"We do that, sometimes, but it is not often necessary. If it were not +for white savages, there would be no red ones. You would find America +a good country to live in." + +"At least I hope it will be good to sleep in this night," the woman +answered, yawning. "Dreamland is now the only country I care for." + +The ladies and children, being near spent by the day's travel and +excitement, turned in soon after supper. The men slept on their +blankets, by the fire, and were up before daylight for a dip in the +creek near by. While they were getting breakfast, the women and +children had their turn at the creekside. + +That day the released captives were in better spirits. Soon after noon +the company came to a swollen river where the horses had some swimming +to do. The older animals and the following colts went through all +right, but the young stallion which Jack and Margaret were riding, +began to rear and plunge. The girl in her fright jumped off his back +in swift water and was swept into the rapids and tumbled about and put +in some danger before Jack could dismount and bring her ashore. + +"You have increased my debt to you," she said, when at last they were +mounted again. "What a story this is! It is terribly exciting." + +"Getting into deeper water," said Jack. "I'm not going to let you +spoil it by drowning." + +"I wonder what is coming next," said she. + +"I don't know. So far it's as good as _Robinson Crusoe_." + +"With a book you can skip and see what happens," she laughed. "But we +shall have to read everything in this story. I'd love to know all +about you." + +He told her with boyish frankness of his plans which included learning +and statesmanship and a city home. He told also of his adventures in +the forest with his father. + +Meanwhile, the elder John Irons and Mrs. Hare were getting acquainted +as they rode along. The woman had been surprised by the man's intimate +knowledge of English history and had spoken of it. + +"Well, you see my wife is a granddaughter of Horatio Walpole of +Wolterton and my mother was in a like way related to Thomas Pitt so you +see I have a right to my interest in the history of the home land," +said John Irons. + +"You have in your veins some of the best blood of England and so I am +sure that you must be a loyal subject of the King," Mrs. Hare remarked. + +"No, because I think this German King has no share in the spirit of his +country," Irons answered. "Our ancient respect for human rights and +fair play is not in this man." + +He presented his reasons for the opinion and while the woman made no +answer, she had heard for the first time the argument of the New World +and was impressed by it. + +Late in the day they came out on a rough road, faring down into the +settled country and that night they stopped at a small inn. At the +supper table a wizened old woman was telling fortunes in a tea cup. + +Miss Hare and her mother drained their cups and passed them to the old +woman. The latter looked into the cup of the young lady and +immediately her tongue began to rattle. + +"Two ways lie before you," she piped in a shrill voice. "One leads to +happiness and many children and wealth and a long life. It is steep +and rough at the beginning and then it is smooth and peaceful. Yes. +It crosses the sea. The other way is smooth at the start and then it +grows steep and rough and in it I see tears and blood and dark clouds +and, do you see that?" she demanded with a look of excitement, as she +pointed into the cup. "It is a very evil thing. I will tell you no +more." + +The wizened old woman rose and, with a determined look in her face, +left the room. + +Mrs. Hare and her daughter seemed to be much troubled by the vision of +the fortune-teller. + +"I hope you do not believe in that kind of rubbish," John Irons +remarked. + +"I believe implicitly in the gift of second sight," said Mrs. Hare. +"In England women are so impatient to know their fortunes that they +will not wait upon Time, and the seers are prosperous." + +"I have no faith in it," said Mr. Irons. "What she said might apply to +the future of any young person. Undoubtedly there are two ways ahead +of your daughter and perhaps more. Each must choose his own way wisely +or come to trouble. It is the ancient law." + +They rode on next morning in a rough road between clearings in the +forest, the boy and girl being again together on the colt's back, she +in front. + +"You did not have your fortune told," said Miss Margaret. + +"It _has_ been told," Jack answered. "I am to be married in England to +a beautiful young lady. I thought that sounded well and that I had +better hold on to it. I might go further and fare worse." + +"Tell me the kind of girl you would fancy." + +"I wouldn't dare tell you." + +"Why?" + +"For fear it would spoil my luck." + +They rode on with light hearts under a clear sky, their spirits playing +together like birds in the sunlight, touching wings and then flying +apart, until it all came to a climax quite unforeseen. The story has +been passed from sire to son and from mother to daughter in a certain +family of central New York and there are those now living who could +tell it. These two were young and beautiful and well content with each +other, it is said. So it would seem that Fate could not let them alone. + +"We are near our journey's end," said he, by and by. + +"Oh, then, let us go very slowly," she urged. + +Another step and they had passed the hidden gate between reality and +enchantment. It would appear that she had spoken the magic words which +had opened it. They rode, for a time, without further speech, in a +land not of this world, although, in some degree, familiar to the best +of its people. Only they may cross that border who have kept much of +the innocence of childhood and felt the delightful fear of youth that +was in those two--they only may know the great enchantment. Does it +not make an undying memory and bring to the face of age, long +afterward, the smile of joy and gratitude? + +The next word? What should it be? Both wondered and held their +tongues for fear--one can not help thinking--and really they had little +need of words. The peal of a hermit thrush filled the silence with its +golden, largo chime and overtones and died away and rang out again and +again. That voice spoke for them far better than either could have +spoken, and they were content. + +"There was no voice on land or sea so fit for the hour and the ears +that heard it," she wrote, long afterward, in a letter. + +They must have felt it in the longing of their own hearts and, perhaps, +even a touch of the pathos in the years to come. They rode on in +silence, feeling now the beauty of the green woods. It had become a +magic garden full of new and wonderful things. Some power had entered +them and opened their eyes. The thrush's song grew fainter in the +distance. The boy was first to speak. + +"I think that bird must have had a long flight sometime," he said. + +"Why?" + +"I am sure that he has heard the music of Paradise. I wonder if you +are as happy as I am." + +"I was never so happy," she answered. + +"What a beautiful country we are in! I have forgotten all about the +danger and the hardship and the evil men. Have you ever seen any place +like it?" + +"No. For a time we have been riding in fairyland." + +"I know why," said the boy. + +"Why?" + +"It is because we are riding together. It is because I see you." + +"Oh, dear! I can not see _you_. Let us get off and walk," she +proposed. + +They dismounted. + +"Did you mean that honestly?" + +"Honestly," he answered. + +She looked up at him and put her hand over her mouth. + +"I was going to say something. It would have been most unmaidenly," +she remarked. + +"There's something in me that will not stay unsaid. I love you," he +declared. + +She held up her hand with a serious look in her eyes. Then, for a +moment, the boy returned to the world of reality. + +"I am sorry. Forgive me. I ought not to have said it," he stammered. + +"But didn't you really mean it?" she asked with troubled eyes. + +"I mean that and more, but I ought not to have said it now. It isn't +fair. You have just escaped from a great danger and have got a notion +that you are in debt to me and you don't know much about me anyhow." + +She stood in his path looking up at him. + +"Jack," she whispered. "Please say it again." + +No, it was not gone. They were still in the magic garden. + +"I love you and I wish this journey could go on forever," he said. + +She stepped closer and he put his arm around her and kissed her lips. +She ran away a few steps. Then, indeed, they were back on the familiar +trail in the thirty-mile bush. A moose bird was screaming at them. +She turned and said: + +"I wanted you to know but I have said nothing. I couldn't. I am under +a sacred promise. You are a gentleman and you will not kiss me or +speak of love again until you have talked with my father. It is the +custom of our country. But I want you to know that I am very happy." + +"I don't know how I dared to say and do what I did, but I couldn't help +it" + +"I couldn't help it either. I just longed to know if you dared." + +"The rest will be in the future--perhaps far in the future." + +His voice trembled a little. + +"Not far if you come to me, but I can wait--I will wait." She took his +hand as they were walking beside each other and added: "_For you_." + +"I, too, will wait," he answered, "and as long as I have to." + +Mrs. Hare, walking down the trail to meet them, had come near. Their +journey out of the wilderness had ended, but for each a new life had +begun. + +The husband and father of the two ladies had reached the fort only an +hour or so ahead of the mounted party and preparations were being made +for an expedition to cut off the retreat of the Indians. He was known +to most of his friends in America only as Colonel Benjamin Hare--a +royal commissioner who had come to the colonies to inspect and report +upon the defenses of His Majesty. He wore the uniform of a Colonel of +the King's Guard. There is an old letter of John Irons which says that +he was a splendid figure of a man, tall and well proportioned and about +forty, with dark eyes, his hair and mustache just beginning to show +gray. + +"I shall not try here to measure my gratitude," he said to Mr. Irons. +"I will see you to-morrow." + +"You owe me nothing," Irons answered. "The rescue of your wife and +daughter is due to the resourceful and famous scout--Solomon Binkus." + +"Dear old rough-barked hickory man!" the Colonel exclaimed. "I hope to +see him soon." + +He went at once with his wife and daughter to rooms in the fort. That +evening he satisfied himself as to the character and standing of John +Irons, learning that he was a patriot of large influence and +considerable means. + +The latter family and that of Peter Bones were well quartered in tents +with a part of the Fifty-Fifth Regiment then at Fort Stanwix. Next +morning Jack went to breakfast with Colonel Hare and his wife and +daughter in their rooms, after which the Colonel invited the boy to +take a walk with him out to the little settlement of Mill River. Jack, +being overawed, was rather slow in declaring himself and the Colonel +presently remarked: + +"You and my daughter seem to have got well acquainted." + +"Yes, sir; but not as well as I could wish," Jack answered. "Our +journey ended too soon. I love your daughter, sir, and I hope you will +let me tell her and ask her to be my wife sometime." + +"You are both too young," said the Colonel. "Besides you have known +each other not quite three days and I have known you not as many hours. +We are deeply grateful to you, but it is better for you and for her +that this matter should not be hurried. After a year has passed, if +you think you still care to see each other, I will ask you to come to +England. I think you are a fine, manly, brave chap, but really you +will admit that I have a right to know you better before my daughter +engages to marry you." + +Jack freely admitted that the request was well founded, albeit he +declared, frankly, that he would like to be got acquainted with as soon +as possible. + +"We must take the first ship back to England," said the Colonel. "You +are both young and in a matter of this kind there should be no haste. +If your affection is real, it will be none the worse for a little +keeping." + +Solomon Binkus and Peter and Israel and John Bones and some settlers +north of Horse Valley arrived next day with the captured Indians, who, +under a military guard, were sent on to the Great Father at Johnson +Castle. + +Colonel Hare was astonished that neither Solomon Binkus nor John Irons +nor his son would accept any gift for the great service they had done +him. + +"I owe you more than I can ever pay," he said to the faithful Binkus. +"Money would not be good enough for your reward." + +Solomon stepped close to the great man and said in a low tone: + +"Them young 'uns has growed kind o' love sick an' I wouldn't wonder. I +don't ask only one thing. Don't make no mistake 'bout this 'ere boy. +In the bush we have a way o' pickin' out men. We see how they stan' up +to danger an' hard work an' goin' hungry. Jack is a reg'lar he-man. I +know 'em when I see 'em, which--it's a sure fact--I've seen all kinds. +He's got brains an' courage, an' a tough arm an' a good heart. He'd +die fer a friend any day. Ye kin't do no more. So don't make no +mistake 'bout him. He ain't no hemlock bow. I cocalate there ain't no +better man-timber nowhere--no, sir, not nowhere in this world--call it +king er lord er duke er any name ye like. So, sir, if ye feel like +doin' suthin' fer me--which I didn't never expect it, when I done what +I did--I'll say be good to the boy. You'd never have to be 'shamed o' +him." + +"He's a likely lad," said Colonel Hare. "And I am rather impressed by +your words, although they present a view that is new to me. We shall +be returning soon and I dare say they will presently forget each other, +but if not, and he becomes a good man--as good a man as his father--let +us say--and she should wish to marry him, I would gladly put her hand +in his." + +A letter of the handsome British officer to his friend, Doctor Benjamin +Franklin, reviews the history of this adventure and speaks of the +learning, intelligence and agreeable personality of John Irons. Both +Colonel and Mrs. Hare liked the boy and his parents and invited them to +come to England, although the latter took the invitation as a mere mark +of courtesy. + +At Fort Stanwix, John Irons sold his farm and house and stock to Peter +Bones and decided to move his family to Albany where he could educate +his children. Both he and his wife had grown weary of the loneliness +of the back country, and the peril from which they had been delivered +was a deciding factor. So it happened that the Irons family and +Solomon went to Albany by bateaux with the Hares. It was a delightful +trip in good autumn weather in which Colonel Hare has acknowledged that +both he and his wife acquired a deep respect "for these sinewy, wise, +upright Americans, some of whom are as well learned, I should say, as +most men you would meet in London." + +They stopped at Schenectady, landing in a brawl between Whigs and +Tories which soon developed into a small riot over the erection of a +liberty pole. Loud and bitter words were being hurled between the two +factions. The liberty lovers, being in much larger force, had erected +the pole without violent opposition. + +"Just what does this mean?" the Colonel asked John Irons. + +"It means that the whole country is in a ferment of dissatisfaction," +said Irons. "We object to being taxed by a Parliament in which we are +not represented. The trouble should be stopped not by force but by +action that will satisfy our sense of injustice--not a very difficult +thing. A military force, quartered in Boston, has done great mischief." + +"What liberty do you want?" + +"Liberty to have a voice in the selection of our governors and +magistrates and in the making of the laws we are expected to obey." + +"I think it is a just demand," said the Colonel. + +Solomon Binkus had listened with keen interest. + +"I sucked in the love o' liberty with my mother's milk," he said. "Ye +mustn't try to make me do nothin' that goes ag'in' my common sense; if +ye do, ye're goin' to have a gosh hell o' a time with the ol' man +which, you hear to me, will last as long as I do. These days there +ortn't to be no sech thing 'mong white men as bein' born into captivity +an' forced to obey a master, no argeyment bein' allowed. If your wife +an' gal had been took erway by the Injuns, that's what would 'a' +happened to 'em, which I'm sart'in they wouldn't 'a' liked it, ner you +nuther, which I mean to say it respectful, sir." + +The Colonel wore a look of conviction. + +"I see how you feel about it," he said. + +"It's the way all America feels about it," said Irons. "There are not +five thousand men in the colonies who would differ with that view." + +Having arrived in the river city, John Irons went, with his family, to +The King's Arms. That very day the Hares took ship for New York on +their way to England. Jack and Solomon went to the landing with them. + +"Where is my boy?" Mrs. Irons asked when Binkus returned alone. + +"Gone down the river," said the latter. + +"Gone down the river!" Mrs. Irons exclaimed. "Why! Isn't that he +coming yonder?" + +"It's only part o' him," said Solomon. "His heart has gone down the +river. But it'll be comin' back. It 'minds me o' the fust time I +throwed a harpoon into a sperm whale. He went off like a bullet an' +sounded an' took my harpoon an' a lot o' good rope with him an' got +away with it. Fer days I couldn't think o' nothin' but that 'ere +whale. Then he b'gun to grow smaller an' less important. Jack has +lost his fust whale." + +"He looks heart-broken--poor boy!" + +"But ye orto have seen her. She's got the ol' harpoon in her side an' +she were spoutin' tears an' shakin' her flukes as she moved away." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +SOWING THE DRAGON'S TEETH + +Solomon Binkus in his talk with Colonel Hare had signalized the arrival +of a new type of man born of new conditions. When Lord Howe and +General Abercrombie got to Albany with regiments of fine, high-bred, +young fellows from London, Manchester and Liverpool, out for a holiday +and magnificent in their uniforms of scarlet and gold, each with his +beautiful and abundant hair done up in a queue, Mr. Binkus laughed and +said they looked "terrible pert." He told the virile and profane +Captain Lee of Howe's staff, that the first thing to do was to "make a +haystack o' their hair an' give 'em men's clothes." + +"A cart-load o' hair was mowed off," to quote again from Solomon, and +all their splendor shorn away for a reason apparent to them before they +had gone far on their ill-fated expedition. Hair-dressing and fine +millinery and drawing-room clothes were not for the bush. + +An inherited sense of old wrongs was the mental background of this new +type of man. Life in the bush had strengthened his arm, his will and +his courage. His words fell as forcefully as his ax under provocation. +He was deliberate as became one whose scalp was often in danger; +trained to think of the common welfare of his neighborhood and rather +careless about the look of his coat and trousers. + +John Irons and Solomon Binkus were differing examples of the new man. +Of large stature, Irons had a reputation of being the strongest man in +the New Hampshire grants. No name was better known or respected in all +the western valleys. His father, a man of some means, had left him a +reasonable competence. + +Certain old records of Cumberland County speak of his unusual gifts, +the best of which was, perhaps, modesty. He had once entertained Sir +William Johnson at his house and had moved west, when the French and +Indian War began, on the invitation of the governor, bringing his +horses with him. For years he had been breeding and training saddle +horses for the markets in New England. On moving he had turned his +stock into Sir William's pasture and built a log house at the fort and +served as an aid and counselor of the great man. Meanwhile his wife +and children had lived in Albany. When the back country was thought +safe to live in, at the urgent solicitation of Sir Jeffrey Amherst, he +had gone to the northern valley with his herd, and prospered there. + +Albany had one wide street which ran along the river-front. It ended +at the gate of a big, common pasture some four hundred yards south of +the landing which was near the center of the little city. In the north +it ran into "the great road" beyond the ample grounds of Colonel +Schuyler. The fort and hospital stood on the top of the big hill. +Close to the shore was a fringe of elms, some of them tall and stately, +their columns feathered with wild grape-vines. A wide space between +the trees and the street had been turned into well-kept gardens, and +their verdure was a pleasant thing to see. The town lay along the foot +of a steep hill, and, midway, a huddle of buildings climbed a few rods +up the slope. At the top was the English Church and below it were the +Town Hall, the market and the Dutch Meeting-House. Other thoroughfares +west of the main one were being laid out and settled. + +John Irons was well known to Colonel Schuyler. The good man gave the +newcomers a hearty welcome and was able to sell them a house ready +furnished--the same having been lately vacated by an officer summoned +to England. So it happened that John Irons and his family were quickly +and comfortably settled in their new home and the children at work in +school. He soon bought some land, partly cleared, a mile or so down +the river and began to improve it. + +"You've had lonesome days enough, mother," he said to his wife. "We'll +live here in the village. I'll buy some good, young niggers if I can, +and build a house for 'em, and go back and forth in the saddle." + +The best families had negro slaves which were, in the main, like +Abraham's servants, each having been born in the house of his master. +They were regarded with affection. + +It was a peaceful, happy, mutually helpful, God-fearing community in +which the affairs of each were the concern of all. Every summer day, +emigrants were passing and stopping, on their way west, towing bateaux +for use in the upper waters of the Mohawk. These were mostly Irish and +German people seeking cheap land, and seeing not the danger in wars to +come. + +There is an old letter from John Irons to his sister in Braintree which +says that Jack, of whom he had a great pride, was getting on famously +in school. "But he shows no favor to any of the girls, having lost his +heart to a young English maid whom he helped to rescue from the +Indians. We think it lucky that she should be far away so that he may +better keep his resolution to be educated and his composure in the +task." + +The arrival of the mail was an event in Albany those days. Letters had +come to be regarded there as common property. They were passed from +hand to hand and read in neighborhood assemblies. Often they told of +great hardship and stirring adventures in the wilderness and of events +beyond the sea. + +Every week the mail brought papers from the three big cities, which +were read eagerly and loaned or exchanged until their contents had +traveled through every street. Benjamin Franklin's _Pennsylvania +Gazette_ came to John Irons, and having been read aloud by the fireside +was given to Simon Grover in exchange for Rivington's _New York Weekly_. + +Jack was in a coasting party on Gallows Hill when his father brought +him a fat letter from England. He went home at once to read it. The +letter was from Margaret Hare--a love-letter which proposed a rather +difficult problem. It is now a bit of paper so brittle with age it has +to be delicately handled. Its neatly drawn chirography is faded to a +light yellow, but how alive it is with youthful ardor: + +"I think of you and pray for you very often," it says. "I hope you +have not forgotten me or must I look for another to help me enjoy that +happy fortune of which you have heard? Please tell me truly. My +father has met Doctor Franklin who told of the night he spent at your +home and that he thought you were a noble and promising lad. What a +pleasure it was to hear him say that! We are much alarmed by events in +America. My mother and I stand up for Americans, but my father has +changed his views since we came down the Mohawk together. You must +remember that he is a friend of the King. I hope that you and your +father will be patient and take no part in the riots and house +burnings. You have English blood in your veins and old England ought +to be dear to you. She really loves America very much, indeed, if not +as much as I love you. Can you not endure the wrongs for her sake and +mine in the hope that they will soon be righted? Whatever happens I +shall not cease to love you, but the fear comes to me that, if you turn +against England, I shall love in vain. There are days when the future +looks dark and I hope that your answer will break the clouds that hang +over it." + +So ran a part of the letter, colored somewhat by the diplomacy of a +shrewd mother, one would say who read it carefully. The neighbors had +heard of its arrival and many of them dropped in that evening, but they +went home none the wiser. After the company had gone, Jack showed the +letter to his father and mother. + +"My boy, it is a time to stand firm," said his father. + +"I think so, too," the boy answered. + +"Are you still in love with her?" his mother asked. + +The boy blushed as he looked down into the fire and did not answer. + +"She is a pretty miss," the woman went on. "But if you have to choose +between her and liberty, what will you say?" + +"I can answer for Jack," said John Irons. "He will say that we in +America will give up father and mother and home and life and everything +we hold dear for the love of liberty." + +"Of course I could not be a Tory," Jack declared. The boy had +studiously read the books which Doctor Franklin had sent to +him--_Pilgrim's Progress_, _Plutarch's Lives_, and a number of the +works of Daniel Defoe. He had discussed them with his father and at +the latter's suggestion had set down his impressions. His father had +assured him that it was well done, but had said to Mrs. Irons that it +showed "a remarkable rightness of mind and temper and unexpected +aptitude in the art of expression." + +It is likely that the boy wrote many letters which Miss Margaret never +saw before his arguments were set down in the firm, gentle and winning +tone which satisfied his spirit. Having finished his letter, at last, +he read it aloud to his father and mother one evening as they sat +together, by the fireside, after the rest of the family had gone to +bed. Tears of pride came to the eyes of the man and woman when the +long letter was finished. + +"I love old England," it said, "because it is your home and because it +was the home of my fathers. But I am sure it is not old England which +made the laws we hate and sent soldiers to Boston. Is it not another +England which the King and his ministers invented? I ask you to be +true to old England which, my father has told me, stood for justice and +human rights. + +"But after all, what has politics to do with you and me as a pair of +human beings? Our love is a thing above that. The acts of the King or +my fellow countrymen can not affect my love for you, and to know that +you are of the same mind holds me above despair. I would think it a +great hardship if either King or colony had the power to put a tax on +you--a tax which demanded my principles. Can not your father differ +with me in politics--although when you were here I made sure that he +agreed with us--and keep his faith in me as a gentleman? I can not +believe that he would like me if I had a character so small and so +easily shifted about that I would change it to please him. I am sure, +too, that if there is anything in me you love, it is my character. +Therefore, if I were to change it I should lose your love and his +respect also. Is that not true?" + +This was part of the letter which Jack had written. + +"My boy, it is a good letter and they will have to like you the better +for it," said John Irons. + +Old Solomon Binkus was often at the Irons home those days. He had gone +back in the bush, since the war ended, and, that winter, his traps were +on many streams and ponds between Albany and Lake Champlain. He came +down over the hills for a night with his friends when he reached the +southern end of his beat. It was probably because the boy had loved +the tales of the trapper and the trapper had found in the boy something +which his life had missed, that an affection began to grow up between +them. Solomon was a childless widower. + +"My wife! I tell ye, sir, she had the eyes an' feet o' the young doe +an' her cheeks were like the wild, red rose," the scout was wont to say +on occasion. "I orto have knowed better. Yes, sir, I orto. We lived +way back in the bush an' the child come 'fore we 'spected it one night. +I done what I could but suthin' went wrong. They tuk the high trail, +both on 'em. I rigged up a sled an' drawed their poor remains into a +settlement. That were a hard walk--you hear to me. No, sir, I +couldn't never marry no other womern--not if she was a queen covered +with dimon's--never. I 'member her so. Some folks it's easy to fergit +an' some it ain't. That's the way o' it." + +Mr. and Mrs. Irons respected the scout, pitying his lonely plight and +loving his cheerful company. He never spoke of his troubles unless +some thoughtless person had put him to it. + + + +2 + +That winter the Irons family and Solomon Binkus went often to the +meetings of the Sons of Liberty. One purpose of this organization was +to induce people to manufacture their own necessities and thus avoid +buying the products of Great Britain. Factories were busy making looms +and spinning-wheels; skilled men and women taught the arts of spinning, +weaving and tailoring. The slogan "Home Made or Nothing," traveled far +and wide. + +Late in February, Jack Irons and Solomon Binkus went east as delegates +to a large meeting of the Sons of Liberty in Springfield. They +traveled on snowshoes and by stage, finding the bitterness of the +people growing more intense as they proceeded. They found many women +using thorns instead of pins and knitting one pair of stockings with +the ravelings of another. They were also flossing out their silk gowns +and spinning the floss into gloves with cotton. All this was to avoid +buying goods sent over from Great Britain. + +Jack tells in a letter to his mother of overtaking a young man with a +pack on his back and an ax in his hand on his way to Harvard College. +He was planning to work in a mill to pay his board and tuition. + +"We hear in every house we enter the stories and maxims of Poor +Richard," the boy wrote in his letter. "A number of them were quoted +in the meeting. Doctor Franklin is everywhere these days." + +The meeting over, Jack and Solomon went on by stage to Boston for a +look at the big city. + +They arrived there on the fifth of March a little after dark. The moon +was shining. A snow flurry had whitened the streets. The air was +still and cold. They had their suppers at The Ship and Anchor. While +they were eating they heard that a company of British soldiers who were +encamped near the Presbyterian Meeting-House had beaten their drums on +Sunday so that no worshiper could hear the preaching. + +"And the worst of it is we are compelled to furnish them food and +quarters while they insult and annoy us," said a minister who sat at +the table. + +After supper Jack and Solomon went out for a walk. They heard violent +talk among people gathered at the street corners. They soon overtook a +noisy crowd of boys and young men carrying clubs. In front of Murray's +Barracks where the Twenty-Ninth Regiment was quartered, there was a +chattering crowd of men and boys. Some of them were hooting and +cursing at two sentinels. The streets were lighted by oil lamps and by +candles in the windows of the houses. + +In Cornhill they came upon a larger and more violent assemblage of the +same kind. They made their way through it and saw beyond, a captain, a +corporal and six private soldiers standing, face to face, with the +crowd. Men were jeering at them; boys hurling abusive epithets. The +boys, as they are apt to do, reflected, with some exaggeration, the +passions of their elders. It was a crowd of rough fellows--mostly +wharfmen and sailors. Solomon sensed the danger in the situation. He +and Jack moved out of the jeering mob. Then suddenly a thing happened +which may have saved one or both of their lives. The Captain drew his +sword and flashed a dark light upon Solomon and called, out: + +"Hello, Binkus! What the hell do you want?" + +"Who be ye?" Solomon asked. + +"Preston." + +"Preston! Cat's blood an' gunpowder! What's the matter?" + +Preston, an old comrade of Solomon, said to him: + +"Go around to headquarters and tell them we are cut off by a mob and in +a bad mess. I'm a little scared. I don't want to get hurt or do any +hurting." + +Jack and Solomon passed through the guard and hurried on. Then there +were hisses and cries of "Tories! Rotten Tories!" As the two went on +they heard missiles falling behind them and among the soldiers. + +"They's goin' to be bad trouble thar," said Solomon. + +"Them lads ain't to blame. They're only doin' as they're commanded. +It's the dam' King that orto be hetchelled." + +They were hurrying on, as he spoke, and the words were scarcely out of +his mouth when they heard the command to fire and a rifle volley--then +loud cries of pain and shrill curses and running feet. They turned and +started back. People were rushing out of their houses, some with guns +in their hands. In a moment the street was full. + +"The soldiers are slaying people," a man shouted. "Men of Boston, we +must arm ourselves and fight." + +[Illustration: "The soldiers are slaying people," a man shouted.] + +It was a scene of wild confusion. They could get no farther on +Cornhill. The crowd began to pour into side-streets. Rumors were +flying about that many had been killed and wounded. An hour or so +later Jack and Solomon were seized by a group of ruffians. + +"Here are the damn Tories!" one of them shouted. + +"Friends o' murderers!" was the cry of another. + +"Le's hang 'em!" + +Solomon immediately knocked the man down who had called them Tories and +seized another and tossed him so far in the crowd as to give it pause. + +"I don't mind bein' hung," he shouted, "not if it's done proper, but no +man kin call me a Tory lessen my hands are tied, without gittin' hurt. +An' if my hands was tied I'd do some hollerin', now you hear to me." + +A man back in the crowd let out a laugh as loud as the braying of an +ass. Others followed his example. The danger was passed. Solomon +shouted: + +"I used to know Preston when I were a scout in Amherst's army fightin' +Injuns an' Frenchmen, which they's more'n twenty notches on the stock +o' my rifle an' fourteen on my pelt, an' my name is Solomon Binkus from +Albany, New York, an' if you'll excuse us, we'll put fer hum as soon as +we kin git erway convenient." + +They started for The Ship and Anchor with a number of men and boys +following and trying to talk with them. + +"I'll tell ye, Jack, they's trouble ahead," said Solomon as they made +their way through the crowded streets. + +Many were saying that there could be no more peace with England. + +In the morning they learned that three men had been killed and five +others wounded by the soldiers. Squads of men and boys with loaded +muskets were marching into town from the country. + +Jack and Solomon attended the town meeting that day in the old South +Meeting-House. It was a quiet and orderly crowd that listened to the +speeches of Josiah Quincy, John Hancock and Samuel Adams, demanding +calmly but firmly that the soldiers be forthwith removed from the city. +The famous John Hancock cut a great figure in Boston those days. It is +not surprising that Jack was impressed by his grandeur for he had +entered the meeting-house in a scarlet velvet cap and a blue damask +gown lined with velvet and strode to the platform with a dignity even +above his garments. As he faced about the boy did not fail to notice +and admire the white satin waistcoat and white silk stockings and red +morocco slippers. Mr. Quincy made a statement which stuck like a bur +in Jack Irons' memory of that day and perhaps all the faster because he +did not quite understand it. The speaker said: "The dragon's teeth +have been sown." + +The chairman asked if there was any citizen present who had been on the +scene at or about the time of the shooting. Solomon Binkus arose and +held up his hand and was asked to go to the minister's room and confer +with the committee. + +Mr. John Adams called at the inn that evening and announced that he was +to defend Captain Preston and would require the help of Jack and +Solomon as witnesses. For that reason they were detained some days in +Boston and released finally on the promise to return when their +services were required. + +They left Boston by stage and one evening in early April, traveling +afoot, they saw the familiar boneheads around the pasture lands above +Albany where the farmers had crowned their fence stakes with the +skeleton heads of deer, moose, sheep and cattle in which birds had the +habit of building their nests. It had been thawing for days, but the +night had fallen clear and cold. They had stopped at the house of a +settler some miles northeast of Albany to get a sled load of Solomon's +pelts which had been stretched and hung there. Weary of the brittle +snow, they took to the river a mile or so above the little city, +Solomon hauling his sled. Jack had put on the new skates which he had +bought in Bennington where they had gone for a visit with old friends. +They were out on the clear ice, far from either shore, when they heard +an alarming peal of "river thunder"--a name which Binkus applied to a +curious phenomenon often accompanied by great danger to those on the +rotted roof of the Hudson. The hidden water had been swelling. + +Suddenly it had made a rip in the great ice vault a mile long with a +noise like the explosion of a barrel of powder. The rip ran north and +south about mid-stream. They were on the west sheet and felt it waver +and subside till it had found a bearing on the river surface. + +"We must git off o' here quick," said Binkus. "She's goin' to break +up." + +"Let me have the sled and as soon as I get going, you hop on," said +Jack. + +The boy began skating straight toward the shore, drawing the sled and +its load, Solomon kicking out behind with his spiked boots until they +were well under way. They heard the east sheet breaking up before they +had made half the distance to safe footing. Then their own began to +crack into sections as big "as a ten-acre lot," Mr. Binkus said, "an' +the noise was like a battle, but Jack kept a-goin' an' me settin' light +an' my mind a-pushin' like a scairt deer." Water was flooding over the +ice which had broken near shore, but the skater jumped the crack before +it was wider than a man's hand and took the sled with him. They +reached the river's edge before the ice began heaving and there the +sloped snow had been wet and frozen to rocks and bushes, so they were +able to make their way through it. + +"Now, we're even," said Solomon when they had hauled the sled up the +river bank while he looked back at the ice now breaking and beginning +to pile up, "I done you a favor an' you've done me one. It's my turn +next." + +This was the third in the remarkable series of adventures which came to +these men. + +They had a hearty welcome at the little house near The King's Arms, +where they sat until midnight telling of their adventures. In the +midst of it, Jack said to his father: + +"I heard a speaker say in Boston that the dragon's teeth had been sown. +What does that mean?" + +"It means that war is coming," said John Irons. "We might as well get +ready for it." + +These words, coming from his father, gave him a shock of surprise. He +began to think of the effect of war on his own fortunes. + + + +3 + +Solomon sent his furs to market and went to work on the farm of John +Irons and lived with the family. The boy returned to school. After +the hay had been cut and stacked in mid-summer, they were summoned to +Boston to testify in the trial of Preston. They left in September +taking with them a drove of horses. + +"It will be good for Jack," John Irons had said to his wife. "He'll be +the better prepared for his work in Philadelphia next fall." + +Two important letters had arrived that summer. One from Benjamin +Franklin to John Irons, offering Jack a chance to learn the printer's +trade in his Philadelphia shop and board and lodging in his home. "If +the boy is disposed to make a wise improvement of his time," the great +man had written, "I shall see that he has an opportunity to take a +course at our Academy. I am sure he would be a help and comfort to +Mrs. Franklin. She, I think, will love to mother him. Do not be +afraid to send him away from home. It will help him along toward +manhood. I was much impressed by his letter to Miss Margaret Hare, +which her mother had the goodness to show me. He has a fine spirit and +a rare gift for expressing it. She and the girl were convinced by its +argument, but the Colonel himself is an obdurate Tory--he being a +favorite of the King. The girl, now very charming and much admired, +is, I happen to know, deeply in love with your son. I have promised +her that, if she will wait for him, I will bring him over in good time +and act as your vicar at the wedding. This, she and her mother are the +more ready to do because of their superstition that God has clearly +indicated him as the man who would bring her happiness and good +fortune. I find that many European women are apt to entertain and +enjoy superstition and to believe in omens--not the only drop of old +pagan blood that lingers in their veins. I am sending, by this boat, +some more books for Jack to read." + +The other letter was from Margaret Hare to the boy, in which she had +said that they were glad to learn that he and Mr. Binkus were friends +of Captain Preston and inclined to help him in his trouble. "Since I +read your letter I am more in love with you than ever," she had +written. "My father was pleased with it. He thinks that all cause of +complaint will be removed. Until it is, I do not ask you to be a Tory, +but only to be patient." + +Jack and Solomon were the whole day getting their horses across Van +Deusen's ferry and headed eastward in the rough road. Mr. Binkus wore +his hanger--an old Damascus blade inherited from his father--and +carried his long musket and an abundant store of ammunition; Jack wore +his two pistols, in the use of which he had become most expert. + +When the horses had "got the kinks worked out," as Solomon put it, and +were a trifle tired, they browsed along quietly with the man and boy +riding before and behind them. By and by they struck into the +twenty-mile bush beyond the valley farms. In the second day of their +travel they passed an Albany trader going east with small kegs of rum +on a pack of horses and toward evening came to an Indian village. They +were both at the head of the herd. + +"Stop," said Solomon as they saw the smoke of the fires ahead. "We got +to behave proper." + +He put his hands to his mouth and shouted a loud halloo, which was +quickly answered. Then two old men came out to him and the talk which +followed in the Mohawk dialect was thus reported by the scout to his +companion: + +"We wish to see the chief," said Solomon. "We have gifts for him." + +"Come with us," said one of the old men as they led Solomon to the +Stranger's House. The old men went from hut to hut announcing the +newcomers. Victuals and pipes and tobacco were sent to the Stranger's +House for them. This structure looked like a small barn and was made +of rived spruce. Inside, the chief sat on a pile of unthrashed wheat. +He had a head and face which reminded Jack of the old Roman emperors +shown in the Historical Collections. There was remarkable dignity in +his deep-lined face. His name was Thunder Tongue. The house had no +windows. Many skins hung from its one cross-beam above their heads. + +Mr. Binkus presented beaver skins and a handsome belt. Then the chief +sent out some women to watch the horses and to bring Jack into the +village. Near by were small fields of wheat and maize. The two +travelers sat down with the chief, who talked freely to Solomon Binkus. + +"If white man comes to our village cold, we warm him; wet, we dry him; +hungry, we feed him," he said. "When Injun man goes to Albany and asks +for food, they say, 'Where's your money? Get out, you Injun dog!' The +white man he comes with scaura and trades it for skins. It steals away +the wisdom of the young braves. It bends my neck with trouble. It is +bad." + +They noted this just feeling of resentment in the old chief and +expressed their sympathy. Soon the Albany trader came with his pack of +rum. The chief greeted him cheerfully and asked for scaura. + +"I have enough to make a hundred men happy," the trader answered. + +"Bring it to me, for I have a sad heart," said Thunder Tongue. + +When the Dutch trader went to his horse for the kegs, Solomon said to +the chief: + +"Why do you let him bring trouble to your village and steal away the +wisdom of your warriors?" + +"Tell me why the creek flows to the great river and I will answer you," +said the chief. + +He began drinking as soon as the trader came with the kegs, while the +young warriors gathered about the door, each with skins on his arm. +Soon every male Indian was staggering and whooping and the squaws with +the children had started into the thickets. + +Solomon nudged Jack and left the hut, followed by the boy. + +"Come on. Let's git out o' here. The squaws an' the young 'uns are +sneakin'. You hear to me--thar'll be hell to pay here soon." + +So while the braves were gathered about the trader and were draining +cups of fire-water, the travelers made haste to mount and get around +the village and back into their trail with the herd. They traveled +some miles in the long twilight and stopped at the Stony Brook Ford, +where there were good water and sufficient grazing. + +"Here's whar the ol' Green Mountain Trail comes down from the north an' +crosses the one we're on," said Solomon. + +They dismounted and Solomon hobbled a number of horses while Jack was +building a fire. The scout, returning from the wild meadow, began to +examine some tracks he had found at the trail crossing. Suddenly he +gave a whistle of surprise and knelt on the ground. + +"Look 'ere, Jack," he called. + +The boy ran to his side. + +"Now this 'ere is suthin' cur'user than the right hoof o' the devil," +said Solomon Binkus, as he pointed with his forefinger at a print in +the soft dirt. + +Jack saw the print of the wooden stump with the iron ring around its +base which the boy had not forgotten. Near it were a number of +moccasin tracks. + +"What does this mean?" he asked. + +"Wall, sir, I cocalate it means that ol' Mike Harpe has been chased out +o' the Ohio country an' has come down the big river an' into Lake +Champlain with some o' his band an' gone to cuttin' up an' been +obleeged to take to the bush. They've robbed somebody an' are puttin' +fer salt water. They'll hire a boat an' go south an' then p'int fer +the 'Ganies. Ol' Red Snout shoved his leg in that 'ere gravel sometime +this forenoon prob'ly." + +They brewed tea to wet their buttered biscuit and jerked venison. + +Solomon looked as if he were sighting on a gun barrel when he said: + +"Now ye see what's the matter with this 'ere Injun business. They're +jest a lot o' childern scattered all over the bush an' they don't have +to look fer deviltry. Deviltry is lookin' fer them an' when they git +together thar's trouble." + +Solomon stopped, now and then, to peer off into the bush as he talked +while the dusk was falling. Suddenly he put his finger to his lips. +His keen eyes had detected a movement in the shadowy trail. + +"Hide an' horns o' the devil!" he exclaimed in a low tone. "This 'ere +may be suthin' neevarious. Shove ol' Marier this way an' grab yer +pistols an' set still." + +He crept on his hands and knees with the strap of his rifle in his +teeth to the edge of the bush, where he sat for a moment looking and +listening. Suddenly Solomon arose and went back in the trail, +indicating with a movement of his hand that the boy was not to follow. +About fifteen rods from their camp-fire he found an Indian maiden +sitting on the ground with bowed head. A low moan came from her lips. +Her skin was of a light copper color. There was a wreath of wild +flowers in her hair. + +"My purty maid, are your people near?" Solomon asked in the Mohawk +tongue. + +She looked up at him, her beautiful dark eyes full of tears, and +sorrowfully shook her head. + +"My father was a great white chief," she said. "Always a little bird +tells me to love the white man. The beautiful young pale face on a red +horse took my heart with him. I go, too." + +"You must go back to your people," said Solomon. + +Again she shook her head, and, pointing up the trail, whispered: + +"They will burn the Little White Birch. No more will I go in the trail +of the red man. It is like climbing a thorn tree." + +He touched her brow tenderly and she seized his hand and held it +against her cheek. + +"I follow the beautiful pale face," she whispered. + +Solomon observed that her lips were shapely and her teeth white. + +"What is your name?" he asked. + +"They call me the Little White Birch." + +Solomon told her to sit still and that he would bring food to her. + +"It's jest only a little squaw," he said to Jack when he returned to +the camp-fire. "Follered us from that 'ere Injun village. I guess she +were skeered o' them drunken braves. I'm goin' to take some meat an' +bread an' tea to her. No, you better stay here. She's as skeery as a +wild deer." + +After Solomon had given her food he made her take his coat for a +blanket and left her alone. + +Next morning she was still there. Solomon gave her food again and when +they resumed their journey they saw her following. + +"She'll go to the end o' the road, I guess," said Solomon. "I'll tell +ye what we'll do. We'll leave her at Mr. Wheelock's School." + +Their trail bore no further signs of Harpe and his followers. + +"I'll bet ye a pint o' powder an' a fish hook they was p'intin' south," +said Solomon. + +They reached the Indian school about noon. A kindly old Mohawk squaw +who worked there was sent back in the trail to find the maiden. In a +few minutes the squaw came in with her. Solomon left money with the +good master and promised to send more. + +When the travelers went on that afternoon the Little White Birch stood +by the door looking down the road at them. + +"She has a coat o' red on her skin, but the heart o' the white man," +said Solomon. + +In a moment Jack heard him muttering, "It's a damn wicked thing to +do--which there ain't no mistake." + +They had come to wagon roads improving as they approached towns and +villages, in the first of which they began selling the drove. When +they reached Boston, nearly a week later, they had only the two horses +which they rode. + +The trial had just begun. Being ardent Whigs, their testimony made an +impression. Jack's letter to his father says that Mr. Adams +complimented them when they left the stand. + +There is an old letter of Solomon Binkus which briefly describes the +journey. He speaks of the "pompy" men who examined them. "They +grinned at me all the time an' the ol' big wig Jedge in the womern's +dress got mad if I tried to crack a joke," he wrote in his letter. "He +looked like he had paid too much fer his whistle an' thought I had sold +it to him. Thought he were goin' to box my ears. John Addums is +erbout as sharp as a razor. Took a likin' to Jack an' me. I tol' him +he were smart 'nough to be a trapper." + +The two came back in the saddle and reached Albany late in October. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE JOURNEY TO PHILADELPHIA + +The _New York Mercury_ of November 4, 1770, contains this item: + +"John Irons, Jr., and Solomon Binkus, the famous scout, arrived +Wednesday morning on the schooner _Ariel_ from Albany. Mr. Binkus is +on his way to Alexandria, Virginia, where he is to meet Major +Washington and accompany him to the Great Kanawha River in the Far +West." + +Solomon was soon to meet an officer with whom he was to find the +amplest scope for his talents. Jack was on his way to Philadelphia. +They had found the ship crowded and Jack and two other boys "pigged +together"--in the expressive phrase of that time--on the cabin floor, +through the two nights of their journey. Jack minded not the hardness +of the floor, but there was much drinking and arguing and expounding of +the common law in the forward end of the cabin, which often interrupted +his slumbers. + +He was overawed by the length and number of the crowded streets of New +York and by "the great height" of many of its buildings. The grandeur +of Broadway and the fashionable folk who frequented it was the subject +of a long letter which he indited to his mother from The City Tavern. + +He took the boat to Amboy as Benjamin Franklin had done, but without +mishap, and thence traveled by stage to Burlington. There he met Mr. +John Adams of Boston, who was on his way to Philadelphia. He was a +full-faced, ruddy, strong-built man of about thirty-five years, with +thick, wavy dark hair that fell in well trimmed tufts on either cheek +and almost concealed his ears. It was beginning to show gray. He had +a prominent forehead, large blue and expressive eyes and a voice clear +and resonant. He was handsomely dressed. + +Mr. Adams greeted the boy warmly and told him that the testimony which +he and Solomon Binkus gave had saved the life of Captain Preston. The +great lawyer took much interest in the boy and accompanied him to the +top of the stage, the weather being clear and warm. Mr. Adams sat +facing Jack, and beside the latter was a slim man with a small sad +countenance which wore a permanent look of astonishment. Jack says in +a letter that his beard "was not composed of hair, but hairs as +straight and numerable as those in a cat's whiskers." They were also +gray like his eyes. After the stage had started this man turned to +Jack and asked: + +"What is your name, boy?" + +"John Irons." + +The man opened his eyes wider and drew in his breath between parted +lips as if he had heard a most astonishing fact. + +"My name is Pinhorn, sir--Eliphalet Pinhorn," he reciprocated. "I have +been visiting my wife in Newark." + +Jack thought it a singular thing that a man should have been visiting +his wife. + +"May I ask where you are going?" the man inquired of the boy. + +"To Philadelphia." + +Mr. Pinhorn turned toward him with a look of increased astonishment and +demanded: + +"Been there before?" + +"Never." + +The man made a sound that was between a sigh and a groan. Then, almost +sternly and in a confidential tone, as if suddenly impressed by the +peril of an immortal soul, he said: + +"Young man, beware! I say to you, beware!" + +Each stiff gray hair on his chin seemed to erect itself into an +animated exclamation point. Turning again, he whispered: + +"You will soon shake its dust from your feet." + +"Why?" + +"A sinking place! Every one bankrupt or nearly so. Display! Nothing +but display! Feasting, drinking! No thought of to-morrow! Ungodly +city!" + +In concluding his indictment, Mr. Pinhorn partly covered his mouth and +whispered the one word: + +"Babylon!" + +A moment of silence followed, after which he added; "I would never +build a house or risk a penny in business there." + +"I am going to work in Doctor Benjamin Franklin's print shop," said +Jack proudly. + +Mr. Pinhorn turned with a look of consternation clearly indicating that +this was the last straw. He warned in a half whisper: + +"Again I say beware! That is the word--beware!" + +He almost shuddered as he spoke, and leaning close to the boy's ear, +added in a confidential tone: + +"The King of Babylon! A sinking business! An evil man!" He looked +sternly into the eyes of the boy and whispered: "Very! Oh, very!" He +sat back in his seat again, while the expression of his whole figure +seemed to say, "Thank God, my conscience is clear, whatever happens to +you." + +Jack was so taken down by all this that, for a moment, his head swam. +Mr. Pinhorn added: + +"Prospered, but how? That is the question. Took the money of a friend +and spent it. Many could tell you. Wine! Women! Infidelity! House +built on the sands!" + +Mr. Adams had heard most of the gloomy talk of the slim man. Suddenly +he said to the slanderer: + +"My friend, did I hear you say that you have been visiting your wife?" + +"You did, sir." + +"Well, I do not wonder that she lives in another part of the country," +said Mr. Adams. "I should think that Philadelphia would feel like +moving away from you. I have heard you say that it was a sinking city. +It is nothing of the kind. It is floating in spite of the fact that +there are human sinkers in it like yourself. I hate the heart of lead. +This is the land of hope and faith and confidence. If you do not like +it here, go back to England. _We_ do not put our money into holes in +the wall. We lend it to our neighbors because they are worthy of being +trusted. We believe in our neighbors. We put our cash into business +and borrow more to increase our profits. It is true that many men in +Philadelphia are in debt, but they are mostly good for what they owe. +It is a thriving place. I could not help hearing you speak evil of +Doctor Franklin. He is my friend. I am proud to say it and I should +be no friend of his if I allowed your words to go unrebuked. Yours, +sir, is a leaden soul. It is without hope or trust in the things of +this life. You seem not to know that a new world is born. It is a +world of three tenses. We who really live in it are chiefly interested +in what a man is and is likely _to be_, not in what he _was_. Doctor +Franklin would not hesitate to tell you that his youth was not all it +should have been. He does not conceal his errors. There is no more +honest gentleman in the wide world than Doctor Franklin." + +Mr. Adams had spoken with feeling and a look of indignation in his +eyes. He was a frank, fearless character. All who sat on the top of +the coach had heard him and when he had finished they clapped their +hands. + +Jack was much relieved. He had been put in mind of what Doctor +Franklin had said long ago, one evening in Albany, of his struggle +against the faults and follies of his youth. For a moment Mr. Pinhorn +was dumb with astonishment. + +"Nevertheless, sir, I hold to my convictions," he said. + +"Of course you do," Mr. Adams answered. "No man like you ever +recovered from his convictions, for the reason that his convictions are +stronger than he is." + +Mr. Pinhorn partly covered his mouth and turned to the boy and +whispered: + +"It is a time of violent men. Let us hold our peace." + +At the next stop where they halted for dinner Mr. Adams asked the boy +to sit down with him at the table. When they were seated the great man +said: + +"I have to be on guard against catching fire these days. Sometimes I +feel the need of a companion with a fire bucket. My headlight is hope +and I have little patience with these whispering, croaking Tories and +with the barons of the south and the upper Hudson. I used to hold the +plow on my father's farm and I am still plowing as your father is." + +Jack turned with a look of inquiry. + +"We are breaking new land," Mr. Adams went on. "We are treading the +ordeal path among the red-hot plowshares of politics." + +"It is what I should like to do," said the boy. + +"You will be needed, but we must be without fear, remembering that +almost every man who has gained real distinction in politics has met a +violent death. There are the shining examples of Brutus, Cassius, +Hampden and Sidney, but it is worth while." + +"I believe you taught school at Worcester," said Jack. + +"And I learned at least one thing doing it--that school-teaching is not +for me. It would have turned me into a shrub. Too much piddling! It +is hard enough to teach men that they have rights which even a king +must respect." + +"Let me remind you, sir," said Mr. Pinhorn, who sat at the same table, +"that the King can do no wrong." + +"But his ministers can do as they please," Mr. Adams rejoined, whereat +the whole company broke into laughter. + +Mr. Pinhorn covered his mouth with astonishment, but presently allowed +himself to say: "Sir, I hold to my convictions." + +"You are wrong, sir. It is your convictions that hold to you. They +are like the dead limbs on a tree," Mr. Adams answered. "The motto of +Great Britain would seem to be, 'Do no right and suffer no wrong.' +They search our ships; they impress our seamen; they impose taxes +through a Parliament in which we are not represented, and if we +threaten resistance they would have us tried for treason. Nero used to +say that he wished that the inhabitants of Rome had only one neck, so +that he could dispose of them with a single blow. It was a rather +merciful wish, after all. A neck had better be chopped off than held +under the yoke of tyranny." + +"Sir, England shielded, protected, us from French and Indians," Mr. +Pinhorn declared with high indignation. + +"It protected its commerce. We were protecting British interests and +ourselves. Connecticut had five thousand under arms; Massachusetts, +seven thousand; New York, New Jersey and New Hampshire, many more. +Massachusetts taxed herself thirteen shillings and four pence to the +pound of income. New Jersey expended a pound a head to help pay for +the war. On that score England is our debtor." + +The horn sounded. The travelers arose from the tables and hurried out +to the coach. + +"It was a good dinner," Mr. Adams said to Jack when they had climbed to +their seat. "We should be eating potatoes and drinking water, instead +of which we have two kinds of meat and wine and pudding and bread and +tea and many jellies. Still, I am a better philosopher after dinner +than before it. But if we lived simpler, we should pay fewer taxes." + +As they rode along a lady passenger sang the ballad of John Barleycorn, +in the chorus of which Mr. Adams joined with much spirit. + +"My capacity for getting fun out of a song is like the gift of a weasel +for sucking eggs," he said. + +So they fared along, and when Jack was taking leave of the +distinguished lawyer at The Black Horse Tavern in Philadelphia the +latter invited the boy to visit him in Boston if his way should lead +him there. + + + +2 + +The frank, fearless, sledge-hammer talk of the lawyer made a deep +impression on the boy, as a long letter written next day to his father +and mother clearly shows. He went to the house of the printer, where +he did not receive the warm welcome he had expected. Deborah Franklin +was a fat, hard-working, illiterate, economical housewife. She had a +great pride in her husband, but had fallen hopelessly behind him. She +regarded with awe and slight understanding the accomplishments of his +virile, restless, on-pushing intellect. She did not know how to enjoy +the prosperity that had come to them. It was a neat and cleanly home, +but, as of old, Deborah was doing most of the work herself. She would +not have had it otherwise. + +"Ben thinks we ortn't to be doin' nothin' but settin' eroun' in silk +dresses an' readin' books an' gabbin' with comp'ny," she said. "Men +don't know how hard tis to git help that cleans good an' cooks decent. +Everybody feels so kind o' big an' inderpendent they won't stan' it to +be found fault with." + +Her daughter, Mrs. Bache, and the latter's children were there. +Suddenly confronted by the problem of a strange lad coming into the +house to live with them, they were a bit dismayed. But presently their +motherly hearts were touched by the look of the big, gentle-faced, +homesick boy. They made a room ready for him on the top floor and +showed him the wonders of the big house--the library, the electrical +apparatus, the rocking chair with its fan swayed by the movement of the +chair, the new stove and grate which the Doctor had invented. That +evening, after an excellent supper, they sat down for a visit in the +library, when Jack suggested that he would like to have a part of the +work to do. + +"I can sweep and clean as well as any one," he said. "My mother taught +me how to do that. You must call on me for any help you need." + +"Now I wouldn't wonder but what we'll git erlong real happy," said Mrs. +Franklin. "If you'll git up 'arly an' dust the main floor an' do the +broom work an' fill the wood boxes an' fetch water, I'll see ye don't +go hungry." + +"I suppose you will be going to England if the Doctor is detained +there," said Jack. + +"No, sir," Mrs. Franklin answered. "I wouldn't go out on that ol' +ocean--not if ye would give me a million pounds. It's too big an' deep +an' awful! No, sir! Ben got a big bishop to write me a letter an' +tell me I'd better come over an' look a'ter him. But Ben knowed all +the time that I wouldn't go a step." + +There were those who said that her dread of the sea had been a blessing +to Ben, for Mrs. Franklin had no graces and little gift for +communication. But there was no more honest, hard-working, economical +housewife in Philadelphia. + +Jack went to the shop and was put to work next morning. He had to +carry beer and suffer a lot of humiliating imposition from older boys +in the big shop, but he bore it patiently and made friends and good +progress. That winter he took dancing lessons from the famous John +Trotter of New York and practised fencing with the well-known Master +Brissac. He also took a course in geometry and trigonometry at the +Academy and wrote an article describing his trip to Boston for _The +Gazette_. The latter was warmly praised by the editor and reprinted in +New York and Boston journals. He joined the company for home defense +and excelled in the games, on training day, especially at the running, +wrestling, boxing and target shooting. There were many shooting +galleries in Philadelphia wherein Jack had shown a knack of shooting +with the rifle and pistol, which had won for him the Franklin medal for +marksmanship. In the back country the favorite amusement of himself +and father had been shooting at a mark. + +Somehow the boy managed to do a great deal of work and to find time for +tramping in the woods along the Schuylkill and for skating and swimming +with the other boys. Mrs. Franklin and Mrs. Bache grew fond of Jack +and before the new year came had begun to treat him with a kind of +motherly affection. + +William, the Doctor's son, who was the governor of the province of New +Jersey, came to the house at Christmas time. He was a silent, morose, +dignified, self-seeking man, who astonished Jack with his rabid +Toryism. He nettled the boy by treating the opinions of the latter +with smiling toleration and by calling his own father--the great +Doctor--"a misguided man." + +Jack forged ahead, not only in the printer's art, but on toward the +fulness of his strength. Under the stimulation of city life and +continuous study, his talents grew like wheat in black soil. In the +summer of seventy-three he began to contribute to the columns of _The +Gazette_. Certain of his articles brought him compliments from the +best people for their wit, penetration and good humor. He had entered +upon a career of great promise when the current of his life quickened +like that of a river come to a steeper grade. It began with a letter +from Margaret Hare, dated July 14, 1773. In it she writes: + +"When you get this please sit down and count up the years that have +passed since we parted. Then think how our plans have gone awry. You +must also think of me waiting here for you in the midst of a marrying +world. All my friends have taken their mates and passed on. I went to +Doctor Franklin to-day and told him that I was an old lady well past +nineteen and accused him of having a heart of stone. He said that he +had not sent for you because you were making such handsome progress in +your work. I said: 'You do not think of the rapid progress I am making +toward old age. You forget, too, that I need a husband as badly as +_The Gazette_ needs a philosopher. I rebel. You have made me an +American--you and Jack, I will no longer consent to taxation without +representation. Year by year I am giving up some of my youth and I am +not being consulted about it.' + +"Said he: 'I would demand justice of the king. I suppose he thinks +that his country can not yet afford a queen, I shall tell him that he +is imitating George the Third and that he had better listen to the +voice of the people.' + +"Now, my beloved hero, the English girl who is not married at nineteen +is thought to be hopeless. There are fine lads who have asked my +father for the right to court me and still I am waiting for my brave +deliverer and he comes not. I can not forget the thrush's song and the +enchanted woods. They hold me. If they have not held you--if for any +reason your heart has changed--you will not fail to tell me, will you? +Is it necessary that you should be great and wise and rich and learned +before you come to me? Little by little, after many talks with the +venerable Franklin, I have got the American notion that I would like to +go away with you and help you to accomplish these things and enjoy the +happiness which was ours, for a little time, and of which you speak in +your letters. Surely there was something very great in those moments. +It does not fade and has it not kept us true to their promise? But, +Jack, how long am I to wait? You must tell me." + +This letter went to the heart of the young man. She had deftly set +before him the gross unfairness of delay. He felt it. Ever since the +parting he had been eager to go, but his father was not a rich man and +the family was large. His own salary had been little more than was +needed for clothing and books. That autumn it had been doubled and the +editor had assured him that higher pay would be forthcoming. He +hesitated to tell the girl how little he earned and how small, when +measured in money, his progress had seemed to be. He was in despair +when his friend Solomon Binkus arrived from Virginia. For two years +the latter had been looking after the interests of Major Washington out +in the Ohio River country. They dined together that evening at The +Crooked Billet and Solomon told him of his adventures in the West, and +frontier stories of the notorious, one-legged robber, Micah Harpe, and +his den on the shore of the Ohio and of the cunning of the outlaw in +evading capture. + +"I got his partner, Mike Fink, and Major Washington give me fifty +pounds for the job," said Solomon. "They say Harpe's son disappeared +long time ago an' I wouldn't wonder if you an' me had seen him do it." + +"The white man that hung back in the bushes so long? I'll never forget +him," said Jack. + +"Them wimmen couldn't 'a' been in wuss hands." + +"It was a lucky day for them and for me," Jack answered. "I have here +a letter from Margaret. I wish you would read it." + +Solomon read the girl's letter and said: + +"If I was you I'd swim the big pond if nec'sary. This 'ere is a real +simon pure, four-masted womern an' she wants you fer Captain. As the +feller said when he seen a black fox, 'Come on, boys, it's time fer to +wear out yer boots.'" + +"I'm tied to my job." + +"Then break yer halter," said Solomon. + +"I haven't money enough to get married and keep a wife." + +"What an ignorant cuss you be!" Solomon exclaimed. "You don't 'pear to +know when ye're well off." + +"What do you mean?" + +"I mean that ye're wuth at least a thousan' pounds cash money." + +"I would not ask my father for help and I have only forty pounds in the +bank," Jack answered. + +Solomon took out his wallet and removed from it a worn and soiled piece +of paper and studied the memoranda it contained. Then he did some +ciphering with a piece of lead. In a moment he said: + +You have got a thousan' an' fifteen pounds an' six shillin' fer to do +with as ye please an' no questions asked--nary one." + +"You mean you've got it." + +"Which means that Jack Irons owns it hide, horns an' taller." + +Tears came to the boy's eyes. He looked down for a moment without +speaking. "Thank you, Solomon," he said presently. "I can't use your +money. It wouldn't be right." + +Solomon shut one eye an' squinted with the other as if he were taking +aim along the top of a gun barrel. Then he shook his head and drawled: + +"Cat's blood an' gunpowder! That 'ere slaps me in the face an' kicks +me on the shin," Solomon answered. "I've walked an' paddled eighty +mile in a day an' been stabbed an' shot at an' had to run fer my life, +which it ain't no fun--you hear to me. Who do ye s'pose I done it fer +but you an' my kentry? There ain't nobody o' my name an' blood on this +side o' the ocean--not nobody at all. An' if I kin't work fer you, +Jack, I'd just erbout as soon quit. This 'ere money ain't no good to +me 'cept fer body cover an' powder an' balls. I'd as leave drop it in +the river. It bothers me. I don't need it. When I git hum I go an' +hide it in the bush somewhars--jest to git it out o' my way. I been +thinkin' all up the road from Virginny o' this 'ere gol demnable money +an' what I were a-goin' to do with it an' what it could do to me. An', +sez I, I'm ergoin' to ask Jack to take it an' use it fer a wall 'twixt +him an' trouble, an' the idee hurried me erlong--honest! Kind o' made +me happy. Course, if I had a wife an' childern, 'twould be different, +but I ain't got no one. An' now ye tell me ye don't want it, which it +makes me feel lonesomer 'n a tarred Tory an' kind o' sorrowful--ayes, +sir, it does." + +Solomon's voice sank to a whisper. + +"Forgive me," said Jack. "I didn't know you felt that way. But I'm +glad you do. I'll take it on the understanding that as long as I live +what I have shall also be yours." + +"I've two hundred poun' an' six shillin' in my pocket an' a lot more +hid in the bush. It's all yourn to the last round penny. I reckon +it'll purty nigh bridge the slough. I want ye to be married +respectable like a gentleman--slick duds, plenty o' cakes an' pies an' +no slightin' the minister er the rum bar'l. + +"Major Washington give me a letter to take to Ben Franklin on t'other +side o' the ocean. Ye see ev'ry letter that's sent ercrost is opened +an' read afore it gits to him lessen it's guarded keerful. This 'ere +one, I guess, has suthin' powerful secret in it. He pays all the +bills. So I'll be goin' erlong with ye on the nex' ship an' when we +git thar I want to shake hands with the gal and tell her how to make ye +behave." + +That evening Jack went to the manager of _The Gazette_ and asked for a +six months' leave of absence. + +"And why would ye be leaving?" asked the manager, a braw Scot. + +"I expect to be married." + +"In England?" + +"Yes." + +"I'll agree if the winsome, wee thing will give ye time to send us news +letters from London. Doctor Franklin could give ye help. He has been +boiling over with praise o' you and has asked me to broach the matter. +Ye'll be sailing on the next ship." + +Before there was any sailing Jack and Solomon had time to go to Albany +for a visit. They found the family well and prosperous, the town +growing. John Irons said that land near the city was increasing +rapidly in value. Solomon went away into the woods the morning of +their arrival and returned in the afternoon with his money, which he +gave to John Irons to be invested in land. Jack, having had a +delightful stay at home, took a schooner for New York that evening with +Solomon. + +The night before they sailed for England his friends in the craft gave +Jack a dinner at The Gray Goose Tavern. He describes the event in a +long letter. To his astonishment the mayor and other well-known men +were present and expressed their admiration for his talents. + +The table was spread with broiled fish and roasted fowls and mutton and +towering spiced hams and sweet potatoes and mince pies and cakes and +jellies. + +"The spirit of hospitality expresses itself here in ham--often, also, +in fowls, fish and mutton, but always and chiefly in ham--cooked and +decorated with the greatest care and surrounded by forms, flavors and +colors calculated to please the eye and fill the human system with a +deep, enduring and memorable satisfaction," he writes. + +In the midst of the festivities it was announced that Jack was to be +married and as was the custom of the time, every man at the table +proposed a toast and drank to it. One addressed himself to the eyes of +the fortunate young lady. Then her lips, her eyebrows, her neck, her +hands, her feet, her disposition and her future husband were each in +turn enthusiastically toasted by other guests in bumpers of French +wine. He adds that these compliments were "so moist and numerous that +they became more and more indistinct, noisy and irrational" and that +before they ended "Nearly every one stood up singing his own favorite +song. There is a stage of emotion which can only be expressed in +noises. That stage had been reached. They put me in mind of David +Culver's bird shop where many song birds--all of a different +feather--engage in a kind of tournament, each pouring out his soul with +a desperate determination to be heard. It was all very friendly and +good natured but it was, also, very wild." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE CROSSING + +There were curious events in the voyage of Jack and Solomon. The date +of the letter above referred to would indicate that they sailed on or +about the eleventh of October, 1773. Their ship was _The Snow_ which +had arrived the week before with some fifty Irish servants, indentured +for their passage. These latter were, in a sense, slaves placed in +bondage to sundry employers by the captain of the ship for a term of +years until the sum due to the owners for their transportation had been +paid--a sum far too large, it would seem. + +Jack was sick for a number of days after the voyage began but Solomon, +who was up and about and cheerful in the roughest weather, having spent +a part of his youth at sea, took care of his young friend. Jack tells +in a letter that he was often awakened in the night by vermin and every +morning by the crowing of cocks. Those days a part of every ship was +known as "the hen coops" where ducks, geese and chickens were confined. +They came in due time through the butcher shop and the galley to the +cabin table. The cook was an able, swearing man whose culinary +experience had been acquired on a Nantucket whaler. Cooks who could +stand up for service every day in a small ship on an angry sea when the +galley rattled like a dice box in the hands of a nervous player, were +hard to get. Their constitutions were apt to be better than their art. +The food was of poor quality, the cooking a tax upon jaw, palate and +digestion, the service unclean. When good weather came, by and by, and +those who had not tasted food for days began to feel the pangs of +hunger the ship was filled with a most passionate lot of pilgrims. It +was then that Solomon presented the petition of the passengers to the +captain. + +"Cap'n, we're 'bout wore out with whale meat an' slobgollion. We're +all down by the head." + +"So'm I," said the Captain. "This 'ere man had a good recommend an' +said he could cook perfect." + +"A man like that kin cook the passengers with their own heat," said +Solomon. "I feel like my belly was full o' hot rocks. If you'll let +me into the galley, I'll right ye up an' shift the way o' the wind an' +the course o' the ship. I'll swing the bow toward Heaven 'stead o' +Hell an' keep her p'inted straight an' it won't cost ye a penny. +They's too much swearin' on this 'ere ship. Can't nobody be a +Christian with his guts a-b'ilin'. His tongue'll break loose an' make +his soul look like a waggin with a smashed wheel an' a bu'sted ex. A +cook could do more good here than a minister." + +"Can you cook?" + +"You try me an' I'll agree to happy ye up so ye won't know yerself. +Yer meat won't be raw ner petrified an' there won't be no insecks in +the biscuit." + +"He'll make a row." + +"I hope so. Leave him to me. I'm a leetle bit in need o' exercise, +but ye needn't worry. I know how to manage him--perfect. You come +with me to the galley an' tell him to git out of it. I'll do the rest." + +Solomon's advice was complied with. The cook--Thomas Crowpot by +name--was ordered out of the galley. The sea cook is said to be the +father of profanity. His reputation has come down through the ages +untarnished, it would seem, by any example of philosophical moderation. +Perhaps it is because, in the old days, his calling was a hard one and +only those of a singular recklessness were willing to engage in it. +_The Snow's_ cook was no exception. He was a big, brawny, black Yankee +with a claw foot look in his eyes. Profanity whizzed through the open +door like buckshot from a musket. He had been engaged for the voyage +and would not give up his job to any man. + +"Don't be so snappish," said Solomon. Turning to the Captain he added: +"Don't ye see here's the big spring. This 'ere man could blister a +bull's heel by talkin' to it. He's hidin' his candle. This ain't no +job fer him. I say he orto be promoted." + +With an outburst still profane but distinctly milder the cook wished to +know what they meant. + +Solomon squinted with his rifle eye as if he were taking careful aim at +a small mark. + +"Why, ye see we passengers have been swearin' stiddy fer a week," he +drawled. "We're wore out. We need a rest. You're a trained swearer. +Ye do it perfect. Ye ortn't to have nothin' else to do. We want you +to go for'ard an' find a comf'table place an' set down an' do all the +swearin' fer the hull ship from now on. You'll git yer pay jest the +same as if ye done the cookin'. It's a big job but I guess ye're ekal +to it. I'll agree that they won't nobody try to grab it. Ye may have +a little help afore the mast but none abaft." + +This unexpected proposition calmed the cook. The prospect of full pay +and nothing to do pleased him. He surrendered. + +An excellent dinner was cooked and served that day. The lobscouse made +of pork, fowl and sliced potatoes was a dish to remember. But the +former cook got a line of food calculated to assist him in the +performance of his singular duty. Happiness returned to the ship and +Solomon was cheered when at length he came out of the galley. Officers +and passengers rendered him more homage after that than they paid to +the rich and famous Mr. Girard who was among their number. That day +this notice was written on the blackboard: + +"Thomas Crowpot has been engaged to do all the swearing that's +necessary on this voyage. Any one who needs his services will find him +on the forward deck. Small and large jobs will be attended to while +you wait." + + + +2 + +Often in calm weather Jack and Solomon amused themselves and the other +passengers with pistol practise by tossing small objects into the air +and shooting at them over the ship's side. They rarely missed even the +smallest object thrown. Jack was voted the best marksman of the two +when he crushed with his bullet four black walnuts out of five thrown +by Mr. Girard. + +In the course of the voyage they overhauled _The Star_, a four-masted +ship bound from New York to Dover. For hours the two vessels were so +close that the passengers engaged in a kind of battle. Those on _The +Star_ began it by hurling turnips at the men on the other ship who +responded with a volley of apples. Solomon discerned on the deck of +the stranger Captain Preston and an English officer of the name of Hawk +whom he had known at Oswego and hailed them. Then said Solomon: + +"It's a ship load o' Tories who've had enough of Ameriky. They's a +cuss on that tub that I helped put a coat o' tar an' feathers on in the +Ohio kentry. He's the one with the black pipe in his mouth. I don't +know his name but they use to call him Slops--the dirtiest, +low-downdest, damn Tory traitor that ever lived. Helped the Injuns out +thar in the West. See that 'ere black pipe? Allus carries it in his +mouth 'cept when he's eatin'. I guess he goes to sleep with it. It's +one o' the features o' his face. We tarred him plenty now you hear to +me." + +That evening a boat was lowered and the Captain of _The Snow_ crossed a +hundred yards of quiet sea to dine with the Captain of _The Star_ in +the cabin of the latter. Next day a stiff wind came out of the west. +All sail was spread, the ships began to jump and gore the waves and +_The Star_ ran away from the smaller ship and was soon out of sight. +Weeks of rough going followed. Meanwhile Solomon stuck to his task. +Every one was sick but Jack and the officers, and there was not much +cooking to be done. + +Because he had to take off his coat while he was working in the galley, +Solomon gave the precious letter into Jack's keeping. + +Near the end of the sixth week at sea they spied land. + +"We cheered, for the ocean had shown us a tiger's heart," the young man +wrote. "For weeks it had leaped and struck at us and tumbled us about. +The crossing is more like hardship than anything that has happened to +me. One woman died and was buried at sea. A man had his leg broken by +being thrown violently against the bulwarks and the best of us were +bumped a little. + +"Some days ago a New Yorker who was suspected of cheating at cards on +the complaint of several passengers was put on trial and convicted +through the evidence of one who had seen him marking a pack of the +ship's cards. He was condemned to be carried up to the round top and +made fast there, in view of all the ship's company for three hours and +to pay a fine of two bottles of brandy. He refused to pay his fine and +we excommunicated the culprit refusing either to eat, drink or speak +with him until he should submit. Today he gave up and paid his fine. +Man is a sociable being and the bitterest of all punishments is +exclusion. He couldn't stand it." + +About noon on the twenty-ninth of November they made Dover and anchored +in the Downs. Deal was about three miles away and its boats came off +for them. They made a circuit and sailed close in shore. Each boat +that went out for passengers had its own landing. Its men threw a rope +across the breakers. This was quickly put on a windlass. With the +rope winding on its windlass the boat was slowly hauled through the +surge, its occupants being drenched and sprinkled with salt water. +They made their way to the inn of The Three Kings where two men stood +watching as they approached. One of them Jack recognized as the man +Slops with the black pipe in his mouth. + +"That's him," said the man with the black pipe pointing at Solomon, +whereupon the latter was promptly arrested. + +"What have I done?" he asked. + +"You'll learn directly at 'eadquarters," said the officer. + +Solomon shook hands with Jack and said: "I'm glad I met ye," and turned +and walked away with the two men. + +Jack was tempted to follow them but feeling a hidden purpose in +Solomon's conduct went into the inn. + +So the friends parted. Jack being puzzled and distressed by the swift +change in the color of their affairs. The letter to Doctor Franklin +was in his pocket--a lucky circumstance. He decided to go to London +and deliver the letter and seek advice regarding the relief of Solomon. +At the desk in the lobby of The Three Kings he learned that he must +take the post chaise for Canterbury which would not be leaving until +six P.M. This gave him time to take counsel in behalf of his friend. +Turning toward the door he met Captain Preston, who greeted him with +great warmth and wished to know where was Major Binkus. + +Jack told the Captain of the arrest of his friend. + +"I expected it," said Preston. "So I have waited here for your ship. +It's that mongrel chap on The Star who got a tarring from Binkus and +his friends. He saw Binkus on your deck, as I did, and proclaimed his +purpose. So I am here to do what I can to help you. I can not forget +that you two men saved my life. Are there any papers on his person +which are likely to make him trouble?" + +"No," said Jack, thinking of the letter lying safely in his own pocket. + +"That's the important thing," Preston resumed. "Binkus is a famous +scout who is known to be anti-British. Such a man coming here is +supposed to be carrying papers. Between ourselves they would arrest +him on any pretext. You leave this matter in my hands. If he had no +papers he'll be coming on in a day or two." + +"I'd like to go with you to find him," said Jack. + +"Better not," Preston answered with a smile. + +"Why?" + +"Because I suspect you have the papers. They'll get you, too, if they +learn you are his friend. Keep away from him. Sit quietly here in the +inn until the post chaise starts for Canterbury. Don't let any one +pick a quarrel with you and remember this is all a sacred confidence +between friends." + +"I thank you and my heart is in every word," said Jack as he pressed +the hand of the Captain. "After all friendship is a thing above +politics--even the politics of these bitter days." + + + +3 + +He sat down with a sense of relief and spent the rest of the afternoon +reading the London papers although he longed to go and look at the +fortress of Deal Castle. He had tea at five and set out on the mail +carriage, with his box and bag, an hour later. The road was rough and +muddy with deep holes in it. At one point the chaise rattled and +bumped over a plowed field. Before dark he saw a man hanging in a +gibbet by the roadside. At ten o'clock they passed the huge gate of +Canterbury and drew up at an inn called The King's Head. The landlady +and two waiters attended for orders. He had some supper and went to +bed. Awakened at five A.M. by the sound of a bugle he arose and +dressed hurriedly and found the post chaise waiting. They went on the +King's Road from Canterbury and a mile out they came to a big, white +gate in the dim light of the early morning. + +A young man clapped his mouth to the window and shouted: + +"Sixpence, Yer Honor!" + +It was a real turnpike and Jack stuck his head out of the window for a +look at it. They stopped for breakfast at an inn far down the pike and +went on through Sittingborn, Faversham, Rochester and the lovely valley +of the River Medway of which Jack had read. + +At every stop it amused him to hear the words "Chaise an' pair," flying +from host to waiter and waiter to hostler and back in the wink of an +eye. + +Jack spent the night at The Rose in Dartford and went on next morning +over Gadshill and Shootershill and Blackheath. Then the Thames and +Greenwich and Deptfort from which he could see the crowds and domes and +towers of the big city. A little past two o'clock he rode over London +bridge and was set down at The Spread Eagle where he paid a shilling a +mile for his passage and ate his dinner. + +Such, those days, was the crossing and the trip up to London, as Jack +describes it in his letters. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +JACK SEES LONDON AND THE GREAT PHILOSOPHER + +The stir and prodigious reach of London had appalled the young man. +His fancy had built and peopled it, but having found no sufficient +material for its task in New York, Boston and Philadelphia, had scored +a failure. It had built too small and too humbly. He was in no way +prepared for the noise, the size, the magnificence, the beauty of it. +In spite of that, something in his mental inheritance had soon awakened +a sense of recognition and familiarity. He imagined that the sooty +odor and the bells, and the clatter of wheels and horses' feet and the +voices--the air was full of voices--were like the echoes of a remote +past. + +The thought thrilled him that somewhere in the great crowd, of which he +was now a part, were the two human beings he had come so far to see. +He put on his best clothes and with the letter which had been carefully +treasured--under his pillow at night and pinned to his pocket lining +through the day--set out in a cab for the lodgings of Doctor Franklin. +Through a maze of streets where people were "thick as the brush in the +forests of Tryon County" he proceeded until after a journey of some +thirty minutes the cab stopped at the home of the famous American on +Bloomsbury Square. Doctor Franklin was in and would see him presently, +so the liveried servant informed the young man after his card had been +taken to the Doctor's office. He was shown into a reception room and +asked to wait, where others were waiting. An hour passed and the day +was growing dusk when all the callers save Jack had been disposed of. +Then Franklin entered. Jack remembered the strong, well-knit frame and +kindly gray eyes of the philosopher. His thick hair, hanging below his +collar, was now white. He was very grand in a suit of black Manchester +velvet with white silk stockings and bright silver buckles on his +shoes. There was a gentle dignity in his face when he took the boy's +hand and said with a smile: + +"You are so big, Jack. You have built a six foot, two inch man out of +that small lad I knew in Albany, and well finished, too--great thighs, +heavy shoulders, a mustache, a noble brow and shall I say the eye of +Mars? It's a wonder what time and meat and bread and potatoes and air +can accomplish. But perhaps industry and good reading have done some +work on the job." + +Jack blushed and answered. "It would be hard to fix the blame." + +Franklin put his hand on the young man's shoulder and said: + +"She is a lovely girl, Jack. You have excellent good taste. I +congratulate you. Her pulchritude has a background of good character +and she is alive with the spirit of the New World. I have given her no +chance to forget you if that had been possible. Since I became the +agent in England of yourself and sundry American provinces, I have seen +her often but never without longing for the gift of youth. How is my +family?" + +"They are well. I bring you letters." + +"Come up to my office and we'll give an hour to the news." + +When they were seated before the grate fire in the large, pleasant room +above stairs whose windows looked out upon the Square, the young man +said: + +"First I shall give you, sir, a letter from Major Washington. It was +entrusted to a friend of mine who came on the same ship with me. He +was arrested at Deal but, fortunately, the letter was in my pocket." + +"Arrested? Why?" + +"I think, sir, the charge was that he had helped to tar and feather a +British subject." + +"Feathers and tar are poor arguments," the Doctor remarked as he broke +the seal of the letter. + +It was a long letter and Franklin sat for near half an hour +thoughtfully reading and rereading it. By and by he folded and put it +into his pocket, saying as he did so: "An angry man can not even trust +himself. I sent some letters to America on condition that they should +be read by a committee of good men and treated in absolute confidence +and returned to me. Certain members of that committee had so much gun +powder in their hearts it took fire and their prudence and my +reputation have been seriously damaged, I fear. The contents of those +letters are now probably known to you." + +"Are they the Hutchinson, Rogers and Oliver letters?" + +"The same." + +"I think they are known to every one in America that reads. We were +indignant that these men born and raised among us should have said that +a colony ought not to enjoy all the liberties of a parent state and +that we should be subjected to coercive measures. They had expressed +no such opinion save in these private letters. It looked like a base +effort to curry favor with the English government." + +"Yes, they were overworking the curry comb," said Franklin. "I had +been protesting against an armed force in Boston. The government +declared that our own best people were in favor of it. I, knowing +better, denied the statement. To prove their claim a distinguished +baronet put the letters in my hands. He gave me leave to send them to +America on condition that they should not be published. Of course they +proved nothing but the treachery of Hutchinson, Rogers and Oliver. Now +I seem to be tarred by the same stick." + +Jack delivered sundry letters from the family of the great man who read +them carefully. + +"It's good to hear from home," he said when he had finished. "You've +heard of the three Greenlanders, off the rocks and ice where there was +not dirt enough to raise a bushel of cabbages or light enough for half +the year to make a shadow, who having seen the world and its splendors +said it was interesting, but that they would prefer to live at home?" + +"These days America is an unhappy land," said Jack. "We are like a +wildcat in captivity--a growling, quarrelsome lot." + +"Well, the British use the right to govern us like a baby rattle and +they find us a poor toy. This petty island, compared with America, is +but a stepping stone in a brook. There's scarcely enough of it out of +water to keep one's feet dry. In two generations our population will +exceed that of the British Isles. But with so many lying agents over +there what chance have they to learn anything about us? They will +expect to hear you tell of people being tomahawked in Philadelphia--a +city as well governed as any in England. They can not understand that +most of us would gladly spend nineteen shillings to the pound for the +right to spend the other shilling as we please." + +"Can they not be made to understand us?" Jack inquired. + +"The power to learn is like your hand--you must use it or it will +wither and die. There are brilliant intellects here which have lost +the capacity to learn. I think that profound knowledge is not for high +heads." + +"I wonder just what you mean." + +"Oh, the moment you lose humility, you stop learning," the Doctor went +on. "There are two doors to every intellect. One lets knowledge in, +the other lets it out. We must keep both doors in use. The mind is +like a purse: if you keep paying out money, you must, now and then, put +some into your purse or it will be empty. I once knew a man who was a +liberal spender but never did any earning. We soon found that he had +been making counterfeit money. The King's intellects have often put me +in mind of him. They are flush with knowledge but they never learn +anything. They can tell you all you may want to know but it is +counterfeit knowledge." + +"How about Lord North?" + +"He has nailed up the door. The African zebra is a good student +compared to him. It is a maxim of Walpole and North that all men are +equally corrupt." + +"It is a hateful notion!" Jack exclaimed. + +"But not without some warrant. You may be sure that a man who has +spent his life in hospitals will have no high opinion of the health of +mankind. He and his friends are so engrossed by their cards and cock +fights and horses and hounds that they have little time for such a +trivial matter as the problems of America. They postpone their +consideration and meanwhile the house is catching fire. By and by +these boys are going to get burned. They think us a lot of +semi-savages not to be taken seriously. Our New England farmers are +supposed to be like the peasants of Europe. The fact is, our average +farmer is a man of better intellect and character than the average +member of Parliament." + +"The King's intellects would seem to be out of order," said Jack. + +"And too cynical. They think only of revenues. They remind me of the +report of the Reverend Commissary Blair who, having projected a college +in Virginia, came to England to ask King William for help. The Queen +in the King's absence ordered her Attorney-General to draw a charter +with a grant of two thousand pounds. The Attorney opposed it on the +ground that they were in a war and needed the money for better purposes. + +"'But, Your Honor, Virginia is in great need of ministers,' said the +commissary. 'It has souls to be saved.' + +"'Souls--damn your souls! Make tobacco,' said the Queen's lawyer. + +"The counselors of royalty have no high opinion of souls or principles. +Think of these taxes on exports needed by neighbors. The minds that +invented them had the genius of a pickpocket." + +"I see that you are not in love with England, sir," said Jack. + +"My boy, you do not see straight," the Doctor answered. "I am fond of +England. At heart she is sound. The King is a kind of wooden leg. He +has no feeling and no connection whatever with her heart and little +with her intellect. The people are out of sympathy with the King. The +best minds in England are directly opposed to the King's policy; so are +most of the people, but they are helpless. He has throttled the voting +power of the country. Jack, I have told you all this and shall tell +you more because--well, you know Plato said that he would rather be a +blockhead than have all knowledge and nobody to share it. You ought to +know the truth but I have told you only for your own information." + +"I am going to write letters to _The Gazette_ but I shall not quote +you, sir, without permission," said Jack. + +At this point the attendant entered and announced that Mr. Thomas Paine +had called to get his manuscript. + +"Bring him up," said the Doctor. + +In a moment a slim, dark-eyed man of about thirty-three in shabby, +ill-fitting garments entered the room. + +Doctor Franklin shook his hand and gave him a bundle of manuscript and +said: + +"It is well done but I think it unsound. I would not publish it." + +"Why?" Paine asked with a look of disappointment. + +"Well, it is spitting against the wind and he who spits against the +wind spits in his own face. It would be a dangerous book. Think how +great a portion of mankind are weak and ignorant men and women; think +how many are young and inexperienced and incapable of serious thought. +They need religion to support their virtue and restrain them from vice. +If men are so wicked with religion what would they be without it? Lay +the manuscript away and we will have a talk about it later." + +"I should like to talk with you about it," the man answered with a +smile and departed, the bundle under his arm. + +"Now, Jack," said Franklin, as he looked at his watch, "I can give you +a quarter of an hour before I must go and dress for dinner. Please +tell me about your resources. Are you able to get married?" + +Jack told him of his prospects and especially of the generosity of his +friend Solomon Binkus and of the plight the latter was in. + +"He must be a remarkable man," said Franklin. "With Preston's help he +will be coming on to London in a day or so. If necessary you and I +will go down there. We shall not neglect him. Have you any dinner +clothes? They will be important to you." + +"I thought, sir, that I should best wait until I had arrived here." + +"You thought wisely. I shall introduce you to a good cloth mechanic. +Go to him at once and get one suit for dinner and perhaps two for the +street. It costs money to be a gentleman here. It's a fine art. +While you are in London you'll have to get the uniform and fall in line +and go through the evolutions or you will be a 'North American savage.' +You shall meet the Hares in my house as soon as your clothes are ready. +Ask the tailor to hurry up. They must be finished by Wednesday noon. +You had better have lodgings near me. I will attend to that for you." + +The Doctor sat down and wrote on a number of cards. "These will +provide for cloth, linen, leather and hats," he said. "Let the bills +be sent to me. Then you will not be cheated. Come in to-morrow at +half after two." + + + +2 + +Jack bade the Doctor good night and drove to The Spread Eagle where, +before he went to bed, he wrote to his parents and a long letter to +_The Pennsylvania Gazette_, describing his voyage and his arrival +substantially as the facts are here recorded. Next morning he ordered +every detail in his "uniforms" for morning and evening wear and +returning again to the inn found Solomon waiting in the lobby. + +"Here I be," said the scout and trapper. + +"What happened to you?" + +"S'arched an' shoved me into a dark hole in the wall. Ye know, Jack, +with you an' me, it allus 'pears to be workin'." + +"What?" + +"Good luck. Cur'us thing the papers was on you 'stid of me--ayes, sir, +'twas. Did ye hand 'em over safe?" + +"Last night I put 'em in Franklin's hands." + +"Hunkidory! I'm ready fer to go hum." + +"Not yet I hope. I want you to help me see the place." + +"Wall, sir, I'll be p'intin' fer hum soon es I kin hop on a ship. +Couldn't stan' it here, too much noise an' deviltry. This 'ere city is +like a twenty-mile bush full o' drunk Injuns--Maumees, hostyle as the +devil. I went out fer a walk an' a crowd follered me eround which I +don't like it. 'Look at the North American,' they kep' a-sayin'. As +soon as I touched shore the tommyhawk landed on me. But fer Cap. +Preston I'd be in that 'ere dark hole now. He see the Jedge an' the +Jedge called fer Slops an' Slops had slopped over. He were layin' +under a tree dead drunk. The Jedge let me go an' Preston come on with +me. Now 'twere funny he turned up jest as he done; funny I got +app'inted cook o' _The Snow_ so as I had to give that 'ere paper to +you. I tell ye it's workin'--allus workin'." + +"Doctor Franklin wants to see you," said Jack. "Put on your Sunday +clothes an' we'll go over to his house. I think I can lead you there. +If we get lost we'll jump into a cab." + +When they set out Solomon was dressed in fine shoes and brown wool +stockings and drab trousers, a butternut jacket and blue coat, and a +big, black three-cornered hat. His slouching gait and large body and +weathered face and the variety of colors in his costume began at once +to attract the attention of the crowd. A half-drunk harridan surveyed +him, from top to toe, and made a profound bow as he passed. A number +of small boys scurried along with them, curiously staring into the face +of Solomon. + +"Ain't this like comin' into a savage tribe that ain't seen no +civilized human bein' fer years?" + +"Wot is it?" a voice shouted. + +"'E's a blarsted bush w'acker from North Hamerica, 'e is," another +answered. + +Jack stopped a cab and they got into it. + +"Show us some of the great buildings and land us in an hour at 10 +Bloomsbury Square, East," he said. + +With a sense of relief they were whisked away in the stream of traffic. + +They passed the King's palace and the great town houses of the Duke of +Bedford and Lord Balcarras, each of which was pointed out by the +driver. Suddenly every vehicle near them stopped, while their male +occupants sat with bared heads. Jack observed a curious procession on +the sidewalk passing between two lines of halted people. + +"Hit's their Majesties!" the driver whispered under his breath. + +The King--a stout, red-nosed, blue-jowled man, with big, gray, staring +eyes--was in a sedan chair surmounted by a crown. He was dressed in +light cloth with silver buttons. Queen Charlotte, also in a chair, was +dressed in lemon colored silk ornamented with brocaded flowers. The +two were smiling and bowing as they passed. In a moment the procession +entered a great gate. Then there was a crack of whips and the traffic +resumed its hurried pace. + +"Hit's their Majesties, sir, goin' to a drawin'-room at Lord Rawdon's, +sir," the driver explained as he drove on. + +"Did you see the unnatural look in his gray eyes?" said Jack, turning +to Solomon. + +"Ayes! Kind o' skeered like! 'Twere a han'some yoke o' men totin' +him--well broke, too, I guess. Pulled even an' nobody yellin' gee er +haw er whoa hush." + +"You know it isn't proper for kings and queens to walk in public," Jack +answered. + +Again Solomon had on his shooting face. With his left eye closed, he +took deliberate aim with the other at the subject before them and thus +discharged his impressions. + +"Uh huh! I suppose 'twouldn't do fer 'em to be like other folks so +they have to have some extry pairs o' legs to kind o' put 'on when they +go ou'doors. I wonder if they ain't obleeged to have an extry set o' +brains fer public use." + +"They have quantities of 'em all made and furnished to order and stored +in the court," said Jack. "His own mind is only for use in the private +rooms." + +"I should think 'twould git out o' order," Solomon remarked. + +"It does. They say he's been as crazy as a loon." + +Soon the two observers became interested in a band of sooty-faced +chimney sweeps decorated with ribbands and gilt paper. They were +making musical sounds with their brushes and scrapers and soliciting +gifts from the passing crowd and, now and then, scrambling for tossed +coins. + +In the Ave Mary Lane they saw a procession of milk men and maids +carrying wreaths of flowers on wheelbarrows, the first of which held a +large white pyramid which seemed to be a symbol of their calling. They +were also begging. + +"It's a lickpenny place," said Jack. + +"Somebody's got to do some 'arnin' to pay fer all the foolin' eround," +Solomon answered. "If I was to stay here I'd git myself ragged up like +these 'ere savages and jine the tribe er else I'd lose the use o' my +legs an' spend all my money bein' toted. I ain't used to settin' down +when I move, you hear to me." + +"I'll take you to Doctor Franklin's tailor," Jack proposed. + +"Major Washington tol' me whar to go. I got the name an' the street +all writ down plain in my wallet but I got t' go hum." + +They had stopped at the door of the famous American. Jack and Solomon +went in and sat down with a dozen others to await their turn. + +When they had been conducted to the presence of the great man he took +Solomon's hand and said: + +"Mr. Binkus, I am glad to bid you welcome." + +He looked down at the sinewy, big-boned, right hand of the scout, still +holding it. + +"Will you step over to the window a moment and give me a look at your +hands?" he asked. + +They went to the window and the Doctor put on his spectacles and +examined them closely. + +"I have never seen such an able, Samsonian fist," he went on. "I think +the look of those hands would let you into Paradise. What a record of +human service is writ upon them! Hands like that have laid the +foundations of America. They have been generous hands. They tell me +all I need to know of your spirit, your lungs, your heart and your +stomach." + +"They're purty heavy--that's why I genially carry 'em in my pockets +when I ain't busy," said Solomon. + +"Over here a pair of hands like that are thought to be a disgrace. +They are like the bloody hands of Macbeth. Certain people would look +at them and say: 'My God, man, you are guilty of hard work. You have +produced food for the hungry and fuel for the cold. You are not an +idler. You have refused to waste your time with Vice and Folly. +Avaunt and quit my sight.' In America every one works--even the horse, +the ass and the ox. Only the hog is a gentleman. There are many +mischievous opinions in Europe but the worst is that useful labor is +dishonorable. Do you like London?" + +Solomon put his face in shape for a long shot. Jack has written that +he seemed to be looking for hostile "Injuns" some distance away and to +be waiting for another stir in the bushes. Suddenly he pulled his +trigger. + +"London an' I is kind o' skeered o' one 'nother. It 'minds me o' the +fust time I run into ol' Thorny Tree. They was a young brave with him +an' both on 'em had guns. They knowed me an' I knowed them. Looked as +if there'd have to be some killin' done. We both made the sign o' +friendship an' kep' edgin' erway f'm one 'nother careless like but +keepin' close watch. Sudden as scat they run like hell in one +direction an' I in t'other. I guess I look bad to London an' London +looks bad to me, but I'll have to do all the runnin' this time." + +The Doctor laughed. "It ha' never seen a man just like you before," he +observed. "I saw Sir Jeffrey Amherst this morning and told him you +were in London. He is fond of you and paid you many compliments and +made me promise to bring you to his home." + +"I'd like to smoke a pipe with ol' Jeff," Solomon answered. "They +ain't no nonsense 'bout him. I learnt him how to talk Injun an' read +rapids an' build a fire with tinder an' elbow grease. He knows me +plenty. He staked his life on me a dozen times in the Injun war." + +"How is Major Washington?" the Doctor asked. + +"Stout as a pot o' ginger," Solomon answered. "I rassled with him one +evenin' down in Virginny an' I'll never tackle him ag'in, you hear to +me. His right flipper is as big as mine an' when it takes holt ye'd +think it were goin' to strip the shuck off yer soul." + +"He's in every way a big man," said the Doctor. "On the whole, he's +about our biggest man. An officer who came out of the ambuscade at +Fort Duquesne with thirty living men out of three companies and four +shot holes in his coat must have an engagement with Destiny. Evidently +his work was not finished. You have traveled about some. What is the +feeling over there toward England?" + +"They're like a b'ilin' pot everywhere. England has got to step +careful now." + +"Tell Sir Jeffrey that, if you see him, just that. Don't mince +matters. Jack, I'll send my man with you and Mr. Binkus to show you +the new lodgings. We found them this morning." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE LOVERS + +The fashionable tailor was done with Jack's equipment. Franklin had +seen and approved the admirably shaped and fitted garments. The young +man and his friend Solomon had moved to their new lodgings on +Bloomsbury Square. The scout had acquired a suit for street wear and +was now able to walk abroad without exciting the multitudes. The +Doctor was planning what he called "a snug little party." So he +announced when Jack and Solomon came, adding: + +"But first you are to meet Margaret and her mother here at half after +four." + +Jack made careful preparation for that event. Fortunately it was a +clear, bright day after foggy weather. Solomon had refused to go with +Jack for fear of being in the way. + +"I want to see her an' her folks but I reckon ye'll have yer hands full +to-day," he remarked. "Ye don't need no scout on that kind o' +reconnoiterin'. You go on ahead an' git through with yer smackin an' +bym-by I'll straggle in." + +Precisely at four thirty-five Jack presented himself at the lodgings of +his distinguished friend. He has said in a letter, when his dramatic +adventures were all behind him, that this was the most thrilling moment +he had known. "The butler had told me that the ladies were there," he +wrote. "Upon my word it put me out of breath climbing that little +flight of stairs. But it was in fact the end of a long journey. It is +curious that my feeling then should remind me, as it does, of moments +when I have been close up to the enemy, within his lines, and lying +hard against the ground in some thicket while British soldiers were +tramping so near I could feel the ground shake. In the room I saw Lady +Hare and Doctor Franklin standing side by side. What a smile he wore +as he looked at me! I have never known a human being who had such a +cheering light in his countenance. I have seen it brighten the darkest +days of the war aided by the light of his words. His faith and good +cheer were immovable. I felt the latter when he said: + +"'See the look of alarm in his face. Now for a pretty drama!' + +"Mrs. Hare gave me her hand and I kissed it and said that I had +expected to see Margaret and hoped that she was not ill. There was a +thistledown touch on my cheek from behind and turning I saw the +laughing face I sought looking up at me. I tell you, my mother, there +never was such a pair of eyes. Their long, dark lashes and the glow +between them I remember chiefly. The latter was the friendly light of +her spirit To me it was like a candle in the window to guide my feet. +'Come,' it seemed to say. 'Here is a welcome for you.' I saw the pink +in her cheeks, the crimson in her lips, the white of her neck, the glow +of her abundant hair, the shapeliness of brow and nose and chin in that +first glance. I saw the beating of her heart even. I remember there +was a tiny mole on her temple under the edge of that beautiful, golden +crown of hers. It did not escape my eye. I tell you she was fair as +the first violets in Meadowvale on a dewy morning. Of course she was +at her best. It was the last moment in years of waiting in which her +imagination had furnished me with endowments too romantic. I have seen +great moments, as you know, but this is the one I could least afford to +give up. I had long been wondering what I should do when it came. Now +it was come and there was no taking thought of what we should do. That +would seem to have been settled out of court. I kissed her lips and +she kissed mine and for a few moments I think we could have stood in a +half bushel measure. Then the Doctor laughed and gave her Ladyship a +smack on the cheek. + +"'I don't know about you, my Lady, but it fills me with the glow of +youth to see such going on,' he remarked. 'I'm only twenty-one and +nobody knows it--nobody suspects it even. These wrinkles and gray hair +are only a mask that covers the heart of a boy.' + +"'I confess that such a scene does push me back into my girlhood,' said +Lady Hare. 'Alas! I feel the old thrill.' + +"Franklin came and stood before us with his hands Upon our shoulders, +his face shining with happiness. "'Margaret, a woman needs something +to hold on to in this slippery world,' said he. 'Here is a man that +stands as firm as an oak tree.' + +"He kissed us as did Lady Hare, also, and then we all sat down together +and laughed. I would not forget, if I could, that we had to wipe our +eyes. No, my life has not been all blood and iron. + +"Would you not call it a wonder that we had kept the sacred fire which +had been kindled in our hearts, so long before, and our faith in each +other? It is because we were both of a steadfast breed of folk--the +English--trained to cling to the things that are worth while. Once +they think they are right how hard it is to turn them aside! Let us +never forget that some of the best of our traits have come from England. + +"Suddenly Solomon arrived. Of course where Solomon is one would expect +solecisms. They were not wanting. I had not tried to prepare him for +the ordeal. Solomon is bound to be himself wherever he is, am why not? +There is no better man living. + +"'You're as purty as a golden robin,' he said to Margaret, shaking her +hand in his big one. + +"He was not so much put out as I thought he would be. I never saw a +gentler man with women. As hard as iron in a fight there has always +been a curious veil of chivalry in the old scout. He stood and joked +with the girl, in his odd fashion, and set us all laughing. Margaret +and her mother enjoyed his talk and spoke of it, often, after that. + +"'Wal, Mis Hare,' he said to Her Ladyship, 'if ye graft this 'ere +sprout on yer fam'ly tree I'll bet ye a pint o' powder an' a fish hook +ye won't never be sorry fer it.' + +"It did not seem to occur to him that there were those to whom a pint +of powder and a fish hook would be no great temptation." + + + +2 + +"I dressed and went to dine with the Hares that evening. They lived in +a large house on a fashionable 'road' as certain, of the streets were +called. It was a typical upper class, English home. There were many +fine old things in it but no bright colors, nothing to dazzle or +astonish; you like the wooden Indian in war-paint and feathers and the +stuffed bear and high colored rugs in the parlor of Mr. Gosport in +Philadelphia. Every piece of furniture was like the quiet, still +footed servants who came and went making the smallest possible demand +upon your attention. + +"I was shown into the library where Sir Benjamin' sat alone reading a +newspaper. He greeted me politely. + +"'The news is disquieting,' he said presently. 'What have you to tell +us of the situation in America?' + +"'It is critical,' I answered. 'It can be mended, however, if the +government will act promptly.' + +"'What should it do?' + +"'Make concessions, sir, stop shipping tea for a time. Don't try to +force an export with a duty on it. I think the government should not +shake the mailed fist at us.' + +"'But think of the violence and the destruction of property!' + +"'All that will abate and disappear if the cause is removed. We who +keep our affection for England have done our best to hold the passions +of the people in check but we get no help from this side of the ocean.' + +"Sir Benjamin sat thoughtfully feeling his silvered mustache. He had +grown stouter and fuller-faced since we had parted in Albany when he +had looked like a prosperous, well-bred merchant in military dress and +had been limbered and soiled by knocking about in the bush. Now he +wore a white wig and ruffles and looked as dignified as a Tory +magistrate. + +"In the moment of silence I mustered up my courage and spoke out. + +"'Sir Benjamin,' I said. 'I have come to claim your daughter under the +promise you gave me at Fort Stanwix. I have not ceased to love her and +if she continues to love me I am sure that our wishes will have your +favor and blessing.' + +"'I have not forgotten the promise,' he said. 'But America has +changed. It is likely to be a hotbed of rebellion--perhaps even the +scene of a bloody war. I must consider my daughter's happiness.' + +"'Conditions in America, sir, are not so bad as you take them to be,' I +assured him. + +"'I hope you are right,' he answered. 'I am told that the whole matter +rests with your Doctor Franklin. If we are to go on from bad to worse +he will be responsible.' + +"'If it rests with him I can assure you, sir, that our troubles will +end,' I said, looking only at the surface of the matter and speaking +confidently out of the bottomless pit of my inexperience as the young +are like to do. + +"'I believe you are right,' he declared and went on with a smile. +'Now, my young friend, the girl has a notion that she loves you. I am +aware of that--so are you, I happen to know. Through Doctor Franklin's +influence we have allowed her to receive your letters and to answer +them. I have no doubt of your sincerity, or hers, but I did not +foresee what has come to pass. She is our only child and you can +scarcely blame me if I balk at a marriage which promises to turn her +away from us and fill our family with dissension.' + +"'May we not respect each other and disagree in politics?' I asked. + +"'In politics, yes, but not in war. I begin to see danger of war and +that is full of the bitterness of death. If Doctor Franklin will do +what he can to reestablish loyalty and order in the colonies my fear +will he removed and I shall welcome you to my family.' + +"I began to show a glint of intelligence and said: 'If the ministers +will cooperate it will not be difficult.' + +"'The ministers will do anything it is in their power to do.' + +"Then the timely entrance of Margaret and her mother. + +"'I suppose that I shall shock my father but I can not help it,' said +the girl as she kissed me. + +"You may be sure that I had my part in that game. She stood beside me, +her arm around my waist and mine around her shoulders. + +"'Father, can you blame me for loving this big, splendid hero who saved +us from the Indians and the bandits? It is unlike you to be such a +hardened wretch. But for him you would have neither wife nor daughter.' + +"She put it on thick but I held my peace as I have done many a time in +the presence of a woman's cunning. Anyhow she is apt to believe +herself and in a matter of the heart can find her way through +difficulties which would appal a man. + +"'Keep yourself in bounds, my daughter,' her father answered. 'I know +his merits and should like to see you married and hope to, but I must +ask you to be patient until you can go to a loyal colony with your +husband.' + +"It was a pleasant dinner through which they kept me telling of my +adventures in the bush. Save the immediate family only Mrs. Biggars, a +sister of Lady Hare, and a young nephew of Sir Benjamin were at the +table." + +Jack has said in another of His letters that Mrs. Biggars was a sweet, +stout lady whose manner of address reminded him of an affectionate +house cat. "That means, as you will know, that I liked her," he added. + +"The ladies sat together at one end of the table. The baronet pumped +me for knowledge of the hunting and fishing in the northern part of +Tryon County where Solomon and I had spent a week, having left our boat +in Lake Champlain and journeyed off in the mountains. + +"'Champlain was a man of imagination,' said my host. 'He tells of +trying to land on a log lying against the lake shore and of +discovering, suddenly, that it was an immense fish.' + +"'Since I learned that I was to meet you I have been reading a book +entitled _The Animals of North America_,' said Mrs. Biggars. 'I have +learned that bears often climb after and above the hunter and double +themselves up and fall toward him, knocking him out of the tree. Have +you seen it done?' + +"'I think it was never done outside a book,' I answered. 'I never saw +a bear that was not running away from me. They hate the look of a man.' + +"Mrs. Biggars was filled with astonishment and went on: 'The author +tells of an animal on the borders of Canada that resembles a horse. It +has cloven hoofs, a shaggy mane, a horn right out of its forehead and a +tail like that of a pig. When hunted it spews hot water upon the dogs. +I wonder if you could have seen such an animal?' + +"'No, that's another nightmare,' I answered. 'People go hunting for +nightmares in America. They enjoy them and often think they have found +them when they have not. It all comes of trying to talk with Indians +and of guessing at the things they say.' + +"Sir Benjamin remarked that when a man wrote about nature he seemed to +regard himself as a first deputy of God. + +"'And undertakes to lend him a hand in the work of creation,' I +suggested. 'Even your great Doctor Johnson has stated that swallows +spend the winter at the bottom of the streams, forgetting that they +might find it a rather slippery place to hang on to and a winter a long +time to hold their breaths. Even Goldsmith has been divinely reckless +in his treatment of 'Animated Nature.' + +"'I am surprised, sir, at your familiarity with English authors,' he +declared. 'When we think of America we are apt to think of savages and +poverty and ignorance and log huts.' + +"'You forget, sir, that we have about all the best books and the +leisure to read them,' I answered. + +"'You undoubtedly have the best game,' said he. 'Tell us about the +shooting and fishing.' + +"I told of the deer, the moose and the caribou, all of which I had +killed, and of our fishing on the long river of the north with a lure +made of the feathers of a woodpecker, and of covering the bottom of our +canoe with beautiful speckled fish. All this warmed the heart of Sir +Benjamin who questioned me as to every detail in my experience on trail +and river. He was a born sportsman and my stories had put a smile on +his face so that I felt sure he had a better feeling for me when we +arose from the table. + +"Then I had an hour alone with Margaret in a corner of the great hall. +We reviewed the years that had passed since our adventure and there was +one detail in her history of which I must tell you. She had had many +suitors, and among them one Lionel Clarke--a son of the distinguished +General. Her father had urged her to accept the young man, but she had +stood firmly for me. + +"'You see, this heart of mine is a stubborn thing,' she said as she +looked into my eyes. + +"Then it was that we gave to each other the long pledge, often on the +lips of lovers since Eros strung his bow, but never more deeply felt. + +"'I am sure the sky will clear soon,' she said to me at last. + +"Indeed as I bade them good night, I saw encouraging signs of that. +Sir Benjamin had taken a liking to me. He pressed my hand as we drank +a glass of Madeira together and said: + +"'My boy, I drink to the happiness of England, the colonies and you.'" + +"'"Time and I" and the will of God,' I whispered, as I left their door." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE DAWN + +The young man was elated by the look and sentiments which had gone with +the parting cup at Sir Benjamin's. But Franklin, whom he saw the next +day, liked not the attitude of the Baronet. + +"He is one of the King's men on the Big chess board," said the old +philosopher. "All that he said to you has the sound of strategy. I +have reason to believe that they are trying to tow us into port and +Margaret is only one of many ropes. Hare's attitude is not that of an +honest man." + +"Is it not true that every one who touches the King gets some of that +tar on him?" Jack queried. + +"It would seem so and yet we must be fair to him. We are not to think +that the King is the only black pot on the fire. He is probably the +best of kings but I can not think of one king who would be respectable +in Boston or Philadelphia. Their expenses have been great, their taxes +robbery, so they have had to study the magic arts of seeming to be just +and righteous. They have been a lot of conjurers trained to create +illusions." + +"I suppose that Britain is no worse than other kingdoms," said the +young man. + +"On the whole she is the best of them. Under the surface here I find +the love of liberty and all good things. Chatham, Burke and Fox are +their voices. We are not to wonder that Lord North puts a price on +every man. His is the soul of a past in which most men have had their +price. It was the old way of removing difficulties in the management +of a state. It succeeded. A new day is at hand. Its forerunners are +here. He has not seen the signs in the sky or heard the cocks crowing. +He is still asleep. I know many men in England whom he could not buy." + +Only three days before the philosopher had had a talk with North at the +urgent request of Howe, who, to his credit, was eager for +reconciliation. The King's friend and minister was contemptuous. + +"I am quite indifferent to war," he had cynically declared at last. +"The confiscations it would produce will provide for many of our +friends." + +It was an astonishing bit of frankness. + +"I take this opportunity of assuring Your Lordship that for all the +property you seize or destroy in America, you will pay to the last +farthing," said Franklin. + +This treatment was like that he had received from other members of the +government since the unfortunate publication of the Hutchinson, Rogers +and Oliver letters. They seemed to entertain the notion that he had +forfeited the respect due a gentleman. + +A few days after Franklin had given air to his suspicion that the +government party would try to tow him into port three stout British +ships had broken their cables on him. An invitation not likely to be +received by one who had really forfeited the respect of gentlemen was +in his hands. The shrewd philosopher did not think twice about it. He +knew that here was the first step in a change of tactics. He could not +properly decline to accept it and so he went to dine and spend the +night with a most distinguished company at the country seat of Lord +Howe. + +On his return he told his young friend of the portal and lodge in a +great triumphal arch marking the entrance to the estate of His +Lordship; of the mile long road to the big house straight as a gun +barrel and smooth as a carpet; of the immense single oaks; of the +artificial stream circling the front of the house and the beautiful +bridge leading to its entrance; of the double flight of steps under the +grand portico; of the great hall with its ceiling forty feet high, +supported by fluted Corinthian columns of red-veined alabaster; of the +rare old tapestries on a golden background in the saloon; of the +immense corridors connecting the wings of the structure. The dinner +and its guests and its setting were calculated to impress the son of +the Boston soap boiler who represented the important colonies in +America. + +Some of the best people were there--Lord and Lady Cathcart, Lord and +Lady Hyde, Lord and Lady Dartmouth. Sir William Erskine, Sir Henry +Clinton, Sir James Baird, Sir Benjamin Hare and their ladies were also +present. Doctor Franklin said that the punch was calculated to promote +cheerfulness and high sentiment. As was the custom at like functions, +the ladies sat together at one end of the table. Franklin being seated +at the right of Lady Howe, who was most gracious and entertaining. The +first toast was to the venerable philosopher. + +"My Ladies, Lords and gentlemen," said the host, "we must look to our +conduct in the presence of one who talked with Sir William Wyndham and +was a visitor in the house of Sir Hans Sloane before we were born; +whose tireless intellect has been a confidant of Nature, a playmate of +the Lightning and an inventor of ingenious and useful things; whose +wisdom has given to Philadelphia a public library, a work house, good +paving, excellent schools, a protection against fire as efficient as +any in the world and the best newspaper in the colonies. Good health +and long life to him and may his love of the old sod increase with his +years." + +The toast was drunk with expressions of approval, and Franklin only +arose and bowed and briefly spoke his acknowledgments in a single +sentence, and then added: + +"Lord Howe can assure you that public men receive more praise and more +blame than they really merit. I have heard much said for and against +Benjamin Franklin, but there could be no better testimony in his favor +than the good opinion of Lord Howe, for which I can never cease to be +grateful. For years I have been weighing the evidence, and my verdict +is that Franklin has meant well." + +He said to Jack that he felt the need of being "as discreet as a +tombstone." + +A member of that party has told in his memoirs how he kept the ladies +laughing with his merry jests. + +"I see by _The Observer_ they are going to open cod and whale fisheries +in the great lakes of the Northwest," Lady Howe said to him. + +He answered very gently: "Your Ladyship, has it never occurred to you +that it would be a sublime spectacle to stand at the foot of the great +falls of Niagara and see the whales leaping over them?" + +"What do you regard as your most important discovery?" one of the +ladies inquired. + +"Well, first, I naturally think of the hospitality of this house and +the beauty and charm of the Lady Howe and her friends," Franklin +answered with characteristic diplomacy. "Then there is this wine," he +added, lifting his glass. "Its importance is as great as its age and +this is old enough to command even my veneration. It reminds me of +another discovery of mine: the value of the human elbow. I was telling +the King's physician of that this morning and it seemed to amuse him. +But for the human elbow every person would need a neck longer than that +of a goose to do his eating and drinking." + +"I had never thought of that," Lady Howe laughingly answered. "It +surely does have some effect on one's manners." + +"And his personal appearance and the cost of his neckwear," said +Franklin. "Here is another discovery." + +He took a leathern case from his pocket and removed from it a sealed +glass tube half full of a colorless liquid. + +"Kindly hold that in your hand and see what happens," he said to Lady +Howe. "It contains plain water." + +In half a moment the water began to boil. + +"It shows how easily water boils in a vacuum," said Franklin as the +ladies were amusing themselves with this odd toy. "It enables us to +understand why a little heat produces great agitation in certain +intellects," he added. + +"Doctor, we are neglecting politics," said Lord Hyde. "You lay much +stress upon thrift. Do you not agree with me that a man who has not +the judgment to practise thrift and acquire property has not the +judgment to vote?" + +"Property is all right, but let's make it stay in its own stall," said +Franklin. "It should never be a qualification of the voter, because it +would lead us up to this dilemma: if I have a jackass I can vote. If +the jackass dies I can not vote. Therefore, my vote would represent +the jackass and not me." + +The dinner over, Lady Howe conducted Doctor Franklin to the library, +where she asked him to sit down. There were no other persons in the +room. She sat near him and began to speak of the misfortunes of the +colony of Massachusetts Bay. + +"Your Ladyship, we are all alike," he answered. "I have never seen a +man who could not bear the misfortunes of another like a Christian. +The trouble is our ministers find it too easy to bear them." + +"I wish you would speak with Lord Howe frankly of these troubles. He +is just by. Will you give me leave to send for him?" + +"By all means, madame, if you think best." Lord Howe joined them in a +moment. He was most polite. + +"I am sensible of the fact that you have been mistreated by the +ministry," he said. "I have not approved of their conduct. I am +unconnected with those men save through personal friendships. My zeal +for the public welfare is my only excuse for asking you to open your +mind." + +Lady Howe arose and offered to withdraw. + +"Your Ladyship, why not honor us with your presence?" Franklin asked. +"For my part I can see no reason for making a secret of a business of +this nature. As to His Lordship's mention of my mistreatment, that +done my country is so much greater I dismiss all thought of the other. +From the King's speech I judge that no accommodation can be expected." + +"The plan is now to send a commission to the colonies, as you have +urged," said His Lordship. + +Then said Lady Howe: "I wish, my brother Franklin, that you were to be +sent thither. I should like that much better than General Howe's going +to command the army there." + +A rather tense moment followed. Franklin broke its silence by saying +in a gentle tone: + +"I think, madame, they should provide the General with more honorable +employment. I beg that your Ladyship will not misjudge me. I am not +capable of taking an office from this government while it is acting +with so much hostility toward my country." + +"The ministers have the opinion that you can compose the situation if +you will," Lord Howe declared. "Many of us have unbounded faith in +your ability. I would not think of trying to influence your judgment +by a selfish motive, but certainly you may, with reason, expect any +reward which it is in the power of the government to bestow." + +Then came an answer which should live in history, as one of the great +credits of human nature, and all men, especially those of English +blood, should feel a certain pride in it. The answer was: + +"Your Lordship, I am not looking for rewards, but only for justice." + +"Let us try to agree as to what is the justice of the matter," Howe +answered. "Will you not draft a plan on which you would be willing to +cooperate?" + +"That I will be glad to do." + +Persisting in his misjudgment, Howe suggested: + +"As you have friends here and constituents in America to keep well +with, perhaps it would better not be in your handwriting. Send it to +Lady Howe and she will copy it and return the original." + +Then said the sturdy old Yankee: "I desire, my friends, that there +shall be no secrecy about it." + +Lord and Lady Howe showed signs of great disappointment as he bade them +good night and begged to be sent to his room. + +"I am growing old, and have to ask for like indulgence from every +hostess," he pleaded. + +Howe was not willing to leave a stone unturned. He could not dismiss +the notion from his mind that the purchase could be effected if the bid +were raised. He drew the Doctor aside and said: + +"We do not expect your assistance without proper consideration. I +shall insist upon generous and ample appointments for the men you take +with you and especially for you as well as a firm promise of +_subsequent rewards_." + +What crown had he in mind for the white and venerable brow of the man +who stood before him? Beneath that brow was a new type of statesman, +born of the hardships and perils and high faith of a new world, and +then and there as these two faced each other--the soul of the past and +the soul of the future--a moment was come than which there had been no +greater in human history. In America, France and England the cocks had +been crowing and now the first light of the dawn of a new day fell upon +the figure of the man who in honor and understanding towered above his +fellows. Now, for a moment, on the character of this man the +unfathomable plan of God for future ages would seem to have been +resting. + +In his sixty-eight years he had discovered, among other things, the +vanity of wealth and splendor. It was no more to him than the idle +wind. These are his exact words as he stood with a gentle smile on his +face: "If you wish to use me, give me the propositions and dismiss all +thought of rewards from your mind. They would destroy the influence +you propose to use." + +Howe, a good man as men went those days, had got beyond his depth. His +philosophy comprehended no such mystery. What manner of man was this +son of a soap boiler who had smiled and shaken his white head and +spoken like a kindly father to the folly of a child when these offers +of wealth and honor and power had been made to him? Did he not +understand that it was really the King who had spoken? + +The old gentleman climbed the great staircase and went to his chamber, +while Lord Howe was, no doubt, communicating the result of his +interview to his other guests. There were those among them who freely +predicted that war was inevitable. + +In the morning at eight o'clock Franklin rode into town with Lord Howe. +They discussed the motion of the Prime Minister under the terms of +which the colonies were to pay money into the British Treasury until +parliament should decide they had paid enough. + +"It is impossible," said Franklin. "No chance is offered us to judge +the propriety of the measure or our ability to pay. These grants are +demanded under a claimed right to tax us at pleasure and compel +payments by armed force. Your Lordship, it is like the proposition of +a highwayman who presents a pistol at the window of your coach and +demands enough to satisfy his greed--no specific sum being named--or +there is the pistol." + +"You are a most remarkable man, but you do not understand the +government," said His Lordship. "You will not let yourself see the +other side of the proposition. You are highly esteemed in America and +if you could but see the justice of our claim you would be as highly +esteemed here and honored and rewarded far beyond any expectation you +are likely to have." + +"If any one supposes that I could prevail upon my countrymen to take +black for white or wrong for right, he does not know them or me," said +Franklin. "My people are incapable of being so imposed upon and I am +incapable of attempting it." + +Next evening came the good Doctor Barclay, a friend of Franklin, and a +noted philanthropist. They played chess together, and after the game, +while they were draining glasses of Madeira, the philanthropist said: + +"Here's to peace and good will between England and her colonies. The +prosperity of both depends upon it." + +They drank the toast and then Barclay proposed: + +"Let us use our efforts to that end. Power is a great thing to have +and the noblest gift a government can bestow is within your reach." + +"Barclay, this is what I would call spitting in the soup," said +Franklin. "It's excellent soup, too. I am sure the ministry would +rather give me a seat in a cart to Tyburn than any other place +whatever. I would despise myself if I needed an inducement to serve a +great cause." + +The philanthropist entered upon a wearisome argument, which lasted for +nearly an hour. + +"Barclay, your opinions on this problem remind me of the iron money of +Lycurgus," observed Franklin. + +The philanthropist desired to know why. + +"Because of their bulk. A cart load of them is not worth a shilling." + +In all parts of Britain those days one heard much ridicule of the New +England home and conscience. Now the ministry and its friends had +begun to butt their heads against the immovable wall of character which +had grown out of them and of which Lord Chatham had said: + +"It has made certain of our able men look like school boys." + + + +2 + +There was at that time a man of great power whose voice spoke for the +soul of England. He had studied the spirit of the New World and probed +to its foundations. He will help us to understand the new diplomacy +which had filled the ministers with astonishment. + +The same week Jack was invited to breakfast with Mr. Edmund Burke and +Doctor Franklin. He was awed by the brilliancy of the massive, +trumpet-tongued orator and statesman. + +He writes: "Burke has a most ungainly figure. His gait is awkward, his +gestures clumsy, his eyes are covered with large spectacles. He is +careless of his dress. His pockets bulged with papers. He spoke +rapidly and with a strong Irish brogue. Power is the thing his face +and form express. His knowledge is astounding. It is easy to talk +with Franklin, but _I_ could not talk with him. He humbled and +embarrassed me. His words shone as they fell from his lips. I can +give you but a feeble notion of them. This was his idea, but I +remember only a few of his glowing words: + +"'I fancy that man, like most other inventions, was, at first, a +disappointment. There seems to have been some doubt, for a time, as to +whether the contrivance could be made to work. In fact, there is good +ground for believing that it wouldn't work. + +"'It was a failure. The tendency to indolence and folly had to be +overcome. Sundry improvements were necessary. An imagination and the +love of adventure were added to the great machine. They were the +things needed. Not all the friction of hardship and peril could stop +it then. From that time, as they say in business, man was a paying +institution. + +"'The lure of adventure led to the discovery of law and truth. The +best child of adventure is revelation. Man is so fashioned that if he +can see a glimmer of the truth he seeks, he will make for it no matter +what may be in his way. The promise of an exciting time solves the +problem of help. America was born of sublime faith and a great +adventure--the greatest in history--that of the three caravels. High +faith is the great need of the world. Columbus had it, and I think, +sir, that the Pilgrims had it and that the same quality of faith is in +you. In these dark years you are like the lanterns of Pharus to your +people. + +"'When prodigious things are to be done, how carefully men are prepared +and chosen for their doing!' + +"He said many things, but these words addressed to my venerable friend +impressed me deeply. It occurs to me that Burke has been chosen to +speak for the soul of Britain. + +"When we think of the choosing of God, who but the sturdy yeomen of our +mother land could have withstood the inhospitalities of the New World +and established its spirit! + +"Now their Son, Benjamin Franklin, full grown in the new school of +liberty, has been chosen of God to define the inalienable rights of +freemen. I think the stage is being set for the second great adventure +in our history. Let us have no fear of it. Our land is sown with the +new faith. It can not fail." + +This conviction was the result of some rather full days in the British +capital. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +AN APPOINTMENT AND A CHALLENGE + +Solomon Binkus had left the city with Preston to visit Sir Jeffrey +Amherst in his country seat, near London. Sir Benjamin had taken Jack +to dine with him at two of his clubs and after dining they had gone to +see the great actor Robert Bensley as Malvolio and the Comedian Dodd as +Sir Andrew Aguecheek. The Britisher had been most polite, but had +seemed studiously to avoid mention of the subject nearest the heart of +the young man. After that the latter was invited to a revel and a cock +fight, but declined the honor and went to spend an evening with his +friend, the philosopher. For days Franklin had been shut in with gout. +Jack had found him in his room with one of his feet wrapped in bandages +and resting on a chair. + +"I am glad you came, my son," said the good Doctor. "I am in need of +better company than this foot. Solitude is like water--good for a dip, +but you can not live in it. Margaret has been here trying to give me +comfort, although she needs it more for herself." + +"Margaret!" the boy exclaimed. "Why does she need comfort?" + +"Oh, largely on your account, my son! Her father is obdurate and the +cause is dear to me. This courtship of yours is taking an +international aspect." + +He gave his young friend a full account of the night at Lord Howe's and +the interviews which had followed it. + +"All London knows how I stand now. They will not try again to bribe +me. The displeasure of Sir Benjamin will react upon you." + +"What shall I do if he continues to be obdurate?" + +"Shove my table this way and I'll show you a problem in prudential +algebra," said the philosopher. "It's a way I have of setting down all +the factors and striking out those that are equal and arriving at the +visible result." + +With his pen and a sheet of paper he set down the factors in the +problem and his estimate of their relative value as follows: + + + The Problem. + + A father=1 Margaret, her mother and Jack= 3+ 1 + A patrimony=10 Happiness for Jack and Margaret= 100+ 90 + Margaret's old friends=1 Margaret's new friends= 1 + A father's love=1 A husband's love= 10+ 9 + A father's tyranny=-1 Your respect for human rights= 5+ 6 + ------- + 106 + + [Transcriber's note: In the original printed book, some of the words + in this table have slashes (strike-outs) through them, and are not + renderable in text format. At the end of the HTML version of this + book is an image of the table, showing these strike-outs.] + + +"Now there is the problem, and while we may differ on the estimates, I +think that most sane Americans would agree that the balance is +overwhelmingly in favor of throwing off the yoke of tyranny, and +asserting your rights, established by agreement as well as by nature. +In a like manner I work out all my important problems, so that every +factor is visible and subject to change. + +"I only fear that I may not be able to provide for her in a suitable +manner," said Jack. + +"Oh, you are well off," said the philosopher. "You have some capital +and recognized talent and occupation for it. When I reached +Philadelphia I had an empty stomach and also a Dutch dollar, a few +pennies, two soiled shirts and a pair of dirty stockings in my pockets. +Many years passed and I had a family before I was as well off as you +are." + +Dinner was brought in and Jack ate with the Doctor and when the table +was cleared they played with magic squares--an invention of the +philosopher with which he was wont to divert himself and friends of an +evening. When Jack was about to go, the Doctor asked: + +"Will you hand me that little red book? I wish to put down a credit +mark for my conscience. This old foot of mine has been rather impudent +to-day. There have been moments when I could have expressed my opinion +of it with joyous violence. But I did not. I let it carry on like a +tinker in a public house, and never said a word." + +He showed the boy an interesting table containing the days of the week, +at the head of seven columns, and opposite cross-columns below were the +virtues he aimed to acquire--patience, temperance, frugality and the +like. The book contained a table for every week in the year. It had +been his practise, at the end of each day, to enter a black mark +opposite the virtues in which he had failed. + +It was a curious and impressive document--a frank, candid record in +black and white of the history of a human soul. To Jack it had a +sacred aspect like the story of the trials of Job. + +"I begin to understand how you have built up this wonderful structure +we call Franklin," he said. + +"Oh, it is but a poor and shaky thing at best, likely to tumble in a +high wind--but some work has gone into it," said the old gentleman. +"You see these white pages are rather spotted, but when I look over the +history of my spirit, as I do now and then, I observe that the pages +are slowly getting cleaner. There is not so much ink on them as there +used to be. You see I was once a free thinker. I had no gods to +bother me, and my friends were of the same stripe. In time I +discovered that they were a lot of scamps and that I was little better. +I found myself in the wrong road and immediately faced about. Then I +began keeping these tables. They have been a help to me." + +This reminded Jack of the evil words of the melancholy Mr. Pinhorn +which had been so promptly rebuked by his friend John Adams on the ride +to Philadelphia. The young man made a copy of one of the tables and +was saying good night to his venerable friend when the latter remarked: + +"I shall go to Sir John Pringle's in the morning for advice. He is a +noted physician. My man will be having a day off. Could you go with +me at ten?" + +"Gladly," said Jack. + +"Then I shall pick you up at your lodgings. You will see your rival at +Pringle's. He is at home on leave and has been going to Sir John's +office every Tuesday morning at ten-thirty with his father. General +Clarke, a gruff, gouty old hero of the French and Indian wars and an +aggressive Tory. He is forever tossing and goring the Whigs. It may +be the only chance you will have to see that rival of yours. He is a +handsome lad." + +Doctor Franklin, with his crutch beside him in the cab, called for his +young friend at the hour appointed. + +"I go to his office when I have need of his advice," said the Doctor. +"If ever he came to me, the wretch would charge me two guineas. We +have much argument over the processes of life in the human body, of +which I have gained some little knowledge. Often he flatters me by +seeking my counsel in difficult cases." + +The office of the Doctor Baronet was on the first floor of a large +building in Gough Square, Fleet Street. A number of gentlemen sat in +comfortable chairs in a large waiting room. + +"Sir John will see you in a moment, sir," an attendant said to Doctor +Franklin as they entered. The moment was a very long one. + +"In London there are many people who disagree with the clock," Franklin +laughed. "In this office, even the moments have the gout. They limp +along with slow feet." + +It was a gloomy room. The chairs, lounges and tables had a venerable +look like that of the men who came there with warped legs and old +mahogany faces. The red rugs and hangings suggested "the effect of old +port on the human countenance, being of a hue like unto that of many +cheeks and noses in the waiting company," as the young man wrote. The +door to the private room of the great physician creaked on its hinges +with a kind of groan when he came out accompanied by a limping patient. + +"Wait here for a minute--a gout minute," said Franklin to his young +friend. "When Pringle dismisses me, I will present you." + +Jack sat and waited while the room filled with ruddy, crotchety +gentlemen supported by canes or crutches--elderly, old and of middle +age. Among those of the latter class was a giant of a man, erect and +dignified, accompanied by a big blond youngster in a lieutenant's +uniform. He sat down and began to talk with another patient of the +troubles in America. + +"I see the damned Yankees have thrown another cargo of tea overboard," +said he in a tone of anger. + +"This time it was in Cape Cod. We must give those Yahoos a lesson." + +Jack surmised now that here was the aggressive Tory General of whom the +Doctor had spoken and that the young man was his son. + +"I fear that it would be a costly business sending men to fight across +three thousand miles of sea," said the other. + +"Bosh! There is not one Yankee in a hundred that has the courage of a +rabbit. With a thousand British grenadiers, I would undertake to go +from one end of America to another and amputate the heads of the males, +partly by force and partly by coaxing." + +A laugh followed these insulting words. Jack Irons rose quickly and +approached the man who had uttered them. The young American was angry, +but he managed to say with good composure: + +"I am an American, sir, and I demand a retraction of those words or a +chance to match my courage against yours." + +A murmur of surprise greeted his challenge. + +The Britisher turned quickly with color mounting to his brow and +surveyed the sturdy form of the young man. + +"I take back nothing that I say," he declared. + +"Then, in behalf of my slandered countrymen, I demand the right to +fight you or any Britisher who has the courage to take up your quarrel." + +Jack Irons had spoken calmly like one who had weighed his words. + +The young Lieutenant who had entered the room with the fiery, +middle-aged Britisher, rose and faced the American and said: + +"I will take up his quarrel, sir. Here is my card." + +"And here is mine," said Jack. "When will you be at home?" + +"At noon to-morrow." + +"Some friend of mine will call upon you," Jack assured the other. + +A look of surprise came to the face of the Lieutenant as he surveyed +the card in his hand. Jack was prepared for the name he read which was +that of Lionel Clarke. + +Franklin wrote some weeks later in a letter to John Irons of Albany: +"When I came out of the physician's office I saw nothing in Jack's face +and manner to suggest the serious proceeding he had entered upon. If I +had, or if some one had dropped a hint to me, I should have done what I +could to prevent this unfortunate affair. He chatted with Sir John a +moment and we went out as if nothing unusual had happened. On the way +to my house we talked of the good weather we were having, of the late +news from America and of my summons to appear before the Privy Council. +He betrayed no sign of the folly which was on foot. I saw him only +once after he helped me into the house and left me to go to his +lodgings. But often I find myself thinking of his handsome face and +heroic figure and gentle voice and hand. He was like a loving son to +me." + + + +2 + +That evening Solomon arrived with Preston. Solomon gave a whistle of +relief as he entered their lodgings on Bloomsbury Square and dropped +into a chair. + +"Wal, sir! We been flyin' eround as brisk as a bee," he remarked. "I +feel as if I had spraint one leg and spavined t'other. The sun was +over the fore yard when we got back, and since then, we went to see the +wild animals, a hip'pottermas, an' lions, an' tigers, an' snakes, an' a +bird with a neck as long as a hoe handle, an' a head like a tommyhawk. +I wouldn't wonder if he could peck some, an' they say he can fetch a +kick that would knock a hoss down. Gosh! I kind o' felt fer my gun! +Gol darn his pictur'! Think o' bein' kicked by a bird an' havin' to be +picked up an' carried off to be mended. We took a long, crooked trail +hum an' walked all the way. It's kind o' hard footin'." + +Solomon spoke with the animation of a boy. At last he had found +something in London which had pleased and excited him. + +"Did you have a good time at Sir Jeffrey's?" the young man asked. + +"Better'n a barn raisin'! Say, hones', I never seen nothin' like +it--'twere so blandiferous! At fust I were a leetle bit like a man +tied to a tree--felt so helpless an' unsart'in. Didn't know what were +goin' to happen. Then ol' Jeff come an' ontied me, as ye might say, +an' I 'gun to feel right. 'Course Preston tol' me not to be +skeered--that the doin's would be friendly, an' they was. Gol darn my +pictur'! I'll bet a pint o' powder an' a fish hook thar ain't no nicer +womern in this world than ol' Jeff's wife--not one. I give her my +jack-knife. She ast me fer it. 'Twere a good knife, but I were glad +to give it to her. Gosh! I dunno what she wants to do with it. Mebbe +she likes to whittle. They's some does. I kind o' like it myself. I +warned her to be keerful not to cut herself 'cause 'twere sharper'n the +tooth o' a weasel. The vittles was tasty--no common ven'son er moose +meat, but the best roast beef, an' mutton, an' ham an' jest 'nough +Santa Cruz rum to keep the timber floatin'! They snickered when I tol' +'em I'd take my tea bar' foot. I set 'mongst a lot o' young folks, +mostly gals, full o' laugh an' ginger, an' as purty to look at as a +flock o' red birds, an' I sot thar tellin' stories 'bout the Injun +wars, an' bear, an' moose, an' painters till the moon were down an' a +clock hollered one. Then I let each o' them gals snip off a grab o' my +hair. I dunno what they wanted to do with it, but they 'pear to be as +fond o' takin' hair as Injuns. Mebbe 'twas fer good luck. I wouldn't +wonder if my head looks like it was shingled. Ayes! I had an almighty +good time. + +"These 'ere British is good folks as fur as I've been able to look 'em +over. It's the gov'ment that's down on us an' the gov'ment ain't the +people--you hear to me. They's lots o' good, friendly folks here, but +I'm ready to go hum. They's a ship leaves Dover Thursday 'fore sunrise +an' my name is put down." + +Jack told them in detail of the unfortunate event of the morning. + +Solomon whistled while his face began to get ready for a shot. + +"Neevarious!" he exclaimed. "Here's suthin' that'll have to be 'tended +to 'fore I take the water." + +"Clarke is full of hartshorn and vinegar," said Preston. "He was like +that in America. He could make more trouble in ten minutes than a +regiment could mend in a year. He is what you would call 'a mean +cuss.' But for him and Lord Cornwallis, I should be back in the +service. They blame me for the present posture of affairs in America." + +"Jack, I'm glad that young pup ain't me," said Solomon. "Thar never +was a man better cocalated to please a friend er hurt an enemy. If he +was to say pistols I guess that ol' sling o' yours would bu'st out +laughin' an' I ain't no idee he could stan' a minnit in front o' your +hanger." + +"It's bad business, and especially for you," said Preston. "Dueling is +not so much in favor here as in France. Of course there are duels, but +the best people in England are set against the practise. You would be +sure to get the worst of it. The old General is a favorite of the +King. He is booked for knighthood. If you were to kill his son in the +present state of feeling here, your neck would be in danger. If you +were to injure him you would have to make a lucky escape, or go to +prison. It is not a pleasant outlook for one who is engaged to an +English girl. He has a great advantage over you." + +"True, but it gives me a better chance to vindicate the courage of an +American. I shall fight. I would rather die than lie down to such an +insult. There has been too much of that kind of talk here. It can not +go on in my hearing without being trumped. If I were capable of taking +such an insult, I could never again face the girl I love. There must +be an apology as public as the insult or a fight. I don't want to kill +any man, but I must show them that their cap doesn't fit me." + +Jack and Solomon sat up late. The young man had tried to see Margaret +that evening, but the door boy at Sir Benjamin's had informed him that +the family was not at home. He rightly suspected that the boy had done +this under orders from the Baronet. He wrote a long letter to the girl +apprising her of late developments in the relations of the ministry and +Doctor Franklin, regarding which the latter desired no secrecy, and of +his own unhappy situation. + +"If I could bear such an insult in silence," he added, "I should be +unworthy of the fairest and dearest girl on earth. With such an +estimate of you, I must keep myself in good countenance. Whatever +happens, be sure that I am loving you with all my heart, and longing +for the time when I can make you my wife." + +This letter he put into his pocket with the purpose of asking Preston +to deliver it if circumstances should drive him out of England or into +prison. + +Captain Preston went with Solomon Binkus next day to the address on the +card of Lieutenant Clarke. It was the house of the General, who was +waiting with his son in the reception room. They walked together to +the Almack Club. The General was self-contained. It would seem that +his bad opinion of Yankees was not quite so comprehensive as it had +been. The whole proceeding went forward with the utmost politeness. + +"General, Mr. Binkus and John Irons, Jr., are my friends," said Captain +Preston. + +"Indeed!" the General answered. + +"Yes, and they are friends of England. They saved my neck in America. +I have assured young Irons that your words, if they were correctly +reported to me, were spoken in haste, and that they do not express your +real opinion." + +"And what, sir, were the words reported to you?" the General asked. + +Preston repeated them. + +"That is my opinion." + +"It is mine also," young Clarke declared. + +Solomon's face changed quickly. He took deliberate aim at the enemy +and drawled: + +"Can't be yer opinion is wuth more than the lives o' these young +fellers that's goin' to fight." + +"Gentlemen, you will save time by dropping all thought of apologies," +said the General. + +"Then it only remains for you to choose your weapons and agree with us +as to time and place," said Preston. + +"I choose pistols," said the young Britisher. "The time and place may +suit your convenience, so it be soon and not too far away," + +"Let us say the cow wallow on Shooter's Hill, near the oaks, at sunrise +to-morrow," Preston proposed. + +"I agree," the Lieutenant answered. + +"Whatever comes of it, let us have secrecy and all possible protection +from each side to the other when the affair is ended," said Preston. + +"I agree to that also," was the answer of young Clarke. + +When they were leaving, Solomon said to Preston: + +"That 'ere Gin'ral is as big as Goliar." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE ENCOUNTER + +Solomon, Jack and their friend left London that afternoon in the saddle +and took lodgings at The Rose and Garter, less than a mile from the +scene appointed for the encounter. That morning the Americans had sent +a friend of Preston by post chaise to Deal, with Solomon's luggage. +Preston had also engaged the celebrated surgeon, Doctor Brooks, to +spend the night with them so that he would be sure to be on hand in the +morning. The doctor had officiated at no less than a dozen duels and +enjoyed these affairs so keenly that he was glad to give his help +without a fee. The party had gone out in the saddle because Preston +had said that the horses might be useful. + +So, having discussed the perils of the immediate future, they had done +all it was in their power to do to prepare for them. Late that evening +the General and his son and four other gentlemen arrived at The Rose +and Garter. Certain of them had spent the afternoon in the +neighborhood shooting birds and rabbits. + +Solomon got Jack to bed early and sat for a time in their room +tinkering with the pistols. When the locks were working "right," as he +put it, he polished their grips and barrels. + +"Now I reckon they'll speak out when ye pull the trigger," he said to +Jack. "An' yer eyesight 'll skate erlong easy on the top o' them +bar'ls." + +"It's a miserable kind of business," said the young man, who was lying +in bed and looking at his friend. "We Americans have a rather hard +time of it, I say. Life is a fight from beginning to end. We have had +to fight with the wilderness for our land and with the Indians and the +French for our lives, and now the British come along and tell us what +we must and mustn't do and burn up our houses." + +"An' spit on us an' talk as if we was a lot o' boar pigs," said +Solomon. "But ol' Jeff tol' me 'twere the King an' his crowd that was +makin' all the trouble." + +"Well, the King and his army can make us trouble enough," Jack +answered. "It's as necessary for an American to know how to fight as +to know how to walk." + +"Now ye stop worryin' an' go to sleep 'er I'll take ye crost my knee," +said Solomon. "They ain't goin' to be no great damage done, not if ye +do as I tell ye. I've been an' looked the ground over an' if we have +to leg it, I know which way to go." + +Solomon had heard from Preston that evening that the Lieutenant was the +best pistol shot in his regiment, but he kept the gossip to himself, +knowing it would not improve the aim of his young friend. But Solomon +was made uneasy by this report. + +"My boy kin throw a bullet straight as a plumb line an' quick as +lightnin'," he had said to Preston. "It's as nat'ral fer him as +drawin' his breath. That ere chap may git bored 'fore he has time to +pull. I ain't much skeered." + +Jack was nervous, although not from fear. His estimate of the value of +human life had been increased by his affection for Margaret. When +Solomon had gone to bed and the lights were blown, the young man felt +every side of his predicament to see if there were any peaceable way +out of it. For hours he labored with this hopeless task, until he fell +into a troubled sleep, in which he saw great battalions marching toward +each other. On one side, the figures of himself and Solomon were +repeated thousands of times, and on the other was a host of Lionel +Clarkes. + +The words came to his ear: "My son, we're goin' to fight the first +battle o' the war." + +Jack awoke suddenly and opened his eyes. The candle was lighted. +Solomon was leaning over him. He was drawing on his trousers. + +"Come, my son," said the scout in a gentle voice. "They ain't a cloud +an' the moon has got a smile on her face. Come, my young David. +Here's the breeches an' the purty stockin's an' shoes, an' the lily +white shirt. Slip 'em on an' we'll kneel down an' have a word o' +prayer. This 'ere ain't no common fight. It's a battle with tyranny. +It's like the fight o' David an' Goliar. Here's yer ol' sling waitin' +fer ye!" + +Solomon felt the pistols and stroked their grips with a loving hand. + +Side by side they knelt by the bed together for a moment of silent +prayer. + +Others were stirring in the inn. They could hear footsteps and low +voices in a room near them. Jack put on his suit of brown velvet and +his white silk stockings and best linen, which he had brought in a +small bag. Jack was looking at the pistols, when there came a rap at +the door. Preston entered with Doctor Brooks. + +"We are to go out quietly ahead of the others," said the Captain. +"They will follow in five minutes." + +Solomon had put on the old hanger which had come to England with him in +his box. He put the pistols in his pocket and they left the inn by a +rear door. A groom was waiting there with the horses saddled and +bridled. They mounted them and rode to the field of honor. When they +dismounted on the ground chosen, the day was dawning, but the great +oaks were still waist deep in gloom. It was cold. + +Preston called his friends to his side and said: + +"You will fight at twenty paces. I shall count three and when I drop +my handkerchief you are both to fire." + +Solomon turned to Jack and said: + +"If ye fire quick mebbe ye'll take the crook out o' his finger 'fore it +has time to pull." + +The other party was coming. There were six men in it. The General and +his son and one other were in military dress. The General was chatting +with a friend. The pistols were loaded by Solomon and General Clarke, +while each watched the other. The Lieutenant's friends and seconds +stood close together laughing at some jest. + +"That's funny, I'll say, what--what!" said one of the gentlemen. + +Jack turned to look at him, for there had been a curious inflection in +his "what, what!" He was a stout, highly colored man with large, +staring gray eyes. The young American wondered where he had seen him +before. + +Preston paced the ground and laid down strips of white ribband marking +the distance which was to separate the principals. He summoned the +young men and said: "Gentlemen, is there no way in which your honor can +be satisfied without fighting?" + +They shook their heads. + +"Your stations have been chosen by lot. Irons, yours is there. Take +your ground, gentlemen." + +The young men walked to their places and at this point the graphic +Major Solomon Binkus, whose keen eyes observed every detail of the +scene, is able to assume the position of narrator, the words which +follow being from a letter he wrote to John Irons of Albany. + +"Our young David stood up thar as straight an' han'some as a young +spruce on a still day--not a quiver in ary twig. The Clarke boy was a +leetle pale an' when he raised his pistol I could see a twitch in his +lips. He looked kind o' stiff. I see they was one thing' 'bout +shootin' he hadn't learnt. It don't do to tighten up. I were +skeered--I don't deny it--'cause a gun don't allus have to be p'inted +careful to kill a man. + +"We all stood watchin' every move. I could hear a bird singin' twenty +rod,--'twere that still. Preston stood a leetle out o' line 'bout +half-way betwixt 'em. Up come his hand with the han'kerchief in it. +Then Jack raised his pistol and took a peek down the line he wanted. +The han'kerchief was in the air. Don't seem so it had fell an inch +when the pistols went pop! pop! Jack's hollered fust. Clarke's pistol +fell. His arm dropped an' swung limp as a rope's end. His hand turned +red an' blood began to spurt above it. I see Jack's bullet had jumped +into his right wrist an' tore it wide open. The Lieutenant staggered, +bleedin' like a stuck whale. He'd 'a' gone to the ground but his +friends grabbed him. I run to Jack. + +"'Be ye hit?' I says. + +"'I think his bullet teched me a little on the top o' the left +shoulder,' says he. + +"I see his coat were tore an' we took it off an' the jacket, an' I +ripped the shirt some an' see that the bullet had kind o' scuffed its +foot on him goin' by, an' left a track in the skin. It didn't mount to +nothin'. The Doctor washed it off an' put a plaster on. + +"'Looks as if he'd drawed a line on yer heart an' yer bullet had lifted +his aim,' I says. 'Ye shoot quick, Jack, an' mebbe that's what saved +ye.' + +"It looked kind o' neevarious like that 'ere Englishman had intended +they was goin' to be one Yankee less. Jack put on his jacket an' his +coat an' we stepped over to see how they was gettin' erlong with the +other feller. The two doctors was tryin' fer to fix his arm and he +were groanin' severe. Jack leaned over and looked down at him. + +"'I'm sorry,' he says. 'Is there anything I can do?' + +"'No, sir. You've done enuff,' growled the old General. + +"One o' his party stepped up to Jack. He were dressed like a high-up +officer in the army. They was a cur'ous look in his eyes--kind o' +skeered like. Seemed so I'd seen him afore somewheres. + +"'I fancy ye're a good shot, sir--a good shot, sir--what--what?' he +says to Jack, an' the words come as fast as a bird's twitter. + +"I've had a lot o' practise,' says our boy. + +"'Kin ye kill that bird--what--what?" says he, p'intin' at a hawk that +were a-cuttin' circles in the air. + +"'If he comes clus' 'nough,' says Jack. + +"I passed him the loaded pistol. In 'bout two seconds he lifted it and +bang she went, an' down come the hawk. + +"Them fellers all looked at one 'nother. + +"'Gin'ral, shake hands with this 'ere boy,' says the man with the +skeered eyes. 'If he is a Yankey he's a decent lad--what--what?' + +"The Gin'ral shook hands with Jack an', says he: 'Young man, I have no +doubt o' 'yer curidge or yer decency.' + +"A grand pair o' hosses an' a closed coach druv up an' the ol' +what-whatter an' two other men got into it an' hustled off 'cross the +field towards the pike which it looked as if they was in a hurry. +'Fore he were out o' sight a military amb'lance druv up. Preston come +over to us an' says he: + +"'We better be goin'.' + +"'Do ye know who he were?' asks Jack. + +"'If ye know ye better fergit it,' says Preston. + +"'How could I? He were the King o' England,' says Jack. 'I knowed him +by the look o' his eyes.' + +"'Sart'in sure,' says I. 'He's the man that wus bein' toted in a +chair.' + +"'Hush! I tell ye to fergit it,' says Preston. + +"'I can fergit all but the fact that he behaved like a gentleman,' says +Jack. + +"'I 'spose he were usin' his private brain,' says I." + +This, with some slight changes in spelling, paragraphing and +punctuation, is the account which Solomon Binkus gave of the most +exciting adventure these two friends had met with. + +Preston came to Jack and whispered: "The outcome is a great surprise to +the other side. Young Clarke is a dead shot. An injured officer of +the English army may cause unexpected embarrassment. But you have time +enough and no haste. You can take the post chaise and reach the ship +well ahead of her sailing." + +"I am of a mind not to go with you," Jack said to Solomon. "When I go, +I shall take Margaret with me." + +So it happened that Jack returned to London while Solomon waited for +the post chaise to Deal. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE LADY OF THE HIDDEN FACE + +Next morning at ten, the door boy at his lodgings informed Jack that a +lady was waiting to see him in the parlor. The lady was deeply veiled. +She did not speak, but arose as he entered the room and handed him a +note. She was tall and erect with a fine carriage. Her silence was +impressive, her costume admirable. + +The note in a script unfamiliar to the young man was as follows: + +"You will find Margaret waiting in a coach at eleven to-day at the +corner of Harley Street and Twickenham Road." + +The veiled lady walked to the door and turned and stood looking at him. + +Her attitude said clearly: "Well, what is your answer ?" + +"I will be there at eleven," said the young man. The veiled lady +nodded, as if to indicate that her mission was ended, and withdrew. + +Jack was thrilled by the information but wondered why it was so wrapped +in mystery. Not ten minutes had passed after the departure of the +veiled lady when a messenger came with a note from Sir Benjamin Hare. +In a cordial tone, it invited Jack to breakfast at the Almack Club at +twelve-thirty. The young man returned his acceptance by the same +messenger, and in his best morning suit went to meet Margaret. A cab +conveyed him to the corner named. There was the coach with shades +drawn low, waiting. A footman stood near it. The door was opened and +he saw Margaret looking out at him and shaking her hand. + +"You see what a sly thing I am!" she said when, the greetings over, he +sat by her side and the coach was moving. "A London girl knows how to +get her way. She is terribly wise, Jack." + +"But, tell me, who was the veiled lady?" + +"A go-between. She makes her living that way. She is wise, discreet +and reliable. There is employment for many such in this wicked city. +I feel disgraced, Jack. I hope you will not think that I am accustomed +to dark and secret ways. This has worried and distressed me, but I had +to see you." + +"And I was longing for a look at you," he said. + +"I was sure you would not know how to pull these ropes of intrigue. I +have heard all about them. I couldn't help that, you know, and be a +young lady who is quite alive." + +"Our time is short and I have much to say," said Jack. "I am to +breakfast with your father at the Almack Club at twelve-thirty." + +She clapped her hands and said, with a laughing face, "I knew he would +ask you!" + +"Margaret, I want to take you to America with the approval of your +father, if possible, and without it, if necessary." + +"I think you will get his approval," said the girl with enthusiasm. +"He has heard all about the duel. He says every one he met, of the +court party, last evening, was speaking of it. They agree that the old +General needed that lesson. Jack, how proud I am of you!" + +She pressed his hand in both of hers. + +"I couldn't help knowing how to shoot," he answered. "And I would not +be worthy to touch this fair hand of yours if I had failed to resent an +insult." + +"Although he is a friend of the General, my father was pleased," she +went on. "He calls you a good sport. 'A young man of high spirit who +is not to be played with,' that is what he said. Now, Jack, if you do +not stick too hard on principles--if you can yield, only a little, I am +sure he will let us be married." + +"I am eager to hear what he may say now," said Jack. "Whatever it may +be, let us stick together and go to America and be happy. It would be +a dark world without you. May I see you to-morrow?" + +"At the same hour and place," she answered. + +They talked of the home they would have in Philadelphia and planned its +garden, Jack having told of the site he had bought with great trees and +a river view. They spent an hour which lent its abundant happiness to +many a long year and when they parted, soon after twelve o'clock, Jack +hurried away to keep his appointment. + + + +2 + +Sir Benjamin received the young man with a warm greeting and friendly +words. Their breakfast was served in a small room where they were +alone together, and when they were seated the Baronet observed: + +"I have heard of the duel. It has set some of the best tongues in +England wagging in praise of 'the Yankee boy.' One would scarcely have +expected that." + +"No, I was prepared to run for my life--not that I planned to do any +great damage," said Jack. + +"You can shoot straight--that is evident. They call your delivery of +that bullet swift, accurate and merciful. Your behavior has pleased +some very eminent people. The blustering talk of the General excites +no sympathy here. In London, strangers are not likely to be treated as +you were." + +"If I did not believe that I should be leaving it," said Jack. "I +should not like to take up dueling for an amusement, as some men have +done in France." + +"You are a well built man inside and out," Sir Benjamin answered. "You +might have a great future in England. I speak advisedly." + +Their talk had taken a turn quite unexpected. It flattered the young +man. He blushed and answered: + +"Sir Benjamin, I have no great faith in my talents." + +"On terms which I would call easy, you could have fame, honor and +riches, I would say." + +"At present I want only your daughter. As to the rest, I shall make +myself content with what may naturally come to me." + +"And let me name the terms on which I should be glad to welcome you to +my family." + +"What are the terms?" + +"Loyalty to your King and a will to understand and assist his plans." + +"I could not follow him unless he will change his plans." + +The Baronet put down his fork and looked up at the young man. "Do you +really mean what you say?" he demanded. "Is it so difficult for you to +do your duty as a British subject?" + +"Sir Benjamin, always I have been taught that it is the duty of a +British subject to resist oppression. The plans of the King are +oppressive. I can not fall in with them. I love Margaret as I love my +life, but I must keep myself worthy of her. If I could think so well +of my conduct, it is because I have principles that are inviolable." + +"At least I hope you would promise me not to take up arms against the +King." + +"Please don't ask me to do that. It would grieve me to fight against +England. I hope it may never be, but I would rather fight than submit +to tyranny." + +The Baronet made no reply to this declaration so firmly made. A new +look came into his face. Indignation and resentment were there, but he +did not forget the duty of a host. He began to speak of other things. +The breakfast went on to its end in an atmosphere of cool politeness. + +When they were out upon the street together, Sir Benjamin turned to him +and said: + +"Now that we are on neutral ground, I want to say that you Americans +are a stiff-necked lot of people. You are not like any other breed of +men. I am done with you. My way can not be yours. Let us part as +friends and gentlemen ought to part. I say good-by with a sense of +regret. I shall never forget your service to my wife and daughter." + +"Think not of that," said the young man. "What I did for them I would +do for any one who needed my help." + +"I have to ask you to give up all hope of marrying my daughter." + +"That I can not do," said Jack. "Over that hope I have no control. I +might as well promise not to breathe." + +"But I must ask you to give me your word as a gentleman that you will +hold no further communication with her." + +"Sir Benjamin, I shall be frank with you. It is an unfair request. I +can not agree to it." + +"What do you say?" the Englishman asked in a tone of astonishment, and +his query was emphasized with a firm tap of his cane on the pavement. + +"I hate to displease you, sir, but if I made such a promise, I would be +sure to break it." + +"Then, sir, I shall see to it that you have no opportunity to oppose my +will." + +In spite of his fine restraint, the eyes of the Baronet glowed with +anger, as he quickly turned from the young man and hurried away. + +"Here is more tyranny," the American thought as he went in the opposite +direction. "But I do not believe he can keep us apart." + +"I walked on and on," he wrote to a friend. "Never had I felt such a +sense of loss and loneliness and dejection. I almost resented the +inflexible tyranny of my own spirit which had turned him against me. I +accused myself of a kind of selfishness in the matter. Had it been +right in me to take a course which endangered the happiness of another, +to say nothing of my own? But I couldn't have done otherwise, not if I +had known that a mountain were to fall upon me. I am like all of those +who follow the star in the west. We do as we must. I had not seen +Franklin since my duel, and largely because I had been ashamed to face +him. Now I felt the need of his wisdom and so I turned my steps toward +his door." + + + +3 + +"I am like the land of Goshen amid the plagues of Egypt," said +Franklin, when the young man was admitted to his office. "My gout is +gone and I am in good spirits in spite of your adventure." + +"And I suppose you will scold me for the adventure." + +"You will scold yourself when the consequences have arrived. They will +be sure to give you a spanking. The deed is done, and well done. On +the whole I think it has been good for the cause, but bad for you." + +"Why?" + +"You may have to run out of England to save your neck and the face of +the King. He was there, I believe?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"The injured lad is in a bad way. The wound caught an infection. +Intense fever and swelling have set in. I helped Sir John Pringle to +amputate the arm this afternoon, but even that may not save the +patient. Here is a storm to warn the wandering linnet to his shade. A +ship goes to-morrow evening. Get ready to take it. In that case your +marriage will have to be delayed. Rash men are often compelled to live +on hope and die fasting." + +"With Sir Benjamin, the duel has been a help instead of a hindrance," +said the young man. "My stubborn soul has been the great obstacle." + +Then he told of his interview with Sir Benjamin Hare. + +Franklin put his hand on Jack's shoulder and said with a smile: + +"My son, I love you. I could wish you to be no different. Cheer up. +Time will lay the dust, and perhaps sooner than you think." + +"I hope to see Margaret to-morrow morning." + +"Ah, then, 'what Grecian arts of soft persuasion!'" Franklin quoted. +"I hope that she, too, will follow the great star in the west!" + +"I hope so, but I greatly fear that our meeting will be prevented." + +"Did you get my note of to-day at your lodgings?" Franklin asked. + +"No," said Jack. "I left there soon after ten." + +"Lord Chatham has kindly offered to secure admission for you and me to +the House of Lords. He is making an important motion. Come, let us go +and see the hereditary legislators." + +Lord Stanhope met them at the door of the House of Lords. There was a +great bustle among the officers when His Lordship announced their names +and his desire to have them admitted. The officers hurried in after +members and there was some delay, in the course of which the Americans +were turned from the division reserved for eldest sons and brothers of +peers. Not less than ten minutes were consumed in the process of +seating Franklin and his friend. + +Soon Lord Chatham arose and moved that His Majesty's forces be +withdrawn from Boston. With a singular charm of personality and +address, the great dissenter made his speech. Jack wrote in his diary +that evening: "The most captivating figure that ever I saw is a +well-bred Englishman trained in the art of public speaking." The words +were no doubt inspired by the impressive speech of Chatham, which is +now an imperishable part of the history of England. These words from +it the young man remembered: + +"If the ministers thus persevere in misleading and misadvising the +King, I will not say that they can alienate the affection of his +subjects from his crown, but I will affirm that they will make his +crown not worth his wearing; I will not say that the King is betrayed, +but I will say that the kingdom is undone." + +Lord Sandwich in a petulant speech declared that the motion ought not +to be received. He could never believe it the production of a British +peer. Turning toward Franklin, he flung out: + +"I fancy that I have in my eye the person who drew it up--one of the +bitterest and most mischievous enemies this country has ever known." + +"Franklin sat immovable and without the slightest change in his +countenance," Jack wrote in a letter to _The Pennsylvania Gazette_. + +Chatham declared that the motion was his own, and added: + +"If I were the first minister of this country, charged with the +settling of its momentous business, I should not be ashamed to call to +my assistance a man so perfectly acquainted with all American affairs, +as the gentleman so injuriously referred to--one whom all Europe holds +in high estimation for his knowledge and wisdom, which are an honor, +not only to England, but to human nature." + +"Franklin told me that this was harder for him to bear than the abuse, +but he kept his countenance as blank as a sheet of white paper," Jack +wrote. "There was much vehement declamation against the measure and it +was rejected. + +"When we had left the chamber, Franklin said to me: + +"'That motion was made by the first statesman of the age, who took the +helm of state when the latter was in the depths of despondency and led +it to glorious victory through a war with two of the mightiest kingdoms +in Europe. Only a few of those men had the slightest understanding of +its merits. Yet they would not even consider it in a second reading. +They are satisfied with their ignorance. They have nothing to learn. +Hereditary legislators! There would be more propriety in hereditary +professors of mathematics! Heredity is a great success with only one +kind of creature.' + +"'What creature?' I asked. + +"'The ass,' he answered, with as serious a countenance as I have seen +him wear. + +"No further word was spoken as we rode back to his home," the young man +wrote. "We knew the die had been cast. We had seen it fall carelessly +out of the hand of Ignorance, obeying intellects swelled with +hereditary passion and conceit. I now had something to say to my +countrymen." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE DEPARTURE + +That evening Jack received a brief note from Preston. It said: + +"I learn that young Clarke is very ill. I think you would better get +out of England for fear of what may come. A trial would be apt to +cause embarrassment in high places. Can I give you assistance?" + +Jack returned this note by the same messenger: + +"Thanks, good friend, I shall go as soon as my business is finished, +which I hope may be to-morrow." + +Just before the young man went to bed a brief note arrived from +Margaret. It read; + + +"DEAREST JACK. My father has learned of our meeting yesterday and of +how it came about. He is angry. He forbids another meeting. I shall +not submit to his tyranny. We must assert our rights like good +Americans. I have a plan. You will learn of it when we meet to-morrow +at eleven. Do not send an answer. Lovingly, MARGARET." + + +He slept little, and in the morning awaited with keen impatience the +hour of his appointment. + +On his way to the place he heard a newsboy shouting the words "duel" +and "Yankee," followed by the suggestive statement: "Bloody murder in +high life." + +Evidently Lionel Clarke had died of his wound. He saw people standing +in groups and reading the paper. He began to share the nervousness of +Preston and the wise, far-seeing Franklin. He jumped into a cab and +was at the corner some minutes ahead of time. Precisely at eleven he +saw the coach draw near. He hurried to its side. The footman +dismounted and opened the door. Inside he saw, not Margaret, but the +lady of the hidden face. + +"You are to get in, sir, and make a little journey with the madame," +said the footman. + +Jack got into the coach. Its door closed, the horses started with a +jump and he was on his way whither he knew not. Nor did he know the +reason for the rapid pace at which the horses had begun to travel. + +"If you do not mind, sir, we will not lift the shades," said the veiled +lady, as the coach started. "We shall see Margaret soon, I hope." + +She had a colorless, cold voice and what was then known in London as +the "patrician manner." Her tone and silence seemed to say: "Please +remember this is all a matter of business and not a highly agreeable +business to me." + +"Where is Margaret?" he asked. + +"A long way from here. We shall meet her at The Ship and Anchor in +Gravesend. She will be making the journey by another road." + +She had answered in a voice as cold as the day and in the manner of one +who had said quite enough. + +"Where is Gravesend?" + +"On the Thames near the sea," she answered briskly, as if in pity of +his ignorance. + +He saw the plan now--an admirable plan. They were to meet near the +port of sailing and be married and go aboard the ship and away. It was +the plan of Margaret and much better than any he could have made, for +he knew little of London and its ports. + +"Should I not take my baggage with me?" + +"There is not time for that," the veiled lady answered. "We must make +haste. I have some clothes for you in a bag." + +She pointed to a leathern case under the front seat. + +He sat thinking of the cleverness of Margaret as they left the edge of +the city and hurried away on the east turnpike. A mist was coming up +from the sea. The air ahead had the color of a wool stack. They +stopped at an inn to feed and water the horses and went on in a dense +fog, which covered the hedge rows on either side and lay thick on the +earth so that the horses seemed to be wading in it. Their pace slowed +to a walk. From that time on, the road was like a long ford over which +they proceeded with caution, the driver now and then winding a horn. + +Each sat quietly in a corner of the seat with a wall of cold fog +between them. The young man liked it better than the wall of mystery +through which he had been able to see the silent, veiled form beside +him. + +"Do you have much weather like this?" he ventured to inquire by and by. + +This answer came out of the bank of fog: "Yes," as if she would have +him understand that she was not being paid for conversation. + +From that time forward they rode in a silence broken only by the +creaking of the coach and the sound of the horses' hoofs. Darkness had +fallen when they reached the little city of Gravesend. The Ship and +Anchor stood by the water's edge. + +"You will please wait here," said the stern lady in a milder voice than +she had used before, as the coach drew up at the inn door, "I shall see +if she has come." + +His strange companion entered the inn and returned presently, saying: +"She has not yet arrived. Delayed by the fog. We will have our +dinner, if you please." + +Jack had not broken his fast since nine and felt keenly the need of +refreshment, but he answered: + +"I think that I would better wait for Margaret." + +"No, she will have dined at Tillbury," said the masterful lady. "It +will save time. Please come and have dinner, sir." + +He followed her into the inn. The landlady, a stout, obsequious woman, +led them to a small dining-room above stairs lighted by many candles +where an open fire was burning cheerfully. + +A handsomely dressed man waited by them for orders and retired with the +landlady when they were given. + +From this point the scene at the inn is described in the diary of the +American. + +"She drew off her hat and veil and a young woman about twenty-eight +years of age and of astonishing beauty stood before me." + +"'There, now, I am out of business,' she remarked in a pleasant voice +as she sat down at the table which, had been spread before the +fireplace. 'I will do my best to be a companion to you until Margaret +arrives.' + +"She looked into my eyes and smiled. Her sheath of ice had fallen from +her. + +"'You will please forgive my impertinence,' said she. 'I earn my +living by it. In a world of sentiment and passion I must be as cold +and bloodless as a stone, but in fact, I am very--very human.' + +"The waiter came with a tray containing soup, glasses and a bottle of +sherry. We sat down at the table and our waiter filled two glasses +with the sherry. + +"'Thank you, but self-denial is another duty of mine,' she remarked +when I offered her a glass of the wine. 'I live in a tipsy world and +drink--water. I live in a merry world and keep a stern face. It is a +vile world and yet I am unpolluted.' + +"I drank my glass of wine and had begun to eat my soup when a strange +feeling came over me. My plate seemed to be sinking through the table. +The wall and fireplace were receding into dim distance. I knew then +that I had tasted the cup of Circe. My hands fell through my lap and +suddenly the day ended. It was like sawing off a board. The end had +fallen. There is nothing more to be said of it because my brain had +ceased to receive and record impressions. I was as totally out of +business as a man in his grave. When I came to, I was in a berth on +the ship _King William_ bound for New York. As soon as I knew +anything, I knew that I had been tricked. My clothes had been removed +and were lying on a chair near me. My watch and money were +undisturbed. I had a severe pain in my head. I dressed and went up on +deck. The Captain was there. + +"'You must have had a night of it in Gravesend,' he said. 'You were +like a dead man when they brought you aboard.' + +"'Where am I going?' I asked. + +"'To New York,' he answered with a laugh. 'You must have had a time!' + +"How much is the fare?" + +"'Young man, that need not concern you,' said the Captain. 'Your fare +has been paid in full. I saw them put a letter in your pocket. Have +you read it?'" + +Jack found the letter and read: + + +"DEAR SIR--When you see this you will be well out of danger and, it is +hoped, none the worse for your dissipation. This from one who admires +your skill and courage and who advises you to keep out of England for +at least a year. + + "A WELL WISHER." + + +He looked back over the stern of the ship. The shore had fallen out of +sight. The sky was clear. The sun shining. The wind was blowing from +the east. + +He stood for a long time looking toward the land he had left. + +"Oh, ye wings of the wind! take my love to her and give her news of me +and bid her to be steadfast in her faith and hope," he whispered. + +He leaned against the bulwark and tried to think. + +"Sir Benjamin has seen to it," he said to himself. "I shall have no +opportunity to meet her again." + +He reviewed the events of the day and their under-current of intrigue. +The King himself might have been concerned in that and Preston also. +It had been on the whole a rather decent performance, he mused, and +perhaps it had kept him out of worse trouble than he was now in. But +what had happened to Margaret? + +He reread her note. + +"My father has learned of our meeting and of how it came about," he +quoted. + +"More bribery," he thought. "The intrigante naturally sold her +services to the highest bidder." + +He recalled the violent haste with which the coach had rolled away from +the place of meeting. Had that been due to a fear that Margaret would +defeat their plans? + +All these speculations and regrets were soon put away. But for a long +time one cause of worry was barking at his heels. It slept beside him +and often touched and awoke him at night. He had been responsible for +the death of a human being. What an unlucky hour he had had at Sir +John Pringle's! Yet he found a degree of comfort in the hope that +those proud men might now have a better thought of the Yankees. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE FRIEND AND THE GIRL HE LEFT BEHIND HIM + +After Jack had been whirled out of London, Franklin called at his +lodgings and learned that he had not been seen for a day. The wise +philosopher entertained no doubt that the young man had taken ship +agreeably with the advice given him. A report had been running through +the clubs of London that Lionel Clarke had succumbed. In fact he had +had a bad turn but had rallied. Jack must have heard the false report +and taken ship suddenly. + +Doctor Franklin went that day to the meeting of the Privy Council, +whither he had been sternly summoned for examination in the matter of +the letters of Hutchinson et al. For an hour he had stood unmoved +while Alexander Wedderburn, the wittiest barrister in the kingdom, +poured upon him a torrent of abuse. Even the Judges, against all +traditions of decorum in the high courts of Britain, laughed at the +cleverness of the assault. That was the speech of which Charles James +Fox declared that it was the most expensive bit of oratory which had +been heard in England since it had cost the kingdom its colonies. + +It was alleged that in some manner Franklin had stolen the letters and +violated their sacred privacy. It is known now that an English +nobleman had put them in his hands to read and that he was in no way +responsible for their publication. The truth, if it could have been +told, would have bent the proud heads of Wedderburn and the judges to +whom he appealed, in confusion. But Franklin held his peace, as a man +of honor was bound to do. He stood erect and dignified with a face +like one carved in wood. + +The counsel for the colonies made a weak defense. The triumph was +complete. The venerable man was convicted of conduct inconsistent with +the character of a gentleman and deprived of his office as Postmaster +General of the Colonies. + +But he had two friends in court. They were the Lady Hare and her +daughter. They followed him out of the chamber. In the great hallway, +Margaret, her eyes wet with tears, embraced and kissed the philosopher. + +"I want you to know that I am your friend, and that I love America," +she said. + +"My daughter, it has been a hard hour, but I am sixty-eight years old +and have learned many things," he answered. "Time is the only avenger +I need. It will lay the dust." + +The girl embraced and kissed him again and said in a voice shaking with +emotion: + +"I wish my father and all Englishmen to know that I am your friend and +that I have a love that can not be turned aside or destroyed and that I +will have my right as a human being." + +"Come let us go and talk together--we three," he proposed. + +They took a cab and drove away. + +"You will think all this a singular proceeding," Lady Hare remarked. +"I must tell you that rebellion has started in our home. Its peace is +quite destroyed. Margaret has declared her right to the use of her own +mind." + +"Well, if she is to use any mind it will have to be that one," Franklin +answered. "I do not see why women should not be entitled to use their +minds as well as their hands and feet." + +"I was kept at home yesterday by force," said Margaret. "Every door +locked and guarded! It was brutal tyranny." + +"The poor child has my sympathy but what can I do?" Lady Hare inquired. + +"Being an American, you can expect but one answer from me," said the +philosopher. "To us tyranny in home or state is intolerable. They +tried it on me when I was a boy and I ran away." + +"That is what I shall do if necessary," said Margaret. + +"Oh, my child! How would you live?" her mother asked. + +"I will answer that question for her, if you will let me," said +Franklin. "If she needs it, she shall have an allowance out of my +purse." + +"Thank you, but that would raise a scandal," said the woman. + +"Oh, Your Ladyship, I am old enough to be her grandfather." + +"I wish to go with Jack, if you know where he is," Margaret declared, +looking up into the face of the philosopher. + +"I think he is pushing toward America," Franklin answered. "Being +alarmed at the condition of his adversary, I advised him to slip away. +A ship went yesterday. Probably he's on it. He had no chance to see +me or to pick up his baggage." + +"I shall follow him soon," the girl declared. + +"If you will only contain yourself, you will get along with your father +very well," said Lady Hare. "I know him better than you. He has +promised to take you to America in December. You must wait and be +patient. After all, your father has a large claim upon you." + +"I think you will do well to wait, my child," said the philosopher. +"Jack will keep and you are both young. Fathers are like other +children. They make mistakes--they even do wrong now and then. They +have to be forgiven and allowed a chance to repent and improve their +conduct. Your father is a good man. Try to win him to your cause." + +"And die a maiden," said the girl with a sigh. + +"Impossible!" Franklin exclaimed. + +"I shall marry Jack or never marry. I would rather be his wife than +the Queen of England." + +"This is surely the age of romance," said the smiling philosopher as +the ladies alighted at their door. "I wish I were young again." + + + + +BOOK TWO + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE FERMENT + +On his voyage to New York, Jack wrote long letters to Margaret and to +Doctor Franklin, which were deposited in the Post-Office on his +arrival, the tenth of March. He observed a great change in the spirit +of the people. They were no longer content with words. The ferment +was showing itself in acts of open and violent disorder. The statue of +George III, near the Battery, was treated to a volley of decayed eggs, +in the evening of his arrival. This hot blood was due to the effort to +prevent free speech in the colonies and the proposal to send political +prisoners to England for trial. + +Jack took the first boat to Albany and found Solomon working on the +Irons farm. In his diary he tells of the delightful days of rest he +enjoyed with his family. Solomon had told them of the great adventure +but Jack would have little to say of it, having no pride in that +achievement. + +Soon the scout left on a mission for the Committee of Safety to distant +settlements in the great north bush. + +"I'll be spendin' the hull moon in the wilderness," he said to Jack. +"Goin' to Virginny when I get back, an' I'll look fer ye on the way +down." + +Jack set out for Philadelphia the day after Solomon left. He stopped +at Kinderhook on his way down the river and addressed its people on +conditions in England. A young Tory interrupted his remarks. At the +barbecue, which followed, this young man was seized and punished by a +number of stalwart girls who removed his collar and jacket by force and +covered his head and neck with molasses and the fuzz of cat tails. +Jack interceded for the Tory and stopped the proceeding. + +"My friends, we must control our anger," he said. "Let us not try to +subdue tyranny by using it ourselves." + +Everywhere he found the people in such a temper that Tories had to hold +their peace or suffer punishment. At the office he learned that his +most important letters had failed to pass the hidden censorship of mail +in England. He began, at once, to write a series of articles which +hastened the crisis. The first of them was a talk with Franklin, which +told how his mail had been tampered with; that no letter had come to +his hand through the Post-Office which had not been opened with +apparent indifference as to the evidence of its violation. The +Doctor's words regarding free speech in America and the proposal to try +the bolder critics for treason were read and discussed in every +household from the sea to the mountains and from Maine to Florida. + +"Grievances can not be redressed unless they are known and they can not +be known save through complaints and petitions," the philosopher had +said. "If these are taken as affronts and the messengers punished, the +vent of grief is stopped up--a dangerous thing in any state. It is +sure to produce an explosion. + +"An evil magistrate with the power to punish for words would be armed +with a terrible weapon. + +"Augustus Caesar, with the avowed purpose of preserving Romans from +defamation, made libel subject to the penalties of treason. +Thenceforward every man's life hung by a thread easily severed by some +lying informer. + +"Soon it was resolved by all good judges of law that whoever should +insinuate the least doubt of Nero's preeminence in the noble art of +fiddling should be deemed a traitor. Grief became treason and one lady +was put to death for bewailing the fate of her murdered son. In time, +silence became treason, and even a look was considered an overt act." + +These words of the wise philosopher strengthened the spirit of the land +for its great ordeal. + +Jack described the prejudice of the Lords who, content with their +ignorance, spurned every effort to inform them of the conditions in +America. + +"And this little tail is wagging the great dog of England, most of +whose people believe in the justice of our complaints," he wrote. + +The young man's work had set the bells ringing and they were the bells +of revolt. The arrival of General Gage at Boston in May, to be civil +governor and commander-in-chief for the continent, and the blockade of +the port twenty days later, compelling its population who had been fed +by the sea to starve or subsist on the bounty of others, drove the most +conservative citizens into the open. Parties went out Tory hunting. +Every suspected man was compelled to declare himself and if +incorrigible, was sent away. Town meetings were held even under the +eyes of the King's soldiers and no tribunal was allowed to sit in any +court-house. At Salem, a meeting was held behind locked doors with the +Governor and his Secretary shouting a proclamation through its keyhole, +declaring it to be dissolved. The meeting proceeded to its end, and +when the citizens filed out, they had invited the thirteen colonies to +a General Congress in Philadelphia. + +It was Solomon Binkus who conveyed the invitation to Pennsylvania and +Virginia. He had gone on a second mission to Springfield and Boston +and had been in the meeting at Salem with General Ward. Another man +carried that historic call to the colonies farther south. In five +weeks, delegates were chosen, and early in August, they were traveling +on many different roads toward the Quaker City. Crowds gathered in +every town and village they passed. Solomon, who rode with the +Virginia delegation, told Jack that he hadn't heard so much noise since +the Injun war. + +"They was poundin' the bells, an shootin' cannons everywhere," he +declared. "Men, women and childern crowded 'round us an' split their +lungs yellin'. They's a streak o' sore throats all the way from +Alexandry to here." + +Solomon and his young friend met John Adams on the street. The +distinguished Massachusetts lawyer said to Jack when the greetings were +over: + +"Young man, your pen has been not writing, but making history." + +"Does it mean war?" Jack queried. + +Mr. Adams wiped his brow with his handkerchief and said; "People in our +circumstances have seldom grown old or died in their beds." + +"We ought to be getting ready," said Jack. + +"And we are doing little but eat and drink and shout and bluster," Mr. +Adams answered. "We are being entertained here with meats and curds +and custards and jellies and tarts and floating islands and Madeira +wine. It is for you to induce the people of Philadelphia to begin to +save. We need to learn Franklin's philosophy of thrift." + +Colonel Washington was a member of the Virginia delegation. Jack wrote +that he was in uniform, blue coat and red waistcoat and breeches; that +he was a big man standing very erect and about six feet, two inches in +height; that his eyes were blue, his complexion light and rather +florid, his face slightly pock-marked, his brown hair tinged with gray; +that he had the largest hands, save those of Solomon Binkus, that he +had ever seen. His letter contains these informing words: + +"I never quite realized the full meaning of the word 'dignity' until I +saw this man and heard his deep rich voice. There was a kind of +magnificence in his manner and person when he said: + +"'I will raise one thousand men toward the relief of Boston and subsist +them at my own expense.' + +"That was all he said and it was the most eloquent speech made in the +convention. It won the hearts of the New Englanders. Thereafter, he +was the central figure in that Congress of trusted men. It is also +evident that he will be the central figure on this side of the ocean +when the storm breaks. Next day, he announced that he was, as yet, +opposed to any definite move toward independence. So the delegates +contented themselves with a declaration of rights opposing importations +and especially slaves." + +When the Congress adjourned October twenty-sixth to meet again on the +tenth of May, there was little hope of peace among those who had had a +part in its proceedings. + +Jack, who knew the conditions in England, knew also that war would come +soon, and freely expressed his views. + + + +2 + +Letters had come from Margaret giving him the welcome news that Lionel +Clarke had recovered and announcing that her own little revolution had +achieved success. She and her father would be taking ship for Boston +in December. Jack had urged that she try to induce him to start at +once, fearing that December would be too late, and so it fell out. +When the news of the Congress reached London, the King made new plans. +He began to prepare for war. Sir Benjamin Hare, who was to be the +first deputy of General Gage, was assigned to a brigade and immediately +put his regiments in training for service overseas. He had spent six +months in America and was supposed, in England, to have learned the art +of bush fighting. Such was the easy optimism of the cheerful young +Minister of War, and his confrères, in the House of Lords. After the +arrival of the _King William_ at Gravesend on the eighth of December, +no English women went down to the sea in ships for a long time. +Thereafter the water roads were thought to be only for fighting men. +Jack's hope was that armed resistance would convince the British of +their folly. + +"A change of front in the Parliament would quickly end the war," he was +wont to say. Not that he quite believed it. But young men in love are +apt to say things which they do not quite believe. In February, 1775, +he gave up his work on _The Gazette_ to aid in the problem of defense. +Solomon, then in Albany, had written that he was going the twentieth of +that month on a mission to the Six Nations of The Long House. + +It was unusual for the northern tribes to hold a council in +winter--especially during the moon of the hard snow, but the growing +bitterness of the white men had alarmed them. They had learned that +another and greater war was at hand and they were restless for fear of +it. The quarrel was of no concern to the red man, but he foresaw the +deadly peril of choosing the wrong side. So the wise men of the tribes +were coming into council. + +"If we fight England, we got to have the Injuns on our side er else +Tryon County won't be no healthy place fer white folks," Solomon wrote. +"I wished you could go 'long with me an' show 'em the kind o' shootin' +we'll do ag'in' the English an' tell 'em they could count the leaves in +the bush easier than the men in the home o' the south wind, an' all +good shooters. Put on a big, two-story bearskin cap with a red ribband +tied around it an' bring plenty o' gewgaws. I don't care what they be +so long as they shine an' rattle. I cocalate you an' me could do good +work." + +Immediately the young man packed his box and set out by stage on his +way to the North. Near West Point, he left the sleigh, which had +stopped for repairs, and put on his skates and with the wind mostly at +his back, made Albany early that evening on the river roof. He found +the family and Solomon eating supper, with the table drawn close to the +fireside, it being a cold night. + +"I think that St. Nicholas was never more welcome in any home or the +creator of more happiness than I was that night," he wrote in a letter +to Margaret, sent through his friend Doctor Franklin. "What a glow was +in the faces of my mother and father and Solomon Binkus--the man who +was so liked in London! What cries of joy came from the children! +They clung to me and my little brother, Josiah, sat on my knee while I +ate my sausage and flapjacks and maple molasses. I shall never forget +that supper hour for, belike, I was hungry enough to eat an ox. You +would never see a homecoming like that in England, I fancy. Here the +family ties are very strong. We have no opera, no theater, no balls +and only now and then a simple party of neighborhood folk. We work +hard and are weary at night. So our pleasures are few and mostly those +shared in the family circles. A little thing, such as a homecoming, or +a new book, brings a joy that we remember as long as we live. I hope +that you will not be appalled by the simplicity of my father's home and +neighborhood. There is something very sweet and beautiful in it, +which, I am sure, you would not fail to discover. + +"Philadelphia and Boston are more like the cities you know. They are +getting ambitious and are beginning to ape the manners of England but, +even there, you would, find most people like my own. The attempts at +grandeur are often ludicrous. In Philadelphia, I have seen men sitting +at public banquets without coat or collar and drinking out of bottles." + +Next day, Jack and Solomon set out with packs and snow-shoes for The +Long House, which was the great highway of the Indians. It cut the +province from the Hudson to Lake Erie. In summer it was roofed by the +leaves of the forest. The chief villages of the Six Tribes were on or +near it. This trail was probably the ancient route of the cloven hoof +on its way to the prairies--the thoroughfare of the elk and the +buffalo. How wisely it was chosen time has shown, for now it is +covered with iron rails, the surveyors having tried in vain to find a +better one. + +Late in the second day out, they came suddenly on a young moose. Jack +presented his piece and brought the animal down. They skinned him and +cut out the loins and a part of each hind quarter. When Solomon +wrapped the meat in a part of the hide and slung it over his shoulder, +night was falling. + +"Cat's blood an' gunpowder! The ol' night has a sly foot," said +Solomon. "We won't see no Crow Hill tavern. We got t' make a snow +house." + +On the south side of a steep hill near them was a deep, hard frozen +drift. Solomon cut the crust with his hatchet and began moving big +blocks of snow. Soon he had made a cavern in the great white pile, a +fathom deep and high, and as long as a full grown man. They put in a +floor of balsam boughs and spread their blankets on it. Then they cut +a small dead pine and built a fire a few feet in front of their house +and fried some bacon and a steak and made snow water and a pot of tea. +The steak and bacon were eaten on slices of bread without knife or +fork. Their repast over, Solomon made a rack and began jerking the +meat with a slow fire of green hardwood smoldering some three feet +below it. The "jerk" under way, they reclined on their blankets in +the snow house secure from the touch of a cold wind that swept down the +hillside, looking out at the dying firelight while Solomon told of his +adventures in the Ohio country. + +Jack was a bit afflicted with "snow-shoe evil," being unaccustomed to +that kind of travel, and he never forgot the sense of relief and +comfort which he found in the snow house, or the droll talk of Solomon. + +"You're havin' more trouble to git married than a Mingo brave," Solomon +said to Jack. "'Mongst them, when a boy an' gal want to git married, +both fam'lies have to go an' take a sweat together. They heat a lot o' +rocks an' roll 'em into a pen made o' sticks put in crotches an' +covered over with skins an' blankets. The hot rocks turn it into a +kind o' oven. They all crawl in thar an' begin to sweat an' hoot an' +holler. You kin hear 'em a mile off. It's a reg'lar hootin' match. +I'd call it a kind o' camp meetin'. When they holler it means that the +devil is lettin' go. They're bein' purified. It kind o' seasons 'em +so they kin stan' the heat o' a family quarrel. When Injuns have had +the grease sweat out of 'em, they know suthin' has happened. The +women'll talk fer years 'bout the weddin' sweat." + +Now and then, as he talked, Solomon arose to put more wood on the fire +and keep "the jerk sizzling." Just before he lay down for the night, +he took some hard wood coals and stored them in a griddle full of hot +ashes so as to save tinder in the morning. + +They were awakened in the night by the ravening of a pack of wolves at +the carcass of the slain moose, which lay within twenty rods of the +snow camp. They were growling and snapping as they tore the meat from +the bones. Solomon rose and drew on his boots. + +"Cat's blood an' gunpowder! I thought the smell o' the jerk would +bring 'em," Solomon whispered. "Say, they's quite a passel o' wolves +thar--you hear to me. No, I ain't skeered o' them thar whelps, but +it's ag'in' my principles to go to sleep if they's nuthin' but air +'twixt me an' them. They might be jest fools 'nough to think I were +good eatin'; which I ain't. I guess it's 'bout time to take keer o' +this 'ere jerk an' start up a fire. I won't give them loafers nothin' +but hell, if they come 'round here--not a crumb." + +Solomon went to work with his ax in the moonlight, while Jack kindled +up the fire. + +"We don't need to tear off our buttons hurryin'," said the former, as +he flung down a dead spruce by the fireside and began chopping it into +sticks. "They won't be lookin' for more fodder till they've picked the +bones o' that 'ere moose. Don't make it a big fire er you'll melt our +roof. We jest need a little belt o' blaze eround our front. Our rear +is safe. Chain lightnin' couldn't slide down this 'ere hill without +puttin' on the brakes." + +Soon they had a good stack of wood inside the fire line and in the pile +were some straight young birches. Solomon made stakes of these and +drove them deep in the snow close up to the entrance of their refuge, +making a stockade with an opening in the middle large enough for a man +to pass through. Then they sat down on their blankets, going out often +to put wood on the fire. While sitting quietly with their rifles in +hand, they observed that the growling and yelping had ceased. + +"They've got that 'ere moose in their packs," Solomon whispered. "Now +keep yer eye peeled. They'll be snoopin' eround here to git our share. +You see." + +In half a moment, Jack's rifle spoke, followed by the loud yelp of a +wolf well away from the firelight. + +"Uh, huh! You warmed the wax in his ear, that's sart'in;" said Solomon +as Jack was reloading. "Did ye hear him say 'Don't'?" + +The scout's rifle spoke and another wolf yelped. + +"Yer welcome," Solomon shouted. "I slammed that 'er hunk o' lead into +the pack leader--a whale of a wolf. The ol' Cap'n stepped right up +clus. Seen 'im plain--gray, long legged ol' whelp. He were walkin' +towards the fire when he stubbed his toe. It's all over now. They'll +snook erway. The army has lost its Gin'ral." + +They saw nothing more of the wolf pack and after an hour or so of +watching, they put more wood on the fire, filled the opening in their +stockade and lay down to rest. Solomon called it a night of "one-eyed +sleep" when they got up at daylight and rekindled the fire and washed +their hands and faces in the snow. The two dead wolves lay within +fifty feet of the fire and Solomon cut off the tail of the larger one +for a souvenir. + +They had more steak and bread, moistened with tea, for breakfast and +set out again with a good store of jerked meat in their packs. So they +proceeded on their journey, as sundry faded clippings inform us, +spending their nights thereafter at rude inns or in the cabins of +settlers until they had passed the village of the Mohawks, where they +found only a few old Indians and their squaws and many dogs and young +children. The chief and his sachems and warriors and their wives had +gone on to the great council fire in the land of Kiodote, the Thorny +Tree. + +They spent a night in the little cabin tavern of Bill Scott on the +upper waters of the Mohawk. Mrs. Scott, a comely woman of twenty-six, +had been a sister of Solomon's wife. She and the scout had a pleasant +visit about old times in Cherry Valley where they had spent a part of +their childhood, and she was most thoughtful and generous in providing +for their comfort. The Scotts had lost two children and another, a +baby, was lying asleep in the cradle. Scott was a hard working, sullen +sort of a man who made his living chiefly by selling rum to the +Indians. Solomon used to say that he had been "hooked by the love o' +money an' et up by land hunger." + +"You'll have to git away from The Long House," Solomon said to Scott. +"One reason I come here was to tell ye." + +"What makes ye think so?" Scott asked. + +"The Injuns'll hug ye when they're drunk but they'll hate ye when +they're sober," Solomon answered. "They lay all their trouble to +fire-water an' they're right. If the cat jumps the wrong way an' they +go on the war-path, ye got to look out." + +"I ain't no way skeered," was Scott's answer. He had a hoarse, damp +voice that suggested the sound of rum gurgling out of a jug. His red +face indicated that he was himself too fond of the look and taste of +fire-water. + +"Ye got to git erway from here I tell ye," Solomon insisted. + +Scott stroked his sandy beard and answered: "I guess I know my business +'bout as well as you do." + +"Le's go back to Cherry Valley, Bill," the woman urged. + +"Oh, keep yer trap shet," Scott said to her. + +"He's as selfish as a he-bear," said Solomon as he and Jack were +leaving soon after daylight. "Don't think o' nuthin' but gittin' rich. +Keeps swappin' firewater fer land an' no idee o' the danger." + +They left the woman in tears. + +"It's awful lonesome here. I'll never see ye ag'in," she declared as +she stood wiping her eyes with her apron. + +"Here now--you behave!" Solomon exclaimed. "I'll toddle up to your +door some time next summer." + +"Mirandy is a likely womern--I tell ye," Solomon whispered as they went +away. "He is a mean devil! Ain't the kind of a man fer her--nary bit. +A rum bottle is the only comp'ny he keers fer." + +They often spoke of the pathetic loneliness of this good-looking, +kindly, mismated woman. Jack and Solomon reached the council on the +fifth day of their travel. There, a level plain in the forest was +covered with Indians and the snow trodden smooth. Around it were their +tents and huts and houses. There were males and females, many of the +latter in rich silks and scarlet cloths bordered with gold fringe. +Some wore brooches and rings in their noses. Among them were handsome +faces and erect and noble forms. + +In the center of the plain stood a great stack of wood and green boughs +of spruce and balsam built up in layers for the evening council fire. + +Old Kiodote knew Solomon and remembered Jack, whom he had seen in the +great council at Albany in 1761. + +"He says your name was 'Boiling Water,'" Solomon said to Jack after a +moment's talk with the chief. + +"He has a good memory," the young man answered. + +The two white men were invited to take part in the games. All the +warriors had heard of Solomon's skill with a rifle. "Son of the +Thunder," they called him in the League of the Iroquois. The red men +gathered in great numbers to see him shoot. Again, as of old, they +were thrilled by his feats with the rifle, but when Jack began his +quick and deadly firing, crushing butternuts thrown into the air, with +rifle and pistol, a kind of awe possessed the crowd. Many came and +touched him and stared into his face and called him "The Brother of +Death." + + + +3 + +Solomon's speech that evening before the council fire impressed the +Indians. He had given much thought to its composition and Jack had +helped him in the invention of vivid phrases loved by the red men. He +addressed them in the dialect of the Senecas, that being the one with +which he was most familiar. He spoke of the thunder cloud of war +coming up in the east and the cause of it and begged them to fight with +their white neighbors, under the leadership of The Great Spirit for the +justice which He loved. Solomon had brought them many gifts in token +of the friendship of himself and his people. + +Old Theandenaga, of the Mohawks, answered him in a speech distinguished +by its noble expressions of good will and by an eloquent, but not +ill-tempered, account of the wrongs of the red men. He laid particular +stress on the corrupting of the young braves with fire-water. + +"Let all bad feeling be buried in a deep pool," Solomon answered. +"There are bad white men and there are bad Indians but they are not +many. The good men are like the leaves of the forest--you can not +count them--but the bad man is like the scent pedlar [the skunk]. +Though he is but one, he can make much trouble." + +Every judgment of the league in council had to be unanimous. They +voted in sections, whereupon each section sent its representative into +the higher council and no verdict was announced until its members were +of one mind. The deliberations were proceeding toward a favorable +judgment as Solomon thought, when Guy Johnson arrived from Johnson +Castle with a train of pack bearers. A wild night of drunken revelry +followed his arrival. Jack and Solomon were lodging at a log inn, kept +by a Dutch trader, half a mile or so from the scene of the council. A +little past midnight, the trader came up into the loft where they were +sleeping on a heap of straw and awakened Solomon. + +"Come down the ladder," said the Dutchman. "A young squaw has come out +from the council. She will speak to you." + +Solomon slipped on his trousers, coat and boots, and went below. The +squaw was sitting on the floor against the wall. A blanket was drawn +over the back of her head. Her handsome face had a familiar look. + +"Put out the light," she whispered in English. + +The candle was quickly snuffed and then: + +"I am the Little White Birch," she said. "You and my beautiful young +brave were good to me. You took me to the school and he kissed my +cheek and spoke words like the song of the little brown bird of the +forest. I have come here to warn you. Turn away from the great camp +of the red man. Make your feet go fast. The young warriors are drunk. +They will come here to slay you. I say go like the rabbit when he is +scared. Before daylight, put half a sleep between you and them." + +Solomon called Jack and in the darkness they quickly got ready to go. +The Dutchman could give them only a loaf of bread, some salt and a slab +of bacon. The squaw stood on the door-step watching while they were +getting ready. Snow was falling. + +"They are near," she whispered when the men came out. "I have heard +them." + +She held Jack's hand to her lips and said: + +"Let me feel your face. I can not see it. I shall see it not again +this side of the Happy Hunting-Grounds." + +For a second she touched the face of the young man and he kissed her +forehead. + +"This way," she whispered. "Now go like the snow in the wind, my +beautiful pale face." + +"Can we help you?" Jack queried. "Will you go with us back to the +white man's school?" + +"No, I am old woman now. I have taken the yoke of the red man. In the +Happy Hunting-Grounds maybe the Great Spirit will give me a pale face. +Then I will go with my father and his people and my beautiful young +brave will take me to his house and not be ashamed. Go now. Good-by." + +"Little White Birch, I give you this," said Jack, as he put in her hand +the tail of the great gray wolf, beautifully adorned with silver braid +and blue ribbands. + +It was snowing hard. Jack and Solomon started toward a belt of timber +east of the log inn. Before they reached it, their clothes were white +with snow--a fact which probably saved their lives. They were shot at +from the edge of the bush. Solomon shouted to Jack to come on and +wisely ran straight toward the spot from which the rifle flashes had +proceeded. In the edge of the woods, Jack shot an Indian with his +pistol. The red man was loading. So they got through what appeared to +be a cordon around the house and cut into the bush. + +"They won't foller us," said Solomon, as the two stopped presently to +put on their snow-shoes. + +"What makes you think so ?" + +"They don't keer to see us lessen they're hid. We are the Son o' the +Thunder an' the Brother o' Death. It would hurt to see us. The second +our eyes drop on an Injun, he's got a hole in his guts an' they know +it. They'd ruther go an' set down with a jug o' rum." + +"It was a low and devilish trick to bring fire-water into that camp," +said Jack. + +"Guy Johnson is mean enough to steal acorns from a blind hog," Solomon +answered. + +Suddenly they heard a loud whooping in the distance and looking back +into the valley they saw a great flare of light. + +"They've put the torch to the tavern and will have a dance," said +Solomon. "We got out jest in time." + +"I am afraid for the Little White Birch," said Jack. + +"They'll let her alone. She is one of the wives of ol' Theandenaga. +She will lead the Dutchman an' his family to the house o' the great +chief. She won't let 'em be hurt if she kin help it. She knowed they +was a'ter us." + +"Why do they want to kill us?" Jack queried. + +"'Cause they're goin' to fight with the British an' we shoot so damn +well they want to git us out o' the way an' do it sly an' without +gittin' hurt. But fer the squaw, we'd be hoppin' eround in that 'ere +loft like a pair o' rats. They'd 'a' sneaked the Dutchman an' his +folks outdoors with tommyhawks over their heads and scattered grease +an' gunpowder an' boughs on the floor, an' set 'er goin' an' me an' you +asleep above the ladder. I reckon we'd had to do some climbin' an' +they's no tellin' where we'd 'a' landed, which there ain't do doubt +'bout that." + +Solomon seemed to know his way by an instinct like that of a dog. They +were in the deep woods, traveling by snow light without a trail. Jack +felt sure they were going wrong, but he said nothing. By and by there +was a glow in the sky ahead. The snow had ceased falling and the +heavens were clear. + +"Ye see we're goin' right," said Solomon. "The sun'll be up in half an +hour, but afore we swing to the trail we better git a bite. Gulf Brook +is down yender in the valley an' I'd kind o' like to taste of it." + +They proceeded down a long, wooded slope and came presently to the +brook whose white floored aisle was walled with evergreen thickets +heavy with snow. Beneath its crystal vault they could hear the song of +the water. It was a grateful sound for they were warm and thirsty. +Near the point where they deposited their packs was a big beaver dam. + +Solomon took his ax and teapot and started up stream. + +"Want to git cl'ar 'bove," said he. + +"Why?" Jack inquired. + +"This 'ere is a beaver nest," said Solomon. + +He returned in a moment with his pot full of beautiful clear water of +which they drank deeply. + +"Ye see the beavers make a dam an' raise the water," Solomon explained. +"When it gits a good ice roof so thick the sun won't burn a hole in it +afore spring, they tap the dam an' let the water out. Then they've got +a purty house to live in with a floor o' clean water an' a glass roof +an' plenty o' green popple sticks stored in the corners to feed on. +They have stiddy weather down thar--no cold winds 'er deep snow to +bother 'em. When the roof rots an' breaks in the sunlight an' slides +off they patch up the dam with mud an' sticks an' they've got a +swimmin' hole to play in." + +They built a fire and spread their blankets on a bed of boughs and had +some hot tea and jerked meat and slices of bread soaked in bacon fat. + +"Ye see them Injuns is doomed," said Solomon. "Some on 'em has got +good sense, but rum kind o' kills all argeyment. Rum is now the great +chief o' the red man. Rum an' Johnson 'll win 'em over. Sir William +was their Great White Father. They trusted him. Guy an' John have got +his name behind 'em. The right an' wrong o' the matter ain't able to +git under the Injun's hide. They'll go with the British an' burn, an' +rob, an' kill. The settlers 'll give hot blood to their childern. The +Injun 'll be forever a brother to the snake. We an' our childern an' +gran'childern 'll curse him an' meller his head. The League o' the +Iroquois 'll be scattered like dust in the wind, an' we'll wonder where +it has gone. But 'fore then, they's goin' to be great trouble. The +white settlers has got to give up their land an' move, 'er turn Tory, +'er be tommy-hawked." + +With a sense of failure, they slowly made their way back to Albany, +riding the last half of it on the sled of a settler who was going to +the river city with a grist and a load of furs. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +ADVENTURES IN THE SERVICE OF THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF + +Soon after they reached home Jack received a letter from Doctor +Franklin who had given up his fruitless work in London and returned to +Philadelphia. + +It said: 'My work in England has been fruitless and I am done with it. +I bring you much love from the fair lady of your choice. That, my +young friend, is a better possession than houses and lands, for even +the flames of war can not destroy it. I have not seen, in all this +life of mine, a dearer creature or a nobler passion. And I will tell +you why it is dear to me, as well as to you. She is like the good +people of England whose heart is with the colonies, but whose will is +being baffled and oppressed. Let us hope it may not be for long. My +good wishes for you involve the whole race whose blood is in my veins. +That race has ever been like the patient ox, treading out the corn, +whose leading trait is endurance. + +"There is little light in the present outlook. You and Binkus will do +well to come here. This, for a time, will be the center of our +activities and you may be needed any moment." + +Jack and Solomon went to Philadelphia soon after news of the battle of +Lexington had reached Albany in the last days of April. They were +among the cheering crowds that welcomed the delegates to the Second +Congress. + +Colonel Washington, the only delegate in uniform, was the most +impressive figure in the Congress. He had come up with a coach and six +horses from Virginia. The Colonel used to say that even with six +horses, one had a slow and rough journey in the mud and sand. His +dignity and noble stature, the fame he had won in the Indian wars and +his wisdom and modesty in council, had silenced opposition and opened +his way. He was a man highly favored of Heaven. The people of +Philadelphia felt the power of his personality. They seemed to regard +him with affectionate awe. All eyes were on him when he walked around. +Not even the magnificent Hancock or the eloquent Patrick Henry +attracted so much attention. Yet he would stop in the street to speak +to a child or to say a pleasant word to an old acquaintance as he did +to Solomon. + +That day in June when the beloved Virginian was chosen to be +Commander-in-Chief of the American forces, Jack and Solomon dined with +Franklin at his home. John Adams of Boston and John Brown, the great +merchant of Providence, were his other guests. The distinguished men +were discussing the choice of Colonel Washington. + +"I think that Ward is a greater soldier," said Brown. "Washington has +done no fighting since '58. Our battles will be in the open. He is a +bush fighter." + +"True, but he is a fighter and, like Achilles, a born master of men," +Franklin answered. "His fiery energy saved Braddock's army from being +utterly wiped out. His gift for deliberation won the confidence of +Congress. He has wisdom and personality. He can express them in calm +debate or terrific action. Above all, he has a sense of the oneness of +America. Massachusetts and Georgia are as dear to him as Virginia." + +"He is a Christian gentleman of proved courage and great sagacity," +said Adams. "His one defeat proved him to be the master of himself. +It was a noble defeat." + +Doctor Franklin, who never failed to show some token of respect for +every guest at his table, turned to Solomon and said: + +"Major Binkus, you have been with him a good deal. What do you think +of Colonel Washington?" + +"I think he's a hull four hoss team an' the dog under the waggin," said +Solomon. + +John Adams often quoted these words of the scout and they became a +saying in New England. + +"To ask you a question is like priming a pump," said Franklin, as he +turned to Solomon with a laugh. "Washington is about four times the +average man, with something to spare and that something is the dog +under the wagon. It would seem that the Lord God has bred and prepared +and sent him among us to be chosen. We saw and knew and voted. There +was no room for doubt in my mind." + +"And while I am a friend of Ward, I am after all convinced that +Washington is the man," said Brown. "Nothing so became him as when he +called upon all gentlemen present to remember that he thought himself +unequal to the task." + +Washington set out in June with Colonel Lee and a company of Light +Horse for Boston where some sixteen thousand men had assembled with +their rifles and muskets to be organized into an army for the defense +of Massachusetts. + + + +2 + +A little later Jack and Solomon followed with eight horses and two +wagons loaded with barrels of gunpowder made under the direction of +Benjamin Franklin and paid for with his money. A British fleet being +in American waters, the overland route was chosen as the safer one. It +was a slow and toilsome journey with here and there a touch of stern +adventure. Crossing the pine barrens of New Jersey, they were held up +by a band of Tory refugees and deprived of all the money in their +pockets. Always Solomon got a squint in one eye and a solemn look in +the other when that matter was referred to. + +"'Twere all due to the freight," he said to a friend. "Ye see their +guns was p'intin' our way and behind us were a ton o' gunpowder. She's +awful particular comp'ny. Makes her nervous to have anybody nigh her +that's bein' shot at. Ye got to be peaceful an' p'lite. Don't let no +argements come up. If some feller wants yer money an' has got a gun +it'll be cheaper to let him have it. I tell ye she's an uppity, +hot-tempered ol' critter--got to be treated jest so er she'll stomp her +foot an' say, 'Scat,' an' then--" + +Solomon smiled and gave his right hand a little upward fling and said +no more, having lifted the burden off his mind. + +On the post road, beyond Horse Neck in Connecticut, they had a more +serious adventure. They had been traveling with a crude map of each +main road, showing the location of houses in the settled country where, +at night, they could find shelter and hospitality. Owing to the +peculiar character of their freight, the Committee in Philadelphia had +requested them to avoid inns and had caused these maps to be sent to +them at post-offices on the road indicating the homes of trusted +patriots from twenty to thirty miles apart. About six o'clock in the +evening of July twentieth, they reached the home of Israel Lockwood, +three miles above Horse Neck. They had ridden through a storm which +had shaken and smitten the earth with its thunder-bolts some of which +had fallen near them. Mr. Lockwood directed them to leave their wagons +on a large empty barn floor and asked them in to supper. + +"If you'll bring suthin' out to us, I guess we better stay by her," +said Solomon. "She might be nervous." + +"Do you have to stay with this stuff all the while?" Lockwood asked. + +"Night an' day," said Solomon. "Don't do to let 'er git lonesome. +To-day when the lightnin' were slappin' the ground on both sides o' me, +I wanted to hop down an' run off in the bush a mile er so fer to see +the kentry, but I jest had to set an' hope that she would hold her +temper an' not go to slappin' back." + +"She," as Solomon called the two loads, was a most exacting mistress. +They never left her alone for a moment. While one was putting away the +horses the other was on guard. They slept near her at night. + +Israel Lockwood sat down for a visit with them when he brought their +food. While they were eating, another terrific thunder-storm arrived. +In the midst of it a bolt struck the barn and rent its roof open and +set the top of the mow afire. Solomon jumped to the rear wheel of one +of the wagons while Jack seized the tongue. In a second it was rolling +down the barn bridge and away. The barn had filled with smoke and +cinders but these dauntless men rolled out the second wagon. + +Rain was falling. Solomon observed a wisp of smoke coming out from +under the roof of this wagon. He jumped in and found a live cinder +which had burned through the cover and fallen on one of the barrels. +It was eating into the wood. Solomon tossed it out in the rain and +smothered "the live spot." He examined the barrels and the wagon floor +and was satisfied. In speaking of that incident next day he said to +Jack: + +"If I hadn't 'a' had purty good control o' my legs, I guess they'd 'a' +run erway with me. I had to put the whip on 'em to git 'em to step in +under that wagon roof--you hear to me." + +While Solomon was engaged with this trying duty, Lockwood had led the +horses out of the stable below and rescued the harness. A heavy shower +was falling. The flames had burst through the roof and in spite of the +rain, the structure was soon destroyed. + +"The wind was favorable and we all stood watching the fire, safe but +helpless to do anything for our host," Jack wrote in a letter. +"Fortunately there was another house near and I took the horses to its +barn for the night. We slept in a woodshed close to the wagons. We +slipped out of trouble by being on hand when it started. If we had +gone into the house for supper, I'm inclined to think that the British +would not have been driven out of Boston. + +"We passed many companies of marching riflemen. In front of one of +these, the fife and drum corps playing behind him, was a young Tory, +who had insulted the company, and was, therefore, made to carry a gray +goose in his arms with this maxim of Poor Richard on his back: 'Not +every goose has feathers on him.' + +"On the twentieth we reported to General Washington in Cambridge. This +was the first time I saw him in the uniform of a general. He wore a +blue coat with buff facings and buff underdress, a small sword, rich +epaulets, a black cockade in his three-cornered hat, and a blue sash +under his coat. His hair was done up in a queue. He was in boots and +spurs. He received us politely, directing a young officer to go with +us to the powder house. There we saw a large number of barrels. + +"'All full of sand,' the officer whispered. 'We keep 'em here to fool +the enemy,' + +"Not far from the powder house I overheard this little dialogue between +a captain and a private. + +"'Bill, go get a pail o' water,' said the captain. + +"'I shan't do it. 'Tain't my turn,' the private answered." + +The men and officers were under many kinds of shelter in the big camp. +There were tents and marquees and rude structures built of boards and +roughly hewn timber, and of stone and turf and brick and brush. Some +had doors and windows wrought out of withes knit together in the +fashion of a basket. There were handsome young men whose thighs had +never felt the touch of steel; elderly men in faded, moth-eaten +uniforms and wigs. + +In their possession were rifles and muskets of varying size, age and +caliber. Some of them had helped to make the thunders of Naseby and +Marston Moor. There were old sabers which had touched the ground when +the hosts of Cromwell had knelt in prayer. + +Certain of the men were swapping clothes. No uniforms had been +provided for this singular assemblage of patriots all eager for +service. Sergeants wore a strip of red on the right shoulder; +corporals a strip of green. Field officers mounted a red cockade; +captains flaunted a like signal in yellow. Generals wore a pink +ribband and aides a green one. + +This great body of men which had come to besiege Boston was able to +shoot and dig. That is about all they knew of the art of war. +Training had begun in earnest. The sergeants were working with squads; +Generals Lee and Ward and Green and Putnam and Sullivan with companies +and regiments from daylight to dark. + +Jack was particularly interested in Putnam--a short, rugged, fat, +white-haired farmer from Connecticut of bluff manners and nasal twang +and of great animation for one of his years--he was then fifty-seven. +He was often seen flying about the camp on a horse. The young man had +read of the heroic exploits of this veteran of the Indian wars. + +Their mission finished, that evening Jack and Solomon called at General +Washington's headquarters. + +[Illustration: Jack Irons and Solomon Binkus with General George +Washington.] + +"General, Doctor Franklin told us to turn over the bosses and wagons to +you," said Solomon. "He didn't tell us what to do with ourselves +'cause 'twasn't necessary an' he knew it. We want to enlist." + +"For what term?" + +"Till the British are licked." + +"You are the kind of men I need," said Washington. "I shall put you on +scout duty. Mr. Irons will go into my regiment of sharp shooters with +the rank of captain. You have told me of his training in Philadelphia." + + + +3 + +So the two friends were enlisted and began service in the army of +Washington. + +A letter from Jack to his mother dated July 25, 1775, is full of the +camp color: + +"General Charles Lee is in command of my regiment," he writes. "He is +a rough, slovenly old dog of a man who seems to bark at us on the +training ground. He has two or three hunting dogs that live with him +in his tent and also a rare gift of profanity which is with him +everywhere--save at headquarters. + +"To-day I saw these notices posted in camp: + +"'Punctual attendance on divine service is required of all not on +actual duty.' + +"'No burning of the pope allowed.' + +"'Fifteen stripes for denying duty.' + +"'Ten for getting drunk.' + +"'Thirty-nine for stealing and desertion.' + +"Rogues are put in terror, lazy men are energized. The quarters are +kept clean, the food is well cooked and in plentiful supply, but the +British over in town are said to be getting hungry." + +Early in August a London letter was forwarded to Jack from +Philadelphia. He was filled with new hope as he read these lines: + +"Dearest Jack: I am sailing for Boston on one of the next troop ships +to join my father. So when the war ends--God grant it may be +soon!--you will not have far to go to find me. Perhaps by Christmas +time we may be together. Let us both pray for that. Meanwhile, I +shall be happier for being nearer you and for doing what I can to heal +the wounds made by this wretched war. I am going to be a nurse in a +hospital. You see the truth is that since I met you, I like all men +better, and I shall love to be trying to relieve their sufferings . . ." + +It was a long letter but above is as much of it as can claim admission +to these pages. + +"Who but she could write such a letter?" Jack asked himself, and then +he held it to his lips a moment. It thrilled him to think that even +then she was probably in Boston. In the tent where he and Solomon +lived when they were both in camp, he found the scout. The night +before Solomon had slept out. Now he had built a small fire in front +of the tent and lain down on a blanket, having delivered his report at +headquarters. + +"Margaret is in Boston," said Jack as soon as he entered, and then +standing in the firelight read the letter to his friend. + +"Thar is a real, genewine, likely gal," said the scout. + +"I wish there were some way of getting to her," the young man remarked. + +"Might as well think o' goin' to hell an' back ag'in," said Solomon. +"Since Bunker Hill the British are like a lot o' hornets. I run on to +one of 'em to-day. He fired at me an' didn't hit a thing but the air +an' run like a scared rabbit. Could 'a' killed him easy but I kind o' +enjoyed seein' him run. He were like chain lightnin' on a greased +pole--you hear to me." + +"If the General will let me, I'm going to try spy duty and see if I can +get into town and out again," he proposed. + +"You keep out o' that business," said Solomon. "They's too many that +know ye over in town. The two Clarkes an' their friends an' Colonel +Hare an' his friends, an' Cap. Preston, an' a hull passle. They know +all 'bout ye. If you got snapped, they'd stan' ye ag'in' a wall an' +put ye out o' the way quick. It would be pie for the Clarkes, an' the +ol' man Hare wouldn't spill no tears over it. Cap. Preston couldn't +save ye that's sart'in. No, sir, I won't 'low it. They's plenty o' +old cusses fer such work." + +For a time Jack abandoned the idea, but later, when Solomon failed to +return from a scouting tour and a report reached camp that he was +captured, the young man began to think of that rather romantic plan +again. He had grown a full beard; his skin was tanned; his clothes +were worn and torn and faded. His father, who had visited the camp +bringing a supply of clothes for his son, had failed, at first, to +recognize him. + +December had arrived. The General was having his first great trial in +keeping an army about him. Terms of enlistment were expiring. Cold +weather had come. The camp was uncomfortable. Regiments of the +homesick lads of New England were leaving or preparing to leave. Jack +and a number of young ministers in the service organized a campaign of +persuasion and many were prevailed upon to reenlist. But hundreds of +boys were hurrying homeward on the frozen roads. The southern +riflemen, who were a long journey from their homes, had not the like +temptation to break away. Bitter rivalry arose between the boys of the +north and the south. The latter, especially the Virginia lads, were in +handsome uniforms. They looked down upon the awkward, homespun ranks +in the regiments of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. Then +came the famous snowball battle between the boys of Virginia and New +England. In the midst of it, Washington arrived and, leaping from his +white horse, was quickly in the thick of the fight. He seized a couple +of Virginia lads and gave them a shaking. + +"No more of this," he commanded. + +It was all over in a moment. The men were running toward their +quarters. + +"There is a wholesome regard here for the Commander-in-Chief," Jack +wrote to his mother. "I look not upon his heroic figure without a +thought of the great burden which rests upon it and a thrill of +emotion. There are many who fear him. Most severely he will punish +the man who neglects his duty, but how gentle and indulgent he can be, +especially to a new recruit, until the latter has learned the game of +war! He is like a good father to these thousands of boys and young +men. No soldier can be flogged when he is near. If he sees a fellow +tied to the halberds, he will ask about his offense and order him to be +taken down. In camp his black servant, Bill, is always with him. Out +of camp he has an escort of light horse. Morning and evening he holds +divine service in his tent. When a man does a brave act, the Chief +summons him to headquarters and gives him a token of his appreciation. +I hope to be called one of these days." + +Soon after this letter was written, the young man was sent for. He and +his company had captured a number of men in a skirmish. + +"Captain, you have done well," said the General. "I want to make a +scout of you. In our present circumstances it's about the most +important, dangerous and difficult work there is to be done here, +especially the work which Solomon Binkus undertook to do. There is no +other in whom I should have so much confidence." + +"You do me great honor," said Jack. "I shall make a poor showing +compared with that of my friend Major Binkus, but I have some knowledge +of his methods and will do my best." + +"You will do well to imitate them with caution," said the General. "He +was a most intrepid and astute observer. In the bush they would not +have captured him. The clearings toward the sea make the work arduous +and full of danger. It is only for men of your strength and courage. +Major Bartlett knows the part of the line which Colonel Binkus +traversed. He will be going out that way to-morrow. I should like +you, sir, to go with him. After one trip I shall be greatly pleased if +you are capable of doing the work alone." + +Orders were delivered and Jack reported to Bartlett, an agreeable, +middle-aged farmer-soldier, who had been on scout duty since July. +They left camp together next morning an hour before reveille. They had +an uneventful day, mostly in wooded flats and ridges, and from the +latter looking across with a spy-glass into Bruteland, as they called +the country held by the British, and seeing only, now and then, an +enemy picket or distant camps. About midday they sat down in a thicket +together for a bite to eat and a whispered conference. + +"Binkus, as you know, had his own way of scouting," said the Major. +"He was an Indian fighter. He liked to get inside the enemy lines and +lie close an' watch 'em an' mebbe hear what they were talking about. +Now an' then he would surprise a British sentinel and disarm him an' +bring him into camp." + +Jack wondered that his friend had never spoken of the capture of +prisoners. + +"He was a modest man," said the young scout. + +"He didn't want the British to know where Solomon Binkus was at work, +and I guess he was wise," said the Major. "I advise you against taking +the chances that he took. It isn't necessary. You would be caught +much sooner than he was." + +That day Bartlett took Jack over Solomon's trail and gave him the lay +of the land and much good advice. A young man of Jack's spirit, +however, is apt to have a degree of enterprise and self-confidence not +easily controlled by advice. He had been traveling alone for three +days when he felt the need of more exciting action. That night he +crossed the Charles River on the ice in a snow-storm and captured a +sentinel and brought him back to camp. + +About this time he wrote another letter to the family, in which he said: + +"The boys are coming back from home and reenlisting. They have not +been paid--no one has been paid--but they are coming back. More of +them are coming than went away. + +"They all tell one story. The women and the old men made a row about +their being at home in time of war. On Sunday the minister called them +shirks. Everybody looked askance at them. A committee of girls went +from house to house reenlisting the boys. So here they are, and +Washington has an army, such as it is." + + + +4 + +Soon after that the daring spirit of the youth led him into a great +adventure. It was on the night of January fifth that Jack penetrated +the British lines in a snow-storm and got close to an outpost in a +strip of forest. There a camp-fire was burning. He came close. His +garments had been whitened by the storm. The air was thick with snow, +his feet were muffled in a foot of it. He sat by a stump scarcely +twenty feet from the fire, seeing those in its light, but quite +invisible. There he could distinctly hear the talk of the Britishers. +It related to a proposed evacuation of the city by Howe. + +"I'm weary of starving to death in this God-forsaken place," said one +of them. "You can't keep an army without meat or vegetables. I've +eaten fish till I'm getting scales on me." + +"Colonel Riffington says that the army will leave here within a +fortnight," another observed. + +It was important information which had come to the ear of the young +scout. The talk was that of well bred Englishmen who were probably +officers. + +"We ought not to speak of those matters aloud," one of them remarked. +"Some damned Yankee may be listening like the one we captured." + +"He was Amherst's old scout," said another. "He swore a blue streak +when we shoved him into jail. They don't like to be treated like +rebels. They want to be prisoners of war." + +"I don't know why they shouldn't," another answered. "If this isn't a +war, I never saw one. There are twenty thousand men under arms across +the river and they've got us nailed in here tighter than a drum. They +used to say in London that the rebellion was a teapot tempest and that +a thousand grenadiers could march to the Alleghanies in a week and +subdue the country on the way. You are aware of how far we have +marched from the sea. It's just about to where we are now. We've gone +about five miles in eight months. How many hundreds of years will pass +before we reach the Alleghanies? But old Gage will tell you that it +isn't a war." + +A young man came along with his rifle on his shoulder. + +"Hello, Bill!" said one of the men. "Going out on post?" + +"I am, God help me," the youth answered. "It's what I'd call a hell of +a night." + +The sentinel passed close by Jack on his way to his post. The latter +crept away and followed, gradually closing in upon his quarry. When +they were well away from the fire, Jack came close and called, "Bill." + +The sentinel stopped and faced about. + +"You've forgotten something," said Jack, in a genial tone. + +"What is it?" + +"Your caution," Jack answered, with his pistol against the breast of +his enemy. "I shall have to kill you if you call or fail to obey me. +Give me the rifle and go on ahead. When I say gee go to the right, haw +to the left." + +So the capture was made, and on the way out Jack picked up the sentinel +who stood waiting to be relieved and took both men into camp. + +From documents on the person of one of these young Britishers, it +appeared that General Clarke was in command of a brigade behind the +lines which Jack had been watching and robbing. + +When Jack delivered his report the Chief called him a brave lad and +said: + +"It is valuable information you have brought to me. Do not speak of +it. Let me warn you. Captain, that from now on they will try to trap +you. Perhaps, even, you may look for daring enterprises on that part +of their line." + +The General was right. The young scout ran into a most daring and +successful British enterprise on the twentieth of January. The snow +had been swept away in a warm rain and the ground had frozen bare, or +it would not have been possible. Jack had got to a strip of woods in a +lonely bit of country near the British lines and was climbing a tall +tree to take observations when he saw a movement on the ground beneath +him. He stopped and quickly discovered that the tree was surrounded by +British soldiers. One of them, who stood with a raised rifle, called +to him: + +"Irons, I will trouble you to drop your pistols and come down at once." + +Jack saw that he had run into an ambush. He dropped his pistols and +came down. He had disregarded the warning of the General. He should +have been looking out for an ambush. A squad of five men stood about +him with rifles in hand. Among them was Lionel Clarke, his right +sleeve empty. + +"We've got you at last--you damned rebel!" said Clarke. + +"I suppose you need some one to swear at," Jack answered. + +"And to shoot at," Clarke suggested. + +"I thought that you would not care for another match with me," the +young scout remarked as they began to move away. + +"Hereafter you will be treated like a rebel and not like a gentleman," +Clarke answered. + +"What do you mean?" + +"I mean that you will be standing, blindfolded against a wall." + +"That kind of a threat doesn't scare me," Jack answered. "We have too +many of your men in our hands." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +IN BOSTON JAIL + +Jack was marched under a guard into the streets of Boston. Church +bells were ringing. It was Sunday morning. Young Clarke came with the +guard beyond the city limits. They had seemed to be very careless in +the control of their prisoner. They gave him every chance to make a +break for liberty. Jack was not fooled. + +"I see that you want to get rid of me," said Jack to the young officer. +"You'd like to have me run a race with your bullets. That is base +ingratitude. I was careful of you when we met and you do not seem to +know it." + +"I know how well you can shoot," Clarke answered. "But you do not know +how well I can shoot." + +"And when I learn, I want to have a fair chance for my life." + +Beyond the city limits young Clarke, who was then a captain, left them, +and Jack proceeded with the others. + +The streets were quiet--indeed almost deserted. There were no children +playing on the common. A crowd was coming out of one of the churches. +In the midst of it the prisoner saw Preston and Lady Hare. They were +so near that he could have touched them with his hand as he passed. +They did not see him. He noted the name of the church and its +minister. In a few minutes he was delivered at the jail--a noisome, +ill-smelling, badly ventilated place. The jailer was a tall, slim, +sallow man with a thin gray beard. His face and form were familiar. +He heard Jack's name with a look of great astonishment. Then the young +man recognized him. He was Mr. Eliphalet Pinhorn, who had so +distinguished himself on the stage trip to Philadelphia some years +before. + +"It is a long time since we met," said Jack. + +Mr. Pinhorn's face seemed to lengthen. His mouth and eyes opened wide +in a silent demand for information. + +Jack reminded him of the day and circumstances. + +For a moment Mr. Pinhorn held his hand against his forehead and was +dumb with astonishment. Then he said: + +"I knew! I foresaw! But it is not too late." + +"Too late for what?" + +"To turn, to be redeemed, loved, forgiven. Think it over, sir. Think +it over." + +Jack's name and age and residence were registered. Then Pinhorn took +his arm and walked with him down the corridor toward an open door. +About half-way to the door he stopped and put his hand on Jack's +shoulder and said with a look of great seriousness: + +"A sinking cause! Death! Destruction! Misery! The ship is going +down. Leave it." + +"You are misinformed. There is no leak in our ship," said Jack. + +Mr. Pinhorn shut his eyes and shook his head mournfully. Then, with a +wave of his hand, he pronounced the doom of the western world in one +whispered word: + +"Ashes!" + +For a moment his face and form were alive with exclamatory suggestion. +Then he shook his head and said: + +"Doomed! Poor soul! Go out in the yard with your fellow rebels. They +are taking the air." + +The yard was an opening walled in by the main structure and its two +wings and a wooden fence some fifteen feet high. There was a ragged, +dirty rabble of "rebel" prisoners, among whom was Solomon Binkus, all +out for an airing. The old scout had lost flesh and color. He held +Jack's hand and stood for a moment without speaking. + +"I never was so glad and so sorry in my life," said Solomon. "It's a +hell-mogrified place to be in. Smells like a blasted whale an' is as +cold as the north side of a grave stun on a Janooary night, an' +starvation fare, an' they's a man here that's come down with the +smallpox. How'd ye git ketched?" + +Jack briefly told of his capture. + +"I got sick one day an' couldn't hide 'cause I were makin' tracks in +the snow so I had to give in," said Solomon. "Margaret has been here, +but they won't let 'er come no more 'count o' the smallpox. Sends me +suthin' tasty ev'ry day er two. I tol' er all 'bout ye. I guess the +smallpox couldn't keep 'er 'way if she knowed you was here. But she +won't be 'lowed to know it. This 'ere Clarke boy has p'isoned the +jail. Nobody 'll come here 'cept them that's dragged. He's got it all +fixed fer ye. I wouldn't wonder if he'd be glad to see ye rotted up +with smallpox." + +"What kind of a man is Pinhorn?" + +"A whey-faced hypercrit an' a Tory. Licks the feet o' the British when +they come here." + +Jack and Solomon lay for weeks in this dirty, noisome jail, where their +treatment was well calculated to change opinions not deeply rooted in +firm soil. They did not fear the smallpox, as both were immune. But +their confinement was, as doubtless it was intended to be, memorably +punitive. They were "rebels"--law-breakers, human rubbish whose +offenses bordered upon treason. The smallpox patient was soon taken +away, but other conditions were not improved. They slept on straw +infested with vermin. Their cover and food were insufficient and "not +fit fer a dog," in the words of Solomon. Some of the boys gave in and +were set free on parole, and there was one, at least, who went to work +in the ranks of the British. + +There is a passage in a letter of Jack Irons regarding conditions in +the jail which should be quoted here: + +"One boy has lung fever and every night I hear him sobbing. His sorrow +travels like fire among the weaker men. I have heard a number of cold, +half-starved, homesick lads crying like women in the middle of the +night. It makes me feel like letting go myself. There is one man who +swears like a trooper when it begins. I suppose that I shall be as +hysterical as the rest of them in time. I don't believe General Howe +knows what is going on here. The jail is run by American Tories, who +are wreaking their hatred on us." + +Jack sent a line to the rector of the Church of England, where he had +seen Preston and Lady Howe, inviting him to call, but saw him not, and +no word came from him. Letters were entrusted to Mr. Pinhorn for +Preston, Margaret and General Sir Benjamin Hare with handsome payment +for their delivery, but they waited in vain for an answer. + +"They's suthin' wrong 'bout this 'ere business," said Solomon. "You'll +find that ol' Pinhorn has got a pair o' split hoofs under his luther." + +One day Jack was sent for by Mr. Pinhorn and conducted to his office. + +"Honor! Good luck! Relief!" was the threefold exclamation with which +the young man was greeted. + +"What do you mean?" Jack inquired. + +"General Howe! You! Message to Mr. Washington! To-night!" + +"Do you mean General Washington?" + +"No. Mister! Title not recognized here!"' + +"I shall take no message to 'Mr.' Washington," Jack answered. "If I +did, I am sure that he would not receive it." + +Mr. Pinhorn's face expressed a high degree of astonishment. + +"Pride! Error! Persistent error!" he exclaimed. "Never mind! +Details can be fixed. You are to go to-night. Return to-morrow!" + +The prospect of getting away from his misery even for a day or two was +alluring. + +"Let me have the details in writing and I will let you know at once," +he answered. + +The plan was soon delivered. Jack was to pass the lines on the +northeast front in the vicinity of Breed's Hill with a British +sergeant, under a white flag, and proceed to Washington's headquarters. + +"Looks kind o' neevarious," said Solomon when they were out in the jail +yard together. "Looks like ye might be grabbed in the jaws o' a trap. +Nobody's name is signed to this 'ere paper. There's nothin' behind the +hull thing but ol' Pinhorn an'--who? I'm skeered o' Mr. Who? Pinhorn +an' Who an' a Dark Night! There's a pardnership! Kind o' well mated! +They want ye to put yer life in their hands. What fer? Wal, ye know +it 'pears to me they'd be apt to be car'less with it. It's jest +possible that there's some feller who'll be happier if you was rubbed +off the slate. War is goin' on an' you belong to that breed o' pups +they call rebels. A dead rebel don't cause no hard feelin's in the +British army. Now, Jack, you stay where ye be. 'Tain't a fust rate +place, but it's better'n a hole in the ground. Suthin' is goin' to +happen--you mark my words, boy. I kind o' think Margaret is gittin' +anxious to talk with me an' kin't be kept erway no longer. Mebbe the +British army is goin' to move. Ye know fer two days an' nights we been +hearin' cannon fire." + +"Solomon, I'm not going out to be shot in the back," said the young +man. "If I am to be executed, it must be done with witnesses in proper +form. I shall refuse to go. If Margaret should come, and it is +possible, I want you to sit down with her in front of my cell so that I +can see her, but do not tell her that I am here. It would increase her +trouble and do no good. Besides, I could not permit myself to touch +her hand even, but I would love to look into her face." + +So it happened that the proposal which had come to Jack through Mr. +Pinhorn was firmly declined, whereupon the astonishment of that +official was expressed in a sorrowful gesture and the exclamation: +"Doomed! Stubborn youth!" + + + +2 + +Solomon Binkus was indeed a shrewd man. In the faded packet of letters +is one which recites the history of the confinement of the two scouts +in the Boston jail. It tells of the coming of Margaret that very +evening with an order from the Adjutant General directing Mr. Pinhorn +to allow her to talk with the "rebel prisoner Solomon Binkus." + +The official conducted her to the iron grated door in front of +Solomon's cell. + +"I will talk with him in the corridor, if you please," she said, as she +gave the jailer a guinea, whereupon he became most obliging. The cell +door was opened and chairs were brought for them to sit upon. Cannons +were roaring again and the sound was nearer than it had been before. + +"Have you heard from Jack?" she asked when they were seated in front of +the cell of the latter. + +"Yes, ma'am. He is well, but like a man shot with rock salt." + +"What do you mean?" + +"Sufferin'," Solomon answered. "Kind o' riddled with thoughts o' you +an' I wouldn't wonder." + +"Did you get a letter?" she asked. + +"No. A young officer who was ketched an' brought here t'other day has +told me all 'bout him." + +"Is the officer here?" + +"Yes, ma'am," Solomon answered. + +"I want to see him--I want to talk with him. I must meet the man who +has come from the presence of my Jack." + +Solomon was visibly embarrassed. He was in trouble for a moment and +then he answered: "I'm 'fraid 'twouldn't do no good." + +"Why?" + +"'Cause he's deef an' dumb." + +"But do you not understand? It would be a comfort to look at him." + +"He's in this cell, but I wouldn't know how to call him," Solomon +assured her. + +She went to Jack's door and peered at him through the grating. He was +lying on his straw bed. The light which came from candles set in +brackets on the stone wall of the corridor was dim. + +"Poor, poor fellow!" she exclaimed. "I suppose he is thinking of his +sweetheart or of some one very dear to him. His eyes are covered with +his handkerchief. So you have lately seen the boy I love! How I wish +you could tell me about him!" + +The voice of the young lady had had a curious effect upon that +nerve-racked, homesick company of soldier lads in prison. Doubtless it +had reminded some of dear and familiar voices which they had lost hope +of hearing again. + +One began to groan and sob, then another and another. + +"Ain't that like the bawlin' o' the damned?" Solomon asked. "Some on +'em is sick; some is wore out. They're all half starved!" + +"It is dreadful!" said she, as she covered her eyes with her +handkerchief. "I can not help thinking that any day _he_ may have to +come here. I shall go to see General Howe to-night." + +"To-morrer I'll git this 'ere boy to write out all he knows 'bout Jack, +but if ye see it, ye'll have to come 'ere an' let me put it straight +into yer hands," Solomon assured her. + +"I'll be here at ten o'clock," she said, and went away. + +Pinhorn stepped into the corridor as Solomon called to Jack: + +"Things be goin' to improve, ol' man. Hang on to yer hosses. The +English people is to have a talk with General Howe to-night an' suthin' +'ll be said, now you hear to me. That damn German King ain't a-goin' +to have his way much longer here in Boston jail." + +Early next morning shells began to fall in the city. Suddenly the +firing ceased. At nine o'clock all prisoners in the jail were sent +for, to be exchanged. Preston came with the order from General Howe +and news of a truce. + +"This means yer army is lightin' out," Solomon said to him. + +"The city will be evacuated," was Preston's answer. + +"Could I send a message to Gin'ral Hare's house?" + +"The General and his brigade and family sailed for another port at +eight. If you wish, I'll take your message." + +Solomon delivered to Preston a letter written by Jack to Margaret. It +told of his capture and imprisonment. + +"Better than I, you will know if there is good ground for these dark +suspicions which have come to us," he wrote. "As well as I, you will +know what a trial I underwent last evening. That I had the strength to +hold my peace, I am glad, knowing that you are the happier to-day +because of it." + +The third of March had come. The sun was shining. The wind was in the +south. They were not strong enough to walk, so Preston had brought +horses for them to ride. There were long patches of snow on the +Dorchester Heights. A little beyond they met the brigade of Putnam. +It was moving toward the city and had stopped for its noon mess. The +odor of fresh beef and onions was in the air. + +"Cat's blood an' gunpowder!" said Solomon. "Tie me to a tree." + +"What for?" Preston asked. + +"I'll kill myself eatin'," the scout declared. "I'm so got durn hungry +I kin't be trusted." + +"I guess we'll have to put the brakes on each other," Jack remarked. + +"An' it'll be steep goin'," said Solomon. + +Washington rode up to the camp with a squad of cavalry while they were +eating. He had a kind word for every liberated man. To Jack he said: + +"I am glad to address you as Colonel Irons. You have suffered much, +but it will be a comfort for you to know that the information you +brought enabled me to hasten the departure of the British." + +Turning to Solomon, he added: + +"Colonel Binkus, I am indebted to you for faithful, effective and +valiant service. You shall have a medal." + +"Gin'ral Washington, we're a-goin' to lick 'em," said Solomon. "We're +a-goin' to break their necks." + +"Colonel, you are very confident," the General answered with a smile. + +"You'll see," Solomon continued. "God A'mighty is sick o' tyrants. +They're doomed." + +"Let us hope so," said the Commander-in-Chief. "But let us not forget +the words of Poor Richard: 'God helps those who help themselves.'" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +JACK AND SOLOMON MEET THE GREAT ALLY + +The Selectmen of Boston, seeing the city threatened with destruction, +had made terms with Washington for the British army. It was to be +allowed peaceably to abandon the city and withdraw in its fleet of one +hundred and fifty vessels. The American army was now well organized +and in high spirit. Washington waited on Dorchester Heights for the +evacuation of Boston to be completed. Meanwhile, a large force was +sent to New York to assist in the defense of that city. Jack and +Solomon went with it. On account of their physical condition, horses +were provided for them, and on their arrival each was to have a leave +of two weeks, "for repairs," as Solomon put it. They went up to Albany +for a rest and a visit and returned eager for the work which awaited +them. + +They spent a spring and summer of heavy toil in building defenses and +training recruits. The country was aflame with excitement. Rhode +Island and Connecticut declared for independence. The fire ran across +their borders and down the seaboard. Other colonies were making or +discussing like declarations. John Adams, on his way to Congress, told +of the defeat of the Northern army in Canada and how it was heading +southward "eaten with vermin, diseased, scattered, dispirited, unclad, +unfed, disgraced." Colonies were ignoring the old order of things, +electing their own assemblies and enacting their own laws. The Tory +provincial assemblies were unable to get men enough together to make a +pretense of doing business. + +In June, by a narrow margin, the Congress declared for independence, on +the motion of Richard Henry Lee of Virginia. A declaration was drafted +and soon adopted by all the Provincial Congresses. It was engrossed on +parchment and signed by the delegates of the thirteen states on the +second of August. Jack went to that memorable scene as an aid to John +Adams, who was then the head of the War Board. + +He writes in a letter to his friends in Albany: + +"They were a solemn looking lot of men with the exception of Doctor +Franklin and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. The latter wore a +long-tailed buff coat with round gold buttons. He is a tall, big-boned +man. I have never seen longer arms than he has. His wrists and hands +are large and powerful. + +"When they began to sign the parchment he smiled and said: + +"'Gentlemen, Benjamin Franklin should have written this document. The +committee, however, knew well that he would be sure to put a joke in +it.' + +"'Let me remind you that behind it all is the greatest joke in +history,' said the philosopher. + +"'What is that?' Mr. Jefferson asked, + +"'The British House of Lords,' said Franklin. + +"A smile broke through the cloud of solemnity on those many faces, and +was followed by a little ripple of laughter. + +"'The committee wishes you all to know that it is indebted to Doctor +Franklin for wise revision of the instrument,' said Mr. Jefferson. + +"When the last man had signed, Mr. Jefferson rose and said: + +"'Gentlemen, we have taken a long and important step. On this new +ground we must hang together to the end.' + +"'We must all hang together or assuredly we shall all hang separately,' +said Franklin with that gentle, fatherly smile of his. + +"Again the signers laughed. + +"Last night I heard Patrick Henry speak. He thrilled us with his +eloquence. He is a spare but rugged man, whose hands have been used to +toil like my own. They tell me that he was a small merchant, farmer +and bar-keeper down in Virginia before he became a lawyer and that he +educated himself largely by the reading of history. He has a rapid, +magnificent diction, slightly flavored with the accent of the Scot." + + + +2 + +In August, Howe had moved a part of his army from Halifax to Staten +Island and offensive operations were daily expected in Washington's +army. Jack hurried to his regiment, then in camp with others on the +heights back of Brooklyn. The troops there were not ready for a strong +attack. General Greene, who was in command of the division, had +suddenly fallen ill. Jack crossed the river the night of his arrival +with a message to General Washington. The latter returned with the +young Colonel to survey the situation. They found Solomon at +headquarters. He had discovered British scouts in the wooded country +near Gravesend. He and Jack were detailed to keep watch of that part +of the island and its shores with horses posted at convenient points so +that, if necessary, they could make quick reports. + +Next day, far beyond the outposts in the bush, they tied their horses +in the little stable near Remsen's cabin on the south road and went on +afoot through the bush. Jack used to tell his friends that the +singular alertness and skill of Solomon had never been so apparent as +in the adventures of that day. + +"Go careful," Solomon warned as they parted. "Keep a-goin' south an' +don't worry 'bout me." + +"I thought that I knew how to be careful, but Solomon took the conceit +out of me," Jack was wont to say. "I was walking along in the bush +late that day when I thought I saw a move far ahead. I stopped and +suddenly discovered that Solomon was standing beside me. + +"I was so startled that I almost let a yelp out of me. + +"He beckoned to me and I followed him. He began to walk about as fast +as I had ever seen him go. He had been looking for me. Soon he slowed +his gait and said in a low voice: + +"'Ain't ye a leetle bit car'less? An Injun wouldn't have no trouble +smashin' yer head with a tommyhawk. In this 'ere business ye got to +have a swivel in yer neck an' keep 'er twistin'. Ye got to know what's +goin' on a-fore an' behind ye an' on both sides. We must p'int fer +camp. This mornin' the British begun to land an army at Gravesend. +Out on the road they's waggin loads o' old folks an' women, an' babies +on their way to Brooklyn. We got to skitter 'long. Some o' their +skirmishers have been workin' back two ways an' may have us cut off.'" + +Suddenly Solomon stopped and lifted his hand and listened. Then he +dropped and put his ear to the ground. He beckoned to Jack, who crept +near him. + +"Somebody's nigh us afore an' behind," he whispered. "We better hide +till dark comes. You crawl into that ol' holler log. I'll nose myself +under a brush pile." + +They were in a burnt slash where the soft timber had been cut some time +before. The land was covered with a thick, spotty growth of poplar and +wild cherry and brush heaps and logs half-rotted. The piece of timber +to which Solomon had referred was the base log of a giant hemlock +abandoned, no doubt, because, when cut, it was found to be a shell. It +was open only at the butt end. Its opening was covered by an immense +cobweb. Jack brushed it away and crept backward into the shell. He +observed that many black hairs were caught upon the rough sides of this +singular chamber. Through the winter it must have been the den of a +black bear. As soon as he had settled down, with his face some two +feet from the sunlit air of the outer world. Jack observed that the +industrious spider had begun again to throw his silvery veil over the +great hole in the log's end. He watched the process. First the outer +lines of the structure were woven across the edges of the opening and +made fast at points around its imperfect circle. Then the weaver +dropped to opposite points, unreeling his slender rope behind him and +making it taut and fast. He was no slow and clumsy workman. He knew +his task and rushed about, rapidly strengthening his structure with +parallel lines, having a common center, until his silken floor was in +place again and ready for the death dance of flies and bees and wasps. +Soon a bumble bee was kicking and quivering like a stricken ox on its +surface. The spider rushed upon him and buried his knives in the back +and sides of his prey. The young man's observation of this interesting +process was interrupted by the sound of voices and the tread of feet. +They were British voices. + +"They came this way. I saw them when they turned," a voice was saying. +"If I had been a little closer, I could have potted both men with one +bullet." + +"Why didn't you take a shot anyhow?" another asked. + +"I was creeping up, trying to get closer. They have had to hide or run +upon the heels of our people." + +A number of men were now sitting on the very log in which Jack was +hidden. The young scout saw the legs of a man standing opposite the +open end of the log. Then these memorable words were spoken: + +"This log is good cover for a man to hide in, but nobody is hid in it. +There's a big spider's web over the opening." + +There was more talk, in which it came out that nine thousand men were +crossing to Gravesend. + +"Come on, boys, I'm going back," said one of the party. Whereupon they +went away. + +Dusk was falling. Jack waited for a move from Solomon. In a few +minutes he heard a stir in the brush. Then he could dimly see the face +of his friend beyond the spider's web. + +"Come on, my son," the latter whispered. With a feeling of real +regret, Jack rent the veil of the spider and came out of his +hiding-place. He brushed the silken threads from his hair and brow as +he whispered: + +"That old spider saved me--good luck to him!" + +"We'll keep clus together," Solomon whispered. "We got to push right +on an' work 'round 'em. If any one gits in our way, he'll have to +change worlds sudden, that's all. We mus' git to them hosses 'fore +midnight." + +Darkness had fallen, but the moon was rising when they set out. +Solomon led the way, with that long, loose stride of his. Their +moccasined feet were about as noiseless as a cat's. On and on they +went until Solomon stopped suddenly and stood listening and peering +into the dark bush beyond. Jack could hear and see nothing. Solomon +turned and took a new direction without a word and moving with the +stealth of a hunted Indian. Jack followed closely. Soon they were +sinking to their knees in a mossy tamarack swamp, but a few minutes of +hard travel brought them to the shore of a pond. + +"Wait here till I git the canoe," Solomon whispered. + +The latter crept into a thicket and soon Jack could hear him cautiously +shoving his canoe into the water. A little later the young man sat in +the middle of the shell of birch bark while Solomon knelt in its stern +with his paddle. Silently he pushed through the lilied margin of the +pond into clear water. The moon was hidden behind the woods. The +still surface of the pond was now a glossy, dark plane between two +starry deeps--one above, the other beneath. In the shadow of the +forest, near the far shore, Solomon stopped and lifted his voice in the +long, weird cry of the great bush owl. This he repeated three times, +when there came an answer out of the woods. + +"That's a warnin' fer ol' Joe Thrasher," Solomon whispered. "He'll go +out an' wake up the folks on his road an' start 'em movin'." + +They landed and Solomon hid his canoe in a thicket. + +"Now we kin skitter right long, but I tell ye we got purty clus to 'em +back thar." + +"How did you know it?" + +"Got a whiff o' smoke. They was strung out from the pond landing over +'crost the trail. They didn't cover the swamp. Must 'a' had a fire +for tea early in the evenin'. Wherever they's an Englishman, thar's +got to be tea." + +Before midnight they reached Remsen's barn and about two o'clock +entered the camp on lathering horses. As they dismounted, looking back +from the heights of Brooklyn toward the southeast, they could see a +great light from many fires, the flames of which were leaping into the +sky. + +"Guess the farmers have set their wheat stacks afire," said Solomon. +"They're all scairt an' started fer town." + +General Washington was with his forces some miles north of the other +shore of the river. A messenger was sent for him. Next day the +Commander-in-Chief found his Long Island brigades in a condition of +disorder and panic. Squads and companies, eager for a fight, were +prowling through the bush in the south like hunters after game. A +number of the new Connecticut boys had deserted. Some of them had been +captured and brought back. In speaking of the matter, Washington said: + +"We must be tolerant. These lads are timid. They have been dragged +from the tender scenes of domestic life. They are unused to the +restraints of war. We must not be too severe." + +Jack heard the Commander-in-Chief when he spoke these words. + +"The man has a great heart in him, as every great man must," he wrote +to his father. "I am beginning to love him. I can see that these +thousands in the army are going to be bound to him by an affection like +that of a son for a father. With men like Washington and Franklin to +lead us, how can we fail?" + +The next night Sir Henry Clinton got around the Americans and turned +their left flank. Smallwood's command and that of Colonel Jack Irons +were almost destroyed, twenty-two hundred having been killed or taken. +Jack had his left arm shot through and escaped only by the swift and +effective use of his pistols and hanger, and by good luck, his horse +having been "only slightly cut in the withers." The American line gave +way. Its unseasoned troops fled into Brooklyn. There was the end of +the island. They could go no farther without swimming. With a British +fleet in the harbor under Admiral Lord Howe, the situation was +desperate. Sir Henry had only to follow and pen them in and unlimber +his guns. The surrender of more than half of Washington's army would +have to follow. At headquarters, the most discerning minds saw that +only a miracle could prevent it. + +The miracle arrived. Next day a fog thicker than the darkness of a +clouded night enveloped the island and lay upon the face of the waters. +Calmly, quickly Washington got ready to move his troops. That night, +under the friendly cover of the fog, they were quietly taken across the +East River, with a regiment of Marblehead sea dogs, under Colonel +Glover, manning the boats. Fortunately, the British army had halted, +waiting for clear weather. + + + +3 + +For nearly two weeks Jack was nursing his wound in Washington's army +hospital, which consisted of a cabin, a tent, a number of cow stables +and an old shed on the heights of Harlem. Jack had lain in a stable. + +Toward the end of his confinement, John Adams came to see him. + +"Were you badly hurt ?" the great man asked. + +"Scratched a little, but I'll be back in the service to-morrow," Jack +replied. + +"You do not look like yourself quite. I think that I will ask the +Commander-in-Chief to let you go with me to Philadelphia. I have some +business there and later Franklin and I are going to Staten Island to +confer with Admiral Lord Howe. We are a pair of snappish old dogs and +need a young man like you to look after us. You would only have to +keep out of our quarrels, attend to our luggage and make some notes in +the conference." + +So it happened that Jack went to Philadelphia with Mr. Adams, and, +after two days at the house of Doctor Franklin, set out with the two +great men for the conference on Staten Island. He went in high hope +that he was to witness the last scene of the war. + +In Amboy he sent a letter to his father, which said: + +"Mr. Adams is a blunt, outspoken man. If things do not go to his +liking, he is quick to tell you. Doctor Franklin is humorous and +polite, but firm as a God-placed mountain. You may put your shoulder +against the mountain and push and think it is moving, but it isn't. He +is established. He has found his proper bearings and is done with +moving. These two great men differ in little matters. They had a +curious quarrel the other evening. We had reached New Brunswick on our +way north. The taverns were crowded. I ran from one to another trying +to find entertainment for my distinguished friends. At last I found a +small chamber with one bed in it and a single window. The bed nearly +filled the room. No better accommodation was to be had. I had left +them sitting on a bench in a little grove near the large hotel, with +the luggage near them. When I returned they were having a hot argument +over the origin of northeast storms, the Doctor asserting that he had +learned by experiment that they began in the southwest and proceeded in +a north-easterly direction. I had to wait ten minutes for a chance to +speak to them. Mr. Adams was hot faced, the Doctor calm and smiling. +I imparted the news. + +"'God of Israel!' Mr. Adams exclaimed. 'Is it not enough that I have +to agree with you? Must I also sleep with you?' + +"'Sir, I hope that you must not, but if you must, I beg that you will +sleep more gently than you talk,' said Franklin. + +"I went with them to their quarters carrying the luggage. On the way +Mr. Adams complained that he had picked up a flea somewhere. + +"'The flea, sir, is a small animal, but a big fact,' said Franklin. +'You alarm me. Two large men and a flea will be apt to crowd our +quarters.' + +"In the room they argued with a depth of feeling which astonished me, +as to whether the one window should be open or closed. Mr. Adams had +closed it. + +"'Please do not close the window,' said Franklin. 'We shall suffocate.' + +"'Sir, I am an invalid and afraid of the night air,' said Adams rather +testily. + +"'The air of this room will be much worse for you than that +out-of-doors,' Franklin retorted. He was then between the covers. 'I +beg of you to open the window and get into bed and if I do not prove my +case to your satisfaction, I will consent to its being closed.' + +"I lay down on a straw filled mattress outside their door. I heard Mr. +Adams open the window and get into bed. Then Doctor Franklin began to +expound his theory of colds. He declared that cold air never gave any +one a cold; that respiration destroyed a gallon of air a minute and +that all the air in the room would be consumed in an hour. He went on +and on and long before he had finished his argument, Mr. Adams was +snoring, convinced rather by the length than the cogency of the +reasoning. Soon the two great men, whose fame may be said to fill the +earth, were asleep in the same bed in that little box of a room and +snoring in a way that suggested loud contention. I had to laugh as I +listened. Mr. Adams would seem to have been defeated, for, by and by, +I heard him muttering as he walked the floor." + +Howe's barge met the party at Amboy and conveyed them to the landing +near his headquarters. It was, however, a fruitless journey. Howe +wished to negotiate on the old ground now abandoned forever. The +people of America had spoken for independence--a new, irrevocable fact +not to be put aside by ambassadors. The colonies were lost. The +concessions which the wise Franklin had so urgently recommended to the +government of England, Howe seemed now inclined to offer, but they +could not be entertained. + +"Then my government can only maintain its dignity by fighting," said +Howe. + +"That is a mistaken notion," Franklin answered; "It will be much more +dignified for your government to acknowledge its error than to persist +in it." + +"We shall fight," Howe declared. + +"And you will have more fighting to do than you anticipate," said +Franklin. "Nature is our friend and ally. The Lord has prepared our +defenses. They are the sea, the mountains, the forest and the +character of our people. Consider what you have accomplished. At an +expense of eight million pounds, you have killed about eight hundred +Yankees. They have cost you ten thousand pounds a head. Meanwhile, at +least a hundred thousand children have been born in America. There are +the factors in your problem. How much time and money will be required +for the job of killing all of us?" + +The British Admiral ignored the query. + +"My powers are limited," said he, "but I am authorized to grant pardons +and in every way to exercise the King's paternal solicitude." + +"Such an offer shows that your proud nation has no flattering opinion +of us," Franklin answered. "We, who are the injured parties, have not +the baseness to entertain it. You will forgive me for reminding you +that the King's paternal solicitude has been rather trying. It has +burned our defenseless towns in mid-winter; if has incited the savages +to massacre our farmers' in the back country; it has driven us to a +declaration of independence. Britain and America are now distinct +states. Peace can be considered only on that basis. You wish to +prevent our trade from passing into foreign channels. Let me remind +you, also, that the profit of no trade can ever be equal to the expense +of holding it with fleets and armies." + +"On such a basis I am not empowered to treat with you," Howe answered. +"We shall immediately move against your army." + +The conference ended. The ambassadors and their secretary shook hands +with the British Admiral. + +"Mr. Irons, I have heard much of you," said the latter as he held +Jack's hand. "You are deeply attached to a young lady whom I admire +and whose father is my friend. I offer you a chance to leave this +troubled land and go to London and marry and lead a peaceable, +Christian life. You may keep your principles, if you wish, as I have +no use for them. You will find sympathizers in England." + +"Lord Howe, your kindness touches me," the young man answered. "What +you propose is a great temptation. It is like Calypso's offer of +immortal happiness to Ulysses. I love England. I love peace, and more +than either, I love the young lady, but I couldn't go and keep my +principles." + +"Why not, sir?" + +"Because we are all of a mind with our Mr. Patrick Henry. We put +Liberty above happiness and even above life. So I must stay and help +fight her battles, and when I say it I am grinding my own heart under +my heel. Don't think harshly of me. I can not help it. The feeling +is bred in my bones." + +His Lordship smiled politely and bowed as the three men withdrew. + +Franklin took the hand of the young man and pressed it silently as they +were leaving the small house in which Howe had established himself. + +Jack, who had been taking notes of the fruitless talk of these great +men, was sorely disappointed. He could see no prospect now of peace. + +"My hopes are burned to the ground," he said to Doctor Franklin. + +"It is a time of sacrifice," the good man answered. "You have the +invincible spirit that looks into the future and gives all it has. You +are America." + +"I have been thinking too much of myself," Jack answered. "Now I am +ready to lay down my life in this great cause of ours." + +"Boy, I like you," said Mr. Adams. "I have arranged to have you safely +conveyed to New York. There an orderly will meet and conduct you to +our headquarters." + +"Thank you, sir," Jack replied. Turning to Doctor Franklin, he added: + +"One remark of yours to Lord Howe impressed me. You said that Nature +was our friend and ally. It put me in mind of the fog that helped us +out of Brooklyn and of a little adventure of mine." + +Then he told the story of the spider's web. + +"I repeat that all Nature is with us," said Franklin. "It was a sense +of injustice in human nature that sent us across the great barrier of +the sea into conditions where only the strong could survive. Here we +have raised up a sturdy people with three thousand miles of water +between them and tyranny. Armies can not cross it and succeed long in +a hostile land. They are too far from home. The expense of +transporting and maintaining them will bleed our enemies until they are +spent. The British King is powerful, but now he has picked a quarrel +with Almighty God, and it will go hard with him." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +WITH THE ARMY AND IN THE BUSH + +In January, 1777, Colonel Irons writes to his father from Morristown, +New Jersey, as follows: + +"An army is a despotic machine. For that reason chiefly our men do not +like military service. It is hard to induce them to enlist for long +terms. They are released by expiration long before they have been +trained and seasoned for good service. So Washington has found it +difficult to fill his line with men of respectable fighting quality. + +"Our great Commander lost his patience on the eve of our leaving New +York. Our troops, posted at Kip's Bay on the East River to defend the +landing, fled in a panic without firing a gun at the approach of Howe's +army. I happened to be in a company of Light Horse with General +Washington, who had gone up to survey the ground. Before his eyes two +brigades of New England troops ran away, leaving us exposed to capture. + +"The great Virginian was hot with indignation. He threw his hat to the +ground and exclaimed: + +"'Are these the kind of men with whom I am to defend America?' + +"Next day our troops behaved better and succeeded in repulsing the +enemy. This put new spirit in them. Putnam got his forces out of New +York and well up the shore of the North River. For weeks we lay behind +our trenches on Harlem Heights, building up the fighting spirit of our +men and training them for hard service. The stables, cabins and sheds +of Harlem were full of our sick. Smallpox had got among them. Cold +weather was coming on and few were clothed to stand it. The +proclamation of Admiral Lord Howe and his brother, the General, +offering pardon and protection to all who remained loyal to the crown, +caused some to desert us, and many timid settlers in the outlying +country, with women and children to care for, were on the fence ready +to jump either way. Hundreds were driven by fear toward the British. + +"In danger of being shut in, we crossed King's Bridge and retreated to +White Plains. How we toiled with our baggage on that journey, many of +us being yoked like oxen to the wagons! Every day troops, whose terms +of enlistment had expired, were leaving us. It seemed as if our whole +flying camp would soon be gone. But there were many like Solomon and +me who were willing to give up everything for the cause and follow our +beloved Commander into hell, if necessary. There were some four +thousand of us who streaked up the Hudson with him to King's Ferry, at +the foot of the Highlands, to get out of the way of the British ships. +There we crossed into Jersey and dodged about, capturing a thousand men +at Trenton and three hundred at Princeton, defeating the British +regiments who pursued us and killing many officers and men and cutting +off their army from its supplies. We have seized a goodly number of +cannon and valuable stores and reclaimed New Jersey and stiffened the +necks of our people. It has been, I think, a turning point in the war. +Our men have fought like Homeric heroes and endured great hardships in +the bitter cold with worn-out shoes and inadequate clothing. A number +have been frozen to death. I loaned my last extra pair of shoes to a +poor fellow whose feet had been badly cut and frozen. When I tell you +that coming into Morristown I saw many bloody footprints in the snow +behind the army, you will understand. We are a ragamuffin band, but we +have taught the British to respect us. Send all the shoes and clothing +you can scare up. + +"I have seen incidents which have increased my love of Washington. +When we were marching through a village in good weather there was a +great crowd in the street. In the midst of it was a little girl crying +out because she could not see Washington. He stopped and called for +her. They brought the child and he lifted her to the saddle in front +of him and carried her a little way on his big white horse. + +"At the first divine service here in Morristown he observed an elderly +woman, a rough clad farmer's wife, standing back in the edge of the +crowd. He arose and beckoned to her to come and take his seat. She +did so, and he stood through the service, save when he was kneeling. +Of course, many offered him their seats, but he refused to take one. + +"We have been deeply impressed and inspirited by the address of a young +man of the name of Alexander Hamilton. He is scarcely twenty years of +age, they tell me, but he has wit and eloquence and a maturity of +understanding which astonished me. He is slender, a bit under middle +stature and has a handsome face and courtly manners. He will be one of +the tallest candles of our faith, or I am no prophet. + +"Solomon has been a tower of strength in this campaign. I wish you +could have seen him lead the charge against Mercer's men and bring in +the British general, whom he had wounded. He and I are scouting around +the camp every day. Our men are billeted up and down the highways and +living in small huts around headquarters." + +Washington had begun to show his great and singular gifts. One of +them, through which he secured rest and safety for his shattered +forces, shone out there in Morristown. There were only about three +thousand effective men in his army. To conceal their number, he had +sent them to many houses on the roads leading into the village. The +British in New York numbered at least nine thousand well seasoned +troops, and with good reason he feared an attack. The force at +Morristown was in great danger. One day a New York merchant was +brought into camp by the famous scout Solomon Binkus. The merchant had +been mistreated by the British. He had sold his business and crossed +the river by night and come through the lines on the wagon of a farmer +friend who was bringing supplies to the American army. He gave much +information as to plans and positions of the British, which was known +to be correct. He wished to enlist in the American army and do what he +could to help it. He was put to work in the ranks. A few days later +the farmer with whom he had arrived came again and, after selling his +wagon load, found the ex-merchant and conferred with him in private. +That evening, when the farmer had got a mile or so from camp, he was +stopped and searched by Colonel Irons. A letter was found in the +farmer's pocket which clearly indicated that the ex-merchant was a spy +and the farmer a Tory. Irons went at once to General Washington with +his report, urging that the spy be taken up and put in confinement. + +The General sat thoughtfully looking into the fire, but made no answer. + +"He is here to count our men and report our weakness," said the Colonel. + +"The poor fellow has not found it an easy thing to do," the General +answered. "I shall see that he gets help." + +They went together to the house where the Adjutant General had his home +and office. To this officer Washington said: + +"General, you have seen a report from one Weatherly, a New York +merchant, who came with information from that city. Will you kindly do +him the honor of asking him to dine with you here alone to-morrow +evening? Question him as to the situation in New York in a friendly +manner and impart to him such items of misinformation as you may care +to give, but mainly look to this. Begin immediately to get signed +returns from the brigadiers showing that we have an effective force +here of twelve thousand men. These reports must be lying on your desk +while you are conferring with Weatherly. Treat the man with good food +and marked politeness and appreciation of the service he is likely to +render us. Soon after you have eaten, I shall send an orderly here. +He will deliver a message. You will ask the man to make himself at +home while you are gone for half an hour or so. You will see that the +window shades are drawn and the door closed and that no one disturbs +the man while he is copying those returns, which he will be sure to do. +Colonel Irons, I depend upon you to see to it that he has an +opportunity to escape safely with his budget. I warn you not to let +him fail. It is most important." + +The next morning, Weatherly was ordered to report to Major Binkus for +training in scout duty, and the morning after that he was taken out +through the lines, mounted, with Colonel Irons and carefully lost in +the pine bush. He was seen no more in the American camp. The spy +delivered his report to the British and the little remnant of an army +at Morristown was safe for the winter. Cornwallis and Howe put such +confidence in this report that when Luce, another spy, came into their +camp with a count of Washington's forces, which was substantially +correct, they doubted the good faith of the man and threw him into +prison. + +So the great Virginian had turned a British spy into one of his most +effective helpers. + +Meanwhile good news had encouraged enlistment for long terms. Four +regiments of horse were put in training, ten frigates were built and +sent to sea and more were under construction. The whole fighting force +of America was being reorganized. Moreover, in this first year the +Yankee privateers had so wounded a leg of the British lion that he was +roaring with rage. Three hundred and fifty of his ships, well laden +from the West Indies, had been seized. Their cargoes were valued at a +million pounds. The fighting spirit of America was encouraged also by +events in France, where Franklin and Silas Deane were now at work. +France had become an ally. A loan of six hundred thousand dollars had +been secured in the French capital and expert officers from that +country had begun to arrive to join the army of Washington. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +HOW SOLOMON SHIFTED THE SKEER + +In the spring news came of a great force of British which was being +organized in Canada for a descent upon New York through Lake Champlain. +Frontier settlers in Tryon County were being massacred by Indians. + +Generals Herkimer and Schuyler had written to Washington, asking for +the services of the famous scout, Solomon Binkus, in that region. + +"He knows the Indian as no other man knows him and can speak his +language and he also knows the bush," Schuyler had written. "If there +is any place on earth where his help is needed just now, it is here." + +"Got to leave ye, my son," Solomon said to Jack one evening soon after +that. + +"How so?" the young man asked. + +"Goin' hum to fight Injuns. The Great Father has ordered it. I'll +like it better. Gittin' lazy here. Summer's comin' an' I'm a born +bush man. I'm kind o' oneasy--like a deer in a dooryard. I ain't had +to run fer my life since we got here. My hoofs are complainin'. I +ain't shot a gun in a month." + +A look of sorrow spread over the face of Solomon. + +"I'm tired of this place," said Jack. "The British are scared of us +and we're scared of the British. There's nothing going on. I'd love +to go back to the big bush with you." + +"I'll tell the Great Father that you're a born bush man. Mebbe he'll +let ye go. They'll need us both. Rum, Injuns an' the devil have +j'ined hands. The Long House will be the center o' hell an' its line +fences 'll take in the hull big bush." + +That day Jack's name was included in the order. + +"I am sorry that it is not yet possible to pay you or any of the men +who have served me so faithfully," said Washington. "If you need money +I shall be glad to lend you a sum to help you through this journey." + +"I ain't fightin' fer pay," Solomon answered. "I'll hoe an' dig, an' +cook, an' guide fer money. But I won't fight no more fer money--partly +'cause I don't need it--partly 'cause I'm fightin' fer myself. I got a +little left in my britches pocket, but if I hadn't, my ol' Marier +wouldn't let me go hungry." + + + +2 + +In April the two friends set out afoot for the lower end of the +Highlands. On the river they hired a Dutch farmer to take them on to +Albany in his sloop. After two delightful days at home, General +Schuyler suggested that they could do a great service by traversing the +wilderness to the valley of the great river of the north, as far as +possible toward Swegachie, and reporting their observations to Crown +Point or Fort Edward, if there seemed to be occasion for it, and if +not, they were to proceed to General Herkimer's camp at Oriskany and +give him what help they could in protecting the settlers in the west. + +"You would need to take all your wit and courage with you," the General +warned them. "The Indians are in bad temper. They have taken to +roasting their prisoners at the stake and eating their flesh. This is +a hazardous undertaking. Therefore, I give you a suggestion and not an +order." + +"I'll go 'lone," said Solomon. "If I get et up it needn't break +nobody's heart. Let Jack go to one o' the forts." + +"No, I'd rather go into the bush with you," said Jack. "We're both +needed there. If necessary we could separate and carry our warning in +two directions. We'll take a couple of the new double-barreled rifles +and four pistols. If we had to, I think we could fight a hole through +any trouble we are likely to have." + +So it was decided that they should go together on this scouting trip +into the north bush. Solomon had long before that invented what he +called "a lightnin' thrower" for close fighting with Indians, to be +used if one were hard pressed and outnumbered and likely to have his +scalp taken. This odd contrivance he had never had occasion to use. +It was a thin, round shell of cast iron with a tube, a flint and +plunger. The shell was of about the size of a large apple. It was to +be filled with missiles and gunpowder. The plunger, with its spring, +was set vertically above the tube. In throwing this contrivance one +released its spring by the pressure of his thumb. The hammer fell and +the spark it made ignited a fuse leading down to the powder. Its owner +had to throw it from behind a tree or have a share in the peril it was +sure to create. + +While Jack was at home with his people Solomon spent a week in the +foundry and forge and, before they set out on their journey, had three +of these unique weapons, all loaded and packed in water-proof wrappings. + +About the middle of May they proceeded in a light bark canoe to Fort +Edward and carried it across country to Lake George and made their way +with paddles to Ticonderoga. There they learned that scouts were +operating only on and near Lake Champlain. The interior of Tryon +County was said to be dangerous ground. Mohawks, Cagnawagas, Senecas, +Algonquins and Hurons were thick in the bush and all on the warpath. +They were torturing and eating every white man that fell in their +hands, save those with a Tory mark on them. + +"We're skeered o' the bush," said an elderly bearded soldier, who was +sitting on a log. "A man who goes into the wildwood needs to be a good +friend o' God." + +"But Schuyler thinks a force of British may land somewhere along the +big river and come down through the bush, building a road as they +advance," said Jack. + +"A thousand men could make a tol'able waggin road to Fort Edward in a +month," Solomon declared. "That's mebbe the reason the Injuns are out +in the bush eatin' Yankees. They're tryin' fer to skeer us an' keep us +erway. By the hide an' horns o' the devil! We got to know what's +a-goin' on out thar. You fellers are a-settin' eround these 'ere forts +as if ye had nothin' to do but chaw beef steak an' wipe yer rifles an' +pick yer teeth. Why don't ye go out thar in the bush and do a little +skeerin' yerselves? Ye're like a lot o' ol' women settin' by the fire +an' tellin' ghos' stories." + +"We got 'nuff to do considerin' the pay we git," said a sergeant. + +"Hell an' Tophet! What do ye want o' pay?" Solomon answered. "Ain't +ye willin' to fight fer yer own liberty without bein' paid fer it? Ye +been kicked an' robbed an' spit on, an' dragged eround by the heels, +an' ye don't want to fight 'less somebody pays ye. What a dam' corn +fiddle o' a man ye mus' be!" + +Solomon was putting fresh provisions in his pack as he talked. + +"All the Injuns o' Kinady an' the great grass lands may be snookin' +down through the bush. We're bound fer t' know what's a-goin' on out +thar. We're liable to be skeered, but also an' likewise we'll do some +skeerin' 'fore we give up--you hear to me." + +Jack and Solomon set out in the bush that afternoon and before night +fell were up on the mountain slants north of the Glassy Water, as Lake +George was often called those days. But for Solomon's caution an evil +fate had perhaps come to them before their first sleep on the journey. +The new leaves were just out, but not quite full. The little maples +and beeches flung their sprays of vivid green foliage above the darker +shades of the witch hopple into the soft-lighted air of the great house +of the wood and filled it with a pleasant odor. A mile or so back, +Solomon had left the trail and cautioned Jack to keep close and step +softly. Soon the old scout stopped, and listened and put his ear to +the ground. He rose and beckoned to Jack and the two turned aside and +made their way stealthily up the slant of a ledge. In the edge of a +little thicket on a mossy rock shelf they sat down. Solomon looked +serious. There were deep furrows in the skin above his brow. + +When he was excited in the bush he had the habit of swallowing and the +process made a small, creaky sound in his throat. This Jack observed +then and at other times. Solomon was peering down through the bushes +toward the west, now and then moving his head a little. Jack looked in +the same direction and presently saw a move in the bushes below, but +nothing more. After a few minutes Solomon turned and whispered: + +"Four Injun braves jist went by. Mebbe they're scoutin' fer a big +band--mebbe not. If so, the crowd is up the trail. If they're comin' +by, it'll be 'fore dark. We'll stop in this 'ere tavern. They's a +cave on t'other side o' the ledge as big as a small house." + +They watched until the sun had set. Then Solomon led Jack to the cave, +in which their packs were deposited. + +From the cave's entrance they looked upon the undulating green roof of +the forest dipping down into a deep valley, cut by the smooth surface +of a broad river with mirrored shores, and lifting to the summit of a +distant mountain range. Its blue peaks rose into the glow of the +sunset. + +"Yonder is the great stairway of Heaven!" Jack exclaimed. + +"I've put up in this 'ere ol' tavern many a night," said Solomon. "Do +ye see its sign?" + +He pointed to a great dead pine that stood a little below it, towering +with stark, outreaching limbs more than a hundred and fifty feet into +the air. + +"I call it The Dead Pine Tavern," Solomon remarked. + +"On the road to Paradise," said Jack as he gazed down the valley, his +hands shading his eyes. + +"Wisht we could have a nice hot supper, but 'twon't do to build no +fire. Nothin' but cold vittles! I'll go down with the pot to a spring +an' git some water. You dig fer our supper in that pack o' mine an' +spread it out here. I'm hungry." + +They ate their bread and dried meat moistened with spring water, picked +some balsam boughs and covered a corner of the mossy floor with them. +When the rock chamber was filled with their fragrance, Jack said: + +"If my dream comes true and Margaret and I are married, I shall bring +her here. I want her to see The Dead Pine Tavern and its outlook." + +"Ayes, sir, when ye're married safe," Solomon answered. "We'll come up +here fust summer an' fish, an' hunt, an' I'll run the tavern an' do the +cookin' an' sweep the floor an' make the beds!" + +"I'm a little discouraged," said Jack. "This war may last for years." + +"Keep up on high ground er ye'll git mired down," Solomon answered. +"Ain't nuther on ye very old yit, an' fust ye know these troubles 'll +be over an' done." + +Jack awoke at daylight and found that he was alone. Solomon returned +in half an hour or so. + +"Been scoutin' up the trail," he said. "Didn't see a thing but an ol' +gnaw bucket. We'll jest eat a bite an' p'int off to the nor'west an' +keep watch o' this 'ere trail. They's Injuns over thar on the slants. +We got to know how they look an' 'bout how many head they is." + +They went on, keeping well away from the trail. + +"We'll have to watch it with our ears," said Solomon in a whisper. + +His ear was often on the ground that morning and twice he left Jack "to +snook" out to the trail and look for tracks. Solomon could imitate the +call of the swamp robin, and when they were separated in the bush, he +gave it so that his friend could locate him. At midday they sat down +in deep shade by the side of a brook and ate their luncheon. + +"This 'ere is Peppermint Brook," said Solomon. "It's 'nother one o' my +taverns." + +"Our food isn't going to last long at the rate we are eating it," Jack +remarked. "If we can't shoot a gun what are we going to do when it's +all gone?" + +"Don't worry," Solomon answered. "Ye're in my kentry now an' there's a +better tavern up in the high trail." + +They fared along, favored by good weather, and spent that night on the +shore of a little pond not more than fifty paces off the old blazed +thoroughfare. Next day, about "half-way from dawn to dark," as Solomon +was wont, now and then, to speak of the noon hour, they came suddenly +upon fresh "sign." It was where the big north trail from the upper +waters of the Mohawk joined the one near which they had been traveling. +When they were approaching the point Solomon had left Jack in a thicket +and cautiously crept out to the "juncshin." There was half an hour of +silence before the old scout came back in sight and beckoned to Jack. +His face had never looked more serious. The young man approached him. +Solomon swallowed--a part of the effort to restrain his emotions. + +"Want to show ye suthin'," he whispered. + +The two went cautiously toward the trail. When they reached it the old +scout led the way to soft ground near a brook. Then he pointed down at +the mud. There were many footprints, newly made, and among them the +print of that wooden peg with an iron ring around its bottom, which +they had seen twice before, and which was associated with the blackest +memories they knew. For some time Solomon studied the surface of the +trail in silence. + +"More'n twenty Injuns, two captives, a pair o' hosses, a cow an' the +devil," he whispered to Jack. "Been a raid down to the Mohawk Valley. +The cow an' the hosses are loaded with plunder. I've noticed that when +the Injuns go out to rob an' kill folks ye find, 'mong their tracks, +the print o' that 'ere iron ring. I seen it twice in the Ohio kentry. +Here is the heart o' the devil an' his fire-water. Red Snout has got +to be started on a new trail. His ol' peg leg is goin' down to the +gate o' hell to-night." + +Solomon's face had darkened with anger. There were deep furrows across +his brow. + +Standing before Jack about three feet away, he drew out his ram rod and +tossed it to the young man, who caught it a little above the middle. +Jack knew the meaning of this. They were to put their hands upon the +ram rod, one above the other. The last hand it would hold was to do +the killing. It was Solomon's. + +"Thank God!" he whispered, as his face brightened. + +He seemed to be taking careful aim with his right eye. + +"It's my job," said he. "I wouldn't 'a' let ye do it if ye'd drawed +the chanst. It's my job--proper. They ain't an hour ahead. +Mebbe--it's jest possible--he may go to sleep to-night 'fore I do, an' +I wouldn't be supprised. They'll build their fire at the Caverns on +Rock Crick an' roast a captive. We'll cross the bush an' come up on t' +other side an' see what's goin' on." + +They crossed a high ridge, with Solomon tossing his feet in that long, +loose stride of his, and went down the slope into a broad valley. The +sun sank low and the immeasurable green roofed house of the wild was +dim and dusk when the old scout halted. Ahead in the distance they had +heard voices and the neighing of a horse. + +"My son," said Solomon as he pointed with his finger, "do you see the +brow o' the hill yonder whar the black thickets be?" + +Jack nodded. + +"If ye hear to me yell stay this side. This 'ere business is kind o' +neevarious. I'm a-goin' clus up. If I come back ye'll hear the call +o' the bush owl. If I don't come 'fore mornin' you p'int fer hum an' +the good God go with ye." + +"I shall go as far as you go," Jack answered. + +Solomon spoke sternly. The genial tone of good comradeship, had left +him. + +"Ye kin go, but ye ain't obleeged," said he. "Bear in mind, boy. +To-night I'm the Cap'n. Do as I tell ye--_exact_." + +He took the lightning hurlers out of the packs and unwrapped them and +tried the springs above the hammers. Earlier in the day he had looked +to the priming. Solomon gave one to Jack and put the other two in his +pockets. Each examined his pistols and adjusted them in his belt. +They started for the low lying ridge above the little valley of Rock +Creek. It was now quite dark and looking down through the thickets of +hemlock they could see the firelight of the Indians and hear the wash +of the creek water. Suddenly a wild whooping among the red men, savage +as the howl of wolves on the trail of a wounded bison, ran beyond them, +far out into the forest, and sent its echoes traveling from hilltop to +mountain side. Then came a sound which no man may hear without +getting, as Solomon was wont to say, "a scar on his soul which he will +carry beyond the last cape." It was the death cry of a captive. +Solomon had heard it before. He knew what it meant. The fire was +taking hold and the smoke had begun to smother him. Those cries were +like the stabbing of a knife and the recollection of them like +blood-stains. + +They hurried down the slant, brushing through the thicket, the sound of +their approach being covered by the appalling cries of the victim and +the demon-like tumult of the drunken braves. The two scouts were +racked with soul pain as they went on so that they could scarcely hold +their peace and keep their feet from running. A new sense of the +capacity for evil in the heart of man entered the mind of Jack. They +had come close to the frightful scene, when suddenly a deep silence +fell upon it. Thank God, the victim had gone beyond the reach of pain. +Something had happened in his passing--perhaps the savages had thought +it a sign from Heaven. For a moment their clamor had ceased. The two +scouts could plainly see the poor man behind a red veil of flame. +Suddenly the white leader of the raiders approached the pyre, limping +on his wooden stump, with a stick in his hand, and prodded the face of +the victim. It was his last act. Solomon was taking aim. His rifle +spoke. Red Snout tumbled forward into the fire. Then what a scurry +among the Indians! They vanished and so suddenly that Jack wondered +where they had gone. Solomon stood reloading the rifle barrel he had +just emptied. Then he said: + +"Come on an' do as I do." + +Solomon ran until they had come near. Then he jumped from tree to +tree, stopping at each long enough to survey the ground beyond it. +This was what he called "swapping cover." From behind a tree near the +fire he shouted in the Indian tongue: + +"Red men, you have made the Great Spirit angry. He has sent the Son of +the Thunder to slay you with his lightning." + +No truer words had ever left the lips of man. His hand rose and swung +back of his shoulder and shot forward. The round missile sailed +through the firelight and beyond it and sank into black shadows in the +great cavern at Rocky Creek--a famous camping-place in the old time. +Then a flash of white light and a roar that shook the hills! A blast +of gravel and dust and debris shot upward and pelted down upon the +earth. Bits of rock and wood and an Indian's arm and foot fell in the +firelight. A number of dusky figures scurried out of the mouth of the +cavern and ran for their lives shouting prayers to Manitou as they +disappeared in the darkness. Solomon pulled the embers from around the +feet of the victim. + +"Now, by the good God A'mighty, 'pears to me we got the skeer shifted +so the red man'll be the rabbit fer a while an' I wouldn't wonder," +said Solomon, as he stood looking down at the scene. "He ain't a-goin' +to like the look o' a pale face--not overly much. Them Injuns that got +erway 'll never stop runnin' till they've reached the middle o' next +week." + +He seized the foot of Red Snout and pulled his head out of the fire. + +"You ol' hellion!" Solomon exclaimed. "You dog o' the devil! Tumbled +into hell whar ye b'long at last, didn't ye? Jack, you take that +luther bucket an' bring some water out o' the creek an' put out this +fire. The ring on this 'ere ol' wooden leg is wuth a hundred pounds." + +Solomon took the hatchet from his belt and hacked off the end of Red +Snout's wooden leg and put it in his coat pocket, saying: + +"'From now on a white man can walk in the bush without gittin' his +bones picked. Injuns is goin' to be skeered o' us--a few an' I +wouldn't be supprised." + +When Jack came back with the water, Solomon poured it on the embers, +and looked at the swollen form which still seemed to be straining at +the green withes of moose wood. + +"Nothin' kin be done fer him," said the old scout. "He's gone erway. +I tell ye, Jack, it g'in my soul a sweat to hear him dyin'." + +A moment of silence full of the sorrow of the two men followed. +Solomon broke it by saying: + +"That 'ere black pill o' mine went right down into the stummick o' the +hill an' give it quite a puke--you hear to me." + +They went to the cavern's mouth and looked in. + +"They's an awful mess in thar. I don't keer to see it," said Solomon. + +Near them they discovered a warrior who had crawled out of that death +chamber in the rocks. He had been stunned and wounded about the +shoulders. They helped him to his feet and led him away. He was +trembling with fear. Solomon found a pine torch, still burning, near +where the fire had been. By its light they dressed his wounds--the old +scout having with him always a small surgeon's outfit. + +"Whar is t' other captive?" he asked in the Indian tongue. + +"About a mile down the trail. It's a woman and a boy," said the +warrior. + +"Take us whar they be," Solomon commanded. + +The three started slowly down the trail, the warrior leading them. + +"Son of the Thunder, throw no more lightning and I will kiss your +mighty hand and do as you tell me," said the Indian, as they set out. + +It was now dark. Jack saw, through the opening in the forest roof +above the trail, Orion and the Pleiades looking down at them, as +beautiful as ever, and now he could hear the brook singing merrily. + +"I could have chided the stars and the brook while the Indian and I +were waiting for Solomon to bring the packs," he wrote in his diary. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE VOICE OF A WOMAN SOBBING + +Over the ridge and more than a mile away was a wet, wild meadow. They +found the cow and horses feeding on its edge near the trail. The moon, +clouded since dark, had come out in the clear mid-heavens and thrown +its light into the high windows of the forest above the ancient +thoroughfare of the Indian. The red guide of the two scouts gave a +call which was quickly answered. A few rods farther on, they saw a +pair of old Indians sitting in blankets near a thicket of black timber. +They could hear the voice of a woman sobbing near where they stood. + +"Womern, don't be skeered o' us--we're friends--we're goin' to take ye +hum," said Solomon. + +The woman came out of the thicket with a little lad of four asleep in +her arms. + +"Where do ye live?" Solomon asked. + +"Far south on the shore o' the Mohawk," she answered in a voice +trembling with emotion. + +"What's yer name?" + +"I'm Bill Scott's wife," she answered. + +"Cat's blood and gunpowder!" Solomon exclaimed. "I'm Sol Binkus." + +She knelt before the old scout and kissed his knees and could not speak +for the fulness of her heart. Solomon bent over and took the sleeping +lad from her arms and held him against his breast. + +"Don't feel bad. We're a-goin' to take keer o' you," said Solomon. +"Ayes, sir, we be! They ain't nobody goin' to harm ye--nobody at all." + +There was a note of tenderness in the voice of the man as he felt the +chin of the little lad with his big thumb and finger. + +"Do ye know what they done with Bill?" the woman asked soon in a +pleading voice. + +The scout swallowed as his brain began to work on the problem in hand. + +"Bill broke loose an' got erway. He's gone," Solomon answered in a sad +voice. + +"Did they torture him?" + +"What they done I couldn't jes' tell ye. But they kin't do no more to +him. He's gone." + +She seemed to sense his meaning and lay crouched upon the ground with +her sorrow until Solomon lifted her to her feet and said: + +"Look here, little womern, this don't do no good. I'm goin' to spread +my blanket under the pines an' I want ye to lay down with yer boy an' +git some sleep. We got a long trip to-morrer. + +"'Tain't so bad as it might be--ye're kind o' lucky a'ter all is said +an' done," he remarked as he covered the woman and the child. + +The wounded warrior and the old men were not to be found. They had +sneaked away into the bush. Jack and Solomon looked about and the +latter called but got no answer. + +"They're skeered cl'ar down to the toe nails," said Solomon. "They +couldn't stan' it here. A lightnin' thrower is a few too many. They'd +ruther be nigh a rattlesnake." + +The scouts had no sleep that night. They sat down by the trail side +leaning against a log and lighted their pipes. + +"You 'member Bill Scott?" Solomon whispered. + +"Yes. We spent a night in his house." + +"He were a mean cuss. Sold rum to the Injuns. I allus tol' him it +were wrong but--my God A'mighty!--I never 'spected that the fire in the +water were a goin' to burn him up sometime. No, sir--I never dreamed +he were a-goin' to be punished so--never." + +They lay back against the log with their one blanket spread and spent +the night in a kind of half sleep. Every little sound was "like a kick +in the ribs," as Solomon put it, and drove them "into the look and +listen business." The woman was often crying out or the cow and horses +getting up to feed. + +"My son, go to sleep," said Solomon. "I tell ye there ain't no danger +now--not a bit. I don't know much but I know Injuns---plenty." + +In spite of his knowledge even Solomon himself could not sleep. A +little before daylight they arose and began to stir about. + +"I was badly burnt by that fire," Jack whispered. + +"Inside!" Solomon answered. "So was I. My soul were a-sweatin' all +night." + +The morning was chilly. They gathered birch bark and dry pine and soon +had a fire going. Solomon stole over to the thicket where the woman +and child were lying and returned in a moment. + +"They're sound asleep," he said in a low tone. "We'll let 'em alone." + +He began to make tea and got out the last of their bread and dried meat +and bacon. He was frying the latter when he said: + +"That 'ere is a mighty likely womern." + +He turned the bacon with his fork and added: + +"Turrible purty when she were young. Allus hated the rum business." + +Jack went out on the wild meadow and brought in the cow and milked her, +filling a basin and a quart bottle. + +Solomon went to the thicket and called: + +"Mis' Scott!" + +The woman answered. + +"Here's a tow'l an' a leetle jug o' soap, Mis' Scott. Ye kin take the +boy to the crick an' git washed an' then come to the fire an' eat yer +breakfust." + +The boy was a handsome, blond lad with blue eyes and a serious manner. +His confidence in the protection of his mother was sublime. + +"What's yer name?" Solomon asked, looking up at the lad whom he had +lifted high in the air. + +"Whig Scott," the boy answered timidly with tears in his eyes. + +"What! Be ye skeered o' me?" + +These words came from the little lad as he began to cry. "No, sir. I +ain't skeered. I'm a brave man." + +"Courage is the first virtue in which the young are schooled on the +frontier," Jack wrote in a letter to his friends at home in which he +told of the history of that day. "The words and manner of the boy +reminded me of my own childhood. + +"Solomon held Whig in his lap and fed him and soon won his confidence. +The backs of the horses and the cow were so badly galled they could not +be ridden, but we were able to lash the packs over a blanket on one of +the horses. We drove the beasts ahead of us. The Indians had timbered +the swales here and there so that we were able to pass them with little +trouble. Over the worst places I had the boy on my back while Solomon +carried 'Mis' Scott' in his arms as if she were a baby. He was very +gentle with her. To him, as you know, a woman has been a sacred +creature since his wife died. He seemed to regard the boy as a +wonderful kind of plaything. At the camping-places he spent every +moment of his leisure tossing him in the air or rolling on the ground +with him." + +[Illustration: Solomon Binkus with Whig Scott on his shoulder.] + +"One day when the woman sat by the fire crying, the little lad touched +her brow with his hand and said: + +"'Don't be skeered, mother. I'm brave. I'll take care o' you.' + +"Solomon came to where I was breaking some dry sticks for the fire and +said laughingly, as he wiped a tear from his cheek with the back of his +great right hand: + +"'Did ye ever see sech a gol' durn cunnin' leetle cricket in yer born +days--ever?' + +"Always thereafter he referred to the boy as the Little Cricket. + +"That would have been a sad journey but for my interest in these +reactions on this great son of Pan, with whom I traveled. I think that +he has found a thing he has long needed, and I wonder what will come of +it. + +"When he had discovered, by tracks in the trail, that the Indians who +had run away from us were gone South, he had no further fear of being +molested. + +"'They've gone on to tell what happened on the first o' the high slants +an' to warn their folks that the Son o' the Thunder is comin' with +lightnin' in his hands. Injuns is like rabbits when the Great Spirit +begins to rip 'em up. They kin't stan' it." + +That afternoon Solomon, with a hook and line and grubs, gathered from +rotted stumps, caught many trout in a brook crossing the trail and +fried them with slices of salt pork. In the evening they had the best +supper of their journey in what he called "The Catamount Tavern." It +was an old bark lean-to facing an immense boulder on the shore of a +pond. There, one night some years before, he had killed a catamount. +It was in the foot-hills remote from the trail. In a side of the rock +was a small bear den or cavern with an overhanging roof which protected +it from the weather. On a shelf in the cavern was a round block of +pine about two feet in diameter and a foot and a half long. This block +was his preserve jar. A number of two-inch augur holes had been bored +in its top and filled with jerked venison and dried berries. They had +been packed with a cotton wick fastened to a small bar of wood at the +bottom of each hole. Then hot deer's fat had been poured in with the +meat and berries until the holes were filled within an inch or so of +the top. When the fat had hardened a thin layer of melted beeswax +sealed up the contents of each hole. Over all wooden plugs had been +driven fast. + +"They's good vittles in that 'ere block," said Solomon. "'Nough, I +guess, to keep a man a week. All he has to do is knock out the plug +an' pull the wick an' be happy." + +"Going to do any pulling for supper?" Jack queried. + +"Nary bit," said Solomon. "Too much food in the woods now. We got to +be savin'. Mebbe you er I er both on us 'll be comin' through here in +the winter time skeered o' Injuns an' short o' fodder. Then we'll open +the pine jar." + +They had fish and tea and milk and that evening as he sat on his +blanket before the fire with the little lad in his lap he sang an old +rig-a-dig tune and told stories and answered many a query. + +Jack wrote in one of his letters that as they fared along, down toward +the sown lands of the upper Mohawk, Solomon began to develop talents of +which none of his friends had entertained the least suspicion. + +"He has had a hard life full of fight and peril like most of us who +were born in this New World," the young man wrote. "He reminds me of +some of the Old Testament heroes, and is not this land we have +traversed like the plains of Mamre? What a gentle creature he might +have been if he had had a chance! How long, I wonder, must we be +slayers of men? As long, I take it, as there are savages against whom +we must defend ourselves." + +The next morning they met a company of one of the regiments of General +Herkimer who had gone in pursuit of Red Snout and his followers. +Learning what had happened to that evil band and its leader the +soldiers faced about and escorted Solomon and his party to Oriskany. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE FIRST FOURTH OF JULY + +Mrs. Scott and her child lived in the family of General Herkimer for a +month or so. Settlers remote from towns and villages had abandoned +their farms. The Indians had gone into the great north bush perhaps to +meet the British army which was said to be coming down from Canada in +appalling numbers. Hostilities in the neighborhood of The Long House +had ceased. The great Indian highway and its villages were deserted +save by young children and a few ancient red men and squaws, too old +for travel. Late in June, Jack and Solomon were ordered to report to +General Schuyler at Albany. + +"We're gettin' shoveled eroun' plenty," Solomon declared. "We'll take +the womern an' the boy with us an' paddle down the Mohawk to Albany. +They kind o' fell from Heaven into our hands an' we got to look a'ter +'em faithful. Fust ye know ol' Herk 'll be movin' er swallered hull by +the British an' the Injuns, like Jonah was by the whale, then what 'ud +become o' her an' the Leetle Cricket? We got to look a'ter 'em." + +"I think my mother will be glad to give them a home," said Jack. "She +really needs some help in the house these days." + + + +2 + +The Scotts' buildings had been burned by the Indians and their boats +destroyed save one large canoe which had happened to be on the south +shore of the river out of their reach. In this Jack and Solomon and +"Mis' Scott" and the Little Cricket set out with loaded packs in the +moon of the new leaf, to use a phrase of the Mohawks, for the city of +the Great River. They had a carry at the Wolf Riff and some shorter +ones but in the main it was a smooth and delightful journey, between +wooded shores, down the long winding lane of the Mohawk. Without fear +of the Indians they were able to shoot deer and wild fowl and build a +fire on almost any part of the shore. Mrs. Scott insisted on her right +to do the cooking. Jack kept a diary of the trip, some pages of which +the historian has read. From them we learn: + +"Mrs. Scott has bravely run the gauntlet of her sorrows. Now there is +a new look in her face. She is a black eyed, dark haired, energetic, +comely woman of forty with cheeks as red as a ripe strawberry. Solomon +calls her 'middle sized' but she seems to be large enough to fill his +eye. He shows her great deference and chooses his words with +particular care when he speaks to her. Of late he has taken to +singing. She and the boy seem to have stirred the depths in him and +curious things are coming up to the surface--songs and stories and +droll remarks and playful tricks and an unusual amount of laughter. I +suppose that it is the spirit of youth in him, stunned by his great +sorrow. Now touched by miraculous hands he is coming back to his old +self. There can be no doubt of this: the man is ten years younger than +when I first knew him even. The Little Cricket has laid hold of his +heart. Whig sits between the feet of Solomon in the stern during the +day and insists upon sleeping with him at night. + +"One morning my old friend was laughing as we stood on the river bank +washing ourselves. + +"'What are you laughing at?' I asked. + +"'That got dum leetle skeezucks!' he answered. 'He were kickin' all +night like a mule fightin' a bumble bee. 'Twere a cold night an' I +held him ag'in' me to keep the leetle cuss warm.' + +"'Hadn't you better let him sleep with his mother?' I asked. + +"'Wall, if it takes two to do his sleepin' mebbe I better be the one +that suffers. Ain't she a likely womern?' + +"Of course I agreed, for it was evident that she was likely, sometime, +to make him an excellent wife and the thought of that made me happy." + +They had fared along down by the rude forts and villages traveling +stealthily at night in tree shadows through "the Tory zone," as the +vicinity of Fort Johnson was then called, camping, now and then, in +deserted farm-houses or putting up at village inns. They arrived at +Albany in the morning of July fourth. Setting out from their last camp +an hour before daylight they had heard the booming of cannon at +sunrise, Solomon stopped his paddle and listened. + +"By the hide an' horns o' the devil!" he exclaimed. "I wonder if the +British have got down to Albany." + +They were alarmed until they hailed a man on the river road and learned +that Albany was having a celebration. + +"What be they celebratin'?" Solomon asked. + +"The Declaration o' Independence," the citizen answered. + +"It's a good idee," said Solomon. "When we git thar this 'ere ol' +rifle o' mine 'll do some talkin' if it has a chanst." + +Church bells were ringing as they neared the city. Its inhabitants +were assembled on the river-front. The Declaration was read and then +General Schuyler made a brief address about the peril coming down from +the north. He said that a large force under General Burgoyne was on +Lake Champlain and that the British were then holding a council with +the Six Nations on the shore of the lake above Crown Point. + +"At present we are unprepared to meet this great force but I suppose +that help will come and that we shall not be dismayed. The modest man +who leads the British army from the north declares in his proclamation +that he is 'John Burgoyne, Esq., Lieutenant General of His Majesty's +forces in America, Colonel of the Queen's Regiment of Light Dragoons, +Governor of Fort William in North Britain, one of the Commons in +Parliament and Commander of an Army and Fleet Employed on an Expedition +from Canada!' My friends, such is the pride that goeth before a fall. +We are an humble, hard-working people. No man among us can boast of a +name so lavishly adorned. Our names need only the simple but glorious +adornments of firmness, courage and devotion. With those, I verily +believe, we shall have an Ally greater than any this world can offer. +Let us all kneel where we stand while the Reverend Mr. Munro leads us +in prayer to Almighty God for His help and guidance." + +It was an impressive hour and that day the same kind of talk was heard +in many places. The church led the people. Pulpiteers of inspired +vision of which, those days, there were many, spoke with the tongues of +men and of angels. A sublime faith in "The Great Ally" began to travel +up and down the land. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE AMBUSH + +Mrs. Scott and her little son were made welcome in the home of John +Irons. Jack and Solomon were immediately sent up the river and through +the bush to help the force at Ti. In the middle and late days of July, +they reported to runners the southward progress of the British. They +were ahead of Herkimer's regiment of New York militia on August third +when they discovered the ambush--a misfortune for which they were in no +way responsible. Herkimer and his force had gone on without them to +relieve Fort Schuyler. The two scouts had ridden post to join him. +They were afoot half a mile or so ahead of the commander when Jack +heard the call of the swamp robin. He hurried toward his friend. +Solomon was in a thicket of tamaracks. + +"We got to git back quick," said the latter. "I see sign o' an ambush." + +They hurried to their command and warned the General. He halted and +faced his men about and began a retreat. Jack and Solomon hurried out +ahead of them some twenty rods apart. In five minutes Jack heard +Solomon's call again. Thoroughly alarmed, he ran in the direction of +the sound. In a moment he met Solomon. The face of the latter had +that stern look which came only in a crisis. Deep furrows ran across +his brow. His hands were shut tight. There was an expression of anger +in his eyes. He swallowed as Jack came near. + +"It's an ambush sure as hell's ahead," he whispered. + +As they were hurrying toward the regiment, he added: + +"We got to fight an' ag'in' big odds--British an' Injuns. Don't never +let yerself be took alive, my son, lessen ye want to die as Scott did. +But, mebbe, we kin bu'st the circle." + +In half a moment they met Herkimer. + +"Git ready to fight," said Solomon. "We're surrounded." + +The men were spread out in a half-circle and some hurried orders given, +but before they could take a step forward the trap was sprung. "The +Red Devils of Brant" were rushing at them through the timber with yells +that seemed to shake the tree-tops. The regiment fired and began to +advance. Some forty Indians had fallen as they fired. General +Herkimer and others were wounded by a volley from the savages. + +"Come on, men. Foller me an' use yer bayonets," Solomon shouted. +"We'll cut our way out." + +The Indians ahead had no time to load. Scores of them were run +through. Others fled for their lives. But a red host was swarming up +from behind and firing into the regiment. Many fell. Many made the +mistake of turning to fight back and were overwhelmed and killed or +captured. A goodly number had cut their way through with Jack and +Solomon and kept going, swapping cover as they went. Most of them were +wounded in some degree. Jack's right shoulder had been torn by a +bullet. Solomon's left hand was broken and bleeding. The savages were +almost on their heels, not two hundred yards behind. The old scout +rallied his followers in a thicket at the top of a knoll with an open +grass meadow between them and their enemies. There they reloaded their +rifles and stood waiting. + +"Don't fire--not none o' ye--till I give the word. Jack, you take my +rifle. I'm goin' to throw this 'ere bunch o' lightnin'." + +Solomon stepped out of the thicket and showed himself when the savages +entered the meadow. Then he limped up the trail as if he were badly +hurt, in the fashion of a hen partridge when one has come near her +brood. In a moment he had dodged behind cover and crept back into the +thicket. + +There were about two hundred warriors who came running across the flat +toward that point where Solomon had disappeared. They yelled like +demons and overran the little meadow with astonishing speed. + +"Now hold yer fire--hold yer fire till I give ye the word, er we'll all +be et up. Keep yer fingers off the triggers now." + +He sprang into the open. Astonished, the foremost runners halted while +others crowded upon them. The "bunch of lightning" began its curved +flight as Solomon leaped behind a tree and shouted, "Fire!" + +"'Tain't too much to say that the cover flew off o' hell right thar at +the edge o' the Bloody Medder that minnit--you hear to me," he used to +tell his friends. "The air were full o' bu'sted Injun an' a barrel o' +blood an' grease went down into the ground. A dozen er so that wasn't +hurt run back ercrost the medder like the devil were chasin' 'em all +with a red-hot iron. I reckon it'll allus be called the Bloody Medder." + +In this retreat Jack had lost so much blood that he had to be carried +on a litter. Before night fell they met General Benedict Arnold and a +considerable force. After a little rest the tireless Solomon went back +into the bush with Arnold and two regiments to find the wounded +Herkimer, if possible, and others who might be in need of relief. They +met a band of refugees coming in with the body of the General. They +reported that the far bush was echoing with the shrieks of tortured +captives. + +"Beats all what an amount o' sufferin' it takes to start a new nation," +Solomon used to say. + +Next day Arnold fought his way to the fort, and many of St. Leger's +Rangers and their savage allies were slain or captured or broken into +little bands and sent flying for their lives into the northern bush. +So the siege of Fort Schuyler was raised. + +"I never see no better fightin' man than Arnold," Solomon used to say. +"I seen him fight in the middle bush an' on the Stillwater. Under fire +he was a regular wolverine. Allus up ag'in' the hottest side o' hell +an' sayin': + +"'Come on, boys. We kin't expec' to live forever.' + +"But Arnold were a sore head. Allus kickin' over the traces an' +complainin' that he never got proper credit." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE BINKUSSING OF COLONEL BURLEY + +Solomon had been hit in the thigh by a rifle bullet on his way to the +fort. He and Jack and other wounded men were conveyed in boats and +litters to the hospital at Albany where Jack remained until the leaves +were gone. Solomon recovered more quickly and was with Lincoln's +militia under Colonel Brown when they joined Johnson's Rangers at +Ticonderoga and cut off the supplies of the British army. Later having +got around the lines of the enemy with this intelligence he had a part +in the fighting on Bemus Heights and the Stillwater and saw the +defeated British army under Burgoyne marching eastward in disgrace to +be conveyed back to England. + +Jack had recovered and was at home when Solomon arrived in Albany with +the news. + +"Wal, my son, I cocalate they's goin' to be a weddin' in our fam'ly +afore long," said the latter. + +"What makes you think so?" Jack inquired. + +"'Cause John Burgoyne, High Cockylorum and Cockydoodledo, an' all his +army has been licked an' kicked an' started fer hum an' made to promise +that they won't be sassy no more. I tell ye the war is goin' to end. +They'll see that it won't pay to keep it up." + +"But you do not know that Howe has taken Philadelphia," said Jack. +"His army entered it on the twenty-sixth of September. Washington is +in a bad fix. You and I have been ordered to report to him at White +Marsh as soon as possible." + +"That ol' King 'ud keep us fightin' fer years if he had his way," said +Solomon. "He don't have to bleed an' groan an' die in the swamps like +them English boys have been doin'. It's too bad but we got to keep +killin' 'em, an' when the bad news reaches the good folks over thar +mebbe the King'll git spoke to proper. We got to keep a-goin'. Fer +the fust time in my life I'm glad to git erway from the big bush. The +Injuns have found us a purty tough bit o' fodder but they's no tellin', +out thar in the wilderness, when a man is goin' to be roasted and +chawed up." + +Solomon spent a part of the evening at play with the Little Cricket and +the other children and when the young ones had gone to bed, went out +for a walk with "Mis' Scott" on the river-front. + +Mrs. Irons had said of the latter that she was a most amiable and +useful person. + +"The Little Cricket has won our hearts," she added. "We love him as we +love our own." + +When Jack and Solomon were setting out in a hired sloop for the +Highlands next morning there were tears in the dark eyes of "Mis' +Scott." + +"Ain't she a likely womern?" Solomon asked again when with sails spread +they had begun to cut the water. + +Near King's Ferry in the Highlands on the Hudson they spent a night in +the camp of the army under Putnam. There they heard the first note of +discontent with the work of their beloved Washington. It came from the +lips of one Colonel Burley of a Connecticut regiment. The +Commander-in-Chief had lost Newport, New York and Philadelphia and been +defeated on Long Island and in two pitched battles on ground of his own +choosing at Brandywine and Germantown. + +The two scouts were angry. + +It had been a cold, wet afternoon and they, with others, were drying +themselves around a big, open fire of logs in front of the camp +post-office. + +Solomon was quick to answer the complaint of Burley. + +"He's allus been fightin' a bigger force o' well trained, well paid men +that had plenty to eat an' drink an' wear. An' he's fit 'em with jest +a shoe string o' an army. When it come to him, it didn't know nothin' +but how to shoot an' dig a hole in the ground. The men wouldn't enlist +fer more'n six months an' as soon as they'd learnt suthin', they put +fer hum. An' with that kind o' an army, he druv the British out o' +Boston. With a leetle bunch o' five thousand unpaid, barefoot, ragged +backed devils, he druv the British out o' Jersey an' they had twelve +thousan' men in that neighborhood. He's had to dodge eround an' has +kep' his army from bein' et up, hide, horns an' taller, by the power o' +his brain. He's managed to take keer o' himself down thar in Jersey +an' Pennsylvaney with the British on all sides o' him, while the best +fighters he had come up here to help Gates. I don't see how he could +'a' done it--damned if I do--without the help o' God." + +"Gates is a real general," Burley answered. "Washington don't amount +to a hill o' beans." + +Solomon turned quickly and advanced upon Burley. "I didn't 'spect to +find an enemy o' my kentry in this 'ere camp," he said in a quiet tone. +"Ye got to take that back, mister, an' do it prompt, er ye're goin' to +be all mussed up." + +"Ye could see the ha'r begin to brustle under his coat," Solomon was +wont to say of Burley, in speaking of that moment. "He stepped up clus +an' growled an' showed his teeth an' then he begun to git rooined." + +Burley had kept a public house for sailors at New Haven and had had the +reputation of being a bad man in a quarrel. Of just what happened +there is a full account in a little army journal of that time called +_The Camp Gazette_. Burley aimed a blow at Solomon with his fist. +Then as Solomon used to put it, "the water bu'st through the dam." It +was his way of describing the swift and decisive action which was +crowded into the next minute. He seized Burley and hurled him to the +ground. With one hand on the nape of his neck and the other on the +seat of his trousers, Solomon lifted his enemy above his head and +quoited him over the tent top. + +Burley picked himself up and having lost his head drew his hanger, and, +like a mad bull, rushed at Solomon. Suddenly he found his way barred +by Jack. + +"Would you try to run a man through before he can draw?" the latter +asked. + +Solomon's old sword flashed out of its scabbard. + +"Let him come on," he shouted. "I'm more to hum with a hanger than I +be with good vittles." + +Of all the words on record from the lips of this man, these are the +most immodest, but it should be remembered that when he spoke them his +blood was hot. + +Jack gave way and the two came together with a clash of steel. A crowd +had gathered about them and was increasing rapidly. They had been +fighting for half a moment around the fire when Solomon broke the blade +of his adversary. The latter drew his pistol! Before he could raise +it Solomon had fired his own weapon. Burley's pistol dropped on the +ground. Instantly its owner reeled and fell beside it. The battle +which had lasted no more than a minute had come to its end. There had +been three kinds of fighting in that lively duel. + +Solomon's voice trembled when he cried out: + +"Ary man who says a word ag'in' the Great Father is goin' to git mussed +up." + +He pushed his way through the crowd which had gathered around the +wounded man. + +"Let me bind his arm," he said. + +But a surgeon had stood in the crowd. He was then doing what he could +for the shattered member of the hot-headed Colonel Burley. Jack was +helping him. Some men arrived with a litter and the unfortunate +officer was quickly on his way to the hospital. + +Jack and Solomon set out for headquarters. They met Putnam and two +officers hurrying toward the scene of the encounter. Solomon had +fought in the bush with him. Twenty years before they had been friends +and comrades. Solomon saluted and stopped the grizzled hero of many a +great adventure. + +"Binkus, what's the trouble here?" the latter asked, as the crowd who +had followed the two scouts gathered about them. + +Solomon gave his account of what had happened. It was quickly verified +by many eye-witnesses. + +"Ye done right," said the General. "Burley has got to take it back an' +apologize. He ain't fit to be an officer. He behaved himself like a +bully. Any man who talks as he done orto be cussed an' Binkussed an' +sent to the guard house." + +Within three days Burley had made an ample apology for his conduct and +this bulletin was posted at headquarters: + +"Liberty of speech has its limits. It must be controlled by the law of +decency and the general purposes of our army and government. The man +who respects no authority above his own intellect is a conceited ass +and would be a tyrant if he had the chance. No word of disrespect for +a superior officer will be tolerated in this army." + +"The Binkussing of Burley"--a phrase which traveled far beyond the +limits of Putnam's camp--and the notice of warning which followed was +not without its effect on the propaganda of Gates and his friends. + + + +2 + +Next day Jack and Solomon set out with a force of twelve hundred men +for Washington's camp at White Marsh near Philadelphia. There Jack +found a letter from Margaret. It had been sent first to Benjamin +Franklin in Paris through the latter's friend Mr. David Hartley, a +distinguished Englishman who was now and then sounding the Doctor on +the subject of peace. + +"I am sure that you will be glad to know that my love for you is not +growing feeble on account of its age," she wrote. "The thought has +come to me that I am England and that you are America. It will be a +wonderful and beautiful thing if through all this bitterness and +bloodshed we can keep our love for each other. My dear, I would have +you know that in spite of this alien King and his followers, I hold to +my love for you and am waiting with that patience which God has put in +the soul of your race and mine, for the end of our troubles. If you +could come to France I would try to meet you in Doctor Franklin's home +at Passy. So I have the hope in me that you may be sent to France." + +This is as much of the letter as can claim admission to our history. +It gave the young man a supply of happiness sufficient to fill the many +days of hardship and peril in the winter at Valley Forge. It was read +to Solomon. + +"Say, this 'ere letter kind o' teches my feelin's--does sart'in," said +Solomon. "I'm goin' to see what kin be done." + +Unknown to Jack, within three days Solomon had a private talk with the +Commander-in-Chief at his headquarters. The latter had a high regard +for the old scout. He maintained a dignified silence while Solomon +made his little speech and then arose and offered his hand saying in a +kindly tone: + +"Colonel Binkus, I must bid you good night." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE GREATEST TRAIT OF A GREAT COMMANDER + +Jack Irons used to say that no man he had known had such an uncommon +amount of common sense as George Washington. He wrote to his father: + +"It would seem that he must be in communication with the all-seeing mind. +If he were to make a serious blunder here our cause would fail. The +enemy tries in vain to fool him. Their devices are as an open book to +Washington. They have fooled me and Solomon and other officers but not +him. I had got quite a conceit of myself in judging strategy but now it +is all gone. + +"One day I was scouting along the lines, a few miles from Philadelphia, +when I came upon a little, ragged, old woman. She wished to go through +the lines into the country to buy flour. The moment she spoke I +recognized her. It was old Lydia Darrah who had done my washing for me +the last year of my stay in Philadelphia. + +"'Why, Lydia, how do you do?' I asked. + +"'The way I have allus done, laddie buck," she answered in her good Irish +brogue. 'Workin' at the tub an' fightin' the divil--bad 'cess to +him--but I kape me hilth an' lucky I am to do that--thanks to the good +God! How is me fine lad that I'd niver 'a' knowed but for the voice o' +him?' + +"'Not as fine as when I wore the white ruffles but stout as a moose,' I +answered. 'The war is a sad business.' + +"'It is that--may the good God defind us! We cross the sea to be rid o' +the divil an' he follys an' grabs us be the neck.' + +"We were on a lonely road. She looked about and seeing no one, put a +dirty old needle case in my hands. "'Take that, me smart lad. It's fer +good luck,' she answered. + +"As I left her I was in doubt of the meaning of her generosity. Soon I +opened the needle book and found in one of its pockets a piece of thin +paper rolled tight. On it I found the information that Howe would be +leaving the city next morning with five thousand men, and baggage wagons +and thirteen cannon and eleven boats. The paper contained other details +of the proposed British raid. I rode post to headquarters and luckily +found the General in his tent. On the way I arrived at a definite +conviction regarding the plans of Howe. I was eager to give it air, +having no doubt of its soundness. The General gave me respectful +attention while I laid the facts before him. Then I took my courage in +my hands and asked: + +"'General, may I venture to express an opinion?' + +"'Certainly,' he answered. + +"'It is the plan of Howe to cross the Delaware in his boats so as to make +us believe that he is going to New York. He will recross the river above +Bristol and suddenly descend upon our rear.' + +"Washington sat, with his arms folded, looking very grave but made no +answer. + +"In other words, again I presented my conviction. + +"Still he was silent and I a little embarrassed. In half a moment I +ventured to ask: + +"'General, what is your opinion?' + +"He answered in a kindly tone: 'Colonel Irons, the enemy has no business +in our rear. The boats are only for our scouts and spies to look at. +The British hope to fool us with them. To-morrow morning about daylight +they will be coming down the Edgely Bye Road on our left.' + +"He called an aid and ordered that our front be made ready for an attack +in the early morning. + +"I left headquarters with my conceit upon me and half convinced that our +Chief was out in his judgment of that matter. No like notion will enter +my mind again. Solomon and I have quarters on the Edgely Bye Road. A +little after three next morning the British were reported coming down the +road. A large number of them were killed and captured and the rest +roughly handled. + +"A smart Yankee soldier in his trial for playing cards yesterday, set up +a defense which is the talk of the camp. For a little time it changed +the tilt of the wrinkles on the grim visage of war. His claim was that +he had no Bible and that the cards aided him in his devotions. + +"The ace reminded him of the one God; the deuce of the Father and Son; +the tray of the Trinity; the four spot of the four evangelists--Matthew, +Luke, Mark and John; the five spot of the five wise and the five foolish +virgins; the six spot of the six days of creation; the seven of the +Sabbath; the eight of Noah and his family; the nine of the nine +ungrateful lepers; the ten of the Ten Commandments; the knave of Judas; +the queen was to him the Queen of Sheba and the king was the one great +King of Heaven and the Universe. + +"'You will go to the guard house for three days so that, hereafter, a +pack of cards will remind you only of a foolish soldier,' said Colonel +Provost." + +Snow and bitter winds descended upon the camp early in December. It was +a worn, ragged, weary but devoted army of about eleven thousand men that +followed Washington into Valley Forge to make a camp for the winter. Of +these, two thousand and ninety-eight were unfit for duty. Most of the +latter had neither boots nor shoes. They marched over roads frozen hard, +with old rags and pieces of hide wrapped around their feet. There were +many red tracks in the snow in the Valley of the Schuylkill that day. +Hardly a man was dressed for cold weather. Hundreds were shivering and +coughing with influenza. + +"When I look at these men I can not help thinking how small are my +troubles," Jack wrote to his mother. "I will complain of them no more. +Solomon and I have given away all the clothes we have except those on our +backs. A fiercer enemy than the British is besieging us here. He is +Winter. It is the duty of the people we are fighting for to defend us +against this enemy. We should not have to exhaust ourselves in such a +battle. Do they think that because God has shown His favor at Brooklyn, +Saratoga, and sundry other places, He is in a way committed? Are they +not disposed to take it easy and over-work the Creator? I can not resist +the impression that they are praying too much and paying too little. I +fear they are lying back and expecting God to send ravens to feed us and +angels to make our boots and weave our blankets and clothing. He will +not go into that kind of business. The Lord is not a shoemaker or a +weaver or a baker. He can have no respect for a people who would leave +its army to starve and freeze to death in the back country. If they are +to do that their faith is rotten with indolence and avarice. + +"There are many here who have nothing to wear but blankets with armholes, +belted by a length of rope. There are hundreds who have no blankets to +cover them at night. They have to take turns sitting by the fire while +others are asleep. For them a night's rest is impossible. Let this +letter be read to the people of Albany and may they not lie down to sleep +until they have stirred themselves in our behalf, and if any man dares to +pray to God to help us until he has given of his abundance to that end +and besought his neighbors to do the same, I could wish that his praying +would choke him. Are we worthy to be saved--that is the question. If we +expect God to furnish the flannel and the shoe leather, we are not. That +is our part of the great task. Are we going to shirk it and fail? + +"We are making a real army. The men who are able to work are being +carefully trained by the crusty old Baron Steuben and a number of French +officers." + +That they did not fail was probably due to the fact that there were men +in the army like this one who seemed to have some little understanding of +the will of God and the duty of man. This letter and others like it, +traveled far and wide and more than a million hands began to work for the +army. + +The Schuylkill was on one side of the camp and wooded ridges, protected +by entrenchments, on the other. Trees were felled and log huts +constructed, sixteen by fourteen feet in size. Twelve privates were +quartered in each hut. + +The Gates propaganda was again being pushed. Anonymous letters +complaining that Washington was not protecting the people of Pennsylvania +and New Jersey from depredations were appearing in sundry newspapers. By +and by a committee of investigation arrived from Congress. They left +satisfied that Washington had done well to keep his army alive, and that +he must have help or a large part of it would die of cold and hunger. + + + +2 + +It was on a severe day in March that Washington sent for Jack Irons. The +scout found the General sitting alone by the fireside in his office which +was part of a small farm-house. He was eating a cold luncheon of baked +beans and bread without butter. Jack had just returned from Philadelphia +where he had risked his life as a spy, of which adventure no details are +recorded save the one given in the brief talk which follows. The scout +smiled as he took the chair offered. + +"The British are eating no such frugal fare," he remarked. + +"I suppose not," the General answered. + +"The night before I left Philadelphia Howe and his staff had a banquet at +The Three Mariners. There were roasted hams and geese and turkeys and +patties and pies and jellies and many kinds of wine and high merriment. +The British army is well fed and clothed." + +"We are not so provided but we must be patient," said Washington. "Our +people mean well, they are as yet unorganized. This matter of being +citizens of an independent nation at war is new to them. The men who are +trying to establish a government while they are defending it against a +powerful enemy have a most complicated problem. Naturally, there are +disagreements and factions. Congress may, for a time, be divided but the +army must stand as one man. This thing we call human liberty has become +for me a sublime personality. In times when I could see no light, she +has kept my heart from failing." + +"She is like the goddess of old who fought in the battles of Agamemnon," +said Jack. "Perhaps she is the angel of God who hath been given charge +concerning us. Perhaps she is traveling up and down the land and +overseas in our behalf." + +Washington sat looking thoughtfully into the fire. In a moment he said: + +"She is like a wise and beautiful mother assuring us that our sorrows +will end, by and by, and that we must keep on." + +The General arose and went to his desk and returned with sealed letters +in his hand and said: + +"Colonel, I have a task for you. I could give it to no man in whom I had +not the utmost confidence. You have earned a respite from the hardships +and perils of this army. Here is a purse and two letters. With them I +wish you to make your way to France as soon as possible and turn over the +letters to Franklin. The Doctor is much in need of help. Put your +services at his disposal. A ship will be leaving Boston on the +fourteenth. A good horse has been provided; your route is mapped. You +will need to start after the noon mess. For the first time in ten days +there will be fresh beef on the tables. Two hundred blankets have +arrived and more are coming. After they have eaten, give the men a +farewell talk and put them in good heart, if you can. We are going to +celebrate the winter's end which can not be long delayed. When you have +left the table, Hamilton will talk to the boys in his witty and inspiring +fashion." + +Soon after one o'clock on the seventh of March, 1778, Colonel Irons bade +Solomon good-by and set out on his long journey. That night he slept in +a farmhouse some fifty miles from Valley Forge. + +Next morning this brief note was written to his mother: + +"I am on my way to France, leaving mother and father and sister and +brother and friend, as the Lord has commanded, to follow Him, I verily +believe. Yesterday the thought came to me that this thing we call the +love of Liberty which is in the heart of every man and woman of us, +urging that we stop at no sacrifice of blood and treasure, is as truly +the angel of God as he that stood with Peter in the prison house. Last +night I saw Liberty in my dreams--a beautiful woman she was, of heroic +stature with streaming hair and the glowing eyes of youth and she was +dressed in a long white robe held at the waist by a golden girdle. And I +thought that she touched my brow and said: + +"'My son, I am sent for all the children of men and not for America +alone. You will find me in France for my task is in many lands.' + +"I left the brave old fighter, Solomon, with tears in his eyes. What a +man is Solomon! Yet, God knows, he is the rank and file of Washington's +army as it stands to-day--ragged, honest, religious, heroic, half fed, +unappreciated, but true as steel and willing, if required, to give up his +comfort or his life! How may we account for such a man without the help +of God and His angels?" + + + + +BOOK THREE + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +IN FRANCE WITH FRANKLIN + +Jack shipped in the packet Mercury, of seventy tons, under Captain +Simeon Sampson, one of America's ablest naval commanders. She had been +built for rapid sailing and when, the second day out, they saw a +British frigate bearing down upon her they wore ship and easily ran +away from their enemy. Their first landing was at St. Martin on the +Isle de Rhé. They crossed the island on mules, being greeted with the +cry: + +"_Voilà les braves Bostones_!" + +In France the word _Bostone_ meant American revolutionist. At the +ferry they embarked on a long gabbone for La Rochelle. There the young +man enjoyed his first repose on a French _lit_ built up of sundry +layers of feather beds. He declares in his diary that he felt the need +of a ladder to reach its snowy summit of white linen. He writes a +whole page on the sense of comfort and the dreamless and refreshing +sleep which he had found in that bed. The like of it he had not known +since he had been a fighting man. + +In the morning he set out in a heavy vehicle of two wheels, drawn by +three horses. Its postillion in frizzed and powdered hair, under a +cocked hat, with a long queue on his back and in great boots, hooped +with iron, rode a lively little _bidet_. Such was the French +stagecoach of those days, its running gear having been planned with an +eye to economy, since vehicles were taxed according to the number of +their wheels. The diary informs one that when the traveler stopped for +food at an inn, he was expected to furnish his own knife. The highways +were patrolled, night and day, by armed horsemen and robberies were +unknown. The vineyards were not walled or fenced. All travelers had a +license to help themselves to as much fruit as they might wish to eat +when it was on the vines. + +They arrived at Chantenay on a cold rainy evening. They were settled +in their rooms, happy that they had protection from the weather, when +their landlord went from room to room informing them that they would +have to move on. + +"Why?" Jack ventured to inquire. + +"Because a _seigneur_ has arrived." + +"A _seigneur_!" Jack exclaimed. + +"_Oui_, Monsieur. He is a very great man." + +"But suppose we refuse to go," said Jack. + +"Then, Monsieur, I shall detain your horses. It is a law of _le grand +monarque_." + +There was no dodging it. The coach and horses came back to the inn +door. The passengers went out into the dark, rainy night to plod along +in the mud, another six miles or so, that the seigneur and his suite +could enjoy that comfort the weary travelers had been forced to leave. +Such was the power of privilege with which the great Louis had saddled +his kingdom. + +They proceeded to Ancenis, Angers and Breux. From the latter city the +road to Versailles was paved with flat blocks of stone. There were +swarms of beggars in every village and city crying out, with hands +extended, as the coach passed them: + +"_La charité, au nom de Dieu_!" + +"France is in no healthy condition when this is possible," the young +man wrote. + +If he met a priest carrying a Bon Dieu in a silver vase every one +called out, "_Aux genoux_!" and then the beholder had to kneel, even if +the mud were ankle deep. So on a wet day one's knees were apt to be as +muddy as his feet. + +The last stage from Versailles to Paris was called the post royale. +There the postillion had to be dressed like a gentleman. It was a +magnificent avenue, crowded every afternoon by the wealth and beauty of +the kingdom, in gorgeously painted coaches, and lighted at night by +great lamps, with double reflectors, over its center. They came upon +it in the morning on their way to the capital. There were few people +traveling at that hour. Suddenly ahead they saw a cloud of dust. The +stage stopped. On came a band of horsemen riding at a wild gallop. +They were the King's couriers. + +"Clear the way," they shouted. "The King's hunt is coming." + +All travelers, hearing this command, made quickly for the sidings, +there to draw rein and dismount. The deer came in sight, running for +its life, the King close behind with all his train, the hounds in full +cry. Near Jack the deer bounded over a hedge and took a new direction. +His Majesty--a short, stout man with blue eyes and aquiline nose, +wearing a lace cocked hat and brown velvet coatee and high boots with +spurs--dismounted not twenty feet from the stage-coach, saying with +great animation: + +"_Vite! Donnez moi un cheval frais_." + +Instantly remounting, he bounded over the hedge, followed by his train. + + + +2 + +A letter from Jack presents all this color of the journey and avers +that he reached the house of Franklin in Passy about two o'clock in the +afternoon of a pleasant May day. The savant greeted his young friend +with an affectionate embrace. + +"Sturdy son of my beloved country, you bring me joy and a new problem," +he said. + +"What is the problem?" Jack inquired. + +"That of moving Margaret across the channel. I have a double task now. +I must secure the happiness of America and of Jack Irons." + +He read the despatches and then the Doctor and the young man set out in +a coach for the palace of Vergennes, the Prime Minister. Colonel Irons +was filled with astonishment at the tokens of veneration for the +white-haired man which he witnessed in the streets of Paris. + +"The person of the King could not have attracted more respectful +attention," he writes. "A crowd gathered about the coach when we were +leaving it and every man stood with uncovered head as we passed on our +way to the palace door. In the crowd there was much whispered praise +of '_Le grand savant_.' I did not understand this until I met, in the +office of the Compte de Vergennes, the eloquent Senator Gabriel Honore +Riquetti de Mirabeau. What an impressive name! Yet I think he +deserves it. He has the eye of Mars and the hair of Samson and the +tongue of an angel, I am told. In our talk, I assured him that in +Philadelphia Franklin came and went and was less observed than the town +crier. + +"'But your people seem to adore him,' I said. + +"'As if he were a god,' Mirabeau answered. 'Yes, it is true and it is +right. Has he not, like Jove, hurled the lightning of heaven in his +right hand? Is he not an unpunished Prometheus? Is he not breaking +the scepter of a tyrant?' + +"Going back to his home where in the kindness of his heart he had asked +me to live, he endeavored, modestly, to explain the evidences of high +regard which were being showered upon him. + +"'It happens that my understanding and small control of a mysterious +and violent force of nature has appealed to the imagination of these +people,' he said, 'I am the only man who has used thunderbolts for his +playthings. Then, too, I am speaking for a new world to an old one. +Just at present I am the voice of Human Liberty. I represent the +hunger of the spirit of man. It is very strong here. You have not +traveled so far in France without seeing thousands of beggars. They +are everywhere. But you do not know that when a child comes in a poor +family, the father and mother go to prison _pour mois de nourrice_. It +is a pity that the poor can not keep their children at home. This old +kingdom is a muttering Vesuvius, growing hotter, year by year, with +discontent. You will presently hear its voices.'" + +[Illustration: Ben Franklin] + +There was a dinner that evening at Franklin's house, at which the +Marquis de Mirabeau, M. Turgot, the Madame de Brillon, the Abbé Raynal +and the Compte and Comptesse d' Haudetot, Colonel Irons and three other +American gentlemen were present. The Madame de Brillon was first to +arrive. She entered with a careless, jaunty air and ran to meet +Franklin and caught his hand and gave him a double kiss on each cheek +and one on his forehead and called him "papa." + +"At table she sat between me and Doctor Franklin," Jack writes. "She +frequently locked her hand in the Doctor's and smiled sweetly as she +looked into his eyes. I wonder what the poor, simple, hard-working +Deborah Franklin would have thought of these familiarities. Yet here, +I am told, no one thinks ill of that kind of thing. The best women of +France seem to treat their favorites with like tokens of regard. Now +and then she spread her arms across the backs of our chairs, as if she +would have us feel that her affection was wide enough for both. + +"She assured me that all the women of France were in love with _le +grand savant_. + +"Franklin, hearing the compliment, remarked: 'It is because they pity +my age and infirmities. First we pity, then embrace, as the great Mr. +Pope has written.' + +"'We think it a compliment that the greatest intellect in the world is +willing to allow itself to be, in a way, captured by the charms of +women,' Madame Brillon declared. + +"'My beautiful friend! You are too generous,' the Doctor continued +with a laugh. 'If the greatest man were really to come to Paris and +lose his heart, I should know where to find it.' + +"The Doctor speaks an imperfect and rather broken French, but these +people seem to find it all the more interesting on that account. +Probably to them it is like the English which we have heard in America +from the lips of certain Frenchmen. How fortunate it is that I learned +to speak the language of France in my boyhood! + +"From the silver-tongued Mirabeau I got further knowledge of Franklin, +with which I, his friend and fellow countryman, should have been +acquainted, save that the sacrifices of the patriot are as common as +mother's milk and cause little comment among us. The great orator was +expected to display his talents, if there were any excuse for it, +wherever he might be, so the ladies set up a demand for a toast. He +spoke of Franklin, 'The Thrifty Prodigal,' saying; + +"'He saves only to give. There never was such a squanderer of his own +immeasurable riches. For his great inventions and discoveries he has +never received a penny. Twice he has put his personal fortune at the +disposal of his country. Once when he paid the farmers for their +horses and wagons to transport supplies for the army of Braddock, and +again when he offered to pay for the tea which was thrown into Boston +Harbor.' + +"The great man turned to me and added: + +"'I have learned of these things, not from him, but from others who +know the truth, and we love him in France because we are aware that he +is working for Human Liberty and not for himself or for any greedy +despot in the 'west.' + +"It is all so true, yet in America nothing has been said of this. + +"As the dinner proceeded the Abbé Raynal asked the Doctor if it was +true that there were signs of degeneracy in the average male American. + +"'Let the facts before us be my answer," said Franklin. "There are at +this table four Frenchmen and four Americans. Let these gentlemen +stand up." + +"The Frenchmen were undersized, the Abbé himself being a mere shrimp of +a man. The Americans, Carmichael, Harmer, Humphries and myself, were +big men, the shortest being six feet tall. The contrast raised a laugh +among the ladies. Then said Franklin in his kindest tones: + +"'My dear Abbé, I am aware that manhood is not a matter of feet and +inches. I only assure you that these are average Americans and that +they are pretty well filled with brain and spirit.' + +"The Abbé spoke of a certain printed story on which he had based his +judgment. + +"Franklin laughed and answered: 'I know that is a fable, because I +wrote it myself one day, long ago, when we were short of news.'" + +The guests having departed, Franklin asked the young man to sit down +for a talk by the fireside. The Doctor spoke of the women of France, +saying: + +"'You will not understand them or me unless you remind yourself that we +are in Europe and that it is the eighteenth century. Here the clocks +are lagging. Time moves slowly. With the poor it stands still. They +know not the thing we call progress.' + +"'Those who have money seem to be very busy having fun,' I said. + +"'There is no morning to their day,' he went on. 'Their dawn is +noontime. Our kind of people have had longer days and have used them +wisely. So we have pushed on ahead of this European caravan. Our +fathers in New England made a great discovery.' + +"'What was it?' I asked. + +"'That righteousness was not a joke; that Christianity was not a solemn +plaything for one day in the week, but a real, practical, working +proposition for every day in the year; that the main support of the +structure is industry; that its most vital commandment is this, 'six +days shalt thou labor'; that no amount of wealth can excuse a man from +this duty. Every one worked. There was no idleness and therefore +little poverty. The days were all for labor and the nights for rest. +The wheels of progress were greased and moving.' + +"'And our love of learning helped to push them along,' I suggested. + +"'True. Our people have been mostly like you and me,' he went on. 'We +long for knowledge of the truth. We build schools and libraries and +colleges. We have pushed on out of the eighteenth century into a new +time. There you were born. Now you have stepped a hundred years +backward into Europe. You are astonished, and this brings me to my +point. Here I am with a great task on my hands. It is to enlist the +sympathy and help of France. I must take things, not as I could wish +them to be, but as I find them. At this court women are all powerful. +It has long been a maxim here that a diplomatist must stand well with +the ladies. Even though he is venerable, he must be gallant, and I do +not use the word in a shady sense. The ladies are not so bad as you +would think them. They are playthings. To them, life is not as we +know it, filled with realities. It is a beautiful drama of rich +costumes and painted scenes and ingenious words, all set in the +atmosphere of romance. The players only pretend to believe each other. +In the salon I am one of these players. I have to be.' + +"'Mirabeau seemed to mean what he said,' was my answer. + +"'Yes. He is one of those who often speak from the heart. All these +players love the note of sincerity when they hear it. In the salon it +is out of key, but away from the ladies the men are often living and +not playing. Mirabeau, Condorcet, Turgot and others have heard the +call of Human Liberty. Often they come to this house and speak out +with a strong candor.' + +"'I suppose that this great drama of despotism in France will end in a +tragedy whose climax will consume the stage and half the players,' I +ventured to say. + +"'That is a theme, Jack, on which you and I must be silent,' Franklin +answered. 'We must hold our mouths as with a bridle.' + +"For a moment he sat looking sadly into the glowing coals on the grate. +Franklin loved to talk, but no one could better keep his own counsel. + +"'At heart I am no revolutionist,' he said presently. 'I believe in +purifying--not in breaking down. I would to God that I could have +convinced the British of their error. Mainly I am with the prophet who +says: + +"'"Stand in the old ways. View the ancient paths. Consider them well +and be not among those who are given to change."' + +"I sat for a moment thinking of the cruelties I had witnessed, and +asking myself if it had been really worth while. Franklin interrupted +my thoughts. + +"'I wish we could discover a plan which would induce and compel nations +to settle their differences without cutting each other's throats. When +will human wisdom be sufficient to see the advantage of this?' + +"He told me the thrilling details of his success in France; how he had +won the kingdom for an ally and secured loans and the help of a fleet +and army then on the sea. + +"'And you will not be surprised to learn that the British have been +sounding me to see if we would be base enough to abandon our ally,' he +laughed. + +"In a moment he added: + +"'Come, it is late and you must write a letter to the heart of England +before you lie down to rest.' + +"Often thereafter he spoke of Margaret as 'the heart of England.'" + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE PAGEANT + +Jack began to assist Franklin in his correspondence and in the many +business details connected with his mission. + +"I have never seen a man with a like capacity for work," the young +officer writes. "Every day he is conferring with Vergennes or other +representatives of the King, or with the ministers of Spain, Holland +and Great Britain. The greatest intellect in the kingdom is naturally +in great request. To-day, after many hours of negotiation with the +Spanish minister, in came M. Dubourg, the most distinguished physician +in Europe. + +"'_Mon chère mâitre_,' he said. 'I have a most difficult case and as +you know more about the human body than any man of my acquaintance I +wish to confer with you.' + +"Yesterday, Doctor Ingenhauz, physician to the Emperor of Austria, came +to consult him regarding the vaccination of the royal family of France. + +"In the evening, M. Robespierre, a slim, dark-skinned, studious young +attorney from Arras, wearing gold-rimmed spectacles, came for +information regarding lightning rods, he having doubts of their +legality. While they were talking, M. Joseph Ignace Guillotin, another +physician, arrived. He was looking for advice regarding a proposed new +method of capital punishment, and wished to know if, in the Doctor's +opinion, a painless death could be produced by quickly severing the +head from the body. Next morning, M. Jourdan, with hair and beard as +red as the flank of my bay mare and a loud voice, came soon after +breakfast, to sell us mules by the ship load. + +"So you see that even I, living in his home and seeing him almost every +hour of the day, have little chance to talk with him. Last night we +met M. Voltaire--dramatist and historian--now in the evening of his +days. We were at the Academy, where we had gone to hear an essay by +D'Alembert. Franklin and Voltaire--a very thin old gentleman of +eighty-four, with piercing black eyes--sat side by side on the +platform. The audience demanded that the two great men should come +forward and salute each other. They arose and advanced and shook hands. + +"'_A la Française_,' the crowd demanded. + +"So the two white-haired men embraced and kissed each other amidst loud +applause. + +"We are up at sunrise and at breakfast, for half an hour or so, I have +him to myself. Then we take a little walk in the palace grounds of M. +le Ray de Chaumont, Chief Forester of the kingdom, which adjoins us. +To the Count's generosity Franklin is indebted for the house we live +in. The Doctor loves to have me with him in the early morning. He +says breakfasting alone is the most _triste_ of all occupations. + +"'I think that the words of Demosthenes could not have been more sought +than yours,' I said to him at breakfast this morning. + +"He laughed as he answered: 'Demosthenes said that the first point in +speaking was action. Probably he meant the action which preceded the +address--a course of it which had impressed people with the integrity +and understanding of the speaker. For years I have had what Doctor +Johnson would call 'a wise and noble curiosity' about nature and have +had some success in gratifying it. Then, too, I have tried to order my +life so that no man could say that Ben Franklin had intentionally done +him a wrong. So I suppose that my words are entitled to a degree of +respect--a far more limited degree than the French are good enough to +accord them.' + +"As we were leaving the table he said: 'Jack, I have an idea worthy of +Demosthenes. My friend, David Hartley of London, who still has hope of +peace by negotiation, wishes to come over and confer with me. I shall +tell him that he may come if he will bring with him the Lady Hare and +her daughter.' + +"'More thrilling words were never spoken by Demosthenes,' I answered. +'But how about Jones and his _Bonne Homme Richard_? He is now a terror +to the British coasts. They would fear destruction.' + +"'I shall ask Jones to let them alone,' he said. 'They can come under +a special flag.' + +"Commodore Jones did not appear again in Paris until October, when he +came to Passy to report upon a famous battle. + +"I was eager to meet this terror of the coasts. His impudent courage +and sheer audacity had astonished the world. The wonder was that men +were willing to join him in such dare devil enterprises. + +"I had imagined that Jones would be a tall, gaunt, swarthy, raw-boned, +swearing man of the sea. He was a sleek, silent, modest little man, +with delicate hands and features. He wished to be alone with the +Doctor, and so I did not hear their talk. I know that he needed money +and that Franklin, having no funds, provided the sea fighter from his +own purse. + +"Commodore Jones had brought with him a cartload of mail from captured +British ships. In it were letters to me from Margaret. + +"'Now you are near me and yet there is an impassable gulf between us,' +she wrote. 'We hear that the seas are overrun with pirates and that no +ship is safe. Our vessels are being fired upon and sunk. I would not +mind being captured by a good Yankee captain, if it were carefully +done. But cannons are so noisy and impolite! I have a lot of British +pluck in me, but I fear that you would not like to marry a girl who +limped because she had been shot in the war. And, just think of the +possible effect on my disposition. So before we start Doctor Franklin +will have to promise not to fire his cannons at us.' + +"I showed the letter to Franklin and he laughed and said: + +"'They will be treated tenderly. The Commodore will convoy them across +the channel. I shall assure Hartley of that in a letter which will go +forward today.' + +"Anxious days are upon us. Our money in America has become almost +worthless and we are in extreme need of funds to pay and equip the +army. We are daily expecting a loan from the King of three million +livres. But Vergennes has made it clear to us that the government of +France is itself in rather desperate straits. The loan has been +approved, but the treasury is waiting upon certain taxes not yet +collected. The moment the money is available the Prime Minister will +inform us of the fact. + +"On a fine autumn day we drove with the Prince of Condé in his great +coach, ornamented with costly paintings, to spend a day at his country +seat in Chantilly. The palace was surrounded by an artificial canal; +the gardens beautified with ponds and streams and islands and cascades +and grottos and labyrinths, the latter adorned with graceful +sculptures. His stables were lined with polished woods; their windows +covered with soft silk curtains. Of such a refinement of luxury I had +never dreamed. Having seen at least a thousand beggars on the way, I +was saddened by these rich, lavish details of a prince's +self-indulgence. + +"On the wish of our host, Franklin had taken with him a part of his +electrical apparatus, with which he amused a large company of the +friends of the great _Seigneur_ in his palace grounds. Spirits were +fired by a spark sent from one pond to another with no conductor but +the water of a stream. The fowls for dinner were slain by electrical +shocks and cooked over a fire kindled by a current from an electrical +bottle. At the table the success of America was toasted in electrified +bumpers with an accompaniment of guns fired by an electrical battery. + +"A poet had written a _Chanson à Boire_ to Franklin, which was read and +merrily applauded at the dinner--one stanza of which ran as follows: + + "'Tout, en fondant un empire, + Vous le voyez boire et rire + Le verre en main + Chantons notre Benjamin.' + +"To illustrate the honest candor with which often he speaks, even in +the presence of Frenchmen who are near the throne, I quote a few words +from his brief address to the Prince and his friends; + +"'A good part of my life I have worked with my hands. If Your Grace +will allow me to say so, I wish to see in France a deeper regard for +the man who works with his hands--the man who supplies food. He really +furnishes the standard of all value. The value of everything depends +on the labor given to the making of it. If the labor in producing a +bushel of wheat is the same as that consumed in the production of an +ounce of silver, their value is the same. + +"'The food maker also supplies a country with its population. By 1900 +he will have given to America a hundred million people and a power and +prosperity beyond our reckoning. Frugality and Industry are the most +fruitful of parents, especially where they are respected. When luxury +and the cost of living have increased, people have become more cautious +about marriage and populations have begun to dwindle.' + +"The Bourbon Prince, a serious-minded man, felt the truth of all this +and was at pains to come to my venerable friend and heartily express +his appreciation. + +"'We know that we are in a bad way, but we know not how to get out of +it,' he said. + +"The Princess, who sat near us at table, asked the Doctor for +information about the American woman. + +"'"She riseth while it is yet night and giveth meat to her household, +and a portion to her maidens,"' he quoted. 'She is apt to be more +industrious than her husband. She works all day and often a part of +the night. She is weaver, knitter, spinner, tailor, cook, washerwoman, +teacher, doctor, nurse. While she is awake her hands are never idle, +and their most important work is that of slowly building up the manhood +of America. Ours is to be largely a mother-made land.' + +"'_Mon Dieu_! I should think she would be cross with so much to do,' +said the Princess. + +"'Often she is a little cross,' Franklin answered. 'My friend, James +Otis of Massachusetts, complained of the fish one day at dinner when +there was company at the table. Mrs. Otis frankly expressed her +opinion of his bad manners. He was temperamental and himself a bit +overworked. He made no answer, but in the grace which followed the +meal he said: + +"'"O Lord, we thank Thee that we have been able to finish this dinner +without getting slapped." + +"'But I would ask Your Highness to believe that our men are mostly +easier to get along with. They do not often complain of the food. +They are more likely to praise it.' + +"On our way back to Paris the Doctor said to me: + +"'The great error of Europe is entailment--entailed estates, entailed +pride, entailed luxury, entailed conceit. A boy who inherits honor +will rarely honor himself. I like the method of China, where honor +ascends, but does not descend. It goes back to his parents who taught +him his virtues. It can do no harm to his parents, but it can easily +ruin him and his children. I regard humility as one of the greatest +virtues.'" + + + +2 + +"That evening our near neighbors, Le Compte de Chaumont and M. +LeVilleard, came to announce that a dinner and ball in honor of +Franklin would occur at the palace of Compte de Chaumont less than a +week later. + +"'My good friends,' said the philosopher, 'I value these honors which +are so graciously offered me, but I am old and have much work to do. I +need rest more than I need the honors.' + +"'It is one of the penalties of being a great savant that people wish +to see and know him,' said the Count. 'The most distinguished people +in France will be among those who do you honor. I think, if you can +recall a talk we had some weeks ago, you will wish to be present.' + +"'Oh, then, you have heard from the Hornet.' + +"'I have a letter here which you may read at your convenience.' + +"'My dear friend, be pleased to receive my apologies and my hearty +thanks,' said Franklin. 'Not even the gout could keep me away.' + +"Next day I received a formal invitation to the dinner and ball. I +told the Doctor that in view of the work to be done, I would decline +the invitation. He begged me not to do it and insisted that he was +counting upon me to represent the valor and chivalry of the New World; +that as I had grown into the exact stature of Washington and was so +familiar with his manners and able to imitate them in conversation, he +wished me to assume the costume of our Commander-in-Chief. He did me +the honor to say: + +"'There is no other man whom it would be safe to trust in such an +exalted role. I wish, as a favor to me, you would see what can be done +at the costumer's and let me have a look at you.' + +"I did as he wished. The result was an astonishing likeness. I +dressed as I had seen the great man in the field. I wore a wig +slightly tinged with gray, a blue coat, buff waistcoat and sash and +sword and the top boots and spurs. When I strode across the room in +the masterly fashion of our great Commander, the Doctor clapped his +hands. + +"'You are as like him as one pea is like another!' he exclaimed. +'Nothing would so please our good friends, the French, who have an +immense curiosity regarding _Le Grand Vasanton_, and it will give me an +opportunity to instruct them as to our spirit.' + +"He went to his desk and took from a drawer a cross of jeweled gold on +a long necklace of silver--a gift from the King--and put it over my +head so that the cross shone upon my breast. + +"'That is for the faith of our people,' he declared. 'The guests will +assemble on the grounds of the Count late in the afternoon. You will +ride among them on a white horse. A beautiful maiden in a white robe +held at the waist with a golden girdle will receive you. She will be +Human Liberty. You will dismount and kneel and kiss her hand. Then +the Prime Minister of France will give to each a blessing and to you a +sword and a purse. You will hold them up and say: + +"'"For these things I promise you the friendship of my people and their +prosperity." + +"'You will kiss the sword and hang it beside your own and pass the +purse to me and then I shall have something to say.' + +"So it was all done, but with thrilling details, of which no suspicion +had come to me. I had not dreamed, for instance, that the King and +Queen would be present and that the enthusiasm would be so great. You +will be able to judge of my surprise when, riding my white horse +through the cheering crowd, throwing flowers in my way, I came suddenly +upon Margaret Hare in the white robe of Human Liberty. Now facing me +after these years of trial, her spirit was equal to her part. She was +like unto the angel I had seen in my dreams. The noble look of her +face thrilled me. It was not so easy to maintain the calm dignity of +Washington in that moment. I wanted to lift her in my arms and hold +her there, as you may well believe, but, alas, I was Washington! I +dismounted and fell upon one knee before her and kissed her hand not +too fervently, I would have you know, in spite of my temptation. She +stood erect, although tears were streaming down her cheeks and her dear +hand trembled when it rested on my brow and she could only whisper the +words: + +"'May the God of your fathers aid and keep you.' + +"The undercurrent of restrained emotion in this little scene went out +to that crowd, which represented the wealth, beauty and chivalry of +France. I suppose that some of them thought it a bit of good acting. +These people love the drama as no others love it. I suspect that many +of the friends of Franklin knew that she who was Liberty was indeed my +long lost love. A deep silence fell upon them and then arose a wild +shout of approval that seemed to come out of the very heart of France +and to be warm with its noble ardor. Every one in this beautiful +land--even the King and Queen and their kin--are thinking of Liberty +and have begun to long for her blessing. That, perhaps, is why the +scene had so impressed them. + +"But we were to find in this little drama a climax wholly unexpected by +either of us and of an importance to our country which I try in vain to +estimate. When the Prime Minister handed the purse to Franklin he bade +him open it. This the latter did, finding therein letters of credit +for the three million livres granted, of which we were in sore need. +With it was the news that a ship would be leaving Boulogne in the +morning and that relays on the way had been provided for his messenger. +The invention of our beloved diplomat was equal to the demand of the +moment and so he announced: + +"'Washington is like his people. He turns from all the loves of this +world to obey the call of duty. My young friend who has so well +presented the look and manner of Washington will now show you his +spirit.' + +"He looked at his watch and added: + +"'Within forty minutes he will be riding post to Boulogne, there to +take ship for America.' + +"So here I am on the ship _L'Etoile_ and almost in sight of Boston +harbor, bringing help and comfort to our great Chief. + +"I was presented to the King and Queen. Of him I have written--a +stout, fat-faced man, highly colored, with a sloping forehead and large +gray eyes. His coat shone with gold embroidery and jeweled stars. His +close-fitting waistcoat of milk white satin had golden buttons and a +curve which was not the only sign he bore of rich wine and good capon. +The queen was a beautiful, dark-haired lady of some forty years, with a +noble and gracious countenance. She was clad in no vesture of gold, +but in sober black velvet. Her curls fell upon the loose ruff of lace +around her neck. There were no jewels on or about her bare, white +bosom. Her smile and gentle voice, when she gave me her bon-voyage and +best wishes for the cause so dear to us, are jewels I shall not soon +forget. + +"Yes, I had a little talk with Margaret and her mother, who walked with +me to Franklin's house. There, in his reception room, I took a good +look at the dear girl, now more beautiful than ever, and held her to my +heart a moment. + +"'I see you and then I have to go,' I said. + +"'It is the fault of my too romantic soul,' she answered mournfully. +'For two days we have been in hiding here. I wanted to surprise you.' + +"And this protest came involuntarily from my lips: + +"'Here now is the happiness for which I have longed, and yet forthwith +I must leave it. What a mystery is the spirit of man!' + +"'When it is linked to the spirit of God it ceases to understand +itself,' she answered. 'Oh, that I had the will for sacrifice which is +in you!' + +"She lifted the jeweled cross I wore to her lips and kissed it. I wish +that I could tell you how beautiful she looked then. She is twenty-six +years old and her womanhood is beginning. + +"'Now you may go,' she said. 'My heart goes with you, but I fear that +we shall not meet again.' + +"'Why ?' was my question. + +"'I am utterly discouraged.' + +"'You can not expect her to wait for you any longer. It is not fair,' +said her mother. + +"'Margaret, I do not ask you to wait,' I said. 'I am not quite a human +being. I seem to have no time for that. I am of the army of God. I +shall not expect you to wait.' + +"So it befell that the stern, strong hand of a soldier's duty drew me +from her presence almost as soon as we had met I kissed her and left +her weeping, for there was need of haste. Soon I was galloping out of +Passy on my way to the land I love. I try not to think of her, but how +can I put out of mind the pathos of that moment? Whenever I close my +eyes I see her beautiful figure sitting with bowed head in the +twilight." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +IN WHICH APPEARS THE HORSE OF DESTINY AND THE JUDAS OF WASHINGTON'S ARMY + +In Boston harbor, Jack learned of the evacuation of Philadelphia by the +British and was transferred to a Yankee ship putting out to sea on its +way to that city. There he found the romantic Arnold, crippled by his +wounds, living in the fine mansion erected by William Penn. He had +married a young daughter of one of the rich Tory families, for his +second wife, and was in command of the city. Colonel Irons, having +delivered the letters to the Treasurer of the United States, reported +at Arnold's office. It was near midday and the General had not +arrived. The young man sat down to wait and soon the great soldier +drove up with his splendid coach and pair. His young wife sat beside +him. He had little time for talk. He was on his way to breakfast. +Jack presented his compliments and the good tidings which he had +brought from the Old Country. Arnold listened as if he were hearing +the price of codfish and hams. + +The young man was shocked by the coolness of the Commandant. The +former felt as if a pail of icy water had been thrown upon him, when +Arnold answered: + +"Now that they have money I hope that they will pay their debt to me." + +This kind of talk Jack had not heard before. He resented it but +answered calmly: "A war and an army is a great extravagance for a young +nation that has not yet learned the imperial art of gathering taxes. +Many of us are going unpaid but if we get liberty it will be worth all +it costs." + +"That sounds well but there are some of us who are also in need of +justice," Arnold answered as he turned away. + +"General, you who have not been dismayed by force will never, I am +sure, surrender to discouragement," said Jack. + +The fiery Arnold turned suddenly and lifting his cane in a threatening +manner said in a loud voice: + +"Would you reprimand me--you damned upstart?" + +"General, you may strike me, if you will, but I can not help saying +that we young men must look to you older ones for a good example." + +Very calmly and politely the young man spoke these words. He towered +above the man Arnold in spirit and stature. The latter did not commit +the folly of striking him but with a look of scorn ordered him to leave +the office. + +Jack obeyed the order and went at once to call upon his old friend, +Governor Reed. He told the Governor of his falling out with the +Major-General. + +"Arnold is a sordid, selfish man and a source of great danger to our +cause," said the Governor. "He is vain and loves display and is living +far beyond his means. To maintain his extravagance he has resorted to +privateering and speculation, and none of it has been successful. He +is deeply involved in debt. It is charged that he has used his +military authority for private gain. He was tried by a court-martial +but escaped with only a reprimand from the Commander-in-Chief. He is +thick with the Tories. He is the type of man who would sell his master +for thirty pieces of silver." + +"This is alarming," said Jack. + +"My boy an ill wind is blowing on us," the Governor went on. "We have +all too many Arnolds in our midst. Our currency has depreciated until +forty shillings will not buy what one would have bought before the war. +The profit makers are rolling in luxury and the poor army starves. The +honest and patriotic are impoverished while those who practise fraud +and Toryism are getting rich." + +Depressed by this report of conditions in America Jack set out for +Washington's headquarters on the Hudson. Never had the posture of +American affairs looked so hopeless. The Governor had sold him a young +mare with a white star in her forehead and a short, white stocking on +her left fore-leg, known in good time as the horse of destiny. + +"She was a well turned, high spirited creature with good plumes, a +noble eye and a beautiful head and neck," Jack wrote long after the day +he parted with her. "I have never ridden a more distinguished animal. +She was in every way worthy of the task ahead of her." + +When he had crossed the King's Ferry the mare went lame. A little +beyond the crossing he met a man on a big, roan gelding. Jack stopped +him to get information about the roads in the north. + +"That's a good-looking mare," the man remarked. + +"And she is better than she looks," Jack answered. "But she has thrown +a shoe and gone lame." + +"I'll trade even and give you a sound horse," the man proposed. + +"What is your name and where do you live?" Jack inquired. + +"My name is Paulding and I live at Tarrytown in the neutral territory." + +"I hope that you like horses." + +"You can judge of that by the look of this one. You will observe that +he is well fed and groomed." + +"And your own look is that of a good master," said Jack, as he examined +the teeth and legs of the gelding. "Pardon me for asking. I have +grown fond of the mare. She must have a good master." + +"I accepted his offer not knowing that a third party was looking on and +laying a deeper plan than either of us were able to penetrate," Jack +used to say of that deal. + +He approached the little house in which the Commander-in-Chief was +quartered with a feeling of dread, fearing the effect of late +developments on his spirit. + +The young man wrote to Margaret in care of Franklin this account of the +day which followed his return to camp: + +"Thank God! I saw on the face of our Commander the same old look of +unshaken confidence. I knew that he could see his way and what a sense +of comfort came of that knowledge! More than we can tell we are +indebted to the calm and masterful face of Washington. It holds up the +heart of the army in all discouragements. His faith is established. +He is not afraid of evil tidings. This great, god-like personality of +his has put me on my feet again. I was in need of it, for a different +kind of man, of the name of Arnold, had nearly floored me." + +"'Sit down here and tell me all about Franklin,' he said with a smile. + +"I told him what was going on in Paris and especially of the work of +our great minister to the court of Louis XVI. + +"He heard me with deep interest and when I had finished arose and gave +me his hand saying: + +"'Colonel, again you have won my gratitude. We must keep our courage.' + +"I told him of my unhappy meeting with Arnold. + +"'The man has his faults--he is very human, but he has been a good +soldier,' Washington answered. + +"The thought came to me that the love of liberty had lifted many of us +above the human plane of sordid striving. + +"Solomon came into camp that evening. He was so glad to see me that he +could only wring my hand and utter exclamations. + +"'How is the gal?' he asked presently. + +"I told him of our meeting in Passy and of my fear that we should not +meet again. + +"'It seems as if the Lord were not yet willing to let us marry,' I said. + +"'Course not,' he answered. 'When yer boat is in the rapids it's no +time fer to go ashore an' pick apples. I cocalate the Lord is usin' ye +fer to show the Ol' World what's inside o' us Americans.' + +"Margaret, I wonder if the Lord really wished to show you and others +the passion which is in the heart of Washington and his army. On the +way to my ship I was like one making bloody footprints in the snow. +How many of them I have seen! And now is the time to tell you that +Doctor Franklin has written a letter informing me how deeply our part +in the little pageant had impressed Mr. Hartley and the court people of +France and that he had secured another loan. + +"Solomon is a man of faith. He never falters. + +"He said to me: 'Don't worry. That gal has got a backbone. She ain't +no rye straw. She's a-goin' to think it over.' + +"Neither spoke for a time. We sat by an open fire in front of his tent +as the night fell. Solomon was filling his pipe. He swallowed and his +right eye began to take aim. I knew that some highly important theme +would presently open the door of his intellect and come out. + +"'Jack, I been over to Albany,' he said. 'Had a long visit with +Mirandy. They ain't no likelier womern in Ameriky. I'll bet a pint o' +powder an' a fish hook on that. Ye kin look fer 'em till yer eyes run +but ye'll be obleeged to give up.' + +"He lighted his pipe and smoked a few whiffs and added: 'Knit seventy +pair o' socks fer my regiment this fall.' + +"'Have you asked her to marry you?' I inquired. + +"'No. 'Tain't likely she'd have me,' he answered. 'She's had troubles +enough. I wouldn't ask no womern to marry me till the war is fit out. +I'm liable to git all shot up any day. I did think I'd ask her but I +didn't. Got kind o' skeered an' skittish when we sot down together, +an' come to think it all over, 'twouldn't 'a' been right.' + +"'You're wrong, Solomon,' I answered. 'You ought to have a home of +your own and a wife to make you fond of it. How is the Little Cricket?' + +"'Cunnin'est little shaver that ever lived,' said he. 'I got him a +teeny waggin an' drawed him down to the big medder an' back. He had a +string hitched on to my waist an' he pulled an' hauled an' hollered +whoa an' git ap till he were erbout as hoarse as a bull frog. When we +got back he wanted to go all over me with a curry comb an' braid my +mane.' + +"The old scout roared with laughter as he thought of the child's play +in which he had had a part. He told me of my own people and next to +their good health it pleased me to learn that my father had given all +his horses--save two--to Washington. That is what all our good men are +doing. So you will see how it is that we are able to go on with this +war against the great British empire. + +"That night the idea came to me that I would seek an opportunity to +return to France in the hope of finding you in Paris. I applied for a +short furlough to give me a chance to go home and see the family. +There I found a singular and disheartening situation. My father's +modest fortune is now a part of the ruin of war. Soon after the +beginning of hostilities he had loaned his money to men who had gone +into the business of furnishing supplies to the army. He had loaned +them dollars worth a hundred cents. They are paying their debts to him +in dollars worth less than five cents. Many, and Washington among +them, have suffered in a like manner. My father has little left but +his land, two horses, a yoke of oxen and a pair of slaves. So I am too +poor to give you a home in any degree worthy of you. + +"Dear old Solomon has proposed to make me his heir, but now that he has +met the likely womern I must not depend upon him. So I have tried to +make you know the truth about me as well as I do. If your heart is +equal to the discouragement I have heaped upon it I offer you this poor +comfort. When the war is over I can borrow a thousand pounds to keep a +roof over our heads and a fowl in the pot and pudding in the twifflers +while I am clearing the way to success. The prospect is not inviting, +I fear, but if, happily, it should appeal to you, I suggest that you +join your father in New York at the first opportunity so that we may +begin our life together as soon as the war ends. And now, whatever +comes, I would wish you to keep these thoughts of me: I have loved you, +but there are things which I have valued above my own happiness. If I +can not have you I shall have always the memory of the hours we have +spent together and of the great hope that was mine. + +"While I was at home the people of our neighborhood set out at daylight +one morning for a pigeon party. We had our breakfast on an island. +Then the ladies sat down to knit and sew, while the men went fishing. +In the afternoon we gathered berries and returned at dusk with filled +pails and many fish. So our people go to the great storehouse of +Nature and help themselves." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +WHICH CONTAINS THE ADVENTURES OF SOLOMON IN THE TIMBER SACK AND ON THE +"HAND-MADE RIVER" + +In the spring of 1779, there were scarcely sixteen thousand men in the +American army, of which three thousand were under Gates at Providence; +five thousand in the Highlands under McDougall, who was building new +defenses at West Point, and on the east shore of the Hudson under +Putnam; seven thousand were with Washington at Middlebrook where he had +spent a quiet winter; a few were in the south. The British, +discouraged in their efforts to conquer the northern and middle +colonies, sent a force of seven thousand men to take Georgia and South +Carolina. They hoped that Washington, who could not be induced to risk +his army in decisive action against superior numbers, would thus be +compelled to scatter and weaken it. But the Commander-in-Chief, +knowing how seriously Nature, his great ally, was gnawing at the vitals +of the British, bided his time and kept his tried regiments around him. +Now and then, a staggering blow filled his enemies with a wholesome +fear of him. His sallies were as swift and unexpected as the rush of a +panther with the way of retreat always open. Meanwhile a cry of +affliction and alarm had arisen in England. Its manufacturers were on +the verge of bankruptcy, its people out of patience. + +As soon as the ice was out of the lakes and rivers, Jack and Solomon +joined an expedition under Sullivan against the Six Nations, who had +been wreaking bloody vengeance on the frontiers of Pennsylvania and New +York. The Senecas had been the worst offenders, having spilled the +blood of every white family in their reach. Sullivan's expedition +ascended the Chemung branch of the Susquehanna and routed a great force +of Indians under Brant and Johnson at Newtown and crossed to the Valley +of the Genessee, destroying orchards, crops and villages. The red men +were slain and scattered. The fertile valley was turned into a +flaming, smoking hell. Simultaneously a force went up the Alleghany +and swept its shores with the besom of destruction. + +Remembrance of the bold and growing iniquities of the savage was like a +fire in the heart of the white man. His blood boiled with anger. He +was without mercy. Like every reaping of the whirlwind this one had +been far more plentiful than the seed from which it sprang. Those +April days the power of the Indian was forever broken and his cup +filled with bitterness. Solomon had spoken the truth when he left the +Council Fire in the land of Kiodote: + +"Hereafter the Injun will be a brother to the snake." + +Jack and Solomon put their lives in danger by entering the last village +ahead of the army and warning its people to flee. The killing had made +them heart-sick, although they had ample reason for hating the red men. + +In the absence of these able helpers Washington had moved to the +Highlands. This led the British General, Sir Henry Clinton, to decide +to block his return. So he sent a large force up the river and +captured the fort at Stony Point and King's Ferry connecting the great +road from the east with the middle states. The fort and ferry had to +be retaken, and, early in July, Jack and Solomon were sent to look the +ground over. + +In the second day of their reconnoitering above Stony Point they came +suddenly upon a British outpost. They were discovered and pursued but +succeeded in eluding the enemy. Soon a large party began beating the +bush with hounds. Jack escaped by hiding behind a waterfall. Solomon +had a most remarkable adventure in making his way northward. Hearing +the dogs behind him he ran to the shore of a bay, where a big drive of +logs had been boomed in, and ran over them a good distance and dropped +out of sight. He lay between two big sections of a great pine with his +nose above water for an hour or so. A band of British came down to the +shore and tried to run the logs but, being unaccustomed to that kind of +work, were soon rolled under and floundering to their necks. + +"I hadn't na skeer o' their findin' me," Solomon said to Jack. "'Cause +they was a hundred acres o' floatin' timber in that 'ere bay. I heard +'em slippin' an' sloshin' eround nigh shore a few minutes an' then they +give up an' went back in the bush. They were a strip o' open water +'twixt the logs an' the shore an' I clumb on to the timber twenty rod +er more from whar I waded in so's to fool the dogs." + +"What did you do with your rifle an' powder?" Jack inquired. + +"Wal, ye see, they wuz some leetle logs beyond me that made a kind o' a +holler an' I jest put ol' Marier 'crost 'em an' wound the string o' my +powder-horn on her bar'l. I lay thar a while an' purty soon I heard a +feller comin' on the timber. He were clus up to me when he hit a log +wrong an' it rolled him under. I dim' up an' grabbed my rifle an' thar +were 'nother cuss out on the logs not more'n ten rod erway. He took a +shot at me, but the bullet didn't come nigh 'nough so's I could hear it +whisper he were bobbin' eround so. I lifted my gun an' says I: + +"'Boy, you come here to me.' + +"But he thought he'd ruther go somewhar else an' he did--poor, ignorant +devil! I went to t' other feller that was rasslin' with a log tryin' +to git it under him. He'd flop the log an' then it would flop him. +He'd throwed his rifle 'crost the timber. I goes over an' picks it up +an' says I: + +"'Take it easy, my son. I'll help ye in a minute.' + +"His answer wa'n't none too p'lite. He were a leetle runt of a +sergeant. I jest laughed at him an' went to t' other feller an' took +the papers out o' his pockets. I see then a number o' British boys was +makin' fer me on the wobbly top o' the river. They'd see me goin' as +easy as a hoss on a turnpike an' they was tryin' fer to git the knack +o' it. In a minute they begun poppin' at me. But shootin' on logs is +like tryin' to walk a line on a wet deck in a hurricane. Ye got to +know how to offset the wobble. They didn't skeer me. I went an' +hauled that runt out o' the water an' with him under my right arm an' +the two rifles under the left un I started treadin' logs headin' fer +the north shore. They quit shootin' but come on a'ter me pell-mell. +They got to comin' too fast an' I heard 'em goin' down through the roof +o' the bay behind me an' rasslin' with the logs. That put meat on my +bones! I could 'a' gone back an' made a mess o' the hull party with +the toe o' my boot but I ain't overly fond o' killin'. Never have +been. I took my time an' slopped erlong toward shore with the runt +under my arm cussin' like a wildcat. We got ashore an' I made the +leetle sergeant empty his pockets an' give me all the papers he had. I +took the strip o' rawhide from round my belt an' put a noose above his +knees an' 'nother on my wrist an' sot down to wait fer dark which the +sun were then below the tree-tops. I looked with my spy-glass 'crost +the bay an' could see the heads bobbin' up an' down an' a dozen men +comin' out with poles to help the log rasslers. Fer some time they had +'nough to do an' I wouldn't be supprised. If we had the hull British +army on floatin' timber the logs would lick 'em in a few minutes." + +Solomon came in with his prisoner and accurate information as to the +force of British in the Highlands. + +On the night of the fifteenth of July, a detachment of Washington's +troops under Wayne, preceded by the two scouts, descended upon Stony +Point and King's Ferry and routed the enemy, capturing five hundred and +fifty men and killing sixty. Within a few days the British came up the +river in great force and Washington, unwilling to risk a battle, +quietly withdrew and let them have the fort and ferry and their labor +for their pains. It was a bitter disappointment to Sir Henry Clinton. +The whole British empire clamored for decisive action and their great +Commander was unable to bring it about and meanwhile the French were +preparing to send a heavy force against them. + + + +2 + +Solomon, being the ablest bush scout in the American army, was needed +for every great enterprise in the wilderness. So when a small force +was sent up the Penobscot River to dislodge a regiment of British from +Nova Scotia, in the late summer of 1779, he went with it. The fleet +which conveyed the Americans was in command of a rugged old sea captain +from Connecticut of the name of Saltonstall who had little knowledge of +the arts of war. He neglected the precautions which a careful +commander would have taken. + +A force larger than his own should have guarded the mouth of the river. +Of this Solomon gave him warning, but Captain Saltonstall did not share +the apprehension of the great scout. In consequence they were pursued +and overhauled far up the river by a British fleet. Saltonstall in a +panic ran his boats ashore and blew them up with powder. Again a force +of Americans was compelled to suffer the bitter penalty of ignorance. +The soldiers and crews ran wild in the bush a hundred miles from any +settlement. It was not possible to organize them. They fled in all +directions. Solomon had taken with him a bark canoe. This he carried, +heading eastward and followed by a large company, poorly provisioned. +A number of the ships' boats which had been lowered--and moved, before +the destruction began, were carried on the advice of Solomon. +Fortunately this party was not pursued. Nearly every man in it had his +gun and ammunition. The scout had picked up a goodly outfit of axes +and shovels and put them in the boats. He organized his retreat with +sentries, rear guard, signals and a plan of defense. The carriers were +shifted every hour. After two days of hard travel through the deep +woods they came to a lake more than two miles long and about half as +wide. Their provisions were gone save a few biscuit and a sack of +salt. There were sixty-four men in the party. + +Solomon organized a drive. A great loop of weary men was flung around +the end of the lake more than a mile from its shore. Then they began +approaching the camp, barking like dogs as they advanced. In this +manner three deer and a moose were driven to the water and slain. +These relieved the pangs of hunger and insured the party, for some +little time, against starvation. They were, however, a long way from +help in an unknown wilderness with a prospect of deadly hardships. +Solomon knew that the streams in this territory ran toward the sea and +for that reason he had burdened the party with boats and tools. + +The able scout explored a long stretch of the lake's outlet which +flowed toward the south. It had a considerable channel but not enough +water for boats or canoes even. That night he began cutting timber for +a dam at the end of the lake above its outlet. Near sundown, next day, +the dam was finished and the water began rising. A rain hurried the +process. Two days later the big water plane had begun to spill into +its outlet and flood the near meadow flats. The party got the boats in +place some twenty rods below and ready to be launched. Solomon drove +the plug out of his dam and the pent-up water began to pour through. +The stream was soon flooded and the boats floating. Thus with a +spirited water horse to carry them they began their journey to the sea. +Men stood in the bow and stern of each boat with poles to push it along +and keep it off the banks. Some ten miles below they swung into a +large river and went on, more swiftly, with the aid of oars and paddles. + +Thus Solomon became the hero of this ill-fated expedition. After that +he was often referred to in the army as the River Maker, although the +ingenious man was better known as the Lightning Hurler, that phrase +having been coined in Jack's account of his adventures with Solomon in +the great north bush. In the ranks he had been regarded with a kind of +awe as a most redoubtable man of mysterious and uncanny gifts since he +and Jack had arrived in the Highlands fresh from their adventure of +"shifting the skeer"--as Solomon was wont to put it--whereupon, with no +great delay, the rash Colonel Burley had his Binkussing. The scout was +often urged to make a display of his terrible weapon but he held his +tongue about it, nor would he play with the lightning or be induced to +hurl it upon white men. + +"That's only fer to save a man from bein' burnt alive an' et up," he +used to say. + +At the White Pine Mills near the sea they were taken aboard a lumber +ship bound for Boston. Solomon returned with a great and growing +influence among the common soldiers. He had spent a week in Newport +and many of his comrades had reached the camp of Washington in advance +of the scout's arrival. + +When Solomon--a worn and ragged veteran--gained the foot of the +Highlands, late in October, he learned to his joy that Stony Point and +King's Ferry had been abandoned by the British. He found Jack at Stony +Point and told him the story of his wasted months. Then Jack gave his +friend the news of the war. + +D'Estaing with a French fleet had arrived early in the month. This had +led to the evacuation of Newport and Stony Point to strengthen the +British position in New York. But South Carolina had been conquered by +the British. It took seven hundred dollars to buy a pair of shoes with +the money of that state, so that great difficulties had fallen in the +way of arming and equipping a capable fighting force. + +"I do not talk of it to others, but the troubles of our beloved +Washington are appalling," Jack went on. "The devil loves to work with +the righteous, waiting his time. He had his envoy even among the +disciples of Jesus. He is among us in the person of Benedict +Arnold--lover of gold. The new recruits are mostly of his stripe. He +is their Captain. They demand big bounties. The faithful old guard, +who have fought for the love of liberty and are still waiting for their +pay, see their new comrades taking high rewards. It isn't fair. +Naturally the old boys hate the newcomers. They feel like putting a +coat of tar and feathers on every one of them. You and I have got to +go to work and put the gold seekers out of the temple. They need to +hear some of your plain talk. Our greatest peril is Arnoldism." + +"You jest wait an' hear to me," said Solomon. "I got suthin' to say +that'll make their ears bleed passin' through 'em." + +The evening of his arrival in camp Solomon talked at the general +assembly of the troops. He was introduced with most felicitous good +humor by Washington's able secretary, Mr. Alexander Hamilton. The +ingenious and rare accomplishments of the scout and his heroic loyalty +were rubbed with the rhetoric of an able talker until they shone. + +"Boys, ye kint make no hero out o' an old scrag o' a man like me," +Solomon began. "You may b'lieve what Mr. Hamilton says but I know +better. I been chased by Death an' grabbed by the coat-tails frequent, +but I been lucky enough to pull away. That's all. You new recruits +'a' been told how great ye be. I'm a-goin' fer to tell ye the truth. +I don't like the way ye look at this job. It ain't no job o' workin' +out. We're all workin' fer ourselves. It's my fight an' it's yer +fight. I won't let no king put a halter on my head an', with the stale +in one hand an' a whip in t' other, lead me up to the tax collector to +pay fer his fun. I'd ruther fight him. Some o' you has fam'lies. +Don't worry 'bout 'em. They'll be took care of. I got some confidence +in the Lord myself. Couldn't 'a' lived without it. Look a' me. I'm +so ragged that I got patches o' sunburn on my back an' belly. I'm what +ye might call a speckled man. My feet 'a' been bled. My body looks +like an ol' tree that has been clawed by a bear an' bit by woodpeckers. +I've stuck my poker into the fire o' hell. I've been singed an' frost +bit an' half starved an' ripped by bullets, an' all the pay I want is +liberty an' it ain't due yit. I've done so little I'm 'shamed o' +myself. Money! Lord God o' Israel! If any man has come here fer to +make money let him stan' up while we all pray fer his soul. These 'ere +United States is your hum an' my hum an' erway down the trail afore us +they's millions 'pon millions o' folks comin' an' we want 'em to be +free. We're a-fightin' fer 'em an' fer ourselves. If ye don't fight +ye'll git nothin' but taxes to pay the cost o' lickin' ye. It'll cost +a hundred times more to be licked than it'll cost to win. Ye won't +find any o' the ol' boys o' Washington squealin' erbout pay. We're +lookin' fer brothers an' not pigs. Git down on yer knees with me, +every one o' ye, while the Chaplain asks God A'mighty to take us all +into His army." + +The words of Solomon put the new men in better spirit and there was +little complaining after that. They called that speech "The Binkussing +of the Recruits." Solomon was the soul of the old guard. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +IN WHICH ARNOLD AND HENRY THORNHILL ARRIVE IN THE HIGHLANDS + +Margaret and her mother returned to England with David Hartley soon +after Colonel Irons had left France. The British Commissioner had not +been able to move the philosopher. Later, from London, he had sent a +letter to Franklin seeking to induce America to desert her new ally. +Franklin had answered: + +"I would think the destruction of our whole country and the extirpation +of our people preferable to the infamy of abandoning our allies. We +may lose all but we shall act in good faith." + +Here again was a new note in the history of diplomatic intercourse. + +Colonel Irons' letter to Margaret Hare, with the greater part of which +the reader is familiar, was forwarded by Franklin to his friend +Jonathan Shipley, Bishop of St. Asaph, and by him delivered. Another +letter, no less vital to the full completion of the task of these pages +was found in the faded packet. It is from General Sir Benjamin Hare to +his wife in London and is dated at New York, January 10, 1780. This is +a part of the letter: + +"I have a small house near the barracks with our friend Colonel Ware +and the best of negro slaves and every comfort. It is now a loyal +city, secure from attack, and, but for the soldiers, one might think it +a provincial English town. This war may last for years and as the sea +is, for a time, quite safe, I have resolved to ask you and Margaret to +take passage on one of the first troop ships sailing for New York, +after this reaches you. Our friend Sir Roger and his regiments will be +sailing in March as I am apprised by a recent letter. I am, by this +post, requesting him to offer you suitable accommodations and to give +you all possible assistance. The war would be over now if Washington +would only fight. His caution is maddening. His army is in a +desperate plight, but he will not come out and meet us in the open. He +continues to lean upon the strength of the hills. But there are +indications that he will be abandoned by his own army." + +Those "indications" were the letters of one John Anderson, who +described himself as a prominent officer in the American army. The +letters were written to Sir Henry Clinton. They asked for a command in +the British army and hinted at the advantage to be derived from facts, +of prime importance, in the writer's possession. + +Margaret and her mother sailed with Sir Roger Waite and his regiments +on the tenth of March and arrived in New York on the twenty-sixth of +April. _Rivington's Gazette_ of the twenty-eighth of that month +describes an elaborate dinner given by Major John André, +Adjutant-General of the British Army, at the City Hotel to General Sir +Benjamin Hare and Lady Hare and their daughter Margaret. Indeed the +conditions in New York differed from those in the camp of Washington as +the day differs from the night. + +A Committee of Congress had just finished a visit to Washington's +Highland camp. They reported that the army had received no pay in five +months; that it often went "sundry successive days without meat"; that +it had scarcely six days' provisions ahead; that no forage was +available; that the medical department had neither sugar, tea, +chocolate, wine nor spirits. + +The month of May, 1780, gave Washington about the worst pinch in his +career. It was the pinch of hunger. Supplies had not arrived. Famine +had entered the camp and begun to threaten its life. Soldiers can get +along without pay but they must have food. Mutiny broke out among the +recruits. + +In the midst of this trouble, Lafayette, the handsome French Marquis, +then twenty-three years old, arrived on his white horse, after a winter +in Paris, bringing word that a fleet and army from France were heading +across the sea. This news revived the drooping spirit of the army. +Soon boats began to arrive from down the river with food from the east. +The crisis passed. In the north a quiet summer followed. The French +fleet with six thousand men under Rochambeau arrived at Newport, July +tenth, and were immediately blockaded by the British as was a like +expedition fitting out at Brest. So Washington could only hold to his +plan of prudent waiting. + + + +2 + +On a clear, warm day, late in July, 1780, a handsome coach drawn by +four horses crossed King's Ferry and toiled up the Highland road. It +carried Benedict Arnold and his wife and their baggage. Jack and +Solomon passed and recognized them. + +"What does that mean, I wonder?" Jack queried. + +"Dun know," Solomon answered. + +"I'm scared about it," said the younger scout. "I am afraid that this +money seeker has the confidence of Washington. He has been a good +fighting man. That goes a long way with the Chief." + +Colonel Irons stopped his horse. "I am of half a mind to go back," he +declared. + +"Why?" + +"I didn't tell the General half that Reed said to me. It was so bitter +and yet I believe it was true. I ought to have told him. Perhaps I +ought now to go and tell him." + +"There's time 'nough," said Solomon. "Wait till we git back. +Sometimes I've thought the Chief needed advice but it's allus turned +out that I was the one that needed it." + +The two horsemen rode on in silence. It was the middle of the +afternoon of that memorable July day. They were bound for the neutral +territory between the American and British lines, infested by "cow +boys" from the south and "skinners" from the north who were raiding the +farms of the settlers and driving away their cattle to be sold to the +opposing armies. The two scouts were sent to learn the facts and +report upon them. They parted at a cross-road. It was near sundown +when at a beautiful brook, bordered with spearmint and wild iris, Jack +watered and fed his horse and sat down to eat his luncheon. He was +thinking of Arnold and the new danger when he discovered that a man +stood near him. The young scout had failed to hear his approach--a +circumstance in no way remarkable since the road was little traveled +and covered with moss and creeping herbage. He thought not of this, +however, but only of the face and form and manner of the stranger. The +face was that of a man of middle age. The young man wrote in a letter: + +"It was a singularly handsome face, smooth shaven and well shaped with +large, dark eyes and a skin very clean and perfect--I had almost said +it was transparent. Add to all this a look of friendliness and +masterful dignity and you will understand why I rose to my feet and +took off my hat. His stature was above my own, his form erect. I +remember nothing about his clothes save that they were dark in color +and seemed to be new and admirably fitted. + +"'You are John Irons, Jr., and I am Henry Thornhill,' said he. 'I saw +you at Kinderhook where I used to live. I liked you then and, since +the war began, I have known of your adventures.' + +"'I did not flatter myself that any one could know of them except my +family, and my fellow scout and General Washington,' I answered. + +"'Well, I happen to have had the chance to know of them,' he went on. +'You are a true friend of the great cause. I saw you passing a little +way back and I followed for I have something to say to you.' + +"'I shall be glad to hear of it,' was my answer. + +"'Washington can not be overcome by his enemies unless he is betrayed +by his friends. Arnold has been put in command at West Point. He has +planned the betrayal of the army.' + +"'Do you know that?' I asked. + +"'As well as I know light and darkness.' + +"'Have you told Washington?' + +"'No. As yet I have had no opportunity. I am telling him, now, +through you. In his friendships he is a singularly stubborn man. The +wiles of an enemy are as an open book to him but those of a friend he +is not able to comprehend. He will discredit or only half believe any +warning that you or I may give him. But it is for you and Solomon to +warn him and be not deceived.' + +"'I shall turn about and ride back to camp,' I said. + +"'There is no need of haste,' he answered. 'Arnold does not assume +command until the third of August.' + +"He shaded his eyes and looked toward the west where the sun was +setting and the low lying clouds were like rose colored islands in a +golden sea, and added as he hurried away down the road to the south: + +"'It is a beautiful world.' + +"'Too good for fighting men,' I answered as I sat down to finish my +luncheon for I was still hungry. + +"While I ate, the tormenting thought came to me that I had neglected to +ask for the source of his information or for his address. It was a +curious oversight due to his masterly manner and that sense of the +guarded tongue which an ordinary mortal is apt to feel in the presence +of a great personality. I had been, in a way, self-bridled and +cautious in my speech, as I have been wont to be in the presence of +Washington himself. I looked down the road ahead. The stranger had +rounded a bend and was now hidden by the bush. I hurried through my +repast, bridled my horse and set off at a gallop expecting to overtake +him, but to my astonishment he had left the road. I did not see him +again, but his words were ever with me in the weeks that followed. + +"I reached the Corlies farm, far down in the neutral territory, at ten +o'clock and a little before dawn was with Corlies and his neighbors in +a rough fight with a band of cattle thieves, in the course of which +three men and a boy were seriously disabled by my pistols. We had +salted a herd and concealed ourselves in the midst of it and so were +able to shoot from good cover when the thieves arrived. Solomon and I +spent four days in the neutral territory. When we left it a dozen +cattle thieves were in need of repair and three had moved to parts +unknown. Save in the southern limit, their courage had been broken. + +"I had often thought of Nancy, the blaze-faced mare, that I had got +from Governor Reed and traded to Mr. Paulding. I was again reminded of +her by meeting a man who had just come from Tarrytown. Being near that +place I rode on to Paulding's farm and spent a night in his house. I +found Nancy in good flesh and spirits. She seemed to know and like the +touch of my hand and, standing by her side, the notion came to me that +I ought to own her. Paulding was reduced in circumstances. Having +been a patriot and a money-lender, the war had impoverished him. My +own horse was worn by overwork and so I proposed a trade and offered a +sum to boot which he promptly accepted. I came back up the north road +with the handsome, high-headed mare under my saddle. The next night I +stopped with one Reuben Smith near the northern limit of the neutral +territory below Stony Point. Smith had prospered by selling supplies +to the patriot army. I had heard that he was a Tory and so I wished to +know him. I found him a rugged, jovial, long-haired man of middle age, +with a ready ringing laugh. His jokes were spoken in a low tone and +followed by quick, stertorous breathing and roars and gestures of +appreciation. His cheerful spirit had no doubt been a help to him in +our camp. + +"'I've got the habit o' laughin' at my own jokes,' said he. 'Ye see +it's a lonely country here an' if I didn't give 'em a little +encouragement they wouldn't come eround,' the man explained. + +"He lifted a foot and swung it in the air while he bent the knee of the +leg on which he was standing and opened his mouth widely and blew the +air out of his lungs and clapped his hands together. + +"'It also gives you exercise,' I remarked. + +"'A joke is like a hoss; it has to be fed or it won't work,' he +remarked, as he continued his cheerful gymnastics. I have never known +a man to whom a joke was so much of an undertaking. He sobered down +and added: + +"'This mare is no stranger to oats an' the curry comb." + +"He looked her over carefully before he led her to the stable. + +"Next morning as he stood by her noble head, Smith said to me: + +"'She's a knowin' beast. She'd be smart enough to laugh at my jokes +an' I wouldn't wonder.' + +"He was immensely pleased with this idea of his. Then, turning +serious, he asked if I would sell her. + +"'You couldn't afford to own that mare,' I said. + +"I had touched his vanity. In fact I did not realize how much he had +made by his overcharging. He was better able to own her than I and +that he proposed to show me. + +"He offered for her another horse and a sum which caused me to take +account of my situation. The money would be a help to me. However, I +shook my head. He increased his offer. + +"'What do you want of her?" I asked. + +"'I've always wanted to own a hoss like that,' he answered. + +"'I intended to keep the mare,' said I. 'But if you will treat her +well and give her a good home I shall let you have her.' + +"'A man who likes a good joke will never drive a spavined hoss,' he +answered merrily. + +"So it happened that the mare Nancy fell into the hands of Reuben +Smith." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +LOVE AND TREASON + +When Jack and Solomon returned to headquarters, Arnold and his wife +were settled in a comfortable house overlooking the river. Colonel +Irons made his report. The Commander-in-Chief complimented him and +invited the young man to make a tour of the camp in his company. They +mounted their horses and rode away together. + +"I learn that General Arnold is to be in command here," Jack remarked +soon after the ride began. + +"I have not yet announced my intention," said Washington. "Who told +you?" + +"A man of the name of Henry Thornhill." + +"I do not know him but he is curiously well informed. Arnold is an +able officer. We have not many like him. He is needed here for I have +to go on a long trip to eastern Connecticut to confer with Rochambeau. +In the event of some unforeseen crisis Arnold would know what to do." + +Then Jack spoke out: "General, I ought to have reported to you the +exact words of Governor Reed. They were severe, perhaps, even, unjust. +I have not repeated them to any one. But now I think you should know +their full content and Judge of them in your own way. The Governor +insists that Arnold is bad at heart--that he would sell his master for +thirty pieces of silver." + +Washington made no reply, for a moment, and then his words seemed to +have no necessary relation to those of Jack Irons. + +"General Arnold has been badly cut up in many battles," said he. "I +wish him to be relieved of all trying details. You are an able and +prudent man. I shall make you his chief aide with the rank of +Brigadier-General. He needs rest and will concern himself little with +the daily routine. In my absence, you will be the superintendent of +the camp, and subject to orders I shall leave with you. Colonel Binkus +will be your helper. I hope that you may be able to keep yourself on +friendly terms with the General." + +Jack reported to the Commander-in-Chief the warning of Thornhill, but +the former made light of it. + +"The air is full of evil gossip," he said. "You may hear it of me." + +When they rode up to headquarters Arnold was there. To Jack's surprise +the Major-General greeted him with friendly words, saying: + +"I hope to know you better for I have heard much of your courage and +fighting quality." + +"There are good soldiers here," said Jack. "If I am one of them it is +partly because I have seen you fight. You have given all of us the +inspiration of a great example." + +It was a sincere and deserved tribute. + +On the third of August--the precise date named by Henry +Thornhill--Arnold took command of the camp and Irons assumed his new +duties. The Major-General rode with Washington every day until, on the +fourteenth of September, the latter set out with three aides and +Colonel Binkus on his trip to Connecticut. Solomon rode with the party +for two days and then returned. Thereafter Arnold left the work of his +office to Jack and gave his time to the enjoyment of the company of his +wife and a leisure that suffered little interruption. For him, grim +visaged war had smoothed his wrinkled front. Like Richard he had hung +up his bruised arms. The day of Washington's departure, Mrs. Arnold +invited Jack to dinner. The young man felt bound to accept this +opportunity for more friendly relations. + +Mrs. Arnold was a handsome, vivacious, blonde young woman of thirty. +The officer speaks in a letter of her lively talk and winning smiles +and splendid figure, well fitted with a costume that reminded him of +the court ladies in France. + +"What a contrast to the worn, patched uniforms to be seen in that +camp!" he added. + +Soon after the dinner began, Mrs. Arnold said to the young man, "We +have heard of your romance. Colonel and Mrs. Hare and their young +daughter spent a week in our home in Philadelphia on their first trip +to the colonies. Later Mrs. Hare wrote to my mother of their terrible +adventure in the great north bush and spoke of Margaret's attachment +for the handsome boy who had helped to rescue them, so I have some +right to my interest in you." + +"And therefor I thank you and congratulate myself," said the young man. +"It is a little world after all." + +"And your story has been big enough to fill it," she went on. "The +ladies in Philadelphia seem to know all its details. We knew only how +it began. They have told us of the thrilling duel and how the young +lovers were separated by the war and how you were sent out of England." + +"You astonish me," said the officer. "I did not imagine that my humble +affairs would interest any one but myself and my family. I suppose +that Doctor Franklin must have been talking about them. The dear old +soul is the only outsider who knows the facts." + +"And if he had kept them to himself he would have been the most inhuman +wretch in the world," said Mrs. Arnold. "Women have their rights. +They need something better to talk about than Acts of Parliament and +taxes and war campaigns. I thank God that no man can keep such a story +to himself. He has to have some one to help him enjoy it. A good +love-story is like murder. It will out." + +"It has caused me a lot of misery and a lot of happiness," said the +young man. + +"I long to see the end of it," the woman went on. "I happen to know a +detail in your story which may be new to you. Miss Hare is now in New +York." + +"In New York!" + +"Oddso! In New York! We heard in Philadelphia that she and her mother +had sailed with Sir Roger Waite in March. How jolly it would be if the +General and I could bring you together and have a wedding at +headquarters!" + +"I could think of no greater happiness save that of seeing the end of +the war," Jack answered. + +"The war! That is a little matter. I want to see a proper end to this +love-story." + +She laughed and ran to the spinnet and sang _Shepherds, I Have Lost My +Love_. + +The General would seem to have been in bad spirits. He had spoken not +half a dozen words. To him the talk of the others had been as spilled +water. Jack has described him as a man of "unstable temperament." + +The young man's visit was interrupted by Solomon who came to tell him +that he was needed in the matter of a quarrel between some of the new +recruits. + +Jack and Solomon exercised unusual care in guarding the camp and +organizing for defense in case of attack. It was soon after +Washington's departure that Arnold went away on the road to the south. +Solomon followed keeping out of his field of vision. The General +returned two days later. Solomon came into Jack's hut about midnight +of the day of Arnold's return with important news. + +Jack was at his desk studying a map of the Highlands. The camp was at +rest. The candle in Jack's hut was the only sign of life around +headquarters when Solomon, having put out his horse, came to talk with +his young friend. He stepped close to the desk, swallowed nervously +and began his whispered report. + +"Suthin' neevarious be goin' on," he began. "A British ship were lyin' +nigh the mouth o' the Croton River. Arnold went aboard. An' officer +got into his boat with him an' they pulled over to the west shore and +went into the bush. Stayed thar till mos' night. If 'twere honest +business, why did they go off in the bush alone fer a talk?" + +Jack shook his head. + +"Soon as I seen that I went to one o' our batteries an' tol' the Cap'n +what were on my mind. + +"'Damn the ol' British tub. We'll make 'er back up a little,' sez he. +'She's too clus anyhow.' + +"Then he let go a shot that ripped the water front o' her bow. Say, +Jack, they were some hoppin' eround on the deck o' the big British war +sloop. They h'isted her sails an' she fell away down the river a mile +'er so. The sun were set when Arnold an' the officer come out o' the +bush. I were in a boat with a fish rod an' could jes' see 'em with my +spy-glass, the light were so dim. They stood thar lookin' fer the +ship. They couldn't see her. They went back into the bush. It come +to me what they was goin' to do. Arnold were a-goin' to take the +Britisher over to the house o' that ol' Tory, Reub Smith. I got thar +fust an' hid in the bushes front o' the house. Sure 'nough!--that's +what were done. Arnold an' t' other feller come erlong an' went into +the house. 'Twere so dark I couldn't see 'em but I knowed 'twere them." + +"How?" the young man asked. + +"'Cause they didn't light no candle. They sot in the dark an' they +didn't talk out loud like honest men would. I come erway. I couldn't +do no more." + +"I think you've done well," said Jack. "Now go and get some rest. +To-morrow may be a hard day." + + + +2 + +Jack spent a bad night in the effort to be as great as his problem. In +the morning he sent Solomon and three other able scouts to look the +ground over east, west and south of the army. One of them was to take +the road to Hartford and deliver a message to Washington. + +After the noon mess, Arnold mounted his horse and rode away alone. The +young Brigadier sent for his trusted friend, Captain Merriwether. + +"Captain, the General has set out on the east road alone," said Jack. +"He is not well. There's something wrong with his heart. I am a +little worried about him. He ought not to be traveling alone. My +horse is in front of the door. Jump on his back and keep in sight of +the General, but don't let him know what you are doing." + +A little later Mrs. Arnold entered the office of the new Brigadier in a +most cheerful mood. + +"I have good news for you," she announced. + +"What is it?" + +"Soon I hope to make a happy ending of your love-story." + +"God prosper you," said the young man. + +She went on with great animation: "A British officer has come in a ship +under a flag of truce to confer with General Arnold. I sent a letter +to Margaret Hare on my own responsibility with the General's official +communication. I invited her to come with the party and promised her +safe conduct to our house. I expect her. For the rest we look to you." + +The young man wrote: "This announcement almost took my breath. My joy +was extinguished by apprehension before it could show itself. I did +not speak, being for a moment confused and blinded by lightning flashes +of emotion." + +"It is your chance to bring the story to a pretty end," she went on. +"Let us have a wedding at headquarters. On the night of the +twenty-eighth, General Washington will have returned. He has agreed to +dine with us that evening." + +"I think that she must have observed the shadow on my face for, while +she spoke, a great fear had come upon me," he testified in the Court of +Inquiry. "It seemed clear to me that, if there was a plot, the capture +of Washington himself was to be a part of it and my sweetheart a +helpful accessory." + +"'Are you not pleased?' Mrs. Arnold asked. + +"I shook off my fear and answered: 'Forgive me. It is all so +unexpected and so astonishing and so very good of you! It has put my +head in a whirl.' + +"Gentlemen, I could see no sinister motive in this romantic enterprise +of Mrs. Arnold," the testimony proceeds. "I have understood that her +sympathies were British but, if so, she had been discreet enough in +camp to keep them to herself. Whatever they may have been, I felt as +sure then, as I do now, that she was a good woman. Her kindly interest +in my little romance was just a bit of honest, human nature. It +pleased me and when I think of her look of innocent, unguarded, womanly +frankness, I can not believe that she had had the least part in the +dark intrigue of her husband. + +"I arose and kissed her hand and I remember well the words I spoke: +'Madame,' I said, 'let me not try now to express my thanks. I shall +need time for friendly action and well chosen words. Do you think that +Margaret will fall in with your plans?' + +"She answered: + +"'How can she help it? She is a woman. Have you not both been waiting +these many years for the chance to marry? I think that I know a +woman's heart.' + +"'You know much that I am eager to know,' I said. 'The General has not +told me that he is to meet the British. May I know all the good news?' + +"'Of course he will tell you about that,' she assured me. 'He has told +me only a little. It is some negotiation regarding an exchange of +prisoners. I am much more interested in Margaret and the wedding. I +wish you would tell me about her. I have heard that she has become +very beautiful.' + +"I showed Mrs. Arnold the miniature portrait which Margaret had given +me the day of our little ride and talk in London and then an orderly +came with a message and that gave me an excuse to put an end to this +untimely babbling for which I had no heart. The message was from +Solomon. He had got word that the British war-ship had come back up +the river and was two miles above Stony Point with a white flag at her +masthead. + +"My nerves were as taut as a fiddle string. A cloud of mystery +enveloped the camp and I was unable to see my way. Was the whole great +issue for which so many of us had perished and fought and endured all +manner of hardships, being bartered away in the absence of our beloved +Commander? I have suffered much but never was my spirit so dragged and +torn as when I had my trial in the thorny way of distrust. I have had +my days of conceit when I felt equal to the work of Washington, but +there was no conceit in me then. Face to face with the looming peril, +of which warning had come to me, I felt my own weakness and the need of +his masterful strength. + +"I went out-of-doors. Soon I met Merriwether coming into camp. Arnold +had returned. He had ridden at a walk toward the headquarters of the +Second Brigade and turned about and come back without speaking to any +one. Arnold was looking down as if absorbed in his own thoughts when +Merriwether passed him in the road. He did not return the latter's +salute. It was evident that the General had ridden away for the sole +purpose of being alone. + +"I went back to my hut and sat down to try to find my way when suddenly +the General appeared at my door on his bay mare and asked me to take a +little ride with him. I mounted my horse and we rode out on the east +road together for half a mile or so. + +"'I believe that my wife had some talk with you this morning,' he began. + +"'Yes,' I answered. + +"'A British officer has come up the river in a ship under a white flag +with a proposal regarding an exchange of prisoners. In my answer to +their request for a conference, some time ago, I enclosed a letter from +Mrs. Arnold to Miss Margaret Hare inviting her to come to our home +where she would find a hearty welcome and her lover--now an able and +most valued officer of the staff. A note received yesterday says that +Miss Hare is one of the party. We are glad to be able to do you this +little favor.' + +"I thanked him. + +"'I wish that you could go with me down the river to meet her in the +morning,' he said. 'But in my absence it will, of course, be necessary +for you to be on duty. Mrs. Arnold will go with me and we shall, I +hope, bring the young lady safely to head-quarters.' + +"He was preoccupied. His face wore a serious look. There was a +melancholy note in his tone--I had observed that in other talks with +him--but it was a friendly tone. It tended to put my fears at rest. + +"I asked the General what he thought of the prospects of our cause. + +"'They are not promising,' he answered. 'The defeat of Gates in the +south and the scattering of his army in utter rout is not an +encouraging event.' + +"'I think that we shall get along better now that the Gates bubble has +burst,' I answered." + +This ends the testimony of "the able and most valued officer," Jack +Irons, Jr. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +"WHO IS SHE THAT LOOKETH FORTH AS THE MORNING, FAIR AS THE MOON, CLEAR +AS THE SUN, AND TERRIBLE AS AN ARMY WITH BANNERS?" + +The American army had been sold by Arnold. The noble ideal it had +cherished, the blood it had given, the bitter hardships it had +suffered--torture in the wilderness, famine in the Highlands, long +marches of half naked men in mid-winter, massacres at Wyoming and +Cherry Valley--all this had been bartered away, like a shipload of +turnips, to satisfy the greed of one man. Again thirty pieces of +silver! Was a nation to walk the bitter way to its Calvary? Major +André, the Adjutant-General of Sir Henry Clinton's large force in New +York, was with the traitor when he rowed from the ship to the west +shore of the Hudson and went into the bush under the observation of +Solomon with his spy-glass. Arnold was to receive a command and large +pay in the British army. The consideration had been the delivery of +maps showing the positions of Washington's men and the plans of his +forts and other defenses, especially those of Forts Putnam and Clinton +and Battery Knox. Much other information was put in the hands of the +British officer, including the prospective movements of the +Commander-in-Chief. He was to be taken in the house of the man he had +befriended. André had only to reach New York with his treasure and +Arnold to hold the confidence of his chief for a few days and, before +the leaves had fallen, the war would end. The American army and its +master mind would be at the mercy of Sir Henry Clinton. + +Those September days the greatest love-story this world had known was +feeling its way in a cloud of mystery. The thrilling tale of Man and +Liberty, which had filled the dreams of sage and poet, had been nearing +its golden hours. Of a surety, at last, it would seem the lovers were +to be wed. What time, in the flying ages, they had greeted each other +with hearts full of the hope of peace and happiness, some tyrant king +and his armies had come between them. Then what a carnival of lust, +rapine and bloody murder! Man was broken on the wheel of power and +thwarted Hope sat brooding in his little house. History had been a +long siege, like that of Troy, to deliver a fairer Helen from the +established power of Kings. Now, beyond three thousand miles of sea, +supported by the strength of the hills and hearts informed and sworn to +bitter duty, Man, at last, had found his chance. Again Liberty, in +robes white as snow and sweet as the morning, beckoned to her lover. +Another king was come with his armies to keep them apart. The armies +being baffled, Satan had come also and spread his hidden snares. Could +Satan prevail? Was the story nearing another failure--a tragedy dismal +and complete as that of Thermopylae? + +This day we shall know. This day holds the moment which is to round +out the fulness of time. It is the twenty-third of September, 1780, +and the sky is clear. Now as the clock ticks its hours away, we may +watch the phrases of the capable Author of the great story as they come +from His pen. His most useful characters are remote and unavailable. +It would seem that the villain was likely to have his way. The Author +must defeat him, if possible, with some stroke of ingenuity. For this +He was not unprepared. + +Before the day begins it will be well to review, briefly, the hours +that preceded it. + +André would have reached New York that night if _The Vulture_ had not +changed her position on account of a shot from the battery below Stony +Point. For that, credit must be given to the good scout Solomon +Binkus. The ship was not in sight when the two men came out in their +boat from the west shore of the river while the night was falling. +Arnold had heard the shot and now that the ship had left her anchorage +a fear must have come to him that his treachery was suspected. + +"I may want to get away in that boat myself," he suggested to André. + +"She will not return until she gets orders from you or me," the +Britisher assured him. + +"I wonder what has become of her," said Arnold. + +"She has probably dropped down the river for some reason," André +answered. "What am I to do?" + +"I'll take you to the house of a man I know who lives near the river +and send you to New York by horse with passports in the morning. You +can reach the British lines to-morrow." + +"I would like that," André exclaimed. "It would afford me a welcome +survey of the terrain." + +"Smith will give you a suit of clothes that will fit you well enough," +said the traitor. "You and he are about of a size. It will be better +for you to be in citizen's dress." + +So it happened that in the darkness of the September evening Smith and +André, the latter riding the blazed-face mare, set out for King's +Ferry, where they were taken across the river. They rode a few miles +south of the landing to the shore of Crom Pond and spent the night with +a friend of Smith. In the morning the latter went on with André until +they had passed Pine's Bridge on the Croton River. Then he turned back. + + +Now André fared along down the road alone on the back of the mare +Nancy. He came to an outpost of the Highland army and presented his +pass. It was examined and endorsed and he went on his way. He met +transport wagons, a squad of cavalry and, later, a regiment of militia +coming up from western Connecticut, but no one stopped him. In the +faded hat and coat and trousers of Reuben Smith, this man, who called +himself John Anderson, was not much unlike the farmer folk who were +riding hither and thither in the neutral territory, on their petit +errands. His face was different. It was the well kept face of an +English aristocrat with handsome dark eyes and hair beginning to turn +gray. Still, shadowed by the brim of the old hat, his face was not +likely to attract much attention from the casual observer. The +handsome mare he rode was a help in this matter. She took and held the +eyes of those who passed him. He went on unchallenged. A little past +the hour of the high sun he stopped to drink at a wayside spring and to +give his horse some oats out of one of the saddle-bags. It was then +that a patriot soldier came along riding northward. He was one of +Solomon's scouts. The latter stopped to let his horse drink. As his +keen eyes surveyed the south-bound traveler, John Anderson felt his +danger. At that moment the scout was within reach of immortal fame had +he only known it. He was not so well informed as Solomon. He asked a +few questions and called for the pass of the stranger. That was +unquestionable. The scout resumed his journey. + +André resolved not to stop again. He put the bit in the mare's mouth, +mounted her and rode on with his treasure. The most difficult part of +his journey was behind him. Within twelve hours he should be at +Clinton's headquarters. + +Suddenly he came to a fork in the road and held up his horse, uncertain +which way to go. Now the great moment was come. Shall he turn to the +right or the left? On his decision rests the fate of the New World and +one of the most vital issues in all history, it would seem. The +left-hand road would have taken him safely to New York, it is fair to +assume. He hesitates. The day is waning. It is a lonely piece of +road. There is no one to tell him. The mare shows a preference for +the turn to the right. Why? Because it leads to Tarrytown, her former +home, and a good master. André lets her have her way. She hurries on, +for she knows where there is food and drink and gentle hands. So a leg +of the mighty hazard has been safely won by the mare Nancy. The +officer rode on, and what now was in his way? A wonder and a mystery +greater even than that of Nancy and the fork in the road. A little out +of Tarrytown on the highway the horseman traveled, a group of three men +were hidden in the bush--ragged, profane, abominable cattle thieves +waiting for cows to come down out of the wild land to be milked. They +were "skinners" in the patriot militia, some have said; some that they +were farmers' sons not in the army. However that may have been, they +were undoubtedly rough, hard-fisted fellows full of the lawless spirit +bred by five years of desperate warfare. They were looking for Tories +as well as for cattle. Tories were their richest prey, for the latter +would give high rewards to be excused from the oath of allegiance. + +They came out upon André and challenged him. The latter knew that he +had passed the American outposts and thought that he was near the +British lines. He was not familiar with the geography of the upper +east shore. He knew that the so-called neutral territory was overrun +by two parties--the British being called the "Lower" and the Yankees +the "Upper." + +"What party do you belong to?" André demanded. + +"The Lower," said one of the Yankees. + +It was, no doubt, a deliberate lie calculated to inspire frankness in a +possible Tory. That was the moment for André to have produced his +passports, which would have opened the road for him. Instead he +committed a fatal error, the like of which it would be hard to find in +all the records of human action. + +"I am a British officer," he declared. "Please take me to your post." + +They were keen-minded men who quickly surrounded him. A British +officer! Why was he in the dress of a Yankee farmer? The pass could +not save him now from these rough, strong handed fellows. The die was +cast. They demanded the right of search. He saw his error and changed +his plea. + +"I am only a citizen of New York returning from family business in the +country," he said. + +He drew his gold watch from his pocket--that unfailing sign of the +gentleman of fortune--and looked at its dial. + +"You can see I am no common fellow," he added. "Let me go on about my +business." + +They firmly insisted on their right to search him. He began to be +frightened. He offered them his watch and a purse full of gold and any +amount of British goods to be allowed to go on his way. + +Now here is the wonder and the mystery in this remarkable proceeding. +These men were seeking plunder and here was a handsome prospect. Why +did they not make the most of it and be content? The "skinners" were +plunderers, but first of all and above all they were patriots. The +spirit brooding over the Highlands of the Hudson and the hills of New +England had entered their hearts. The man who called himself John +Anderson was compelled to dismount and empty his pockets and take off +his boots, in one of which was the damning evidence of Arnold's +perfidy. A fortune was then within the reach of these three +hard-working men of the hills, but straightway they took their prisoner +and the papers, found in his boot, to the outpost commanded by Colonel +Jameson. + +This negotiation for the sale of the United States had met with +unexpected difficulties. The "skinners" had been as hard to buy as the +learned diplomat. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +THE LOVERS AND SOLOMON'S LAST FIGHT + +Meanwhile, Margaret and her mother had come up the river in a barge +with General and Mrs. Arnold to the house of the latter. Jack had gone +out on a tour of inspection. He had left headquarters after the noon +meal with a curious message in his pocket and a feeling of great +relief. The message had been delivered to him by the mother of a +captain in one of the regiments. She said that it had been given to +her by a man whom she did not know. Jack had been busy when it came +and did not open it until she had gone away. It was an astonishing and +most welcome message in the flowing script of a rapid penman, but +clearly legible. It was without date and very brief. These were the +cheering words in it: + + +"MY DEAR FRIEND: I have good news from down the river. The danger is +passed. + + "HENRY THORNHILL." + + +"Well, Henry Thornhill is a man who knows whereof he speaks," the young +officer said to himself, as he rode away. "I should like to meet him +again." + +That day the phrase "Good news from down the river" came repeatedly +back to him. He wondered what it meant. + +Jack being out of camp, Margaret had found Solomon. Toward the day's +end he had gone out on the south road with the young lady and her +mother and Mrs. Arnold. + +Jack was riding into camp from an outpost of the army. The day was in +its twilight. He had been riding fast. He pulled up his horse as he +approached a sentry post. Three figures were standing in the dusky +road. + +"Halt! Who comes there?" one of them sang out. + +It was the voice of Margaret. Its challenge was more like a phrase of +music than a demand. He dismounted. + +"I am one of the great army of lovers," said he. + +"Advance and give the countersign," she commanded. + +A moment he held her in his embrace and then he whispered: "I love you." + +"The countersign is correct, but before I let you pass, give me one +more look into your heart." + +"As many as you like--but--why?" + +"So I may be sure that you do not blame England for the folly of her +King." + +"I swear it." + +"Then I shall enlist with you against the tyrant. He has never been my +King." + +Lady Hare stood with Mrs. Arnold near the lovers. + +"I too demand the countersign," said the latter. + +"And much goes with it," said the young man as he kissed her, and then +he embraced the mother of his sweetheart and added: + +"I hope that you are also to enlist with us." + +"No, I am to leave my little rebel with you and return to New York." + +Solomon, who had stood back in the edge of the bush, approached them +and said to Lady Hare: + +"I guess if the truth was known, they's more rebels in England than +thar be in Ameriky." + +He turned to Jack and added: + +"My son, you're a reg'lar Tory privateer--grabbin' for gold. Give 'em +one a piece fer me." + +Margaret ran upon the old scout and kissed his bearded cheek. + +"Reg'lar lightnin' hurler!" said he. "Soon as this 'ere war is over +I'll take a bee line fer hum--you hear to me. This makes me sick o' +fightin'." + +"Will you give me a ride?" Margaret asked her lover. "I'll get on +behind you." + +Solomon took off the saddle and tightened the blanket girth. + +"Thar, 'tain't over clean, but now ye kin both ride," said he. + +Soon the two were riding, she in front, as they had ridden long before +through the shady, mallowed bush in Tryon County. + +"Oh, that we could hear the thrush's song again!" + +"I can hear it sounding through the years," he answered. "As life goes +on with me I hear many an echo from the days of my youth." + +They rode a while in silence as the night fell. + +"Again the night is beautiful!" she exclaimed. + +"But now it is the beauty of the night and the stars," he answered. + +"How they glow!" + +"I think it is because the light of the future is shining on them." + +"It is the light of peace and happiness. I am glad to be free." + +"Soon your people shall be free," he answered her. + +"My people?" + +"Yes." + +"Is the American army strong enough to do it?" + +"No." + +"The French?" + +"No." + +"Who then is to free us?" + +"God and His ocean and His hills and forests and rivers and these +children of His in America, who have been schooled to know their +rights. After this King is broken there will be no other like him in +England." + +They dismounted at Arnold's door. + +"For a time I shall have much to do, but soon I hope for great +promotion and more leisure," he said. + +"Tell me the good news," she urged. + +"I expect to be the happiest man in the army, and the master of this +house and your husband." + +"And you and I shall be as one," she answered. "God speed the day when +that may be true also of your people and my people." + + + +2 + +He kissed her and bade her good night and returned to his many tasks. +He had visited the forts and batteries. He had communicated with every +outpost. His plan was complete. About midnight, when he and Solomon +were lying down to rest, two horsemen came up the road at a gallop and +stopped at his door. They were aides of Washington. They reported +that the General was spending the night at the house of Henry Jasper, +near the ferry, and would reach camp about noon next day. + +"Thank God for that news," said the young man. "Solomon, I think that +we can sleep better to-night." + +"If you're awake two minutes from now you'll hear some snorin'," +Solomon answered as he drew his boots. "I ain't had a good bar'foot +sleep in a week. I don't like to have socks er luther on when I wade +out into that pond. To-night, I guess, we'll smell the water lilies." + +Jack was awake for an hour thinking of the great happiness which had +fallen in the midst of his troubles and of Thornhill and his message. +He heard the two aides going to their quarters. Then a deep silence +fell upon the camp, broken only by the rumble of distant thunder in the +mountains and the feet of some one pacing up and down between his hut +and the house of the General. He put on his long coat and slippers and +went out-of-doors. + +"Who's there?" he demanded. + +"Arnold," was the answer. "Taking a little walk before I turn in." + +There was a weary, pathetic note of trouble in that voice, long +remembered by the young man, who immediately returned to his bed. He +knew not that those restless feet of Arnold were walking in the flames +of hell. Had some premonition of what had been going on down the river +come up to him? Could he hear the feet of that horse, now galloping +northward through the valleys and over the hills toward him with evil +tidings? No more for this man was the comfort of restful sleep or the +joys of home and friendship and affection. Now the touch of his wife's +hand, the sympathetic look in her eyes and all her babble about the +coming marriage were torture to him. He could not endure it. Worst of +all, he was in a way where there is no turning. He must go on. He had +begun to know that he was suspected. The conduct of the scout, Solomon +Binkus, had suggested that he knew what was passing. Arnold had seen +the aides of Washington as they came in. The chief could not be far +behind them. He dreaded to stand before him. Compared to the torture +now beginning for this man, the fate of Bill Scott on Rock Creek in the +wilderness, had been a mercy. + +Soon after sunrise came a solitary horseman, wearied by long travel, +with a message from Colonel Jameson to Arnold. A man had been captured +near Tarrytown with important documents on his person. He had +confessed that he was Adjutant-General André of Sir Henry Clinton's +army. The worst had come to pass. Now treason! disgrace! the gibbet! + +Arnold was sitting at breakfast. He arose, put the message in his +pocket and went out of the room. _The Vulture_ lay down the river +awaiting orders. The traitor walked hurriedly to the boat-landing. +Solomon was there. It had been his custom when in camp to go down to +the landing every morning with his spy-glass and survey the river. +Only one boatman was at the dock. + +"Colonel Binkus, will you help this man to take me down to the British +ship?" Arnold asked. "I have an engagement with its commander and am +half an hour late." + +Solomon had had much curiosity about that ship. He wished to see the +man who had gone into the bush and then to Smith's with Arnold. + +"Sart'n," Solomon answered. + +They got into a small barge with the General in the cushioned rear +seat, his flag in hand. + +"Make what speed you can," said the General. + +The oarsmen bent to their task and the barge swept on by the forts. A +Yankee sloop overhauled and surveyed them. If its skipper had +entertained suspicions they were dissipated by the presence of Solomon +Binkus in the barge. + +They came up to _The Vulture_ and made fast at its landing stage where +an officer waited to receive the General. The latter ascended to the +deck. In a moment a voice called from above: + +"General Arnold's boatmen may come aboard." + +A British war-ship was a thing of great interest to Solomon. Once +aboard he began to look about him at the shining guns and their gear +and the tackle and the men. He looked for Arnold, but he was not in +sight. + +Among the crew then busy on the deck, Solomon saw the Tory desperado +"Slops," one time of the Ohio River country, with his black pipe in his +mouth. Slops paused in his hauling and reeving to shake a fist at +Solomon. They were heaving the anchor. The sails were running up. +The ship had begun to move. What was the meaning of this? Solomon +stepped to the ship's side. The stair had been hove up and made fast. +The barge was not to be seen. + +"They will put you all ashore below," an officer said to him. + +Solomon knew too much about Arnold to like the look of this. The +officer went forward. Solomon stepped to the opening in the deck rail, +not yet closed, through which he had come aboard. While he was looking +down at the water, some ten feet below, a group of sailors came to fill +in. His arm was roughly seized. Solomon stepped back. Before him +stood the man Slops. An insulting word from the latter, a quick blow +from Solomon, and Slops went through the gate out into the air and +downward. The scout knew it was no time to tarry. + +"A night hawk couldn't dive no quicker ner what I done," were his words +to the men who picked him up. He was speaking of that half second of +the twenty-fourth of September, 1780. His brief account of it was +carefully put down by an officer: "I struck not twenty feet from Slops, +which I seen him jes' comin' up when I took water. This 'ere ol' sloop +that had overhauled us goin' down were nigh. Hadn't no more'n come up +than I felt Slops' knife rip into my leg. I never had no practise in +that 'ere knife work. 'Tain't fer decent folks, but my ol' Dan Skinner +is allus on my belt. He'd chose the weapons an' so I fetched 'er out. +Had to er die. We fit a minnit thar in the water. All the while he +had that damn black pipe in his mouth. I were hacked up a leetle, but +he got a big leak in _him_ an' all of a sudden he wasn't thar. He'd +gone. I struck out with ol' Dan Skinner 'twixt my teeth. Then I see +your line and grabbed it. Whar's the British ship now?" + +"'Way below Stony P'int an' a fair wind in her sails,' the skipper +answered. + +"Bound fer New York," said Solomon sorrowfully. "They'd 'a' took me +with 'em if I hadn't 'a' jumped. Put me over to Jasper's dock. I got +to see Washington quick." + +"Washington has gone up the river." + +"Then take me to quarters soon as ye kin. I'll give ye ten pounds, +good English gold. My God, boys! My ol' hide is leakin' bad." + +He turned to the man who had been washing and binding his wounds. + +"Sodder me up best ye kin. I got to last till I see the Father." + +Solomon and other men in the old army had often used the word "Father" +in speaking of the Commander-in-Chief. It served, as no other could, +to express their affection for him. + +The wind was unfavorable and the sloop found it difficult to reach the +landing near headquarters. After some delay Solomon jumped overboard +and swam ashore. + +What follows he could not have told. Washington was standing with his +orderly in the little dooryard at headquarters as Solomon came +staggering up the slope at a run and threw his body, bleeding from a +dozen wounds, at the feet of his beloved Chief. + +"Oh, my Father!" he cried in a broken voice and with tears streaming +down his cheeks. "Arnold has sold Ameriky an' all its folks an' gone +down the river." + +Washington knelt beside him and felt his bloody garments. + +"The Colonel is wounded," he said to his orderly. "Go for help." + +The scout, weak from the loss of blood, tried to regain his feet but +failed. He lay back and whispered: + +"I guess the sap has all oozed out o' me but I had enough." + +Washington was one of those who put him on a stretcher and carried him +to the hospital. + +When he was lying on his bed and his clothes were being removed, the +Commander-in-Chief paid him this well deserved compliment as he held +his hand: + +"Colonel, when the war is won it will be only because I have had men +like you to help me." + +Soon Jack came to his side and then Margaret. General Washington asked +the latter about Mrs. Arnold. + +"My mother is doing what she can to comfort her," Margaret answered. + +Solomon revived under stimulants and was able to tell them briefly of +the dire struggle he had had. + +"It were Slops that saved me," he whispered. + +He fell into a deep and troubled sleep and when he awoke in the middle +of the night he was not strong enough to lift his head. Then these +faithful friends of his began to know that this big, brawny, +redoubtable soldier was having his last fight. He seemed to be aware +of it himself for he whispered to Jack: + +"Take keer o' Mirandy an' the Little Cricket." + +Late the next day he called for his Great Father. Feebly and brokenly +he had managed to say: + +"Jes' want--to--feel--his hand." + +Margaret had sat beside him all day helping the nurse. + +A dozen times Jack had left his work and run over for a look at +Solomon. On one of these hurried visits the young man had learned of +the wish of his friend. He went immediately to General Washington, who +had just returned from a tour of the forts. The latter saw the look of +sorrow and anxiety in the face of his officer. + +"How is the Colonel?" he asked. + +"I think that he is near his end," Jack answered. "He has expressed a +wish to feel your hand again." + +"Let us go to him at once," said the other. "There has been no greater +man in the army." + +Together they went to the bedside of the faithful scout. The General +took his hand. Margaret put her lips close to Solomon's ear and said: + +"General Washington has come to see you." + +Solomon opened his eyes and smiled. Then there was a beauty not of +this world in his homely face. And that moment, holding the hand he +had loved and served and trusted, the heroic soul of Solomon Binkus +went out upon "the lonesome trail." + +Jack, who had been kneeling at his side, kissed his white cheek. + +"Oh, General, I knew and loved this man!" said the young officer as he +arose. + +"It will be well for our people to know what men like him have endured +for them," said Washington. + +"I shall have to learn how to live without him," said Jack. "It will +be hard." + +Margaret took his arm and they went out of the door and stood a moment +looking off at the glowing sky above the western hills. + +"Now you have me," she whispered. + +He bent and kissed her. + +"No man could have a better friend and fighting mate than you," he +answered. + + + +3 + +"'We spend our years as a tale that is told,'" Jack wrote from +Philadelphia to his wife in Albany on the thirtieth of June, 1787: +"Dear Margaret, we thought that the story was ended when Washington +won. Five years have passed, as a watch in the night, and the most +impressive details are just now falling out. You recall our curiosity +about Henry Thornhill? When stopping at Kinderhook I learned that the +only man of that name who had lived there had been lying in his grave +these twenty years. He was one of the first dreamers about Liberty. +What think you of that? I, for one, can not believe that the man I saw +was an impostor. Was he an angel like those who visited the prophets? +Who shall say? Naturally, I think often of the look of him and of his +sudden disappearance in that Highland road. And, looking back at +Thornhill, this thought comes to me: Who can tell how many angels he +has met in the way of life all unaware of the high commission of his +visitor? + +"On my westward trip I found that the Indians who once dwelt in The +Long House were scattered. Only a tattered remnant remains. Near old +Fort Johnson I saw a squaw sitting in her blanket. Her face was +wrinkled with age and hardship. Her eyes were nearly blind. She held +in her withered hands the ragged, moth eaten tail of a gray wolf. I +asked her why she kept the shabby thing. + +"'Because of the hand that gave it,' she answered in English. 'I shall +take it with me to The Happy Hunting-Grounds. When he sees it he will +know me.' + +"So quickly the beautiful Little White Birch had faded. + +"At Mount Vernon, Washington was as dignified as ever but not so grave. +He almost joked when he spoke of the sculptors and portrait painters +who have been a great bother to him since the war ended. + +"'Now no dray horse moves more readily to the thill than I to the +painter's chair," he said. + +"When I arrived the family was going in to dinner and they waited until +I could make myself ready to join them. The jocular Light Horse Harry +Lee was there. His anecdotes delighted the great man. I had never +seen G. W. in better humor. A singularly pleasant smile lighted his +whole countenance. I can never forget the gentle note in his voice and +his dignified bearing. It was the same whether he were addressing his +guests or his family. The servants watched him closely. A look seemed +to be enough to indicate his wishes. The faithful Billy was always at +his side. I have never seen a sweeter atmosphere in any home. We sat +an hour at the table after the family had retired from it. In speaking +of his daily life he said: + +"'I ride around my farms until it is time to dress for dinner, when I +rarely miss seeing strange faces, come, as they say, out of respect for +me. Perhaps the word curiosity would better describe the cause of it. +The usual time of sitting at table brings me to candle-light when I try +to answer my letters.' + +"He had much to say on his favorite theme, viz.: the settling of the +immense interior and bringing its trade to the Atlantic cities. + +"I was coughing with a severe cold. He urged me to take some remedies +which he had in the house, but I refused them. + +"He went to his office while Lee and I sat down together. The latter +told me of a movement in the army led by Colonel Nichola to make +Washington king of America. He had seen Washington's answer to the +letter of the Colonel. It was as follows: + +"'Be assured, sir, no occurrence in the course of the war has given me +sensations more painful than your information of there being such ideas +in the army as those you have imparted to me and I must view them with +abhorrence and reprehend them with severity. I am much at a loss to +conceive what part of my conduct could have given encouragement to an +address which to me seems big with the greatest mischiefs which could +befall my country.' + +"Is it not a sublime and wonderful thing, dear Margaret, that all our +leaders, save one, have been men as incorruptible as Stephen and Peter +and Paul? + +"When I went to bed my cough became more troublesome. After it had +gone on for half an hour or so my door was gently opened and I observed +the glow of a candle. On drawing my bed curtains I saw, to my utter +astonishment, Washington standing at my side with a bowl of hot tea in +his hand. It embarrassed me to be thus waited on by a man of his +greatness. + +"We set out next morning for Philadelphia to attend the Convention, +Washington riding in his coach drawn by six horses, I riding the +blaze-faced mare of destiny, still as sweet and strong as ever. A slow +journey it was over the old road by Calvert's to Annapolis, +Chestertown, and so on to the north. + +"I found Franklin sitting under a tree in his dooryard, surrounded by +his grandchildren. He looks very white and venerable now. His hair is +a crown of glory." + +[Illustration: Ben Franklin, surrounded by his grandchildren.] + +"'Well, Jack, it has been no small part of my life-work to get you +happily married,' he began in his playful way. 'A celibate is like the +odd half of a pair of scissors, fit only to scrape a trencher. How +many babies have you?' + +"'Three,' I answered. + +"'It is not half enough,' said he. 'A patriotic American should have +at least ten children. I must not forget to say to you what I say to +every young man. Always treat your wife with respect. It will procure +respect for you not only from her, but from all who observe it. Never +use a slighting word.' + +"My beloved, how little I need this advice you know, but I think that +the old philosopher never made a wiser observation. I am convinced +that civilization itself depends largely on the respect that men feel +and show for women. + +"I asked about his health. + +"'I am weary and the night is falling and I shall soon lie down to +sleep, but I know that I shall awake refreshed in the morning,' he said. + +"He told me how, distressed by his infirmity, he came out of France in +the Queen's litter, carried by her magnificent mules. Of England he +had only this to say: + +"'She is doing wrong in discouraging emigration to America. Emigration +multiplies a nation. She should be represented in the growth of the +New World by men who have a voice in its government. By this fair +means she could repossess it instead of leaving it to foreigners, of +all nations, who may drown and stifle sympathy for the mother land. It +is now a fact that Irish emigrants and their children are in possession +of the government of Pennsylvania.' + +"I must not fail to set down here in the hope that my sons may some +time read it, what he said to me of the treason of Arnold. + +"'Here is the vindication of Poor Richard. Extravagance is not the way +to self-satisfaction. The man who does not keep his feet in the old, +honest way of thrift will some time sell himself, and then he will be +ready to sell his friends or his country. By and by nothing is so dear +to him as thirty pieces of silver.' + +"I shall conclude my letter with a beautiful confession of faith by +this master mind of the century. It was made on the motion for daily +prayers in the Convention now drafting a constitution for the States. +I shall never forget the look of him as, standing on the lonely summit +of his eighty years, he said to us: + +"'In the beginning of our contest with Britain when we were sensible of +danger, we had daily prayers in this room for Divine protection. Our +prayers, sirs, were heard and they were graciously answered. All of us +who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances +of a directing Providence in our affairs. And have we forgotten that +powerful friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need His +assistance? I have lived, sirs, a long time and the longer I live the +more convincing proof I see of this truth that God governs in the +affairs of men. And if a sparrow can not fall to the ground without +His notice is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We +have been assured, sirs, that except the Lord build the house they +labor in vain who build it. I firmly believe this and I also believe +that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political +structure no better than the builders of Babel; we shall be divided and +confounded and we ourselves become a reproach and a byword down to +future ages. And, what is worse, mankind may hereafter despair of +establishing government by human wisdom and leave it to chance, war and +conquest.' + +"Dear Margaret, you and I who have been a part of the great story know +full well that in these words of our noble friend is the conclusion of +the whole matter." + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE DAYS OF POOR RICHARD*** + + +******* This file should be named 15608-8.txt or 15608-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/6/0/15608 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: In the Days of Poor Richard</p> +<p>Author: Irving Bacheller</p> +<p>Release Date: April 12, 2005 [eBook #15608]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE DAYS OF POOR RICHARD***</p> +<br><br><center><h3>E-text prepared by Al Haines</h3></center><br><br> +<hr noshade> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<A NAME="img-front"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-front.jpg" ALT="Frontispiece" BORDER="2" WIDTH="357" HEIGHT="543"> +<H5> +[Frontispiece: A young John Irons and Margaret Hare in the forest.] +</H5> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +IN THE DAYS OF POOR RICHARD +</H1> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +By +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +IRVING BACHELLER +</H2> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +<I>Author of</I> +</H4> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +The Light in The Clearing, A Man for the Ages, Etc. +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +ILLUSTRATED BY +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +JOHN WOLCOTT ADAMS +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +INDIANAPOLIS +<BR> +THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY +<BR> +PUBLISHERS +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center">1922</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + +<H5 ALIGN="center"> +Printed in the United States of America. +<BR> +PRESS OF BRAUNWORTH & CO +<BR> +BOOK MANUFACTURERS +<BR> +BROOKLYN, N. Y. +</H5> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +TO MY FRIEND +<BR> +ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE +</H3> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Discerning Student and Interpreter of the Spirit of the Prophets, the +Struggle of the Heroes and the Wisdom of the Founders of Democracy, I +Dedicate This Volume. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +FOREWORD +</H2> + +<P> +Much of the color of the love-tale of Jack and Margaret, which is a +part of the greater love-story of man and liberty, is derived from old +letters, diaries, and newspaper clippings in the possession of a +well-known American family. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS +</H2> + +<TABLE WIDTH="80%"> +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="15%"><B>CHAPTER</B></TD> +<TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="85%"><B>BOOK ONE</B></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><a href="#chap01">The Horse Valley Adventure</A> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><a href="#chap02">Sowing the Dragon's Teeth </A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><a href="#chap03">The Journey to Philadelphia </A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><a href="#chap04">The Crossing </A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><a href="#chap05">Jack Sees London and the Great Philosopher </A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><a href="#chap06">The Lovers </A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><a href="#chap07">The Dawn </A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><a href="#chap08">An Appointment and a Challenge </A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IX </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><a href="#chap09">The Encounter </A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">X </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><a href="#chap10">The Lady of the Hidden Face </A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><a href="#chap11">The Departure </A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><a href="#chap12">The Friend and the Girl He Left Behind Him </A></TD> +</TR> + + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +<TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top"><BR><B>BOOK TWO</B></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><a href="#chap13">The Ferment </A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><a href="#chap14">Adventures in the Service of the Commander-in-Chief </A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><a href="#chap15">In Boston Jail </A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><a href="#chap16">Jack and Solomon Meet the Great Ally </A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><a href="#chap17">With the Army and in the Bush </A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><a href="#chap18">How Solomon Shifted the Skeer </A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIX </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><a href="#chap19">The Voice of a Woman Sobbing </A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XX </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><a href="#chap20">The First Fourth of July </A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><a href="#chap21">The Ambush </A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><a href="#chap22">The Binkussing of Colonel Burley </A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><a href="#chap23">The Greatest Trait of a Great Commander </A></TD> +</TR> + + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +<TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top"><BR><B>BOOK THREE</B></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXIV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><a href="#chap24">In France with Franklin </A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><a href="#chap25">The Pageant </A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXVI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><a href="#chap26">In Which Appears the Horse of Destiny <BR>and the Judas of Washington's Army </A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXVII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><a href="#chap27">Which Contains the Adventures of Solomon in the Timber Sack <BR>and on the "Hand-made River" </A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXVIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><a href="#chap28">In Which Arnold and Henry Thornhill Arrive in the Highlands </A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXIX </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><a href="#chap29">Love and Treason </A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXX </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><a href="#chap30">"Who Is She that Looketh Forth as the Morning, <BR>Fair as the Moon, Clear as the Sun, <BR>and Terrible as an Army with Banners?" </A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXXI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><a href="#chap31">The Lovers and Solomon's Last Fight </A></TD> +</TR> +</TABLE> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +List of Illustrations +</H2> + +<H3> +<a href="#img-front"> +A young John Irons and Margaret Hare in the forest +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<a href="#img-056"> +"The soldiers are slaying people," a man shouted. +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<a href="#img-218"> +Jack Irons and Solomon Binkus with General George Washington. +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<a href="#img-288"> +Solomon Binkus with Whig Scott on his shoulder. +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<a href="#img-324"> +Ben Franklin +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<a href="#img-410"> +Ben Franklin, surrounded by his grandchildren. +</A> +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +In the Days of Poor Richard +</H1> + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +BOOK ONE +</H1> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER I +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE HORSE VALLEY ADVENTURE +</H3> + +<P> +"The first time I saw the boy, Jack Irons, he was about nine years old. +I was in Sir William Johnson's camp of magnificent Mohawk warriors at +Albany. Jack was so active and successful in the games, between the +red boys and the white, that the Indians called him 'Boiling Water.' +His laugh and tireless spirit reminded me of a mountain brook. There +was no lad, near his age, who could run so fast, or jump so far, or +shoot so well with the bow or the rifle. I carried him on my back to +his home, he urging me on as if I had been a battle horse and when we +were come to the house, he ran about doing his chores. I helped him, +and, our work accomplished, we went down to the river for a swim, and +to my surprise, I found him a well taught fish. We became friends and +always when I have thought of him, the words Happy Face have come to +me. It was, I think, a better nickname than 'Boiling Water,' although +there was much propriety in the latter. I knew that his energy given +to labor would accomplish much and when I left him, I repeated the +words which my father had often quoted in my hearing: +</P> + +<P> +"'Seest thou a man diligent in his calling? He shall stand before +kings.'" +</P> + +<P> +This glimpse of John Irons, Jr.--familiarly known as Jack Irons--is +from a letter of Benjamin Franklin to his wife. +</P> + +<P> +Nothing further is recorded of his boyhood until, about eight years +later, what was known as the "Horse Valley Adventure" occurred. A full +account of it follows with due regard for background and color: +</P> + +<P> +"It was the season o' the great moon," said old Solomon Binkus, scout +and interpreter, as he leaned over the camp-fire and flicked a coal out +of the ashes with his forefinger and twiddled it up to his pipe bowl. +In the army he was known as "old Solomon Binkus," not by reason of his +age, for he was only about thirty-eight, but as a mark of deference. +Those who followed him in the bush had a faith in his wisdom that was +childlike. "I had had my feet in a pair o' sieves walkin' the white +sea a fortnight," he went on. "The dry water were six foot on the +level, er mebbe more, an' some o' the waves up to the tree-tops, an' +nobody with me but this 'ere ol' Marier Jane [his rifle] the hull trip +to the Swegache country. Gol' ding my pictur'! It seemed as if the +wind were a-tryin' fer to rub it off the slate. It were a pesky wind +that kep' a-cuffin' me an' whistlin' in the briers on my face an' +crackin' my coat-tails. I were lonesome--lonesomer'n a he-bear--an' +the cold grabbin' holt o' all ends o' me so as I had to stop an' argue +'bout whar my bound'ry-lines was located like I were York State. Cat's +blood an' gun-powder! I had to kick an' scratch to keep my nose an' +toes from gittin'--brittle." +</P> + +<P> +At this point, Solomon Binkus paused to give his words a chance "to +sink in." The silence which followed was broken only by the crack of +burning faggots and the sound of the night wind in the tall pines above +the gorge. Before Mr. Binkus resumes his narrative, which, one might +know by the tilt of his head and the look of his wide open, right eye, +would soon happen, the historian seizes the opportunity of finishing +his introduction. He had been the best scout in the army of Sir +Jeffrey Amherst. As a small boy he had been captured by the Senecas +and held in the tribe a year and two months. Early in the French and +Indian War, he had been caught by Algonquins and tied to a tree and +tortured by hatchet throwers until rescued by a French captain. After +that his opinion of Indians had been, probably, a bit colored by +prejudice. Still later he had been a harpooner in a whale boat, and in +his young manhood, one of those who had escaped the infamous massacre +at Fort William Henry when English forces, having been captured and +disarmed, were turned loose and set upon by the savages. He was a +tall, brawny, broad-shouldered, homely-faced man of thirty-eight with a +Roman nose and a prominent chin underscored by a short sandy throat +beard. Some of the adventures had put their mark upon his weathered +face, shaven generally once a week above the chin. The top of his left +ear was missing. There was a long scar upon his forehead. These were +like the notches on the stock of his rifle. They were a sign of the +stories of adventure to be found in that wary, watchful brain of his. +</P> + +<P> +Johnson enjoyed his reports on account of their humor and color and he +describes him in a letter to Putnam as a man who "when he is much +interested, looks as if he were taking aim with his rifle." To some it +seemed that one eye of Mr. Binkus was often drawing conclusions while +the other was engaged with the no less important function of discovery. +</P> + +<P> +His companion was young Jack Irons--a big lad of seventeen, who lived +in a fertile valley some fifty miles northwest of Fort Stanwix, in +Tryon County, New York. Now, in September, 1768, they were traveling +ahead of a band of Indians bent on mischief. The latter, a few days +before, had come down Lake Ontario and were out in the bush somewhere +between the lake and the new settlement in Horse Valley. Solomon +thought that they were probably Hurons, since they, being discontented +with the treaty made by the French, had again taken the war-path. This +invasion, however, was a wholly unexpected bit of audacity. They had +two captives--the wife and daughter of Colonel Hare, who had been +spending a few weeks with Major Duncan and his Fifty-Fifth Regiment, at +Oswego. The colonel had taken these ladies of his family on a hunting +trip in the bush. They had had two guides with them, one of whom was +Solomon Binkus. The men had gone out in the early evening after moose +and imprudently left the ladies in camp, where the latter had been +captured. Having returned, the scout knew that the only possible +explanation for the absence of the ladies was Indians, although no +peril could have been more unexpected. He had discovered by "the sign" +that it was a large band traveling eastward. He had set out by night +to get ahead of them while Hare and his other guide started for the +fort. Binkus knew every mile of the wilderness and had canoes hidden +near its bigger waters. He had crossed the lake on which his party had +been camping, and the swamp at the east end of it and was soon far +ahead of the marauders. A little after daylight, he had picked up the +boy, Jack Irons, at a hunting camp on Big Deer Creek, as it was then +called, and the two had set out together to warn the people in Horse +Valley, where Jack lived, and to get help for a battle with the savages. +</P> + +<P> +It will be seen by his words that Mr. Binkus was a man of imagination, +but--again he is talking. +</P> + +<P> +"I were on my way to a big Injun Pow-wow at Swegache fer Sir Bill--ayes +it were in Feb'uary, the time o' the great moon o' the hard snow. Now +they be some good things 'bout Injuns but, like young brats, they take +natural to deviltry. Ye may have my hide fer sole luther if ye ketch +me in an Injun village with a load o' fire-water. Some Injuns is +smart, an' gol ding their pictur's! they kin talk like a cat-bird. A +skunk has a han'some coat an' acts as cute as a kitten but all the +same, which thar ain't no doubt o' it, his friendship ain't wuth a dam. +It's a kind o' p'ison. Injuns is like skunks, if ye trust 'em they'll +sp'ile ye. They eat like beasts an' think like beasts, an' live like +beasts, an' talk like angels. Paint an' bear's grease, an' squaw-fun, +an' fur, an' wampum, an' meat, an' rum, is all they think on. I've et +their vittles many a time an' I'm obleeged to tell ye it's hard work. +Too much hair in the stew! They stick their paws in the pot an' grab +out a chunk an' chaw it an' bolt it, like a dog, an' wipe their hands +on their long hair. They brag 'bout the power o' their jaws, which I +ain't denyin' is consid'able, havin' had an ol' buck bite off the top +o' my left ear when I were tied fast to a tree which--you hear to +me--is a good time to learn Injun language 'cause ye pay 'tention +clost. They ain't got no heart er no mercy. How they kin grind up a +captive, like wheat in the millstuns, an' laugh, an' whoop at the sight +o' his blood! Er turn him into smoke an' ashes while they look on an' +laugh--by mighty!--like he were singin' a funny song. They'd be men +an' women only they ain't got the works in 'em. Suthin' missin'. By +the hide an' horns o' the devil! I ain't got no kind o' patience with +them mush hearts who say that Ameriky belongs to the noble red man an' +that the whites have no right to bargain fer his land. Gol ding their +pictur's! Ye might as well say that we hain't no right in the woods +'cause a lot o' bears an' painters got there fust, which I ain't +a-sayin' but what bears an' painters has their rights." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Binkus paused again to put another coal on his pipe. Then he +listened a moment and looked up at the rocks above their heads, for +they were camped in a cave at the mouth of which they had built a small +fire, in a deep gorge. Presently he went on: +</P> + +<P> +"I found a heap o' Injuns at Swegache--Mohawks, Senekys, Onandogs an' +Algonks. They had been swappin' presents an' speeches with the French. +Just a little while afore they had had a bellerin' match with us 'bout +love an' friendship. Then sudden-like they tuk it in their heads that +the French had a sharper hatchet than the English. I were skeered, but +when I see that they was nobody drunk, I pushed right into the big +village an' asked fer the old Senecky chief Bear Face--knowin' he were +thar--an' said I had a letter from the Big Father. They tuk me to him. +</P> + +<P> +"I give him a chain o' wampum an' then read the letter from Sir Bill. +It offered the Six Nations more land an' a fort, an' a regiment to +defend 'em. Then he give me a lot o' hedge-hog quills sewed on to +buckskin an' says he: +</P> + +<P> +"'You are like a lone star in the night, my brother. We have stretched +out our necks lookin' fer ye. We thought the Big Father had forgot us. +Now we are happy. To-morrer our faces will turn south an' shine with +bear's grease.' +</P> + +<P> +"Sez I: 'You must wash no more in the same water with the French. You +must return to The Long House. The Big Father will throw his great arm +eround you.' +</P> + +<P> +"I strutted up an' down, like a turkey gobbler, an' bellered out a lot +o' that high-falutin' gab. I reckon I know how to shove an idee under +their hides. Ye got to raise yer voice an' look solemn an' point at +the stars. A powerful lot o' Injuns trailed back to Sir Bill, but they +was a few went over to the French. I kind o' mistrust thar's some o' +them runnygades behind us. They're 'spectin' to git a lot o' plunder +an' a horse apiece an' ride 'em back an' swim the river at the place o' +the many islands. We'll poke down to the trail on the edge o' the +drownded lands afore sunrise an' I kind o' mistrust we'll see sign." +</P> + +<P> +Jack Irons was a son of the much respected John Irons from New +Hampshire who, in the fertile valley where he had settled some years +before, was breeding horses for the army and sending them down to Sir +William Johnson. Hence the site of his farm had been called Horse +Valley. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Binkus went to the near brook and repeatedly filled his old felt +hat with water and poured it on the fire. "Don't never keep no fire +a-goin' a'ter I'm dried out," he whispered, as he stepped back into the +dark cave, "'cause ye never kin tell." +</P> + +<P> +The boy was asleep on the bed of boughs. Mr. Binkus covered him with +the blanket and lay down beside him and drew his coat over both. +</P> + +<P> +"He'll learn that it ain't no fun to be a scout," he whispered with a +yawn and in a moment was snoring. +</P> + +<P> +It was black dark when he roused his companion. Solomon had been up +for ten minutes and had got their rations of bread and dried venison +out of his pack and brought a canteen of fresh water. +</P> + +<P> +"The night has been dark. A piece o' charcoal would 'a' made a white +mark on it," said Solomon. +</P> + +<P> +"How do you know it's morning?" the boy asked as he rose, yawning. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't ye hear that leetle bird up in the tree-top?" Solomon answered +in a whisper. "He says it's mornin' jest as plain as a clock in a +steeple an' that it's goin' to be cl'ar. If you'll shove this 'ere +meat an' bread into yer stummick, we'll begin fer to make tracks." +</P> + +<P> +They ate in silence and as he ate Solomon was getting his pack ready +and strapping it on his back and adjusting his powder-horn. +</P> + +<P> +"Ye see it's growin' light," he remarked presently in a whisper. "Keep +clost to me an' go as still as ye kin an' don't speak out loud +never--not if ye want to be sure to keep yer ha'r on yer head." +</P> + +<P> +They started down the foot of the gorge then dim in the night shadows. +Binkus stopped, now and then, to listen for two or three seconds and +went on with long stealthy strides. His movements were panther-like, +and the boy imitated them. He was a tall, handsome, big-framed lad +with blond hair and blue eyes. They could soon see their way clearly. +At the edge of the valley the scout stopped and peered out upon it. A +deep mist lay on the meadows. +</P> + +<P> +"I like day-dark in Injun country," he whispered. "Come on." +</P> + +<P> +They hurried through sloppy footing in the wet grass that flung its dew +into their garments from the shoulder down. Suddenly Mr. Binkus +stopped. They could hear the sound of heavy feet splashing in the wet +meadow. +</P> + +<P> +"Scairt moose, runnin' this way!" the scout whispered. "I'll bet ye a +pint o' powder an' a fish hook them Injuns is over east o' here." +</P> + +<P> +It was his favorite wager--that of a pint of powder and a fish hook. +</P> + +<P> +They came out upon high ground and reached the valley trail just as the +sun was rising. The fog had lifted. Mr. Binkus stopped well away from +the trail and listened for some minutes. He approached it slowly on +his tiptoes, the boy following in a like manner. For a moment the +scout stood at the edge of the trail in silence. Then, leaning low, he +examined it closely and quickly raised his hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Hoofs o' the devil!" he whispered as he beckoned to the boy. "See +thar," he went on, pointing to the ground. "They've jest gone by. The +grass ain't riz yit. Wait here." +</P> + +<P> +He followed the trail a few rods with eyes bent upon it. Near a little +run where there was soft dirt, he stopped again and looked intently at +the earth and then hurried back. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a big band. At least forty Injuns in it an' some captives, an' +the devil an' Tom Walker. It's a mess which they ain't no mistake." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't see why they want to be bothered with women," the boy remarked. +</P> + +<P> +"Hostiges!" Solomon exclaimed. "Makes 'em feel safer. Grab 'em when +they kin. If overtook by a stouter force they're in shape fer a +dicker. The chief stands up an' sings like a bird--'bout the moon an' +the stars an' the brooks an' the rivers an' the wrongs o' the red man, +but it wouldn't be wuth the song o' a barn swaller less he can show ye +that the wimmen are all right. If they've been treated proper, it's +the same as proved. Ye let 'em out o' the bear trap which it has often +happened. But you hear to me, when they go off this way it's to kill +an' grab an' hustle back with the booty. They won't stop at +butcherin'!" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid my folks are in danger," said the boy as he changed color. +</P> + +<P> +"Er mebbe Peter Boneses'--'cordin' to the way they go. We got to cut +eround 'em an' plow straight through the bush an' over Cobble Hill an' +swim the big creek an' we'll beat 'em easy." +</P> + +<P> +It was a curious, long, loose stride, the knees never quite +straightened, with which the scout made his way through the forest. It +covered ground so swiftly that the boy had, now and then, to break into +a dog-trot in order to keep along with the old woodsman. They kept +their pace up the steep side of Cobble Hill and down its far slope and +the valley beyond to the shore of the Big Creek. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm hot 'nough to sizzle an' smoke when I tech water," said the scout +as he waded in, holding his rifle and powder-horn in his left hand +above the creek's surface. +</P> + +<P> +They had a few strokes of swimming at mid-stream but managed to keep +their powder dry. +</P> + +<P> +"Now we've got jest 'nough hoppin' to keep us from gittin' foundered," +said Solomon, as he stood on the farther shore and adjusted his pack. +"It ain't more'n a mile to your house." +</P> + +<P> +They hurried on, reaching the rough valley road in a few minutes. +</P> + +<P> +"Now I'll take the bee trail to your place," said the scout. "You cut +ercrost the medder to Peter Boneses' an' fetch 'em over with all their +grit an' guns an' ammunition." +</P> + +<P> +Solomon found John Irons and five of his sons and three of his +daughters digging potatoes and pulling tops in a field near the house. +The sky was clear and the sun shining warm. Solomon called Irons aside +and told him of the approaching Indians. +</P> + +<P> +"What are we to do?" Irons asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Send the women an' the babies back to the sugar shanty," said Solomon. +"We'll stay here 'cause if we run erway the Boneses'll git their ha'r +lifted. I reckon we kin conquer 'em." +</P> + +<P> +"How?" +</P> + +<P> +"Shoot 'em full o' meat. They must 'a' traveled all night. Them +Injuns is tired an' hungry. Been three days on the trail. No time to +hunt! I'll hustle some wood together an' start a fire. You bring a +pair o' steers right here handy. We'll rip their hides off an' git the +reek o' vittles in the air soon as God'll let us." +</P> + +<P> +"My wife can use a gun as well as I can and I'm afraid she won't go," +said Irons. +</P> + +<P> +"All right, let her hide somewhar nigh with the guns," said Solomon. +"The oldest gal kin go back with the young 'uns. Don't want no skirts +in sight when they git here." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Irons hid in the shed with the loaded guns. +</P> + +<P> +Ruth Irons and the children set out for the sugar bush. The steers +were quickly led up and slaughtered. As a hide ripper, Solomon was a +man of experience. The loins of one animal were cooking on turnspits +and a big pot of beef, onions and potatoes boiling over the fire when +Jack arrived with the Bones family. +</P> + +<P> +"It smells good here," said Jack. +</P> + +<P> +"Ayes! The air be gittin' the right scent on it," said Solomon, as he +was ripping the hide off the other steer. "I reckon it'll start the +sap in their mouths. You roll out the rum bar'l an' stave it in. Mis' +Bones knows how to shoot. Put her in the shed with yer mother an' the +guns, an' take her young 'uns to the sugar shanty 'cept Isr'el who's +big 'nough to help." +</P> + +<P> +A little later Solomon left the fire. Both his eye and his ear had +caught "sign"--a clamor among the moose birds in the distant bush and a +flock of pigeons flying from the west. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't none o' ye stir till I come back," he said, as he turned into +the trail. A few rods away he lay down with his ear to the ground and +could distinctly hear the tramp of many feet approaching in the +distance. He went on a little farther and presently concealed himself +in the bushes close to the trail. He had not long to wait, for soon a +red scout came on ahead of the party. He was a young Huron brave, his +face painted black and yellow. His head was encircled by a snake skin. +A fox's tail rose above his brow and dropped back on his crown. A +birch-bark horn hung over his shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +Solomon stepped out of the bushes after he had passed and said in the +Huron tongue: "Welcome, my red brother, I hear that a large band o' yer +folks is comin' and we have got a feast ready." +</P> + +<P> +The young brave had been startled by the sudden appearance of Solomon, +but the friendly words had reassured him. +</P> + +<P> +"We are on a long journey," said the brave. +</P> + +<P> +"And the flesh of a fat ox will help ye on yer way. Kin ye smell it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Brother, it is like the smell of the great village in the Happy +Hunting-Grounds," said the brave. "We have traveled three sleeps from +the land of the long waters and have had only two porcupines and a +small deer to eat. We are hungry." +</P> + +<P> +"And we would smoke the calumet of peace with you," said Solomon. +</P> + +<P> +They walked on together and in a moment came in sight of the little +farm-house. The brave looked at the house and the three men who stood +by the fire. +</P> + +<P> +"Come with me and you shall see that we are few," Solomon remarked. +</P> + +<P> +They entered the house and barn and walked around them, and this, in +effect, is what Solomon said to him: +</P> + +<P> +"I am the chief scout of the Great Father. My word is like that of old +Flame Tongue--your mighty chief. You and your people are on a bad +errand. No good can come of it. You are far from your own country. A +large force is now on your trail. If you rob or kill any one you will +be hung. We know your plans. A bad white chief has brought you here. +He has a wooden leg with an iron ring around the bottom of it. He come +down lake in a big boat with you. Night before last you stole two +white women." +</P> + +<P> +A look of fear and astonishment came upon the face of the Indian. +</P> + +<P> +"You are a son of the Great Spirit!" he exclaimed. +</P> + +<P> +"And I would keep yer feet out o' the snare. Let me be yer chief. You +shall have a horse and fifty beaver skins and be taken to the border +and set free. I, the scout of the Great Father, have said it, and if +it be not as I say, may I never see the Happy Hunting-Grounds." +</P> + +<P> +The brave answered: +</P> + +<P> +"My white brother has spoken well and he shall be my chief. I like not +this journey. I shall bid them to the feast. They will eat and sleep +like the gray wolf for they are hungry and their feet are sore." +</P> + +<P> +The brave put his horn to his mouth and uttered a wild cry that rang in +the distant hills. Then arose a great whooping and kintecawing back in +the bush. The young Huron went out to meet the band. Returning soon, +he said to Solomon that his chief, the great Splitnose, would have +words with him. +</P> + +<P> +Turning to John Irons, Solomon said: "He's an outlaw chief. We must +treat him like a king. I'll bring 'em in. You keep the meat +a-sizzlin'!" +</P> + +<P> +The scout went with the brave to his chief and made a speech of +welcome, after which the wily old Splitnose, in his wonderful +head-dress, of buckskin and eagle feathers, and his band in war-paint, +followed Solomon to the feast. Silently they filed out of the bush and +sat on the grass around the fire. There were no captives among +them--none at least of the white skin. +</P> + +<P> +Solomon did not betray his disappointment. Not a word was spoken. He +and John Irons and his son began removing the spits from the fire and +putting more meat upon them and cutting the cooked roasts into large +pieces and passing it on a big earthen platter. The Indians eagerly +seized the hot meat and began to devour it. While waiting to be +served, some of the young braves danced at the fire's edge with short, +explosive, yelping, barking cries answered by dozens of guttural +protesting grunts from the older men, who sat eating or eagerly waiting +their turn to grab meat. It was a trying moment. Would the whole band +leap up and start a dance which might end in boiling blood and tiger +fury and a massacre? But the young Huron brave stopped them, aided no +doubt by the smell of the cooking flesh and the protest of the older +men. There would be no war-dance--at least not yet--too much hunger in +the band and the means of satisfying it were too close and tempting. +Solomon had foreseen the peril and his cunning had prevented it. +</P> + +<P> +In a letter he has thus described the incident: "It were a band o' +cutthroat robbers an' runnygades from the Ohio country--Hurons, Algonks +an' Mingos an' all kinds o' cast off red rubbish with an old Algonk +chief o' the name o' Splitnose. They stuffed their hides with the meat +till they was stiff as a foundered hoss. They grabbed an' chawed an' +bolted it like so many hogs an' reached out fer more, which is the +differ'nce betwixt an Injun an' a white man. The white man gen'ally +knows 'nough to shove down the brakes on a side-hill. The Injun ain't +got no brakes on his wheels. Injuns is a good deal like white brats. +Let 'em find the sugar tub when their ma is to meetin' an' they won't +worry 'bout the bellyache till it comes. Them Injuns filled themselves +to the gullet an' begun to lay back, all swelled up, an' roll an' grunt +an' go to sleep. By an' by they was only two that was up an' pawin' +eround in the stew pot fer 'nother bone, lookin' kind o' unsart'tn an' +jaw weary. In a minute they wiped their hands on their ha'r an' lay +back fer rest. They was drunk with the meat, as drunk as a Chinee +a'ter a pipe o' opium. We white men stretched out with the rest on 'em +till we see they was all in the land o' nod. Then we riz an' set up a +hussle. Hones' we could 'a' killed 'em with a hammer an' done it +delib'rit. I started to pull the young Huron out o' the bunch. He +jumped up very supple. He wasn't asleep. He had knowed better than to +swaller a yard o' meat. +</P> + +<P> +"Whar was the wimmen? I knowed that a part o' the band would be back +in the bush with them 'ere wimmen. I'd seed suthin' in the trail over +by the drownded lands that looked kind o' neevarious. It were like the +end o' a wooden leg with an iron ring at the bottom an' consid'able +weight on it. An Injun wouldn't have a wooden leg, least ways not one +with an iron ring at the butt. My ol' thinker had been chawin' that +cud all day an' o' a sudden it come to me that a white man were runnin' +the hull crew. That's how I had gained ground with the red scout I +took him out in the aidge o' the bush an' sez I: +</P> + +<P> +"'What's yer name?' +</P> + +<P> +"'Buckeye,' sez he. +</P> + +<P> +"'Who's the white man that's with ye?' +</P> + +<P> +"'Mike Harpe.' +</P> + +<P> +"'Are the white wimmin with him?' +</P> + +<P> +"'Yes.' +</P> + +<P> +"'How many Injuns?' +</P> + +<P> +"Two.' +</P> + +<P> +"'What's yer signal o' victory?' +</P> + +<P> +"'The call o' the moose.' +</P> + +<P> +"'Now, Buckeye, you come with us,' I sez. +</P> + +<P> +"I knowed that the white man were runnin' the hull party an' I itched +to git holt o' him. Gol ding his pictur'! He'd sent the Injuns on +ahead fer to do his dirty work. The Ohio country were full o' robber +whelps which I kind o' mistrusted he were one on 'em who had raked up +this 'ere band o' runnygades an' gone off fer plunder. We got holt o' +most o' their guns very quiet, an' I put John Irons an' two o' his boys +an' Peter Bones an' his boy Isr'el an' the two women with loaded guns +on guard over 'em. If any on 'em woke up they was to ride the +nightmare er lay still. Jack an' me an' Buckeye sneaked back up the +trail fer 'bout twenty rod with our guns, an' then I told the young +Injun to shoot off the moose call. Wall, sir, ye could 'a' heerd it +from Albany to Wing's Falls. The answer come an' jest as I 'spected, +'twere within a quarter o' a mile. I put Jack erbout fifty feet +further up the trail than I were, an' Buckeye nigh him, an' tol 'em +what to do. We skootched down in the bushes an' heerd 'em comin'! +Purty soon they hove in sight--two Injuns, the two wimmin captives an' +a white man--the wust-lookin' bulldog brute that I ever seen--stumpin' +erlong lively on a wooden leg, with a gun an' a cane. He had a broad +head an' a big lop mouth an' thick lips an' a long, red, warty nose an' +small black eyes an' a growth o' beard that looked like hog's bristles. +He were stout built. Stood 'bout five foot seven. Never see sech a +sight in my life. I hopped out afore 'em an' Jack an' Buckeye on their +heels. The Injun had my ol' hanger. +</P> + +<P> +"'Drop yer guns,' says I. +</P> + +<P> +"The white man done as he were told. I spoke English an' mebbe them +two Injuns didn't understan' me. We'll never know. Ol' Red Snout +leaned over to pick up his gun, seein' as we'd fired ours. There was a +price on his head an' he'd made up his mind to fight. Jack grabbed +him. He were stout as a lion an' tore 'way from the boy an' started to +pullin' a long knife out o' his boot leg. Jack didn't give him time. +They had it hammer an' tongs. Red Snout were a reg'lar fightin' man. +He jest stuck that 'ere stump in the ground an' braced ag'in' it an' +kep' a-slashin' an' jabbin' with his club cane an' yellin' an' cussin' +like a fiend o' hell. He knocked the boy down an' I reckon he'd 'a' +mellered his head proper if he'd 'a' been spryer on his pins. But Jack +sprung up like he were made o' Injy rubber. The bulldog devil had +drawed his long knife. Jack were smart. He hopped behind a tree. +Buckeye, who hadn't no gun, was jumpin' fer cover. The peg-leg cuss +swore a blue streak an' flung the knife at him. It went cl'ar through +his body an' he fell on his face an' me standin' thar loadin' my gun. +I didn't know but he'd lick us all. But Jack had jumped on him 'fore +he got holt o' the knife ag'in. +</P> + +<P> +"I thought sure he'd floor the boy an' me not quite loaded, but Jack +were as spry as a rat terrier. He dodged an' rushed in an' grabbed +holt o' the club an' fetched the cuss a whack in the paunch with his +bare fist, an' ol' Red Snout went down like a steer under the ax. +</P> + +<P> +"'Look out! there's 'nother man comin',' the young womern hollered. +</P> + +<P> +"She needn't 'a' tuk the trouble 'cause afore she spoke I were lookin' +at him through the sight o' my ol' Marier which I'd managed to git it +loaded ag'in. He were runnin' towards me. He tuk jest one more step, +if I don't make no mistake. +</P> + +<P> +"The ol' brute that Jack had knocked down quivered an' lay still a +minit an' when he come to, we turned him, eround an' started him +towards Canady an' tol' him to keep a-goin'! When he were 'bout ten +rods off, I put a bullet in his ol' wooden leg fer to hurry him erlong. +So the wust man-killer that ever trod dirt got erway from us with only +a sore belly, we never knowin' who he were. I wish I'd 'a' killed the +cuss, but as 'twere, we had consid'able trouble on our hands. Right +erway we heard two guns go off over by the house. I knowed that our +firin' had prob'ly woke up some o' the sleepers. We pounded the ground +an' got thar as quick as we could. The two wimmen wa'n't fur behind. +They didn't cocalate to lose us--you hear to me. Two young braves had +sprung up an' been told to lie down ag'in. But the English language +ain't no help to an Injun under them surcumstances. They don't +understan' it an' thar ain't no time when ignerunce is more costly. +They was some others awake, but they had learnt suthin'. They was +keepin' quiet, an' I sez to 'em: +</P> + +<P> +"'If ye lay still ye'll all be safe. We won't do ye a bit o' harm. +You've got in bad comp'ny, but ye ain't done nothin' but steal a pair +o' wimmen. If ye behave proper from now on, ye'll be sent hum.' +</P> + +<P> +"We didn't have no more trouble with them. I put one o' Boneses' boys +on a hoss an' hustled him up the valley fer help. The wimmen captives +was bawlin'. I tol' 'em to straighten out their faces an' go with Jack +an' his father down to Fort Stanwix. They were kind o' leg weary an' +excited, but they hadn't been hurt yit. Another day er two would 'a' +fixed 'em. Jack an' his father an' mother tuk 'em back to the pasture +an' Jack run up to the barn fer ropes an' bridles. In a little while +they got some hoofs under 'em an' picked up the childern an' toddled +off. I went out in the bush to find Buckeye an' he were dead as the +whale that swallered Jonah." +</P> + +<P> +So ends the letter of Solomon Binkus. +</P> + +<P> +Jack Irons and his family and that of Peter Bones--the boys and girls +riding two on a horse--with the captives filed down the Mohawk trail. +It was a considerable cavalcade of twenty-one people and twenty-four +horses and colts, the latter following. +</P> + +<P> +Solomon Binkus and Peter Bones and his son Israel stood on guard until +the boy John Bones returned with help from the upper valley. A dozen +men and boys completed the disarming of the band and that evening set +out with them on the south trail. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +2 +</H3> + +<P> +It is doubtful if this history would have been written but for an +accidental and highly interesting circumstance. In the first party +young Jack Irons rode a colt, just broken, with the girl captive, now +happily released. The boy had helped every one to get away; then there +seemed to be no ridable horse for him. He walked for a distance by the +stranger's mount as the latter was wild. The girl was silent for a +time after the colt had settled down, now and then wiping tears from +her eyes. By and by she asked: +</P> + +<P> +"May I lead the colt while you ride?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no, I am not tired," was his answer. +</P> + +<P> +"I want to do something for you." +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am so grateful. I feel like the King's cat. I am trying to express +my feelings. I think I know, now, why the Indian women do the +drudgery." +</P> + +<P> +As she looked at Him her dark eyes were very serious. +</P> + +<P> +"I have done little," said he. "It is Mr. Binkus who rescued you. We +live in a wild country among savages and the white folks have to +protect each other. We're used to it." +</P> + +<P> +"I never saw or expected to see men like you," she went on. "I have +read of them in books, but I never hoped to see them and talk to them. +You are like Ajax and Achilles." +</P> + +<P> +"Then I shall say that you are like the fair lady for whom they fought." +</P> + +<P> +"I will not ride and see you walking." +</P> + +<P> +"Then sit forward as far as you can and I will ride with you," he +answered. +</P> + +<P> +In a moment he was on the colt's back behind her. She was a comely +maiden. An authority no less respectable than Major Duncan has written +that she was a tall, well shaped, fun loving girl a little past sixteen +and good to look upon, "with dark eyes and auburn hair, the latter long +and heavy and in the sunlight richly colored"; that she had slender +fingers and a beautiful skin, all showing that she had been delicately +bred. He adds that he envied the boy who had ridden before and behind +her half the length of Tryon County. +</P> + +<P> +It was a close association and Jack found it so agreeable that he often +referred to that ride as the most exciting adventure of his life. +</P> + +<P> +"What is your name?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Margaret Hare," she answered. +</P> + +<P> +"How did they catch you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, they came suddenly and stealthily, as they do in the story books, +when we were alone in camp. My father and the guides had gone out to +hunt." +</P> + +<P> +"Did they treat you well?" +</P> + +<P> +"The Indians let us alone, but the two white men annoyed and frightened +us. The old chief kept us near him." +</P> + +<P> +"The old chief knew better than to let any harm come to you until they +were sure of getting away with their plunder." +</P> + +<P> +"We were in the valley of death and you have led us out of it. I am +sure that I do not look as if I were worth saving. I suppose that I +must have turned into an old woman. Is my hair white?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. You are the best-looking girl I ever saw," he declared with +rustic frankness. +</P> + +<P> +"I never had a compliment that pleased me so much," she answered, as +her elbows tightened a little on his hands which were clinging to her +coat. "I almost loved you for what you did to the old villain. I saw +blood on the side of your head. I fear he hurt you?" +</P> + +<P> +"He jabbed me once. It is nothing." +</P> + +<P> +"How brave you were!" +</P> + +<P> +"I think I am more scared now than I was then," said Jack. +</P> + +<P> +"Scared! Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am not used to girls except my sisters." +</P> + +<P> +She laughed and answered: +</P> + +<P> +"And I am not used to heroes. I am sure you can not be so scared as I +am, but I rather enjoy it. I like to be scared--a little. This is so +different." +</P> + +<P> +"I like you," he declared with a laugh. +</P> + +<P> +"I feared you would not like an English girl. So many North Americans +hate England." +</P> + +<P> +"The English have been hard on us." +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"They send us governors whom we do not like; they make laws for us +which we have to obey; they impose hard taxes which are not just and +they will not let us have a word to say about it." +</P> + +<P> +"I think it is wrong and I'm going to stand up for you," the girl +answered. +</P> + +<P> +"Where do you live?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"In London. I am an English girl, but please do not hate me for that. +I want to do what is right and I shall never let any one say a word +against Americans without taking their part." +</P> + +<P> +"That's good," the boy answered. "I'd love to go to London." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, why don't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"It's a long way off." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you like good-looking girls?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'd rather look at them than eat." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, there are many in London." +</P> + +<P> +"One is enough," said Jack. +</P> + +<P> +"I'd love to show them a real hero." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't call me that. If you would just call me Jack Irons I'd like it +better. But first you'll want to know how I behave. I am not a +fighter." +</P> + +<P> +"I am sure that your character is as good as your face." +</P> + +<P> +"Gosh! I hope it ain't quite so dark colored," said Jack. +</P> + +<P> +"I knew all about you when you took my hand and helped me on the +pony--or nearly all. You are a gentleman." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope so." +</P> + +<P> +"Are you a Presbyterian?" +</P> + +<P> +"No--Church of England." +</P> + +<P> +"I was sure of that. I have seen Indians and Shakers, but I have never +seen a Presbyterian." +</P> + +<P> +When the sun was low and the company ahead were stopping to make a camp +for the night, the boy and girl dismounted. She turned facing him and +asked: +</P> + +<P> +"You didn't mean it when you said that I was good-looking--did you?" +</P> + +<P> +The bashful youth had imagination and, like many lads of his time, a +romantic temperament and the love of poetry. There were many books in +his father's home and the boy had lived his leisure in them. He +thought a moment and answered: +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I think you are as beautiful as a young doe playing in the +water-lilies." +</P> + +<P> +"And you look as if you believed yourself," said she. "I am sure you +would like me better if I were fixed up a little." +</P> + +<P> +"I do not think so." +</P> + +<P> +"How much better a boy's head looks with his hair cut close like yours. +Our boys have long hair. They do not look so much like--men." +</P> + +<P> +"Long hair is not for rough work in the bush," the boy remarked. +</P> + +<P> +"You really look brave and strong. One would know that you could do +things." +</P> + +<P> +"I've always had to do things." +</P> + +<P> +They came up to the party who had stopped to camp for the night. It +was a clear warm evening. After they had hobbled the horses in a near +meadow flat, Jack and his father made a lean-to for the women and +children and roofed it with bark. Then they cut wood and built a fire +and gathered boughs for bedding. Later, tea was made and beefsteaks +and bacon grilled on spits of green birch, the dripping fat being +caught on slices of toasting bread whereon the meat was presently +served. +</P> + +<P> +The masterful power with which the stalwart youth and his father swung +the ax and their cunning craftsmanship impressed the English woman and +her daughter and were soon to be the topic of many a London tea party. +Mrs. Hare spoke of it as she was eating her supper. +</P> + +<P> +"It may surprise you further to learn that the boy is fairly familiar +with the Aeneid and the Odes of Horace and the history of France and +England," said John Irons. +</P> + +<P> +"That is the most astonishing thing I have ever heard!" she exclaimed. +"How has he done it?" +</P> + +<P> +"The minister was his master until we went into the bush. Then I had +to be farmer and school-teacher. There is a great thirst for learning +in this New World." +</P> + +<P> +"How do you find time for it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, we have leisure here--more than you have. In England even your +wealthy young men are over-worked. They dine out and play cards until +three in the morning and sleep until midday. Then luncheon and the +cock fight and tea and Parliament! The best of us have only three +steady habits. We work and study and sleep." +</P> + +<P> +"And fight savages," said the woman. +</P> + +<P> +"We do that, sometimes, but it is not often necessary. If it were not +for white savages, there would be no red ones. You would find America +a good country to live in." +</P> + +<P> +"At least I hope it will be good to sleep in this night," the woman +answered, yawning. "Dreamland is now the only country I care for." +</P> + +<P> +The ladies and children, being near spent by the day's travel and +excitement, turned in soon after supper. The men slept on their +blankets, by the fire, and were up before daylight for a dip in the +creek near by. While they were getting breakfast, the women and +children had their turn at the creekside. +</P> + +<P> +That day the released captives were in better spirits. Soon after noon +the company came to a swollen river where the horses had some swimming +to do. The older animals and the following colts went through all +right, but the young stallion which Jack and Margaret were riding, +began to rear and plunge. The girl in her fright jumped off his back +in swift water and was swept into the rapids and tumbled about and put +in some danger before Jack could dismount and bring her ashore. +</P> + +<P> +"You have increased my debt to you," she said, when at last they were +mounted again. "What a story this is! It is terribly exciting." +</P> + +<P> +"Getting into deeper water," said Jack. "I'm not going to let you +spoil it by drowning." +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder what is coming next," said she. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know. So far it's as good as <I>Robinson Crusoe</I>." +</P> + +<P> +"With a book you can skip and see what happens," she laughed. "But we +shall have to read everything in this story. I'd love to know all +about you." +</P> + +<P> +He told her with boyish frankness of his plans which included learning +and statesmanship and a city home. He told also of his adventures in +the forest with his father. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile, the elder John Irons and Mrs. Hare were getting acquainted +as they rode along. The woman had been surprised by the man's intimate +knowledge of English history and had spoken of it. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you see my wife is a granddaughter of Horatio Walpole of +Wolterton and my mother was in a like way related to Thomas Pitt so you +see I have a right to my interest in the history of the home land," +said John Irons. +</P> + +<P> +"You have in your veins some of the best blood of England and so I am +sure that you must be a loyal subject of the King," Mrs. Hare remarked. +</P> + +<P> +"No, because I think this German King has no share in the spirit of his +country," Irons answered. "Our ancient respect for human rights and +fair play is not in this man." +</P> + +<P> +He presented his reasons for the opinion and while the woman made no +answer, she had heard for the first time the argument of the New World +and was impressed by it. +</P> + +<P> +Late in the day they came out on a rough road, faring down into the +settled country and that night they stopped at a small inn. At the +supper table a wizened old woman was telling fortunes in a tea cup. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Hare and her mother drained their cups and passed them to the old +woman. The latter looked into the cup of the young lady and +immediately her tongue began to rattle. +</P> + +<P> +"Two ways lie before you," she piped in a shrill voice. "One leads to +happiness and many children and wealth and a long life. It is steep +and rough at the beginning and then it is smooth and peaceful. Yes. +It crosses the sea. The other way is smooth at the start and then it +grows steep and rough and in it I see tears and blood and dark clouds +and, do you see that?" she demanded with a look of excitement, as she +pointed into the cup. "It is a very evil thing. I will tell you no +more." +</P> + +<P> +The wizened old woman rose and, with a determined look in her face, +left the room. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Hare and her daughter seemed to be much troubled by the vision of +the fortune-teller. +</P> + +<P> +"I hope you do not believe in that kind of rubbish," John Irons +remarked. +</P> + +<P> +"I believe implicitly in the gift of second sight," said Mrs. Hare. +"In England women are so impatient to know their fortunes that they +will not wait upon Time, and the seers are prosperous." +</P> + +<P> +"I have no faith in it," said Mr. Irons. "What she said might apply to +the future of any young person. Undoubtedly there are two ways ahead +of your daughter and perhaps more. Each must choose his own way wisely +or come to trouble. It is the ancient law." +</P> + +<P> +They rode on next morning in a rough road between clearings in the +forest, the boy and girl being again together on the colt's back, she +in front. +</P> + +<P> +"You did not have your fortune told," said Miss Margaret. +</P> + +<P> +"It <I>has</I> been told," Jack answered. "I am to be married in England to +a beautiful young lady. I thought that sounded well and that I had +better hold on to it. I might go further and fare worse." +</P> + +<P> +"Tell me the kind of girl you would fancy." +</P> + +<P> +"I wouldn't dare tell you." +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"For fear it would spoil my luck." +</P> + +<P> +They rode on with light hearts under a clear sky, their spirits playing +together like birds in the sunlight, touching wings and then flying +apart, until it all came to a climax quite unforeseen. The story has +been passed from sire to son and from mother to daughter in a certain +family of central New York and there are those now living who could +tell it. These two were young and beautiful and well content with each +other, it is said. So it would seem that Fate could not let them alone. +</P> + +<P> +"We are near our journey's end," said he, by and by. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, then, let us go very slowly," she urged. +</P> + +<P> +Another step and they had passed the hidden gate between reality and +enchantment. It would appear that she had spoken the magic words which +had opened it. They rode, for a time, without further speech, in a +land not of this world, although, in some degree, familiar to the best +of its people. Only they may cross that border who have kept much of +the innocence of childhood and felt the delightful fear of youth that +was in those two--they only may know the great enchantment. Does it +not make an undying memory and bring to the face of age, long +afterward, the smile of joy and gratitude? +</P> + +<P> +The next word? What should it be? Both wondered and held their +tongues for fear--one can not help thinking--and really they had little +need of words. The peal of a hermit thrush filled the silence with its +golden, largo chime and overtones and died away and rang out again and +again. That voice spoke for them far better than either could have +spoken, and they were content. +</P> + +<P> +"There was no voice on land or sea so fit for the hour and the ears +that heard it," she wrote, long afterward, in a letter. +</P> + +<P> +They must have felt it in the longing of their own hearts and, perhaps, +even a touch of the pathos in the years to come. They rode on in +silence, feeling now the beauty of the green woods. It had become a +magic garden full of new and wonderful things. Some power had entered +them and opened their eyes. The thrush's song grew fainter in the +distance. The boy was first to speak. +</P> + +<P> +"I think that bird must have had a long flight sometime," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am sure that he has heard the music of Paradise. I wonder if you +are as happy as I am." +</P> + +<P> +"I was never so happy," she answered. +</P> + +<P> +"What a beautiful country we are in! I have forgotten all about the +danger and the hardship and the evil men. Have you ever seen any place +like it?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. For a time we have been riding in fairyland." +</P> + +<P> +"I know why," said the boy. +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"It is because we are riding together. It is because I see you." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, dear! I can not see <I>you</I>. Let us get off and walk," she +proposed. +</P> + +<P> +They dismounted. +</P> + +<P> +"Did you mean that honestly?" +</P> + +<P> +"Honestly," he answered. +</P> + +<P> +She looked up at him and put her hand over her mouth. +</P> + +<P> +"I was going to say something. It would have been most unmaidenly," +she remarked. +</P> + +<P> +"There's something in me that will not stay unsaid. I love you," he +declared. +</P> + +<P> +She held up her hand with a serious look in her eyes. Then, for a +moment, the boy returned to the world of reality. +</P> + +<P> +"I am sorry. Forgive me. I ought not to have said it," he stammered. +</P> + +<P> +"But didn't you really mean it?" she asked with troubled eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"I mean that and more, but I ought not to have said it now. It isn't +fair. You have just escaped from a great danger and have got a notion +that you are in debt to me and you don't know much about me anyhow." +</P> + +<P> +She stood in his path looking up at him. +</P> + +<P> +"Jack," she whispered. "Please say it again." +</P> + +<P> +No, it was not gone. They were still in the magic garden. +</P> + +<P> +"I love you and I wish this journey could go on forever," he said. +</P> + +<P> +She stepped closer and he put his arm around her and kissed her lips. +She ran away a few steps. Then, indeed, they were back on the familiar +trail in the thirty-mile bush. A moose bird was screaming at them. +She turned and said: +</P> + +<P> +"I wanted you to know but I have said nothing. I couldn't. I am under +a sacred promise. You are a gentleman and you will not kiss me or +speak of love again until you have talked with my father. It is the +custom of our country. But I want you to know that I am very happy." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know how I dared to say and do what I did, but I couldn't help +it" +</P> + +<P> +"I couldn't help it either. I just longed to know if you dared." +</P> + +<P> +"The rest will be in the future--perhaps far in the future." +</P> + +<P> +His voice trembled a little. +</P> + +<P> +"Not far if you come to me, but I can wait--I will wait." She took his +hand as they were walking beside each other and added: "<I>For you</I>." +</P> + +<P> +"I, too, will wait," he answered, "and as long as I have to." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Hare, walking down the trail to meet them, had come near. Their +journey out of the wilderness had ended, but for each a new life had +begun. +</P> + +<P> +The husband and father of the two ladies had reached the fort only an +hour or so ahead of the mounted party and preparations were being made +for an expedition to cut off the retreat of the Indians. He was known +to most of his friends in America only as Colonel Benjamin Hare--a +royal commissioner who had come to the colonies to inspect and report +upon the defenses of His Majesty. He wore the uniform of a Colonel of +the King's Guard. There is an old letter of John Irons which says that +he was a splendid figure of a man, tall and well proportioned and about +forty, with dark eyes, his hair and mustache just beginning to show +gray. +</P> + +<P> +"I shall not try here to measure my gratitude," he said to Mr. Irons. +"I will see you to-morrow." +</P> + +<P> +"You owe me nothing," Irons answered. "The rescue of your wife and +daughter is due to the resourceful and famous scout--Solomon Binkus." +</P> + +<P> +"Dear old rough-barked hickory man!" the Colonel exclaimed. "I hope to +see him soon." +</P> + +<P> +He went at once with his wife and daughter to rooms in the fort. That +evening he satisfied himself as to the character and standing of John +Irons, learning that he was a patriot of large influence and +considerable means. +</P> + +<P> +The latter family and that of Peter Bones were well quartered in tents +with a part of the Fifty-Fifth Regiment then at Fort Stanwix. Next +morning Jack went to breakfast with Colonel Hare and his wife and +daughter in their rooms, after which the Colonel invited the boy to +take a walk with him out to the little settlement of Mill River. Jack, +being overawed, was rather slow in declaring himself and the Colonel +presently remarked: +</P> + +<P> +"You and my daughter seem to have got well acquainted." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir; but not as well as I could wish," Jack answered. "Our +journey ended too soon. I love your daughter, sir, and I hope you will +let me tell her and ask her to be my wife sometime." +</P> + +<P> +"You are both too young," said the Colonel. "Besides you have known +each other not quite three days and I have known you not as many hours. +We are deeply grateful to you, but it is better for you and for her +that this matter should not be hurried. After a year has passed, if +you think you still care to see each other, I will ask you to come to +England. I think you are a fine, manly, brave chap, but really you +will admit that I have a right to know you better before my daughter +engages to marry you." +</P> + +<P> +Jack freely admitted that the request was well founded, albeit he +declared, frankly, that he would like to be got acquainted with as soon +as possible. +</P> + +<P> +"We must take the first ship back to England," said the Colonel. "You +are both young and in a matter of this kind there should be no haste. +If your affection is real, it will be none the worse for a little +keeping." +</P> + +<P> +Solomon Binkus and Peter and Israel and John Bones and some settlers +north of Horse Valley arrived next day with the captured Indians, who, +under a military guard, were sent on to the Great Father at Johnson +Castle. +</P> + +<P> +Colonel Hare was astonished that neither Solomon Binkus nor John Irons +nor his son would accept any gift for the great service they had done +him. +</P> + +<P> +"I owe you more than I can ever pay," he said to the faithful Binkus. +"Money would not be good enough for your reward." +</P> + +<P> +Solomon stepped close to the great man and said in a low tone: +</P> + +<P> +"Them young 'uns has growed kind o' love sick an' I wouldn't wonder. I +don't ask only one thing. Don't make no mistake 'bout this 'ere boy. +In the bush we have a way o' pickin' out men. We see how they stan' up +to danger an' hard work an' goin' hungry. Jack is a reg'lar he-man. I +know 'em when I see 'em, which--it's a sure fact--I've seen all kinds. +He's got brains an' courage, an' a tough arm an' a good heart. He'd +die fer a friend any day. Ye kin't do no more. So don't make no +mistake 'bout him. He ain't no hemlock bow. I cocalate there ain't no +better man-timber nowhere--no, sir, not nowhere in this world--call it +king er lord er duke er any name ye like. So, sir, if ye feel like +doin' suthin' fer me--which I didn't never expect it, when I done what +I did--I'll say be good to the boy. You'd never have to be 'shamed o' +him." +</P> + +<P> +"He's a likely lad," said Colonel Hare. "And I am rather impressed by +your words, although they present a view that is new to me. We shall +be returning soon and I dare say they will presently forget each other, +but if not, and he becomes a good man--as good a man as his father--let +us say--and she should wish to marry him, I would gladly put her hand +in his." +</P> + +<P> +A letter of the handsome British officer to his friend, Doctor Benjamin +Franklin, reviews the history of this adventure and speaks of the +learning, intelligence and agreeable personality of John Irons. Both +Colonel and Mrs. Hare liked the boy and his parents and invited them to +come to England, although the latter took the invitation as a mere mark +of courtesy. +</P> + +<P> +At Fort Stanwix, John Irons sold his farm and house and stock to Peter +Bones and decided to move his family to Albany where he could educate +his children. Both he and his wife had grown weary of the loneliness +of the back country, and the peril from which they had been delivered +was a deciding factor. So it happened that the Irons family and +Solomon went to Albany by bateaux with the Hares. It was a delightful +trip in good autumn weather in which Colonel Hare has acknowledged that +both he and his wife acquired a deep respect "for these sinewy, wise, +upright Americans, some of whom are as well learned, I should say, as +most men you would meet in London." +</P> + +<P> +They stopped at Schenectady, landing in a brawl between Whigs and +Tories which soon developed into a small riot over the erection of a +liberty pole. Loud and bitter words were being hurled between the two +factions. The liberty lovers, being in much larger force, had erected +the pole without violent opposition. +</P> + +<P> +"Just what does this mean?" the Colonel asked John Irons. +</P> + +<P> +"It means that the whole country is in a ferment of dissatisfaction," +said Irons. "We object to being taxed by a Parliament in which we are +not represented. The trouble should be stopped not by force but by +action that will satisfy our sense of injustice--not a very difficult +thing. A military force, quartered in Boston, has done great mischief." +</P> + +<P> +"What liberty do you want?" +</P> + +<P> +"Liberty to have a voice in the selection of our governors and +magistrates and in the making of the laws we are expected to obey." +</P> + +<P> +"I think it is a just demand," said the Colonel. +</P> + +<P> +Solomon Binkus had listened with keen interest. +</P> + +<P> +"I sucked in the love o' liberty with my mother's milk," he said. "Ye +mustn't try to make me do nothin' that goes ag'in' my common sense; if +ye do, ye're goin' to have a gosh hell o' a time with the ol' man +which, you hear to me, will last as long as I do. These days there +ortn't to be no sech thing 'mong white men as bein' born into captivity +an' forced to obey a master, no argeyment bein' allowed. If your wife +an' gal had been took erway by the Injuns, that's what would 'a' +happened to 'em, which I'm sart'in they wouldn't 'a' liked it, ner you +nuther, which I mean to say it respectful, sir." +</P> + +<P> +The Colonel wore a look of conviction. +</P> + +<P> +"I see how you feel about it," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"It's the way all America feels about it," said Irons. "There are not +five thousand men in the colonies who would differ with that view." +</P> + +<P> +Having arrived in the river city, John Irons went, with his family, to +The King's Arms. That very day the Hares took ship for New York on +their way to England. Jack and Solomon went to the landing with them. +</P> + +<P> +"Where is my boy?" Mrs. Irons asked when Binkus returned alone. +</P> + +<P> +"Gone down the river," said the latter. +</P> + +<P> +"Gone down the river!" Mrs. Irons exclaimed. "Why! Isn't that he +coming yonder?" +</P> + +<P> +"It's only part o' him," said Solomon. "His heart has gone down the +river. But it'll be comin' back. It 'minds me o' the fust time I +throwed a harpoon into a sperm whale. He went off like a bullet an' +sounded an' took my harpoon an' a lot o' good rope with him an' got +away with it. Fer days I couldn't think o' nothin' but that 'ere +whale. Then he b'gun to grow smaller an' less important. Jack has +lost his fust whale." +</P> + +<P> +"He looks heart-broken--poor boy!" +</P> + +<P> +"But ye orto have seen her. She's got the ol' harpoon in her side an' +she were spoutin' tears an' shakin' her flukes as she moved away." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER II +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +SOWING THE DRAGON'S TEETH +</H3> + +<P> +Solomon Binkus in his talk with Colonel Hare had signalized the arrival +of a new type of man born of new conditions. When Lord Howe and +General Abercrombie got to Albany with regiments of fine, high-bred, +young fellows from London, Manchester and Liverpool, out for a holiday +and magnificent in their uniforms of scarlet and gold, each with his +beautiful and abundant hair done up in a queue, Mr. Binkus laughed and +said they looked "terrible pert." He told the virile and profane +Captain Lee of Howe's staff, that the first thing to do was to "make a +haystack o' their hair an' give 'em men's clothes." +</P> + +<P> +"A cart-load o' hair was mowed off," to quote again from Solomon, and +all their splendor shorn away for a reason apparent to them before they +had gone far on their ill-fated expedition. Hair-dressing and fine +millinery and drawing-room clothes were not for the bush. +</P> + +<P> +An inherited sense of old wrongs was the mental background of this new +type of man. Life in the bush had strengthened his arm, his will and +his courage. His words fell as forcefully as his ax under provocation. +He was deliberate as became one whose scalp was often in danger; +trained to think of the common welfare of his neighborhood and rather +careless about the look of his coat and trousers. +</P> + +<P> +John Irons and Solomon Binkus were differing examples of the new man. +Of large stature, Irons had a reputation of being the strongest man in +the New Hampshire grants. No name was better known or respected in all +the western valleys. His father, a man of some means, had left him a +reasonable competence. +</P> + +<P> +Certain old records of Cumberland County speak of his unusual gifts, +the best of which was, perhaps, modesty. He had once entertained Sir +William Johnson at his house and had moved west, when the French and +Indian War began, on the invitation of the governor, bringing his +horses with him. For years he had been breeding and training saddle +horses for the markets in New England. On moving he had turned his +stock into Sir William's pasture and built a log house at the fort and +served as an aid and counselor of the great man. Meanwhile his wife +and children had lived in Albany. When the back country was thought +safe to live in, at the urgent solicitation of Sir Jeffrey Amherst, he +had gone to the northern valley with his herd, and prospered there. +</P> + +<P> +Albany had one wide street which ran along the river-front. It ended +at the gate of a big, common pasture some four hundred yards south of +the landing which was near the center of the little city. In the north +it ran into "the great road" beyond the ample grounds of Colonel +Schuyler. The fort and hospital stood on the top of the big hill. +Close to the shore was a fringe of elms, some of them tall and stately, +their columns feathered with wild grape-vines. A wide space between +the trees and the street had been turned into well-kept gardens, and +their verdure was a pleasant thing to see. The town lay along the foot +of a steep hill, and, midway, a huddle of buildings climbed a few rods +up the slope. At the top was the English Church and below it were the +Town Hall, the market and the Dutch Meeting-House. Other thoroughfares +west of the main one were being laid out and settled. +</P> + +<P> +John Irons was well known to Colonel Schuyler. The good man gave the +newcomers a hearty welcome and was able to sell them a house ready +furnished--the same having been lately vacated by an officer summoned +to England. So it happened that John Irons and his family were quickly +and comfortably settled in their new home and the children at work in +school. He soon bought some land, partly cleared, a mile or so down +the river and began to improve it. +</P> + +<P> +"You've had lonesome days enough, mother," he said to his wife. "We'll +live here in the village. I'll buy some good, young niggers if I can, +and build a house for 'em, and go back and forth in the saddle." +</P> + +<P> +The best families had negro slaves which were, in the main, like +Abraham's servants, each having been born in the house of his master. +They were regarded with affection. +</P> + +<P> +It was a peaceful, happy, mutually helpful, God-fearing community in +which the affairs of each were the concern of all. Every summer day, +emigrants were passing and stopping, on their way west, towing bateaux +for use in the upper waters of the Mohawk. These were mostly Irish and +German people seeking cheap land, and seeing not the danger in wars to +come. +</P> + +<P> +There is an old letter from John Irons to his sister in Braintree which +says that Jack, of whom he had a great pride, was getting on famously +in school. "But he shows no favor to any of the girls, having lost his +heart to a young English maid whom he helped to rescue from the +Indians. We think it lucky that she should be far away so that he may +better keep his resolution to be educated and his composure in the +task." +</P> + +<P> +The arrival of the mail was an event in Albany those days. Letters had +come to be regarded there as common property. They were passed from +hand to hand and read in neighborhood assemblies. Often they told of +great hardship and stirring adventures in the wilderness and of events +beyond the sea. +</P> + +<P> +Every week the mail brought papers from the three big cities, which +were read eagerly and loaned or exchanged until their contents had +traveled through every street. Benjamin Franklin's <I>Pennsylvania +Gazette</I> came to John Irons, and having been read aloud by the fireside +was given to Simon Grover in exchange for Rivington's <I>New York Weekly</I>. +</P> + +<P> +Jack was in a coasting party on Gallows Hill when his father brought +him a fat letter from England. He went home at once to read it. The +letter was from Margaret Hare--a love-letter which proposed a rather +difficult problem. It is now a bit of paper so brittle with age it has +to be delicately handled. Its neatly drawn chirography is faded to a +light yellow, but how alive it is with youthful ardor: +</P> + +<P> +"I think of you and pray for you very often," it says. "I hope you +have not forgotten me or must I look for another to help me enjoy that +happy fortune of which you have heard? Please tell me truly. My +father has met Doctor Franklin who told of the night he spent at your +home and that he thought you were a noble and promising lad. What a +pleasure it was to hear him say that! We are much alarmed by events in +America. My mother and I stand up for Americans, but my father has +changed his views since we came down the Mohawk together. You must +remember that he is a friend of the King. I hope that you and your +father will be patient and take no part in the riots and house +burnings. You have English blood in your veins and old England ought +to be dear to you. She really loves America very much, indeed, if not +as much as I love you. Can you not endure the wrongs for her sake and +mine in the hope that they will soon be righted? Whatever happens I +shall not cease to love you, but the fear comes to me that, if you turn +against England, I shall love in vain. There are days when the future +looks dark and I hope that your answer will break the clouds that hang +over it." +</P> + +<P> +So ran a part of the letter, colored somewhat by the diplomacy of a +shrewd mother, one would say who read it carefully. The neighbors had +heard of its arrival and many of them dropped in that evening, but they +went home none the wiser. After the company had gone, Jack showed the +letter to his father and mother. +</P> + +<P> +"My boy, it is a time to stand firm," said his father. +</P> + +<P> +"I think so, too," the boy answered. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you still in love with her?" his mother asked. +</P> + +<P> +The boy blushed as he looked down into the fire and did not answer. +</P> + +<P> +"She is a pretty miss," the woman went on. "But if you have to choose +between her and liberty, what will you say?" +</P> + +<P> +"I can answer for Jack," said John Irons. "He will say that we in +America will give up father and mother and home and life and everything +we hold dear for the love of liberty." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course I could not be a Tory," Jack declared. The boy had +studiously read the books which Doctor Franklin had sent to +him--<I>Pilgrim's Progress</I>, <I>Plutarch's Lives</I>, and a number of the +works of Daniel Defoe. He had discussed them with his father and at +the latter's suggestion had set down his impressions. His father had +assured him that it was well done, but had said to Mrs. Irons that it +showed "a remarkable rightness of mind and temper and unexpected +aptitude in the art of expression." +</P> + +<P> +It is likely that the boy wrote many letters which Miss Margaret never +saw before his arguments were set down in the firm, gentle and winning +tone which satisfied his spirit. Having finished his letter, at last, +he read it aloud to his father and mother one evening as they sat +together, by the fireside, after the rest of the family had gone to +bed. Tears of pride came to the eyes of the man and woman when the +long letter was finished. +</P> + +<P> +"I love old England," it said, "because it is your home and because it +was the home of my fathers. But I am sure it is not old England which +made the laws we hate and sent soldiers to Boston. Is it not another +England which the King and his ministers invented? I ask you to be +true to old England which, my father has told me, stood for justice and +human rights. +</P> + +<P> +"But after all, what has politics to do with you and me as a pair of +human beings? Our love is a thing above that. The acts of the King or +my fellow countrymen can not affect my love for you, and to know that +you are of the same mind holds me above despair. I would think it a +great hardship if either King or colony had the power to put a tax on +you--a tax which demanded my principles. Can not your father differ +with me in politics--although when you were here I made sure that he +agreed with us--and keep his faith in me as a gentleman? I can not +believe that he would like me if I had a character so small and so +easily shifted about that I would change it to please him. I am sure, +too, that if there is anything in me you love, it is my character. +Therefore, if I were to change it I should lose your love and his +respect also. Is that not true?" +</P> + +<P> +This was part of the letter which Jack had written. +</P> + +<P> +"My boy, it is a good letter and they will have to like you the better +for it," said John Irons. +</P> + +<P> +Old Solomon Binkus was often at the Irons home those days. He had gone +back in the bush, since the war ended, and, that winter, his traps were +on many streams and ponds between Albany and Lake Champlain. He came +down over the hills for a night with his friends when he reached the +southern end of his beat. It was probably because the boy had loved +the tales of the trapper and the trapper had found in the boy something +which his life had missed, that an affection began to grow up between +them. Solomon was a childless widower. +</P> + +<P> +"My wife! I tell ye, sir, she had the eyes an' feet o' the young doe +an' her cheeks were like the wild, red rose," the scout was wont to say +on occasion. "I orto have knowed better. Yes, sir, I orto. We lived +way back in the bush an' the child come 'fore we 'spected it one night. +I done what I could but suthin' went wrong. They tuk the high trail, +both on 'em. I rigged up a sled an' drawed their poor remains into a +settlement. That were a hard walk--you hear to me. No, sir, I +couldn't never marry no other womern--not if she was a queen covered +with dimon's--never. I 'member her so. Some folks it's easy to fergit +an' some it ain't. That's the way o' it." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. and Mrs. Irons respected the scout, pitying his lonely plight and +loving his cheerful company. He never spoke of his troubles unless +some thoughtless person had put him to it. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +2 +</H3> + +<P> +That winter the Irons family and Solomon Binkus went often to the +meetings of the Sons of Liberty. One purpose of this organization was +to induce people to manufacture their own necessities and thus avoid +buying the products of Great Britain. Factories were busy making looms +and spinning-wheels; skilled men and women taught the arts of spinning, +weaving and tailoring. The slogan "Home Made or Nothing," traveled far +and wide. +</P> + +<P> +Late in February, Jack Irons and Solomon Binkus went east as delegates +to a large meeting of the Sons of Liberty in Springfield. They +traveled on snowshoes and by stage, finding the bitterness of the +people growing more intense as they proceeded. They found many women +using thorns instead of pins and knitting one pair of stockings with +the ravelings of another. They were also flossing out their silk gowns +and spinning the floss into gloves with cotton. All this was to avoid +buying goods sent over from Great Britain. +</P> + +<P> +Jack tells in a letter to his mother of overtaking a young man with a +pack on his back and an ax in his hand on his way to Harvard College. +He was planning to work in a mill to pay his board and tuition. +</P> + +<P> +"We hear in every house we enter the stories and maxims of Poor +Richard," the boy wrote in his letter. "A number of them were quoted +in the meeting. Doctor Franklin is everywhere these days." +</P> + +<P> +The meeting over, Jack and Solomon went on by stage to Boston for a +look at the big city. +</P> + +<P> +They arrived there on the fifth of March a little after dark. The moon +was shining. A snow flurry had whitened the streets. The air was +still and cold. They had their suppers at The Ship and Anchor. While +they were eating they heard that a company of British soldiers who were +encamped near the Presbyterian Meeting-House had beaten their drums on +Sunday so that no worshiper could hear the preaching. +</P> + +<P> +"And the worst of it is we are compelled to furnish them food and +quarters while they insult and annoy us," said a minister who sat at +the table. +</P> + +<P> +After supper Jack and Solomon went out for a walk. They heard violent +talk among people gathered at the street corners. They soon overtook a +noisy crowd of boys and young men carrying clubs. In front of Murray's +Barracks where the Twenty-Ninth Regiment was quartered, there was a +chattering crowd of men and boys. Some of them were hooting and +cursing at two sentinels. The streets were lighted by oil lamps and by +candles in the windows of the houses. +</P> + +<P> +In Cornhill they came upon a larger and more violent assemblage of the +same kind. They made their way through it and saw beyond, a captain, a +corporal and six private soldiers standing, face to face, with the +crowd. Men were jeering at them; boys hurling abusive epithets. The +boys, as they are apt to do, reflected, with some exaggeration, the +passions of their elders. It was a crowd of rough fellows--mostly +wharfmen and sailors. Solomon sensed the danger in the situation. He +and Jack moved out of the jeering mob. Then suddenly a thing happened +which may have saved one or both of their lives. The Captain drew his +sword and flashed a dark light upon Solomon and called, out: +</P> + +<P> +"Hello, Binkus! What the hell do you want?" +</P> + +<P> +"Who be ye?" Solomon asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Preston." +</P> + +<P> +"Preston! Cat's blood an' gunpowder! What's the matter?" +</P> + +<P> +Preston, an old comrade of Solomon, said to him: +</P> + +<P> +"Go around to headquarters and tell them we are cut off by a mob and in +a bad mess. I'm a little scared. I don't want to get hurt or do any +hurting." +</P> + +<P> +Jack and Solomon passed through the guard and hurried on. Then there +were hisses and cries of "Tories! Rotten Tories!" As the two went on +they heard missiles falling behind them and among the soldiers. +</P> + +<P> +"They's goin' to be bad trouble thar," said Solomon. +</P> + +<P> +"Them lads ain't to blame. They're only doin' as they're commanded. +It's the dam' King that orto be hetchelled." +</P> + +<P> +They were hurrying on, as he spoke, and the words were scarcely out of +his mouth when they heard the command to fire and a rifle volley--then +loud cries of pain and shrill curses and running feet. They turned and +started back. People were rushing out of their houses, some with guns +in their hands. In a moment the street was full. +</P> + +<P> +"The soldiers are slaying people," a man shouted. "Men of Boston, we +must arm ourselves and fight." +</P> + +<A NAME="img-056"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-056.jpg" ALT=""The soldiers are slaying people," a man shouted." BORDER="2" WIDTH="346" HEIGHT="549"> +<H5> +[Illustration: "The soldiers are slaying people," a man shouted.] +</H5> +</CENTER> + +<P> +It was a scene of wild confusion. They could get no farther on +Cornhill. The crowd began to pour into side-streets. Rumors were +flying about that many had been killed and wounded. An hour or so +later Jack and Solomon were seized by a group of ruffians. +</P> + +<P> +"Here are the damn Tories!" one of them shouted. +</P> + +<P> +"Friends o' murderers!" was the cry of another. +</P> + +<P> +"Le's hang 'em!" +</P> + +<P> +Solomon immediately knocked the man down who had called them Tories and +seized another and tossed him so far in the crowd as to give it pause. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't mind bein' hung," he shouted, "not if it's done proper, but no +man kin call me a Tory lessen my hands are tied, without gittin' hurt. +An' if my hands was tied I'd do some hollerin', now you hear to me." +</P> + +<P> +A man back in the crowd let out a laugh as loud as the braying of an +ass. Others followed his example. The danger was passed. Solomon +shouted: +</P> + +<P> +"I used to know Preston when I were a scout in Amherst's army fightin' +Injuns an' Frenchmen, which they's more'n twenty notches on the stock +o' my rifle an' fourteen on my pelt, an' my name is Solomon Binkus from +Albany, New York, an' if you'll excuse us, we'll put fer hum as soon as +we kin git erway convenient." +</P> + +<P> +They started for The Ship and Anchor with a number of men and boys +following and trying to talk with them. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll tell ye, Jack, they's trouble ahead," said Solomon as they made +their way through the crowded streets. +</P> + +<P> +Many were saying that there could be no more peace with England. +</P> + +<P> +In the morning they learned that three men had been killed and five +others wounded by the soldiers. Squads of men and boys with loaded +muskets were marching into town from the country. +</P> + +<P> +Jack and Solomon attended the town meeting that day in the old South +Meeting-House. It was a quiet and orderly crowd that listened to the +speeches of Josiah Quincy, John Hancock and Samuel Adams, demanding +calmly but firmly that the soldiers be forthwith removed from the city. +The famous John Hancock cut a great figure in Boston those days. It is +not surprising that Jack was impressed by his grandeur for he had +entered the meeting-house in a scarlet velvet cap and a blue damask +gown lined with velvet and strode to the platform with a dignity even +above his garments. As he faced about the boy did not fail to notice +and admire the white satin waistcoat and white silk stockings and red +morocco slippers. Mr. Quincy made a statement which stuck like a bur +in Jack Irons' memory of that day and perhaps all the faster because he +did not quite understand it. The speaker said: "The dragon's teeth +have been sown." +</P> + +<P> +The chairman asked if there was any citizen present who had been on the +scene at or about the time of the shooting. Solomon Binkus arose and +held up his hand and was asked to go to the minister's room and confer +with the committee. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. John Adams called at the inn that evening and announced that he was +to defend Captain Preston and would require the help of Jack and +Solomon as witnesses. For that reason they were detained some days in +Boston and released finally on the promise to return when their +services were required. +</P> + +<P> +They left Boston by stage and one evening in early April, traveling +afoot, they saw the familiar boneheads around the pasture lands above +Albany where the farmers had crowned their fence stakes with the +skeleton heads of deer, moose, sheep and cattle in which birds had the +habit of building their nests. It had been thawing for days, but the +night had fallen clear and cold. They had stopped at the house of a +settler some miles northeast of Albany to get a sled load of Solomon's +pelts which had been stretched and hung there. Weary of the brittle +snow, they took to the river a mile or so above the little city, +Solomon hauling his sled. Jack had put on the new skates which he had +bought in Bennington where they had gone for a visit with old friends. +They were out on the clear ice, far from either shore, when they heard +an alarming peal of "river thunder"--a name which Binkus applied to a +curious phenomenon often accompanied by great danger to those on the +rotted roof of the Hudson. The hidden water had been swelling. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly it had made a rip in the great ice vault a mile long with a +noise like the explosion of a barrel of powder. The rip ran north and +south about mid-stream. They were on the west sheet and felt it waver +and subside till it had found a bearing on the river surface. +</P> + +<P> +"We must git off o' here quick," said Binkus. "She's goin' to break +up." +</P> + +<P> +"Let me have the sled and as soon as I get going, you hop on," said +Jack. +</P> + +<P> +The boy began skating straight toward the shore, drawing the sled and +its load, Solomon kicking out behind with his spiked boots until they +were well under way. They heard the east sheet breaking up before they +had made half the distance to safe footing. Then their own began to +crack into sections as big "as a ten-acre lot," Mr. Binkus said, "an' +the noise was like a battle, but Jack kept a-goin' an' me settin' light +an' my mind a-pushin' like a scairt deer." Water was flooding over the +ice which had broken near shore, but the skater jumped the crack before +it was wider than a man's hand and took the sled with him. They +reached the river's edge before the ice began heaving and there the +sloped snow had been wet and frozen to rocks and bushes, so they were +able to make their way through it. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, we're even," said Solomon when they had hauled the sled up the +river bank while he looked back at the ice now breaking and beginning +to pile up, "I done you a favor an' you've done me one. It's my turn +next." +</P> + +<P> +This was the third in the remarkable series of adventures which came to +these men. +</P> + +<P> +They had a hearty welcome at the little house near The King's Arms, +where they sat until midnight telling of their adventures. In the +midst of it, Jack said to his father: +</P> + +<P> +"I heard a speaker say in Boston that the dragon's teeth had been sown. +What does that mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"It means that war is coming," said John Irons. "We might as well get +ready for it." +</P> + +<P> +These words, coming from his father, gave him a shock of surprise. He +began to think of the effect of war on his own fortunes. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +3 +</H3> + +<P> +Solomon sent his furs to market and went to work on the farm of John +Irons and lived with the family. The boy returned to school. After +the hay had been cut and stacked in mid-summer, they were summoned to +Boston to testify in the trial of Preston. They left in September +taking with them a drove of horses. +</P> + +<P> +"It will be good for Jack," John Irons had said to his wife. "He'll be +the better prepared for his work in Philadelphia next fall." +</P> + +<P> +Two important letters had arrived that summer. One from Benjamin +Franklin to John Irons, offering Jack a chance to learn the printer's +trade in his Philadelphia shop and board and lodging in his home. "If +the boy is disposed to make a wise improvement of his time," the great +man had written, "I shall see that he has an opportunity to take a +course at our Academy. I am sure he would be a help and comfort to +Mrs. Franklin. She, I think, will love to mother him. Do not be +afraid to send him away from home. It will help him along toward +manhood. I was much impressed by his letter to Miss Margaret Hare, +which her mother had the goodness to show me. He has a fine spirit and +a rare gift for expressing it. She and the girl were convinced by its +argument, but the Colonel himself is an obdurate Tory--he being a +favorite of the King. The girl, now very charming and much admired, +is, I happen to know, deeply in love with your son. I have promised +her that, if she will wait for him, I will bring him over in good time +and act as your vicar at the wedding. This, she and her mother are the +more ready to do because of their superstition that God has clearly +indicated him as the man who would bring her happiness and good +fortune. I find that many European women are apt to entertain and +enjoy superstition and to believe in omens--not the only drop of old +pagan blood that lingers in their veins. I am sending, by this boat, +some more books for Jack to read." +</P> + +<P> +The other letter was from Margaret Hare to the boy, in which she had +said that they were glad to learn that he and Mr. Binkus were friends +of Captain Preston and inclined to help him in his trouble. "Since I +read your letter I am more in love with you than ever," she had +written. "My father was pleased with it. He thinks that all cause of +complaint will be removed. Until it is, I do not ask you to be a Tory, +but only to be patient." +</P> + +<P> +Jack and Solomon were the whole day getting their horses across Van +Deusen's ferry and headed eastward in the rough road. Mr. Binkus wore +his hanger--an old Damascus blade inherited from his father--and +carried his long musket and an abundant store of ammunition; Jack wore +his two pistols, in the use of which he had become most expert. +</P> + +<P> +When the horses had "got the kinks worked out," as Solomon put it, and +were a trifle tired, they browsed along quietly with the man and boy +riding before and behind them. By and by they struck into the +twenty-mile bush beyond the valley farms. In the second day of their +travel they passed an Albany trader going east with small kegs of rum +on a pack of horses and toward evening came to an Indian village. They +were both at the head of the herd. +</P> + +<P> +"Stop," said Solomon as they saw the smoke of the fires ahead. "We got +to behave proper." +</P> + +<P> +He put his hands to his mouth and shouted a loud halloo, which was +quickly answered. Then two old men came out to him and the talk which +followed in the Mohawk dialect was thus reported by the scout to his +companion: +</P> + +<P> +"We wish to see the chief," said Solomon. "We have gifts for him." +</P> + +<P> +"Come with us," said one of the old men as they led Solomon to the +Stranger's House. The old men went from hut to hut announcing the +newcomers. Victuals and pipes and tobacco were sent to the Stranger's +House for them. This structure looked like a small barn and was made +of rived spruce. Inside, the chief sat on a pile of unthrashed wheat. +He had a head and face which reminded Jack of the old Roman emperors +shown in the Historical Collections. There was remarkable dignity in +his deep-lined face. His name was Thunder Tongue. The house had no +windows. Many skins hung from its one cross-beam above their heads. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Binkus presented beaver skins and a handsome belt. Then the chief +sent out some women to watch the horses and to bring Jack into the +village. Near by were small fields of wheat and maize. The two +travelers sat down with the chief, who talked freely to Solomon Binkus. +</P> + +<P> +"If white man comes to our village cold, we warm him; wet, we dry him; +hungry, we feed him," he said. "When Injun man goes to Albany and asks +for food, they say, 'Where's your money? Get out, you Injun dog!' The +white man he comes with scaura and trades it for skins. It steals away +the wisdom of the young braves. It bends my neck with trouble. It is +bad." +</P> + +<P> +They noted this just feeling of resentment in the old chief and +expressed their sympathy. Soon the Albany trader came with his pack of +rum. The chief greeted him cheerfully and asked for scaura. +</P> + +<P> +"I have enough to make a hundred men happy," the trader answered. +</P> + +<P> +"Bring it to me, for I have a sad heart," said Thunder Tongue. +</P> + +<P> +When the Dutch trader went to his horse for the kegs, Solomon said to +the chief: +</P> + +<P> +"Why do you let him bring trouble to your village and steal away the +wisdom of your warriors?" +</P> + +<P> +"Tell me why the creek flows to the great river and I will answer you," +said the chief. +</P> + +<P> +He began drinking as soon as the trader came with the kegs, while the +young warriors gathered about the door, each with skins on his arm. +Soon every male Indian was staggering and whooping and the squaws with +the children had started into the thickets. +</P> + +<P> +Solomon nudged Jack and left the hut, followed by the boy. +</P> + +<P> +"Come on. Let's git out o' here. The squaws an' the young 'uns are +sneakin'. You hear to me--thar'll be hell to pay here soon." +</P> + +<P> +So while the braves were gathered about the trader and were draining +cups of fire-water, the travelers made haste to mount and get around +the village and back into their trail with the herd. They traveled +some miles in the long twilight and stopped at the Stony Brook Ford, +where there were good water and sufficient grazing. +</P> + +<P> +"Here's whar the ol' Green Mountain Trail comes down from the north an' +crosses the one we're on," said Solomon. +</P> + +<P> +They dismounted and Solomon hobbled a number of horses while Jack was +building a fire. The scout, returning from the wild meadow, began to +examine some tracks he had found at the trail crossing. Suddenly he +gave a whistle of surprise and knelt on the ground. +</P> + +<P> +"Look 'ere, Jack," he called. +</P> + +<P> +The boy ran to his side. +</P> + +<P> +"Now this 'ere is suthin' cur'user than the right hoof o' the devil," +said Solomon Binkus, as he pointed with his forefinger at a print in +the soft dirt. +</P> + +<P> +Jack saw the print of the wooden stump with the iron ring around its +base which the boy had not forgotten. Near it were a number of +moccasin tracks. +</P> + +<P> +"What does this mean?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Wall, sir, I cocalate it means that ol' Mike Harpe has been chased out +o' the Ohio country an' has come down the big river an' into Lake +Champlain with some o' his band an' gone to cuttin' up an' been +obleeged to take to the bush. They've robbed somebody an' are puttin' +fer salt water. They'll hire a boat an' go south an' then p'int fer +the 'Ganies. Ol' Red Snout shoved his leg in that 'ere gravel sometime +this forenoon prob'ly." +</P> + +<P> +They brewed tea to wet their buttered biscuit and jerked venison. +</P> + +<P> +Solomon looked as if he were sighting on a gun barrel when he said: +</P> + +<P> +"Now ye see what's the matter with this 'ere Injun business. They're +jest a lot o' childern scattered all over the bush an' they don't have +to look fer deviltry. Deviltry is lookin' fer them an' when they git +together thar's trouble." +</P> + +<P> +Solomon stopped, now and then, to peer off into the bush as he talked +while the dusk was falling. Suddenly he put his finger to his lips. +His keen eyes had detected a movement in the shadowy trail. +</P> + +<P> +"Hide an' horns o' the devil!" he exclaimed in a low tone. "This 'ere +may be suthin' neevarious. Shove ol' Marier this way an' grab yer +pistols an' set still." +</P> + +<P> +He crept on his hands and knees with the strap of his rifle in his +teeth to the edge of the bush, where he sat for a moment looking and +listening. Suddenly Solomon arose and went back in the trail, +indicating with a movement of his hand that the boy was not to follow. +About fifteen rods from their camp-fire he found an Indian maiden +sitting on the ground with bowed head. A low moan came from her lips. +Her skin was of a light copper color. There was a wreath of wild +flowers in her hair. +</P> + +<P> +"My purty maid, are your people near?" Solomon asked in the Mohawk +tongue. +</P> + +<P> +She looked up at him, her beautiful dark eyes full of tears, and +sorrowfully shook her head. +</P> + +<P> +"My father was a great white chief," she said. "Always a little bird +tells me to love the white man. The beautiful young pale face on a red +horse took my heart with him. I go, too." +</P> + +<P> +"You must go back to your people," said Solomon. +</P> + +<P> +Again she shook her head, and, pointing up the trail, whispered: +</P> + +<P> +"They will burn the Little White Birch. No more will I go in the trail +of the red man. It is like climbing a thorn tree." +</P> + +<P> +He touched her brow tenderly and she seized his hand and held it +against her cheek. +</P> + +<P> +"I follow the beautiful pale face," she whispered. +</P> + +<P> +Solomon observed that her lips were shapely and her teeth white. +</P> + +<P> +"What is your name?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"They call me the Little White Birch." +</P> + +<P> +Solomon told her to sit still and that he would bring food to her. +</P> + +<P> +"It's jest only a little squaw," he said to Jack when he returned to +the camp-fire. "Follered us from that 'ere Injun village. I guess she +were skeered o' them drunken braves. I'm goin' to take some meat an' +bread an' tea to her. No, you better stay here. She's as skeery as a +wild deer." +</P> + +<P> +After Solomon had given her food he made her take his coat for a +blanket and left her alone. +</P> + +<P> +Next morning she was still there. Solomon gave her food again and when +they resumed their journey they saw her following. +</P> + +<P> +"She'll go to the end o' the road, I guess," said Solomon. "I'll tell +ye what we'll do. We'll leave her at Mr. Wheelock's School." +</P> + +<P> +Their trail bore no further signs of Harpe and his followers. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll bet ye a pint o' powder an' a fish hook they was p'intin' south," +said Solomon. +</P> + +<P> +They reached the Indian school about noon. A kindly old Mohawk squaw +who worked there was sent back in the trail to find the maiden. In a +few minutes the squaw came in with her. Solomon left money with the +good master and promised to send more. +</P> + +<P> +When the travelers went on that afternoon the Little White Birch stood +by the door looking down the road at them. +</P> + +<P> +"She has a coat o' red on her skin, but the heart o' the white man," +said Solomon. +</P> + +<P> +In a moment Jack heard him muttering, "It's a damn wicked thing to +do--which there ain't no mistake." +</P> + +<P> +They had come to wagon roads improving as they approached towns and +villages, in the first of which they began selling the drove. When +they reached Boston, nearly a week later, they had only the two horses +which they rode. +</P> + +<P> +The trial had just begun. Being ardent Whigs, their testimony made an +impression. Jack's letter to his father says that Mr. Adams +complimented them when they left the stand. +</P> + +<P> +There is an old letter of Solomon Binkus which briefly describes the +journey. He speaks of the "pompy" men who examined them. "They +grinned at me all the time an' the ol' big wig Jedge in the womern's +dress got mad if I tried to crack a joke," he wrote in his letter. "He +looked like he had paid too much fer his whistle an' thought I had sold +it to him. Thought he were goin' to box my ears. John Addums is +erbout as sharp as a razor. Took a likin' to Jack an' me. I tol' him +he were smart 'nough to be a trapper." +</P> + +<P> +The two came back in the saddle and reached Albany late in October. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER III +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE JOURNEY TO PHILADELPHIA +</H3> + +<P> +The <I>New York Mercury</I> of November 4, 1770, contains this item: +</P> + +<P> +"John Irons, Jr., and Solomon Binkus, the famous scout, arrived +Wednesday morning on the schooner <I>Ariel</I> from Albany. Mr. Binkus is +on his way to Alexandria, Virginia, where he is to meet Major +Washington and accompany him to the Great Kanawha River in the Far +West." +</P> + +<P> +Solomon was soon to meet an officer with whom he was to find the +amplest scope for his talents. Jack was on his way to Philadelphia. +They had found the ship crowded and Jack and two other boys "pigged +together"--in the expressive phrase of that time--on the cabin floor, +through the two nights of their journey. Jack minded not the hardness +of the floor, but there was much drinking and arguing and expounding of +the common law in the forward end of the cabin, which often interrupted +his slumbers. +</P> + +<P> +He was overawed by the length and number of the crowded streets of New +York and by "the great height" of many of its buildings. The grandeur +of Broadway and the fashionable folk who frequented it was the subject +of a long letter which he indited to his mother from The City Tavern. +</P> + +<P> +He took the boat to Amboy as Benjamin Franklin had done, but without +mishap, and thence traveled by stage to Burlington. There he met Mr. +John Adams of Boston, who was on his way to Philadelphia. He was a +full-faced, ruddy, strong-built man of about thirty-five years, with +thick, wavy dark hair that fell in well trimmed tufts on either cheek +and almost concealed his ears. It was beginning to show gray. He had +a prominent forehead, large blue and expressive eyes and a voice clear +and resonant. He was handsomely dressed. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Adams greeted the boy warmly and told him that the testimony which +he and Solomon Binkus gave had saved the life of Captain Preston. The +great lawyer took much interest in the boy and accompanied him to the +top of the stage, the weather being clear and warm. Mr. Adams sat +facing Jack, and beside the latter was a slim man with a small sad +countenance which wore a permanent look of astonishment. Jack says in +a letter that his beard "was not composed of hair, but hairs as +straight and numerable as those in a cat's whiskers." They were also +gray like his eyes. After the stage had started this man turned to +Jack and asked: +</P> + +<P> +"What is your name, boy?" +</P> + +<P> +"John Irons." +</P> + +<P> +The man opened his eyes wider and drew in his breath between parted +lips as if he had heard a most astonishing fact. +</P> + +<P> +"My name is Pinhorn, sir--Eliphalet Pinhorn," he reciprocated. "I have +been visiting my wife in Newark." +</P> + +<P> +Jack thought it a singular thing that a man should have been visiting +his wife. +</P> + +<P> +"May I ask where you are going?" the man inquired of the boy. +</P> + +<P> +"To Philadelphia." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Pinhorn turned toward him with a look of increased astonishment and +demanded: +</P> + +<P> +"Been there before?" +</P> + +<P> +"Never." +</P> + +<P> +The man made a sound that was between a sigh and a groan. Then, almost +sternly and in a confidential tone, as if suddenly impressed by the +peril of an immortal soul, he said: +</P> + +<P> +"Young man, beware! I say to you, beware!" +</P> + +<P> +Each stiff gray hair on his chin seemed to erect itself into an +animated exclamation point. Turning again, he whispered: +</P> + +<P> +"You will soon shake its dust from your feet." +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"A sinking place! Every one bankrupt or nearly so. Display! Nothing +but display! Feasting, drinking! No thought of to-morrow! Ungodly +city!" +</P> + +<P> +In concluding his indictment, Mr. Pinhorn partly covered his mouth and +whispered the one word: +</P> + +<P> +"Babylon!" +</P> + +<P> +A moment of silence followed, after which he added; "I would never +build a house or risk a penny in business there." +</P> + +<P> +"I am going to work in Doctor Benjamin Franklin's print shop," said +Jack proudly. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Pinhorn turned with a look of consternation clearly indicating that +this was the last straw. He warned in a half whisper: +</P> + +<P> +"Again I say beware! That is the word--beware!" +</P> + +<P> +He almost shuddered as he spoke, and leaning close to the boy's ear, +added in a confidential tone: +</P> + +<P> +"The King of Babylon! A sinking business! An evil man!" He looked +sternly into the eyes of the boy and whispered: "Very! Oh, very!" He +sat back in his seat again, while the expression of his whole figure +seemed to say, "Thank God, my conscience is clear, whatever happens to +you." +</P> + +<P> +Jack was so taken down by all this that, for a moment, his head swam. +Mr. Pinhorn added: +</P> + +<P> +"Prospered, but how? That is the question. Took the money of a friend +and spent it. Many could tell you. Wine! Women! Infidelity! House +built on the sands!" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Adams had heard most of the gloomy talk of the slim man. Suddenly +he said to the slanderer: +</P> + +<P> +"My friend, did I hear you say that you have been visiting your wife?" +</P> + +<P> +"You did, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I do not wonder that she lives in another part of the country," +said Mr. Adams. "I should think that Philadelphia would feel like +moving away from you. I have heard you say that it was a sinking city. +It is nothing of the kind. It is floating in spite of the fact that +there are human sinkers in it like yourself. I hate the heart of lead. +This is the land of hope and faith and confidence. If you do not like +it here, go back to England. <I>We</I> do not put our money into holes in +the wall. We lend it to our neighbors because they are worthy of being +trusted. We believe in our neighbors. We put our cash into business +and borrow more to increase our profits. It is true that many men in +Philadelphia are in debt, but they are mostly good for what they owe. +It is a thriving place. I could not help hearing you speak evil of +Doctor Franklin. He is my friend. I am proud to say it and I should +be no friend of his if I allowed your words to go unrebuked. Yours, +sir, is a leaden soul. It is without hope or trust in the things of +this life. You seem not to know that a new world is born. It is a +world of three tenses. We who really live in it are chiefly interested +in what a man is and is likely <I>to be</I>, not in what he <I>was</I>. Doctor +Franklin would not hesitate to tell you that his youth was not all it +should have been. He does not conceal his errors. There is no more +honest gentleman in the wide world than Doctor Franklin." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Adams had spoken with feeling and a look of indignation in his +eyes. He was a frank, fearless character. All who sat on the top of +the coach had heard him and when he had finished they clapped their +hands. +</P> + +<P> +Jack was much relieved. He had been put in mind of what Doctor +Franklin had said long ago, one evening in Albany, of his struggle +against the faults and follies of his youth. For a moment Mr. Pinhorn +was dumb with astonishment. +</P> + +<P> +"Nevertheless, sir, I hold to my convictions," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course you do," Mr. Adams answered. "No man like you ever +recovered from his convictions, for the reason that his convictions are +stronger than he is." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Pinhorn partly covered his mouth and turned to the boy and +whispered: +</P> + +<P> +"It is a time of violent men. Let us hold our peace." +</P> + +<P> +At the next stop where they halted for dinner Mr. Adams asked the boy +to sit down with him at the table. When they were seated the great man +said: +</P> + +<P> +"I have to be on guard against catching fire these days. Sometimes I +feel the need of a companion with a fire bucket. My headlight is hope +and I have little patience with these whispering, croaking Tories and +with the barons of the south and the upper Hudson. I used to hold the +plow on my father's farm and I am still plowing as your father is." +</P> + +<P> +Jack turned with a look of inquiry. +</P> + +<P> +"We are breaking new land," Mr. Adams went on. "We are treading the +ordeal path among the red-hot plowshares of politics." +</P> + +<P> +"It is what I should like to do," said the boy. +</P> + +<P> +"You will be needed, but we must be without fear, remembering that +almost every man who has gained real distinction in politics has met a +violent death. There are the shining examples of Brutus, Cassius, +Hampden and Sidney, but it is worth while." +</P> + +<P> +"I believe you taught school at Worcester," said Jack. +</P> + +<P> +"And I learned at least one thing doing it--that school-teaching is not +for me. It would have turned me into a shrub. Too much piddling! It +is hard enough to teach men that they have rights which even a king +must respect." +</P> + +<P> +"Let me remind you, sir," said Mr. Pinhorn, who sat at the same table, +"that the King can do no wrong." +</P> + +<P> +"But his ministers can do as they please," Mr. Adams rejoined, whereat +the whole company broke into laughter. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Pinhorn covered his mouth with astonishment, but presently allowed +himself to say: "Sir, I hold to my convictions." +</P> + +<P> +"You are wrong, sir. It is your convictions that hold to you. They +are like the dead limbs on a tree," Mr. Adams answered. "The motto of +Great Britain would seem to be, 'Do no right and suffer no wrong.' +They search our ships; they impress our seamen; they impose taxes +through a Parliament in which we are not represented, and if we +threaten resistance they would have us tried for treason. Nero used to +say that he wished that the inhabitants of Rome had only one neck, so +that he could dispose of them with a single blow. It was a rather +merciful wish, after all. A neck had better be chopped off than held +under the yoke of tyranny." +</P> + +<P> +"Sir, England shielded, protected, us from French and Indians," Mr. +Pinhorn declared with high indignation. +</P> + +<P> +"It protected its commerce. We were protecting British interests and +ourselves. Connecticut had five thousand under arms; Massachusetts, +seven thousand; New York, New Jersey and New Hampshire, many more. +Massachusetts taxed herself thirteen shillings and four pence to the +pound of income. New Jersey expended a pound a head to help pay for +the war. On that score England is our debtor." +</P> + +<P> +The horn sounded. The travelers arose from the tables and hurried out +to the coach. +</P> + +<P> +"It was a good dinner," Mr. Adams said to Jack when they had climbed to +their seat. "We should be eating potatoes and drinking water, instead +of which we have two kinds of meat and wine and pudding and bread and +tea and many jellies. Still, I am a better philosopher after dinner +than before it. But if we lived simpler, we should pay fewer taxes." +</P> + +<P> +As they rode along a lady passenger sang the ballad of John Barleycorn, +in the chorus of which Mr. Adams joined with much spirit. +</P> + +<P> +"My capacity for getting fun out of a song is like the gift of a weasel +for sucking eggs," he said. +</P> + +<P> +So they fared along, and when Jack was taking leave of the +distinguished lawyer at The Black Horse Tavern in Philadelphia the +latter invited the boy to visit him in Boston if his way should lead +him there. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +2 +</H3> + +<P> +The frank, fearless, sledge-hammer talk of the lawyer made a deep +impression on the boy, as a long letter written next day to his father +and mother clearly shows. He went to the house of the printer, where +he did not receive the warm welcome he had expected. Deborah Franklin +was a fat, hard-working, illiterate, economical housewife. She had a +great pride in her husband, but had fallen hopelessly behind him. She +regarded with awe and slight understanding the accomplishments of his +virile, restless, on-pushing intellect. She did not know how to enjoy +the prosperity that had come to them. It was a neat and cleanly home, +but, as of old, Deborah was doing most of the work herself. She would +not have had it otherwise. +</P> + +<P> +"Ben thinks we ortn't to be doin' nothin' but settin' eroun' in silk +dresses an' readin' books an' gabbin' with comp'ny," she said. "Men +don't know how hard tis to git help that cleans good an' cooks decent. +Everybody feels so kind o' big an' inderpendent they won't stan' it to +be found fault with." +</P> + +<P> +Her daughter, Mrs. Bache, and the latter's children were there. +Suddenly confronted by the problem of a strange lad coming into the +house to live with them, they were a bit dismayed. But presently their +motherly hearts were touched by the look of the big, gentle-faced, +homesick boy. They made a room ready for him on the top floor and +showed him the wonders of the big house--the library, the electrical +apparatus, the rocking chair with its fan swayed by the movement of the +chair, the new stove and grate which the Doctor had invented. That +evening, after an excellent supper, they sat down for a visit in the +library, when Jack suggested that he would like to have a part of the +work to do. +</P> + +<P> +"I can sweep and clean as well as any one," he said. "My mother taught +me how to do that. You must call on me for any help you need." +</P> + +<P> +"Now I wouldn't wonder but what we'll git erlong real happy," said Mrs. +Franklin. "If you'll git up 'arly an' dust the main floor an' do the +broom work an' fill the wood boxes an' fetch water, I'll see ye don't +go hungry." +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose you will be going to England if the Doctor is detained +there," said Jack. +</P> + +<P> +"No, sir," Mrs. Franklin answered. "I wouldn't go out on that ol' +ocean--not if ye would give me a million pounds. It's too big an' deep +an' awful! No, sir! Ben got a big bishop to write me a letter an' +tell me I'd better come over an' look a'ter him. But Ben knowed all +the time that I wouldn't go a step." +</P> + +<P> +There were those who said that her dread of the sea had been a blessing +to Ben, for Mrs. Franklin had no graces and little gift for +communication. But there was no more honest, hard-working, economical +housewife in Philadelphia. +</P> + +<P> +Jack went to the shop and was put to work next morning. He had to +carry beer and suffer a lot of humiliating imposition from older boys +in the big shop, but he bore it patiently and made friends and good +progress. That winter he took dancing lessons from the famous John +Trotter of New York and practised fencing with the well-known Master +Brissac. He also took a course in geometry and trigonometry at the +Academy and wrote an article describing his trip to Boston for <I>The +Gazette</I>. The latter was warmly praised by the editor and reprinted in +New York and Boston journals. He joined the company for home defense +and excelled in the games, on training day, especially at the running, +wrestling, boxing and target shooting. There were many shooting +galleries in Philadelphia wherein Jack had shown a knack of shooting +with the rifle and pistol, which had won for him the Franklin medal for +marksmanship. In the back country the favorite amusement of himself +and father had been shooting at a mark. +</P> + +<P> +Somehow the boy managed to do a great deal of work and to find time for +tramping in the woods along the Schuylkill and for skating and swimming +with the other boys. Mrs. Franklin and Mrs. Bache grew fond of Jack +and before the new year came had begun to treat him with a kind of +motherly affection. +</P> + +<P> +William, the Doctor's son, who was the governor of the province of New +Jersey, came to the house at Christmas time. He was a silent, morose, +dignified, self-seeking man, who astonished Jack with his rabid +Toryism. He nettled the boy by treating the opinions of the latter +with smiling toleration and by calling his own father--the great +Doctor--"a misguided man." +</P> + +<P> +Jack forged ahead, not only in the printer's art, but on toward the +fulness of his strength. Under the stimulation of city life and +continuous study, his talents grew like wheat in black soil. In the +summer of seventy-three he began to contribute to the columns of <I>The +Gazette</I>. Certain of his articles brought him compliments from the +best people for their wit, penetration and good humor. He had entered +upon a career of great promise when the current of his life quickened +like that of a river come to a steeper grade. It began with a letter +from Margaret Hare, dated July 14, 1773. In it she writes: +</P> + +<P> +"When you get this please sit down and count up the years that have +passed since we parted. Then think how our plans have gone awry. You +must also think of me waiting here for you in the midst of a marrying +world. All my friends have taken their mates and passed on. I went to +Doctor Franklin to-day and told him that I was an old lady well past +nineteen and accused him of having a heart of stone. He said that he +had not sent for you because you were making such handsome progress in +your work. I said: 'You do not think of the rapid progress I am making +toward old age. You forget, too, that I need a husband as badly as +<I>The Gazette</I> needs a philosopher. I rebel. You have made me an +American--you and Jack, I will no longer consent to taxation without +representation. Year by year I am giving up some of my youth and I am +not being consulted about it.' +</P> + +<P> +"Said he: 'I would demand justice of the king. I suppose he thinks +that his country can not yet afford a queen, I shall tell him that he +is imitating George the Third and that he had better listen to the +voice of the people.' +</P> + +<P> +"Now, my beloved hero, the English girl who is not married at nineteen +is thought to be hopeless. There are fine lads who have asked my +father for the right to court me and still I am waiting for my brave +deliverer and he comes not. I can not forget the thrush's song and the +enchanted woods. They hold me. If they have not held you--if for any +reason your heart has changed--you will not fail to tell me, will you? +Is it necessary that you should be great and wise and rich and learned +before you come to me? Little by little, after many talks with the +venerable Franklin, I have got the American notion that I would like to +go away with you and help you to accomplish these things and enjoy the +happiness which was ours, for a little time, and of which you speak in +your letters. Surely there was something very great in those moments. +It does not fade and has it not kept us true to their promise? But, +Jack, how long am I to wait? You must tell me." +</P> + +<P> +This letter went to the heart of the young man. She had deftly set +before him the gross unfairness of delay. He felt it. Ever since the +parting he had been eager to go, but his father was not a rich man and +the family was large. His own salary had been little more than was +needed for clothing and books. That autumn it had been doubled and the +editor had assured him that higher pay would be forthcoming. He +hesitated to tell the girl how little he earned and how small, when +measured in money, his progress had seemed to be. He was in despair +when his friend Solomon Binkus arrived from Virginia. For two years +the latter had been looking after the interests of Major Washington out +in the Ohio River country. They dined together that evening at The +Crooked Billet and Solomon told him of his adventures in the West, and +frontier stories of the notorious, one-legged robber, Micah Harpe, and +his den on the shore of the Ohio and of the cunning of the outlaw in +evading capture. +</P> + +<P> +"I got his partner, Mike Fink, and Major Washington give me fifty +pounds for the job," said Solomon. "They say Harpe's son disappeared +long time ago an' I wouldn't wonder if you an' me had seen him do it." +</P> + +<P> +"The white man that hung back in the bushes so long? I'll never forget +him," said Jack. +</P> + +<P> +"Them wimmen couldn't 'a' been in wuss hands." +</P> + +<P> +"It was a lucky day for them and for me," Jack answered. "I have here +a letter from Margaret. I wish you would read it." +</P> + +<P> +Solomon read the girl's letter and said: +</P> + +<P> +"If I was you I'd swim the big pond if nec'sary. This 'ere is a real +simon pure, four-masted womern an' she wants you fer Captain. As the +feller said when he seen a black fox, 'Come on, boys, it's time fer to +wear out yer boots.'" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm tied to my job." +</P> + +<P> +"Then break yer halter," said Solomon. +</P> + +<P> +"I haven't money enough to get married and keep a wife." +</P> + +<P> +"What an ignorant cuss you be!" Solomon exclaimed. "You don't 'pear to +know when ye're well off." +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"I mean that ye're wuth at least a thousan' pounds cash money." +</P> + +<P> +"I would not ask my father for help and I have only forty pounds in the +bank," Jack answered. +</P> + +<P> +Solomon took out his wallet and removed from it a worn and soiled piece +of paper and studied the memoranda it contained. Then he did some +ciphering with a piece of lead. In a moment he said: +</P> + +<P> +You have got a thousan' an' fifteen pounds an' six shillin' fer to do +with as ye please an' no questions asked--nary one." +</P> + +<P> +"You mean you've got it." +</P> + +<P> +"Which means that Jack Irons owns it hide, horns an' taller." +</P> + +<P> +Tears came to the boy's eyes. He looked down for a moment without +speaking. "Thank you, Solomon," he said presently. "I can't use your +money. It wouldn't be right." +</P> + +<P> +Solomon shut one eye an' squinted with the other as if he were taking +aim along the top of a gun barrel. Then he shook his head and drawled: +</P> + +<P> +"Cat's blood an' gunpowder! That 'ere slaps me in the face an' kicks +me on the shin," Solomon answered. "I've walked an' paddled eighty +mile in a day an' been stabbed an' shot at an' had to run fer my life, +which it ain't no fun--you hear to me. Who do ye s'pose I done it fer +but you an' my kentry? There ain't nobody o' my name an' blood on this +side o' the ocean--not nobody at all. An' if I kin't work fer you, +Jack, I'd just erbout as soon quit. This 'ere money ain't no good to +me 'cept fer body cover an' powder an' balls. I'd as leave drop it in +the river. It bothers me. I don't need it. When I git hum I go an' +hide it in the bush somewhars--jest to git it out o' my way. I been +thinkin' all up the road from Virginny o' this 'ere gol demnable money +an' what I were a-goin' to do with it an' what it could do to me. An', +sez I, I'm ergoin' to ask Jack to take it an' use it fer a wall 'twixt +him an' trouble, an' the idee hurried me erlong--honest! Kind o' made +me happy. Course, if I had a wife an' childern, 'twould be different, +but I ain't got no one. An' now ye tell me ye don't want it, which it +makes me feel lonesomer 'n a tarred Tory an' kind o' sorrowful--ayes, +sir, it does." +</P> + +<P> +Solomon's voice sank to a whisper. + +"Forgive me," said Jack. "I didn't know you felt that way. But I'm +glad you do. I'll take it on the understanding that as long as I live +what I have shall also be yours." +</P> + +<P> +"I've two hundred poun' an' six shillin' in my pocket an' a lot more +hid in the bush. It's all yourn to the last round penny. I reckon +it'll purty nigh bridge the slough. I want ye to be married +respectable like a gentleman--slick duds, plenty o' cakes an' pies an' +no slightin' the minister er the rum bar'l. +</P> + +<P> +"Major Washington give me a letter to take to Ben Franklin on t'other +side o' the ocean. Ye see ev'ry letter that's sent ercrost is opened +an' read afore it gits to him lessen it's guarded keerful. This 'ere +one, I guess, has suthin' powerful secret in it. He pays all the +bills. So I'll be goin' erlong with ye on the nex' ship an' when we +git thar I want to shake hands with the gal and tell her how to make ye +behave." +</P> + +<P> +That evening Jack went to the manager of <I>The Gazette</I> and asked for a +six months' leave of absence. +</P> + +<P> +"And why would ye be leaving?" asked the manager, a braw Scot. +</P> + +<P> +"I expect to be married." +</P> + +<P> +"In England?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll agree if the winsome, wee thing will give ye time to send us news +letters from London. Doctor Franklin could give ye help. He has been +boiling over with praise o' you and has asked me to broach the matter. +Ye'll be sailing on the next ship." +</P> + +<P> +Before there was any sailing Jack and Solomon had time to go to Albany +for a visit. They found the family well and prosperous, the town +growing. John Irons said that land near the city was increasing +rapidly in value. Solomon went away into the woods the morning of +their arrival and returned in the afternoon with his money, which he +gave to John Irons to be invested in land. Jack, having had a +delightful stay at home, took a schooner for New York that evening with +Solomon. +</P> + +<P> +The night before they sailed for England his friends in the craft gave +Jack a dinner at The Gray Goose Tavern. He describes the event in a +long letter. To his astonishment the mayor and other well-known men +were present and expressed their admiration for his talents. +</P> + +<P> +The table was spread with broiled fish and roasted fowls and mutton and +towering spiced hams and sweet potatoes and mince pies and cakes and +jellies. +</P> + +<P> +"The spirit of hospitality expresses itself here in ham--often, also, +in fowls, fish and mutton, but always and chiefly in ham--cooked and +decorated with the greatest care and surrounded by forms, flavors and +colors calculated to please the eye and fill the human system with a +deep, enduring and memorable satisfaction," he writes. +</P> + +<P> +In the midst of the festivities it was announced that Jack was to be +married and as was the custom of the time, every man at the table +proposed a toast and drank to it. One addressed himself to the eyes of +the fortunate young lady. Then her lips, her eyebrows, her neck, her +hands, her feet, her disposition and her future husband were each in +turn enthusiastically toasted by other guests in bumpers of French +wine. He adds that these compliments were "so moist and numerous that +they became more and more indistinct, noisy and irrational" and that +before they ended "Nearly every one stood up singing his own favorite +song. There is a stage of emotion which can only be expressed in +noises. That stage had been reached. They put me in mind of David +Culver's bird shop where many song birds--all of a different +feather--engage in a kind of tournament, each pouring out his soul with +a desperate determination to be heard. It was all very friendly and +good natured but it was, also, very wild." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IV +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE CROSSING +</H3> + +<P> +There were curious events in the voyage of Jack and Solomon. The date +of the letter above referred to would indicate that they sailed on or +about the eleventh of October, 1773. Their ship was <I>The Snow</I> which +had arrived the week before with some fifty Irish servants, indentured +for their passage. These latter were, in a sense, slaves placed in +bondage to sundry employers by the captain of the ship for a term of +years until the sum due to the owners for their transportation had been +paid--a sum far too large, it would seem. +</P> + +<P> +Jack was sick for a number of days after the voyage began but Solomon, +who was up and about and cheerful in the roughest weather, having spent +a part of his youth at sea, took care of his young friend. Jack tells +in a letter that he was often awakened in the night by vermin and every +morning by the crowing of cocks. Those days a part of every ship was +known as "the hen coops" where ducks, geese and chickens were confined. +They came in due time through the butcher shop and the galley to the +cabin table. The cook was an able, swearing man whose culinary +experience had been acquired on a Nantucket whaler. Cooks who could +stand up for service every day in a small ship on an angry sea when the +galley rattled like a dice box in the hands of a nervous player, were +hard to get. Their constitutions were apt to be better than their art. +The food was of poor quality, the cooking a tax upon jaw, palate and +digestion, the service unclean. When good weather came, by and by, and +those who had not tasted food for days began to feel the pangs of +hunger the ship was filled with a most passionate lot of pilgrims. It +was then that Solomon presented the petition of the passengers to the +captain. +</P> + +<P> +"Cap'n, we're 'bout wore out with whale meat an' slobgollion. We're +all down by the head." +</P> + +<P> +"So'm I," said the Captain. "This 'ere man had a good recommend an' +said he could cook perfect." +</P> + +<P> +"A man like that kin cook the passengers with their own heat," said +Solomon. "I feel like my belly was full o' hot rocks. If you'll let +me into the galley, I'll right ye up an' shift the way o' the wind an' +the course o' the ship. I'll swing the bow toward Heaven 'stead o' +Hell an' keep her p'inted straight an' it won't cost ye a penny. +They's too much swearin' on this 'ere ship. Can't nobody be a +Christian with his guts a-b'ilin'. His tongue'll break loose an' make +his soul look like a waggin with a smashed wheel an' a bu'sted ex. A +cook could do more good here than a minister." +</P> + +<P> +"Can you cook?" +</P> + +<P> +"You try me an' I'll agree to happy ye up so ye won't know yerself. +Yer meat won't be raw ner petrified an' there won't be no insecks in +the biscuit." +</P> + +<P> +"He'll make a row." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope so. Leave him to me. I'm a leetle bit in need o' exercise, +but ye needn't worry. I know how to manage him--perfect. You come +with me to the galley an' tell him to git out of it. I'll do the rest." +</P> + +<P> +Solomon's advice was complied with. The cook--Thomas Crowpot by +name--was ordered out of the galley. The sea cook is said to be the +father of profanity. His reputation has come down through the ages +untarnished, it would seem, by any example of philosophical moderation. +Perhaps it is because, in the old days, his calling was a hard one and +only those of a singular recklessness were willing to engage in it. +<I>The Snow's</I> cook was no exception. He was a big, brawny, black Yankee +with a claw foot look in his eyes. Profanity whizzed through the open +door like buckshot from a musket. He had been engaged for the voyage +and would not give up his job to any man. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't be so snappish," said Solomon. Turning to the Captain he added: +"Don't ye see here's the big spring. This 'ere man could blister a +bull's heel by talkin' to it. He's hidin' his candle. This ain't no +job fer him. I say he orto be promoted." +</P> + +<P> +With an outburst still profane but distinctly milder the cook wished to +know what they meant. +</P> + +<P> +Solomon squinted with his rifle eye as if he were taking careful aim at +a small mark. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, ye see we passengers have been swearin' stiddy fer a week," he +drawled. "We're wore out. We need a rest. You're a trained swearer. +Ye do it perfect. Ye ortn't to have nothin' else to do. We want you +to go for'ard an' find a comf'table place an' set down an' do all the +swearin' fer the hull ship from now on. You'll git yer pay jest the +same as if ye done the cookin'. It's a big job but I guess ye're ekal +to it. I'll agree that they won't nobody try to grab it. Ye may have +a little help afore the mast but none abaft." +</P> + +<P> +This unexpected proposition calmed the cook. The prospect of full pay +and nothing to do pleased him. He surrendered. +</P> + +<P> +An excellent dinner was cooked and served that day. The lobscouse made +of pork, fowl and sliced potatoes was a dish to remember. But the +former cook got a line of food calculated to assist him in the +performance of his singular duty. Happiness returned to the ship and +Solomon was cheered when at length he came out of the galley. Officers +and passengers rendered him more homage after that than they paid to +the rich and famous Mr. Girard who was among their number. That day +this notice was written on the blackboard: +</P> + +<P> +"Thomas Crowpot has been engaged to do all the swearing that's +necessary on this voyage. Any one who needs his services will find him +on the forward deck. Small and large jobs will be attended to while +you wait." +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +2 +</H3> + +<P> +Often in calm weather Jack and Solomon amused themselves and the other +passengers with pistol practise by tossing small objects into the air +and shooting at them over the ship's side. They rarely missed even the +smallest object thrown. Jack was voted the best marksman of the two +when he crushed with his bullet four black walnuts out of five thrown +by Mr. Girard. +</P> + +<P> +In the course of the voyage they overhauled <I>The Star</I>, a four-masted +ship bound from New York to Dover. For hours the two vessels were so +close that the passengers engaged in a kind of battle. Those on <I>The +Star</I> began it by hurling turnips at the men on the other ship who +responded with a volley of apples. Solomon discerned on the deck of +the stranger Captain Preston and an English officer of the name of Hawk +whom he had known at Oswego and hailed them. Then said Solomon: +</P> + +<P> +"It's a ship load o' Tories who've had enough of Ameriky. They's a +cuss on that tub that I helped put a coat o' tar an' feathers on in the +Ohio kentry. He's the one with the black pipe in his mouth. I don't +know his name but they use to call him Slops--the dirtiest, +low-downdest, damn Tory traitor that ever lived. Helped the Injuns out +thar in the West. See that 'ere black pipe? Allus carries it in his +mouth 'cept when he's eatin'. I guess he goes to sleep with it. It's +one o' the features o' his face. We tarred him plenty now you hear to +me." +</P> + +<P> +That evening a boat was lowered and the Captain of <I>The Snow</I> crossed a +hundred yards of quiet sea to dine with the Captain of <I>The Star</I> in +the cabin of the latter. Next day a stiff wind came out of the west. +All sail was spread, the ships began to jump and gore the waves and +<I>The Star</I> ran away from the smaller ship and was soon out of sight. +Weeks of rough going followed. Meanwhile Solomon stuck to his task. +Every one was sick but Jack and the officers, and there was not much +cooking to be done. +</P> + +<P> +Because he had to take off his coat while he was working in the galley, +Solomon gave the precious letter into Jack's keeping. +</P> + +<P> +Near the end of the sixth week at sea they spied land. +</P> + +<P> +"We cheered, for the ocean had shown us a tiger's heart," the young man +wrote. "For weeks it had leaped and struck at us and tumbled us about. +The crossing is more like hardship than anything that has happened to +me. One woman died and was buried at sea. A man had his leg broken by +being thrown violently against the bulwarks and the best of us were +bumped a little. +</P> + +<P> +"Some days ago a New Yorker who was suspected of cheating at cards on +the complaint of several passengers was put on trial and convicted +through the evidence of one who had seen him marking a pack of the +ship's cards. He was condemned to be carried up to the round top and +made fast there, in view of all the ship's company for three hours and +to pay a fine of two bottles of brandy. He refused to pay his fine and +we excommunicated the culprit refusing either to eat, drink or speak +with him until he should submit. Today he gave up and paid his fine. +Man is a sociable being and the bitterest of all punishments is +exclusion. He couldn't stand it." +</P> + +<P> +About noon on the twenty-ninth of November they made Dover and anchored +in the Downs. Deal was about three miles away and its boats came off +for them. They made a circuit and sailed close in shore. Each boat +that went out for passengers had its own landing. Its men threw a rope +across the breakers. This was quickly put on a windlass. With the +rope winding on its windlass the boat was slowly hauled through the +surge, its occupants being drenched and sprinkled with salt water. +They made their way to the inn of The Three Kings where two men stood +watching as they approached. One of them Jack recognized as the man +Slops with the black pipe in his mouth. +</P> + +<P> +"That's him," said the man with the black pipe pointing at Solomon, +whereupon the latter was promptly arrested. +</P> + +<P> +"What have I done?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"You'll learn directly at 'eadquarters," said the officer. +</P> + +<P> +Solomon shook hands with Jack and said: "I'm glad I met ye," and turned +and walked away with the two men. +</P> + +<P> +Jack was tempted to follow them but feeling a hidden purpose in +Solomon's conduct went into the inn. +</P> + +<P> +So the friends parted. Jack being puzzled and distressed by the swift +change in the color of their affairs. The letter to Doctor Franklin +was in his pocket--a lucky circumstance. He decided to go to London +and deliver the letter and seek advice regarding the relief of Solomon. +At the desk in the lobby of The Three Kings he learned that he must +take the post chaise for Canterbury which would not be leaving until +six P.M. This gave him time to take counsel in behalf of his friend. +Turning toward the door he met Captain Preston, who greeted him with +great warmth and wished to know where was Major Binkus. +</P> + +<P> +Jack told the Captain of the arrest of his friend. +</P> + +<P> +"I expected it," said Preston. "So I have waited here for your ship. +It's that mongrel chap on The Star who got a tarring from Binkus and +his friends. He saw Binkus on your deck, as I did, and proclaimed his +purpose. So I am here to do what I can to help you. I can not forget +that you two men saved my life. Are there any papers on his person +which are likely to make him trouble?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," said Jack, thinking of the letter lying safely in his own pocket. +</P> + +<P> +"That's the important thing," Preston resumed. "Binkus is a famous +scout who is known to be anti-British. Such a man coming here is +supposed to be carrying papers. Between ourselves they would arrest +him on any pretext. You leave this matter in my hands. If he had no +papers he'll be coming on in a day or two." +</P> + +<P> +"I'd like to go with you to find him," said Jack. +</P> + +<P> +"Better not," Preston answered with a smile. +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"Because I suspect you have the papers. They'll get you, too, if they +learn you are his friend. Keep away from him. Sit quietly here in the +inn until the post chaise starts for Canterbury. Don't let any one +pick a quarrel with you and remember this is all a sacred confidence +between friends." +</P> + +<P> +"I thank you and my heart is in every word," said Jack as he pressed +the hand of the Captain. "After all friendship is a thing above +politics--even the politics of these bitter days." +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +3 +</H3> + +<P> +He sat down with a sense of relief and spent the rest of the afternoon +reading the London papers although he longed to go and look at the +fortress of Deal Castle. He had tea at five and set out on the mail +carriage, with his box and bag, an hour later. The road was rough and +muddy with deep holes in it. At one point the chaise rattled and +bumped over a plowed field. Before dark he saw a man hanging in a +gibbet by the roadside. At ten o'clock they passed the huge gate of +Canterbury and drew up at an inn called The King's Head. The landlady +and two waiters attended for orders. He had some supper and went to +bed. Awakened at five A.M. by the sound of a bugle he arose and +dressed hurriedly and found the post chaise waiting. They went on the +King's Road from Canterbury and a mile out they came to a big, white +gate in the dim light of the early morning. +</P> + +<P> +A young man clapped his mouth to the window and shouted: +</P> + +<P> +"Sixpence, Yer Honor!" +</P> + +<P> +It was a real turnpike and Jack stuck his head out of the window for a +look at it. They stopped for breakfast at an inn far down the pike and +went on through Sittingborn, Faversham, Rochester and the lovely valley +of the River Medway of which Jack had read. +</P> + +<P> +At every stop it amused him to hear the words "Chaise an' pair," flying +from host to waiter and waiter to hostler and back in the wink of an +eye. +</P> + +<P> +Jack spent the night at The Rose in Dartford and went on next morning +over Gadshill and Shootershill and Blackheath. Then the Thames and +Greenwich and Deptfort from which he could see the crowds and domes and +towers of the big city. A little past two o'clock he rode over London +bridge and was set down at The Spread Eagle where he paid a shilling a +mile for his passage and ate his dinner. +</P> + +<P> +Such, those days, was the crossing and the trip up to London, as Jack +describes it in his letters. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER V +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +JACK SEES LONDON AND THE GREAT PHILOSOPHER +</H3> + +<P> +The stir and prodigious reach of London had appalled the young man. +His fancy had built and peopled it, but having found no sufficient +material for its task in New York, Boston and Philadelphia, had scored +a failure. It had built too small and too humbly. He was in no way +prepared for the noise, the size, the magnificence, the beauty of it. +In spite of that, something in his mental inheritance had soon awakened +a sense of recognition and familiarity. He imagined that the sooty +odor and the bells, and the clatter of wheels and horses' feet and the +voices--the air was full of voices--were like the echoes of a remote +past. +</P> + +<P> +The thought thrilled him that somewhere in the great crowd, of which he +was now a part, were the two human beings he had come so far to see. +He put on his best clothes and with the letter which had been carefully +treasured--under his pillow at night and pinned to his pocket lining +through the day--set out in a cab for the lodgings of Doctor Franklin. +Through a maze of streets where people were "thick as the brush in the +forests of Tryon County" he proceeded until after a journey of some +thirty minutes the cab stopped at the home of the famous American on +Bloomsbury Square. Doctor Franklin was in and would see him presently, +so the liveried servant informed the young man after his card had been +taken to the Doctor's office. He was shown into a reception room and +asked to wait, where others were waiting. An hour passed and the day +was growing dusk when all the callers save Jack had been disposed of. +Then Franklin entered. Jack remembered the strong, well-knit frame and +kindly gray eyes of the philosopher. His thick hair, hanging below his +collar, was now white. He was very grand in a suit of black Manchester +velvet with white silk stockings and bright silver buckles on his +shoes. There was a gentle dignity in his face when he took the boy's +hand and said with a smile: +</P> + +<P> +"You are so big, Jack. You have built a six foot, two inch man out of +that small lad I knew in Albany, and well finished, too--great thighs, +heavy shoulders, a mustache, a noble brow and shall I say the eye of +Mars? It's a wonder what time and meat and bread and potatoes and air +can accomplish. But perhaps industry and good reading have done some +work on the job." +</P> + +<P> +Jack blushed and answered. "It would be hard to fix the blame." +</P> + +<P> +Franklin put his hand on the young man's shoulder and said: +</P> + +<P> +"She is a lovely girl, Jack. You have excellent good taste. I +congratulate you. Her pulchritude has a background of good character +and she is alive with the spirit of the New World. I have given her no +chance to forget you if that had been possible. Since I became the +agent in England of yourself and sundry American provinces, I have seen +her often but never without longing for the gift of youth. How is my +family?" +</P> + +<P> +"They are well. I bring you letters." +</P> + +<P> +"Come up to my office and we'll give an hour to the news." +</P> + +<P> +When they were seated before the grate fire in the large, pleasant room +above stairs whose windows looked out upon the Square, the young man +said: +</P> + +<P> +"First I shall give you, sir, a letter from Major Washington. It was +entrusted to a friend of mine who came on the same ship with me. He +was arrested at Deal but, fortunately, the letter was in my pocket." +</P> + +<P> +"Arrested? Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"I think, sir, the charge was that he had helped to tar and feather a +British subject." +</P> + +<P> +"Feathers and tar are poor arguments," the Doctor remarked as he broke +the seal of the letter. +</P> + +<P> +It was a long letter and Franklin sat for near half an hour +thoughtfully reading and rereading it. By and by he folded and put it +into his pocket, saying as he did so: "An angry man can not even trust +himself. I sent some letters to America on condition that they should +be read by a committee of good men and treated in absolute confidence +and returned to me. Certain members of that committee had so much gun +powder in their hearts it took fire and their prudence and my +reputation have been seriously damaged, I fear. The contents of those +letters are now probably known to you." +</P> + +<P> +"Are they the Hutchinson, Rogers and Oliver letters?" +</P> + +<P> +"The same." +</P> + +<P> +"I think they are known to every one in America that reads. We were +indignant that these men born and raised among us should have said that +a colony ought not to enjoy all the liberties of a parent state and +that we should be subjected to coercive measures. They had expressed +no such opinion save in these private letters. It looked like a base +effort to curry favor with the English government." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, they were overworking the curry comb," said Franklin. "I had +been protesting against an armed force in Boston. The government +declared that our own best people were in favor of it. I, knowing +better, denied the statement. To prove their claim a distinguished +baronet put the letters in my hands. He gave me leave to send them to +America on condition that they should not be published. Of course they +proved nothing but the treachery of Hutchinson, Rogers and Oliver. Now +I seem to be tarred by the same stick." +</P> + +<P> +Jack delivered sundry letters from the family of the great man who read +them carefully. +</P> + +<P> +"It's good to hear from home," he said when he had finished. "You've +heard of the three Greenlanders, off the rocks and ice where there was +not dirt enough to raise a bushel of cabbages or light enough for half +the year to make a shadow, who having seen the world and its splendors +said it was interesting, but that they would prefer to live at home?" +</P> + +<P> +"These days America is an unhappy land," said Jack. "We are like a +wildcat in captivity--a growling, quarrelsome lot." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, the British use the right to govern us like a baby rattle and +they find us a poor toy. This petty island, compared with America, is +but a stepping stone in a brook. There's scarcely enough of it out of +water to keep one's feet dry. In two generations our population will +exceed that of the British Isles. But with so many lying agents over +there what chance have they to learn anything about us? They will +expect to hear you tell of people being tomahawked in Philadelphia--a +city as well governed as any in England. They can not understand that +most of us would gladly spend nineteen shillings to the pound for the +right to spend the other shilling as we please." +</P> + +<P> +"Can they not be made to understand us?" Jack inquired. +</P> + +<P> +"The power to learn is like your hand--you must use it or it will +wither and die. There are brilliant intellects here which have lost +the capacity to learn. I think that profound knowledge is not for high +heads." +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder just what you mean." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, the moment you lose humility, you stop learning," the Doctor went +on. "There are two doors to every intellect. One lets knowledge in, +the other lets it out. We must keep both doors in use. The mind is +like a purse: if you keep paying out money, you must, now and then, put +some into your purse or it will be empty. I once knew a man who was a +liberal spender but never did any earning. We soon found that he had +been making counterfeit money. The King's intellects have often put me +in mind of him. They are flush with knowledge but they never learn +anything. They can tell you all you may want to know but it is +counterfeit knowledge." +</P> + +<P> +"How about Lord North?" +</P> + +<P> +"He has nailed up the door. The African zebra is a good student +compared to him. It is a maxim of Walpole and North that all men are +equally corrupt." +</P> + +<P> +"It is a hateful notion!" Jack exclaimed. +</P> + +<P> +"But not without some warrant. You may be sure that a man who has +spent his life in hospitals will have no high opinion of the health of +mankind. He and his friends are so engrossed by their cards and cock +fights and horses and hounds that they have little time for such a +trivial matter as the problems of America. They postpone their +consideration and meanwhile the house is catching fire. By and by +these boys are going to get burned. They think us a lot of +semi-savages not to be taken seriously. Our New England farmers are +supposed to be like the peasants of Europe. The fact is, our average +farmer is a man of better intellect and character than the average +member of Parliament." +</P> + +<P> +"The King's intellects would seem to be out of order," said Jack. +</P> + +<P> +"And too cynical. They think only of revenues. They remind me of the +report of the Reverend Commissary Blair who, having projected a college +in Virginia, came to England to ask King William for help. The Queen +in the King's absence ordered her Attorney-General to draw a charter +with a grant of two thousand pounds. The Attorney opposed it on the +ground that they were in a war and needed the money for better purposes. +</P> + +<P> +"'But, Your Honor, Virginia is in great need of ministers,' said the +commissary. 'It has souls to be saved.' +</P> + +<P> +"'Souls--damn your souls! Make tobacco,' said the Queen's lawyer. +</P> + +<P> +"The counselors of royalty have no high opinion of souls or principles. +Think of these taxes on exports needed by neighbors. The minds that +invented them had the genius of a pickpocket." +</P> + +<P> +"I see that you are not in love with England, sir," said Jack. +</P> + +<P> +"My boy, you do not see straight," the Doctor answered. "I am fond of +England. At heart she is sound. The King is a kind of wooden leg. He +has no feeling and no connection whatever with her heart and little +with her intellect. The people are out of sympathy with the King. The +best minds in England are directly opposed to the King's policy; so are +most of the people, but they are helpless. He has throttled the voting +power of the country. Jack, I have told you all this and shall tell +you more because--well, you know Plato said that he would rather be a +blockhead than have all knowledge and nobody to share it. You ought to +know the truth but I have told you only for your own information." +</P> + +<P> +"I am going to write letters to <I>The Gazette</I> but I shall not quote +you, sir, without permission," said Jack. +</P> + +<P> +At this point the attendant entered and announced that Mr. Thomas Paine +had called to get his manuscript. +</P> + +<P> +"Bring him up," said the Doctor. +</P> + +<P> +In a moment a slim, dark-eyed man of about thirty-three in shabby, +ill-fitting garments entered the room. +</P> + +<P> +Doctor Franklin shook his hand and gave him a bundle of manuscript and +said: +</P> + +<P> +"It is well done but I think it unsound. I would not publish it." +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" Paine asked with a look of disappointment. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it is spitting against the wind and he who spits against the +wind spits in his own face. It would be a dangerous book. Think how +great a portion of mankind are weak and ignorant men and women; think +how many are young and inexperienced and incapable of serious thought. +They need religion to support their virtue and restrain them from vice. +If men are so wicked with religion what would they be without it? Lay +the manuscript away and we will have a talk about it later." +</P> + +<P> +"I should like to talk with you about it," the man answered with a +smile and departed, the bundle under his arm. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, Jack," said Franklin, as he looked at his watch, "I can give you +a quarter of an hour before I must go and dress for dinner. Please +tell me about your resources. Are you able to get married?" +</P> + +<P> +Jack told him of his prospects and especially of the generosity of his +friend Solomon Binkus and of the plight the latter was in. +</P> + +<P> +"He must be a remarkable man," said Franklin. "With Preston's help he +will be coming on to London in a day or so. If necessary you and I +will go down there. We shall not neglect him. Have you any dinner +clothes? They will be important to you." +</P> + +<P> +"I thought, sir, that I should best wait until I had arrived here." +</P> + +<P> +"You thought wisely. I shall introduce you to a good cloth mechanic. +Go to him at once and get one suit for dinner and perhaps two for the +street. It costs money to be a gentleman here. It's a fine art. +While you are in London you'll have to get the uniform and fall in line +and go through the evolutions or you will be a 'North American savage.' +You shall meet the Hares in my house as soon as your clothes are ready. +Ask the tailor to hurry up. They must be finished by Wednesday noon. +You had better have lodgings near me. I will attend to that for you." +</P> + +<P> +The Doctor sat down and wrote on a number of cards. "These will +provide for cloth, linen, leather and hats," he said. "Let the bills +be sent to me. Then you will not be cheated. Come in to-morrow at +half after two." +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +2 +</H3> + +<P> +Jack bade the Doctor good night and drove to The Spread Eagle where, +before he went to bed, he wrote to his parents and a long letter to +<I>The Pennsylvania Gazette</I>, describing his voyage and his arrival +substantially as the facts are here recorded. Next morning he ordered +every detail in his "uniforms" for morning and evening wear and +returning again to the inn found Solomon waiting in the lobby. +</P> + +<P> +"Here I be," said the scout and trapper. +</P> + +<P> +"What happened to you?" +</P> + +<P> +"S'arched an' shoved me into a dark hole in the wall. Ye know, Jack, +with you an' me, it allus 'pears to be workin'." +</P> + +<P> +"What?" +</P> + +<P> +"Good luck. Cur'us thing the papers was on you 'stid of me--ayes, sir, +'twas. Did ye hand 'em over safe?" +</P> + +<P> +"Last night I put 'em in Franklin's hands." +</P> + +<P> +"Hunkidory! I'm ready fer to go hum." +</P> + +<P> +"Not yet I hope. I want you to help me see the place." +</P> + +<P> +"Wall, sir, I'll be p'intin' fer hum soon es I kin hop on a ship. +Couldn't stan' it here, too much noise an' deviltry. This 'ere city is +like a twenty-mile bush full o' drunk Injuns--Maumees, hostyle as the +devil. I went out fer a walk an' a crowd follered me eround which I +don't like it. 'Look at the North American,' they kep' a-sayin'. As +soon as I touched shore the tommyhawk landed on me. But fer Cap. +Preston I'd be in that 'ere dark hole now. He see the Jedge an' the +Jedge called fer Slops an' Slops had slopped over. He were layin' +under a tree dead drunk. The Jedge let me go an' Preston come on with +me. Now 'twere funny he turned up jest as he done; funny I got +app'inted cook o' <I>The Snow</I> so as I had to give that 'ere paper to +you. I tell ye it's workin'--allus workin'." +</P> + +<P> +"Doctor Franklin wants to see you," said Jack. "Put on your Sunday +clothes an' we'll go over to his house. I think I can lead you there. +If we get lost we'll jump into a cab." +</P> + +<P> +When they set out Solomon was dressed in fine shoes and brown wool +stockings and drab trousers, a butternut jacket and blue coat, and a +big, black three-cornered hat. His slouching gait and large body and +weathered face and the variety of colors in his costume began at once +to attract the attention of the crowd. A half-drunk harridan surveyed +him, from top to toe, and made a profound bow as he passed. A number +of small boys scurried along with them, curiously staring into the face +of Solomon. +</P> + +<P> +"Ain't this like comin' into a savage tribe that ain't seen no +civilized human bein' fer years?" +</P> + +<P> +"Wot is it?" a voice shouted. +</P> + +<P> +"'E's a blarsted bush w'acker from North Hamerica, 'e is," another +answered. +</P> + +<P> +Jack stopped a cab and they got into it. +</P> + +<P> +"Show us some of the great buildings and land us in an hour at 10 +Bloomsbury Square, East," he said. +</P> + +<P> +With a sense of relief they were whisked away in the stream of traffic. +</P> + +<P> +They passed the King's palace and the great town houses of the Duke of +Bedford and Lord Balcarras, each of which was pointed out by the +driver. Suddenly every vehicle near them stopped, while their male +occupants sat with bared heads. Jack observed a curious procession on +the sidewalk passing between two lines of halted people. +</P> + +<P> +"Hit's their Majesties!" the driver whispered under his breath. +</P> + +<P> +The King--a stout, red-nosed, blue-jowled man, with big, gray, staring +eyes--was in a sedan chair surmounted by a crown. He was dressed in +light cloth with silver buttons. Queen Charlotte, also in a chair, was +dressed in lemon colored silk ornamented with brocaded flowers. The +two were smiling and bowing as they passed. In a moment the procession +entered a great gate. Then there was a crack of whips and the traffic +resumed its hurried pace. +</P> + +<P> +"Hit's their Majesties, sir, goin' to a drawin'-room at Lord Rawdon's, +sir," the driver explained as he drove on. +</P> + +<P> +"Did you see the unnatural look in his gray eyes?" said Jack, turning +to Solomon. +</P> + +<P> +"Ayes! Kind o' skeered like! 'Twere a han'some yoke o' men totin' +him--well broke, too, I guess. Pulled even an' nobody yellin' gee er +haw er whoa hush." +</P> + +<P> +"You know it isn't proper for kings and queens to walk in public," Jack +answered. +</P> + +<P> +Again Solomon had on his shooting face. With his left eye closed, he +took deliberate aim with the other at the subject before them and thus +discharged his impressions. +</P> + +<P> +"Uh huh! I suppose 'twouldn't do fer 'em to be like other folks so +they have to have some extry pairs o' legs to kind o' put 'on when they +go ou'doors. I wonder if they ain't obleeged to have an extry set o' +brains fer public use." +</P> + +<P> +"They have quantities of 'em all made and furnished to order and stored +in the court," said Jack. "His own mind is only for use in the private +rooms." +</P> + +<P> +"I should think 'twould git out o' order," Solomon remarked. + +"It does. They say he's been as crazy as a loon." +</P> + +<P> +Soon the two observers became interested in a band of sooty-faced +chimney sweeps decorated with ribbands and gilt paper. They were +making musical sounds with their brushes and scrapers and soliciting +gifts from the passing crowd and, now and then, scrambling for tossed +coins. +</P> + +<P> +In the Ave Mary Lane they saw a procession of milk men and maids +carrying wreaths of flowers on wheelbarrows, the first of which held a +large white pyramid which seemed to be a symbol of their calling. They +were also begging. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a lickpenny place," said Jack. +</P> + +<P> +"Somebody's got to do some 'arnin' to pay fer all the foolin' eround," +Solomon answered. "If I was to stay here I'd git myself ragged up like +these 'ere savages and jine the tribe er else I'd lose the use o' my +legs an' spend all my money bein' toted. I ain't used to settin' down +when I move, you hear to me." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll take you to Doctor Franklin's tailor," Jack proposed. +</P> + +<P> +"Major Washington tol' me whar to go. I got the name an' the street +all writ down plain in my wallet but I got t' go hum." +</P> + +<P> +They had stopped at the door of the famous American. Jack and Solomon +went in and sat down with a dozen others to await their turn. +</P> + +<P> +When they had been conducted to the presence of the great man he took +Solomon's hand and said: +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Binkus, I am glad to bid you welcome." +</P> + +<P> +He looked down at the sinewy, big-boned, right hand of the scout, still +holding it. +</P> + +<P> +"Will you step over to the window a moment and give me a look at your +hands?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +They went to the window and the Doctor put on his spectacles and +examined them closely. +</P> + +<P> +"I have never seen such an able, Samsonian fist," he went on. "I think +the look of those hands would let you into Paradise. What a record of +human service is writ upon them! Hands like that have laid the +foundations of America. They have been generous hands. They tell me +all I need to know of your spirit, your lungs, your heart and your +stomach." +</P> + +<P> +"They're purty heavy--that's why I genially carry 'em in my pockets +when I ain't busy," said Solomon. +</P> + +<P> +"Over here a pair of hands like that are thought to be a disgrace. +They are like the bloody hands of Macbeth. Certain people would look +at them and say: 'My God, man, you are guilty of hard work. You have +produced food for the hungry and fuel for the cold. You are not an +idler. You have refused to waste your time with Vice and Folly. +Avaunt and quit my sight.' In America every one works--even the horse, +the ass and the ox. Only the hog is a gentleman. There are many +mischievous opinions in Europe but the worst is that useful labor is +dishonorable. Do you like London?" +</P> + +<P> +Solomon put his face in shape for a long shot. Jack has written that +he seemed to be looking for hostile "Injuns" some distance away and to +be waiting for another stir in the bushes. Suddenly he pulled his +trigger. +</P> + +<P> +"London an' I is kind o' skeered o' one 'nother. It 'minds me o' the +fust time I run into ol' Thorny Tree. They was a young brave with him +an' both on 'em had guns. They knowed me an' I knowed them. Looked as +if there'd have to be some killin' done. We both made the sign o' +friendship an' kep' edgin' erway f'm one 'nother careless like but +keepin' close watch. Sudden as scat they run like hell in one +direction an' I in t'other. I guess I look bad to London an' London +looks bad to me, but I'll have to do all the runnin' this time." +</P> + +<P> +The Doctor laughed. "It ha' never seen a man just like you before," he +observed. "I saw Sir Jeffrey Amherst this morning and told him you +were in London. He is fond of you and paid you many compliments and +made me promise to bring you to his home." +</P> + +<P> +"I'd like to smoke a pipe with ol' Jeff," Solomon answered. "They +ain't no nonsense 'bout him. I learnt him how to talk Injun an' read +rapids an' build a fire with tinder an' elbow grease. He knows me +plenty. He staked his life on me a dozen times in the Injun war." +</P> + +<P> +"How is Major Washington?" the Doctor asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Stout as a pot o' ginger," Solomon answered. "I rassled with him one +evenin' down in Virginny an' I'll never tackle him ag'in, you hear to +me. His right flipper is as big as mine an' when it takes holt ye'd +think it were goin' to strip the shuck off yer soul." +</P> + +<P> +"He's in every way a big man," said the Doctor. "On the whole, he's +about our biggest man. An officer who came out of the ambuscade at +Fort Duquesne with thirty living men out of three companies and four +shot holes in his coat must have an engagement with Destiny. Evidently +his work was not finished. You have traveled about some. What is the +feeling over there toward England?" +</P> + +<P> +"They're like a b'ilin' pot everywhere. England has got to step +careful now." +</P> + +<P> +"Tell Sir Jeffrey that, if you see him, just that. Don't mince +matters. Jack, I'll send my man with you and Mr. Binkus to show you +the new lodgings. We found them this morning." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VI +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE LOVERS +</H3> + +<P> +The fashionable tailor was done with Jack's equipment. Franklin had +seen and approved the admirably shaped and fitted garments. The young +man and his friend Solomon had moved to their new lodgings on +Bloomsbury Square. The scout had acquired a suit for street wear and +was now able to walk abroad without exciting the multitudes. The +Doctor was planning what he called "a snug little party." So he +announced when Jack and Solomon came, adding: +</P> + +<P> +"But first you are to meet Margaret and her mother here at half after +four." +</P> + +<P> +Jack made careful preparation for that event. Fortunately it was a +clear, bright day after foggy weather. Solomon had refused to go with +Jack for fear of being in the way. +</P> + +<P> +"I want to see her an' her folks but I reckon ye'll have yer hands full +to-day," he remarked. "Ye don't need no scout on that kind o' +reconnoiterin'. You go on ahead an' git through with yer smackin an' +bym-by I'll straggle in." +</P> + +<P> +Precisely at four thirty-five Jack presented himself at the lodgings of +his distinguished friend. He has said in a letter, when his dramatic +adventures were all behind him, that this was the most thrilling moment +he had known. "The butler had told me that the ladies were there," he +wrote. "Upon my word it put me out of breath climbing that little +flight of stairs. But it was in fact the end of a long journey. It is +curious that my feeling then should remind me, as it does, of moments +when I have been close up to the enemy, within his lines, and lying +hard against the ground in some thicket while British soldiers were +tramping so near I could feel the ground shake. In the room I saw Lady +Hare and Doctor Franklin standing side by side. What a smile he wore +as he looked at me! I have never known a human being who had such a +cheering light in his countenance. I have seen it brighten the darkest +days of the war aided by the light of his words. His faith and good +cheer were immovable. I felt the latter when he said: +</P> + +<P> +"'See the look of alarm in his face. Now for a pretty drama!' +</P> + +<P> +"Mrs. Hare gave me her hand and I kissed it and said that I had +expected to see Margaret and hoped that she was not ill. There was a +thistledown touch on my cheek from behind and turning I saw the +laughing face I sought looking up at me. I tell you, my mother, there +never was such a pair of eyes. Their long, dark lashes and the glow +between them I remember chiefly. The latter was the friendly light of +her spirit To me it was like a candle in the window to guide my feet. +'Come,' it seemed to say. 'Here is a welcome for you.' I saw the pink +in her cheeks, the crimson in her lips, the white of her neck, the glow +of her abundant hair, the shapeliness of brow and nose and chin in that +first glance. I saw the beating of her heart even. I remember there +was a tiny mole on her temple under the edge of that beautiful, golden +crown of hers. It did not escape my eye. I tell you she was fair as +the first violets in Meadowvale on a dewy morning. Of course she was +at her best. It was the last moment in years of waiting in which her +imagination had furnished me with endowments too romantic. I have seen +great moments, as you know, but this is the one I could least afford to +give up. I had long been wondering what I should do when it came. Now +it was come and there was no taking thought of what we should do. That +would seem to have been settled out of court. I kissed her lips and +she kissed mine and for a few moments I think we could have stood in a +half bushel measure. Then the Doctor laughed and gave her Ladyship a +smack on the cheek. +</P> + +<P> +"'I don't know about you, my Lady, but it fills me with the glow of +youth to see such going on,' he remarked. 'I'm only twenty-one and +nobody knows it--nobody suspects it even. These wrinkles and gray hair +are only a mask that covers the heart of a boy.' +</P> + +<P> +"'I confess that such a scene does push me back into my girlhood,' said +Lady Hare. 'Alas! I feel the old thrill.' +</P> + +<P> +"Franklin came and stood before us with his hands Upon our shoulders, +his face shining with happiness. "'Margaret, a woman needs something +to hold on to in this slippery world,' said he. 'Here is a man that +stands as firm as an oak tree.' +</P> + +<P> +"He kissed us as did Lady Hare, also, and then we all sat down together +and laughed. I would not forget, if I could, that we had to wipe our +eyes. No, my life has not been all blood and iron. +</P> + +<P> +"Would you not call it a wonder that we had kept the sacred fire which +had been kindled in our hearts, so long before, and our faith in each +other? It is because we were both of a steadfast breed of folk--the +English--trained to cling to the things that are worth while. Once +they think they are right how hard it is to turn them aside! Let us +never forget that some of the best of our traits have come from England. +</P> + +<P> +"Suddenly Solomon arrived. Of course where Solomon is one would expect +solecisms. They were not wanting. I had not tried to prepare him for +the ordeal. Solomon is bound to be himself wherever he is, am why not? +There is no better man living. +</P> + +<P> +"'You're as purty as a golden robin,' he said to Margaret, shaking her +hand in his big one. +</P> + +<P> +"He was not so much put out as I thought he would be. I never saw a +gentler man with women. As hard as iron in a fight there has always +been a curious veil of chivalry in the old scout. He stood and joked +with the girl, in his odd fashion, and set us all laughing. Margaret +and her mother enjoyed his talk and spoke of it, often, after that. +</P> + +<P> +"'Wal, Mis Hare,' he said to Her Ladyship, 'if ye graft this 'ere +sprout on yer fam'ly tree I'll bet ye a pint o' powder an' a fish hook +ye won't never be sorry fer it.' +</P> + +<P> +"It did not seem to occur to him that there were those to whom a pint +of powder and a fish hook would be no great temptation." +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +2 +</H3> + +<P> +"I dressed and went to dine with the Hares that evening. They lived in +a large house on a fashionable 'road' as certain, of the streets were +called. It was a typical upper class, English home. There were many +fine old things in it but no bright colors, nothing to dazzle or +astonish; you like the wooden Indian in war-paint and feathers and the +stuffed bear and high colored rugs in the parlor of Mr. Gosport in +Philadelphia. Every piece of furniture was like the quiet, still +footed servants who came and went making the smallest possible demand +upon your attention. +</P> + +<P> +"I was shown into the library where Sir Benjamin' sat alone reading a +newspaper. He greeted me politely. +</P> + +<P> +"'The news is disquieting,' he said presently. 'What have you to tell +us of the situation in America?' +</P> + +<P> +"'It is critical,' I answered. 'It can be mended, however, if the +government will act promptly.' +</P> + +<P> +"'What should it do?' +</P> + +<P> +"'Make concessions, sir, stop shipping tea for a time. Don't try to +force an export with a duty on it. I think the government should not +shake the mailed fist at us.' +</P> + +<P> +"'But think of the violence and the destruction of property!' +</P> + +<P> +"'All that will abate and disappear if the cause is removed. We who +keep our affection for England have done our best to hold the passions +of the people in check but we get no help from this side of the ocean.' +</P> + +<P> +"Sir Benjamin sat thoughtfully feeling his silvered mustache. He had +grown stouter and fuller-faced since we had parted in Albany when he +had looked like a prosperous, well-bred merchant in military dress and +had been limbered and soiled by knocking about in the bush. Now he +wore a white wig and ruffles and looked as dignified as a Tory +magistrate. +</P> + +<P> +"In the moment of silence I mustered up my courage and spoke out. +</P> + +<P> +"'Sir Benjamin,' I said. 'I have come to claim your daughter under the +promise you gave me at Fort Stanwix. I have not ceased to love her and +if she continues to love me I am sure that our wishes will have your +favor and blessing.' +</P> + +<P> +"'I have not forgotten the promise,' he said. 'But America has +changed. It is likely to be a hotbed of rebellion--perhaps even the +scene of a bloody war. I must consider my daughter's happiness.' +</P> + +<P> +"'Conditions in America, sir, are not so bad as you take them to be,' I +assured him. +</P> + +<P> +"'I hope you are right,' he answered. 'I am told that the whole matter +rests with your Doctor Franklin. If we are to go on from bad to worse +he will be responsible.' +</P> + +<P> +"'If it rests with him I can assure you, sir, that our troubles will +end,' I said, looking only at the surface of the matter and speaking +confidently out of the bottomless pit of my inexperience as the young +are like to do. +</P> + +<P> +"'I believe you are right,' he declared and went on with a smile. +'Now, my young friend, the girl has a notion that she loves you. I am +aware of that--so are you, I happen to know. Through Doctor Franklin's +influence we have allowed her to receive your letters and to answer +them. I have no doubt of your sincerity, or hers, but I did not +foresee what has come to pass. She is our only child and you can +scarcely blame me if I balk at a marriage which promises to turn her +away from us and fill our family with dissension.' +</P> + +<P> +"'May we not respect each other and disagree in politics?' I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"'In politics, yes, but not in war. I begin to see danger of war and +that is full of the bitterness of death. If Doctor Franklin will do +what he can to reestablish loyalty and order in the colonies my fear +will he removed and I shall welcome you to my family.' +</P> + +<P> +"I began to show a glint of intelligence and said: 'If the ministers +will cooperate it will not be difficult.' +</P> + +<P> +"'The ministers will do anything it is in their power to do.' +</P> + +<P> +"Then the timely entrance of Margaret and her mother. +</P> + +<P> +"'I suppose that I shall shock my father but I can not help it,' said +the girl as she kissed me. +</P> + +<P> +"You may be sure that I had my part in that game. She stood beside me, +her arm around my waist and mine around her shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +"'Father, can you blame me for loving this big, splendid hero who saved +us from the Indians and the bandits? It is unlike you to be such a +hardened wretch. But for him you would have neither wife nor daughter.' +</P> + +<P> +"She put it on thick but I held my peace as I have done many a time in +the presence of a woman's cunning. Anyhow she is apt to believe +herself and in a matter of the heart can find her way through +difficulties which would appal a man. +</P> + +<P> +"'Keep yourself in bounds, my daughter,' her father answered. 'I know +his merits and should like to see you married and hope to, but I must +ask you to be patient until you can go to a loyal colony with your +husband.' +</P> + +<P> +"It was a pleasant dinner through which they kept me telling of my +adventures in the bush. Save the immediate family only Mrs. Biggars, a +sister of Lady Hare, and a young nephew of Sir Benjamin were at the +table." +</P> + +<P> +Jack has said in another of His letters that Mrs. Biggars was a sweet, +stout lady whose manner of address reminded him of an affectionate +house cat. "That means, as you will know, that I liked her," he added. +</P> + +<P> +"The ladies sat together at one end of the table. The baronet pumped +me for knowledge of the hunting and fishing in the northern part of +Tryon County where Solomon and I had spent a week, having left our boat +in Lake Champlain and journeyed off in the mountains. +</P> + +<P> +"'Champlain was a man of imagination,' said my host. 'He tells of +trying to land on a log lying against the lake shore and of +discovering, suddenly, that it was an immense fish.' +</P> + +<P> +"'Since I learned that I was to meet you I have been reading a book +entitled <I>The Animals of North America</I>,' said Mrs. Biggars. 'I have +learned that bears often climb after and above the hunter and double +themselves up and fall toward him, knocking him out of the tree. Have +you seen it done?' +</P> + +<P> +"'I think it was never done outside a book,' I answered. 'I never saw +a bear that was not running away from me. They hate the look of a man.' +</P> + +<P> +"Mrs. Biggars was filled with astonishment and went on: 'The author +tells of an animal on the borders of Canada that resembles a horse. It +has cloven hoofs, a shaggy mane, a horn right out of its forehead and a +tail like that of a pig. When hunted it spews hot water upon the dogs. +I wonder if you could have seen such an animal?' +</P> + +<P> +"'No, that's another nightmare,' I answered. 'People go hunting for +nightmares in America. They enjoy them and often think they have found +them when they have not. It all comes of trying to talk with Indians +and of guessing at the things they say.' +</P> + +<P> +"Sir Benjamin remarked that when a man wrote about nature he seemed to +regard himself as a first deputy of God. +</P> + +<P> +"'And undertakes to lend him a hand in the work of creation,' I +suggested. 'Even your great Doctor Johnson has stated that swallows +spend the winter at the bottom of the streams, forgetting that they +might find it a rather slippery place to hang on to and a winter a long +time to hold their breaths. Even Goldsmith has been divinely reckless +in his treatment of 'Animated Nature.' +</P> + +<P> +"'I am surprised, sir, at your familiarity with English authors,' he +declared. 'When we think of America we are apt to think of savages and +poverty and ignorance and log huts.' +</P> + +<P> +"'You forget, sir, that we have about all the best books and the +leisure to read them,' I answered. +</P> + +<P> +"'You undoubtedly have the best game,' said he. 'Tell us about the +shooting and fishing.' +</P> + +<P> +"I told of the deer, the moose and the caribou, all of which I had +killed, and of our fishing on the long river of the north with a lure +made of the feathers of a woodpecker, and of covering the bottom of our +canoe with beautiful speckled fish. All this warmed the heart of Sir +Benjamin who questioned me as to every detail in my experience on trail +and river. He was a born sportsman and my stories had put a smile on +his face so that I felt sure he had a better feeling for me when we +arose from the table. +</P> + +<P> +"Then I had an hour alone with Margaret in a corner of the great hall. +We reviewed the years that had passed since our adventure and there was +one detail in her history of which I must tell you. She had had many +suitors, and among them one Lionel Clarke--a son of the distinguished +General. Her father had urged her to accept the young man, but she had +stood firmly for me. +</P> + +<P> +"'You see, this heart of mine is a stubborn thing,' she said as she +looked into my eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Then it was that we gave to each other the long pledge, often on the +lips of lovers since Eros strung his bow, but never more deeply felt. +</P> + +<P> +"'I am sure the sky will clear soon,' she said to me at last. +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed as I bade them good night, I saw encouraging signs of that. +Sir Benjamin had taken a liking to me. He pressed my hand as we drank +a glass of Madeira together and said: +</P> + +<P> +"'My boy, I drink to the happiness of England, the colonies and you.'" +</P> + +<P> +"'"Time and I" and the will of God,' I whispered, as I left their door." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VII +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE DAWN +</H3> + +<P> +The young man was elated by the look and sentiments which had gone with +the parting cup at Sir Benjamin's. But Franklin, whom he saw the next +day, liked not the attitude of the Baronet. +</P> + +<P> +"He is one of the King's men on the Big chess board," said the old +philosopher. "All that he said to you has the sound of strategy. I +have reason to believe that they are trying to tow us into port and +Margaret is only one of many ropes. Hare's attitude is not that of an +honest man." +</P> + +<P> +"Is it not true that every one who touches the King gets some of that +tar on him?" Jack queried. +</P> + +<P> +"It would seem so and yet we must be fair to him. We are not to think +that the King is the only black pot on the fire. He is probably the +best of kings but I can not think of one king who would be respectable +in Boston or Philadelphia. Their expenses have been great, their taxes +robbery, so they have had to study the magic arts of seeming to be just +and righteous. They have been a lot of conjurers trained to create +illusions." +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose that Britain is no worse than other kingdoms," said the +young man. +</P> + +<P> +"On the whole she is the best of them. Under the surface here I find +the love of liberty and all good things. Chatham, Burke and Fox are +their voices. We are not to wonder that Lord North puts a price on +every man. His is the soul of a past in which most men have had their +price. It was the old way of removing difficulties in the management +of a state. It succeeded. A new day is at hand. Its forerunners are +here. He has not seen the signs in the sky or heard the cocks crowing. +He is still asleep. I know many men in England whom he could not buy." +</P> + +<P> +Only three days before the philosopher had had a talk with North at the +urgent request of Howe, who, to his credit, was eager for +reconciliation. The King's friend and minister was contemptuous. +</P> + +<P> +"I am quite indifferent to war," he had cynically declared at last. +"The confiscations it would produce will provide for many of our +friends." +</P> + +<P> +It was an astonishing bit of frankness. +</P> + +<P> +"I take this opportunity of assuring Your Lordship that for all the +property you seize or destroy in America, you will pay to the last +farthing," said Franklin. +</P> + +<P> +This treatment was like that he had received from other members of the +government since the unfortunate publication of the Hutchinson, Rogers +and Oliver letters. They seemed to entertain the notion that he had +forfeited the respect due a gentleman. +</P> + +<P> +A few days after Franklin had given air to his suspicion that the +government party would try to tow him into port three stout British +ships had broken their cables on him. An invitation not likely to be +received by one who had really forfeited the respect of gentlemen was +in his hands. The shrewd philosopher did not think twice about it. He +knew that here was the first step in a change of tactics. He could not +properly decline to accept it and so he went to dine and spend the +night with a most distinguished company at the country seat of Lord +Howe. +</P> + +<P> +On his return he told his young friend of the portal and lodge in a +great triumphal arch marking the entrance to the estate of His +Lordship; of the mile long road to the big house straight as a gun +barrel and smooth as a carpet; of the immense single oaks; of the +artificial stream circling the front of the house and the beautiful +bridge leading to its entrance; of the double flight of steps under the +grand portico; of the great hall with its ceiling forty feet high, +supported by fluted Corinthian columns of red-veined alabaster; of the +rare old tapestries on a golden background in the saloon; of the +immense corridors connecting the wings of the structure. The dinner +and its guests and its setting were calculated to impress the son of +the Boston soap boiler who represented the important colonies in +America. +</P> + +<P> +Some of the best people were there--Lord and Lady Cathcart, Lord and +Lady Hyde, Lord and Lady Dartmouth. Sir William Erskine, Sir Henry +Clinton, Sir James Baird, Sir Benjamin Hare and their ladies were also +present. Doctor Franklin said that the punch was calculated to promote +cheerfulness and high sentiment. As was the custom at like functions, +the ladies sat together at one end of the table. Franklin being seated +at the right of Lady Howe, who was most gracious and entertaining. The +first toast was to the venerable philosopher. +</P> + +<P> +"My Ladies, Lords and gentlemen," said the host, "we must look to our +conduct in the presence of one who talked with Sir William Wyndham and +was a visitor in the house of Sir Hans Sloane before we were born; +whose tireless intellect has been a confidant of Nature, a playmate of +the Lightning and an inventor of ingenious and useful things; whose +wisdom has given to Philadelphia a public library, a work house, good +paving, excellent schools, a protection against fire as efficient as +any in the world and the best newspaper in the colonies. Good health +and long life to him and may his love of the old sod increase with his +years." +</P> + +<P> +The toast was drunk with expressions of approval, and Franklin only +arose and bowed and briefly spoke his acknowledgments in a single +sentence, and then added: +</P> + +<P> +"Lord Howe can assure you that public men receive more praise and more +blame than they really merit. I have heard much said for and against +Benjamin Franklin, but there could be no better testimony in his favor +than the good opinion of Lord Howe, for which I can never cease to be +grateful. For years I have been weighing the evidence, and my verdict +is that Franklin has meant well." +</P> + +<P> +He said to Jack that he felt the need of being "as discreet as a +tombstone." +</P> + +<P> +A member of that party has told in his memoirs how he kept the ladies +laughing with his merry jests. +</P> + +<P> +"I see by <I>The Observer</I> they are going to open cod and whale fisheries +in the great lakes of the Northwest," Lady Howe said to him. +</P> + +<P> +He answered very gently: "Your Ladyship, has it never occurred to you +that it would be a sublime spectacle to stand at the foot of the great +falls of Niagara and see the whales leaping over them?" +</P> + +<P> +"What do you regard as your most important discovery?" one of the +ladies inquired. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, first, I naturally think of the hospitality of this house and +the beauty and charm of the Lady Howe and her friends," Franklin +answered with characteristic diplomacy. "Then there is this wine," he +added, lifting his glass. "Its importance is as great as its age and +this is old enough to command even my veneration. It reminds me of +another discovery of mine: the value of the human elbow. I was telling +the King's physician of that this morning and it seemed to amuse him. +But for the human elbow every person would need a neck longer than that +of a goose to do his eating and drinking." +</P> + +<P> +"I had never thought of that," Lady Howe laughingly answered. "It +surely does have some effect on one's manners." +</P> + +<P> +"And his personal appearance and the cost of his neckwear," said +Franklin. "Here is another discovery." +</P> + +<P> +He took a leathern case from his pocket and removed from it a sealed +glass tube half full of a colorless liquid. +</P> + +<P> +"Kindly hold that in your hand and see what happens," he said to Lady +Howe. "It contains plain water." +</P> + +<P> +In half a moment the water began to boil. +</P> + +<P> +"It shows how easily water boils in a vacuum," said Franklin as the +ladies were amusing themselves with this odd toy. "It enables us to +understand why a little heat produces great agitation in certain +intellects," he added. +</P> + +<P> +"Doctor, we are neglecting politics," said Lord Hyde. "You lay much +stress upon thrift. Do you not agree with me that a man who has not +the judgment to practise thrift and acquire property has not the +judgment to vote?" +</P> + +<P> +"Property is all right, but let's make it stay in its own stall," said +Franklin. "It should never be a qualification of the voter, because it +would lead us up to this dilemma: if I have a jackass I can vote. If +the jackass dies I can not vote. Therefore, my vote would represent +the jackass and not me." +</P> + +<P> +The dinner over, Lady Howe conducted Doctor Franklin to the library, +where she asked him to sit down. There were no other persons in the +room. She sat near him and began to speak of the misfortunes of the +colony of Massachusetts Bay. +</P> + +<P> +"Your Ladyship, we are all alike," he answered. "I have never seen a +man who could not bear the misfortunes of another like a Christian. +The trouble is our ministers find it too easy to bear them." +</P> + +<P> +"I wish you would speak with Lord Howe frankly of these troubles. He +is just by. Will you give me leave to send for him?" +</P> + +<P> +"By all means, madame, if you think best." Lord Howe joined them in a +moment. He was most polite. +</P> + +<P> +"I am sensible of the fact that you have been mistreated by the +ministry," he said. "I have not approved of their conduct. I am +unconnected with those men save through personal friendships. My zeal +for the public welfare is my only excuse for asking you to open your +mind." +</P> + +<P> +Lady Howe arose and offered to withdraw. +</P> + +<P> +"Your Ladyship, why not honor us with your presence?" Franklin asked. +"For my part I can see no reason for making a secret of a business of +this nature. As to His Lordship's mention of my mistreatment, that +done my country is so much greater I dismiss all thought of the other. +From the King's speech I judge that no accommodation can be expected." +</P> + +<P> +"The plan is now to send a commission to the colonies, as you have +urged," said His Lordship. +</P> + +<P> +Then said Lady Howe: "I wish, my brother Franklin, that you were to be +sent thither. I should like that much better than General Howe's going +to command the army there." +</P> + +<P> +A rather tense moment followed. Franklin broke its silence by saying +in a gentle tone: +</P> + +<P> +"I think, madame, they should provide the General with more honorable +employment. I beg that your Ladyship will not misjudge me. I am not +capable of taking an office from this government while it is acting +with so much hostility toward my country." +</P> + +<P> +"The ministers have the opinion that you can compose the situation if +you will," Lord Howe declared. "Many of us have unbounded faith in +your ability. I would not think of trying to influence your judgment +by a selfish motive, but certainly you may, with reason, expect any +reward which it is in the power of the government to bestow." +</P> + +<P> +Then came an answer which should live in history, as one of the great +credits of human nature, and all men, especially those of English +blood, should feel a certain pride in it. The answer was: +</P> + +<P> +"Your Lordship, I am not looking for rewards, but only for justice." +</P> + +<P> +"Let us try to agree as to what is the justice of the matter," Howe +answered. "Will you not draft a plan on which you would be willing to +cooperate?" +</P> + +<P> +"That I will be glad to do." +</P> + +<P> +Persisting in his misjudgment, Howe suggested: +</P> + +<P> +"As you have friends here and constituents in America to keep well +with, perhaps it would better not be in your handwriting. Send it to +Lady Howe and she will copy it and return the original." +</P> + +<P> +Then said the sturdy old Yankee: "I desire, my friends, that there +shall be no secrecy about it." +</P> + +<P> +Lord and Lady Howe showed signs of great disappointment as he bade them +good night and begged to be sent to his room. +</P> + +<P> +"I am growing old, and have to ask for like indulgence from every +hostess," he pleaded. +</P> + +<P> +Howe was not willing to leave a stone unturned. He could not dismiss +the notion from his mind that the purchase could be effected if the bid +were raised. He drew the Doctor aside and said: +</P> + +<P> +"We do not expect your assistance without proper consideration. I +shall insist upon generous and ample appointments for the men you take +with you and especially for you as well as a firm promise of +<I>subsequent rewards</I>." +</P> + +<P> +What crown had he in mind for the white and venerable brow of the man +who stood before him? Beneath that brow was a new type of statesman, +born of the hardships and perils and high faith of a new world, and +then and there as these two faced each other--the soul of the past and +the soul of the future--a moment was come than which there had been no +greater in human history. In America, France and England the cocks had +been crowing and now the first light of the dawn of a new day fell upon +the figure of the man who in honor and understanding towered above his +fellows. Now, for a moment, on the character of this man the +unfathomable plan of God for future ages would seem to have been +resting. +</P> + +<P> +In his sixty-eight years he had discovered, among other things, the +vanity of wealth and splendor. It was no more to him than the idle +wind. These are his exact words as he stood with a gentle smile on his +face: "If you wish to use me, give me the propositions and dismiss all +thought of rewards from your mind. They would destroy the influence +you propose to use." +</P> + +<P> +Howe, a good man as men went those days, had got beyond his depth. His +philosophy comprehended no such mystery. What manner of man was this +son of a soap boiler who had smiled and shaken his white head and +spoken like a kindly father to the folly of a child when these offers +of wealth and honor and power had been made to him? Did he not +understand that it was really the King who had spoken? +</P> + +<P> +The old gentleman climbed the great staircase and went to his chamber, +while Lord Howe was, no doubt, communicating the result of his +interview to his other guests. There were those among them who freely +predicted that war was inevitable. +</P> + +<P> +In the morning at eight o'clock Franklin rode into town with Lord Howe. +They discussed the motion of the Prime Minister under the terms of +which the colonies were to pay money into the British Treasury until +parliament should decide they had paid enough. +</P> + +<P> +"It is impossible," said Franklin. "No chance is offered us to judge +the propriety of the measure or our ability to pay. These grants are +demanded under a claimed right to tax us at pleasure and compel +payments by armed force. Your Lordship, it is like the proposition of +a highwayman who presents a pistol at the window of your coach and +demands enough to satisfy his greed--no specific sum being named--or +there is the pistol." +</P> + +<P> +"You are a most remarkable man, but you do not understand the +government," said His Lordship. "You will not let yourself see the +other side of the proposition. You are highly esteemed in America and +if you could but see the justice of our claim you would be as highly +esteemed here and honored and rewarded far beyond any expectation you +are likely to have." +</P> + +<P> +"If any one supposes that I could prevail upon my countrymen to take +black for white or wrong for right, he does not know them or me," said +Franklin. "My people are incapable of being so imposed upon and I am +incapable of attempting it." +</P> + +<P> +Next evening came the good Doctor Barclay, a friend of Franklin, and a +noted philanthropist. They played chess together, and after the game, +while they were draining glasses of Madeira, the philanthropist said: +</P> + +<P> +"Here's to peace and good will between England and her colonies. The +prosperity of both depends upon it." +</P> + +<P> +They drank the toast and then Barclay proposed: +</P> + +<P> +"Let us use our efforts to that end. Power is a great thing to have +and the noblest gift a government can bestow is within your reach." +</P> + +<P> +"Barclay, this is what I would call spitting in the soup," said +Franklin. "It's excellent soup, too. I am sure the ministry would +rather give me a seat in a cart to Tyburn than any other place +whatever. I would despise myself if I needed an inducement to serve a +great cause." +</P> + +<P> +The philanthropist entered upon a wearisome argument, which lasted for +nearly an hour. +</P> + +<P> +"Barclay, your opinions on this problem remind me of the iron money of +Lycurgus," observed Franklin. +</P> + +<P> +The philanthropist desired to know why. +</P> + +<P> +"Because of their bulk. A cart load of them is not worth a shilling." +</P> + +<P> +In all parts of Britain those days one heard much ridicule of the New +England home and conscience. Now the ministry and its friends had +begun to butt their heads against the immovable wall of character which +had grown out of them and of which Lord Chatham had said: +</P> + +<P> +"It has made certain of our able men look like school boys." +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +2 +</H3> + +<P> +There was at that time a man of great power whose voice spoke for the +soul of England. He had studied the spirit of the New World and probed +to its foundations. He will help us to understand the new diplomacy +which had filled the ministers with astonishment. +</P> + +<P> +The same week Jack was invited to breakfast with Mr. Edmund Burke and +Doctor Franklin. He was awed by the brilliancy of the massive, +trumpet-tongued orator and statesman. +</P> + +<P> +He writes: "Burke has a most ungainly figure. His gait is awkward, his +gestures clumsy, his eyes are covered with large spectacles. He is +careless of his dress. His pockets bulged with papers. He spoke +rapidly and with a strong Irish brogue. Power is the thing his face +and form express. His knowledge is astounding. It is easy to talk +with Franklin, but <I>I</I> could not talk with him. He humbled and +embarrassed me. His words shone as they fell from his lips. I can +give you but a feeble notion of them. This was his idea, but I +remember only a few of his glowing words: +</P> + +<P> +"'I fancy that man, like most other inventions, was, at first, a +disappointment. There seems to have been some doubt, for a time, as to +whether the contrivance could be made to work. In fact, there is good +ground for believing that it wouldn't work. +</P> + +<P> +"'It was a failure. The tendency to indolence and folly had to be +overcome. Sundry improvements were necessary. An imagination and the +love of adventure were added to the great machine. They were the +things needed. Not all the friction of hardship and peril could stop +it then. From that time, as they say in business, man was a paying +institution. +</P> + +<P> +"'The lure of adventure led to the discovery of law and truth. The +best child of adventure is revelation. Man is so fashioned that if he +can see a glimmer of the truth he seeks, he will make for it no matter +what may be in his way. The promise of an exciting time solves the +problem of help. America was born of sublime faith and a great +adventure--the greatest in history--that of the three caravels. High +faith is the great need of the world. Columbus had it, and I think, +sir, that the Pilgrims had it and that the same quality of faith is in +you. In these dark years you are like the lanterns of Pharus to your +people. +</P> + +<P> +"'When prodigious things are to be done, how carefully men are prepared +and chosen for their doing!' +</P> + +<P> +"He said many things, but these words addressed to my venerable friend +impressed me deeply. It occurs to me that Burke has been chosen to +speak for the soul of Britain. +</P> + +<P> +"When we think of the choosing of God, who but the sturdy yeomen of our +mother land could have withstood the inhospitalities of the New World +and established its spirit! +</P> + +<P> +"Now their Son, Benjamin Franklin, full grown in the new school of +liberty, has been chosen of God to define the inalienable rights of +freemen. I think the stage is being set for the second great adventure +in our history. Let us have no fear of it. Our land is sown with the +new faith. It can not fail." +</P> + +<P> +This conviction was the result of some rather full days in the British +capital. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VIII +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +AN APPOINTMENT AND A CHALLENGE +</H3> + +<P> +Solomon Binkus had left the city with Preston to visit Sir Jeffrey +Amherst in his country seat, near London. Sir Benjamin had taken Jack +to dine with him at two of his clubs and after dining they had gone to +see the great actor Robert Bensley as Malvolio and the Comedian Dodd as +Sir Andrew Aguecheek. The Britisher had been most polite, but had +seemed studiously to avoid mention of the subject nearest the heart of +the young man. After that the latter was invited to a revel and a cock +fight, but declined the honor and went to spend an evening with his +friend, the philosopher. For days Franklin had been shut in with gout. +Jack had found him in his room with one of his feet wrapped in bandages +and resting on a chair. +</P> + +<P> +"I am glad you came, my son," said the good Doctor. "I am in need of +better company than this foot. Solitude is like water--good for a dip, +but you can not live in it. Margaret has been here trying to give me +comfort, although she needs it more for herself." +</P> + +<P> +"Margaret!" the boy exclaimed. "Why does she need comfort?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, largely on your account, my son! Her father is obdurate and the +cause is dear to me. This courtship of yours is taking an +international aspect." +</P> + +<P> +He gave his young friend a full account of the night at Lord Howe's and +the interviews which had followed it. +</P> + +<P> +"All London knows how I stand now. They will not try again to bribe +me. The displeasure of Sir Benjamin will react upon you." +</P> + +<P> +"What shall I do if he continues to be obdurate?" +</P> + +<P> +"Shove my table this way and I'll show you a problem in prudential +algebra," said the philosopher. "It's a way I have of setting down all +the factors and striking out those that are equal and arriving at the +visible result." +</P> + +<P> +With his pen and a sheet of paper he set down the factors in the +problem and his estimate of their relative value as follows: +</P> + +<BR> + +<CENTER> + +<TABLE WIDTH="100%"> +<TR> +<TH ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" COLSPAN="3"> +The Problem. +</TH> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="30%"> +A father=1 +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"WIDTH="50%"> +Margaret, her mother and Jack= +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"WIDTH="20%"> + 3+ 1 +</TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +A patrimony=10 +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +Happiness for Jack and Margaret= +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> +100+ 90 +</TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +Margaret's old friends=1 +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +Margaret's new friends= +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> +1 +</TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +A father's love=1 +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +A husband's love= +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> +10+ 9 +</TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +A father's tyranny=-1 +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +Your respect for human rights= +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> +5+ 6 +</TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> + +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> + +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> +------- +</TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> + +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> + +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> +106 +</TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +</CENTER> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +[See the <a href="#transnote">transcriber's note</A> at the end of this e-book +for more information on the above table.] +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"Now there is the problem, and while we may differ on the estimates, I +think that most sane Americans would agree that the balance is +overwhelmingly in favor of throwing off the yoke of tyranny, and +asserting your rights, established by agreement as well as by nature. +In a like manner I work out all my important problems, so that every +factor is visible and subject to change. +</P> + +<P> +"I only fear that I may not be able to provide for her in a suitable +manner," said Jack. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, you are well off," said the philosopher. "You have some capital +and recognized talent and occupation for it. When I reached +Philadelphia I had an empty stomach and also a Dutch dollar, a few +pennies, two soiled shirts and a pair of dirty stockings in my pockets. +Many years passed and I had a family before I was as well off as you +are." +</P> + +<P> +Dinner was brought in and Jack ate with the Doctor and when the table +was cleared they played with magic squares--an invention of the +philosopher with which he was wont to divert himself and friends of an +evening. When Jack was about to go, the Doctor asked: +</P> + +<P> +"Will you hand me that little red book? I wish to put down a credit +mark for my conscience. This old foot of mine has been rather impudent +to-day. There have been moments when I could have expressed my opinion +of it with joyous violence. But I did not. I let it carry on like a +tinker in a public house, and never said a word." +</P> + +<P> +He showed the boy an interesting table containing the days of the week, +at the head of seven columns, and opposite cross-columns below were the +virtues he aimed to acquire--patience, temperance, frugality and the +like. The book contained a table for every week in the year. It had +been his practise, at the end of each day, to enter a black mark +opposite the virtues in which he had failed. +</P> + +<P> +It was a curious and impressive document--a frank, candid record in +black and white of the history of a human soul. To Jack it had a +sacred aspect like the story of the trials of Job. +</P> + +<P> +"I begin to understand how you have built up this wonderful structure +we call Franklin," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, it is but a poor and shaky thing at best, likely to tumble in a +high wind--but some work has gone into it," said the old gentleman. +"You see these white pages are rather spotted, but when I look over the +history of my spirit, as I do now and then, I observe that the pages +are slowly getting cleaner. There is not so much ink on them as there +used to be. You see I was once a free thinker. I had no gods to +bother me, and my friends were of the same stripe. In time I +discovered that they were a lot of scamps and that I was little better. +I found myself in the wrong road and immediately faced about. Then I +began keeping these tables. They have been a help to me." +</P> + +<P> +This reminded Jack of the evil words of the melancholy Mr. Pinhorn +which had been so promptly rebuked by his friend John Adams on the ride +to Philadelphia. The young man made a copy of one of the tables and +was saying good night to his venerable friend when the latter remarked: +</P> + +<P> +"I shall go to Sir John Pringle's in the morning for advice. He is a +noted physician. My man will be having a day off. Could you go with +me at ten?" +</P> + +<P> +"Gladly," said Jack. +</P> + +<P> +"Then I shall pick you up at your lodgings. You will see your rival at +Pringle's. He is at home on leave and has been going to Sir John's +office every Tuesday morning at ten-thirty with his father. General +Clarke, a gruff, gouty old hero of the French and Indian wars and an +aggressive Tory. He is forever tossing and goring the Whigs. It may +be the only chance you will have to see that rival of yours. He is a +handsome lad." +</P> + +<P> +Doctor Franklin, with his crutch beside him in the cab, called for his +young friend at the hour appointed. +</P> + +<P> +"I go to his office when I have need of his advice," said the Doctor. +"If ever he came to me, the wretch would charge me two guineas. We +have much argument over the processes of life in the human body, of +which I have gained some little knowledge. Often he flatters me by +seeking my counsel in difficult cases." +</P> + +<P> +The office of the Doctor Baronet was on the first floor of a large +building in Gough Square, Fleet Street. A number of gentlemen sat in +comfortable chairs in a large waiting room. +</P> + +<P> +"Sir John will see you in a moment, sir," an attendant said to Doctor +Franklin as they entered. The moment was a very long one. +</P> + +<P> +"In London there are many people who disagree with the clock," Franklin +laughed. "In this office, even the moments have the gout. They limp +along with slow feet." +</P> + +<P> +It was a gloomy room. The chairs, lounges and tables had a venerable +look like that of the men who came there with warped legs and old +mahogany faces. The red rugs and hangings suggested "the effect of old +port on the human countenance, being of a hue like unto that of many +cheeks and noses in the waiting company," as the young man wrote. The +door to the private room of the great physician creaked on its hinges +with a kind of groan when he came out accompanied by a limping patient. +</P> + +<P> +"Wait here for a minute--a gout minute," said Franklin to his young +friend. "When Pringle dismisses me, I will present you." +</P> + +<P> +Jack sat and waited while the room filled with ruddy, crotchety +gentlemen supported by canes or crutches--elderly, old and of middle +age. Among those of the latter class was a giant of a man, erect and +dignified, accompanied by a big blond youngster in a lieutenant's +uniform. He sat down and began to talk with another patient of the +troubles in America. +</P> + +<P> +"I see the damned Yankees have thrown another cargo of tea overboard," +said he in a tone of anger. +</P> + +<P> +"This time it was in Cape Cod. We must give those Yahoos a lesson." +</P> + +<P> +Jack surmised now that here was the aggressive Tory General of whom the +Doctor had spoken and that the young man was his son. +</P> + +<P> +"I fear that it would be a costly business sending men to fight across +three thousand miles of sea," said the other. +</P> + +<P> +"Bosh! There is not one Yankee in a hundred that has the courage of a +rabbit. With a thousand British grenadiers, I would undertake to go +from one end of America to another and amputate the heads of the males, +partly by force and partly by coaxing." +</P> + +<P> +A laugh followed these insulting words. Jack Irons rose quickly and +approached the man who had uttered them. The young American was angry, +but he managed to say with good composure: +</P> + +<P> +"I am an American, sir, and I demand a retraction of those words or a +chance to match my courage against yours." +</P> + +<P> +A murmur of surprise greeted his challenge. +</P> + +<P> +The Britisher turned quickly with color mounting to his brow and +surveyed the sturdy form of the young man. +</P> + +<P> +"I take back nothing that I say," he declared. +</P> + +<P> +"Then, in behalf of my slandered countrymen, I demand the right to +fight you or any Britisher who has the courage to take up your quarrel." +</P> + +<P> +Jack Irons had spoken calmly like one who had weighed his words. +</P> + +<P> +The young Lieutenant who had entered the room with the fiery, +middle-aged Britisher, rose and faced the American and said: +</P> + +<P> +"I will take up his quarrel, sir. Here is my card." +</P> + +<P> +"And here is mine," said Jack. "When will you be at home?" +</P> + +<P> +"At noon to-morrow." +</P> + +<P> +"Some friend of mine will call upon you," Jack assured the other. +</P> + +<P> +A look of surprise came to the face of the Lieutenant as he surveyed +the card in his hand. Jack was prepared for the name he read which was +that of Lionel Clarke. +</P> + +<P> +Franklin wrote some weeks later in a letter to John Irons of Albany: +"When I came out of the physician's office I saw nothing in Jack's face +and manner to suggest the serious proceeding he had entered upon. If I +had, or if some one had dropped a hint to me, I should have done what I +could to prevent this unfortunate affair. He chatted with Sir John a +moment and we went out as if nothing unusual had happened. On the way +to my house we talked of the good weather we were having, of the late +news from America and of my summons to appear before the Privy Council. +He betrayed no sign of the folly which was on foot. I saw him only +once after he helped me into the house and left me to go to his +lodgings. But often I find myself thinking of his handsome face and +heroic figure and gentle voice and hand. He was like a loving son to +me." +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +2 +</H3> + +<P> +That evening Solomon arrived with Preston. Solomon gave a whistle of +relief as he entered their lodgings on Bloomsbury Square and dropped +into a chair. +</P> + +<P> +"Wal, sir! We been flyin' eround as brisk as a bee," he remarked. "I +feel as if I had spraint one leg and spavined t'other. The sun was +over the fore yard when we got back, and since then, we went to see the +wild animals, a hip'pottermas, an' lions, an' tigers, an' snakes, an' a +bird with a neck as long as a hoe handle, an' a head like a tommyhawk. +I wouldn't wonder if he could peck some, an' they say he can fetch a +kick that would knock a hoss down. Gosh! I kind o' felt fer my gun! +Gol darn his pictur'! Think o' bein' kicked by a bird an' havin' to be +picked up an' carried off to be mended. We took a long, crooked trail +hum an' walked all the way. It's kind o' hard footin'." +</P> + +<P> +Solomon spoke with the animation of a boy. At last he had found +something in London which had pleased and excited him. +</P> + +<P> +"Did you have a good time at Sir Jeffrey's?" the young man asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Better'n a barn raisin'! Say, hones', I never seen nothin' like +it--'twere so blandiferous! At fust I were a leetle bit like a man +tied to a tree--felt so helpless an' unsart'in. Didn't know what were +goin' to happen. Then ol' Jeff come an' ontied me, as ye might say, +an' I 'gun to feel right. 'Course Preston tol' me not to be +skeered--that the doin's would be friendly, an' they was. Gol darn my +pictur'! I'll bet a pint o' powder an' a fish hook thar ain't no nicer +womern in this world than ol' Jeff's wife--not one. I give her my +jack-knife. She ast me fer it. 'Twere a good knife, but I were glad +to give it to her. Gosh! I dunno what she wants to do with it. Mebbe +she likes to whittle. They's some does. I kind o' like it myself. I +warned her to be keerful not to cut herself 'cause 'twere sharper'n the +tooth o' a weasel. The vittles was tasty--no common ven'son er moose +meat, but the best roast beef, an' mutton, an' ham an' jest 'nough +Santa Cruz rum to keep the timber floatin'! They snickered when I tol' +'em I'd take my tea bar' foot. I set 'mongst a lot o' young folks, +mostly gals, full o' laugh an' ginger, an' as purty to look at as a +flock o' red birds, an' I sot thar tellin' stories 'bout the Injun +wars, an' bear, an' moose, an' painters till the moon were down an' a +clock hollered one. Then I let each o' them gals snip off a grab o' my +hair. I dunno what they wanted to do with it, but they 'pear to be as +fond o' takin' hair as Injuns. Mebbe 'twas fer good luck. I wouldn't +wonder if my head looks like it was shingled. Ayes! I had an almighty +good time. +</P> + +<P> +"These 'ere British is good folks as fur as I've been able to look 'em +over. It's the gov'ment that's down on us an' the gov'ment ain't the +people--you hear to me. They's lots o' good, friendly folks here, but +I'm ready to go hum. They's a ship leaves Dover Thursday 'fore sunrise +an' my name is put down." +</P> + +<P> +Jack told them in detail of the unfortunate event of the morning. +</P> + +<P> +Solomon whistled while his face began to get ready for a shot. +</P> + +<P> +"Neevarious!" he exclaimed. "Here's suthin' that'll have to be 'tended +to 'fore I take the water." +</P> + +<P> +"Clarke is full of hartshorn and vinegar," said Preston. "He was like +that in America. He could make more trouble in ten minutes than a +regiment could mend in a year. He is what you would call 'a mean +cuss.' But for him and Lord Cornwallis, I should be back in the +service. They blame me for the present posture of affairs in America." +</P> + +<P> +"Jack, I'm glad that young pup ain't me," said Solomon. "Thar never +was a man better cocalated to please a friend er hurt an enemy. If he +was to say pistols I guess that ol' sling o' yours would bu'st out +laughin' an' I ain't no idee he could stan' a minnit in front o' your +hanger." +</P> + +<P> +"It's bad business, and especially for you," said Preston. "Dueling is +not so much in favor here as in France. Of course there are duels, but +the best people in England are set against the practise. You would be +sure to get the worst of it. The old General is a favorite of the +King. He is booked for knighthood. If you were to kill his son in the +present state of feeling here, your neck would be in danger. If you +were to injure him you would have to make a lucky escape, or go to +prison. It is not a pleasant outlook for one who is engaged to an +English girl. He has a great advantage over you." +</P> + +<P> +"True, but it gives me a better chance to vindicate the courage of an +American. I shall fight. I would rather die than lie down to such an +insult. There has been too much of that kind of talk here. It can not +go on in my hearing without being trumped. If I were capable of taking +such an insult, I could never again face the girl I love. There must +be an apology as public as the insult or a fight. I don't want to kill +any man, but I must show them that their cap doesn't fit me." +</P> + +<P> +Jack and Solomon sat up late. The young man had tried to see Margaret +that evening, but the door boy at Sir Benjamin's had informed him that +the family was not at home. He rightly suspected that the boy had done +this under orders from the Baronet. He wrote a long letter to the girl +apprising her of late developments in the relations of the ministry and +Doctor Franklin, regarding which the latter desired no secrecy, and of +his own unhappy situation. +</P> + +<P> +"If I could bear such an insult in silence," he added, "I should be +unworthy of the fairest and dearest girl on earth. With such an +estimate of you, I must keep myself in good countenance. Whatever +happens, be sure that I am loving you with all my heart, and longing +for the time when I can make you my wife." +</P> + +<P> +This letter he put into his pocket with the purpose of asking Preston +to deliver it if circumstances should drive him out of England or into +prison. +</P> + +<P> +Captain Preston went with Solomon Binkus next day to the address on the +card of Lieutenant Clarke. It was the house of the General, who was +waiting with his son in the reception room. They walked together to +the Almack Club. The General was self-contained. It would seem that +his bad opinion of Yankees was not quite so comprehensive as it had +been. The whole proceeding went forward with the utmost politeness. +</P> + +<P> +"General, Mr. Binkus and John Irons, Jr., are my friends," said Captain +Preston. +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed!" the General answered. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, and they are friends of England. They saved my neck in America. +I have assured young Irons that your words, if they were correctly +reported to me, were spoken in haste, and that they do not express your +real opinion." +</P> + +<P> +"And what, sir, were the words reported to you?" the General asked. +</P> + +<P> +Preston repeated them. +</P> + +<P> +"That is my opinion." +</P> + +<P> +"It is mine also," young Clarke declared. +</P> + +<P> +Solomon's face changed quickly. He took deliberate aim at the enemy +and drawled: +</P> + +<P> +"Can't be yer opinion is wuth more than the lives o' these young +fellers that's goin' to fight." +</P> + +<P> +"Gentlemen, you will save time by dropping all thought of apologies," +said the General. +</P> + +<P> +"Then it only remains for you to choose your weapons and agree with us +as to time and place," said Preston. +</P> + +<P> +"I choose pistols," said the young Britisher. "The time and place may +suit your convenience, so it be soon and not too far away," +</P> + +<P> +"Let us say the cow wallow on Shooter's Hill, near the oaks, at sunrise +to-morrow," Preston proposed. +</P> + +<P> +"I agree," the Lieutenant answered. +</P> + +<P> +"Whatever comes of it, let us have secrecy and all possible protection +from each side to the other when the affair is ended," said Preston. +</P> + +<P> +"I agree to that also," was the answer of young Clarke. +</P> + +<P> +When they were leaving, Solomon said to Preston: +</P> + +<P> +"That 'ere Gin'ral is as big as Goliar." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IX +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE ENCOUNTER +</H3> + +<P> +Solomon, Jack and their friend left London that afternoon in the saddle +and took lodgings at The Rose and Garter, less than a mile from the +scene appointed for the encounter. That morning the Americans had sent +a friend of Preston by post chaise to Deal, with Solomon's luggage. +Preston had also engaged the celebrated surgeon, Doctor Brooks, to +spend the night with them so that he would be sure to be on hand in the +morning. The doctor had officiated at no less than a dozen duels and +enjoyed these affairs so keenly that he was glad to give his help +without a fee. The party had gone out in the saddle because Preston +had said that the horses might be useful. +</P> + +<P> +So, having discussed the perils of the immediate future, they had done +all it was in their power to do to prepare for them. Late that evening +the General and his son and four other gentlemen arrived at The Rose +and Garter. Certain of them had spent the afternoon in the +neighborhood shooting birds and rabbits. +</P> + +<P> +Solomon got Jack to bed early and sat for a time in their room +tinkering with the pistols. When the locks were working "right," as he +put it, he polished their grips and barrels. +</P> + +<P> +"Now I reckon they'll speak out when ye pull the trigger," he said to +Jack. "An' yer eyesight 'll skate erlong easy on the top o' them +bar'ls." +</P> + +<P> +"It's a miserable kind of business," said the young man, who was lying +in bed and looking at his friend. "We Americans have a rather hard +time of it, I say. Life is a fight from beginning to end. We have had +to fight with the wilderness for our land and with the Indians and the +French for our lives, and now the British come along and tell us what +we must and mustn't do and burn up our houses." +</P> + +<P> +"An' spit on us an' talk as if we was a lot o' boar pigs," said +Solomon. "But ol' Jeff tol' me 'twere the King an' his crowd that was +makin' all the trouble." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, the King and his army can make us trouble enough," Jack +answered. "It's as necessary for an American to know how to fight as +to know how to walk." +</P> + +<P> +"Now ye stop worryin' an' go to sleep 'er I'll take ye crost my knee," +said Solomon. "They ain't goin' to be no great damage done, not if ye +do as I tell ye. I've been an' looked the ground over an' if we have +to leg it, I know which way to go." +</P> + +<P> +Solomon had heard from Preston that evening that the Lieutenant was the +best pistol shot in his regiment, but he kept the gossip to himself, +knowing it would not improve the aim of his young friend. But Solomon +was made uneasy by this report. +</P> + +<P> +"My boy kin throw a bullet straight as a plumb line an' quick as +lightnin'," he had said to Preston. "It's as nat'ral fer him as +drawin' his breath. That ere chap may git bored 'fore he has time to +pull. I ain't much skeered." +</P> + +<P> +Jack was nervous, although not from fear. His estimate of the value of +human life had been increased by his affection for Margaret. When +Solomon had gone to bed and the lights were blown, the young man felt +every side of his predicament to see if there were any peaceable way +out of it. For hours he labored with this hopeless task, until he fell +into a troubled sleep, in which he saw great battalions marching toward +each other. On one side, the figures of himself and Solomon were +repeated thousands of times, and on the other was a host of Lionel +Clarkes. +</P> + +<P> +The words came to his ear: "My son, we're goin' to fight the first +battle o' the war." +</P> + +<P> +Jack awoke suddenly and opened his eyes. The candle was lighted. +Solomon was leaning over him. He was drawing on his trousers. +</P> + +<P> +"Come, my son," said the scout in a gentle voice. "They ain't a cloud +an' the moon has got a smile on her face. Come, my young David. +Here's the breeches an' the purty stockin's an' shoes, an' the lily +white shirt. Slip 'em on an' we'll kneel down an' have a word o' +prayer. This 'ere ain't no common fight. It's a battle with tyranny. +It's like the fight o' David an' Goliar. Here's yer ol' sling waitin' +fer ye!" +</P> + +<P> +Solomon felt the pistols and stroked their grips with a loving hand. +</P> + +<P> +Side by side they knelt by the bed together for a moment of silent +prayer. +</P> + +<P> +Others were stirring in the inn. They could hear footsteps and low +voices in a room near them. Jack put on his suit of brown velvet and +his white silk stockings and best linen, which he had brought in a +small bag. Jack was looking at the pistols, when there came a rap at +the door. Preston entered with Doctor Brooks. +</P> + +<P> +"We are to go out quietly ahead of the others," said the Captain. +"They will follow in five minutes." +</P> + +<P> +Solomon had put on the old hanger which had come to England with him in +his box. He put the pistols in his pocket and they left the inn by a +rear door. A groom was waiting there with the horses saddled and +bridled. They mounted them and rode to the field of honor. When they +dismounted on the ground chosen, the day was dawning, but the great +oaks were still waist deep in gloom. It was cold. +</P> + +<P> +Preston called his friends to his side and said: +</P> + +<P> +"You will fight at twenty paces. I shall count three and when I drop +my handkerchief you are both to fire." +</P> + +<P> +Solomon turned to Jack and said: +</P> + +<P> +"If ye fire quick mebbe ye'll take the crook out o' his finger 'fore it +has time to pull." +</P> + +<P> +The other party was coming. There were six men in it. The General and +his son and one other were in military dress. The General was chatting +with a friend. The pistols were loaded by Solomon and General Clarke, +while each watched the other. The Lieutenant's friends and seconds +stood close together laughing at some jest. +</P> + +<P> +"That's funny, I'll say, what--what!" said one of the gentlemen. +</P> + +<P> +Jack turned to look at him, for there had been a curious inflection in +his "what, what!" He was a stout, highly colored man with large, +staring gray eyes. The young American wondered where he had seen him +before. +</P> + +<P> +Preston paced the ground and laid down strips of white ribband marking +the distance which was to separate the principals. He summoned the +young men and said: "Gentlemen, is there no way in which your honor can +be satisfied without fighting?" +</P> + +<P> +They shook their heads. +</P> + +<P> +"Your stations have been chosen by lot. Irons, yours is there. Take +your ground, gentlemen." +</P> + +<P> +The young men walked to their places and at this point the graphic +Major Solomon Binkus, whose keen eyes observed every detail of the +scene, is able to assume the position of narrator, the words which +follow being from a letter he wrote to John Irons of Albany. +</P> + +<P> +"Our young David stood up thar as straight an' han'some as a young +spruce on a still day--not a quiver in ary twig. The Clarke boy was a +leetle pale an' when he raised his pistol I could see a twitch in his +lips. He looked kind o' stiff. I see they was one thing' 'bout +shootin' he hadn't learnt. It don't do to tighten up. I were +skeered--I don't deny it--'cause a gun don't allus have to be p'inted +careful to kill a man. +</P> + +<P> +"We all stood watchin' every move. I could hear a bird singin' twenty +rod,--'twere that still. Preston stood a leetle out o' line 'bout +half-way betwixt 'em. Up come his hand with the han'kerchief in it. +Then Jack raised his pistol and took a peek down the line he wanted. +The han'kerchief was in the air. Don't seem so it had fell an inch +when the pistols went pop! pop! Jack's hollered fust. Clarke's pistol +fell. His arm dropped an' swung limp as a rope's end. His hand turned +red an' blood began to spurt above it. I see Jack's bullet had jumped +into his right wrist an' tore it wide open. The Lieutenant staggered, +bleedin' like a stuck whale. He'd 'a' gone to the ground but his +friends grabbed him. I run to Jack. +</P> + +<P> +"'Be ye hit?' I says. +</P> + +<P> +"'I think his bullet teched me a little on the top o' the left +shoulder,' says he. +</P> + +<P> +"I see his coat were tore an' we took it off an' the jacket, an' I +ripped the shirt some an' see that the bullet had kind o' scuffed its +foot on him goin' by, an' left a track in the skin. It didn't mount to +nothin'. The Doctor washed it off an' put a plaster on. +</P> + +<P> +"'Looks as if he'd drawed a line on yer heart an' yer bullet had lifted +his aim,' I says. 'Ye shoot quick, Jack, an' mebbe that's what saved +ye.' +</P> + +<P> +"It looked kind o' neevarious like that 'ere Englishman had intended +they was goin' to be one Yankee less. Jack put on his jacket an' his +coat an' we stepped over to see how they was gettin' erlong with the +other feller. The two doctors was tryin' fer to fix his arm and he +were groanin' severe. Jack leaned over and looked down at him. +</P> + +<P> +"'I'm sorry,' he says. 'Is there anything I can do?' +</P> + +<P> +"'No, sir. You've done enuff,' growled the old General. +</P> + +<P> +"One o' his party stepped up to Jack. He were dressed like a high-up +officer in the army. They was a cur'ous look in his eyes--kind o' +skeered like. Seemed so I'd seen him afore somewheres. +</P> + +<P> +"'I fancy ye're a good shot, sir--a good shot, sir--what--what?' he +says to Jack, an' the words come as fast as a bird's twitter. +</P> + +<P> +"I've had a lot o' practise,' says our boy. +</P> + +<P> +"'Kin ye kill that bird--what--what?" says he, p'intin' at a hawk that +were a-cuttin' circles in the air. +</P> + +<P> +"'If he comes clus' 'nough,' says Jack. +</P> + +<P> +"I passed him the loaded pistol. In 'bout two seconds he lifted it and +bang she went, an' down come the hawk. +</P> + +<P> +"Them fellers all looked at one 'nother. +</P> + +<P> +"'Gin'ral, shake hands with this 'ere boy,' says the man with the +skeered eyes. 'If he is a Yankey he's a decent lad--what--what?' +</P> + +<P> +"The Gin'ral shook hands with Jack an', says he: 'Young man, I have no +doubt o' 'yer curidge or yer decency.' +</P> + +<P> +"A grand pair o' hosses an' a closed coach druv up an' the ol' +what-whatter an' two other men got into it an' hustled off 'cross the +field towards the pike which it looked as if they was in a hurry. +'Fore he were out o' sight a military amb'lance druv up. Preston come +over to us an' says he: +</P> + +<P> +"'We better be goin'.' +</P> + +<P> +"'Do ye know who he were?' asks Jack. +</P> + +<P> +"'If ye know ye better fergit it,' says Preston. +</P> + +<P> +"'How could I? He were the King o' England,' says Jack. 'I knowed him +by the look o' his eyes.' +</P> + +<P> +"'Sart'in sure,' says I. 'He's the man that wus bein' toted in a +chair.' +</P> + +<P> +"'Hush! I tell ye to fergit it,' says Preston. +</P> + +<P> +"'I can fergit all but the fact that he behaved like a gentleman,' says +Jack. +</P> + +<P> +"'I 'spose he were usin' his private brain,' says I." +</P> + +<P> +This, with some slight changes in spelling, paragraphing and +punctuation, is the account which Solomon Binkus gave of the most +exciting adventure these two friends had met with. +</P> + +<P> +Preston came to Jack and whispered: "The outcome is a great surprise to +the other side. Young Clarke is a dead shot. An injured officer of +the English army may cause unexpected embarrassment. But you have time +enough and no haste. You can take the post chaise and reach the ship +well ahead of her sailing." +</P> + +<P> +"I am of a mind not to go with you," Jack said to Solomon. "When I go, +I shall take Margaret with me." +</P> + +<P> +So it happened that Jack returned to London while Solomon waited for +the post chaise to Deal. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER X +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE LADY OF THE HIDDEN FACE +</H3> + +<P> +Next morning at ten, the door boy at his lodgings informed Jack that a +lady was waiting to see him in the parlor. The lady was deeply veiled. +She did not speak, but arose as he entered the room and handed him a +note. She was tall and erect with a fine carriage. Her silence was +impressive, her costume admirable. +</P> + +<P> +The note in a script unfamiliar to the young man was as follows: +</P> + +<P> +"You will find Margaret waiting in a coach at eleven to-day at the +corner of Harley Street and Twickenham Road." +</P> + +<P> +The veiled lady walked to the door and turned and stood looking at him. +</P> + +<P> +Her attitude said clearly: "Well, what is your answer ?" +</P> + +<P> +"I will be there at eleven," said the young man. The veiled lady +nodded, as if to indicate that her mission was ended, and withdrew. +</P> + +<P> +Jack was thrilled by the information but wondered why it was so wrapped +in mystery. Not ten minutes had passed after the departure of the +veiled lady when a messenger came with a note from Sir Benjamin Hare. +In a cordial tone, it invited Jack to breakfast at the Almack Club at +twelve-thirty. The young man returned his acceptance by the same +messenger, and in his best morning suit went to meet Margaret. A cab +conveyed him to the corner named. There was the coach with shades +drawn low, waiting. A footman stood near it. The door was opened and +he saw Margaret looking out at him and shaking her hand. +</P> + +<P> +"You see what a sly thing I am!" she said when, the greetings over, he +sat by her side and the coach was moving. "A London girl knows how to +get her way. She is terribly wise, Jack." +</P> + +<P> +"But, tell me, who was the veiled lady?" +</P> + +<P> +"A go-between. She makes her living that way. She is wise, discreet +and reliable. There is employment for many such in this wicked city. +I feel disgraced, Jack. I hope you will not think that I am accustomed +to dark and secret ways. This has worried and distressed me, but I had +to see you." +</P> + +<P> +"And I was longing for a look at you," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"I was sure you would not know how to pull these ropes of intrigue. I +have heard all about them. I couldn't help that, you know, and be a +young lady who is quite alive." +</P> + +<P> +"Our time is short and I have much to say," said Jack. "I am to +breakfast with your father at the Almack Club at twelve-thirty." +</P> + +<P> +She clapped her hands and said, with a laughing face, "I knew he would +ask you!" +</P> + +<P> +"Margaret, I want to take you to America with the approval of your +father, if possible, and without it, if necessary." +</P> + +<P> +"I think you will get his approval," said the girl with enthusiasm. +"He has heard all about the duel. He says every one he met, of the +court party, last evening, was speaking of it. They agree that the old +General needed that lesson. Jack, how proud I am of you!" +</P> + +<P> +She pressed his hand in both of hers. +</P> + +<P> +"I couldn't help knowing how to shoot," he answered. "And I would not +be worthy to touch this fair hand of yours if I had failed to resent an +insult." +</P> + +<P> +"Although he is a friend of the General, my father was pleased," she +went on. "He calls you a good sport. 'A young man of high spirit who +is not to be played with,' that is what he said. Now, Jack, if you do +not stick too hard on principles--if you can yield, only a little, I am +sure he will let us be married." +</P> + +<P> +"I am eager to hear what he may say now," said Jack. "Whatever it may +be, let us stick together and go to America and be happy. It would be +a dark world without you. May I see you to-morrow?" +</P> + +<P> +"At the same hour and place," she answered. +</P> + +<P> +They talked of the home they would have in Philadelphia and planned its +garden, Jack having told of the site he had bought with great trees and +a river view. They spent an hour which lent its abundant happiness to +many a long year and when they parted, soon after twelve o'clock, Jack +hurried away to keep his appointment. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +2 +</H3> + +<P> +Sir Benjamin received the young man with a warm greeting and friendly +words. Their breakfast was served in a small room where they were +alone together, and when they were seated the Baronet observed: +</P> + +<P> +"I have heard of the duel. It has set some of the best tongues in +England wagging in praise of 'the Yankee boy.' One would scarcely have +expected that." +</P> + +<P> +"No, I was prepared to run for my life--not that I planned to do any +great damage," said Jack. +</P> + +<P> +"You can shoot straight--that is evident. They call your delivery of +that bullet swift, accurate and merciful. Your behavior has pleased +some very eminent people. The blustering talk of the General excites +no sympathy here. In London, strangers are not likely to be treated as +you were." +</P> + +<P> +"If I did not believe that I should be leaving it," said Jack. "I +should not like to take up dueling for an amusement, as some men have +done in France." +</P> + +<P> +"You are a well built man inside and out," Sir Benjamin answered. "You +might have a great future in England. I speak advisedly." +</P> + +<P> +Their talk had taken a turn quite unexpected. It flattered the young +man. He blushed and answered: +</P> + +<P> +"Sir Benjamin, I have no great faith in my talents." +</P> + +<P> +"On terms which I would call easy, you could have fame, honor and +riches, I would say." +</P> + +<P> +"At present I want only your daughter. As to the rest, I shall make +myself content with what may naturally come to me." +</P> + +<P> +"And let me name the terms on which I should be glad to welcome you to +my family." +</P> + +<P> +"What are the terms?" +</P> + +<P> +"Loyalty to your King and a will to understand and assist his plans." +</P> + +<P> +"I could not follow him unless he will change his plans." +</P> + +<P> +The Baronet put down his fork and looked up at the young man. "Do you +really mean what you say?" he demanded. "Is it so difficult for you to +do your duty as a British subject?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sir Benjamin, always I have been taught that it is the duty of a +British subject to resist oppression. The plans of the King are +oppressive. I can not fall in with them. I love Margaret as I love my +life, but I must keep myself worthy of her. If I could think so well +of my conduct, it is because I have principles that are inviolable." +</P> + +<P> +"At least I hope you would promise me not to take up arms against the +King." +</P> + +<P> +"Please don't ask me to do that. It would grieve me to fight against +England. I hope it may never be, but I would rather fight than submit +to tyranny." +</P> + +<P> +The Baronet made no reply to this declaration so firmly made. A new +look came into his face. Indignation and resentment were there, but he +did not forget the duty of a host. He began to speak of other things. +The breakfast went on to its end in an atmosphere of cool politeness. +</P> + +<P> +When they were out upon the street together, Sir Benjamin turned to him +and said: +</P> + +<P> +"Now that we are on neutral ground, I want to say that you Americans +are a stiff-necked lot of people. You are not like any other breed of +men. I am done with you. My way can not be yours. Let us part as +friends and gentlemen ought to part. I say good-by with a sense of +regret. I shall never forget your service to my wife and daughter." +</P> + +<P> +"Think not of that," said the young man. "What I did for them I would +do for any one who needed my help." +</P> + +<P> +"I have to ask you to give up all hope of marrying my daughter." +</P> + +<P> +"That I can not do," said Jack. "Over that hope I have no control. I +might as well promise not to breathe." +</P> + +<P> +"But I must ask you to give me your word as a gentleman that you will +hold no further communication with her." +</P> + +<P> +"Sir Benjamin, I shall be frank with you. It is an unfair request. I +can not agree to it." +</P> + +<P> +"What do you say?" the Englishman asked in a tone of astonishment, and +his query was emphasized with a firm tap of his cane on the pavement. +</P> + +<P> +"I hate to displease you, sir, but if I made such a promise, I would be +sure to break it." +</P> + +<P> +"Then, sir, I shall see to it that you have no opportunity to oppose my +will." +</P> + +<P> +In spite of his fine restraint, the eyes of the Baronet glowed with +anger, as he quickly turned from the young man and hurried away. +</P> + +<P> +"Here is more tyranny," the American thought as he went in the opposite +direction. "But I do not believe he can keep us apart." +</P> + +<P> +"I walked on and on," he wrote to a friend. "Never had I felt such a +sense of loss and loneliness and dejection. I almost resented the +inflexible tyranny of my own spirit which had turned him against me. I +accused myself of a kind of selfishness in the matter. Had it been +right in me to take a course which endangered the happiness of another, +to say nothing of my own? But I couldn't have done otherwise, not if I +had known that a mountain were to fall upon me. I am like all of those +who follow the star in the west. We do as we must. I had not seen +Franklin since my duel, and largely because I had been ashamed to face +him. Now I felt the need of his wisdom and so I turned my steps toward +his door." +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +3 +</H3> + +<P> +"I am like the land of Goshen amid the plagues of Egypt," said +Franklin, when the young man was admitted to his office. "My gout is +gone and I am in good spirits in spite of your adventure." +</P> + +<P> +"And I suppose you will scold me for the adventure." +</P> + +<P> +"You will scold yourself when the consequences have arrived. They will +be sure to give you a spanking. The deed is done, and well done. On +the whole I think it has been good for the cause, but bad for you." +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"You may have to run out of England to save your neck and the face of +the King. He was there, I believe?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir." + +"The injured lad is in a bad way. The wound caught an infection. +Intense fever and swelling have set in. I helped Sir John Pringle to +amputate the arm this afternoon, but even that may not save the +patient. Here is a storm to warn the wandering linnet to his shade. A +ship goes to-morrow evening. Get ready to take it. In that case your +marriage will have to be delayed. Rash men are often compelled to live +on hope and die fasting." +</P> + +<P> +"With Sir Benjamin, the duel has been a help instead of a hindrance," +said the young man. "My stubborn soul has been the great obstacle." +</P> + +<P> +Then he told of his interview with Sir Benjamin Hare. +</P> + +<P> +Franklin put his hand on Jack's shoulder and said with a smile: +</P> + +<P> +"My son, I love you. I could wish you to be no different. Cheer up. +Time will lay the dust, and perhaps sooner than you think." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope to see Margaret to-morrow morning." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, then, 'what Grecian arts of soft persuasion!'" Franklin quoted. +"I hope that she, too, will follow the great star in the west!" +</P> + +<P> +"I hope so, but I greatly fear that our meeting will be prevented." +</P> + +<P> +"Did you get my note of to-day at your lodgings?" Franklin asked. +</P> + +<P> +"No," said Jack. "I left there soon after ten." +</P> + +<P> +"Lord Chatham has kindly offered to secure admission for you and me to +the House of Lords. He is making an important motion. Come, let us go +and see the hereditary legislators." +</P> + +<P> +Lord Stanhope met them at the door of the House of Lords. There was a +great bustle among the officers when His Lordship announced their names +and his desire to have them admitted. The officers hurried in after +members and there was some delay, in the course of which the Americans +were turned from the division reserved for eldest sons and brothers of +peers. Not less than ten minutes were consumed in the process of +seating Franklin and his friend. +</P> + +<P> +Soon Lord Chatham arose and moved that His Majesty's forces be +withdrawn from Boston. With a singular charm of personality and +address, the great dissenter made his speech. Jack wrote in his diary +that evening: "The most captivating figure that ever I saw is a +well-bred Englishman trained in the art of public speaking." The words +were no doubt inspired by the impressive speech of Chatham, which is +now an imperishable part of the history of England. These words from +it the young man remembered: +</P> + +<P> +"If the ministers thus persevere in misleading and misadvising the +King, I will not say that they can alienate the affection of his +subjects from his crown, but I will affirm that they will make his +crown not worth his wearing; I will not say that the King is betrayed, +but I will say that the kingdom is undone." +</P> + +<P> +Lord Sandwich in a petulant speech declared that the motion ought not +to be received. He could never believe it the production of a British +peer. Turning toward Franklin, he flung out: +</P> + +<P> +"I fancy that I have in my eye the person who drew it up--one of the +bitterest and most mischievous enemies this country has ever known." +</P> + +<P> +"Franklin sat immovable and without the slightest change in his +countenance," Jack wrote in a letter to <I>The Pennsylvania Gazette</I>. +</P> + +<P> +Chatham declared that the motion was his own, and added: +</P> + +<P> +"If I were the first minister of this country, charged with the +settling of its momentous business, I should not be ashamed to call to +my assistance a man so perfectly acquainted with all American affairs, +as the gentleman so injuriously referred to--one whom all Europe holds +in high estimation for his knowledge and wisdom, which are an honor, +not only to England, but to human nature." +</P> + +<P> +"Franklin told me that this was harder for him to bear than the abuse, +but he kept his countenance as blank as a sheet of white paper," Jack +wrote. "There was much vehement declamation against the measure and it +was rejected. +</P> + +<P> +"When we had left the chamber, Franklin said to me: +</P> + +<P> +"'That motion was made by the first statesman of the age, who took the +helm of state when the latter was in the depths of despondency and led +it to glorious victory through a war with two of the mightiest kingdoms +in Europe. Only a few of those men had the slightest understanding of +its merits. Yet they would not even consider it in a second reading. +They are satisfied with their ignorance. They have nothing to learn. +Hereditary legislators! There would be more propriety in hereditary +professors of mathematics! Heredity is a great success with only one +kind of creature.' +</P> + +<P> +"'What creature?' I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"'The ass,' he answered, with as serious a countenance as I have seen +him wear. +</P> + +<P> +"No further word was spoken as we rode back to his home," the young man +wrote. "We knew the die had been cast. We had seen it fall carelessly +out of the hand of Ignorance, obeying intellects swelled with +hereditary passion and conceit. I now had something to say to my +countrymen." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XI +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE DEPARTURE +</H3> + +<P> +That evening Jack received a brief note from Preston. It said: +</P> + +<P> +"I learn that young Clarke is very ill. I think you would better get +out of England for fear of what may come. A trial would be apt to +cause embarrassment in high places. Can I give you assistance?" +</P> + +<P> +Jack returned this note by the same messenger: +</P> + +<P> +"Thanks, good friend, I shall go as soon as my business is finished, +which I hope may be to-morrow." +</P> + +<P> +Just before the young man went to bed a brief note arrived from +Margaret. It read; +</P> + +<P> +<BR> +"DEAREST JACK. My father has learned of our meeting yesterday and of +how it came about. He is angry. He forbids another meeting. I shall +not submit to his tyranny. We must assert our rights like good +Americans. I have a plan. You will learn of it when we meet to-morrow +at eleven. Do not send an answer. Lovingly, MARGARET." +<BR> +</P> + +<P> +He slept little, and in the morning awaited with keen impatience the +hour of his appointment. +</P> + +<P> +On his way to the place he heard a newsboy shouting the words "duel" +and "Yankee," followed by the suggestive statement: "Bloody murder in +high life." +</P> + +<P> +Evidently Lionel Clarke had died of his wound. He saw people standing +in groups and reading the paper. He began to share the nervousness of +Preston and the wise, far-seeing Franklin. He jumped into a cab and +was at the corner some minutes ahead of time. Precisely at eleven he +saw the coach draw near. He hurried to its side. The footman +dismounted and opened the door. Inside he saw, not Margaret, but the +lady of the hidden face. +</P> + +<P> +"You are to get in, sir, and make a little journey with the madame," +said the footman. +</P> + +<P> +Jack got into the coach. Its door closed, the horses started with a +jump and he was on his way whither he knew not. Nor did he know the +reason for the rapid pace at which the horses had begun to travel. +</P> + +<P> +"If you do not mind, sir, we will not lift the shades," said the veiled +lady, as the coach started. "We shall see Margaret soon, I hope." +</P> + +<P> +She had a colorless, cold voice and what was then known in London as +the "patrician manner." Her tone and silence seemed to say: "Please +remember this is all a matter of business and not a highly agreeable +business to me." +</P> + +<P> +"Where is Margaret?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"A long way from here. We shall meet her at The Ship and Anchor in +Gravesend. She will be making the journey by another road." +</P> + +<P> +She had answered in a voice as cold as the day and in the manner of one +who had said quite enough. +</P> + +<P> +"Where is Gravesend?" +</P> + +<P> +"On the Thames near the sea," she answered briskly, as if in pity of +his ignorance. +</P> + +<P> +He saw the plan now--an admirable plan. They were to meet near the +port of sailing and be married and go aboard the ship and away. It was +the plan of Margaret and much better than any he could have made, for +he knew little of London and its ports. +</P> + +<P> +"Should I not take my baggage with me?" +</P> + +<P> +"There is not time for that," the veiled lady answered. "We must make +haste. I have some clothes for you in a bag." +</P> + +<P> +She pointed to a leathern case under the front seat. +</P> + +<P> +He sat thinking of the cleverness of Margaret as they left the edge of +the city and hurried away on the east turnpike. A mist was coming up +from the sea. The air ahead had the color of a wool stack. They +stopped at an inn to feed and water the horses and went on in a dense +fog, which covered the hedge rows on either side and lay thick on the +earth so that the horses seemed to be wading in it. Their pace slowed +to a walk. From that time on, the road was like a long ford over which +they proceeded with caution, the driver now and then winding a horn. +</P> + +<P> +Each sat quietly in a corner of the seat with a wall of cold fog +between them. The young man liked it better than the wall of mystery +through which he had been able to see the silent, veiled form beside +him. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you have much weather like this?" he ventured to inquire by and by. +</P> + +<P> +This answer came out of the bank of fog: "Yes," as if she would have +him understand that she was not being paid for conversation. +</P> + +<P> +From that time forward they rode in a silence broken only by the +creaking of the coach and the sound of the horses' hoofs. Darkness had +fallen when they reached the little city of Gravesend. The Ship and +Anchor stood by the water's edge. +</P> + +<P> +"You will please wait here," said the stern lady in a milder voice than +she had used before, as the coach drew up at the inn door, "I shall see +if she has come." +</P> + +<P> +His strange companion entered the inn and returned presently, saying: +"She has not yet arrived. Delayed by the fog. We will have our +dinner, if you please." +</P> + +<P> +Jack had not broken his fast since nine and felt keenly the need of +refreshment, but he answered: +</P> + +<P> +"I think that I would better wait for Margaret." +</P> + +<P> +"No, she will have dined at Tillbury," said the masterful lady. "It +will save time. Please come and have dinner, sir." +</P> + +<P> +He followed her into the inn. The landlady, a stout, obsequious woman, +led them to a small dining-room above stairs lighted by many candles +where an open fire was burning cheerfully. +</P> + +<P> +A handsomely dressed man waited by them for orders and retired with the +landlady when they were given. +</P> + +<P> +From this point the scene at the inn is described in the diary of the +American. +</P> + +<P> +"She drew off her hat and veil and a young woman about twenty-eight +years of age and of astonishing beauty stood before me." +</P> + +<P> +"'There, now, I am out of business,' she remarked in a pleasant voice +as she sat down at the table which, had been spread before the +fireplace. 'I will do my best to be a companion to you until Margaret +arrives.' +</P> + +<P> +"She looked into my eyes and smiled. Her sheath of ice had fallen from +her. +</P> + +<P> +"'You will please forgive my impertinence,' said she. 'I earn my +living by it. In a world of sentiment and passion I must be as cold +and bloodless as a stone, but in fact, I am very--very human.' +</P> + +<P> +"The waiter came with a tray containing soup, glasses and a bottle of +sherry. We sat down at the table and our waiter filled two glasses +with the sherry. +</P> + +<P> +"'Thank you, but self-denial is another duty of mine,' she remarked +when I offered her a glass of the wine. 'I live in a tipsy world and +drink--water. I live in a merry world and keep a stern face. It is a +vile world and yet I am unpolluted.' +</P> + +<P> +"I drank my glass of wine and had begun to eat my soup when a strange +feeling came over me. My plate seemed to be sinking through the table. +The wall and fireplace were receding into dim distance. I knew then +that I had tasted the cup of Circe. My hands fell through my lap and +suddenly the day ended. It was like sawing off a board. The end had +fallen. There is nothing more to be said of it because my brain had +ceased to receive and record impressions. I was as totally out of +business as a man in his grave. When I came to, I was in a berth on +the ship <I>King William</I> bound for New York. As soon as I knew +anything, I knew that I had been tricked. My clothes had been removed +and were lying on a chair near me. My watch and money were +undisturbed. I had a severe pain in my head. I dressed and went up on +deck. The Captain was there. +</P> + +<P> +"'You must have had a night of it in Gravesend,' he said. 'You were +like a dead man when they brought you aboard.' +</P> + +<P> +"'Where am I going?' I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"'To New York,' he answered with a laugh. 'You must have had a time!' +</P> + +<P> +"How much is the fare?" +</P> + +<P> +"'Young man, that need not concern you,' said the Captain. 'Your fare +has been paid in full. I saw them put a letter in your pocket. Have +you read it?'" +</P> + +<P> +Jack found the letter and read: +</P> + +<P> +<BR> +"DEAR SIR--When you see this you will be well out of danger and, it is +hoped, none the worse for your dissipation. This from one who admires +your skill and courage and who advises you to keep out of England for +at least a year. +</P> + +<P> + "A WELL WISHER." +<BR> +</P> + +<P> +He looked back over the stern of the ship. The shore had fallen out of +sight. The sky was clear. The sun shining. The wind was blowing from +the east. +</P> + +<P> +He stood for a long time looking toward the land he had left. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, ye wings of the wind! take my love to her and give her news of me +and bid her to be steadfast in her faith and hope," he whispered. +</P> + +<P> +He leaned against the bulwark and tried to think. +</P> + +<P> +"Sir Benjamin has seen to it," he said to himself. "I shall have no +opportunity to meet her again." +</P> + +<P> +He reviewed the events of the day and their under-current of intrigue. +The King himself might have been concerned in that and Preston also. +It had been on the whole a rather decent performance, he mused, and +perhaps it had kept him out of worse trouble than he was now in. But +what had happened to Margaret? +</P> + +<P> +He reread her note. +</P> + +<P> +"My father has learned of our meeting and of how it came about," he +quoted. +</P> + +<P> +"More bribery," he thought. "The intrigante naturally sold her +services to the highest bidder." +</P> + +<P> +He recalled the violent haste with which the coach had rolled away from +the place of meeting. Had that been due to a fear that Margaret would +defeat their plans? +</P> + +<P> +All these speculations and regrets were soon put away. But for a long +time one cause of worry was barking at his heels. It slept beside him +and often touched and awoke him at night. He had been responsible for +the death of a human being. What an unlucky hour he had had at Sir +John Pringle's! Yet he found a degree of comfort in the hope that +those proud men might now have a better thought of the Yankees. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XII +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE FRIEND AND THE GIRL HE LEFT BEHIND HIM +</H3> + +<P> +After Jack had been whirled out of London, Franklin called at his +lodgings and learned that he had not been seen for a day. The wise +philosopher entertained no doubt that the young man had taken ship +agreeably with the advice given him. A report had been running through +the clubs of London that Lionel Clarke had succumbed. In fact he had +had a bad turn but had rallied. Jack must have heard the false report +and taken ship suddenly. +</P> + +<P> +Doctor Franklin went that day to the meeting of the Privy Council, +whither he had been sternly summoned for examination in the matter of +the letters of Hutchinson et al. For an hour he had stood unmoved +while Alexander Wedderburn, the wittiest barrister in the kingdom, +poured upon him a torrent of abuse. Even the Judges, against all +traditions of decorum in the high courts of Britain, laughed at the +cleverness of the assault. That was the speech of which Charles James +Fox declared that it was the most expensive bit of oratory which had +been heard in England since it had cost the kingdom its colonies. +</P> + +<P> +It was alleged that in some manner Franklin had stolen the letters and +violated their sacred privacy. It is known now that an English +nobleman had put them in his hands to read and that he was in no way +responsible for their publication. The truth, if it could have been +told, would have bent the proud heads of Wedderburn and the judges to +whom he appealed, in confusion. But Franklin held his peace, as a man +of honor was bound to do. He stood erect and dignified with a face +like one carved in wood. +</P> + +<P> +The counsel for the colonies made a weak defense. The triumph was +complete. The venerable man was convicted of conduct inconsistent with +the character of a gentleman and deprived of his office as Postmaster +General of the Colonies. +</P> + +<P> +But he had two friends in court. They were the Lady Hare and her +daughter. They followed him out of the chamber. In the great hallway, +Margaret, her eyes wet with tears, embraced and kissed the philosopher. +</P> + +<P> +"I want you to know that I am your friend, and that I love America," +she said. +</P> + +<P> +"My daughter, it has been a hard hour, but I am sixty-eight years old +and have learned many things," he answered. "Time is the only avenger +I need. It will lay the dust." +</P> + +<P> +The girl embraced and kissed him again and said in a voice shaking with +emotion: +</P> + +<P> +"I wish my father and all Englishmen to know that I am your friend and +that I have a love that can not be turned aside or destroyed and that I +will have my right as a human being." +</P> + +<P> +"Come let us go and talk together--we three," he proposed. +</P> + +<P> +They took a cab and drove away. +</P> + +<P> +"You will think all this a singular proceeding," Lady Hare remarked. +"I must tell you that rebellion has started in our home. Its peace is +quite destroyed. Margaret has declared her right to the use of her own +mind." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, if she is to use any mind it will have to be that one," Franklin +answered. "I do not see why women should not be entitled to use their +minds as well as their hands and feet." +</P> + +<P> +"I was kept at home yesterday by force," said Margaret. "Every door +locked and guarded! It was brutal tyranny." +</P> + +<P> +"The poor child has my sympathy but what can I do?" Lady Hare inquired. +</P> + +<P> +"Being an American, you can expect but one answer from me," said the +philosopher. "To us tyranny in home or state is intolerable. They +tried it on me when I was a boy and I ran away." +</P> + +<P> +"That is what I shall do if necessary," said Margaret. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, my child! How would you live?" her mother asked. +</P> + +<P> +"I will answer that question for her, if you will let me," said +Franklin. "If she needs it, she shall have an allowance out of my +purse." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, but that would raise a scandal," said the woman. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Your Ladyship, I am old enough to be her grandfather." +</P> + +<P> +"I wish to go with Jack, if you know where he is," Margaret declared, +looking up into the face of the philosopher. +</P> + +<P> +"I think he is pushing toward America," Franklin answered. "Being +alarmed at the condition of his adversary, I advised him to slip away. +A ship went yesterday. Probably he's on it. He had no chance to see +me or to pick up his baggage." +</P> + +<P> +"I shall follow him soon," the girl declared. +</P> + +<P> +"If you will only contain yourself, you will get along with your father +very well," said Lady Hare. "I know him better than you. He has +promised to take you to America in December. You must wait and be +patient. After all, your father has a large claim upon you." +</P> + +<P> +"I think you will do well to wait, my child," said the philosopher. +"Jack will keep and you are both young. Fathers are like other +children. They make mistakes--they even do wrong now and then. They +have to be forgiven and allowed a chance to repent and improve their +conduct. Your father is a good man. Try to win him to your cause." +</P> + +<P> +"And die a maiden," said the girl with a sigh. +</P> + +<P> +"Impossible!" Franklin exclaimed. +</P> + +<P> +"I shall marry Jack or never marry. I would rather be his wife than +the Queen of England." +</P> + +<P> +"This is surely the age of romance," said the smiling philosopher as +the ladies alighted at their door. "I wish I were young again." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap13"></A> +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +BOOK TWO +</H1> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIII +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE FERMENT +</H3> + +<P> +On his voyage to New York, Jack wrote long letters to Margaret and to +Doctor Franklin, which were deposited in the Post-Office on his +arrival, the tenth of March. He observed a great change in the spirit +of the people. They were no longer content with words. The ferment +was showing itself in acts of open and violent disorder. The statue of +George III, near the Battery, was treated to a volley of decayed eggs, +in the evening of his arrival. This hot blood was due to the effort to +prevent free speech in the colonies and the proposal to send political +prisoners to England for trial. +</P> + +<P> +Jack took the first boat to Albany and found Solomon working on the +Irons farm. In his diary he tells of the delightful days of rest he +enjoyed with his family. Solomon had told them of the great adventure +but Jack would have little to say of it, having no pride in that +achievement. +</P> + +<P> +Soon the scout left on a mission for the Committee of Safety to distant +settlements in the great north bush. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll be spendin' the hull moon in the wilderness," he said to Jack. +"Goin' to Virginny when I get back, an' I'll look fer ye on the way +down." +</P> + +<P> +Jack set out for Philadelphia the day after Solomon left. He stopped +at Kinderhook on his way down the river and addressed its people on +conditions in England. A young Tory interrupted his remarks. At the +barbecue, which followed, this young man was seized and punished by a +number of stalwart girls who removed his collar and jacket by force and +covered his head and neck with molasses and the fuzz of cat tails. +Jack interceded for the Tory and stopped the proceeding. +</P> + +<P> +"My friends, we must control our anger," he said. "Let us not try to +subdue tyranny by using it ourselves." +</P> + +<P> +Everywhere he found the people in such a temper that Tories had to hold +their peace or suffer punishment. At the office he learned that his +most important letters had failed to pass the hidden censorship of mail +in England. He began, at once, to write a series of articles which +hastened the crisis. The first of them was a talk with Franklin, which +told how his mail had been tampered with; that no letter had come to +his hand through the Post-Office which had not been opened with +apparent indifference as to the evidence of its violation. The +Doctor's words regarding free speech in America and the proposal to try +the bolder critics for treason were read and discussed in every +household from the sea to the mountains and from Maine to Florida. +</P> + +<P> +"Grievances can not be redressed unless they are known and they can not +be known save through complaints and petitions," the philosopher had +said. "If these are taken as affronts and the messengers punished, the +vent of grief is stopped up--a dangerous thing in any state. It is +sure to produce an explosion. +</P> + +<P> +"An evil magistrate with the power to punish for words would be armed +with a terrible weapon. +</P> + +<P> +"Augustus Caesar, with the avowed purpose of preserving Romans from +defamation, made libel subject to the penalties of treason. +Thenceforward every man's life hung by a thread easily severed by some +lying informer. +</P> + +<P> +"Soon it was resolved by all good judges of law that whoever should +insinuate the least doubt of Nero's preeminence in the noble art of +fiddling should be deemed a traitor. Grief became treason and one lady +was put to death for bewailing the fate of her murdered son. In time, +silence became treason, and even a look was considered an overt act." +</P> + +<P> +These words of the wise philosopher strengthened the spirit of the land +for its great ordeal. +</P> + +<P> +Jack described the prejudice of the Lords who, content with their +ignorance, spurned every effort to inform them of the conditions in +America. +</P> + +<P> +"And this little tail is wagging the great dog of England, most of +whose people believe in the justice of our complaints," he wrote. +</P> + +<P> +The young man's work had set the bells ringing and they were the bells +of revolt. The arrival of General Gage at Boston in May, to be civil +governor and commander-in-chief for the continent, and the blockade of +the port twenty days later, compelling its population who had been fed +by the sea to starve or subsist on the bounty of others, drove the most +conservative citizens into the open. Parties went out Tory hunting. +Every suspected man was compelled to declare himself and if +incorrigible, was sent away. Town meetings were held even under the +eyes of the King's soldiers and no tribunal was allowed to sit in any +court-house. At Salem, a meeting was held behind locked doors with the +Governor and his Secretary shouting a proclamation through its keyhole, +declaring it to be dissolved. The meeting proceeded to its end, and +when the citizens filed out, they had invited the thirteen colonies to +a General Congress in Philadelphia. +</P> + +<P> +It was Solomon Binkus who conveyed the invitation to Pennsylvania and +Virginia. He had gone on a second mission to Springfield and Boston +and had been in the meeting at Salem with General Ward. Another man +carried that historic call to the colonies farther south. In five +weeks, delegates were chosen, and early in August, they were traveling +on many different roads toward the Quaker City. Crowds gathered in +every town and village they passed. Solomon, who rode with the +Virginia delegation, told Jack that he hadn't heard so much noise since +the Injun war. +</P> + +<P> +"They was poundin' the bells, an shootin' cannons everywhere," he +declared. "Men, women and childern crowded 'round us an' split their +lungs yellin'. They's a streak o' sore throats all the way from +Alexandry to here." +</P> + +<P> +Solomon and his young friend met John Adams on the street. The +distinguished Massachusetts lawyer said to Jack when the greetings were +over: +</P> + +<P> +"Young man, your pen has been not writing, but making history." +</P> + +<P> +"Does it mean war?" Jack queried. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Adams wiped his brow with his handkerchief and said; "People in our +circumstances have seldom grown old or died in their beds." +</P> + +<P> +"We ought to be getting ready," said Jack. +</P> + +<P> +"And we are doing little but eat and drink and shout and bluster," Mr. +Adams answered. "We are being entertained here with meats and curds +and custards and jellies and tarts and floating islands and Madeira +wine. It is for you to induce the people of Philadelphia to begin to +save. We need to learn Franklin's philosophy of thrift." +</P> + +<P> +Colonel Washington was a member of the Virginia delegation. Jack wrote +that he was in uniform, blue coat and red waistcoat and breeches; that +he was a big man standing very erect and about six feet, two inches in +height; that his eyes were blue, his complexion light and rather +florid, his face slightly pock-marked, his brown hair tinged with gray; +that he had the largest hands, save those of Solomon Binkus, that he +had ever seen. His letter contains these informing words: +</P> + +<P> +"I never quite realized the full meaning of the word 'dignity' until I +saw this man and heard his deep rich voice. There was a kind of +magnificence in his manner and person when he said: +</P> + +<P> +"'I will raise one thousand men toward the relief of Boston and subsist +them at my own expense.' +</P> + +<P> +"That was all he said and it was the most eloquent speech made in the +convention. It won the hearts of the New Englanders. Thereafter, he +was the central figure in that Congress of trusted men. It is also +evident that he will be the central figure on this side of the ocean +when the storm breaks. Next day, he announced that he was, as yet, +opposed to any definite move toward independence. So the delegates +contented themselves with a declaration of rights opposing importations +and especially slaves." +</P> + +<P> +When the Congress adjourned October twenty-sixth to meet again on the +tenth of May, there was little hope of peace among those who had had a +part in its proceedings. +</P> + +<P> +Jack, who knew the conditions in England, knew also that war would come +soon, and freely expressed his views. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +2 +</H3> + +<P> +Letters had come from Margaret giving him the welcome news that Lionel +Clarke had recovered and announcing that her own little revolution had +achieved success. She and her father would be taking ship for Boston +in December. Jack had urged that she try to induce him to start at +once, fearing that December would be too late, and so it fell out. +When the news of the Congress reached London, the King made new plans. +He began to prepare for war. Sir Benjamin Hare, who was to be the +first deputy of General Gage, was assigned to a brigade and immediately +put his regiments in training for service overseas. He had spent six +months in America and was supposed, in England, to have learned the art +of bush fighting. Such was the easy optimism of the cheerful young +Minister of War, and his confrères, in the House of Lords. After the +arrival of the <I>King William</I> at Gravesend on the eighth of December, +no English women went down to the sea in ships for a long time. +Thereafter the water roads were thought to be only for fighting men. +Jack's hope was that armed resistance would convince the British of +their folly. +</P> + +<P> +"A change of front in the Parliament would quickly end the war," he was +wont to say. Not that he quite believed it. But young men in love are +apt to say things which they do not quite believe. In February, 1775, +he gave up his work on <I>The Gazette</I> to aid in the problem of defense. +Solomon, then in Albany, had written that he was going the twentieth of +that month on a mission to the Six Nations of The Long House. +</P> + +<P> +It was unusual for the northern tribes to hold a council in +winter--especially during the moon of the hard snow, but the growing +bitterness of the white men had alarmed them. They had learned that +another and greater war was at hand and they were restless for fear of +it. The quarrel was of no concern to the red man, but he foresaw the +deadly peril of choosing the wrong side. So the wise men of the tribes +were coming into council. +</P> + +<P> +"If we fight England, we got to have the Injuns on our side er else +Tryon County won't be no healthy place fer white folks," Solomon wrote. +"I wished you could go 'long with me an' show 'em the kind o' shootin' +we'll do ag'in' the English an' tell 'em they could count the leaves in +the bush easier than the men in the home o' the south wind, an' all +good shooters. Put on a big, two-story bearskin cap with a red ribband +tied around it an' bring plenty o' gewgaws. I don't care what they be +so long as they shine an' rattle. I cocalate you an' me could do good +work." +</P> + +<P> +Immediately the young man packed his box and set out by stage on his +way to the North. Near West Point, he left the sleigh, which had +stopped for repairs, and put on his skates and with the wind mostly at +his back, made Albany early that evening on the river roof. He found +the family and Solomon eating supper, with the table drawn close to the +fireside, it being a cold night. +</P> + +<P> +"I think that St. Nicholas was never more welcome in any home or the +creator of more happiness than I was that night," he wrote in a letter +to Margaret, sent through his friend Doctor Franklin. "What a glow was +in the faces of my mother and father and Solomon Binkus--the man who +was so liked in London! What cries of joy came from the children! +They clung to me and my little brother, Josiah, sat on my knee while I +ate my sausage and flapjacks and maple molasses. I shall never forget +that supper hour for, belike, I was hungry enough to eat an ox. You +would never see a homecoming like that in England, I fancy. Here the +family ties are very strong. We have no opera, no theater, no balls +and only now and then a simple party of neighborhood folk. We work +hard and are weary at night. So our pleasures are few and mostly those +shared in the family circles. A little thing, such as a homecoming, or +a new book, brings a joy that we remember as long as we live. I hope +that you will not be appalled by the simplicity of my father's home and +neighborhood. There is something very sweet and beautiful in it, +which, I am sure, you would not fail to discover. +</P> + +<P> +"Philadelphia and Boston are more like the cities you know. They are +getting ambitious and are beginning to ape the manners of England but, +even there, you would, find most people like my own. The attempts at +grandeur are often ludicrous. In Philadelphia, I have seen men sitting +at public banquets without coat or collar and drinking out of bottles." +</P> + +<P> +Next day, Jack and Solomon set out with packs and snow-shoes for The +Long House, which was the great highway of the Indians. It cut the +province from the Hudson to Lake Erie. In summer it was roofed by the +leaves of the forest. The chief villages of the Six Tribes were on or +near it. This trail was probably the ancient route of the cloven hoof +on its way to the prairies--the thoroughfare of the elk and the +buffalo. How wisely it was chosen time has shown, for now it is +covered with iron rails, the surveyors having tried in vain to find a +better one. +</P> + +<P> +Late in the second day out, they came suddenly on a young moose. Jack +presented his piece and brought the animal down. They skinned him and +cut out the loins and a part of each hind quarter. When Solomon +wrapped the meat in a part of the hide and slung it over his shoulder, +night was falling. +</P> + +<P> +"Cat's blood an' gunpowder! The ol' night has a sly foot," said +Solomon. "We won't see no Crow Hill tavern. We got t' make a snow +house." +</P> + +<P> +On the south side of a steep hill near them was a deep, hard frozen +drift. Solomon cut the crust with his hatchet and began moving big +blocks of snow. Soon he had made a cavern in the great white pile, a +fathom deep and high, and as long as a full grown man. They put in a +floor of balsam boughs and spread their blankets on it. Then they cut +a small dead pine and built a fire a few feet in front of their house +and fried some bacon and a steak and made snow water and a pot of tea. +The steak and bacon were eaten on slices of bread without knife or +fork. Their repast over, Solomon made a rack and began jerking the +meat with a slow fire of green hardwood smoldering some three feet +below it. The "jerk" under way, they reclined on their blankets in +the snow house secure from the touch of a cold wind that swept down the +hillside, looking out at the dying firelight while Solomon told of his +adventures in the Ohio country. +</P> + +<P> +Jack was a bit afflicted with "snow-shoe evil," being unaccustomed to +that kind of travel, and he never forgot the sense of relief and +comfort which he found in the snow house, or the droll talk of Solomon. +</P> + +<P> +"You're havin' more trouble to git married than a Mingo brave," Solomon +said to Jack. "'Mongst them, when a boy an' gal want to git married, +both fam'lies have to go an' take a sweat together. They heat a lot o' +rocks an' roll 'em into a pen made o' sticks put in crotches an' +covered over with skins an' blankets. The hot rocks turn it into a +kind o' oven. They all crawl in thar an' begin to sweat an' hoot an' +holler. You kin hear 'em a mile off. It's a reg'lar hootin' match. +I'd call it a kind o' camp meetin'. When they holler it means that the +devil is lettin' go. They're bein' purified. It kind o' seasons 'em +so they kin stan' the heat o' a family quarrel. When Injuns have had +the grease sweat out of 'em, they know suthin' has happened. The +women'll talk fer years 'bout the weddin' sweat." +</P> + +<P> +Now and then, as he talked, Solomon arose to put more wood on the fire +and keep "the jerk sizzling." Just before he lay down for the night, +he took some hard wood coals and stored them in a griddle full of hot +ashes so as to save tinder in the morning. +</P> + +<P> +They were awakened in the night by the ravening of a pack of wolves at +the carcass of the slain moose, which lay within twenty rods of the +snow camp. They were growling and snapping as they tore the meat from +the bones. Solomon rose and drew on his boots. +</P> + +<P> +"Cat's blood an' gunpowder! I thought the smell o' the jerk would +bring 'em," Solomon whispered. "Say, they's quite a passel o' wolves +thar--you hear to me. No, I ain't skeered o' them thar whelps, but +it's ag'in' my principles to go to sleep if they's nuthin' but air +'twixt me an' them. They might be jest fools 'nough to think I were +good eatin'; which I ain't. I guess it's 'bout time to take keer o' +this 'ere jerk an' start up a fire. I won't give them loafers nothin' +but hell, if they come 'round here--not a crumb." +</P> + +<P> +Solomon went to work with his ax in the moonlight, while Jack kindled +up the fire. +</P> + +<P> +"We don't need to tear off our buttons hurryin'," said the former, as +he flung down a dead spruce by the fireside and began chopping it into +sticks. "They won't be lookin' for more fodder till they've picked the +bones o' that 'ere moose. Don't make it a big fire er you'll melt our +roof. We jest need a little belt o' blaze eround our front. Our rear +is safe. Chain lightnin' couldn't slide down this 'ere hill without +puttin' on the brakes." +</P> + +<P> +Soon they had a good stack of wood inside the fire line and in the pile +were some straight young birches. Solomon made stakes of these and +drove them deep in the snow close up to the entrance of their refuge, +making a stockade with an opening in the middle large enough for a man +to pass through. Then they sat down on their blankets, going out often +to put wood on the fire. While sitting quietly with their rifles in +hand, they observed that the growling and yelping had ceased. +</P> + +<P> +"They've got that 'ere moose in their packs," Solomon whispered. "Now +keep yer eye peeled. They'll be snoopin' eround here to git our share. +You see." +</P> + +<P> +In half a moment, Jack's rifle spoke, followed by the loud yelp of a +wolf well away from the firelight. +</P> + +<P> +"Uh, huh! You warmed the wax in his ear, that's sart'in;" said Solomon +as Jack was reloading. "Did ye hear him say 'Don't'?" +</P> + +<P> +The scout's rifle spoke and another wolf yelped. +</P> + +<P> +"Yer welcome," Solomon shouted. "I slammed that 'er hunk o' lead into +the pack leader--a whale of a wolf. The ol' Cap'n stepped right up +clus. Seen 'im plain--gray, long legged ol' whelp. He were walkin' +towards the fire when he stubbed his toe. It's all over now. They'll +snook erway. The army has lost its Gin'ral." +</P> + +<P> +They saw nothing more of the wolf pack and after an hour or so of +watching, they put more wood on the fire, filled the opening in their +stockade and lay down to rest. Solomon called it a night of "one-eyed +sleep" when they got up at daylight and rekindled the fire and washed +their hands and faces in the snow. The two dead wolves lay within +fifty feet of the fire and Solomon cut off the tail of the larger one +for a souvenir. +</P> + +<P> +They had more steak and bread, moistened with tea, for breakfast and +set out again with a good store of jerked meat in their packs. So they +proceeded on their journey, as sundry faded clippings inform us, +spending their nights thereafter at rude inns or in the cabins of +settlers until they had passed the village of the Mohawks, where they +found only a few old Indians and their squaws and many dogs and young +children. The chief and his sachems and warriors and their wives had +gone on to the great council fire in the land of Kiodote, the Thorny +Tree. +</P> + +<P> +They spent a night in the little cabin tavern of Bill Scott on the +upper waters of the Mohawk. Mrs. Scott, a comely woman of twenty-six, +had been a sister of Solomon's wife. She and the scout had a pleasant +visit about old times in Cherry Valley where they had spent a part of +their childhood, and she was most thoughtful and generous in providing +for their comfort. The Scotts had lost two children and another, a +baby, was lying asleep in the cradle. Scott was a hard working, sullen +sort of a man who made his living chiefly by selling rum to the +Indians. Solomon used to say that he had been "hooked by the love o' +money an' et up by land hunger." +</P> + +<P> +"You'll have to git away from The Long House," Solomon said to Scott. +"One reason I come here was to tell ye." +</P> + +<P> +"What makes ye think so?" Scott asked. +</P> + +<P> +"The Injuns'll hug ye when they're drunk but they'll hate ye when +they're sober," Solomon answered. "They lay all their trouble to +fire-water an' they're right. If the cat jumps the wrong way an' they +go on the war-path, ye got to look out." +</P> + +<P> +"I ain't no way skeered," was Scott's answer. He had a hoarse, damp +voice that suggested the sound of rum gurgling out of a jug. His red +face indicated that he was himself too fond of the look and taste of +fire-water. +</P> + +<P> +"Ye got to git erway from here I tell ye," Solomon insisted. +</P> + +<P> +Scott stroked his sandy beard and answered: "I guess I know my business +'bout as well as you do." +</P> + +<P> +"Le's go back to Cherry Valley, Bill," the woman urged. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, keep yer trap shet," Scott said to her. +</P> + +<P> +"He's as selfish as a he-bear," said Solomon as he and Jack were +leaving soon after daylight. "Don't think o' nuthin' but gittin' rich. +Keeps swappin' firewater fer land an' no idee o' the danger." +</P> + +<P> +They left the woman in tears. +</P> + +<P> +"It's awful lonesome here. I'll never see ye ag'in," she declared as +she stood wiping her eyes with her apron. +</P> + +<P> +"Here now--you behave!" Solomon exclaimed. "I'll toddle up to your +door some time next summer." +</P> + +<P> +"Mirandy is a likely womern--I tell ye," Solomon whispered as they went +away. "He is a mean devil! Ain't the kind of a man fer her--nary bit. +A rum bottle is the only comp'ny he keers fer." +</P> + +<P> +They often spoke of the pathetic loneliness of this good-looking, +kindly, mismated woman. Jack and Solomon reached the council on the +fifth day of their travel. There, a level plain in the forest was +covered with Indians and the snow trodden smooth. Around it were their +tents and huts and houses. There were males and females, many of the +latter in rich silks and scarlet cloths bordered with gold fringe. +Some wore brooches and rings in their noses. Among them were handsome +faces and erect and noble forms. +</P> + +<P> +In the center of the plain stood a great stack of wood and green boughs +of spruce and balsam built up in layers for the evening council fire. +</P> + +<P> +Old Kiodote knew Solomon and remembered Jack, whom he had seen in the +great council at Albany in 1761. +</P> + +<P> +"He says your name was 'Boiling Water,'" Solomon said to Jack after a +moment's talk with the chief. +</P> + +<P> +"He has a good memory," the young man answered. +</P> + +<P> +The two white men were invited to take part in the games. All the +warriors had heard of Solomon's skill with a rifle. "Son of the +Thunder," they called him in the League of the Iroquois. The red men +gathered in great numbers to see him shoot. Again, as of old, they +were thrilled by his feats with the rifle, but when Jack began his +quick and deadly firing, crushing butternuts thrown into the air, with +rifle and pistol, a kind of awe possessed the crowd. Many came and +touched him and stared into his face and called him "The Brother of +Death." +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +3 +</H3> + +<P> +Solomon's speech that evening before the council fire impressed the +Indians. He had given much thought to its composition and Jack had +helped him in the invention of vivid phrases loved by the red men. He +addressed them in the dialect of the Senecas, that being the one with +which he was most familiar. He spoke of the thunder cloud of war +coming up in the east and the cause of it and begged them to fight with +their white neighbors, under the leadership of The Great Spirit for the +justice which He loved. Solomon had brought them many gifts in token +of the friendship of himself and his people. +</P> + +<P> +Old Theandenaga, of the Mohawks, answered him in a speech distinguished +by its noble expressions of good will and by an eloquent, but not +ill-tempered, account of the wrongs of the red men. He laid particular +stress on the corrupting of the young braves with fire-water. +</P> + +<P> +"Let all bad feeling be buried in a deep pool," Solomon answered. +"There are bad white men and there are bad Indians but they are not +many. The good men are like the leaves of the forest--you can not +count them--but the bad man is like the scent pedlar [the skunk]. +Though he is but one, he can make much trouble." +</P> + +<P> +Every judgment of the league in council had to be unanimous. They +voted in sections, whereupon each section sent its representative into +the higher council and no verdict was announced until its members were +of one mind. The deliberations were proceeding toward a favorable +judgment as Solomon thought, when Guy Johnson arrived from Johnson +Castle with a train of pack bearers. A wild night of drunken revelry +followed his arrival. Jack and Solomon were lodging at a log inn, kept +by a Dutch trader, half a mile or so from the scene of the council. A +little past midnight, the trader came up into the loft where they were +sleeping on a heap of straw and awakened Solomon. +</P> + +<P> +"Come down the ladder," said the Dutchman. "A young squaw has come out +from the council. She will speak to you." +</P> + +<P> +Solomon slipped on his trousers, coat and boots, and went below. The +squaw was sitting on the floor against the wall. A blanket was drawn +over the back of her head. Her handsome face had a familiar look. +</P> + +<P> +"Put out the light," she whispered in English. +</P> + +<P> +The candle was quickly snuffed and then: +</P> + +<P> +"I am the Little White Birch," she said. "You and my beautiful young +brave were good to me. You took me to the school and he kissed my +cheek and spoke words like the song of the little brown bird of the +forest. I have come here to warn you. Turn away from the great camp +of the red man. Make your feet go fast. The young warriors are drunk. +They will come here to slay you. I say go like the rabbit when he is +scared. Before daylight, put half a sleep between you and them." +</P> + +<P> +Solomon called Jack and in the darkness they quickly got ready to go. +The Dutchman could give them only a loaf of bread, some salt and a slab +of bacon. The squaw stood on the door-step watching while they were +getting ready. Snow was falling. +</P> + +<P> +"They are near," she whispered when the men came out. "I have heard +them." +</P> + +<P> +She held Jack's hand to her lips and said: +</P> + +<P> +"Let me feel your face. I can not see it. I shall see it not again +this side of the Happy Hunting-Grounds." +</P> + +<P> +For a second she touched the face of the young man and he kissed her +forehead. +</P> + +<P> +"This way," she whispered. "Now go like the snow in the wind, my +beautiful pale face." +</P> + +<P> +"Can we help you?" Jack queried. "Will you go with us back to the +white man's school?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, I am old woman now. I have taken the yoke of the red man. In the +Happy Hunting-Grounds maybe the Great Spirit will give me a pale face. +Then I will go with my father and his people and my beautiful young +brave will take me to his house and not be ashamed. Go now. Good-by." +</P> + +<P> +"Little White Birch, I give you this," said Jack, as he put in her hand +the tail of the great gray wolf, beautifully adorned with silver braid +and blue ribbands. +</P> + +<P> +It was snowing hard. Jack and Solomon started toward a belt of timber +east of the log inn. Before they reached it, their clothes were white +with snow--a fact which probably saved their lives. They were shot at +from the edge of the bush. Solomon shouted to Jack to come on and +wisely ran straight toward the spot from which the rifle flashes had +proceeded. In the edge of the woods, Jack shot an Indian with his +pistol. The red man was loading. So they got through what appeared to +be a cordon around the house and cut into the bush. +</P> + +<P> +"They won't foller us," said Solomon, as the two stopped presently to +put on their snow-shoes. +</P> + +<P> +"What makes you think so ?" +</P> + +<P> +"They don't keer to see us lessen they're hid. We are the Son o' the +Thunder an' the Brother o' Death. It would hurt to see us. The second +our eyes drop on an Injun, he's got a hole in his guts an' they know +it. They'd ruther go an' set down with a jug o' rum." +</P> + +<P> +"It was a low and devilish trick to bring fire-water into that camp," +said Jack. +</P> + +<P> +"Guy Johnson is mean enough to steal acorns from a blind hog," Solomon +answered. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly they heard a loud whooping in the distance and looking back +into the valley they saw a great flare of light. +</P> + +<P> +"They've put the torch to the tavern and will have a dance," said +Solomon. "We got out jest in time." +</P> + +<P> +"I am afraid for the Little White Birch," said Jack. +</P> + +<P> +"They'll let her alone. She is one of the wives of ol' Theandenaga. +She will lead the Dutchman an' his family to the house o' the great +chief. She won't let 'em be hurt if she kin help it. She knowed they +was a'ter us." +</P> + +<P> +"Why do they want to kill us?" Jack queried. +</P> + +<P> +"'Cause they're goin' to fight with the British an' we shoot so damn +well they want to git us out o' the way an' do it sly an' without +gittin' hurt. But fer the squaw, we'd be hoppin' eround in that 'ere +loft like a pair o' rats. They'd 'a' sneaked the Dutchman an' his +folks outdoors with tommyhawks over their heads and scattered grease +an' gunpowder an' boughs on the floor, an' set 'er goin' an' me an' you +asleep above the ladder. I reckon we'd had to do some climbin' an' +they's no tellin' where we'd 'a' landed, which there ain't do doubt +'bout that." +</P> + +<P> +Solomon seemed to know his way by an instinct like that of a dog. They +were in the deep woods, traveling by snow light without a trail. Jack +felt sure they were going wrong, but he said nothing. By and by there +was a glow in the sky ahead. The snow had ceased falling and the +heavens were clear. +</P> + +<P> +"Ye see we're goin' right," said Solomon. "The sun'll be up in half an +hour, but afore we swing to the trail we better git a bite. Gulf Brook +is down yender in the valley an' I'd kind o' like to taste of it." +</P> + +<P> +They proceeded down a long, wooded slope and came presently to the +brook whose white floored aisle was walled with evergreen thickets +heavy with snow. Beneath its crystal vault they could hear the song of +the water. It was a grateful sound for they were warm and thirsty. +Near the point where they deposited their packs was a big beaver dam. +</P> + +<P> +Solomon took his ax and teapot and started up stream. +</P> + +<P> +"Want to git cl'ar 'bove," said he. +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" Jack inquired. +</P> + +<P> +"This 'ere is a beaver nest," said Solomon. +</P> + +<P> +He returned in a moment with his pot full of beautiful clear water of +which they drank deeply. +</P> + +<P> +"Ye see the beavers make a dam an' raise the water," Solomon explained. +"When it gits a good ice roof so thick the sun won't burn a hole in it +afore spring, they tap the dam an' let the water out. Then they've got +a purty house to live in with a floor o' clean water an' a glass roof +an' plenty o' green popple sticks stored in the corners to feed on. +They have stiddy weather down thar--no cold winds 'er deep snow to +bother 'em. When the roof rots an' breaks in the sunlight an' slides +off they patch up the dam with mud an' sticks an' they've got a +swimmin' hole to play in." +</P> + +<P> +They built a fire and spread their blankets on a bed of boughs and had +some hot tea and jerked meat and slices of bread soaked in bacon fat. +</P> + +<P> +"Ye see them Injuns is doomed," said Solomon. "Some on 'em has got +good sense, but rum kind o' kills all argeyment. Rum is now the great +chief o' the red man. Rum an' Johnson 'll win 'em over. Sir William +was their Great White Father. They trusted him. Guy an' John have got +his name behind 'em. The right an' wrong o' the matter ain't able to +git under the Injun's hide. They'll go with the British an' burn, an' +rob, an' kill. The settlers 'll give hot blood to their childern. The +Injun 'll be forever a brother to the snake. We an' our childern an' +gran'childern 'll curse him an' meller his head. The League o' the +Iroquois 'll be scattered like dust in the wind, an' we'll wonder where +it has gone. But 'fore then, they's goin' to be great trouble. The +white settlers has got to give up their land an' move, 'er turn Tory, +'er be tommy-hawked." +</P> + +<P> +With a sense of failure, they slowly made their way back to Albany, +riding the last half of it on the sled of a settler who was going to +the river city with a grist and a load of furs. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap14"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIV +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +ADVENTURES IN THE SERVICE OF THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF +</H3> + +<P> +Soon after they reached home Jack received a letter from Doctor +Franklin who had given up his fruitless work in London and returned to +Philadelphia. +</P> + +<P> +It said: 'My work in England has been fruitless and I am done with it. +I bring you much love from the fair lady of your choice. That, my +young friend, is a better possession than houses and lands, for even +the flames of war can not destroy it. I have not seen, in all this +life of mine, a dearer creature or a nobler passion. And I will tell +you why it is dear to me, as well as to you. She is like the good +people of England whose heart is with the colonies, but whose will is +being baffled and oppressed. Let us hope it may not be for long. My +good wishes for you involve the whole race whose blood is in my veins. +That race has ever been like the patient ox, treading out the corn, +whose leading trait is endurance. +</P> + +<P> +"There is little light in the present outlook. You and Binkus will do +well to come here. This, for a time, will be the center of our +activities and you may be needed any moment." +</P> + +<P> +Jack and Solomon went to Philadelphia soon after news of the battle of +Lexington had reached Albany in the last days of April. They were +among the cheering crowds that welcomed the delegates to the Second +Congress. +</P> + +<P> +Colonel Washington, the only delegate in uniform, was the most +impressive figure in the Congress. He had come up with a coach and six +horses from Virginia. The Colonel used to say that even with six +horses, one had a slow and rough journey in the mud and sand. His +dignity and noble stature, the fame he had won in the Indian wars and +his wisdom and modesty in council, had silenced opposition and opened +his way. He was a man highly favored of Heaven. The people of +Philadelphia felt the power of his personality. They seemed to regard +him with affectionate awe. All eyes were on him when he walked around. +Not even the magnificent Hancock or the eloquent Patrick Henry +attracted so much attention. Yet he would stop in the street to speak +to a child or to say a pleasant word to an old acquaintance as he did +to Solomon. +</P> + +<P> +That day in June when the beloved Virginian was chosen to be +Commander-in-Chief of the American forces, Jack and Solomon dined with +Franklin at his home. John Adams of Boston and John Brown, the great +merchant of Providence, were his other guests. The distinguished men +were discussing the choice of Colonel Washington. +</P> + +<P> +"I think that Ward is a greater soldier," said Brown. "Washington has +done no fighting since '58. Our battles will be in the open. He is a +bush fighter." +</P> + +<P> +"True, but he is a fighter and, like Achilles, a born master of men," +Franklin answered. "His fiery energy saved Braddock's army from being +utterly wiped out. His gift for deliberation won the confidence of +Congress. He has wisdom and personality. He can express them in calm +debate or terrific action. Above all, he has a sense of the oneness of +America. Massachusetts and Georgia are as dear to him as Virginia." +</P> + +<P> +"He is a Christian gentleman of proved courage and great sagacity," +said Adams. "His one defeat proved him to be the master of himself. +It was a noble defeat." +</P> + +<P> +Doctor Franklin, who never failed to show some token of respect for +every guest at his table, turned to Solomon and said: +</P> + +<P> +"Major Binkus, you have been with him a good deal. What do you think +of Colonel Washington?" +</P> + +<P> +"I think he's a hull four hoss team an' the dog under the waggin," said +Solomon. +</P> + +<P> +John Adams often quoted these words of the scout and they became a +saying in New England. +</P> + +<P> +"To ask you a question is like priming a pump," said Franklin, as he +turned to Solomon with a laugh. "Washington is about four times the +average man, with something to spare and that something is the dog +under the wagon. It would seem that the Lord God has bred and prepared +and sent him among us to be chosen. We saw and knew and voted. There +was no room for doubt in my mind." +</P> + +<P> +"And while I am a friend of Ward, I am after all convinced that +Washington is the man," said Brown. "Nothing so became him as when he +called upon all gentlemen present to remember that he thought himself +unequal to the task." +</P> + +<P> +Washington set out in June with Colonel Lee and a company of Light +Horse for Boston where some sixteen thousand men had assembled with +their rifles and muskets to be organized into an army for the defense +of Massachusetts. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +2 +</H3> + +<P> +A little later Jack and Solomon followed with eight horses and two +wagons loaded with barrels of gunpowder made under the direction of +Benjamin Franklin and paid for with his money. A British fleet being +in American waters, the overland route was chosen as the safer one. It +was a slow and toilsome journey with here and there a touch of stern +adventure. Crossing the pine barrens of New Jersey, they were held up +by a band of Tory refugees and deprived of all the money in their +pockets. Always Solomon got a squint in one eye and a solemn look in +the other when that matter was referred to. +</P> + +<P> +"'Twere all due to the freight," he said to a friend. "Ye see their +guns was p'intin' our way and behind us were a ton o' gunpowder. She's +awful particular comp'ny. Makes her nervous to have anybody nigh her +that's bein' shot at. Ye got to be peaceful an' p'lite. Don't let no +argements come up. If some feller wants yer money an' has got a gun +it'll be cheaper to let him have it. I tell ye she's an uppity, +hot-tempered ol' critter--got to be treated jest so er she'll stomp her +foot an' say, 'Scat,' an' then--" +</P> + +<P> +Solomon smiled and gave his right hand a little upward fling and said +no more, having lifted the burden off his mind. +</P> + +<P> +On the post road, beyond Horse Neck in Connecticut, they had a more +serious adventure. They had been traveling with a crude map of each +main road, showing the location of houses in the settled country where, +at night, they could find shelter and hospitality. Owing to the +peculiar character of their freight, the Committee in Philadelphia had +requested them to avoid inns and had caused these maps to be sent to +them at post-offices on the road indicating the homes of trusted +patriots from twenty to thirty miles apart. About six o'clock in the +evening of July twentieth, they reached the home of Israel Lockwood, +three miles above Horse Neck. They had ridden through a storm which +had shaken and smitten the earth with its thunder-bolts some of which +had fallen near them. Mr. Lockwood directed them to leave their wagons +on a large empty barn floor and asked them in to supper. +</P> + +<P> +"If you'll bring suthin' out to us, I guess we better stay by her," +said Solomon. "She might be nervous." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you have to stay with this stuff all the while?" Lockwood asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Night an' day," said Solomon. "Don't do to let 'er git lonesome. +To-day when the lightnin' were slappin' the ground on both sides o' me, +I wanted to hop down an' run off in the bush a mile er so fer to see +the kentry, but I jest had to set an' hope that she would hold her +temper an' not go to slappin' back." +</P> + +<P> +"She," as Solomon called the two loads, was a most exacting mistress. +They never left her alone for a moment. While one was putting away the +horses the other was on guard. They slept near her at night. +</P> + +<P> +Israel Lockwood sat down for a visit with them when he brought their +food. While they were eating, another terrific thunder-storm arrived. +In the midst of it a bolt struck the barn and rent its roof open and +set the top of the mow afire. Solomon jumped to the rear wheel of one +of the wagons while Jack seized the tongue. In a second it was rolling +down the barn bridge and away. The barn had filled with smoke and +cinders but these dauntless men rolled out the second wagon. +</P> + +<P> +Rain was falling. Solomon observed a wisp of smoke coming out from +under the roof of this wagon. He jumped in and found a live cinder +which had burned through the cover and fallen on one of the barrels. +It was eating into the wood. Solomon tossed it out in the rain and +smothered "the live spot." He examined the barrels and the wagon floor +and was satisfied. In speaking of that incident next day he said to +Jack: +</P> + +<P> +"If I hadn't 'a' had purty good control o' my legs, I guess they'd 'a' +run erway with me. I had to put the whip on 'em to git 'em to step in +under that wagon roof--you hear to me." +</P> + +<P> +While Solomon was engaged with this trying duty, Lockwood had led the +horses out of the stable below and rescued the harness. A heavy shower +was falling. The flames had burst through the roof and in spite of the +rain, the structure was soon destroyed. +</P> + +<P> +"The wind was favorable and we all stood watching the fire, safe but +helpless to do anything for our host," Jack wrote in a letter. +"Fortunately there was another house near and I took the horses to its +barn for the night. We slept in a woodshed close to the wagons. We +slipped out of trouble by being on hand when it started. If we had +gone into the house for supper, I'm inclined to think that the British +would not have been driven out of Boston. +</P> + +<P> +"We passed many companies of marching riflemen. In front of one of +these, the fife and drum corps playing behind him, was a young Tory, +who had insulted the company, and was, therefore, made to carry a gray +goose in his arms with this maxim of Poor Richard on his back: 'Not +every goose has feathers on him.' +</P> + +<P> +"On the twentieth we reported to General Washington in Cambridge. This +was the first time I saw him in the uniform of a general. He wore a +blue coat with buff facings and buff underdress, a small sword, rich +epaulets, a black cockade in his three-cornered hat, and a blue sash +under his coat. His hair was done up in a queue. He was in boots and +spurs. He received us politely, directing a young officer to go with +us to the powder house. There we saw a large number of barrels. +</P> + +<P> +"'All full of sand,' the officer whispered. 'We keep 'em here to fool +the enemy,' +</P> + +<P> +"Not far from the powder house I overheard this little dialogue between +a captain and a private. +</P> + +<P> +"'Bill, go get a pail o' water,' said the captain. +</P> + +<P> +"'I shan't do it. 'Tain't my turn,' the private answered." +</P> + +<P> +The men and officers were under many kinds of shelter in the big camp. +There were tents and marquees and rude structures built of boards and +roughly hewn timber, and of stone and turf and brick and brush. Some +had doors and windows wrought out of withes knit together in the +fashion of a basket. There were handsome young men whose thighs had +never felt the touch of steel; elderly men in faded, moth-eaten +uniforms and wigs. +</P> + +<P> +In their possession were rifles and muskets of varying size, age and +caliber. Some of them had helped to make the thunders of Naseby and +Marston Moor. There were old sabers which had touched the ground when +the hosts of Cromwell had knelt in prayer. +</P> + +<P> +Certain of the men were swapping clothes. No uniforms had been +provided for this singular assemblage of patriots all eager for +service. Sergeants wore a strip of red on the right shoulder; +corporals a strip of green. Field officers mounted a red cockade; +captains flaunted a like signal in yellow. Generals wore a pink +ribband and aides a green one. +</P> + +<P> +This great body of men which had come to besiege Boston was able to +shoot and dig. That is about all they knew of the art of war. +Training had begun in earnest. The sergeants were working with squads; +Generals Lee and Ward and Green and Putnam and Sullivan with companies +and regiments from daylight to dark. +</P> + +<P> +Jack was particularly interested in Putnam--a short, rugged, fat, +white-haired farmer from Connecticut of bluff manners and nasal twang +and of great animation for one of his years--he was then fifty-seven. +He was often seen flying about the camp on a horse. The young man had +read of the heroic exploits of this veteran of the Indian wars. +</P> + +<P> +Their mission finished, that evening Jack and Solomon called at General +Washington's headquarters. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-218"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-218.jpg" ALT="Jack Irons and Solomon Binkus with General George Washington." BORDER="2" WIDTH="346" HEIGHT="546"> +<H5> +[Illustration: Jack Irons and Solomon Binkus with General George Washington.] +</H5> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"General, Doctor Franklin told us to turn over the bosses and wagons to +you," said Solomon. "He didn't tell us what to do with ourselves +'cause 'twasn't necessary an' he knew it. We want to enlist." +</P> + +<P> +"For what term?" +</P> + +<P> +"Till the British are licked." +</P> + +<P> +"You are the kind of men I need," said Washington. "I shall put you on +scout duty. Mr. Irons will go into my regiment of sharp shooters with +the rank of captain. You have told me of his training in Philadelphia." +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +3 +</H3> + +<P> +So the two friends were enlisted and began service in the army of +Washington. +</P> + +<P> +A letter from Jack to his mother dated July 25, 1775, is full of the +camp color: +</P> + +<P> +"General Charles Lee is in command of my regiment," he writes. "He is +a rough, slovenly old dog of a man who seems to bark at us on the +training ground. He has two or three hunting dogs that live with him +in his tent and also a rare gift of profanity which is with him +everywhere--save at headquarters. +</P> + +<P> +"To-day I saw these notices posted in camp: +</P> + +<P> +"'Punctual attendance on divine service is required of all not on +actual duty.' +</P> + +<P> +"'No burning of the pope allowed.' +</P> + +<P> +"'Fifteen stripes for denying duty.' +</P> + +<P> +"'Ten for getting drunk.' +</P> + +<P> +"'Thirty-nine for stealing and desertion.' +</P> + +<P> +"Rogues are put in terror, lazy men are energized. The quarters are +kept clean, the food is well cooked and in plentiful supply, but the +British over in town are said to be getting hungry." +</P> + +<P> +Early in August a London letter was forwarded to Jack from +Philadelphia. He was filled with new hope as he read these lines: +</P> + +<P> +"Dearest Jack: I am sailing for Boston on one of the next troop ships +to join my father. So when the war ends--God grant it may be +soon!--you will not have far to go to find me. Perhaps by Christmas +time we may be together. Let us both pray for that. Meanwhile, I +shall be happier for being nearer you and for doing what I can to heal +the wounds made by this wretched war. I am going to be a nurse in a +hospital. You see the truth is that since I met you, I like all men +better, and I shall love to be trying to relieve their sufferings . . ." +</P> + +<P> +It was a long letter but above is as much of it as can claim admission +to these pages. +</P> + +<P> +"Who but she could write such a letter?" Jack asked himself, and then +he held it to his lips a moment. It thrilled him to think that even +then she was probably in Boston. In the tent where he and Solomon +lived when they were both in camp, he found the scout. The night +before Solomon had slept out. Now he had built a small fire in front +of the tent and lain down on a blanket, having delivered his report at +headquarters. +</P> + +<P> +"Margaret is in Boston," said Jack as soon as he entered, and then +standing in the firelight read the letter to his friend. +</P> + +<P> +"Thar is a real, genewine, likely gal," said the scout. +</P> + +<P> +"I wish there were some way of getting to her," the young man remarked. +</P> + +<P> +"Might as well think o' goin' to hell an' back ag'in," said Solomon. +"Since Bunker Hill the British are like a lot o' hornets. I run on to +one of 'em to-day. He fired at me an' didn't hit a thing but the air +an' run like a scared rabbit. Could 'a' killed him easy but I kind o' +enjoyed seein' him run. He were like chain lightnin' on a greased +pole--you hear to me." +</P> + +<P> +"If the General will let me, I'm going to try spy duty and see if I can +get into town and out again," he proposed. +</P> + +<P> +"You keep out o' that business," said Solomon. "They's too many that +know ye over in town. The two Clarkes an' their friends an' Colonel +Hare an' his friends, an' Cap. Preston, an' a hull passle. They know +all 'bout ye. If you got snapped, they'd stan' ye ag'in' a wall an' +put ye out o' the way quick. It would be pie for the Clarkes, an' the +ol' man Hare wouldn't spill no tears over it. Cap. Preston couldn't +save ye that's sart'in. No, sir, I won't 'low it. They's plenty o' +old cusses fer such work." +</P> + +<P> +For a time Jack abandoned the idea, but later, when Solomon failed to +return from a scouting tour and a report reached camp that he was +captured, the young man began to think of that rather romantic plan +again. He had grown a full beard; his skin was tanned; his clothes +were worn and torn and faded. His father, who had visited the camp +bringing a supply of clothes for his son, had failed, at first, to +recognize him. +</P> + +<P> +December had arrived. The General was having his first great trial in +keeping an army about him. Terms of enlistment were expiring. Cold +weather had come. The camp was uncomfortable. Regiments of the +homesick lads of New England were leaving or preparing to leave. Jack +and a number of young ministers in the service organized a campaign of +persuasion and many were prevailed upon to reenlist. But hundreds of +boys were hurrying homeward on the frozen roads. The southern +riflemen, who were a long journey from their homes, had not the like +temptation to break away. Bitter rivalry arose between the boys of the +north and the south. The latter, especially the Virginia lads, were in +handsome uniforms. They looked down upon the awkward, homespun ranks +in the regiments of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. Then +came the famous snowball battle between the boys of Virginia and New +England. In the midst of it, Washington arrived and, leaping from his +white horse, was quickly in the thick of the fight. He seized a couple +of Virginia lads and gave them a shaking. +</P> + +<P> +"No more of this," he commanded. +</P> + +<P> +It was all over in a moment. The men were running toward their +quarters. +</P> + +<P> +"There is a wholesome regard here for the Commander-in-Chief," Jack +wrote to his mother. "I look not upon his heroic figure without a +thought of the great burden which rests upon it and a thrill of +emotion. There are many who fear him. Most severely he will punish +the man who neglects his duty, but how gentle and indulgent he can be, +especially to a new recruit, until the latter has learned the game of +war! He is like a good father to these thousands of boys and young +men. No soldier can be flogged when he is near. If he sees a fellow +tied to the halberds, he will ask about his offense and order him to be +taken down. In camp his black servant, Bill, is always with him. Out +of camp he has an escort of light horse. Morning and evening he holds +divine service in his tent. When a man does a brave act, the Chief +summons him to headquarters and gives him a token of his appreciation. +I hope to be called one of these days." +</P> + +<P> +Soon after this letter was written, the young man was sent for. He and +his company had captured a number of men in a skirmish. +</P> + +<P> +"Captain, you have done well," said the General. "I want to make a +scout of you. In our present circumstances it's about the most +important, dangerous and difficult work there is to be done here, +especially the work which Solomon Binkus undertook to do. There is no +other in whom I should have so much confidence." +</P> + +<P> +"You do me great honor," said Jack. "I shall make a poor showing +compared with that of my friend Major Binkus, but I have some knowledge +of his methods and will do my best." +</P> + +<P> +"You will do well to imitate them with caution," said the General. "He +was a most intrepid and astute observer. In the bush they would not +have captured him. The clearings toward the sea make the work arduous +and full of danger. It is only for men of your strength and courage. +Major Bartlett knows the part of the line which Colonel Binkus +traversed. He will be going out that way to-morrow. I should like +you, sir, to go with him. After one trip I shall be greatly pleased if +you are capable of doing the work alone." +</P> + +<P> +Orders were delivered and Jack reported to Bartlett, an agreeable, +middle-aged farmer-soldier, who had been on scout duty since July. +They left camp together next morning an hour before reveille. They had +an uneventful day, mostly in wooded flats and ridges, and from the +latter looking across with a spy-glass into Bruteland, as they called +the country held by the British, and seeing only, now and then, an +enemy picket or distant camps. About midday they sat down in a thicket +together for a bite to eat and a whispered conference. +</P> + +<P> +"Binkus, as you know, had his own way of scouting," said the Major. +"He was an Indian fighter. He liked to get inside the enemy lines and +lie close an' watch 'em an' mebbe hear what they were talking about. +Now an' then he would surprise a British sentinel and disarm him an' +bring him into camp." +</P> + +<P> +Jack wondered that his friend had never spoken of the capture of +prisoners. +</P> + +<P> +"He was a modest man," said the young scout. +</P> + +<P> +"He didn't want the British to know where Solomon Binkus was at work, +and I guess he was wise," said the Major. "I advise you against taking +the chances that he took. It isn't necessary. You would be caught +much sooner than he was." +</P> + +<P> +That day Bartlett took Jack over Solomon's trail and gave him the lay +of the land and much good advice. A young man of Jack's spirit, +however, is apt to have a degree of enterprise and self-confidence not +easily controlled by advice. He had been traveling alone for three +days when he felt the need of more exciting action. That night he +crossed the Charles River on the ice in a snow-storm and captured a +sentinel and brought him back to camp. +</P> + +<P> +About this time he wrote another letter to the family, in which he said: +</P> + +<P> +"The boys are coming back from home and reenlisting. They have not +been paid--no one has been paid--but they are coming back. More of +them are coming than went away. +</P> + +<P> +"They all tell one story. The women and the old men made a row about +their being at home in time of war. On Sunday the minister called them +shirks. Everybody looked askance at them. A committee of girls went +from house to house reenlisting the boys. So here they are, and +Washington has an army, such as it is." +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +4 +</H3> + +<P> +Soon after that the daring spirit of the youth led him into a great +adventure. It was on the night of January fifth that Jack penetrated +the British lines in a snow-storm and got close to an outpost in a +strip of forest. There a camp-fire was burning. He came close. His +garments had been whitened by the storm. The air was thick with snow, +his feet were muffled in a foot of it. He sat by a stump scarcely +twenty feet from the fire, seeing those in its light, but quite +invisible. There he could distinctly hear the talk of the Britishers. +It related to a proposed evacuation of the city by Howe. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm weary of starving to death in this God-forsaken place," said one +of them. "You can't keep an army without meat or vegetables. I've +eaten fish till I'm getting scales on me." +</P> + +<P> +"Colonel Riffington says that the army will leave here within a +fortnight," another observed. +</P> + +<P> +It was important information which had come to the ear of the young +scout. The talk was that of well bred Englishmen who were probably +officers. +</P> + +<P> +"We ought not to speak of those matters aloud," one of them remarked. +"Some damned Yankee may be listening like the one we captured." +</P> + +<P> +"He was Amherst's old scout," said another. "He swore a blue streak +when we shoved him into jail. They don't like to be treated like +rebels. They want to be prisoners of war." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know why they shouldn't," another answered. "If this isn't a +war, I never saw one. There are twenty thousand men under arms across +the river and they've got us nailed in here tighter than a drum. They +used to say in London that the rebellion was a teapot tempest and that +a thousand grenadiers could march to the Alleghanies in a week and +subdue the country on the way. You are aware of how far we have +marched from the sea. It's just about to where we are now. We've gone +about five miles in eight months. How many hundreds of years will pass +before we reach the Alleghanies? But old Gage will tell you that it +isn't a war." +</P> + +<P> +A young man came along with his rifle on his shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello, Bill!" said one of the men. "Going out on post?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am, God help me," the youth answered. "It's what I'd call a hell of +a night." +</P> + +<P> +The sentinel passed close by Jack on his way to his post. The latter +crept away and followed, gradually closing in upon his quarry. When +they were well away from the fire, Jack came close and called, "Bill." +</P> + +<P> +The sentinel stopped and faced about. +</P> + +<P> +"You've forgotten something," said Jack, in a genial tone. +</P> + +<P> +"What is it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Your caution," Jack answered, with his pistol against the breast of +his enemy. "I shall have to kill you if you call or fail to obey me. +Give me the rifle and go on ahead. When I say gee go to the right, haw +to the left." +</P> + +<P> +So the capture was made, and on the way out Jack picked up the sentinel +who stood waiting to be relieved and took both men into camp. +</P> + +<P> +From documents on the person of one of these young Britishers, it +appeared that General Clarke was in command of a brigade behind the +lines which Jack had been watching and robbing. +</P> + +<P> +When Jack delivered his report the Chief called him a brave lad and +said: +</P> + +<P> +"It is valuable information you have brought to me. Do not speak of +it. Let me warn you. Captain, that from now on they will try to trap +you. Perhaps, even, you may look for daring enterprises on that part +of their line." +</P> + +<P> +The General was right. The young scout ran into a most daring and +successful British enterprise on the twentieth of January. The snow +had been swept away in a warm rain and the ground had frozen bare, or +it would not have been possible. Jack had got to a strip of woods in a +lonely bit of country near the British lines and was climbing a tall +tree to take observations when he saw a movement on the ground beneath +him. He stopped and quickly discovered that the tree was surrounded by +British soldiers. One of them, who stood with a raised rifle, called +to him: +</P> + +<P> +"Irons, I will trouble you to drop your pistols and come down at once." +</P> + +<P> +Jack saw that he had run into an ambush. He dropped his pistols and +came down. He had disregarded the warning of the General. He should +have been looking out for an ambush. A squad of five men stood about +him with rifles in hand. Among them was Lionel Clarke, his right +sleeve empty. +</P> + +<P> +"We've got you at last--you damned rebel!" said Clarke. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose you need some one to swear at," Jack answered. +</P> + +<P> +"And to shoot at," Clarke suggested. +</P> + +<P> +"I thought that you would not care for another match with me," the +young scout remarked as they began to move away. +</P> + +<P> +"Hereafter you will be treated like a rebel and not like a gentleman," +Clarke answered. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"I mean that you will be standing, blindfolded against a wall." +</P> + +<P> +"That kind of a threat doesn't scare me," Jack answered. "We have too +many of your men in our hands." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap15"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XV +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +IN BOSTON JAIL +</H3> + +<P> +Jack was marched under a guard into the streets of Boston. Church +bells were ringing. It was Sunday morning. Young Clarke came with the +guard beyond the city limits. They had seemed to be very careless in +the control of their prisoner. They gave him every chance to make a +break for liberty. Jack was not fooled. +</P> + +<P> +"I see that you want to get rid of me," said Jack to the young officer. +"You'd like to have me run a race with your bullets. That is base +ingratitude. I was careful of you when we met and you do not seem to +know it." +</P> + +<P> +"I know how well you can shoot," Clarke answered. "But you do not know +how well I can shoot." +</P> + +<P> +"And when I learn, I want to have a fair chance for my life." +</P> + +<P> +Beyond the city limits young Clarke, who was then a captain, left them, +and Jack proceeded with the others. +</P> + +<P> +The streets were quiet--indeed almost deserted. There were no children +playing on the common. A crowd was coming out of one of the churches. +In the midst of it the prisoner saw Preston and Lady Hare. They were +so near that he could have touched them with his hand as he passed. +They did not see him. He noted the name of the church and its +minister. In a few minutes he was delivered at the jail--a noisome, +ill-smelling, badly ventilated place. The jailer was a tall, slim, +sallow man with a thin gray beard. His face and form were familiar. +He heard Jack's name with a look of great astonishment. Then the young +man recognized him. He was Mr. Eliphalet Pinhorn, who had so +distinguished himself on the stage trip to Philadelphia some years +before. +</P> + +<P> +"It is a long time since we met," said Jack. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Pinhorn's face seemed to lengthen. His mouth and eyes opened wide +in a silent demand for information. +</P> + +<P> +Jack reminded him of the day and circumstances. +</P> + +<P> +For a moment Mr. Pinhorn held his hand against his forehead and was +dumb with astonishment. Then he said: +</P> + +<P> +"I knew! I foresaw! But it is not too late." +</P> + +<P> +"Too late for what?" +</P> + +<P> +"To turn, to be redeemed, loved, forgiven. Think it over, sir. Think +it over." +</P> + +<P> +Jack's name and age and residence were registered. Then Pinhorn took +his arm and walked with him down the corridor toward an open door. +About half-way to the door he stopped and put his hand on Jack's +shoulder and said with a look of great seriousness: +</P> + +<P> +"A sinking cause! Death! Destruction! Misery! The ship is going +down. Leave it." +</P> + +<P> +"You are misinformed. There is no leak in our ship," said Jack. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Pinhorn shut his eyes and shook his head mournfully. Then, with a +wave of his hand, he pronounced the doom of the western world in one +whispered word: +</P> + +<P> +"Ashes!" +</P> + +<P> +For a moment his face and form were alive with exclamatory suggestion. +Then he shook his head and said: +</P> + +<P> +"Doomed! Poor soul! Go out in the yard with your fellow rebels. They +are taking the air." +</P> + +<P> +The yard was an opening walled in by the main structure and its two +wings and a wooden fence some fifteen feet high. There was a ragged, +dirty rabble of "rebel" prisoners, among whom was Solomon Binkus, all +out for an airing. The old scout had lost flesh and color. He held +Jack's hand and stood for a moment without speaking. +</P> + +<P> +"I never was so glad and so sorry in my life," said Solomon. "It's a +hell-mogrified place to be in. Smells like a blasted whale an' is as +cold as the north side of a grave stun on a Janooary night, an' +starvation fare, an' they's a man here that's come down with the +smallpox. How'd ye git ketched?" +</P> + +<P> +Jack briefly told of his capture. +</P> + +<P> +"I got sick one day an' couldn't hide 'cause I were makin' tracks in +the snow so I had to give in," said Solomon. "Margaret has been here, +but they won't let 'er come no more 'count o' the smallpox. Sends me +suthin' tasty ev'ry day er two. I tol' er all 'bout ye. I guess the +smallpox couldn't keep 'er 'way if she knowed you was here. But she +won't be 'lowed to know it. This 'ere Clarke boy has p'isoned the +jail. Nobody 'll come here 'cept them that's dragged. He's got it all +fixed fer ye. I wouldn't wonder if he'd be glad to see ye rotted up +with smallpox." +</P> + +<P> +"What kind of a man is Pinhorn?" +</P> + +<P> +"A whey-faced hypercrit an' a Tory. Licks the feet o' the British when +they come here." +</P> + +<P> +Jack and Solomon lay for weeks in this dirty, noisome jail, where their +treatment was well calculated to change opinions not deeply rooted in +firm soil. They did not fear the smallpox, as both were immune. But +their confinement was, as doubtless it was intended to be, memorably +punitive. They were "rebels"--law-breakers, human rubbish whose +offenses bordered upon treason. The smallpox patient was soon taken +away, but other conditions were not improved. They slept on straw +infested with vermin. Their cover and food were insufficient and "not +fit fer a dog," in the words of Solomon. Some of the boys gave in and +were set free on parole, and there was one, at least, who went to work +in the ranks of the British. +</P> + +<P> +There is a passage in a letter of Jack Irons regarding conditions in +the jail which should be quoted here: +</P> + +<P> +"One boy has lung fever and every night I hear him sobbing. His sorrow +travels like fire among the weaker men. I have heard a number of cold, +half-starved, homesick lads crying like women in the middle of the +night. It makes me feel like letting go myself. There is one man who +swears like a trooper when it begins. I suppose that I shall be as +hysterical as the rest of them in time. I don't believe General Howe +knows what is going on here. The jail is run by American Tories, who +are wreaking their hatred on us." +</P> + +<P> +Jack sent a line to the rector of the Church of England, where he had +seen Preston and Lady Howe, inviting him to call, but saw him not, and +no word came from him. Letters were entrusted to Mr. Pinhorn for +Preston, Margaret and General Sir Benjamin Hare with handsome payment +for their delivery, but they waited in vain for an answer. +</P> + +<P> +"They's suthin' wrong 'bout this 'ere business," said Solomon. "You'll +find that ol' Pinhorn has got a pair o' split hoofs under his luther." +</P> + +<P> +One day Jack was sent for by Mr. Pinhorn and conducted to his office. +</P> + +<P> +"Honor! Good luck! Relief!" was the threefold exclamation with which +the young man was greeted. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean?" Jack inquired. +</P> + +<P> +"General Howe! You! Message to Mr. Washington! To-night!" +</P> + +<P> +"Do you mean General Washington?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. Mister! Title not recognized here!"' +</P> + +<P> +"I shall take no message to 'Mr.' Washington," Jack answered. "If I +did, I am sure that he would not receive it." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Pinhorn's face expressed a high degree of astonishment. +</P> + +<P> +"Pride! Error! Persistent error!" he exclaimed. "Never mind! +Details can be fixed. You are to go to-night. Return to-morrow!" +</P> + +<P> +The prospect of getting away from his misery even for a day or two was +alluring. +</P> + +<P> +"Let me have the details in writing and I will let you know at once," +he answered. +</P> + +<P> +The plan was soon delivered. Jack was to pass the lines on the +northeast front in the vicinity of Breed's Hill with a British +sergeant, under a white flag, and proceed to Washington's headquarters. +</P> + +<P> +"Looks kind o' neevarious," said Solomon when they were out in the jail +yard together. "Looks like ye might be grabbed in the jaws o' a trap. +Nobody's name is signed to this 'ere paper. There's nothin' behind the +hull thing but ol' Pinhorn an'--who? I'm skeered o' Mr. Who? Pinhorn +an' Who an' a Dark Night! There's a pardnership! Kind o' well mated! +They want ye to put yer life in their hands. What fer? Wal, ye know +it 'pears to me they'd be apt to be car'less with it. It's jest +possible that there's some feller who'll be happier if you was rubbed +off the slate. War is goin' on an' you belong to that breed o' pups +they call rebels. A dead rebel don't cause no hard feelin's in the +British army. Now, Jack, you stay where ye be. 'Tain't a fust rate +place, but it's better'n a hole in the ground. Suthin' is goin' to +happen--you mark my words, boy. I kind o' think Margaret is gittin' +anxious to talk with me an' kin't be kept erway no longer. Mebbe the +British army is goin' to move. Ye know fer two days an' nights we been +hearin' cannon fire." +</P> + +<P> +"Solomon, I'm not going out to be shot in the back," said the young +man. "If I am to be executed, it must be done with witnesses in proper +form. I shall refuse to go. If Margaret should come, and it is +possible, I want you to sit down with her in front of my cell so that I +can see her, but do not tell her that I am here. It would increase her +trouble and do no good. Besides, I could not permit myself to touch +her hand even, but I would love to look into her face." +</P> + +<P> +So it happened that the proposal which had come to Jack through Mr. +Pinhorn was firmly declined, whereupon the astonishment of that +official was expressed in a sorrowful gesture and the exclamation: +"Doomed! Stubborn youth!" +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +2 +</H3> + +<P> +Solomon Binkus was indeed a shrewd man. In the faded packet of letters +is one which recites the history of the confinement of the two scouts +in the Boston jail. It tells of the coming of Margaret that very +evening with an order from the Adjutant General directing Mr. Pinhorn +to allow her to talk with the "rebel prisoner Solomon Binkus." +</P> + +<P> +The official conducted her to the iron grated door in front of +Solomon's cell. +</P> + +<P> +"I will talk with him in the corridor, if you please," she said, as she +gave the jailer a guinea, whereupon he became most obliging. The cell +door was opened and chairs were brought for them to sit upon. Cannons +were roaring again and the sound was nearer than it had been before. +</P> + +<P> +"Have you heard from Jack?" she asked when they were seated in front of +the cell of the latter. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, ma'am. He is well, but like a man shot with rock salt." +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sufferin'," Solomon answered. "Kind o' riddled with thoughts o' you +an' I wouldn't wonder." +</P> + +<P> +"Did you get a letter?" she asked. +</P> + +<P> +"No. A young officer who was ketched an' brought here t'other day has +told me all 'bout him." +</P> + +<P> +"Is the officer here?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, ma'am," Solomon answered. +</P> + +<P> +"I want to see him--I want to talk with him. I must meet the man who +has come from the presence of my Jack." +</P> + +<P> +Solomon was visibly embarrassed. He was in trouble for a moment and +then he answered: "I'm 'fraid 'twouldn't do no good." +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"'Cause he's deef an' dumb." +</P> + +<P> +"But do you not understand? It would be a comfort to look at him." +</P> + +<P> +"He's in this cell, but I wouldn't know how to call him," Solomon +assured her. +</P> + +<P> +She went to Jack's door and peered at him through the grating. He was +lying on his straw bed. The light which came from candles set in +brackets on the stone wall of the corridor was dim. +</P> + +<P> +"Poor, poor fellow!" she exclaimed. "I suppose he is thinking of his +sweetheart or of some one very dear to him. His eyes are covered with +his handkerchief. So you have lately seen the boy I love! How I wish +you could tell me about him!" +</P> + +<P> +The voice of the young lady had had a curious effect upon that +nerve-racked, homesick company of soldier lads in prison. Doubtless it +had reminded some of dear and familiar voices which they had lost hope +of hearing again. +</P> + +<P> +One began to groan and sob, then another and another. +</P> + +<P> +"Ain't that like the bawlin' o' the damned?" Solomon asked. "Some on +'em is sick; some is wore out. They're all half starved!" +</P> + +<P> +"It is dreadful!" said she, as she covered her eyes with her +handkerchief. "I can not help thinking that any day <I>he</I> may have to +come here. I shall go to see General Howe to-night." +</P> + +<P> +"To-morrer I'll git this 'ere boy to write out all he knows 'bout Jack, +but if ye see it, ye'll have to come 'ere an' let me put it straight +into yer hands," Solomon assured her. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll be here at ten o'clock," she said, and went away. +</P> + +<P> +Pinhorn stepped into the corridor as Solomon called to Jack: +</P> + +<P> +"Things be goin' to improve, ol' man. Hang on to yer hosses. The +English people is to have a talk with General Howe to-night an' suthin' +'ll be said, now you hear to me. That damn German King ain't a-goin' +to have his way much longer here in Boston jail." +</P> + +<P> +Early next morning shells began to fall in the city. Suddenly the +firing ceased. At nine o'clock all prisoners in the jail were sent +for, to be exchanged. Preston came with the order from General Howe +and news of a truce. +</P> + +<P> +"This means yer army is lightin' out," Solomon said to him. +</P> + +<P> +"The city will be evacuated," was Preston's answer. +</P> + +<P> +"Could I send a message to Gin'ral Hare's house?" +</P> + +<P> +"The General and his brigade and family sailed for another port at +eight. If you wish, I'll take your message." +</P> + +<P> +Solomon delivered to Preston a letter written by Jack to Margaret. It +told of his capture and imprisonment. +</P> + +<P> +"Better than I, you will know if there is good ground for these dark +suspicions which have come to us," he wrote. "As well as I, you will +know what a trial I underwent last evening. That I had the strength to +hold my peace, I am glad, knowing that you are the happier to-day +because of it." +</P> + +<P> +The third of March had come. The sun was shining. The wind was in the +south. They were not strong enough to walk, so Preston had brought +horses for them to ride. There were long patches of snow on the +Dorchester Heights. A little beyond they met the brigade of Putnam. +It was moving toward the city and had stopped for its noon mess. The +odor of fresh beef and onions was in the air. +</P> + +<P> +"Cat's blood an' gunpowder!" said Solomon. "Tie me to a tree." +</P> + +<P> +"What for?" Preston asked. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll kill myself eatin'," the scout declared. "I'm so got durn hungry +I kin't be trusted." +</P> + +<P> +"I guess we'll have to put the brakes on each other," Jack remarked. +</P> + +<P> +"An' it'll be steep goin'," said Solomon. +</P> + +<P> +Washington rode up to the camp with a squad of cavalry while they were +eating. He had a kind word for every liberated man. To Jack he said: +</P> + +<P> +"I am glad to address you as Colonel Irons. You have suffered much, +but it will be a comfort for you to know that the information you +brought enabled me to hasten the departure of the British." +</P> + +<P> +Turning to Solomon, he added: +</P> + +<P> +"Colonel Binkus, I am indebted to you for faithful, effective and +valiant service. You shall have a medal." +</P> + +<P> +"Gin'ral Washington, we're a-goin' to lick 'em," said Solomon. "We're +a-goin' to break their necks." +</P> + +<P> +"Colonel, you are very confident," the General answered with a smile. +</P> + +<P> +"You'll see," Solomon continued. "God A'mighty is sick o' tyrants. +They're doomed." +</P> + +<P> +"Let us hope so," said the Commander-in-Chief. "But let us not forget +the words of Poor Richard: 'God helps those who help themselves.'" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap16"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVI +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +JACK AND SOLOMON MEET THE GREAT ALLY +</H3> + +<P> +The Selectmen of Boston, seeing the city threatened with destruction, +had made terms with Washington for the British army. It was to be +allowed peaceably to abandon the city and withdraw in its fleet of one +hundred and fifty vessels. The American army was now well organized +and in high spirit. Washington waited on Dorchester Heights for the +evacuation of Boston to be completed. Meanwhile, a large force was +sent to New York to assist in the defense of that city. Jack and +Solomon went with it. On account of their physical condition, horses +were provided for them, and on their arrival each was to have a leave +of two weeks, "for repairs," as Solomon put it. They went up to Albany +for a rest and a visit and returned eager for the work which awaited +them. +</P> + +<P> +They spent a spring and summer of heavy toil in building defenses and +training recruits. The country was aflame with excitement. Rhode +Island and Connecticut declared for independence. The fire ran across +their borders and down the seaboard. Other colonies were making or +discussing like declarations. John Adams, on his way to Congress, told +of the defeat of the Northern army in Canada and how it was heading +southward "eaten with vermin, diseased, scattered, dispirited, unclad, +unfed, disgraced." Colonies were ignoring the old order of things, +electing their own assemblies and enacting their own laws. The Tory +provincial assemblies were unable to get men enough together to make a +pretense of doing business. +</P> + +<P> +In June, by a narrow margin, the Congress declared for independence, on +the motion of Richard Henry Lee of Virginia. A declaration was drafted +and soon adopted by all the Provincial Congresses. It was engrossed on +parchment and signed by the delegates of the thirteen states on the +second of August. Jack went to that memorable scene as an aid to John +Adams, who was then the head of the War Board. +</P> + +<P> +He writes in a letter to his friends in Albany: +</P> + +<P> +"They were a solemn looking lot of men with the exception of Doctor +Franklin and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. The latter wore a +long-tailed buff coat with round gold buttons. He is a tall, big-boned +man. I have never seen longer arms than he has. His wrists and hands +are large and powerful. +</P> + +<P> +"When they began to sign the parchment he smiled and said: +</P> + +<P> +"'Gentlemen, Benjamin Franklin should have written this document. The +committee, however, knew well that he would be sure to put a joke in +it.' +</P> + +<P> +"'Let me remind you that behind it all is the greatest joke in +history,' said the philosopher. +</P> + +<P> +"'What is that?' Mr. Jefferson asked, +</P> + +<P> +"'The British House of Lords,' said Franklin. +</P> + +<P> +"A smile broke through the cloud of solemnity on those many faces, and +was followed by a little ripple of laughter. +</P> + +<P> +"'The committee wishes you all to know that it is indebted to Doctor +Franklin for wise revision of the instrument,' said Mr. Jefferson. +</P> + +<P> +"When the last man had signed, Mr. Jefferson rose and said: +</P> + +<P> +"'Gentlemen, we have taken a long and important step. On this new +ground we must hang together to the end.' +</P> + +<P> +"'We must all hang together or assuredly we shall all hang separately,' +said Franklin with that gentle, fatherly smile of his. +</P> + +<P> +"Again the signers laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"Last night I heard Patrick Henry speak. He thrilled us with his +eloquence. He is a spare but rugged man, whose hands have been used to +toil like my own. They tell me that he was a small merchant, farmer +and bar-keeper down in Virginia before he became a lawyer and that he +educated himself largely by the reading of history. He has a rapid, +magnificent diction, slightly flavored with the accent of the Scot." +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +2 +</H3> + +<P> +In August, Howe had moved a part of his army from Halifax to Staten +Island and offensive operations were daily expected in Washington's +army. Jack hurried to his regiment, then in camp with others on the +heights back of Brooklyn. The troops there were not ready for a strong +attack. General Greene, who was in command of the division, had +suddenly fallen ill. Jack crossed the river the night of his arrival +with a message to General Washington. The latter returned with the +young Colonel to survey the situation. They found Solomon at +headquarters. He had discovered British scouts in the wooded country +near Gravesend. He and Jack were detailed to keep watch of that part +of the island and its shores with horses posted at convenient points so +that, if necessary, they could make quick reports. +</P> + +<P> +Next day, far beyond the outposts in the bush, they tied their horses +in the little stable near Remsen's cabin on the south road and went on +afoot through the bush. Jack used to tell his friends that the +singular alertness and skill of Solomon had never been so apparent as +in the adventures of that day. +</P> + +<P> +"Go careful," Solomon warned as they parted. "Keep a-goin' south an' +don't worry 'bout me." +</P> + +<P> +"I thought that I knew how to be careful, but Solomon took the conceit +out of me," Jack was wont to say. "I was walking along in the bush +late that day when I thought I saw a move far ahead. I stopped and +suddenly discovered that Solomon was standing beside me. +</P> + +<P> +"I was so startled that I almost let a yelp out of me. +</P> + +<P> +"He beckoned to me and I followed him. He began to walk about as fast +as I had ever seen him go. He had been looking for me. Soon he slowed +his gait and said in a low voice: +</P> + +<P> +"'Ain't ye a leetle bit car'less? An Injun wouldn't have no trouble +smashin' yer head with a tommyhawk. In this 'ere business ye got to +have a swivel in yer neck an' keep 'er twistin'. Ye got to know what's +goin' on a-fore an' behind ye an' on both sides. We must p'int fer +camp. This mornin' the British begun to land an army at Gravesend. +Out on the road they's waggin loads o' old folks an' women, an' babies +on their way to Brooklyn. We got to skitter 'long. Some o' their +skirmishers have been workin' back two ways an' may have us cut off.'" +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly Solomon stopped and lifted his hand and listened. Then he +dropped and put his ear to the ground. He beckoned to Jack, who crept +near him. +</P> + +<P> +"Somebody's nigh us afore an' behind," he whispered. "We better hide +till dark comes. You crawl into that ol' holler log. I'll nose myself +under a brush pile." +</P> + +<P> +They were in a burnt slash where the soft timber had been cut some time +before. The land was covered with a thick, spotty growth of poplar and +wild cherry and brush heaps and logs half-rotted. The piece of timber +to which Solomon had referred was the base log of a giant hemlock +abandoned, no doubt, because, when cut, it was found to be a shell. It +was open only at the butt end. Its opening was covered by an immense +cobweb. Jack brushed it away and crept backward into the shell. He +observed that many black hairs were caught upon the rough sides of this +singular chamber. Through the winter it must have been the den of a +black bear. As soon as he had settled down, with his face some two +feet from the sunlit air of the outer world. Jack observed that the +industrious spider had begun again to throw his silvery veil over the +great hole in the log's end. He watched the process. First the outer +lines of the structure were woven across the edges of the opening and +made fast at points around its imperfect circle. Then the weaver +dropped to opposite points, unreeling his slender rope behind him and +making it taut and fast. He was no slow and clumsy workman. He knew +his task and rushed about, rapidly strengthening his structure with +parallel lines, having a common center, until his silken floor was in +place again and ready for the death dance of flies and bees and wasps. +Soon a bumble bee was kicking and quivering like a stricken ox on its +surface. The spider rushed upon him and buried his knives in the back +and sides of his prey. The young man's observation of this interesting +process was interrupted by the sound of voices and the tread of feet. +They were British voices. +</P> + +<P> +"They came this way. I saw them when they turned," a voice was saying. +"If I had been a little closer, I could have potted both men with one +bullet." +</P> + +<P> +"Why didn't you take a shot anyhow?" another asked. +</P> + +<P> +"I was creeping up, trying to get closer. They have had to hide or run +upon the heels of our people." +</P> + +<P> +A number of men were now sitting on the very log in which Jack was +hidden. The young scout saw the legs of a man standing opposite the +open end of the log. Then these memorable words were spoken: +</P> + +<P> +"This log is good cover for a man to hide in, but nobody is hid in it. +There's a big spider's web over the opening." +</P> + +<P> +There was more talk, in which it came out that nine thousand men were +crossing to Gravesend. +</P> + +<P> +"Come on, boys, I'm going back," said one of the party. Whereupon they +went away. +</P> + +<P> +Dusk was falling. Jack waited for a move from Solomon. In a few +minutes he heard a stir in the brush. Then he could dimly see the face +of his friend beyond the spider's web. +</P> + +<P> +"Come on, my son," the latter whispered. With a feeling of real +regret, Jack rent the veil of the spider and came out of his +hiding-place. He brushed the silken threads from his hair and brow as +he whispered: +</P> + +<P> +"That old spider saved me--good luck to him!" +</P> + +<P> +"We'll keep clus together," Solomon whispered. "We got to push right +on an' work 'round 'em. If any one gits in our way, he'll have to +change worlds sudden, that's all. We mus' git to them hosses 'fore +midnight." +</P> + +<P> +Darkness had fallen, but the moon was rising when they set out. +Solomon led the way, with that long, loose stride of his. Their +moccasined feet were about as noiseless as a cat's. On and on they +went until Solomon stopped suddenly and stood listening and peering +into the dark bush beyond. Jack could hear and see nothing. Solomon +turned and took a new direction without a word and moving with the +stealth of a hunted Indian. Jack followed closely. Soon they were +sinking to their knees in a mossy tamarack swamp, but a few minutes of +hard travel brought them to the shore of a pond. +</P> + +<P> +"Wait here till I git the canoe," Solomon whispered. +</P> + +<P> +The latter crept into a thicket and soon Jack could hear him cautiously +shoving his canoe into the water. A little later the young man sat in +the middle of the shell of birch bark while Solomon knelt in its stern +with his paddle. Silently he pushed through the lilied margin of the +pond into clear water. The moon was hidden behind the woods. The +still surface of the pond was now a glossy, dark plane between two +starry deeps--one above, the other beneath. In the shadow of the +forest, near the far shore, Solomon stopped and lifted his voice in the +long, weird cry of the great bush owl. This he repeated three times, +when there came an answer out of the woods. +</P> + +<P> +"That's a warnin' fer ol' Joe Thrasher," Solomon whispered. "He'll go +out an' wake up the folks on his road an' start 'em movin'." +</P> + +<P> +They landed and Solomon hid his canoe in a thicket. +</P> + +<P> +"Now we kin skitter right long, but I tell ye we got purty clus to 'em +back thar." +</P> + +<P> +"How did you know it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Got a whiff o' smoke. They was strung out from the pond landing over +'crost the trail. They didn't cover the swamp. Must 'a' had a fire +for tea early in the evenin'. Wherever they's an Englishman, thar's +got to be tea." +</P> + +<P> +Before midnight they reached Remsen's barn and about two o'clock +entered the camp on lathering horses. As they dismounted, looking back +from the heights of Brooklyn toward the southeast, they could see a +great light from many fires, the flames of which were leaping into the +sky. +</P> + +<P> +"Guess the farmers have set their wheat stacks afire," said Solomon. +"They're all scairt an' started fer town." +</P> + +<P> +General Washington was with his forces some miles north of the other +shore of the river. A messenger was sent for him. Next day the +Commander-in-Chief found his Long Island brigades in a condition of +disorder and panic. Squads and companies, eager for a fight, were +prowling through the bush in the south like hunters after game. A +number of the new Connecticut boys had deserted. Some of them had been +captured and brought back. In speaking of the matter, Washington said: +</P> + +<P> +"We must be tolerant. These lads are timid. They have been dragged +from the tender scenes of domestic life. They are unused to the +restraints of war. We must not be too severe." +</P> + +<P> +Jack heard the Commander-in-Chief when he spoke these words. +</P> + +<P> +"The man has a great heart in him, as every great man must," he wrote +to his father. "I am beginning to love him. I can see that these +thousands in the army are going to be bound to him by an affection like +that of a son for a father. With men like Washington and Franklin to +lead us, how can we fail?" +</P> + +<P> +The next night Sir Henry Clinton got around the Americans and turned +their left flank. Smallwood's command and that of Colonel Jack Irons +were almost destroyed, twenty-two hundred having been killed or taken. +Jack had his left arm shot through and escaped only by the swift and +effective use of his pistols and hanger, and by good luck, his horse +having been "only slightly cut in the withers." The American line gave +way. Its unseasoned troops fled into Brooklyn. There was the end of +the island. They could go no farther without swimming. With a British +fleet in the harbor under Admiral Lord Howe, the situation was +desperate. Sir Henry had only to follow and pen them in and unlimber +his guns. The surrender of more than half of Washington's army would +have to follow. At headquarters, the most discerning minds saw that +only a miracle could prevent it. +</P> + +<P> +The miracle arrived. Next day a fog thicker than the darkness of a +clouded night enveloped the island and lay upon the face of the waters. +Calmly, quickly Washington got ready to move his troops. That night, +under the friendly cover of the fog, they were quietly taken across the +East River, with a regiment of Marblehead sea dogs, under Colonel +Glover, manning the boats. Fortunately, the British army had halted, +waiting for clear weather. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +3 +</H3> + +<P> +For nearly two weeks Jack was nursing his wound in Washington's army +hospital, which consisted of a cabin, a tent, a number of cow stables +and an old shed on the heights of Harlem. Jack had lain in a stable. +</P> + +<P> +Toward the end of his confinement, John Adams came to see him. +</P> + +<P> +"Were you badly hurt ?" the great man asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Scratched a little, but I'll be back in the service to-morrow," Jack +replied. +</P> + +<P> +"You do not look like yourself quite. I think that I will ask the +Commander-in-Chief to let you go with me to Philadelphia. I have some +business there and later Franklin and I are going to Staten Island to +confer with Admiral Lord Howe. We are a pair of snappish old dogs and +need a young man like you to look after us. You would only have to +keep out of our quarrels, attend to our luggage and make some notes in +the conference." +</P> + +<P> +So it happened that Jack went to Philadelphia with Mr. Adams, and, +after two days at the house of Doctor Franklin, set out with the two +great men for the conference on Staten Island. He went in high hope +that he was to witness the last scene of the war. +</P> + +<P> +In Amboy he sent a letter to his father, which said: +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Adams is a blunt, outspoken man. If things do not go to his +liking, he is quick to tell you. Doctor Franklin is humorous and +polite, but firm as a God-placed mountain. You may put your shoulder +against the mountain and push and think it is moving, but it isn't. He +is established. He has found his proper bearings and is done with +moving. These two great men differ in little matters. They had a +curious quarrel the other evening. We had reached New Brunswick on our +way north. The taverns were crowded. I ran from one to another trying +to find entertainment for my distinguished friends. At last I found a +small chamber with one bed in it and a single window. The bed nearly +filled the room. No better accommodation was to be had. I had left +them sitting on a bench in a little grove near the large hotel, with +the luggage near them. When I returned they were having a hot argument +over the origin of northeast storms, the Doctor asserting that he had +learned by experiment that they began in the southwest and proceeded in +a north-easterly direction. I had to wait ten minutes for a chance to +speak to them. Mr. Adams was hot faced, the Doctor calm and smiling. +I imparted the news. +</P> + +<P> +"'God of Israel!' Mr. Adams exclaimed. 'Is it not enough that I have +to agree with you? Must I also sleep with you?' +</P> + +<P> +"'Sir, I hope that you must not, but if you must, I beg that you will +sleep more gently than you talk,' said Franklin. + +"I went with them to their quarters carrying the luggage. On the way +Mr. Adams complained that he had picked up a flea somewhere. +</P> + +<P> +"'The flea, sir, is a small animal, but a big fact,' said Franklin. +'You alarm me. Two large men and a flea will be apt to crowd our +quarters.' +</P> + +<P> +"In the room they argued with a depth of feeling which astonished me, +as to whether the one window should be open or closed. Mr. Adams had +closed it. +</P> + +<P> +"'Please do not close the window,' said Franklin. 'We shall suffocate.' +</P> + +<P> +"'Sir, I am an invalid and afraid of the night air,' said Adams rather +testily. +</P> + +<P> +"'The air of this room will be much worse for you than that +out-of-doors,' Franklin retorted. He was then between the covers. 'I +beg of you to open the window and get into bed and if I do not prove my +case to your satisfaction, I will consent to its being closed.' +</P> + +<P> +"I lay down on a straw filled mattress outside their door. I heard Mr. +Adams open the window and get into bed. Then Doctor Franklin began to +expound his theory of colds. He declared that cold air never gave any +one a cold; that respiration destroyed a gallon of air a minute and +that all the air in the room would be consumed in an hour. He went on +and on and long before he had finished his argument, Mr. Adams was +snoring, convinced rather by the length than the cogency of the +reasoning. Soon the two great men, whose fame may be said to fill the +earth, were asleep in the same bed in that little box of a room and +snoring in a way that suggested loud contention. I had to laugh as I +listened. Mr. Adams would seem to have been defeated, for, by and by, +I heard him muttering as he walked the floor." +</P> + +<P> +Howe's barge met the party at Amboy and conveyed them to the landing +near his headquarters. It was, however, a fruitless journey. Howe +wished to negotiate on the old ground now abandoned forever. The +people of America had spoken for independence--a new, irrevocable fact +not to be put aside by ambassadors. The colonies were lost. The +concessions which the wise Franklin had so urgently recommended to the +government of England, Howe seemed now inclined to offer, but they +could not be entertained. +</P> + +<P> +"Then my government can only maintain its dignity by fighting," said +Howe. +</P> + +<P> +"That is a mistaken notion," Franklin answered; "It will be much more +dignified for your government to acknowledge its error than to persist +in it." +</P> + +<P> +"We shall fight," Howe declared. +</P> + +<P> +"And you will have more fighting to do than you anticipate," said +Franklin. "Nature is our friend and ally. The Lord has prepared our +defenses. They are the sea, the mountains, the forest and the +character of our people. Consider what you have accomplished. At an +expense of eight million pounds, you have killed about eight hundred +Yankees. They have cost you ten thousand pounds a head. Meanwhile, at +least a hundred thousand children have been born in America. There are +the factors in your problem. How much time and money will be required +for the job of killing all of us?" +</P> + +<P> +The British Admiral ignored the query. +</P> + +<P> +"My powers are limited," said he, "but I am authorized to grant pardons +and in every way to exercise the King's paternal solicitude." +</P> + +<P> +"Such an offer shows that your proud nation has no flattering opinion +of us," Franklin answered. "We, who are the injured parties, have not +the baseness to entertain it. You will forgive me for reminding you +that the King's paternal solicitude has been rather trying. It has +burned our defenseless towns in mid-winter; if has incited the savages +to massacre our farmers' in the back country; it has driven us to a +declaration of independence. Britain and America are now distinct +states. Peace can be considered only on that basis. You wish to +prevent our trade from passing into foreign channels. Let me remind +you, also, that the profit of no trade can ever be equal to the expense +of holding it with fleets and armies." +</P> + +<P> +"On such a basis I am not empowered to treat with you," Howe answered. +"We shall immediately move against your army." +</P> + +<P> +The conference ended. The ambassadors and their secretary shook hands +with the British Admiral. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Irons, I have heard much of you," said the latter as he held +Jack's hand. "You are deeply attached to a young lady whom I admire +and whose father is my friend. I offer you a chance to leave this +troubled land and go to London and marry and lead a peaceable, +Christian life. You may keep your principles, if you wish, as I have +no use for them. You will find sympathizers in England." +</P> + +<P> +"Lord Howe, your kindness touches me," the young man answered. "What +you propose is a great temptation. It is like Calypso's offer of +immortal happiness to Ulysses. I love England. I love peace, and more +than either, I love the young lady, but I couldn't go and keep my +principles." +</P> + +<P> +"Why not, sir?" +</P> + +<P> +"Because we are all of a mind with our Mr. Patrick Henry. We put +Liberty above happiness and even above life. So I must stay and help +fight her battles, and when I say it I am grinding my own heart under +my heel. Don't think harshly of me. I can not help it. The feeling +is bred in my bones." +</P> + +<P> +His Lordship smiled politely and bowed as the three men withdrew. +</P> + +<P> +Franklin took the hand of the young man and pressed it silently as they +were leaving the small house in which Howe had established himself. +</P> + +<P> +Jack, who had been taking notes of the fruitless talk of these great +men, was sorely disappointed. He could see no prospect now of peace. +</P> + +<P> +"My hopes are burned to the ground," he said to Doctor Franklin. +</P> + +<P> +"It is a time of sacrifice," the good man answered. "You have the +invincible spirit that looks into the future and gives all it has. You +are America." +</P> + +<P> +"I have been thinking too much of myself," Jack answered. "Now I am +ready to lay down my life in this great cause of ours." +</P> + +<P> +"Boy, I like you," said Mr. Adams. "I have arranged to have you safely +conveyed to New York. There an orderly will meet and conduct you to +our headquarters." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, sir," Jack replied. Turning to Doctor Franklin, he added: +</P> + +<P> +"One remark of yours to Lord Howe impressed me. You said that Nature +was our friend and ally. It put me in mind of the fog that helped us +out of Brooklyn and of a little adventure of mine." +</P> + +<P> +Then he told the story of the spider's web. +</P> + +<P> +"I repeat that all Nature is with us," said Franklin. "It was a sense +of injustice in human nature that sent us across the great barrier of +the sea into conditions where only the strong could survive. Here we +have raised up a sturdy people with three thousand miles of water +between them and tyranny. Armies can not cross it and succeed long in +a hostile land. They are too far from home. The expense of +transporting and maintaining them will bleed our enemies until they are +spent. The British King is powerful, but now he has picked a quarrel +with Almighty God, and it will go hard with him." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap17"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVII +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +WITH THE ARMY AND IN THE BUSH +</H3> + +<P> +In January, 1777, Colonel Irons writes to his father from Morristown, +New Jersey, as follows: +</P> + +<P> +"An army is a despotic machine. For that reason chiefly our men do not +like military service. It is hard to induce them to enlist for long +terms. They are released by expiration long before they have been +trained and seasoned for good service. So Washington has found it +difficult to fill his line with men of respectable fighting quality. +</P> + +<P> +"Our great Commander lost his patience on the eve of our leaving New +York. Our troops, posted at Kip's Bay on the East River to defend the +landing, fled in a panic without firing a gun at the approach of Howe's +army. I happened to be in a company of Light Horse with General +Washington, who had gone up to survey the ground. Before his eyes two +brigades of New England troops ran away, leaving us exposed to capture. +</P> + +<P> +"The great Virginian was hot with indignation. He threw his hat to the +ground and exclaimed: +</P> + +<P> +"'Are these the kind of men with whom I am to defend America?' +</P> + +<P> +"Next day our troops behaved better and succeeded in repulsing the +enemy. This put new spirit in them. Putnam got his forces out of New +York and well up the shore of the North River. For weeks we lay behind +our trenches on Harlem Heights, building up the fighting spirit of our +men and training them for hard service. The stables, cabins and sheds +of Harlem were full of our sick. Smallpox had got among them. Cold +weather was coming on and few were clothed to stand it. The +proclamation of Admiral Lord Howe and his brother, the General, +offering pardon and protection to all who remained loyal to the crown, +caused some to desert us, and many timid settlers in the outlying +country, with women and children to care for, were on the fence ready +to jump either way. Hundreds were driven by fear toward the British. +</P> + +<P> +"In danger of being shut in, we crossed King's Bridge and retreated to +White Plains. How we toiled with our baggage on that journey, many of +us being yoked like oxen to the wagons! Every day troops, whose terms +of enlistment had expired, were leaving us. It seemed as if our whole +flying camp would soon be gone. But there were many like Solomon and +me who were willing to give up everything for the cause and follow our +beloved Commander into hell, if necessary. There were some four +thousand of us who streaked up the Hudson with him to King's Ferry, at +the foot of the Highlands, to get out of the way of the British ships. +There we crossed into Jersey and dodged about, capturing a thousand men +at Trenton and three hundred at Princeton, defeating the British +regiments who pursued us and killing many officers and men and cutting +off their army from its supplies. We have seized a goodly number of +cannon and valuable stores and reclaimed New Jersey and stiffened the +necks of our people. It has been, I think, a turning point in the war. +Our men have fought like Homeric heroes and endured great hardships in +the bitter cold with worn-out shoes and inadequate clothing. A number +have been frozen to death. I loaned my last extra pair of shoes to a +poor fellow whose feet had been badly cut and frozen. When I tell you +that coming into Morristown I saw many bloody footprints in the snow +behind the army, you will understand. We are a ragamuffin band, but we +have taught the British to respect us. Send all the shoes and clothing +you can scare up. +</P> + +<P> +"I have seen incidents which have increased my love of Washington. +When we were marching through a village in good weather there was a +great crowd in the street. In the midst of it was a little girl crying +out because she could not see Washington. He stopped and called for +her. They brought the child and he lifted her to the saddle in front +of him and carried her a little way on his big white horse. +</P> + +<P> +"At the first divine service here in Morristown he observed an elderly +woman, a rough clad farmer's wife, standing back in the edge of the +crowd. He arose and beckoned to her to come and take his seat. She +did so, and he stood through the service, save when he was kneeling. +Of course, many offered him their seats, but he refused to take one. +</P> + +<P> +"We have been deeply impressed and inspirited by the address of a young +man of the name of Alexander Hamilton. He is scarcely twenty years of +age, they tell me, but he has wit and eloquence and a maturity of +understanding which astonished me. He is slender, a bit under middle +stature and has a handsome face and courtly manners. He will be one of +the tallest candles of our faith, or I am no prophet. +</P> + +<P> +"Solomon has been a tower of strength in this campaign. I wish you +could have seen him lead the charge against Mercer's men and bring in +the British general, whom he had wounded. He and I are scouting around +the camp every day. Our men are billeted up and down the highways and +living in small huts around headquarters." +</P> + +<P> +Washington had begun to show his great and singular gifts. One of +them, through which he secured rest and safety for his shattered +forces, shone out there in Morristown. There were only about three +thousand effective men in his army. To conceal their number, he had +sent them to many houses on the roads leading into the village. The +British in New York numbered at least nine thousand well seasoned +troops, and with good reason he feared an attack. The force at +Morristown was in great danger. One day a New York merchant was +brought into camp by the famous scout Solomon Binkus. The merchant had +been mistreated by the British. He had sold his business and crossed +the river by night and come through the lines on the wagon of a farmer +friend who was bringing supplies to the American army. He gave much +information as to plans and positions of the British, which was known +to be correct. He wished to enlist in the American army and do what he +could to help it. He was put to work in the ranks. A few days later +the farmer with whom he had arrived came again and, after selling his +wagon load, found the ex-merchant and conferred with him in private. +That evening, when the farmer had got a mile or so from camp, he was +stopped and searched by Colonel Irons. A letter was found in the +farmer's pocket which clearly indicated that the ex-merchant was a spy +and the farmer a Tory. Irons went at once to General Washington with +his report, urging that the spy be taken up and put in confinement. +</P> + +<P> +The General sat thoughtfully looking into the fire, but made no answer. +</P> + +<P> +"He is here to count our men and report our weakness," said the Colonel. +</P> + +<P> +"The poor fellow has not found it an easy thing to do," the General +answered. "I shall see that he gets help." +</P> + +<P> +They went together to the house where the Adjutant General had his home +and office. To this officer Washington said: +</P> + +<P> +"General, you have seen a report from one Weatherly, a New York +merchant, who came with information from that city. Will you kindly do +him the honor of asking him to dine with you here alone to-morrow +evening? Question him as to the situation in New York in a friendly +manner and impart to him such items of misinformation as you may care +to give, but mainly look to this. Begin immediately to get signed +returns from the brigadiers showing that we have an effective force +here of twelve thousand men. These reports must be lying on your desk +while you are conferring with Weatherly. Treat the man with good food +and marked politeness and appreciation of the service he is likely to +render us. Soon after you have eaten, I shall send an orderly here. +He will deliver a message. You will ask the man to make himself at +home while you are gone for half an hour or so. You will see that the +window shades are drawn and the door closed and that no one disturbs +the man while he is copying those returns, which he will be sure to do. +Colonel Irons, I depend upon you to see to it that he has an +opportunity to escape safely with his budget. I warn you not to let +him fail. It is most important." +</P> + +<P> +The next morning, Weatherly was ordered to report to Major Binkus for +training in scout duty, and the morning after that he was taken out +through the lines, mounted, with Colonel Irons and carefully lost in +the pine bush. He was seen no more in the American camp. The spy +delivered his report to the British and the little remnant of an army +at Morristown was safe for the winter. Cornwallis and Howe put such +confidence in this report that when Luce, another spy, came into their +camp with a count of Washington's forces, which was substantially +correct, they doubted the good faith of the man and threw him into +prison. +</P> + +<P> +So the great Virginian had turned a British spy into one of his most +effective helpers. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile good news had encouraged enlistment for long terms. Four +regiments of horse were put in training, ten frigates were built and +sent to sea and more were under construction. The whole fighting force +of America was being reorganized. Moreover, in this first year the +Yankee privateers had so wounded a leg of the British lion that he was +roaring with rage. Three hundred and fifty of his ships, well laden +from the West Indies, had been seized. Their cargoes were valued at a +million pounds. The fighting spirit of America was encouraged also by +events in France, where Franklin and Silas Deane were now at work. +France had become an ally. A loan of six hundred thousand dollars had +been secured in the French capital and expert officers from that +country had begun to arrive to join the army of Washington. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap18"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVIII +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +HOW SOLOMON SHIFTED THE SKEER +</H3> + +<P> +In the spring news came of a great force of British which was being +organized in Canada for a descent upon New York through Lake Champlain. +Frontier settlers in Tryon County were being massacred by Indians. +</P> + +<P> +Generals Herkimer and Schuyler had written to Washington, asking for +the services of the famous scout, Solomon Binkus, in that region. +</P> + +<P> +"He knows the Indian as no other man knows him and can speak his +language and he also knows the bush," Schuyler had written. "If there +is any place on earth where his help is needed just now, it is here." +</P> + +<P> +"Got to leave ye, my son," Solomon said to Jack one evening soon after +that. +</P> + +<P> +"How so?" the young man asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Goin' hum to fight Injuns. The Great Father has ordered it. I'll +like it better. Gittin' lazy here. Summer's comin' an' I'm a born +bush man. I'm kind o' oneasy--like a deer in a dooryard. I ain't had +to run fer my life since we got here. My hoofs are complainin'. I +ain't shot a gun in a month." +</P> + +<P> +A look of sorrow spread over the face of Solomon. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm tired of this place," said Jack. "The British are scared of us +and we're scared of the British. There's nothing going on. I'd love +to go back to the big bush with you." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll tell the Great Father that you're a born bush man. Mebbe he'll +let ye go. They'll need us both. Rum, Injuns an' the devil have +j'ined hands. The Long House will be the center o' hell an' its line +fences 'll take in the hull big bush." +</P> + +<P> +That day Jack's name was included in the order. +</P> + +<P> +"I am sorry that it is not yet possible to pay you or any of the men +who have served me so faithfully," said Washington. "If you need money +I shall be glad to lend you a sum to help you through this journey." +</P> + +<P> +"I ain't fightin' fer pay," Solomon answered. "I'll hoe an' dig, an' +cook, an' guide fer money. But I won't fight no more fer money--partly +'cause I don't need it--partly 'cause I'm fightin' fer myself. I got a +little left in my britches pocket, but if I hadn't, my ol' Marier +wouldn't let me go hungry." +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +2 +</H3> + +<P> +In April the two friends set out afoot for the lower end of the +Highlands. On the river they hired a Dutch farmer to take them on to +Albany in his sloop. After two delightful days at home, General +Schuyler suggested that they could do a great service by traversing the +wilderness to the valley of the great river of the north, as far as +possible toward Swegachie, and reporting their observations to Crown +Point or Fort Edward, if there seemed to be occasion for it, and if +not, they were to proceed to General Herkimer's camp at Oriskany and +give him what help they could in protecting the settlers in the west. +</P> + +<P> +"You would need to take all your wit and courage with you," the General +warned them. "The Indians are in bad temper. They have taken to +roasting their prisoners at the stake and eating their flesh. This is +a hazardous undertaking. Therefore, I give you a suggestion and not an +order." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll go 'lone," said Solomon. "If I get et up it needn't break +nobody's heart. Let Jack go to one o' the forts." +</P> + +<P> +"No, I'd rather go into the bush with you," said Jack. "We're both +needed there. If necessary we could separate and carry our warning in +two directions. We'll take a couple of the new double-barreled rifles +and four pistols. If we had to, I think we could fight a hole through +any trouble we are likely to have." +</P> + +<P> +So it was decided that they should go together on this scouting trip +into the north bush. Solomon had long before that invented what he +called "a lightnin' thrower" for close fighting with Indians, to be +used if one were hard pressed and outnumbered and likely to have his +scalp taken. This odd contrivance he had never had occasion to use. +It was a thin, round shell of cast iron with a tube, a flint and +plunger. The shell was of about the size of a large apple. It was to +be filled with missiles and gunpowder. The plunger, with its spring, +was set vertically above the tube. In throwing this contrivance one +released its spring by the pressure of his thumb. The hammer fell and +the spark it made ignited a fuse leading down to the powder. Its owner +had to throw it from behind a tree or have a share in the peril it was +sure to create. +</P> + +<P> +While Jack was at home with his people Solomon spent a week in the +foundry and forge and, before they set out on their journey, had three +of these unique weapons, all loaded and packed in water-proof wrappings. +</P> + +<P> +About the middle of May they proceeded in a light bark canoe to Fort +Edward and carried it across country to Lake George and made their way +with paddles to Ticonderoga. There they learned that scouts were +operating only on and near Lake Champlain. The interior of Tryon +County was said to be dangerous ground. Mohawks, Cagnawagas, Senecas, +Algonquins and Hurons were thick in the bush and all on the warpath. +They were torturing and eating every white man that fell in their +hands, save those with a Tory mark on them. +</P> + +<P> +"We're skeered o' the bush," said an elderly bearded soldier, who was +sitting on a log. "A man who goes into the wildwood needs to be a good +friend o' God." +</P> + +<P> +"But Schuyler thinks a force of British may land somewhere along the +big river and come down through the bush, building a road as they +advance," said Jack. +</P> + +<P> +"A thousand men could make a tol'able waggin road to Fort Edward in a +month," Solomon declared. "That's mebbe the reason the Injuns are out +in the bush eatin' Yankees. They're tryin' fer to skeer us an' keep us +erway. By the hide an' horns o' the devil! We got to know what's +a-goin' on out thar. You fellers are a-settin' eround these 'ere forts +as if ye had nothin' to do but chaw beef steak an' wipe yer rifles an' +pick yer teeth. Why don't ye go out thar in the bush and do a little +skeerin' yerselves? Ye're like a lot o' ol' women settin' by the fire +an' tellin' ghos' stories." +</P> + +<P> +"We got 'nuff to do considerin' the pay we git," said a sergeant. +</P> + +<P> +"Hell an' Tophet! What do ye want o' pay?" Solomon answered. "Ain't +ye willin' to fight fer yer own liberty without bein' paid fer it? Ye +been kicked an' robbed an' spit on, an' dragged eround by the heels, +an' ye don't want to fight 'less somebody pays ye. What a dam' corn +fiddle o' a man ye mus' be!" +</P> + +<P> +Solomon was putting fresh provisions in his pack as he talked. +</P> + +<P> +"All the Injuns o' Kinady an' the great grass lands may be snookin' +down through the bush. We're bound fer t' know what's a-goin' on out +thar. We're liable to be skeered, but also an' likewise we'll do some +skeerin' 'fore we give up--you hear to me." +</P> + +<P> +Jack and Solomon set out in the bush that afternoon and before night +fell were up on the mountain slants north of the Glassy Water, as Lake +George was often called those days. But for Solomon's caution an evil +fate had perhaps come to them before their first sleep on the journey. +The new leaves were just out, but not quite full. The little maples +and beeches flung their sprays of vivid green foliage above the darker +shades of the witch hopple into the soft-lighted air of the great house +of the wood and filled it with a pleasant odor. A mile or so back, +Solomon had left the trail and cautioned Jack to keep close and step +softly. Soon the old scout stopped, and listened and put his ear to +the ground. He rose and beckoned to Jack and the two turned aside and +made their way stealthily up the slant of a ledge. In the edge of a +little thicket on a mossy rock shelf they sat down. Solomon looked +serious. There were deep furrows in the skin above his brow. +</P> + +<P> +When he was excited in the bush he had the habit of swallowing and the +process made a small, creaky sound in his throat. This Jack observed +then and at other times. Solomon was peering down through the bushes +toward the west, now and then moving his head a little. Jack looked in +the same direction and presently saw a move in the bushes below, but +nothing more. After a few minutes Solomon turned and whispered: +</P> + +<P> +"Four Injun braves jist went by. Mebbe they're scoutin' fer a big +band--mebbe not. If so, the crowd is up the trail. If they're comin' +by, it'll be 'fore dark. We'll stop in this 'ere tavern. They's a +cave on t'other side o' the ledge as big as a small house." +</P> + +<P> +They watched until the sun had set. Then Solomon led Jack to the cave, +in which their packs were deposited. +</P> + +<P> +From the cave's entrance they looked upon the undulating green roof of +the forest dipping down into a deep valley, cut by the smooth surface +of a broad river with mirrored shores, and lifting to the summit of a +distant mountain range. Its blue peaks rose into the glow of the +sunset. +</P> + +<P> +"Yonder is the great stairway of Heaven!" Jack exclaimed. +</P> + +<P> +"I've put up in this 'ere ol' tavern many a night," said Solomon. "Do +ye see its sign?" +</P> + +<P> +He pointed to a great dead pine that stood a little below it, towering +with stark, outreaching limbs more than a hundred and fifty feet into +the air. +</P> + +<P> +"I call it The Dead Pine Tavern," Solomon remarked. +</P> + +<P> +"On the road to Paradise," said Jack as he gazed down the valley, his +hands shading his eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Wisht we could have a nice hot supper, but 'twon't do to build no +fire. Nothin' but cold vittles! I'll go down with the pot to a spring +an' git some water. You dig fer our supper in that pack o' mine an' +spread it out here. I'm hungry." +</P> + +<P> +They ate their bread and dried meat moistened with spring water, picked +some balsam boughs and covered a corner of the mossy floor with them. +When the rock chamber was filled with their fragrance, Jack said: +</P> + +<P> +"If my dream comes true and Margaret and I are married, I shall bring +her here. I want her to see The Dead Pine Tavern and its outlook." +</P> + +<P> +"Ayes, sir, when ye're married safe," Solomon answered. "We'll come up +here fust summer an' fish, an' hunt, an' I'll run the tavern an' do the +cookin' an' sweep the floor an' make the beds!" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm a little discouraged," said Jack. "This war may last for years." +</P> + +<P> +"Keep up on high ground er ye'll git mired down," Solomon answered. +"Ain't nuther on ye very old yit, an' fust ye know these troubles 'll +be over an' done." +</P> + +<P> +Jack awoke at daylight and found that he was alone. Solomon returned +in half an hour or so. +</P> + +<P> +"Been scoutin' up the trail," he said. "Didn't see a thing but an ol' +gnaw bucket. We'll jest eat a bite an' p'int off to the nor'west an' +keep watch o' this 'ere trail. They's Injuns over thar on the slants. +We got to know how they look an' 'bout how many head they is." +</P> + +<P> +They went on, keeping well away from the trail. +</P> + +<P> +"We'll have to watch it with our ears," said Solomon in a whisper. +</P> + +<P> +His ear was often on the ground that morning and twice he left Jack "to +snook" out to the trail and look for tracks. Solomon could imitate the +call of the swamp robin, and when they were separated in the bush, he +gave it so that his friend could locate him. At midday they sat down +in deep shade by the side of a brook and ate their luncheon. +</P> + +<P> +"This 'ere is Peppermint Brook," said Solomon. "It's 'nother one o' my +taverns." +</P> + +<P> +"Our food isn't going to last long at the rate we are eating it," Jack +remarked. "If we can't shoot a gun what are we going to do when it's +all gone?" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't worry," Solomon answered. "Ye're in my kentry now an' there's a +better tavern up in the high trail." +</P> + +<P> +They fared along, favored by good weather, and spent that night on the +shore of a little pond not more than fifty paces off the old blazed +thoroughfare. Next day, about "half-way from dawn to dark," as Solomon +was wont, now and then, to speak of the noon hour, they came suddenly +upon fresh "sign." It was where the big north trail from the upper +waters of the Mohawk joined the one near which they had been traveling. +When they were approaching the point Solomon had left Jack in a thicket +and cautiously crept out to the "juncshin." There was half an hour of +silence before the old scout came back in sight and beckoned to Jack. +His face had never looked more serious. The young man approached him. +Solomon swallowed--a part of the effort to restrain his emotions. +</P> + +<P> +"Want to show ye suthin'," he whispered. +</P> + +<P> +The two went cautiously toward the trail. When they reached it the old +scout led the way to soft ground near a brook. Then he pointed down at +the mud. There were many footprints, newly made, and among them the +print of that wooden peg with an iron ring around its bottom, which +they had seen twice before, and which was associated with the blackest +memories they knew. For some time Solomon studied the surface of the +trail in silence. +</P> + +<P> +"More'n twenty Injuns, two captives, a pair o' hosses, a cow an' the +devil," he whispered to Jack. "Been a raid down to the Mohawk Valley. +The cow an' the hosses are loaded with plunder. I've noticed that when +the Injuns go out to rob an' kill folks ye find, 'mong their tracks, +the print o' that 'ere iron ring. I seen it twice in the Ohio kentry. +Here is the heart o' the devil an' his fire-water. Red Snout has got +to be started on a new trail. His ol' peg leg is goin' down to the +gate o' hell to-night." +</P> + +<P> +Solomon's face had darkened with anger. There were deep furrows across +his brow. +</P> + +<P> +Standing before Jack about three feet away, he drew out his ram rod and +tossed it to the young man, who caught it a little above the middle. +Jack knew the meaning of this. They were to put their hands upon the +ram rod, one above the other. The last hand it would hold was to do +the killing. It was Solomon's. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank God!" he whispered, as his face brightened. +</P> + +<P> +He seemed to be taking careful aim with his right eye. +</P> + +<P> +"It's my job," said he. "I wouldn't 'a' let ye do it if ye'd drawed +the chanst. It's my job--proper. They ain't an hour ahead. +Mebbe--it's jest possible--he may go to sleep to-night 'fore I do, an' +I wouldn't be supprised. They'll build their fire at the Caverns on +Rock Crick an' roast a captive. We'll cross the bush an' come up on t' +other side an' see what's goin' on." +</P> + +<P> +They crossed a high ridge, with Solomon tossing his feet in that long, +loose stride of his, and went down the slope into a broad valley. The +sun sank low and the immeasurable green roofed house of the wild was +dim and dusk when the old scout halted. Ahead in the distance they had +heard voices and the neighing of a horse. +</P> + +<P> +"My son," said Solomon as he pointed with his finger, "do you see the +brow o' the hill yonder whar the black thickets be?" +</P> + +<P> +Jack nodded. +</P> + +<P> +"If ye hear to me yell stay this side. This 'ere business is kind o' +neevarious. I'm a-goin' clus up. If I come back ye'll hear the call +o' the bush owl. If I don't come 'fore mornin' you p'int fer hum an' +the good God go with ye." + +"I shall go as far as you go," Jack answered. +</P> + +<P> +Solomon spoke sternly. The genial tone of good comradeship, had left +him. +</P> + +<P> +"Ye kin go, but ye ain't obleeged," said he. "Bear in mind, boy. +To-night I'm the Cap'n. Do as I tell ye--<I>exact</I>." +</P> + +<P> +He took the lightning hurlers out of the packs and unwrapped them and +tried the springs above the hammers. Earlier in the day he had looked +to the priming. Solomon gave one to Jack and put the other two in his +pockets. Each examined his pistols and adjusted them in his belt. +They started for the low lying ridge above the little valley of Rock +Creek. It was now quite dark and looking down through the thickets of +hemlock they could see the firelight of the Indians and hear the wash +of the creek water. Suddenly a wild whooping among the red men, savage +as the howl of wolves on the trail of a wounded bison, ran beyond them, +far out into the forest, and sent its echoes traveling from hilltop to +mountain side. Then came a sound which no man may hear without +getting, as Solomon was wont to say, "a scar on his soul which he will +carry beyond the last cape." It was the death cry of a captive. +Solomon had heard it before. He knew what it meant. The fire was +taking hold and the smoke had begun to smother him. Those cries were +like the stabbing of a knife and the recollection of them like +blood-stains. +</P> + +<P> +They hurried down the slant, brushing through the thicket, the sound of +their approach being covered by the appalling cries of the victim and +the demon-like tumult of the drunken braves. The two scouts were +racked with soul pain as they went on so that they could scarcely hold +their peace and keep their feet from running. A new sense of the +capacity for evil in the heart of man entered the mind of Jack. They +had come close to the frightful scene, when suddenly a deep silence +fell upon it. Thank God, the victim had gone beyond the reach of pain. +Something had happened in his passing--perhaps the savages had thought +it a sign from Heaven. For a moment their clamor had ceased. The two +scouts could plainly see the poor man behind a red veil of flame. +Suddenly the white leader of the raiders approached the pyre, limping +on his wooden stump, with a stick in his hand, and prodded the face of +the victim. It was his last act. Solomon was taking aim. His rifle +spoke. Red Snout tumbled forward into the fire. Then what a scurry +among the Indians! They vanished and so suddenly that Jack wondered +where they had gone. Solomon stood reloading the rifle barrel he had +just emptied. Then he said: +</P> + +<P> +"Come on an' do as I do." +</P> + +<P> +Solomon ran until they had come near. Then he jumped from tree to +tree, stopping at each long enough to survey the ground beyond it. +This was what he called "swapping cover." From behind a tree near the +fire he shouted in the Indian tongue: +</P> + +<P> +"Red men, you have made the Great Spirit angry. He has sent the Son of +the Thunder to slay you with his lightning." +</P> + +<P> +No truer words had ever left the lips of man. His hand rose and swung +back of his shoulder and shot forward. The round missile sailed +through the firelight and beyond it and sank into black shadows in the +great cavern at Rocky Creek--a famous camping-place in the old time. +Then a flash of white light and a roar that shook the hills! A blast +of gravel and dust and debris shot upward and pelted down upon the +earth. Bits of rock and wood and an Indian's arm and foot fell in the +firelight. A number of dusky figures scurried out of the mouth of the +cavern and ran for their lives shouting prayers to Manitou as they +disappeared in the darkness. Solomon pulled the embers from around the +feet of the victim. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, by the good God A'mighty, 'pears to me we got the skeer shifted +so the red man'll be the rabbit fer a while an' I wouldn't wonder," +said Solomon, as he stood looking down at the scene. "He ain't a-goin' +to like the look o' a pale face--not overly much. Them Injuns that got +erway 'll never stop runnin' till they've reached the middle o' next +week." +</P> + +<P> +He seized the foot of Red Snout and pulled his head out of the fire. +</P> + +<P> +"You ol' hellion!" Solomon exclaimed. "You dog o' the devil! Tumbled +into hell whar ye b'long at last, didn't ye? Jack, you take that +luther bucket an' bring some water out o' the creek an' put out this +fire. The ring on this 'ere ol' wooden leg is wuth a hundred pounds." +</P> + +<P> +Solomon took the hatchet from his belt and hacked off the end of Red +Snout's wooden leg and put it in his coat pocket, saying: +</P> + +<P> +"'From now on a white man can walk in the bush without gittin' his +bones picked. Injuns is goin' to be skeered o' us--a few an' I +wouldn't be supprised." +</P> + +<P> +When Jack came back with the water, Solomon poured it on the embers, +and looked at the swollen form which still seemed to be straining at +the green withes of moose wood. +</P> + +<P> +"Nothin' kin be done fer him," said the old scout. "He's gone erway. +I tell ye, Jack, it g'in my soul a sweat to hear him dyin'." +</P> + +<P> +A moment of silence full of the sorrow of the two men followed. +Solomon broke it by saying: +</P> + +<P> +"That 'ere black pill o' mine went right down into the stummick o' the +hill an' give it quite a puke--you hear to me." +</P> + +<P> +They went to the cavern's mouth and looked in. +</P> + +<P> +"They's an awful mess in thar. I don't keer to see it," said Solomon. +</P> + +<P> +Near them they discovered a warrior who had crawled out of that death +chamber in the rocks. He had been stunned and wounded about the +shoulders. They helped him to his feet and led him away. He was +trembling with fear. Solomon found a pine torch, still burning, near +where the fire had been. By its light they dressed his wounds--the old +scout having with him always a small surgeon's outfit. +</P> + +<P> +"Whar is t' other captive?" he asked in the Indian tongue. +</P> + +<P> +"About a mile down the trail. It's a woman and a boy," said the +warrior. +</P> + +<P> +"Take us whar they be," Solomon commanded. +</P> + +<P> +The three started slowly down the trail, the warrior leading them. +</P> + +<P> +"Son of the Thunder, throw no more lightning and I will kiss your +mighty hand and do as you tell me," said the Indian, as they set out. +</P> + +<P> +It was now dark. Jack saw, through the opening in the forest roof +above the trail, Orion and the Pleiades looking down at them, as +beautiful as ever, and now he could hear the brook singing merrily. +</P> + +<P> +"I could have chided the stars and the brook while the Indian and I +were waiting for Solomon to bring the packs," he wrote in his diary. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap19"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIX +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE VOICE OF A WOMAN SOBBING +</H3> + +<P> +Over the ridge and more than a mile away was a wet, wild meadow. They +found the cow and horses feeding on its edge near the trail. The moon, +clouded since dark, had come out in the clear mid-heavens and thrown +its light into the high windows of the forest above the ancient +thoroughfare of the Indian. The red guide of the two scouts gave a +call which was quickly answered. A few rods farther on, they saw a +pair of old Indians sitting in blankets near a thicket of black timber. +They could hear the voice of a woman sobbing near where they stood. +</P> + +<P> +"Womern, don't be skeered o' us--we're friends--we're goin' to take ye +hum," said Solomon. +</P> + +<P> +The woman came out of the thicket with a little lad of four asleep in +her arms. +</P> + +<P> +"Where do ye live?" Solomon asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Far south on the shore o' the Mohawk," she answered in a voice +trembling with emotion. +</P> + +<P> +"What's yer name?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm Bill Scott's wife," she answered. +</P> + +<P> +"Cat's blood and gunpowder!" Solomon exclaimed. "I'm Sol Binkus." +</P> + +<P> +She knelt before the old scout and kissed his knees and could not speak +for the fulness of her heart. Solomon bent over and took the sleeping +lad from her arms and held him against his breast. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't feel bad. We're a-goin' to take keer o' you," said Solomon. +"Ayes, sir, we be! They ain't nobody goin' to harm ye--nobody at all." +</P> + +<P> +There was a note of tenderness in the voice of the man as he felt the +chin of the little lad with his big thumb and finger. +</P> + +<P> +"Do ye know what they done with Bill?" the woman asked soon in a +pleading voice. +</P> + +<P> +The scout swallowed as his brain began to work on the problem in hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Bill broke loose an' got erway. He's gone," Solomon answered in a sad +voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Did they torture him?" +</P> + +<P> +"What they done I couldn't jes' tell ye. But they kin't do no more to +him. He's gone." + +She seemed to sense his meaning and lay crouched upon the ground with +her sorrow until Solomon lifted her to her feet and said: +</P> + +<P> +"Look here, little womern, this don't do no good. I'm goin' to spread +my blanket under the pines an' I want ye to lay down with yer boy an' +git some sleep. We got a long trip to-morrer. +</P> + +<P> +"'Tain't so bad as it might be--ye're kind o' lucky a'ter all is said +an' done," he remarked as he covered the woman and the child. +</P> + +<P> +The wounded warrior and the old men were not to be found. They had +sneaked away into the bush. Jack and Solomon looked about and the +latter called but got no answer. +</P> + +<P> +"They're skeered cl'ar down to the toe nails," said Solomon. "They +couldn't stan' it here. A lightnin' thrower is a few too many. They'd +ruther be nigh a rattlesnake." +</P> + +<P> +The scouts had no sleep that night. They sat down by the trail side +leaning against a log and lighted their pipes. +</P> + +<P> +"You 'member Bill Scott?" Solomon whispered. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. We spent a night in his house." +</P> + +<P> +"He were a mean cuss. Sold rum to the Injuns. I allus tol' him it +were wrong but--my God A'mighty!--I never 'spected that the fire in the +water were a goin' to burn him up sometime. No, sir--I never dreamed +he were a-goin' to be punished so--never." +</P> + +<P> +They lay back against the log with their one blanket spread and spent +the night in a kind of half sleep. Every little sound was "like a kick +in the ribs," as Solomon put it, and drove them "into the look and +listen business." The woman was often crying out or the cow and horses +getting up to feed. +</P> + +<P> +"My son, go to sleep," said Solomon. "I tell ye there ain't no danger +now--not a bit. I don't know much but I know Injuns---plenty." +</P> + +<P> +In spite of his knowledge even Solomon himself could not sleep. A +little before daylight they arose and began to stir about. +</P> + +<P> +"I was badly burnt by that fire," Jack whispered. +</P> + +<P> +"Inside!" Solomon answered. "So was I. My soul were a-sweatin' all +night." +</P> + +<P> +The morning was chilly. They gathered birch bark and dry pine and soon +had a fire going. Solomon stole over to the thicket where the woman +and child were lying and returned in a moment. +</P> + +<P> +"They're sound asleep," he said in a low tone. "We'll let 'em alone." +</P> + +<P> +He began to make tea and got out the last of their bread and dried meat +and bacon. He was frying the latter when he said: +</P> + +<P> +"That 'ere is a mighty likely womern." +</P> + +<P> +He turned the bacon with his fork and added: +</P> + +<P> +"Turrible purty when she were young. Allus hated the rum business." +</P> + +<P> +Jack went out on the wild meadow and brought in the cow and milked her, +filling a basin and a quart bottle. +</P> + +<P> +Solomon went to the thicket and called: +</P> + +<P> +"Mis' Scott!" +</P> + +<P> +The woman answered. +</P> + +<P> +"Here's a tow'l an' a leetle jug o' soap, Mis' Scott. Ye kin take the +boy to the crick an' git washed an' then come to the fire an' eat yer +breakfust." +</P> + +<P> +The boy was a handsome, blond lad with blue eyes and a serious manner. +His confidence in the protection of his mother was sublime. +</P> + +<P> +"What's yer name?" Solomon asked, looking up at the lad whom he had +lifted high in the air. +</P> + +<P> +"Whig Scott," the boy answered timidly with tears in his eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"What! Be ye skeered o' me?" +</P> + +<P> +These words came from the little lad as he began to cry. "No, sir. I +ain't skeered. I'm a brave man." +</P> + +<P> +"Courage is the first virtue in which the young are schooled on the +frontier," Jack wrote in a letter to his friends at home in which he +told of the history of that day. "The words and manner of the boy +reminded me of my own childhood. +</P> + +<P> +"Solomon held Whig in his lap and fed him and soon won his confidence. +The backs of the horses and the cow were so badly galled they could not +be ridden, but we were able to lash the packs over a blanket on one of +the horses. We drove the beasts ahead of us. The Indians had timbered +the swales here and there so that we were able to pass them with little +trouble. Over the worst places I had the boy on my back while Solomon +carried 'Mis' Scott' in his arms as if she were a baby. He was very +gentle with her. To him, as you know, a woman has been a sacred +creature since his wife died. He seemed to regard the boy as a +wonderful kind of plaything. At the camping-places he spent every +moment of his leisure tossing him in the air or rolling on the ground +with him." +</P> + +<A NAME="img-288"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-288.jpg" ALT="Solomon Binkus with Whig Scott on his shoulder." BORDER="2" WIDTH="353" HEIGHT="543"> +<H5> +[Illustration: Solomon Binkus with Whig Scott on his shoulder.] +</H5> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"One day when the woman sat by the fire crying, the little lad touched +her brow with his hand and said: +</P> + +<P> +"'Don't be skeered, mother. I'm brave. I'll take care o' you.' +</P> + +<P> +"Solomon came to where I was breaking some dry sticks for the fire and +said laughingly, as he wiped a tear from his cheek with the back of his +great right hand: +</P> + +<P> +"'Did ye ever see sech a gol' durn cunnin' leetle cricket in yer born +days--ever?' +</P> + +<P> +"Always thereafter he referred to the boy as the Little Cricket. +</P> + +<P> +"That would have been a sad journey but for my interest in these +reactions on this great son of Pan, with whom I traveled. I think that +he has found a thing he has long needed, and I wonder what will come of +it. +</P> + +<P> +"When he had discovered, by tracks in the trail, that the Indians who +had run away from us were gone South, he had no further fear of being +molested. +</P> + +<P> +"'They've gone on to tell what happened on the first o' the high slants +an' to warn their folks that the Son o' the Thunder is comin' with +lightnin' in his hands. Injuns is like rabbits when the Great Spirit +begins to rip 'em up. They kin't stan' it." +</P> + +<P> +That afternoon Solomon, with a hook and line and grubs, gathered from +rotted stumps, caught many trout in a brook crossing the trail and +fried them with slices of salt pork. In the evening they had the best +supper of their journey in what he called "The Catamount Tavern." It +was an old bark lean-to facing an immense boulder on the shore of a +pond. There, one night some years before, he had killed a catamount. +It was in the foot-hills remote from the trail. In a side of the rock +was a small bear den or cavern with an overhanging roof which protected +it from the weather. On a shelf in the cavern was a round block of +pine about two feet in diameter and a foot and a half long. This block +was his preserve jar. A number of two-inch augur holes had been bored +in its top and filled with jerked venison and dried berries. They had +been packed with a cotton wick fastened to a small bar of wood at the +bottom of each hole. Then hot deer's fat had been poured in with the +meat and berries until the holes were filled within an inch or so of +the top. When the fat had hardened a thin layer of melted beeswax +sealed up the contents of each hole. Over all wooden plugs had been +driven fast. +</P> + +<P> +"They's good vittles in that 'ere block," said Solomon. "'Nough, I +guess, to keep a man a week. All he has to do is knock out the plug +an' pull the wick an' be happy." +</P> + +<P> +"Going to do any pulling for supper?" Jack queried. +</P> + +<P> +"Nary bit," said Solomon. "Too much food in the woods now. We got to +be savin'. Mebbe you er I er both on us 'll be comin' through here in +the winter time skeered o' Injuns an' short o' fodder. Then we'll open +the pine jar." +</P> + +<P> +They had fish and tea and milk and that evening as he sat on his +blanket before the fire with the little lad in his lap he sang an old +rig-a-dig tune and told stories and answered many a query. +</P> + +<P> +Jack wrote in one of his letters that as they fared along, down toward +the sown lands of the upper Mohawk, Solomon began to develop talents of +which none of his friends had entertained the least suspicion. +</P> + +<P> +"He has had a hard life full of fight and peril like most of us who +were born in this New World," the young man wrote. "He reminds me of +some of the Old Testament heroes, and is not this land we have +traversed like the plains of Mamre? What a gentle creature he might +have been if he had had a chance! How long, I wonder, must we be +slayers of men? As long, I take it, as there are savages against whom +we must defend ourselves." +</P> + +<P> +The next morning they met a company of one of the regiments of General +Herkimer who had gone in pursuit of Red Snout and his followers. +Learning what had happened to that evil band and its leader the +soldiers faced about and escorted Solomon and his party to Oriskany. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap20"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XX +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE FIRST FOURTH OF JULY +</H3> + +<P> +Mrs. Scott and her child lived in the family of General Herkimer for a +month or so. Settlers remote from towns and villages had abandoned +their farms. The Indians had gone into the great north bush perhaps to +meet the British army which was said to be coming down from Canada in +appalling numbers. Hostilities in the neighborhood of The Long House +had ceased. The great Indian highway and its villages were deserted +save by young children and a few ancient red men and squaws, too old +for travel. Late in June, Jack and Solomon were ordered to report to +General Schuyler at Albany. +</P> + +<P> +"We're gettin' shoveled eroun' plenty," Solomon declared. "We'll take +the womern an' the boy with us an' paddle down the Mohawk to Albany. +They kind o' fell from Heaven into our hands an' we got to look a'ter +'em faithful. Fust ye know ol' Herk 'll be movin' er swallered hull by +the British an' the Injuns, like Jonah was by the whale, then what 'ud +become o' her an' the Leetle Cricket? We got to look a'ter 'em." +</P> + +<P> +"I think my mother will be glad to give them a home," said Jack. "She +really needs some help in the house these days." +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +2 +</H3> + +<P> +The Scotts' buildings had been burned by the Indians and their boats +destroyed save one large canoe which had happened to be on the south +shore of the river out of their reach. In this Jack and Solomon and +"Mis' Scott" and the Little Cricket set out with loaded packs in the +moon of the new leaf, to use a phrase of the Mohawks, for the city of +the Great River. They had a carry at the Wolf Riff and some shorter +ones but in the main it was a smooth and delightful journey, between +wooded shores, down the long winding lane of the Mohawk. Without fear +of the Indians they were able to shoot deer and wild fowl and build a +fire on almost any part of the shore. Mrs. Scott insisted on her right +to do the cooking. Jack kept a diary of the trip, some pages of which +the historian has read. From them we learn: +</P> + +<P> +"Mrs. Scott has bravely run the gauntlet of her sorrows. Now there is +a new look in her face. She is a black eyed, dark haired, energetic, +comely woman of forty with cheeks as red as a ripe strawberry. Solomon +calls her 'middle sized' but she seems to be large enough to fill his +eye. He shows her great deference and chooses his words with +particular care when he speaks to her. Of late he has taken to +singing. She and the boy seem to have stirred the depths in him and +curious things are coming up to the surface--songs and stories and +droll remarks and playful tricks and an unusual amount of laughter. I +suppose that it is the spirit of youth in him, stunned by his great +sorrow. Now touched by miraculous hands he is coming back to his old +self. There can be no doubt of this: the man is ten years younger than +when I first knew him even. The Little Cricket has laid hold of his +heart. Whig sits between the feet of Solomon in the stern during the +day and insists upon sleeping with him at night. +</P> + +<P> +"One morning my old friend was laughing as we stood on the river bank +washing ourselves. +</P> + +<P> +"'What are you laughing at?' I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"'That got dum leetle skeezucks!' he answered. 'He were kickin' all +night like a mule fightin' a bumble bee. 'Twere a cold night an' I +held him ag'in' me to keep the leetle cuss warm.' +</P> + +<P> +"'Hadn't you better let him sleep with his mother?' I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"'Wall, if it takes two to do his sleepin' mebbe I better be the one +that suffers. Ain't she a likely womern?' +</P> + +<P> +"Of course I agreed, for it was evident that she was likely, sometime, +to make him an excellent wife and the thought of that made me happy." +</P> + +<P> +They had fared along down by the rude forts and villages traveling +stealthily at night in tree shadows through "the Tory zone," as the +vicinity of Fort Johnson was then called, camping, now and then, in +deserted farm-houses or putting up at village inns. They arrived at +Albany in the morning of July fourth. Setting out from their last camp +an hour before daylight they had heard the booming of cannon at +sunrise, Solomon stopped his paddle and listened. +</P> + +<P> +"By the hide an' horns o' the devil!" he exclaimed. "I wonder if the +British have got down to Albany." +</P> + +<P> +They were alarmed until they hailed a man on the river road and learned +that Albany was having a celebration. +</P> + +<P> +"What be they celebratin'?" Solomon asked. +</P> + +<P> +"The Declaration o' Independence," the citizen answered. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a good idee," said Solomon. "When we git thar this 'ere ol' +rifle o' mine 'll do some talkin' if it has a chanst." +</P> + +<P> +Church bells were ringing as they neared the city. Its inhabitants +were assembled on the river-front. The Declaration was read and then +General Schuyler made a brief address about the peril coming down from +the north. He said that a large force under General Burgoyne was on +Lake Champlain and that the British were then holding a council with +the Six Nations on the shore of the lake above Crown Point. +</P> + +<P> +"At present we are unprepared to meet this great force but I suppose +that help will come and that we shall not be dismayed. The modest man +who leads the British army from the north declares in his proclamation +that he is 'John Burgoyne, Esq., Lieutenant General of His Majesty's +forces in America, Colonel of the Queen's Regiment of Light Dragoons, +Governor of Fort William in North Britain, one of the Commons in +Parliament and Commander of an Army and Fleet Employed on an Expedition +from Canada!' My friends, such is the pride that goeth before a fall. +We are an humble, hard-working people. No man among us can boast of a +name so lavishly adorned. Our names need only the simple but glorious +adornments of firmness, courage and devotion. With those, I verily +believe, we shall have an Ally greater than any this world can offer. +Let us all kneel where we stand while the Reverend Mr. Munro leads us +in prayer to Almighty God for His help and guidance." +</P> + +<P> +It was an impressive hour and that day the same kind of talk was heard +in many places. The church led the people. Pulpiteers of inspired +vision of which, those days, there were many, spoke with the tongues of +men and of angels. A sublime faith in "The Great Ally" began to travel +up and down the land. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap21"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXI +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE AMBUSH +</H3> + +<P> +Mrs. Scott and her little son were made welcome in the home of John +Irons. Jack and Solomon were immediately sent up the river and through +the bush to help the force at Ti. In the middle and late days of July, +they reported to runners the southward progress of the British. They +were ahead of Herkimer's regiment of New York militia on August third +when they discovered the ambush--a misfortune for which they were in no +way responsible. Herkimer and his force had gone on without them to +relieve Fort Schuyler. The two scouts had ridden post to join him. +They were afoot half a mile or so ahead of the commander when Jack +heard the call of the swamp robin. He hurried toward his friend. +Solomon was in a thicket of tamaracks. +</P> + +<P> +"We got to git back quick," said the latter. "I see sign o' an ambush." +</P> + +<P> +They hurried to their command and warned the General. He halted and +faced his men about and began a retreat. Jack and Solomon hurried out +ahead of them some twenty rods apart. In five minutes Jack heard +Solomon's call again. Thoroughly alarmed, he ran in the direction of +the sound. In a moment he met Solomon. The face of the latter had +that stern look which came only in a crisis. Deep furrows ran across +his brow. His hands were shut tight. There was an expression of anger +in his eyes. He swallowed as Jack came near. +</P> + +<P> +"It's an ambush sure as hell's ahead," he whispered. +</P> + +<P> +As they were hurrying toward the regiment, he added: +</P> + +<P> +"We got to fight an' ag'in' big odds--British an' Injuns. Don't never +let yerself be took alive, my son, lessen ye want to die as Scott did. +But, mebbe, we kin bu'st the circle." +</P> + +<P> +In half a moment they met Herkimer. +</P> + +<P> +"Git ready to fight," said Solomon. "We're surrounded." +</P> + +<P> +The men were spread out in a half-circle and some hurried orders given, +but before they could take a step forward the trap was sprung. "The +Red Devils of Brant" were rushing at them through the timber with yells +that seemed to shake the tree-tops. The regiment fired and began to +advance. Some forty Indians had fallen as they fired. General +Herkimer and others were wounded by a volley from the savages. +</P> + +<P> +"Come on, men. Foller me an' use yer bayonets," Solomon shouted. +"We'll cut our way out." +</P> + +<P> +The Indians ahead had no time to load. Scores of them were run +through. Others fled for their lives. But a red host was swarming up +from behind and firing into the regiment. Many fell. Many made the +mistake of turning to fight back and were overwhelmed and killed or +captured. A goodly number had cut their way through with Jack and +Solomon and kept going, swapping cover as they went. Most of them were +wounded in some degree. Jack's right shoulder had been torn by a +bullet. Solomon's left hand was broken and bleeding. The savages were +almost on their heels, not two hundred yards behind. The old scout +rallied his followers in a thicket at the top of a knoll with an open +grass meadow between them and their enemies. There they reloaded their +rifles and stood waiting. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't fire--not none o' ye--till I give the word. Jack, you take my +rifle. I'm goin' to throw this 'ere bunch o' lightnin'." +</P> + +<P> +Solomon stepped out of the thicket and showed himself when the savages +entered the meadow. Then he limped up the trail as if he were badly +hurt, in the fashion of a hen partridge when one has come near her +brood. In a moment he had dodged behind cover and crept back into the +thicket. +</P> + +<P> +There were about two hundred warriors who came running across the flat +toward that point where Solomon had disappeared. They yelled like +demons and overran the little meadow with astonishing speed. +</P> + +<P> +"Now hold yer fire--hold yer fire till I give ye the word, er we'll all +be et up. Keep yer fingers off the triggers now." +</P> + +<P> +He sprang into the open. Astonished, the foremost runners halted while +others crowded upon them. The "bunch of lightning" began its curved +flight as Solomon leaped behind a tree and shouted, "Fire!" +</P> + +<P> +"'Tain't too much to say that the cover flew off o' hell right thar at +the edge o' the Bloody Medder that minnit--you hear to me," he used to +tell his friends. "The air were full o' bu'sted Injun an' a barrel o' +blood an' grease went down into the ground. A dozen er so that wasn't +hurt run back ercrost the medder like the devil were chasin' 'em all +with a red-hot iron. I reckon it'll allus be called the Bloody Medder." +</P> + +<P> +In this retreat Jack had lost so much blood that he had to be carried +on a litter. Before night fell they met General Benedict Arnold and a +considerable force. After a little rest the tireless Solomon went back +into the bush with Arnold and two regiments to find the wounded +Herkimer, if possible, and others who might be in need of relief. They +met a band of refugees coming in with the body of the General. They +reported that the far bush was echoing with the shrieks of tortured +captives. +</P> + +<P> +"Beats all what an amount o' sufferin' it takes to start a new nation," +Solomon used to say. +</P> + +<P> +Next day Arnold fought his way to the fort, and many of St. Leger's +Rangers and their savage allies were slain or captured or broken into +little bands and sent flying for their lives into the northern bush. +So the siege of Fort Schuyler was raised. +</P> + +<P> +"I never see no better fightin' man than Arnold," Solomon used to say. +"I seen him fight in the middle bush an' on the Stillwater. Under fire +he was a regular wolverine. Allus up ag'in' the hottest side o' hell +an' sayin': +</P> + +<P> +"'Come on, boys. We kin't expec' to live forever.' +</P> + +<P> +"But Arnold were a sore head. Allus kickin' over the traces an' +complainin' that he never got proper credit." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap22"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXII +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE BINKUSSING OF COLONEL BURLEY +</H3> + +<P> +Solomon had been hit in the thigh by a rifle bullet on his way to the +fort. He and Jack and other wounded men were conveyed in boats and +litters to the hospital at Albany where Jack remained until the leaves +were gone. Solomon recovered more quickly and was with Lincoln's +militia under Colonel Brown when they joined Johnson's Rangers at +Ticonderoga and cut off the supplies of the British army. Later having +got around the lines of the enemy with this intelligence he had a part +in the fighting on Bemus Heights and the Stillwater and saw the +defeated British army under Burgoyne marching eastward in disgrace to +be conveyed back to England. +</P> + +<P> +Jack had recovered and was at home when Solomon arrived in Albany with +the news. +</P> + +<P> +"Wal, my son, I cocalate they's goin' to be a weddin' in our fam'ly +afore long," said the latter. +</P> + +<P> +"What makes you think so?" Jack inquired. +</P> + +<P> +"'Cause John Burgoyne, High Cockylorum and Cockydoodledo, an' all his +army has been licked an' kicked an' started fer hum an' made to promise +that they won't be sassy no more. I tell ye the war is goin' to end. +They'll see that it won't pay to keep it up." +</P> + +<P> +"But you do not know that Howe has taken Philadelphia," said Jack. +"His army entered it on the twenty-sixth of September. Washington is +in a bad fix. You and I have been ordered to report to him at White +Marsh as soon as possible." +</P> + +<P> +"That ol' King 'ud keep us fightin' fer years if he had his way," said +Solomon. "He don't have to bleed an' groan an' die in the swamps like +them English boys have been doin'. It's too bad but we got to keep +killin' 'em, an' when the bad news reaches the good folks over thar +mebbe the King'll git spoke to proper. We got to keep a-goin'. Fer +the fust time in my life I'm glad to git erway from the big bush. The +Injuns have found us a purty tough bit o' fodder but they's no tellin', +out thar in the wilderness, when a man is goin' to be roasted and +chawed up." +</P> + +<P> +Solomon spent a part of the evening at play with the Little Cricket and +the other children and when the young ones had gone to bed, went out +for a walk with "Mis' Scott" on the river-front. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Irons had said of the latter that she was a most amiable and +useful person. +</P> + +<P> +"The Little Cricket has won our hearts," she added. "We love him as we +love our own." +</P> + +<P> +When Jack and Solomon were setting out in a hired sloop for the +Highlands next morning there were tears in the dark eyes of "Mis' +Scott." +</P> + +<P> +"Ain't she a likely womern?" Solomon asked again when with sails spread +they had begun to cut the water. +</P> + +<P> +Near King's Ferry in the Highlands on the Hudson they spent a night in +the camp of the army under Putnam. There they heard the first note of +discontent with the work of their beloved Washington. It came from the +lips of one Colonel Burley of a Connecticut regiment. The +Commander-in-Chief had lost Newport, New York and Philadelphia and been +defeated on Long Island and in two pitched battles on ground of his own +choosing at Brandywine and Germantown. +</P> + +<P> +The two scouts were angry. +</P> + +<P> +It had been a cold, wet afternoon and they, with others, were drying +themselves around a big, open fire of logs in front of the camp +post-office. +</P> + +<P> +Solomon was quick to answer the complaint of Burley. +</P> + +<P> +"He's allus been fightin' a bigger force o' well trained, well paid men +that had plenty to eat an' drink an' wear. An' he's fit 'em with jest +a shoe string o' an army. When it come to him, it didn't know nothin' +but how to shoot an' dig a hole in the ground. The men wouldn't enlist +fer more'n six months an' as soon as they'd learnt suthin', they put +fer hum. An' with that kind o' an army, he druv the British out o' +Boston. With a leetle bunch o' five thousand unpaid, barefoot, ragged +backed devils, he druv the British out o' Jersey an' they had twelve +thousan' men in that neighborhood. He's had to dodge eround an' has +kep' his army from bein' et up, hide, horns an' taller, by the power o' +his brain. He's managed to take keer o' himself down thar in Jersey +an' Pennsylvaney with the British on all sides o' him, while the best +fighters he had come up here to help Gates. I don't see how he could +'a' done it--damned if I do--without the help o' God." +</P> + +<P> +"Gates is a real general," Burley answered. "Washington don't amount +to a hill o' beans." +</P> + +<P> +Solomon turned quickly and advanced upon Burley. "I didn't 'spect to +find an enemy o' my kentry in this 'ere camp," he said in a quiet tone. +"Ye got to take that back, mister, an' do it prompt, er ye're goin' to +be all mussed up." +</P> + +<P> +"Ye could see the ha'r begin to brustle under his coat," Solomon was +wont to say of Burley, in speaking of that moment. "He stepped up clus +an' growled an' showed his teeth an' then he begun to git rooined." +</P> + +<P> +Burley had kept a public house for sailors at New Haven and had had the +reputation of being a bad man in a quarrel. Of just what happened +there is a full account in a little army journal of that time called +<I>The Camp Gazette</I>. Burley aimed a blow at Solomon with his fist. +Then as Solomon used to put it, "the water bu'st through the dam." It +was his way of describing the swift and decisive action which was +crowded into the next minute. He seized Burley and hurled him to the +ground. With one hand on the nape of his neck and the other on the +seat of his trousers, Solomon lifted his enemy above his head and +quoited him over the tent top. +</P> + +<P> +Burley picked himself up and having lost his head drew his hanger, and, +like a mad bull, rushed at Solomon. Suddenly he found his way barred +by Jack. +</P> + +<P> +"Would you try to run a man through before he can draw?" the latter +asked. +</P> + +<P> +Solomon's old sword flashed out of its scabbard. +</P> + +<P> +"Let him come on," he shouted. "I'm more to hum with a hanger than I +be with good vittles." +</P> + +<P> +Of all the words on record from the lips of this man, these are the +most immodest, but it should be remembered that when he spoke them his +blood was hot. +</P> + +<P> +Jack gave way and the two came together with a clash of steel. A crowd +had gathered about them and was increasing rapidly. They had been +fighting for half a moment around the fire when Solomon broke the blade +of his adversary. The latter drew his pistol! Before he could raise +it Solomon had fired his own weapon. Burley's pistol dropped on the +ground. Instantly its owner reeled and fell beside it. The battle +which had lasted no more than a minute had come to its end. There had +been three kinds of fighting in that lively duel. +</P> + +<P> +Solomon's voice trembled when he cried out: +</P> + +<P> +"Ary man who says a word ag'in' the Great Father is goin' to git mussed +up." +</P> + +<P> +He pushed his way through the crowd which had gathered around the +wounded man. +</P> + +<P> +"Let me bind his arm," he said. +</P> + +<P> +But a surgeon had stood in the crowd. He was then doing what he could +for the shattered member of the hot-headed Colonel Burley. Jack was +helping him. Some men arrived with a litter and the unfortunate +officer was quickly on his way to the hospital. +</P> + +<P> +Jack and Solomon set out for headquarters. They met Putnam and two +officers hurrying toward the scene of the encounter. Solomon had +fought in the bush with him. Twenty years before they had been friends +and comrades. Solomon saluted and stopped the grizzled hero of many a +great adventure. +</P> + +<P> +"Binkus, what's the trouble here?" the latter asked, as the crowd who +had followed the two scouts gathered about them. +</P> + +<P> +Solomon gave his account of what had happened. It was quickly verified +by many eye-witnesses. +</P> + +<P> +"Ye done right," said the General. "Burley has got to take it back an' +apologize. He ain't fit to be an officer. He behaved himself like a +bully. Any man who talks as he done orto be cussed an' Binkussed an' +sent to the guard house." +</P> + +<P> +Within three days Burley had made an ample apology for his conduct and +this bulletin was posted at headquarters: +</P> + +<P> +"Liberty of speech has its limits. It must be controlled by the law of +decency and the general purposes of our army and government. The man +who respects no authority above his own intellect is a conceited ass +and would be a tyrant if he had the chance. No word of disrespect for +a superior officer will be tolerated in this army." +</P> + +<P> +"The Binkussing of Burley"--a phrase which traveled far beyond the +limits of Putnam's camp--and the notice of warning which followed was +not without its effect on the propaganda of Gates and his friends. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +2 +</H3> + +<P> +Next day Jack and Solomon set out with a force of twelve hundred men +for Washington's camp at White Marsh near Philadelphia. There Jack +found a letter from Margaret. It had been sent first to Benjamin +Franklin in Paris through the latter's friend Mr. David Hartley, a +distinguished Englishman who was now and then sounding the Doctor on +the subject of peace. +</P> + +<P> +"I am sure that you will be glad to know that my love for you is not +growing feeble on account of its age," she wrote. "The thought has +come to me that I am England and that you are America. It will be a +wonderful and beautiful thing if through all this bitterness and +bloodshed we can keep our love for each other. My dear, I would have +you know that in spite of this alien King and his followers, I hold to +my love for you and am waiting with that patience which God has put in +the soul of your race and mine, for the end of our troubles. If you +could come to France I would try to meet you in Doctor Franklin's home +at Passy. So I have the hope in me that you may be sent to France." +</P> + +<P> +This is as much of the letter as can claim admission to our history. +It gave the young man a supply of happiness sufficient to fill the many +days of hardship and peril in the winter at Valley Forge. It was read +to Solomon. +</P> + +<P> +"Say, this 'ere letter kind o' teches my feelin's--does sart'in," said +Solomon. "I'm goin' to see what kin be done." +</P> + +<P> +Unknown to Jack, within three days Solomon had a private talk with the +Commander-in-Chief at his headquarters. The latter had a high regard +for the old scout. He maintained a dignified silence while Solomon +made his little speech and then arose and offered his hand saying in a +kindly tone: +</P> + +<P> +"Colonel Binkus, I must bid you good night." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap23"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXIII +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE GREATEST TRAIT OF A GREAT COMMANDER +</H3> + +<P> +Jack Irons used to say that no man he had known had such an uncommon +amount of common sense as George Washington. He wrote to his father: +</P> + +<P> +"It would seem that he must be in communication with the all-seeing mind. +If he were to make a serious blunder here our cause would fail. The +enemy tries in vain to fool him. Their devices are as an open book to +Washington. They have fooled me and Solomon and other officers but not +him. I had got quite a conceit of myself in judging strategy but now it +is all gone. +</P> + +<P> +"One day I was scouting along the lines, a few miles from Philadelphia, +when I came upon a little, ragged, old woman. She wished to go through +the lines into the country to buy flour. The moment she spoke I +recognized her. It was old Lydia Darrah who had done my washing for me +the last year of my stay in Philadelphia. +</P> + +<P> +"'Why, Lydia, how do you do?' I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"'The way I have allus done, laddie buck," she answered in her good Irish +brogue. 'Workin' at the tub an' fightin' the divil--bad 'cess to +him--but I kape me hilth an' lucky I am to do that--thanks to the good +God! How is me fine lad that I'd niver 'a' knowed but for the voice o' +him?' +</P> + +<P> +"'Not as fine as when I wore the white ruffles but stout as a moose,' I +answered. 'The war is a sad business.' +</P> + +<P> +"'It is that--may the good God defind us! We cross the sea to be rid o' +the divil an' he follys an' grabs us be the neck.' +</P> + +<P> +"We were on a lonely road. She looked about and seeing no one, put a +dirty old needle case in my hands. "'Take that, me smart lad. It's fer +good luck,' she answered. +</P> + +<P> +"As I left her I was in doubt of the meaning of her generosity. Soon I +opened the needle book and found in one of its pockets a piece of thin +paper rolled tight. On it I found the information that Howe would be +leaving the city next morning with five thousand men, and baggage wagons +and thirteen cannon and eleven boats. The paper contained other details +of the proposed British raid. I rode post to headquarters and luckily +found the General in his tent. On the way I arrived at a definite +conviction regarding the plans of Howe. I was eager to give it air, +having no doubt of its soundness. The General gave me respectful +attention while I laid the facts before him. Then I took my courage in +my hands and asked: +</P> + +<P> +"'General, may I venture to express an opinion?' +</P> + +<P> +"'Certainly,' he answered. +</P> + +<P> +"'It is the plan of Howe to cross the Delaware in his boats so as to make +us believe that he is going to New York. He will recross the river above +Bristol and suddenly descend upon our rear.' +</P> + +<P> +"Washington sat, with his arms folded, looking very grave but made no +answer. +</P> + +<P> +"In other words, again I presented my conviction. +</P> + +<P> +"Still he was silent and I a little embarrassed. In half a moment I +ventured to ask: +</P> + +<P> +"'General, what is your opinion?' +</P> + +<P> +"He answered in a kindly tone: 'Colonel Irons, the enemy has no business +in our rear. The boats are only for our scouts and spies to look at. +The British hope to fool us with them. To-morrow morning about daylight +they will be coming down the Edgely Bye Road on our left.' +</P> + +<P> +"He called an aid and ordered that our front be made ready for an attack +in the early morning. +</P> + +<P> +"I left headquarters with my conceit upon me and half convinced that our +Chief was out in his judgment of that matter. No like notion will enter +my mind again. Solomon and I have quarters on the Edgely Bye Road. A +little after three next morning the British were reported coming down the +road. A large number of them were killed and captured and the rest +roughly handled. +</P> + +<P> +"A smart Yankee soldier in his trial for playing cards yesterday, set up +a defense which is the talk of the camp. For a little time it changed +the tilt of the wrinkles on the grim visage of war. His claim was that +he had no Bible and that the cards aided him in his devotions. +</P> + +<P> +"The ace reminded him of the one God; the deuce of the Father and Son; +the tray of the Trinity; the four spot of the four evangelists--Matthew, +Luke, Mark and John; the five spot of the five wise and the five foolish +virgins; the six spot of the six days of creation; the seven of the +Sabbath; the eight of Noah and his family; the nine of the nine +ungrateful lepers; the ten of the Ten Commandments; the knave of Judas; +the queen was to him the Queen of Sheba and the king was the one great +King of Heaven and the Universe. +</P> + +<P> +"'You will go to the guard house for three days so that, hereafter, a +pack of cards will remind you only of a foolish soldier,' said Colonel +Provost." +</P> + +<P> +Snow and bitter winds descended upon the camp early in December. It was +a worn, ragged, weary but devoted army of about eleven thousand men that +followed Washington into Valley Forge to make a camp for the winter. Of +these, two thousand and ninety-eight were unfit for duty. Most of the +latter had neither boots nor shoes. They marched over roads frozen hard, +with old rags and pieces of hide wrapped around their feet. There were +many red tracks in the snow in the Valley of the Schuylkill that day. +Hardly a man was dressed for cold weather. Hundreds were shivering and +coughing with influenza. +</P> + +<P> +"When I look at these men I can not help thinking how small are my +troubles," Jack wrote to his mother. "I will complain of them no more. +Solomon and I have given away all the clothes we have except those on our +backs. A fiercer enemy than the British is besieging us here. He is +Winter. It is the duty of the people we are fighting for to defend us +against this enemy. We should not have to exhaust ourselves in such a +battle. Do they think that because God has shown His favor at Brooklyn, +Saratoga, and sundry other places, He is in a way committed? Are they +not disposed to take it easy and over-work the Creator? I can not resist +the impression that they are praying too much and paying too little. I +fear they are lying back and expecting God to send ravens to feed us and +angels to make our boots and weave our blankets and clothing. He will +not go into that kind of business. The Lord is not a shoemaker or a +weaver or a baker. He can have no respect for a people who would leave +its army to starve and freeze to death in the back country. If they are +to do that their faith is rotten with indolence and avarice. +</P> + +<P> +"There are many here who have nothing to wear but blankets with armholes, +belted by a length of rope. There are hundreds who have no blankets to +cover them at night. They have to take turns sitting by the fire while +others are asleep. For them a night's rest is impossible. Let this +letter be read to the people of Albany and may they not lie down to sleep +until they have stirred themselves in our behalf, and if any man dares to +pray to God to help us until he has given of his abundance to that end +and besought his neighbors to do the same, I could wish that his praying +would choke him. Are we worthy to be saved--that is the question. If we +expect God to furnish the flannel and the shoe leather, we are not. That +is our part of the great task. Are we going to shirk it and fail? +</P> + +<P> +"We are making a real army. The men who are able to work are being +carefully trained by the crusty old Baron Steuben and a number of French +officers." +</P> + +<P> +That they did not fail was probably due to the fact that there were men +in the army like this one who seemed to have some little understanding of +the will of God and the duty of man. This letter and others like it, +traveled far and wide and more than a million hands began to work for the +army. +</P> + +<P> +The Schuylkill was on one side of the camp and wooded ridges, protected +by entrenchments, on the other. Trees were felled and log huts +constructed, sixteen by fourteen feet in size. Twelve privates were +quartered in each hut. +</P> + +<P> +The Gates propaganda was again being pushed. Anonymous letters +complaining that Washington was not protecting the people of Pennsylvania +and New Jersey from depredations were appearing in sundry newspapers. By +and by a committee of investigation arrived from Congress. They left +satisfied that Washington had done well to keep his army alive, and that +he must have help or a large part of it would die of cold and hunger. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +2 +</H3> + +<P> +It was on a severe day in March that Washington sent for Jack Irons. The +scout found the General sitting alone by the fireside in his office which +was part of a small farm-house. He was eating a cold luncheon of baked +beans and bread without butter. Jack had just returned from Philadelphia +where he had risked his life as a spy, of which adventure no details are +recorded save the one given in the brief talk which follows. The scout +smiled as he took the chair offered. +</P> + +<P> +"The British are eating no such frugal fare," he remarked. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose not," the General answered. +</P> + +<P> +"The night before I left Philadelphia Howe and his staff had a banquet at +The Three Mariners. There were roasted hams and geese and turkeys and +patties and pies and jellies and many kinds of wine and high merriment. +The British army is well fed and clothed." +</P> + +<P> +"We are not so provided but we must be patient," said Washington. "Our +people mean well, they are as yet unorganized. This matter of being +citizens of an independent nation at war is new to them. The men who are +trying to establish a government while they are defending it against a +powerful enemy have a most complicated problem. Naturally, there are +disagreements and factions. Congress may, for a time, be divided but the +army must stand as one man. This thing we call human liberty has become +for me a sublime personality. In times when I could see no light, she +has kept my heart from failing." +</P> + +<P> +"She is like the goddess of old who fought in the battles of Agamemnon," +said Jack. "Perhaps she is the angel of God who hath been given charge +concerning us. Perhaps she is traveling up and down the land and +overseas in our behalf." +</P> + +<P> +Washington sat looking thoughtfully into the fire. In a moment he said: +</P> + +<P> +"She is like a wise and beautiful mother assuring us that our sorrows +will end, by and by, and that we must keep on." +</P> + +<P> +The General arose and went to his desk and returned with sealed letters +in his hand and said: +</P> + +<P> +"Colonel, I have a task for you. I could give it to no man in whom I had +not the utmost confidence. You have earned a respite from the hardships +and perils of this army. Here is a purse and two letters. With them I +wish you to make your way to France as soon as possible and turn over the +letters to Franklin. The Doctor is much in need of help. Put your +services at his disposal. A ship will be leaving Boston on the +fourteenth. A good horse has been provided; your route is mapped. You +will need to start after the noon mess. For the first time in ten days +there will be fresh beef on the tables. Two hundred blankets have +arrived and more are coming. After they have eaten, give the men a +farewell talk and put them in good heart, if you can. We are going to +celebrate the winter's end which can not be long delayed. When you have +left the table, Hamilton will talk to the boys in his witty and inspiring +fashion." +</P> + +<P> +Soon after one o'clock on the seventh of March, 1778, Colonel Irons bade +Solomon good-by and set out on his long journey. That night he slept in +a farmhouse some fifty miles from Valley Forge. +</P> + +<P> +Next morning this brief note was written to his mother: +</P> + +<P> +"I am on my way to France, leaving mother and father and sister and +brother and friend, as the Lord has commanded, to follow Him, I verily +believe. Yesterday the thought came to me that this thing we call the +love of Liberty which is in the heart of every man and woman of us, +urging that we stop at no sacrifice of blood and treasure, is as truly +the angel of God as he that stood with Peter in the prison house. Last +night I saw Liberty in my dreams--a beautiful woman she was, of heroic +stature with streaming hair and the glowing eyes of youth and she was +dressed in a long white robe held at the waist by a golden girdle. And I +thought that she touched my brow and said: +</P> + +<P> +"'My son, I am sent for all the children of men and not for America +alone. You will find me in France for my task is in many lands.' +</P> + +<P> +"I left the brave old fighter, Solomon, with tears in his eyes. What a +man is Solomon! Yet, God knows, he is the rank and file of Washington's +army as it stands to-day--ragged, honest, religious, heroic, half fed, +unappreciated, but true as steel and willing, if required, to give up his +comfort or his life! How may we account for such a man without the help +of God and His angels?" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap24"></A> +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +BOOK THREE +</H1> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXIV +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +IN FRANCE WITH FRANKLIN +</H3> + +<P> +Jack shipped in the packet Mercury, of seventy tons, under Captain +Simeon Sampson, one of America's ablest naval commanders. She had been +built for rapid sailing and when, the second day out, they saw a +British frigate bearing down upon her they wore ship and easily ran +away from their enemy. Their first landing was at St. Martin on the +Isle de Rhé. They crossed the island on mules, being greeted with the +cry: +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Voilà les braves Bostones</I>!" +</P> + +<P> +In France the word <I>Bostone</I> meant American revolutionist. At the +ferry they embarked on a long gabbone for La Rochelle. There the young +man enjoyed his first repose on a French <I>lit</I> built up of sundry +layers of feather beds. He declares in his diary that he felt the need +of a ladder to reach its snowy summit of white linen. He writes a +whole page on the sense of comfort and the dreamless and refreshing +sleep which he had found in that bed. The like of it he had not known +since he had been a fighting man. +</P> + +<P> +In the morning he set out in a heavy vehicle of two wheels, drawn by +three horses. Its postillion in frizzed and powdered hair, under a +cocked hat, with a long queue on his back and in great boots, hooped +with iron, rode a lively little <I>bidet</I>. Such was the French +stagecoach of those days, its running gear having been planned with an +eye to economy, since vehicles were taxed according to the number of +their wheels. The diary informs one that when the traveler stopped for +food at an inn, he was expected to furnish his own knife. The highways +were patrolled, night and day, by armed horsemen and robberies were +unknown. The vineyards were not walled or fenced. All travelers had a +license to help themselves to as much fruit as they might wish to eat +when it was on the vines. +</P> + +<P> +They arrived at Chantenay on a cold rainy evening. They were settled +in their rooms, happy that they had protection from the weather, when +their landlord went from room to room informing them that they would +have to move on. +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" Jack ventured to inquire. +</P> + +<P> +"Because a <I>seigneur</I> has arrived." +</P> + +<P> +"A <I>seigneur</I>!" Jack exclaimed. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Oui</I>, Monsieur. He is a very great man." +</P> + +<P> +"But suppose we refuse to go," said Jack. +</P> + +<P> +"Then, Monsieur, I shall detain your horses. It is a law of <I>le grand +monarque</I>." +</P> + +<P> +There was no dodging it. The coach and horses came back to the inn +door. The passengers went out into the dark, rainy night to plod along +in the mud, another six miles or so, that the seigneur and his suite +could enjoy that comfort the weary travelers had been forced to leave. +Such was the power of privilege with which the great Louis had saddled +his kingdom. +</P> + +<P> +They proceeded to Ancenis, Angers and Breux. From the latter city the +road to Versailles was paved with flat blocks of stone. There were +swarms of beggars in every village and city crying out, with hands +extended, as the coach passed them: +</P> + +<P> +"<I>La charité, au nom de Dieu</I>!" +</P> + +<P> +"France is in no healthy condition when this is possible," the young +man wrote. +</P> + +<P> +If he met a priest carrying a Bon Dieu in a silver vase every one +called out, "<I>Aux genoux</I>!" and then the beholder had to kneel, even if +the mud were ankle deep. So on a wet day one's knees were apt to be as +muddy as his feet. +</P> + +<P> +The last stage from Versailles to Paris was called the post royale. +There the postillion had to be dressed like a gentleman. It was a +magnificent avenue, crowded every afternoon by the wealth and beauty of +the kingdom, in gorgeously painted coaches, and lighted at night by +great lamps, with double reflectors, over its center. They came upon +it in the morning on their way to the capital. There were few people +traveling at that hour. Suddenly ahead they saw a cloud of dust. The +stage stopped. On came a band of horsemen riding at a wild gallop. +They were the King's couriers. +</P> + +<P> +"Clear the way," they shouted. "The King's hunt is coming." +</P> + +<P> +All travelers, hearing this command, made quickly for the sidings, +there to draw rein and dismount. The deer came in sight, running for +its life, the King close behind with all his train, the hounds in full +cry. Near Jack the deer bounded over a hedge and took a new direction. +His Majesty--a short, stout man with blue eyes and aquiline nose, +wearing a lace cocked hat and brown velvet coatee and high boots with +spurs--dismounted not twenty feet from the stage-coach, saying with +great animation: +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Vite! Donnez moi un cheval frais</I>." +</P> + +<P> +Instantly remounting, he bounded over the hedge, followed by his train. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +2 +</H3> + +<P> +A letter from Jack presents all this color of the journey and avers +that he reached the house of Franklin in Passy about two o'clock in the +afternoon of a pleasant May day. The savant greeted his young friend +with an affectionate embrace. +</P> + +<P> +"Sturdy son of my beloved country, you bring me joy and a new problem," +he said. +</P> + +<P> +"What is the problem?" Jack inquired. +</P> + +<P> +"That of moving Margaret across the channel. I have a double task now. +I must secure the happiness of America and of Jack Irons." +</P> + +<P> +He read the despatches and then the Doctor and the young man set out in +a coach for the palace of Vergennes, the Prime Minister. Colonel Irons +was filled with astonishment at the tokens of veneration for the +white-haired man which he witnessed in the streets of Paris. +</P> + +<P> +"The person of the King could not have attracted more respectful +attention," he writes. "A crowd gathered about the coach when we were +leaving it and every man stood with uncovered head as we passed on our +way to the palace door. In the crowd there was much whispered praise +of '<I>Le grand savant</I>.' I did not understand this until I met, in the +office of the Compte de Vergennes, the eloquent Senator Gabriel Honore +Riquetti de Mirabeau. What an impressive name! Yet I think he +deserves it. He has the eye of Mars and the hair of Samson and the +tongue of an angel, I am told. In our talk, I assured him that in +Philadelphia Franklin came and went and was less observed than the town +crier. +</P> + +<P> +"'But your people seem to adore him,' I said. +</P> + +<P> +"'As if he were a god,' Mirabeau answered. 'Yes, it is true and it is +right. Has he not, like Jove, hurled the lightning of heaven in his +right hand? Is he not an unpunished Prometheus? Is he not breaking +the scepter of a tyrant?' +</P> + +<P> +"Going back to his home where in the kindness of his heart he had asked +me to live, he endeavored, modestly, to explain the evidences of high +regard which were being showered upon him. +</P> + +<P> +"'It happens that my understanding and small control of a mysterious +and violent force of nature has appealed to the imagination of these +people,' he said, 'I am the only man who has used thunderbolts for his +playthings. Then, too, I am speaking for a new world to an old one. +Just at present I am the voice of Human Liberty. I represent the +hunger of the spirit of man. It is very strong here. You have not +traveled so far in France without seeing thousands of beggars. They +are everywhere. But you do not know that when a child comes in a poor +family, the father and mother go to prison <I>pour mois de nourrice</I>. It +is a pity that the poor can not keep their children at home. This old +kingdom is a muttering Vesuvius, growing hotter, year by year, with +discontent. You will presently hear its voices.'" +</P> + +<A NAME="img-324"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-324.jpg" ALT="Ben Franklin" BORDER="2" WIDTH="346" HEIGHT="553"> +<H5> +[Illustration: Ben Franklin] +</H5> +</CENTER> + +<P> +There was a dinner that evening at Franklin's house, at which the +Marquis de Mirabeau, M. Turgot, the Madame de Brillon, the Abbé Raynal +and the Compte and Comptesse d' Haudetot, Colonel Irons and three other +American gentlemen were present. The Madame de Brillon was first to +arrive. She entered with a careless, jaunty air and ran to meet +Franklin and caught his hand and gave him a double kiss on each cheek +and one on his forehead and called him "papa." +</P> + +<P> +"At table she sat between me and Doctor Franklin," Jack writes. "She +frequently locked her hand in the Doctor's and smiled sweetly as she +looked into his eyes. I wonder what the poor, simple, hard-working +Deborah Franklin would have thought of these familiarities. Yet here, +I am told, no one thinks ill of that kind of thing. The best women of +France seem to treat their favorites with like tokens of regard. Now +and then she spread her arms across the backs of our chairs, as if she +would have us feel that her affection was wide enough for both. +</P> + +<P> +"She assured me that all the women of France were in love with <I>le +grand savant</I>. +</P> + +<P> +"Franklin, hearing the compliment, remarked: 'It is because they pity +my age and infirmities. First we pity, then embrace, as the great Mr. +Pope has written.' +</P> + +<P> +"'We think it a compliment that the greatest intellect in the world is +willing to allow itself to be, in a way, captured by the charms of +women,' Madame Brillon declared. +</P> + +<P> +"'My beautiful friend! You are too generous,' the Doctor continued +with a laugh. 'If the greatest man were really to come to Paris and +lose his heart, I should know where to find it.' +</P> + +<P> +"The Doctor speaks an imperfect and rather broken French, but these +people seem to find it all the more interesting on that account. +Probably to them it is like the English which we have heard in America +from the lips of certain Frenchmen. How fortunate it is that I learned +to speak the language of France in my boyhood! +</P> + +<P> +"From the silver-tongued Mirabeau I got further knowledge of Franklin, +with which I, his friend and fellow countryman, should have been +acquainted, save that the sacrifices of the patriot are as common as +mother's milk and cause little comment among us. The great orator was +expected to display his talents, if there were any excuse for it, +wherever he might be, so the ladies set up a demand for a toast. He +spoke of Franklin, 'The Thrifty Prodigal,' saying; +</P> + +<P> +"'He saves only to give. There never was such a squanderer of his own +immeasurable riches. For his great inventions and discoveries he has +never received a penny. Twice he has put his personal fortune at the +disposal of his country. Once when he paid the farmers for their +horses and wagons to transport supplies for the army of Braddock, and +again when he offered to pay for the tea which was thrown into Boston +Harbor.' +</P> + +<P> +"The great man turned to me and added: +</P> + +<P> +"'I have learned of these things, not from him, but from others who +know the truth, and we love him in France because we are aware that he +is working for Human Liberty and not for himself or for any greedy +despot in the 'west.' +</P> + +<P> +"It is all so true, yet in America nothing has been said of this. +</P> + +<P> +"As the dinner proceeded the Abbé Raynal asked the Doctor if it was +true that there were signs of degeneracy in the average male American. +</P> + +<P> +"'Let the facts before us be my answer," said Franklin. "There are at +this table four Frenchmen and four Americans. Let these gentlemen +stand up." +</P> + +<P> +"The Frenchmen were undersized, the Abbé himself being a mere shrimp of +a man. The Americans, Carmichael, Harmer, Humphries and myself, were +big men, the shortest being six feet tall. The contrast raised a laugh +among the ladies. Then said Franklin in his kindest tones: +</P> + +<P> +"'My dear Abbé, I am aware that manhood is not a matter of feet and +inches. I only assure you that these are average Americans and that +they are pretty well filled with brain and spirit.' +</P> + +<P> +"The Abbé spoke of a certain printed story on which he had based his +judgment. +</P> + +<P> +"Franklin laughed and answered: 'I know that is a fable, because I +wrote it myself one day, long ago, when we were short of news.'" +</P> + +<P> +The guests having departed, Franklin asked the young man to sit down +for a talk by the fireside. The Doctor spoke of the women of France, +saying: +</P> + +<P> +"'You will not understand them or me unless you remind yourself that we +are in Europe and that it is the eighteenth century. Here the clocks +are lagging. Time moves slowly. With the poor it stands still. They +know not the thing we call progress.' +</P> + +<P> +"'Those who have money seem to be very busy having fun,' I said. +</P> + +<P> +"'There is no morning to their day,' he went on. 'Their dawn is +noontime. Our kind of people have had longer days and have used them +wisely. So we have pushed on ahead of this European caravan. Our +fathers in New England made a great discovery.' +</P> + +<P> +"'What was it?' I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"'That righteousness was not a joke; that Christianity was not a solemn +plaything for one day in the week, but a real, practical, working +proposition for every day in the year; that the main support of the +structure is industry; that its most vital commandment is this, 'six +days shalt thou labor'; that no amount of wealth can excuse a man from +this duty. Every one worked. There was no idleness and therefore +little poverty. The days were all for labor and the nights for rest. +The wheels of progress were greased and moving.' +</P> + +<P> +"'And our love of learning helped to push them along,' I suggested. +</P> + +<P> +"'True. Our people have been mostly like you and me,' he went on. 'We +long for knowledge of the truth. We build schools and libraries and +colleges. We have pushed on out of the eighteenth century into a new +time. There you were born. Now you have stepped a hundred years +backward into Europe. You are astonished, and this brings me to my +point. Here I am with a great task on my hands. It is to enlist the +sympathy and help of France. I must take things, not as I could wish +them to be, but as I find them. At this court women are all powerful. +It has long been a maxim here that a diplomatist must stand well with +the ladies. Even though he is venerable, he must be gallant, and I do +not use the word in a shady sense. The ladies are not so bad as you +would think them. They are playthings. To them, life is not as we +know it, filled with realities. It is a beautiful drama of rich +costumes and painted scenes and ingenious words, all set in the +atmosphere of romance. The players only pretend to believe each other. +In the salon I am one of these players. I have to be.' +</P> + +<P> +"'Mirabeau seemed to mean what he said,' was my answer. +</P> + +<P> +"'Yes. He is one of those who often speak from the heart. All these +players love the note of sincerity when they hear it. In the salon it +is out of key, but away from the ladies the men are often living and +not playing. Mirabeau, Condorcet, Turgot and others have heard the +call of Human Liberty. Often they come to this house and speak out +with a strong candor.' +</P> + +<P> +"'I suppose that this great drama of despotism in France will end in a +tragedy whose climax will consume the stage and half the players,' I +ventured to say. +</P> + +<P> +"'That is a theme, Jack, on which you and I must be silent,' Franklin +answered. 'We must hold our mouths as with a bridle.' +</P> + +<P> +"For a moment he sat looking sadly into the glowing coals on the grate. +Franklin loved to talk, but no one could better keep his own counsel. +</P> + +<P> +"'At heart I am no revolutionist,' he said presently. 'I believe in +purifying--not in breaking down. I would to God that I could have +convinced the British of their error. Mainly I am with the prophet who +says: +</P> + +<P> +"'"Stand in the old ways. View the ancient paths. Consider them well +and be not among those who are given to change."' +</P> + +<P> +"I sat for a moment thinking of the cruelties I had witnessed, and +asking myself if it had been really worth while. Franklin interrupted +my thoughts. +</P> + +<P> +"'I wish we could discover a plan which would induce and compel nations +to settle their differences without cutting each other's throats. When +will human wisdom be sufficient to see the advantage of this?' +</P> + +<P> +"He told me the thrilling details of his success in France; how he had +won the kingdom for an ally and secured loans and the help of a fleet +and army then on the sea. +</P> + +<P> +"'And you will not be surprised to learn that the British have been +sounding me to see if we would be base enough to abandon our ally,' he +laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"In a moment he added: +</P> + +<P> +"'Come, it is late and you must write a letter to the heart of England +before you lie down to rest.' +</P> + +<P> +"Often thereafter he spoke of Margaret as 'the heart of England.'" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap25"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXV +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE PAGEANT +</H3> + +<P> +Jack began to assist Franklin in his correspondence and in the many +business details connected with his mission. +</P> + +<P> +"I have never seen a man with a like capacity for work," the young +officer writes. "Every day he is conferring with Vergennes or other +representatives of the King, or with the ministers of Spain, Holland +and Great Britain. The greatest intellect in the kingdom is naturally +in great request. To-day, after many hours of negotiation with the +Spanish minister, in came M. Dubourg, the most distinguished physician +in Europe. +</P> + +<P> +"'<I>Mon chère mâitre</I>,' he said. 'I have a most difficult case and as +you know more about the human body than any man of my acquaintance I +wish to confer with you.' +</P> + +<P> +"Yesterday, Doctor Ingenhauz, physician to the Emperor of Austria, came +to consult him regarding the vaccination of the royal family of France. +</P> + +<P> +"In the evening, M. Robespierre, a slim, dark-skinned, studious young +attorney from Arras, wearing gold-rimmed spectacles, came for +information regarding lightning rods, he having doubts of their +legality. While they were talking, M. Joseph Ignace Guillotin, another +physician, arrived. He was looking for advice regarding a proposed new +method of capital punishment, and wished to know if, in the Doctor's +opinion, a painless death could be produced by quickly severing the +head from the body. Next morning, M. Jourdan, with hair and beard as +red as the flank of my bay mare and a loud voice, came soon after +breakfast, to sell us mules by the ship load. +</P> + +<P> +"So you see that even I, living in his home and seeing him almost every +hour of the day, have little chance to talk with him. Last night we +met M. Voltaire--dramatist and historian--now in the evening of his +days. We were at the Academy, where we had gone to hear an essay by +D'Alembert. Franklin and Voltaire--a very thin old gentleman of +eighty-four, with piercing black eyes--sat side by side on the +platform. The audience demanded that the two great men should come +forward and salute each other. They arose and advanced and shook hands. +</P> + +<P> +"'<I>A la Française</I>,' the crowd demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"So the two white-haired men embraced and kissed each other amidst loud +applause. +</P> + +<P> +"We are up at sunrise and at breakfast, for half an hour or so, I have +him to myself. Then we take a little walk in the palace grounds of M. +le Ray de Chaumont, Chief Forester of the kingdom, which adjoins us. +To the Count's generosity Franklin is indebted for the house we live +in. The Doctor loves to have me with him in the early morning. He +says breakfasting alone is the most <I>triste</I> of all occupations. +</P> + +<P> +"'I think that the words of Demosthenes could not have been more sought +than yours,' I said to him at breakfast this morning. +</P> + +<P> +"He laughed as he answered: 'Demosthenes said that the first point in +speaking was action. Probably he meant the action which preceded the +address--a course of it which had impressed people with the integrity +and understanding of the speaker. For years I have had what Doctor +Johnson would call 'a wise and noble curiosity' about nature and have +had some success in gratifying it. Then, too, I have tried to order my +life so that no man could say that Ben Franklin had intentionally done +him a wrong. So I suppose that my words are entitled to a degree of +respect--a far more limited degree than the French are good enough to +accord them.' +</P> + +<P> +"As we were leaving the table he said: 'Jack, I have an idea worthy of +Demosthenes. My friend, David Hartley of London, who still has hope of +peace by negotiation, wishes to come over and confer with me. I shall +tell him that he may come if he will bring with him the Lady Hare and +her daughter.' +</P> + +<P> +"'More thrilling words were never spoken by Demosthenes,' I answered. +'But how about Jones and his <I>Bonne Homme Richard</I>? He is now a terror +to the British coasts. They would fear destruction.' +</P> + +<P> +"'I shall ask Jones to let them alone,' he said. 'They can come under +a special flag.' +</P> + +<P> +"Commodore Jones did not appear again in Paris until October, when he +came to Passy to report upon a famous battle. +</P> + +<P> +"I was eager to meet this terror of the coasts. His impudent courage +and sheer audacity had astonished the world. The wonder was that men +were willing to join him in such dare devil enterprises. +</P> + +<P> +"I had imagined that Jones would be a tall, gaunt, swarthy, raw-boned, +swearing man of the sea. He was a sleek, silent, modest little man, +with delicate hands and features. He wished to be alone with the +Doctor, and so I did not hear their talk. I know that he needed money +and that Franklin, having no funds, provided the sea fighter from his +own purse. +</P> + +<P> +"Commodore Jones had brought with him a cartload of mail from captured +British ships. In it were letters to me from Margaret. +</P> + +<P> +"'Now you are near me and yet there is an impassable gulf between us,' +she wrote. 'We hear that the seas are overrun with pirates and that no +ship is safe. Our vessels are being fired upon and sunk. I would not +mind being captured by a good Yankee captain, if it were carefully +done. But cannons are so noisy and impolite! I have a lot of British +pluck in me, but I fear that you would not like to marry a girl who +limped because she had been shot in the war. And, just think of the +possible effect on my disposition. So before we start Doctor Franklin +will have to promise not to fire his cannons at us.' +</P> + +<P> +"I showed the letter to Franklin and he laughed and said: +</P> + +<P> +"'They will be treated tenderly. The Commodore will convoy them across +the channel. I shall assure Hartley of that in a letter which will go +forward today.' +</P> + +<P> +"Anxious days are upon us. Our money in America has become almost +worthless and we are in extreme need of funds to pay and equip the +army. We are daily expecting a loan from the King of three million +livres. But Vergennes has made it clear to us that the government of +France is itself in rather desperate straits. The loan has been +approved, but the treasury is waiting upon certain taxes not yet +collected. The moment the money is available the Prime Minister will +inform us of the fact. +</P> + +<P> +"On a fine autumn day we drove with the Prince of Condé in his great +coach, ornamented with costly paintings, to spend a day at his country +seat in Chantilly. The palace was surrounded by an artificial canal; +the gardens beautified with ponds and streams and islands and cascades +and grottos and labyrinths, the latter adorned with graceful +sculptures. His stables were lined with polished woods; their windows +covered with soft silk curtains. Of such a refinement of luxury I had +never dreamed. Having seen at least a thousand beggars on the way, I +was saddened by these rich, lavish details of a prince's +self-indulgence. +</P> + +<P> +"On the wish of our host, Franklin had taken with him a part of his +electrical apparatus, with which he amused a large company of the +friends of the great <I>Seigneur</I> in his palace grounds. Spirits were +fired by a spark sent from one pond to another with no conductor but +the water of a stream. The fowls for dinner were slain by electrical +shocks and cooked over a fire kindled by a current from an electrical +bottle. At the table the success of America was toasted in electrified +bumpers with an accompaniment of guns fired by an electrical battery. +</P> + +<P> +"A poet had written a <I>Chanson à Boire</I> to Franklin, which was read and +merrily applauded at the dinner--one stanza of which ran as follows: +</P> + +<P> + "'Tout, en fondant un empire, + Vous le voyez boire et rire + Le verre en main + Chantons notre Benjamin.' +</P> + +<P> +"To illustrate the honest candor with which often he speaks, even in +the presence of Frenchmen who are near the throne, I quote a few words +from his brief address to the Prince and his friends; +</P> + +<P> +"'A good part of my life I have worked with my hands. If Your Grace +will allow me to say so, I wish to see in France a deeper regard for +the man who works with his hands--the man who supplies food. He really +furnishes the standard of all value. The value of everything depends +on the labor given to the making of it. If the labor in producing a +bushel of wheat is the same as that consumed in the production of an +ounce of silver, their value is the same. +</P> + +<P> +"'The food maker also supplies a country with its population. By 1900 +he will have given to America a hundred million people and a power and +prosperity beyond our reckoning. Frugality and Industry are the most +fruitful of parents, especially where they are respected. When luxury +and the cost of living have increased, people have become more cautious +about marriage and populations have begun to dwindle.' +</P> + +<P> +"The Bourbon Prince, a serious-minded man, felt the truth of all this +and was at pains to come to my venerable friend and heartily express +his appreciation. +</P> + +<P> +"'We know that we are in a bad way, but we know not how to get out of +it,' he said. +</P> + +<P> +"The Princess, who sat near us at table, asked the Doctor for +information about the American woman. +</P> + +<P> +"'"She riseth while it is yet night and giveth meat to her household, +and a portion to her maidens,"' he quoted. 'She is apt to be more +industrious than her husband. She works all day and often a part of +the night. She is weaver, knitter, spinner, tailor, cook, washerwoman, +teacher, doctor, nurse. While she is awake her hands are never idle, +and their most important work is that of slowly building up the manhood +of America. Ours is to be largely a mother-made land.' +</P> + +<P> +"'<I>Mon Dieu</I>! I should think she would be cross with so much to do,' +said the Princess. +</P> + +<P> +"'Often she is a little cross,' Franklin answered. 'My friend, James +Otis of Massachusetts, complained of the fish one day at dinner when +there was company at the table. Mrs. Otis frankly expressed her +opinion of his bad manners. He was temperamental and himself a bit +overworked. He made no answer, but in the grace which followed the +meal he said: +</P> + +<P> +"'"O Lord, we thank Thee that we have been able to finish this dinner +without getting slapped." +</P> + +<P> +"'But I would ask Your Highness to believe that our men are mostly +easier to get along with. They do not often complain of the food. +They are more likely to praise it.' +</P> + +<P> +"On our way back to Paris the Doctor said to me: +</P> + +<P> +"'The great error of Europe is entailment--entailed estates, entailed +pride, entailed luxury, entailed conceit. A boy who inherits honor +will rarely honor himself. I like the method of China, where honor +ascends, but does not descend. It goes back to his parents who taught +him his virtues. It can do no harm to his parents, but it can easily +ruin him and his children. I regard humility as one of the greatest +virtues.'" +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +2 +</H3> + +<P> +"That evening our near neighbors, Le Compte de Chaumont and M. +LeVilleard, came to announce that a dinner and ball in honor of +Franklin would occur at the palace of Compte de Chaumont less than a +week later. +</P> + +<P> +"'My good friends,' said the philosopher, 'I value these honors which +are so graciously offered me, but I am old and have much work to do. I +need rest more than I need the honors.' +</P> + +<P> +"'It is one of the penalties of being a great savant that people wish +to see and know him,' said the Count. 'The most distinguished people +in France will be among those who do you honor. I think, if you can +recall a talk we had some weeks ago, you will wish to be present.' +</P> + +<P> +"'Oh, then, you have heard from the Hornet.' +</P> + +<P> +"'I have a letter here which you may read at your convenience.' +</P> + +<P> +"'My dear friend, be pleased to receive my apologies and my hearty +thanks,' said Franklin. 'Not even the gout could keep me away.' +</P> + +<P> +"Next day I received a formal invitation to the dinner and ball. I +told the Doctor that in view of the work to be done, I would decline +the invitation. He begged me not to do it and insisted that he was +counting upon me to represent the valor and chivalry of the New World; +that as I had grown into the exact stature of Washington and was so +familiar with his manners and able to imitate them in conversation, he +wished me to assume the costume of our Commander-in-Chief. He did me +the honor to say: +</P> + +<P> +"'There is no other man whom it would be safe to trust in such an +exalted role. I wish, as a favor to me, you would see what can be done +at the costumer's and let me have a look at you.' +</P> + +<P> +"I did as he wished. The result was an astonishing likeness. I +dressed as I had seen the great man in the field. I wore a wig +slightly tinged with gray, a blue coat, buff waistcoat and sash and +sword and the top boots and spurs. When I strode across the room in +the masterly fashion of our great Commander, the Doctor clapped his +hands. +</P> + +<P> +"'You are as like him as one pea is like another!' he exclaimed. +'Nothing would so please our good friends, the French, who have an +immense curiosity regarding <I>Le Grand Vasanton</I>, and it will give me an +opportunity to instruct them as to our spirit.' +</P> + +<P> +"He went to his desk and took from a drawer a cross of jeweled gold on +a long necklace of silver--a gift from the King--and put it over my +head so that the cross shone upon my breast. +</P> + +<P> +"'That is for the faith of our people,' he declared. 'The guests will +assemble on the grounds of the Count late in the afternoon. You will +ride among them on a white horse. A beautiful maiden in a white robe +held at the waist with a golden girdle will receive you. She will be +Human Liberty. You will dismount and kneel and kiss her hand. Then +the Prime Minister of France will give to each a blessing and to you a +sword and a purse. You will hold them up and say: +</P> + +<P> +"'"For these things I promise you the friendship of my people and their +prosperity." +</P> + +<P> +"'You will kiss the sword and hang it beside your own and pass the +purse to me and then I shall have something to say.' +</P> + +<P> +"So it was all done, but with thrilling details, of which no suspicion +had come to me. I had not dreamed, for instance, that the King and +Queen would be present and that the enthusiasm would be so great. You +will be able to judge of my surprise when, riding my white horse +through the cheering crowd, throwing flowers in my way, I came suddenly +upon Margaret Hare in the white robe of Human Liberty. Now facing me +after these years of trial, her spirit was equal to her part. She was +like unto the angel I had seen in my dreams. The noble look of her +face thrilled me. It was not so easy to maintain the calm dignity of +Washington in that moment. I wanted to lift her in my arms and hold +her there, as you may well believe, but, alas, I was Washington! I +dismounted and fell upon one knee before her and kissed her hand not +too fervently, I would have you know, in spite of my temptation. She +stood erect, although tears were streaming down her cheeks and her dear +hand trembled when it rested on my brow and she could only whisper the +words: +</P> + +<P> +"'May the God of your fathers aid and keep you.' +</P> + +<P> +"The undercurrent of restrained emotion in this little scene went out +to that crowd, which represented the wealth, beauty and chivalry of +France. I suppose that some of them thought it a bit of good acting. +These people love the drama as no others love it. I suspect that many +of the friends of Franklin knew that she who was Liberty was indeed my +long lost love. A deep silence fell upon them and then arose a wild +shout of approval that seemed to come out of the very heart of France +and to be warm with its noble ardor. Every one in this beautiful +land--even the King and Queen and their kin--are thinking of Liberty +and have begun to long for her blessing. That, perhaps, is why the +scene had so impressed them. +</P> + +<P> +"But we were to find in this little drama a climax wholly unexpected by +either of us and of an importance to our country which I try in vain to +estimate. When the Prime Minister handed the purse to Franklin he bade +him open it. This the latter did, finding therein letters of credit +for the three million livres granted, of which we were in sore need. +With it was the news that a ship would be leaving Boulogne in the +morning and that relays on the way had been provided for his messenger. +The invention of our beloved diplomat was equal to the demand of the +moment and so he announced: +</P> + +<P> +"'Washington is like his people. He turns from all the loves of this +world to obey the call of duty. My young friend who has so well +presented the look and manner of Washington will now show you his +spirit.' +</P> + +<P> +"He looked at his watch and added: +</P> + +<P> +"'Within forty minutes he will be riding post to Boulogne, there to +take ship for America.' +</P> + +<P> +"So here I am on the ship <I>L'Etoile</I> and almost in sight of Boston +harbor, bringing help and comfort to our great Chief. +</P> + +<P> +"I was presented to the King and Queen. Of him I have written--a +stout, fat-faced man, highly colored, with a sloping forehead and large +gray eyes. His coat shone with gold embroidery and jeweled stars. His +close-fitting waistcoat of milk white satin had golden buttons and a +curve which was not the only sign he bore of rich wine and good capon. +The queen was a beautiful, dark-haired lady of some forty years, with a +noble and gracious countenance. She was clad in no vesture of gold, +but in sober black velvet. Her curls fell upon the loose ruff of lace +around her neck. There were no jewels on or about her bare, white +bosom. Her smile and gentle voice, when she gave me her bon-voyage and +best wishes for the cause so dear to us, are jewels I shall not soon +forget. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I had a little talk with Margaret and her mother, who walked with +me to Franklin's house. There, in his reception room, I took a good +look at the dear girl, now more beautiful than ever, and held her to my +heart a moment. +</P> + +<P> +"'I see you and then I have to go,' I said. +</P> + +<P> +"'It is the fault of my too romantic soul,' she answered mournfully. +'For two days we have been in hiding here. I wanted to surprise you.' +</P> + +<P> +"And this protest came involuntarily from my lips: +</P> + +<P> +"'Here now is the happiness for which I have longed, and yet forthwith +I must leave it. What a mystery is the spirit of man!' +</P> + +<P> +"'When it is linked to the spirit of God it ceases to understand +itself,' she answered. 'Oh, that I had the will for sacrifice which is +in you!' +</P> + +<P> +"She lifted the jeweled cross I wore to her lips and kissed it. I wish +that I could tell you how beautiful she looked then. She is twenty-six +years old and her womanhood is beginning. +</P> + +<P> +"'Now you may go,' she said. 'My heart goes with you, but I fear that +we shall not meet again.' +</P> + +<P> +"'Why ?' was my question. +</P> + +<P> +"'I am utterly discouraged.' +</P> + +<P> +"'You can not expect her to wait for you any longer. It is not fair,' +said her mother. +</P> + +<P> +"'Margaret, I do not ask you to wait,' I said. 'I am not quite a human +being. I seem to have no time for that. I am of the army of God. I +shall not expect you to wait.' +</P> + +<P> +"So it befell that the stern, strong hand of a soldier's duty drew me +from her presence almost as soon as we had met I kissed her and left +her weeping, for there was need of haste. Soon I was galloping out of +Passy on my way to the land I love. I try not to think of her, but how +can I put out of mind the pathos of that moment? Whenever I close my +eyes I see her beautiful figure sitting with bowed head in the +twilight." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap26"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXVI +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +IN WHICH APPEARS THE HORSE OF DESTINY <BR> +AND THE JUDAS OF WASHINGTON'S ARMY +</H3> + +<P> +In Boston harbor, Jack learned of the evacuation of Philadelphia by the +British and was transferred to a Yankee ship putting out to sea on its +way to that city. There he found the romantic Arnold, crippled by his +wounds, living in the fine mansion erected by William Penn. He had +married a young daughter of one of the rich Tory families, for his +second wife, and was in command of the city. Colonel Irons, having +delivered the letters to the Treasurer of the United States, reported +at Arnold's office. It was near midday and the General had not +arrived. The young man sat down to wait and soon the great soldier +drove up with his splendid coach and pair. His young wife sat beside +him. He had little time for talk. He was on his way to breakfast. +Jack presented his compliments and the good tidings which he had +brought from the Old Country. Arnold listened as if he were hearing +the price of codfish and hams. +</P> + +<P> +The young man was shocked by the coolness of the Commandant. The +former felt as if a pail of icy water had been thrown upon him, when +Arnold answered: +</P> + +<P> +"Now that they have money I hope that they will pay their debt to me." +</P> + +<P> +This kind of talk Jack had not heard before. He resented it but +answered calmly: "A war and an army is a great extravagance for a young +nation that has not yet learned the imperial art of gathering taxes. +Many of us are going unpaid but if we get liberty it will be worth all +it costs." +</P> + +<P> +"That sounds well but there are some of us who are also in need of +justice," Arnold answered as he turned away. +</P> + +<P> +"General, you who have not been dismayed by force will never, I am +sure, surrender to discouragement," said Jack. +</P> + +<P> +The fiery Arnold turned suddenly and lifting his cane in a threatening +manner said in a loud voice: +</P> + +<P> +"Would you reprimand me--you damned upstart?" +</P> + +<P> +"General, you may strike me, if you will, but I can not help saying +that we young men must look to you older ones for a good example." +</P> + +<P> +Very calmly and politely the young man spoke these words. He towered +above the man Arnold in spirit and stature. The latter did not commit +the folly of striking him but with a look of scorn ordered him to leave +the office. +</P> + +<P> +Jack obeyed the order and went at once to call upon his old friend, +Governor Reed. He told the Governor of his falling out with the +Major-General. +</P> + +<P> +"Arnold is a sordid, selfish man and a source of great danger to our +cause," said the Governor. "He is vain and loves display and is living +far beyond his means. To maintain his extravagance he has resorted to +privateering and speculation, and none of it has been successful. He +is deeply involved in debt. It is charged that he has used his +military authority for private gain. He was tried by a court-martial +but escaped with only a reprimand from the Commander-in-Chief. He is +thick with the Tories. He is the type of man who would sell his master +for thirty pieces of silver." +</P> + +<P> +"This is alarming," said Jack. +</P> + +<P> +"My boy an ill wind is blowing on us," the Governor went on. "We have +all too many Arnolds in our midst. Our currency has depreciated until +forty shillings will not buy what one would have bought before the war. +The profit makers are rolling in luxury and the poor army starves. The +honest and patriotic are impoverished while those who practise fraud +and Toryism are getting rich." +</P> + +<P> +Depressed by this report of conditions in America Jack set out for +Washington's headquarters on the Hudson. Never had the posture of +American affairs looked so hopeless. The Governor had sold him a young +mare with a white star in her forehead and a short, white stocking on +her left fore-leg, known in good time as the horse of destiny. +</P> + +<P> +"She was a well turned, high spirited creature with good plumes, a +noble eye and a beautiful head and neck," Jack wrote long after the day +he parted with her. "I have never ridden a more distinguished animal. +She was in every way worthy of the task ahead of her." +</P> + +<P> +When he had crossed the King's Ferry the mare went lame. A little +beyond the crossing he met a man on a big, roan gelding. Jack stopped +him to get information about the roads in the north. +</P> + +<P> +"That's a good-looking mare," the man remarked. +</P> + +<P> +"And she is better than she looks," Jack answered. "But she has thrown +a shoe and gone lame." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll trade even and give you a sound horse," the man proposed. +</P> + +<P> +"What is your name and where do you live?" Jack inquired. +</P> + +<P> +"My name is Paulding and I live at Tarrytown in the neutral territory." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope that you like horses." +</P> + +<P> +"You can judge of that by the look of this one. You will observe that +he is well fed and groomed." +</P> + +<P> +"And your own look is that of a good master," said Jack, as he examined +the teeth and legs of the gelding. "Pardon me for asking. I have +grown fond of the mare. She must have a good master." +</P> + +<P> +"I accepted his offer not knowing that a third party was looking on and +laying a deeper plan than either of us were able to penetrate," Jack +used to say of that deal. +</P> + +<P> +He approached the little house in which the Commander-in-Chief was +quartered with a feeling of dread, fearing the effect of late +developments on his spirit. +</P> + +<P> +The young man wrote to Margaret in care of Franklin this account of the +day which followed his return to camp: +</P> + +<P> +"Thank God! I saw on the face of our Commander the same old look of +unshaken confidence. I knew that he could see his way and what a sense +of comfort came of that knowledge! More than we can tell we are +indebted to the calm and masterful face of Washington. It holds up the +heart of the army in all discouragements. His faith is established. +He is not afraid of evil tidings. This great, god-like personality of +his has put me on my feet again. I was in need of it, for a different +kind of man, of the name of Arnold, had nearly floored me." +</P> + +<P> +"'Sit down here and tell me all about Franklin,' he said with a smile. +</P> + +<P> +"I told him what was going on in Paris and especially of the work of +our great minister to the court of Louis XVI. +</P> + +<P> +"He heard me with deep interest and when I had finished arose and gave +me his hand saying: +</P> + +<P> +"'Colonel, again you have won my gratitude. We must keep our courage.' +</P> + +<P> +"I told him of my unhappy meeting with Arnold. +</P> + +<P> +"'The man has his faults--he is very human, but he has been a good +soldier,' Washington answered. +</P> + +<P> +"The thought came to me that the love of liberty had lifted many of us +above the human plane of sordid striving. +</P> + +<P> +"Solomon came into camp that evening. He was so glad to see me that he +could only wring my hand and utter exclamations. +</P> + +<P> +"'How is the gal?' he asked presently. +</P> + +<P> +"I told him of our meeting in Passy and of my fear that we should not +meet again. +</P> + +<P> +"'It seems as if the Lord were not yet willing to let us marry,' I said. +</P> + +<P> +"'Course not,' he answered. 'When yer boat is in the rapids it's no +time fer to go ashore an' pick apples. I cocalate the Lord is usin' ye +fer to show the Ol' World what's inside o' us Americans.' +</P> + +<P> +"Margaret, I wonder if the Lord really wished to show you and others +the passion which is in the heart of Washington and his army. On the +way to my ship I was like one making bloody footprints in the snow. +How many of them I have seen! And now is the time to tell you that +Doctor Franklin has written a letter informing me how deeply our part +in the little pageant had impressed Mr. Hartley and the court people of +France and that he had secured another loan. +</P> + +<P> +"Solomon is a man of faith. He never falters. +</P> + +<P> +"He said to me: 'Don't worry. That gal has got a backbone. She ain't +no rye straw. She's a-goin' to think it over.' +</P> + +<P> +"Neither spoke for a time. We sat by an open fire in front of his tent +as the night fell. Solomon was filling his pipe. He swallowed and his +right eye began to take aim. I knew that some highly important theme +would presently open the door of his intellect and come out. +</P> + +<P> +"'Jack, I been over to Albany,' he said. 'Had a long visit with +Mirandy. They ain't no likelier womern in Ameriky. I'll bet a pint o' +powder an' a fish hook on that. Ye kin look fer 'em till yer eyes run +but ye'll be obleeged to give up.' +</P> + +<P> +"He lighted his pipe and smoked a few whiffs and added: 'Knit seventy +pair o' socks fer my regiment this fall.' +</P> + +<P> +"'Have you asked her to marry you?' I inquired. +</P> + +<P> +"'No. 'Tain't likely she'd have me,' he answered. 'She's had troubles +enough. I wouldn't ask no womern to marry me till the war is fit out. +I'm liable to git all shot up any day. I did think I'd ask her but I +didn't. Got kind o' skeered an' skittish when we sot down together, +an' come to think it all over, 'twouldn't 'a' been right.' +</P> + +<P> +"'You're wrong, Solomon,' I answered. 'You ought to have a home of +your own and a wife to make you fond of it. How is the Little Cricket?' +</P> + +<P> +"'Cunnin'est little shaver that ever lived,' said he. 'I got him a +teeny waggin an' drawed him down to the big medder an' back. He had a +string hitched on to my waist an' he pulled an' hauled an' hollered +whoa an' git ap till he were erbout as hoarse as a bull frog. When we +got back he wanted to go all over me with a curry comb an' braid my +mane.' +</P> + +<P> +"The old scout roared with laughter as he thought of the child's play +in which he had had a part. He told me of my own people and next to +their good health it pleased me to learn that my father had given all +his horses--save two--to Washington. That is what all our good men are +doing. So you will see how it is that we are able to go on with this +war against the great British empire. +</P> + +<P> +"That night the idea came to me that I would seek an opportunity to +return to France in the hope of finding you in Paris. I applied for a +short furlough to give me a chance to go home and see the family. +There I found a singular and disheartening situation. My father's +modest fortune is now a part of the ruin of war. Soon after the +beginning of hostilities he had loaned his money to men who had gone +into the business of furnishing supplies to the army. He had loaned +them dollars worth a hundred cents. They are paying their debts to him +in dollars worth less than five cents. Many, and Washington among +them, have suffered in a like manner. My father has little left but +his land, two horses, a yoke of oxen and a pair of slaves. So I am too +poor to give you a home in any degree worthy of you. +</P> + +<P> +"Dear old Solomon has proposed to make me his heir, but now that he has +met the likely womern I must not depend upon him. So I have tried to +make you know the truth about me as well as I do. If your heart is +equal to the discouragement I have heaped upon it I offer you this poor +comfort. When the war is over I can borrow a thousand pounds to keep a +roof over our heads and a fowl in the pot and pudding in the twifflers +while I am clearing the way to success. The prospect is not inviting, +I fear, but if, happily, it should appeal to you, I suggest that you +join your father in New York at the first opportunity so that we may +begin our life together as soon as the war ends. And now, whatever +comes, I would wish you to keep these thoughts of me: I have loved you, +but there are things which I have valued above my own happiness. If I +can not have you I shall have always the memory of the hours we have +spent together and of the great hope that was mine. +</P> + +<P> +"While I was at home the people of our neighborhood set out at daylight +one morning for a pigeon party. We had our breakfast on an island. +Then the ladies sat down to knit and sew, while the men went fishing. +In the afternoon we gathered berries and returned at dusk with filled +pails and many fish. So our people go to the great storehouse of +Nature and help themselves." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap27"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXVII +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +WHICH CONTAINS THE ADVENTURES OF SOLOMON <BR> +IN THE TIMBER SACK AND ON THE "HAND-MADE RIVER" +</H3> + +<P> +In the spring of 1779, there were scarcely sixteen thousand men in the +American army, of which three thousand were under Gates at Providence; +five thousand in the Highlands under McDougall, who was building new +defenses at West Point, and on the east shore of the Hudson under +Putnam; seven thousand were with Washington at Middlebrook where he had +spent a quiet winter; a few were in the south. The British, +discouraged in their efforts to conquer the northern and middle +colonies, sent a force of seven thousand men to take Georgia and South +Carolina. They hoped that Washington, who could not be induced to risk +his army in decisive action against superior numbers, would thus be +compelled to scatter and weaken it. But the Commander-in-Chief, +knowing how seriously Nature, his great ally, was gnawing at the vitals +of the British, bided his time and kept his tried regiments around him. +Now and then, a staggering blow filled his enemies with a wholesome +fear of him. His sallies were as swift and unexpected as the rush of a +panther with the way of retreat always open. Meanwhile a cry of +affliction and alarm had arisen in England. Its manufacturers were on +the verge of bankruptcy, its people out of patience. +</P> + +<P> +As soon as the ice was out of the lakes and rivers, Jack and Solomon +joined an expedition under Sullivan against the Six Nations, who had +been wreaking bloody vengeance on the frontiers of Pennsylvania and New +York. The Senecas had been the worst offenders, having spilled the +blood of every white family in their reach. Sullivan's expedition +ascended the Chemung branch of the Susquehanna and routed a great force +of Indians under Brant and Johnson at Newtown and crossed to the Valley +of the Genessee, destroying orchards, crops and villages. The red men +were slain and scattered. The fertile valley was turned into a +flaming, smoking hell. Simultaneously a force went up the Alleghany +and swept its shores with the besom of destruction. +</P> + +<P> +Remembrance of the bold and growing iniquities of the savage was like a +fire in the heart of the white man. His blood boiled with anger. He +was without mercy. Like every reaping of the whirlwind this one had +been far more plentiful than the seed from which it sprang. Those +April days the power of the Indian was forever broken and his cup +filled with bitterness. Solomon had spoken the truth when he left the +Council Fire in the land of Kiodote: +</P> + +<P> +"Hereafter the Injun will be a brother to the snake." +</P> + +<P> +Jack and Solomon put their lives in danger by entering the last village +ahead of the army and warning its people to flee. The killing had made +them heart-sick, although they had ample reason for hating the red men. +</P> + +<P> +In the absence of these able helpers Washington had moved to the +Highlands. This led the British General, Sir Henry Clinton, to decide +to block his return. So he sent a large force up the river and +captured the fort at Stony Point and King's Ferry connecting the great +road from the east with the middle states. The fort and ferry had to +be retaken, and, early in July, Jack and Solomon were sent to look the +ground over. +</P> + +<P> +In the second day of their reconnoitering above Stony Point they came +suddenly upon a British outpost. They were discovered and pursued but +succeeded in eluding the enemy. Soon a large party began beating the +bush with hounds. Jack escaped by hiding behind a waterfall. Solomon +had a most remarkable adventure in making his way northward. Hearing +the dogs behind him he ran to the shore of a bay, where a big drive of +logs had been boomed in, and ran over them a good distance and dropped +out of sight. He lay between two big sections of a great pine with his +nose above water for an hour or so. A band of British came down to the +shore and tried to run the logs but, being unaccustomed to that kind of +work, were soon rolled under and floundering to their necks. +</P> + +<P> +"I hadn't na skeer o' their findin' me," Solomon said to Jack. "'Cause +they was a hundred acres o' floatin' timber in that 'ere bay. I heard +'em slippin' an' sloshin' eround nigh shore a few minutes an' then they +give up an' went back in the bush. They were a strip o' open water +'twixt the logs an' the shore an' I clumb on to the timber twenty rod +er more from whar I waded in so's to fool the dogs." +</P> + +<P> +"What did you do with your rifle an' powder?" Jack inquired. +</P> + +<P> +"Wal, ye see, they wuz some leetle logs beyond me that made a kind o' a +holler an' I jest put ol' Marier 'crost 'em an' wound the string o' my +powder-horn on her bar'l. I lay thar a while an' purty soon I heard a +feller comin' on the timber. He were clus up to me when he hit a log +wrong an' it rolled him under. I dim' up an' grabbed my rifle an' thar +were 'nother cuss out on the logs not more'n ten rod erway. He took a +shot at me, but the bullet didn't come nigh 'nough so's I could hear it +whisper he were bobbin' eround so. I lifted my gun an' says I: +</P> + +<P> +"'Boy, you come here to me.' +</P> + +<P> +"But he thought he'd ruther go somewhar else an' he did--poor, ignorant +devil! I went to t' other feller that was rasslin' with a log tryin' +to git it under him. He'd flop the log an' then it would flop him. +He'd throwed his rifle 'crost the timber. I goes over an' picks it up +an' says I: +</P> + +<P> +"'Take it easy, my son. I'll help ye in a minute.' +</P> + +<P> +"His answer wa'n't none too p'lite. He were a leetle runt of a +sergeant. I jest laughed at him an' went to t' other feller an' took +the papers out o' his pockets. I see then a number o' British boys was +makin' fer me on the wobbly top o' the river. They'd see me goin' as +easy as a hoss on a turnpike an' they was tryin' fer to git the knack +o' it. In a minute they begun poppin' at me. But shootin' on logs is +like tryin' to walk a line on a wet deck in a hurricane. Ye got to +know how to offset the wobble. They didn't skeer me. I went an' +hauled that runt out o' the water an' with him under my right arm an' +the two rifles under the left un I started treadin' logs headin' fer +the north shore. They quit shootin' but come on a'ter me pell-mell. +They got to comin' too fast an' I heard 'em goin' down through the roof +o' the bay behind me an' rasslin' with the logs. That put meat on my +bones! I could 'a' gone back an' made a mess o' the hull party with +the toe o' my boot but I ain't overly fond o' killin'. Never have +been. I took my time an' slopped erlong toward shore with the runt +under my arm cussin' like a wildcat. We got ashore an' I made the +leetle sergeant empty his pockets an' give me all the papers he had. I +took the strip o' rawhide from round my belt an' put a noose above his +knees an' 'nother on my wrist an' sot down to wait fer dark which the +sun were then below the tree-tops. I looked with my spy-glass 'crost +the bay an' could see the heads bobbin' up an' down an' a dozen men +comin' out with poles to help the log rasslers. Fer some time they had +'nough to do an' I wouldn't be supprised. If we had the hull British +army on floatin' timber the logs would lick 'em in a few minutes." +</P> + +<P> +Solomon came in with his prisoner and accurate information as to the +force of British in the Highlands. +</P> + +<P> +On the night of the fifteenth of July, a detachment of Washington's +troops under Wayne, preceded by the two scouts, descended upon Stony +Point and King's Ferry and routed the enemy, capturing five hundred and +fifty men and killing sixty. Within a few days the British came up the +river in great force and Washington, unwilling to risk a battle, +quietly withdrew and let them have the fort and ferry and their labor +for their pains. It was a bitter disappointment to Sir Henry Clinton. +The whole British empire clamored for decisive action and their great +Commander was unable to bring it about and meanwhile the French were +preparing to send a heavy force against them. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +2 +</H3> + +<P> +Solomon, being the ablest bush scout in the American army, was needed +for every great enterprise in the wilderness. So when a small force +was sent up the Penobscot River to dislodge a regiment of British from +Nova Scotia, in the late summer of 1779, he went with it. The fleet +which conveyed the Americans was in command of a rugged old sea captain +from Connecticut of the name of Saltonstall who had little knowledge of +the arts of war. He neglected the precautions which a careful +commander would have taken. +</P> + +<P> +A force larger than his own should have guarded the mouth of the river. +Of this Solomon gave him warning, but Captain Saltonstall did not share +the apprehension of the great scout. In consequence they were pursued +and overhauled far up the river by a British fleet. Saltonstall in a +panic ran his boats ashore and blew them up with powder. Again a force +of Americans was compelled to suffer the bitter penalty of ignorance. +The soldiers and crews ran wild in the bush a hundred miles from any +settlement. It was not possible to organize them. They fled in all +directions. Solomon had taken with him a bark canoe. This he carried, +heading eastward and followed by a large company, poorly provisioned. +A number of the ships' boats which had been lowered--and moved, before +the destruction began, were carried on the advice of Solomon. +Fortunately this party was not pursued. Nearly every man in it had his +gun and ammunition. The scout had picked up a goodly outfit of axes +and shovels and put them in the boats. He organized his retreat with +sentries, rear guard, signals and a plan of defense. The carriers were +shifted every hour. After two days of hard travel through the deep +woods they came to a lake more than two miles long and about half as +wide. Their provisions were gone save a few biscuit and a sack of +salt. There were sixty-four men in the party. +</P> + +<P> +Solomon organized a drive. A great loop of weary men was flung around +the end of the lake more than a mile from its shore. Then they began +approaching the camp, barking like dogs as they advanced. In this +manner three deer and a moose were driven to the water and slain. +These relieved the pangs of hunger and insured the party, for some +little time, against starvation. They were, however, a long way from +help in an unknown wilderness with a prospect of deadly hardships. +Solomon knew that the streams in this territory ran toward the sea and +for that reason he had burdened the party with boats and tools. +</P> + +<P> +The able scout explored a long stretch of the lake's outlet which +flowed toward the south. It had a considerable channel but not enough +water for boats or canoes even. That night he began cutting timber for +a dam at the end of the lake above its outlet. Near sundown, next day, +the dam was finished and the water began rising. A rain hurried the +process. Two days later the big water plane had begun to spill into +its outlet and flood the near meadow flats. The party got the boats in +place some twenty rods below and ready to be launched. Solomon drove +the plug out of his dam and the pent-up water began to pour through. +The stream was soon flooded and the boats floating. Thus with a +spirited water horse to carry them they began their journey to the sea. +Men stood in the bow and stern of each boat with poles to push it along +and keep it off the banks. Some ten miles below they swung into a +large river and went on, more swiftly, with the aid of oars and paddles. +</P> + +<P> +Thus Solomon became the hero of this ill-fated expedition. After that +he was often referred to in the army as the River Maker, although the +ingenious man was better known as the Lightning Hurler, that phrase +having been coined in Jack's account of his adventures with Solomon in +the great north bush. In the ranks he had been regarded with a kind of +awe as a most redoubtable man of mysterious and uncanny gifts since he +and Jack had arrived in the Highlands fresh from their adventure of +"shifting the skeer"--as Solomon was wont to put it--whereupon, with no +great delay, the rash Colonel Burley had his Binkussing. The scout was +often urged to make a display of his terrible weapon but he held his +tongue about it, nor would he play with the lightning or be induced to +hurl it upon white men. +</P> + +<P> +"That's only fer to save a man from bein' burnt alive an' et up," he +used to say. +</P> + +<P> +At the White Pine Mills near the sea they were taken aboard a lumber +ship bound for Boston. Solomon returned with a great and growing +influence among the common soldiers. He had spent a week in Newport +and many of his comrades had reached the camp of Washington in advance +of the scout's arrival. +</P> + +<P> +When Solomon--a worn and ragged veteran--gained the foot of the +Highlands, late in October, he learned to his joy that Stony Point and +King's Ferry had been abandoned by the British. He found Jack at Stony +Point and told him the story of his wasted months. Then Jack gave his +friend the news of the war. +</P> + +<P> +D'Estaing with a French fleet had arrived early in the month. This had +led to the evacuation of Newport and Stony Point to strengthen the +British position in New York. But South Carolina had been conquered by +the British. It took seven hundred dollars to buy a pair of shoes with +the money of that state, so that great difficulties had fallen in the +way of arming and equipping a capable fighting force. +</P> + +<P> +"I do not talk of it to others, but the troubles of our beloved +Washington are appalling," Jack went on. "The devil loves to work with +the righteous, waiting his time. He had his envoy even among the +disciples of Jesus. He is among us in the person of Benedict +Arnold--lover of gold. The new recruits are mostly of his stripe. He +is their Captain. They demand big bounties. The faithful old guard, +who have fought for the love of liberty and are still waiting for their +pay, see their new comrades taking high rewards. It isn't fair. +Naturally the old boys hate the newcomers. They feel like putting a +coat of tar and feathers on every one of them. You and I have got to +go to work and put the gold seekers out of the temple. They need to +hear some of your plain talk. Our greatest peril is Arnoldism." +</P> + +<P> +"You jest wait an' hear to me," said Solomon. "I got suthin' to say +that'll make their ears bleed passin' through 'em." +</P> + +<P> +The evening of his arrival in camp Solomon talked at the general +assembly of the troops. He was introduced with most felicitous good +humor by Washington's able secretary, Mr. Alexander Hamilton. The +ingenious and rare accomplishments of the scout and his heroic loyalty +were rubbed with the rhetoric of an able talker until they shone. +</P> + +<P> +"Boys, ye kint make no hero out o' an old scrag o' a man like me," +Solomon began. "You may b'lieve what Mr. Hamilton says but I know +better. I been chased by Death an' grabbed by the coat-tails frequent, +but I been lucky enough to pull away. That's all. You new recruits +'a' been told how great ye be. I'm a-goin' fer to tell ye the truth. +I don't like the way ye look at this job. It ain't no job o' workin' +out. We're all workin' fer ourselves. It's my fight an' it's yer +fight. I won't let no king put a halter on my head an', with the stale +in one hand an' a whip in t' other, lead me up to the tax collector to +pay fer his fun. I'd ruther fight him. Some o' you has fam'lies. +Don't worry 'bout 'em. They'll be took care of. I got some confidence +in the Lord myself. Couldn't 'a' lived without it. Look a' me. I'm +so ragged that I got patches o' sunburn on my back an' belly. I'm what +ye might call a speckled man. My feet 'a' been bled. My body looks +like an ol' tree that has been clawed by a bear an' bit by woodpeckers. +I've stuck my poker into the fire o' hell. I've been singed an' frost +bit an' half starved an' ripped by bullets, an' all the pay I want is +liberty an' it ain't due yit. I've done so little I'm 'shamed o' +myself. Money! Lord God o' Israel! If any man has come here fer to +make money let him stan' up while we all pray fer his soul. These 'ere +United States is your hum an' my hum an' erway down the trail afore us +they's millions 'pon millions o' folks comin' an' we want 'em to be +free. We're a-fightin' fer 'em an' fer ourselves. If ye don't fight +ye'll git nothin' but taxes to pay the cost o' lickin' ye. It'll cost +a hundred times more to be licked than it'll cost to win. Ye won't +find any o' the ol' boys o' Washington squealin' erbout pay. We're +lookin' fer brothers an' not pigs. Git down on yer knees with me, +every one o' ye, while the Chaplain asks God A'mighty to take us all +into His army." +</P> + +<P> +The words of Solomon put the new men in better spirit and there was +little complaining after that. They called that speech "The Binkussing +of the Recruits." Solomon was the soul of the old guard. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap28"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXVIII +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +IN WHICH ARNOLD AND HENRY THORNHILL<BR>ARRIVE IN THE HIGHLANDS +</H3> + +<P> +Margaret and her mother returned to England with David Hartley soon +after Colonel Irons had left France. The British Commissioner had not +been able to move the philosopher. Later, from London, he had sent a +letter to Franklin seeking to induce America to desert her new ally. +Franklin had answered: +</P> + +<P> +"I would think the destruction of our whole country and the extirpation +of our people preferable to the infamy of abandoning our allies. We +may lose all but we shall act in good faith." +</P> + +<P> +Here again was a new note in the history of diplomatic intercourse. +</P> + +<P> +Colonel Irons' letter to Margaret Hare, with the greater part of which +the reader is familiar, was forwarded by Franklin to his friend +Jonathan Shipley, Bishop of St. Asaph, and by him delivered. Another +letter, no less vital to the full completion of the task of these pages +was found in the faded packet. It is from General Sir Benjamin Hare to +his wife in London and is dated at New York, January 10, 1780. This is +a part of the letter: +</P> + +<P> +"I have a small house near the barracks with our friend Colonel Ware +and the best of negro slaves and every comfort. It is now a loyal +city, secure from attack, and, but for the soldiers, one might think it +a provincial English town. This war may last for years and as the sea +is, for a time, quite safe, I have resolved to ask you and Margaret to +take passage on one of the first troop ships sailing for New York, +after this reaches you. Our friend Sir Roger and his regiments will be +sailing in March as I am apprised by a recent letter. I am, by this +post, requesting him to offer you suitable accommodations and to give +you all possible assistance. The war would be over now if Washington +would only fight. His caution is maddening. His army is in a +desperate plight, but he will not come out and meet us in the open. He +continues to lean upon the strength of the hills. But there are +indications that he will be abandoned by his own army." +</P> + +<P> +Those "indications" were the letters of one John Anderson, who +described himself as a prominent officer in the American army. The +letters were written to Sir Henry Clinton. They asked for a command in +the British army and hinted at the advantage to be derived from facts, +of prime importance, in the writer's possession. +</P> + +<P> +Margaret and her mother sailed with Sir Roger Waite and his regiments +on the tenth of March and arrived in New York on the twenty-sixth of +April. <I>Rivington's Gazette</I> of the twenty-eighth of that month +describes an elaborate dinner given by Major John André, +Adjutant-General of the British Army, at the City Hotel to General Sir +Benjamin Hare and Lady Hare and their daughter Margaret. Indeed the +conditions in New York differed from those in the camp of Washington as +the day differs from the night. +</P> + +<P> +A Committee of Congress had just finished a visit to Washington's +Highland camp. They reported that the army had received no pay in five +months; that it often went "sundry successive days without meat"; that +it had scarcely six days' provisions ahead; that no forage was +available; that the medical department had neither sugar, tea, +chocolate, wine nor spirits. +</P> + +<P> +The month of May, 1780, gave Washington about the worst pinch in his +career. It was the pinch of hunger. Supplies had not arrived. Famine +had entered the camp and begun to threaten its life. Soldiers can get +along without pay but they must have food. Mutiny broke out among the +recruits. +</P> + +<P> +In the midst of this trouble, Lafayette, the handsome French Marquis, +then twenty-three years old, arrived on his white horse, after a winter +in Paris, bringing word that a fleet and army from France were heading +across the sea. This news revived the drooping spirit of the army. +Soon boats began to arrive from down the river with food from the east. +The crisis passed. In the north a quiet summer followed. The French +fleet with six thousand men under Rochambeau arrived at Newport, July +tenth, and were immediately blockaded by the British as was a like +expedition fitting out at Brest. So Washington could only hold to his +plan of prudent waiting. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +2 +</H3> + +<P> +On a clear, warm day, late in July, 1780, a handsome coach drawn by +four horses crossed King's Ferry and toiled up the Highland road. It +carried Benedict Arnold and his wife and their baggage. Jack and +Solomon passed and recognized them. +</P> + +<P> +"What does that mean, I wonder?" Jack queried. +</P> + +<P> +"Dun know," Solomon answered. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm scared about it," said the younger scout. "I am afraid that this +money seeker has the confidence of Washington. He has been a good +fighting man. That goes a long way with the Chief." +</P> + +<P> +Colonel Irons stopped his horse. "I am of half a mind to go back," he +declared. +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't tell the General half that Reed said to me. It was so bitter +and yet I believe it was true. I ought to have told him. Perhaps I +ought now to go and tell him." +</P> + +<P> +"There's time 'nough," said Solomon. "Wait till we git back. +Sometimes I've thought the Chief needed advice but it's allus turned +out that I was the one that needed it." +</P> + +<P> +The two horsemen rode on in silence. It was the middle of the +afternoon of that memorable July day. They were bound for the neutral +territory between the American and British lines, infested by "cow +boys" from the south and "skinners" from the north who were raiding the +farms of the settlers and driving away their cattle to be sold to the +opposing armies. The two scouts were sent to learn the facts and +report upon them. They parted at a cross-road. It was near sundown +when at a beautiful brook, bordered with spearmint and wild iris, Jack +watered and fed his horse and sat down to eat his luncheon. He was +thinking of Arnold and the new danger when he discovered that a man +stood near him. The young scout had failed to hear his approach--a +circumstance in no way remarkable since the road was little traveled +and covered with moss and creeping herbage. He thought not of this, +however, but only of the face and form and manner of the stranger. The +face was that of a man of middle age. The young man wrote in a letter: +</P> + +<P> +"It was a singularly handsome face, smooth shaven and well shaped with +large, dark eyes and a skin very clean and perfect--I had almost said +it was transparent. Add to all this a look of friendliness and +masterful dignity and you will understand why I rose to my feet and +took off my hat. His stature was above my own, his form erect. I +remember nothing about his clothes save that they were dark in color +and seemed to be new and admirably fitted. +</P> + +<P> +"'You are John Irons, Jr., and I am Henry Thornhill,' said he. 'I saw +you at Kinderhook where I used to live. I liked you then and, since +the war began, I have known of your adventures.' +</P> + +<P> +"'I did not flatter myself that any one could know of them except my +family, and my fellow scout and General Washington,' I answered. +</P> + +<P> +"'Well, I happen to have had the chance to know of them,' he went on. +'You are a true friend of the great cause. I saw you passing a little +way back and I followed for I have something to say to you.' +</P> + +<P> +"'I shall be glad to hear of it,' was my answer. +</P> + +<P> +"'Washington can not be overcome by his enemies unless he is betrayed +by his friends. Arnold has been put in command at West Point. He has +planned the betrayal of the army.' +</P> + +<P> +"'Do you know that?' I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"'As well as I know light and darkness.' +</P> + +<P> +"'Have you told Washington?' +</P> + +<P> +"'No. As yet I have had no opportunity. I am telling him, now, +through you. In his friendships he is a singularly stubborn man. The +wiles of an enemy are as an open book to him but those of a friend he +is not able to comprehend. He will discredit or only half believe any +warning that you or I may give him. But it is for you and Solomon to +warn him and be not deceived.' +</P> + +<P> +"'I shall turn about and ride back to camp,' I said. +</P> + +<P> +"'There is no need of haste,' he answered. 'Arnold does not assume +command until the third of August.' +</P> + +<P> +"He shaded his eyes and looked toward the west where the sun was +setting and the low lying clouds were like rose colored islands in a +golden sea, and added as he hurried away down the road to the south: +</P> + +<P> +"'It is a beautiful world.' +</P> + +<P> +"'Too good for fighting men,' I answered as I sat down to finish my +luncheon for I was still hungry. +</P> + +<P> +"While I ate, the tormenting thought came to me that I had neglected to +ask for the source of his information or for his address. It was a +curious oversight due to his masterly manner and that sense of the +guarded tongue which an ordinary mortal is apt to feel in the presence +of a great personality. I had been, in a way, self-bridled and +cautious in my speech, as I have been wont to be in the presence of +Washington himself. I looked down the road ahead. The stranger had +rounded a bend and was now hidden by the bush. I hurried through my +repast, bridled my horse and set off at a gallop expecting to overtake +him, but to my astonishment he had left the road. I did not see him +again, but his words were ever with me in the weeks that followed. +</P> + +<P> +"I reached the Corlies farm, far down in the neutral territory, at ten +o'clock and a little before dawn was with Corlies and his neighbors in +a rough fight with a band of cattle thieves, in the course of which +three men and a boy were seriously disabled by my pistols. We had +salted a herd and concealed ourselves in the midst of it and so were +able to shoot from good cover when the thieves arrived. Solomon and I +spent four days in the neutral territory. When we left it a dozen +cattle thieves were in need of repair and three had moved to parts +unknown. Save in the southern limit, their courage had been broken. +</P> + +<P> +"I had often thought of Nancy, the blaze-faced mare, that I had got +from Governor Reed and traded to Mr. Paulding. I was again reminded of +her by meeting a man who had just come from Tarrytown. Being near that +place I rode on to Paulding's farm and spent a night in his house. I +found Nancy in good flesh and spirits. She seemed to know and like the +touch of my hand and, standing by her side, the notion came to me that +I ought to own her. Paulding was reduced in circumstances. Having +been a patriot and a money-lender, the war had impoverished him. My +own horse was worn by overwork and so I proposed a trade and offered a +sum to boot which he promptly accepted. I came back up the north road +with the handsome, high-headed mare under my saddle. The next night I +stopped with one Reuben Smith near the northern limit of the neutral +territory below Stony Point. Smith had prospered by selling supplies +to the patriot army. I had heard that he was a Tory and so I wished to +know him. I found him a rugged, jovial, long-haired man of middle age, +with a ready ringing laugh. His jokes were spoken in a low tone and +followed by quick, stertorous breathing and roars and gestures of +appreciation. His cheerful spirit had no doubt been a help to him in +our camp. +</P> + +<P> +"'I've got the habit o' laughin' at my own jokes,' said he. 'Ye see +it's a lonely country here an' if I didn't give 'em a little +encouragement they wouldn't come eround,' the man explained. +</P> + +<P> +"He lifted a foot and swung it in the air while he bent the knee of the +leg on which he was standing and opened his mouth widely and blew the +air out of his lungs and clapped his hands together. +</P> + +<P> +"'It also gives you exercise,' I remarked. +</P> + +<P> +"'A joke is like a hoss; it has to be fed or it won't work,' he +remarked, as he continued his cheerful gymnastics. I have never known +a man to whom a joke was so much of an undertaking. He sobered down +and added: +</P> + +<P> +"'This mare is no stranger to oats an' the curry comb." +</P> + +<P> +"He looked her over carefully before he led her to the stable. +</P> + +<P> +"Next morning as he stood by her noble head, Smith said to me: +</P> + +<P> +"'She's a knowin' beast. She'd be smart enough to laugh at my jokes +an' I wouldn't wonder.' +</P> + +<P> +"He was immensely pleased with this idea of his. Then, turning +serious, he asked if I would sell her. +</P> + +<P> +"'You couldn't afford to own that mare,' I said. +</P> + +<P> +"I had touched his vanity. In fact I did not realize how much he had +made by his overcharging. He was better able to own her than I and +that he proposed to show me. +</P> + +<P> +"He offered for her another horse and a sum which caused me to take +account of my situation. The money would be a help to me. However, I +shook my head. He increased his offer. +</P> + +<P> +"'What do you want of her?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"'I've always wanted to own a hoss like that,' he answered. +</P> + +<P> +"'I intended to keep the mare,' said I. 'But if you will treat her +well and give her a good home I shall let you have her.' +</P> + +<P> +"'A man who likes a good joke will never drive a spavined hoss,' he +answered merrily. +</P> + +<P> +"So it happened that the mare Nancy fell into the hands of Reuben +Smith." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap29"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXIX +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +LOVE AND TREASON +</H3> + +<P> +When Jack and Solomon returned to headquarters, Arnold and his wife +were settled in a comfortable house overlooking the river. Colonel +Irons made his report. The Commander-in-Chief complimented him and +invited the young man to make a tour of the camp in his company. They +mounted their horses and rode away together. +</P> + +<P> +"I learn that General Arnold is to be in command here," Jack remarked +soon after the ride began. +</P> + +<P> +"I have not yet announced my intention," said Washington. "Who told +you?" +</P> + +<P> +"A man of the name of Henry Thornhill." +</P> + +<P> +"I do not know him but he is curiously well informed. Arnold is an +able officer. We have not many like him. He is needed here for I have +to go on a long trip to eastern Connecticut to confer with Rochambeau. +In the event of some unforeseen crisis Arnold would know what to do." +</P> + +<P> +Then Jack spoke out: "General, I ought to have reported to you the +exact words of Governor Reed. They were severe, perhaps, even, unjust. +I have not repeated them to any one. But now I think you should know +their full content and Judge of them in your own way. The Governor +insists that Arnold is bad at heart--that he would sell his master for +thirty pieces of silver." +</P> + +<P> +Washington made no reply, for a moment, and then his words seemed to +have no necessary relation to those of Jack Irons. +</P> + +<P> +"General Arnold has been badly cut up in many battles," said he. "I +wish him to be relieved of all trying details. You are an able and +prudent man. I shall make you his chief aide with the rank of +Brigadier-General. He needs rest and will concern himself little with +the daily routine. In my absence, you will be the superintendent of +the camp, and subject to orders I shall leave with you. Colonel Binkus +will be your helper. I hope that you may be able to keep yourself on +friendly terms with the General." +</P> + +<P> +Jack reported to the Commander-in-Chief the warning of Thornhill, but +the former made light of it. +</P> + +<P> +"The air is full of evil gossip," he said. "You may hear it of me." +</P> + +<P> +When they rode up to headquarters Arnold was there. To Jack's surprise +the Major-General greeted him with friendly words, saying: +</P> + +<P> +"I hope to know you better for I have heard much of your courage and +fighting quality." +</P> + +<P> +"There are good soldiers here," said Jack. "If I am one of them it is +partly because I have seen you fight. You have given all of us the +inspiration of a great example." +</P> + +<P> +It was a sincere and deserved tribute. +</P> + +<P> +On the third of August--the precise date named by Henry +Thornhill--Arnold took command of the camp and Irons assumed his new +duties. The Major-General rode with Washington every day until, on the +fourteenth of September, the latter set out with three aides and +Colonel Binkus on his trip to Connecticut. Solomon rode with the party +for two days and then returned. Thereafter Arnold left the work of his +office to Jack and gave his time to the enjoyment of the company of his +wife and a leisure that suffered little interruption. For him, grim +visaged war had smoothed his wrinkled front. Like Richard he had hung +up his bruised arms. The day of Washington's departure, Mrs. Arnold +invited Jack to dinner. The young man felt bound to accept this +opportunity for more friendly relations. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Arnold was a handsome, vivacious, blonde young woman of thirty. +The officer speaks in a letter of her lively talk and winning smiles +and splendid figure, well fitted with a costume that reminded him of +the court ladies in France. +</P> + +<P> +"What a contrast to the worn, patched uniforms to be seen in that +camp!" he added. +</P> + +<P> +Soon after the dinner began, Mrs. Arnold said to the young man, "We +have heard of your romance. Colonel and Mrs. Hare and their young +daughter spent a week in our home in Philadelphia on their first trip +to the colonies. Later Mrs. Hare wrote to my mother of their terrible +adventure in the great north bush and spoke of Margaret's attachment +for the handsome boy who had helped to rescue them, so I have some +right to my interest in you." +</P> + +<P> +"And therefor I thank you and congratulate myself," said the young man. +"It is a little world after all." +</P> + +<P> +"And your story has been big enough to fill it," she went on. "The +ladies in Philadelphia seem to know all its details. We knew only how +it began. They have told us of the thrilling duel and how the young +lovers were separated by the war and how you were sent out of England." +</P> + +<P> +"You astonish me," said the officer. "I did not imagine that my humble +affairs would interest any one but myself and my family. I suppose +that Doctor Franklin must have been talking about them. The dear old +soul is the only outsider who knows the facts." +</P> + +<P> +"And if he had kept them to himself he would have been the most inhuman +wretch in the world," said Mrs. Arnold. "Women have their rights. +They need something better to talk about than Acts of Parliament and +taxes and war campaigns. I thank God that no man can keep such a story +to himself. He has to have some one to help him enjoy it. A good +love-story is like murder. It will out." +</P> + +<P> +"It has caused me a lot of misery and a lot of happiness," said the +young man. +</P> + +<P> +"I long to see the end of it," the woman went on. "I happen to know a +detail in your story which may be new to you. Miss Hare is now in New +York." +</P> + +<P> +"In New York!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oddso! In New York! We heard in Philadelphia that she and her mother +had sailed with Sir Roger Waite in March. How jolly it would be if the +General and I could bring you together and have a wedding at +headquarters!" +</P> + +<P> +"I could think of no greater happiness save that of seeing the end of +the war," Jack answered. +</P> + +<P> +"The war! That is a little matter. I want to see a proper end to this +love-story." +</P> + +<P> +She laughed and ran to the spinnet and sang <I>Shepherds, I Have Lost My +Love</I>. +</P> + +<P> +The General would seem to have been in bad spirits. He had spoken not +half a dozen words. To him the talk of the others had been as spilled +water. Jack has described him as a man of "unstable temperament." +</P> + +<P> +The young man's visit was interrupted by Solomon who came to tell him +that he was needed in the matter of a quarrel between some of the new +recruits. +</P> + +<P> +Jack and Solomon exercised unusual care in guarding the camp and +organizing for defense in case of attack. It was soon after +Washington's departure that Arnold went away on the road to the south. +Solomon followed keeping out of his field of vision. The General +returned two days later. Solomon came into Jack's hut about midnight +of the day of Arnold's return with important news. +</P> + +<P> +Jack was at his desk studying a map of the Highlands. The camp was at +rest. The candle in Jack's hut was the only sign of life around +headquarters when Solomon, having put out his horse, came to talk with +his young friend. He stepped close to the desk, swallowed nervously +and began his whispered report. +</P> + +<P> +"Suthin' neevarious be goin' on," he began. "A British ship were lyin' +nigh the mouth o' the Croton River. Arnold went aboard. An' officer +got into his boat with him an' they pulled over to the west shore and +went into the bush. Stayed thar till mos' night. If 'twere honest +business, why did they go off in the bush alone fer a talk?" +</P> + +<P> +Jack shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"Soon as I seen that I went to one o' our batteries an' tol' the Cap'n +what were on my mind. +</P> + +<P> +"'Damn the ol' British tub. We'll make 'er back up a little,' sez he. +'She's too clus anyhow.' +</P> + +<P> +"Then he let go a shot that ripped the water front o' her bow. Say, +Jack, they were some hoppin' eround on the deck o' the big British war +sloop. They h'isted her sails an' she fell away down the river a mile +'er so. The sun were set when Arnold an' the officer come out o' the +bush. I were in a boat with a fish rod an' could jes' see 'em with my +spy-glass, the light were so dim. They stood thar lookin' fer the +ship. They couldn't see her. They went back into the bush. It come +to me what they was goin' to do. Arnold were a-goin' to take the +Britisher over to the house o' that ol' Tory, Reub Smith. I got thar +fust an' hid in the bushes front o' the house. Sure 'nough!--that's +what were done. Arnold an' t' other feller come erlong an' went into +the house. 'Twere so dark I couldn't see 'em but I knowed 'twere them." +</P> + +<P> +"How?" the young man asked. +</P> + +<P> +"'Cause they didn't light no candle. They sot in the dark an' they +didn't talk out loud like honest men would. I come erway. I couldn't +do no more." +</P> + +<P> +"I think you've done well," said Jack. "Now go and get some rest. +To-morrow may be a hard day." +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +2 +</H3> + +<P> +Jack spent a bad night in the effort to be as great as his problem. In +the morning he sent Solomon and three other able scouts to look the +ground over east, west and south of the army. One of them was to take +the road to Hartford and deliver a message to Washington. +</P> + +<P> +After the noon mess, Arnold mounted his horse and rode away alone. The +young Brigadier sent for his trusted friend, Captain Merriwether. +</P> + +<P> +"Captain, the General has set out on the east road alone," said Jack. +"He is not well. There's something wrong with his heart. I am a +little worried about him. He ought not to be traveling alone. My +horse is in front of the door. Jump on his back and keep in sight of +the General, but don't let him know what you are doing." +</P> + +<P> +A little later Mrs. Arnold entered the office of the new Brigadier in a +most cheerful mood. +</P> + +<P> +"I have good news for you," she announced. +</P> + +<P> +"What is it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Soon I hope to make a happy ending of your love-story." +</P> + +<P> +"God prosper you," said the young man. +</P> + +<P> +She went on with great animation: "A British officer has come in a ship +under a flag of truce to confer with General Arnold. I sent a letter +to Margaret Hare on my own responsibility with the General's official +communication. I invited her to come with the party and promised her +safe conduct to our house. I expect her. For the rest we look to you." +</P> + +<P> +The young man wrote: "This announcement almost took my breath. My joy +was extinguished by apprehension before it could show itself. I did +not speak, being for a moment confused and blinded by lightning flashes +of emotion." +</P> + +<P> +"It is your chance to bring the story to a pretty end," she went on. +"Let us have a wedding at headquarters. On the night of the +twenty-eighth, General Washington will have returned. He has agreed to +dine with us that evening." +</P> + +<P> +"I think that she must have observed the shadow on my face for, while +she spoke, a great fear had come upon me," he testified in the Court of +Inquiry. "It seemed clear to me that, if there was a plot, the capture +of Washington himself was to be a part of it and my sweetheart a +helpful accessory." +</P> + +<P> +"'Are you not pleased?' Mrs. Arnold asked. +</P> + +<P> +"I shook off my fear and answered: 'Forgive me. It is all so +unexpected and so astonishing and so very good of you! It has put my +head in a whirl.' +</P> + +<P> +"Gentlemen, I could see no sinister motive in this romantic enterprise +of Mrs. Arnold," the testimony proceeds. "I have understood that her +sympathies were British but, if so, she had been discreet enough in +camp to keep them to herself. Whatever they may have been, I felt as +sure then, as I do now, that she was a good woman. Her kindly interest +in my little romance was just a bit of honest, human nature. It +pleased me and when I think of her look of innocent, unguarded, womanly +frankness, I can not believe that she had had the least part in the +dark intrigue of her husband. +</P> + +<P> +"I arose and kissed her hand and I remember well the words I spoke: +'Madame,' I said, 'let me not try now to express my thanks. I shall +need time for friendly action and well chosen words. Do you think that +Margaret will fall in with your plans?' +</P> + +<P> +"She answered: +</P> + +<P> +"'How can she help it? She is a woman. Have you not both been waiting +these many years for the chance to marry? I think that I know a +woman's heart.' +</P> + +<P> +"'You know much that I am eager to know,' I said. 'The General has not +told me that he is to meet the British. May I know all the good news?' +</P> + +<P> +"'Of course he will tell you about that,' she assured me. 'He has told +me only a little. It is some negotiation regarding an exchange of +prisoners. I am much more interested in Margaret and the wedding. I +wish you would tell me about her. I have heard that she has become +very beautiful.' +</P> + +<P> +"I showed Mrs. Arnold the miniature portrait which Margaret had given +me the day of our little ride and talk in London and then an orderly +came with a message and that gave me an excuse to put an end to this +untimely babbling for which I had no heart. The message was from +Solomon. He had got word that the British war-ship had come back up +the river and was two miles above Stony Point with a white flag at her +masthead. +</P> + +<P> +"My nerves were as taut as a fiddle string. A cloud of mystery +enveloped the camp and I was unable to see my way. Was the whole great +issue for which so many of us had perished and fought and endured all +manner of hardships, being bartered away in the absence of our beloved +Commander? I have suffered much but never was my spirit so dragged and +torn as when I had my trial in the thorny way of distrust. I have had +my days of conceit when I felt equal to the work of Washington, but +there was no conceit in me then. Face to face with the looming peril, +of which warning had come to me, I felt my own weakness and the need of +his masterful strength. +</P> + +<P> +"I went out-of-doors. Soon I met Merriwether coming into camp. Arnold +had returned. He had ridden at a walk toward the headquarters of the +Second Brigade and turned about and come back without speaking to any +one. Arnold was looking down as if absorbed in his own thoughts when +Merriwether passed him in the road. He did not return the latter's +salute. It was evident that the General had ridden away for the sole +purpose of being alone. +</P> + +<P> +"I went back to my hut and sat down to try to find my way when suddenly +the General appeared at my door on his bay mare and asked me to take a +little ride with him. I mounted my horse and we rode out on the east +road together for half a mile or so. +</P> + +<P> +"'I believe that my wife had some talk with you this morning,' he began. +</P> + +<P> +"'Yes,' I answered. +</P> + +<P> +"'A British officer has come up the river in a ship under a white flag +with a proposal regarding an exchange of prisoners. In my answer to +their request for a conference, some time ago, I enclosed a letter from +Mrs. Arnold to Miss Margaret Hare inviting her to come to our home +where she would find a hearty welcome and her lover--now an able and +most valued officer of the staff. A note received yesterday says that +Miss Hare is one of the party. We are glad to be able to do you this +little favor.' +</P> + +<P> +"I thanked him. +</P> + +<P> +"'I wish that you could go with me down the river to meet her in the +morning,' he said. 'But in my absence it will, of course, be necessary +for you to be on duty. Mrs. Arnold will go with me and we shall, I +hope, bring the young lady safely to head-quarters.' +</P> + +<P> +"He was preoccupied. His face wore a serious look. There was a +melancholy note in his tone--I had observed that in other talks with +him--but it was a friendly tone. It tended to put my fears at rest. +</P> + +<P> +"I asked the General what he thought of the prospects of our cause. +</P> + +<P> +"'They are not promising,' he answered. 'The defeat of Gates in the +south and the scattering of his army in utter rout is not an +encouraging event.' +</P> + +<P> +"'I think that we shall get along better now that the Gates bubble has +burst,' I answered." +</P> + +<P> +This ends the testimony of "the able and most valued officer," Jack +Irons, Jr. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap30"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXX +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +"WHO IS SHE THAT LOOKETH FORTH AS THE MORNING,<BR> +FAIR AS THE MOON, CLEAR AS THE SUN, <BR> +AND TERRIBLE AS AN ARMY WITH BANNERS?" +</H3> + +<P> +The American army had been sold by Arnold. The noble ideal it had +cherished, the blood it had given, the bitter hardships it had +suffered--torture in the wilderness, famine in the Highlands, long +marches of half naked men in mid-winter, massacres at Wyoming and +Cherry Valley--all this had been bartered away, like a shipload of +turnips, to satisfy the greed of one man. Again thirty pieces of +silver! Was a nation to walk the bitter way to its Calvary? Major +André, the Adjutant-General of Sir Henry Clinton's large force in New +York, was with the traitor when he rowed from the ship to the west +shore of the Hudson and went into the bush under the observation of +Solomon with his spy-glass. Arnold was to receive a command and large +pay in the British army. The consideration had been the delivery of +maps showing the positions of Washington's men and the plans of his +forts and other defenses, especially those of Forts Putnam and Clinton +and Battery Knox. Much other information was put in the hands of the +British officer, including the prospective movements of the +Commander-in-Chief. He was to be taken in the house of the man he had +befriended. André had only to reach New York with his treasure and +Arnold to hold the confidence of his chief for a few days and, before +the leaves had fallen, the war would end. The American army and its +master mind would be at the mercy of Sir Henry Clinton. +</P> + +<P> +Those September days the greatest love-story this world had known was +feeling its way in a cloud of mystery. The thrilling tale of Man and +Liberty, which had filled the dreams of sage and poet, had been nearing +its golden hours. Of a surety, at last, it would seem the lovers were +to be wed. What time, in the flying ages, they had greeted each other +with hearts full of the hope of peace and happiness, some tyrant king +and his armies had come between them. Then what a carnival of lust, +rapine and bloody murder! Man was broken on the wheel of power and +thwarted Hope sat brooding in his little house. History had been a +long siege, like that of Troy, to deliver a fairer Helen from the +established power of Kings. Now, beyond three thousand miles of sea, +supported by the strength of the hills and hearts informed and sworn to +bitter duty, Man, at last, had found his chance. Again Liberty, in +robes white as snow and sweet as the morning, beckoned to her lover. +Another king was come with his armies to keep them apart. The armies +being baffled, Satan had come also and spread his hidden snares. Could +Satan prevail? Was the story nearing another failure--a tragedy dismal +and complete as that of Thermopylae? +</P> + +<P> +This day we shall know. This day holds the moment which is to round +out the fulness of time. It is the twenty-third of September, 1780, +and the sky is clear. Now as the clock ticks its hours away, we may +watch the phrases of the capable Author of the great story as they come +from His pen. His most useful characters are remote and unavailable. +It would seem that the villain was likely to have his way. The Author +must defeat him, if possible, with some stroke of ingenuity. For this +He was not unprepared. +</P> + +<P> +Before the day begins it will be well to review, briefly, the hours +that preceded it. +</P> + +<P> +André would have reached New York that night if <I>The Vulture</I> had not +changed her position on account of a shot from the battery below Stony +Point. For that, credit must be given to the good scout Solomon +Binkus. The ship was not in sight when the two men came out in their +boat from the west shore of the river while the night was falling. +Arnold had heard the shot and now that the ship had left her anchorage +a fear must have come to him that his treachery was suspected. +</P> + +<P> +"I may want to get away in that boat myself," he suggested to André. +</P> + +<P> +"She will not return until she gets orders from you or me," the +Britisher assured him. +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder what has become of her," said Arnold. +</P> + +<P> +"She has probably dropped down the river for some reason," André +answered. "What am I to do?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll take you to the house of a man I know who lives near the river +and send you to New York by horse with passports in the morning. You +can reach the British lines to-morrow." +</P> + +<P> +"I would like that," André exclaimed. "It would afford me a welcome +survey of the terrain." +</P> + +<P> +"Smith will give you a suit of clothes that will fit you well enough," +said the traitor. "You and he are about of a size. It will be better +for you to be in citizen's dress." +</P> + +<P> +So it happened that in the darkness of the September evening Smith and +André, the latter riding the blazed-face mare, set out for King's +Ferry, where they were taken across the river. They rode a few miles +south of the landing to the shore of Crom Pond and spent the night with +a friend of Smith. In the morning the latter went on with André until +they had passed Pine's Bridge on the Croton River. Then he turned back. +</P> + +<P> + +Now André fared along down the road alone on the back of the mare +Nancy. He came to an outpost of the Highland army and presented his +pass. It was examined and endorsed and he went on his way. He met +transport wagons, a squad of cavalry and, later, a regiment of militia +coming up from western Connecticut, but no one stopped him. In the +faded hat and coat and trousers of Reuben Smith, this man, who called +himself John Anderson, was not much unlike the farmer folk who were +riding hither and thither in the neutral territory, on their petit +errands. His face was different. It was the well kept face of an +English aristocrat with handsome dark eyes and hair beginning to turn +gray. Still, shadowed by the brim of the old hat, his face was not +likely to attract much attention from the casual observer. The +handsome mare he rode was a help in this matter. She took and held the +eyes of those who passed him. He went on unchallenged. A little past +the hour of the high sun he stopped to drink at a wayside spring and to +give his horse some oats out of one of the saddle-bags. It was then +that a patriot soldier came along riding northward. He was one of +Solomon's scouts. The latter stopped to let his horse drink. As his +keen eyes surveyed the south-bound traveler, John Anderson felt his +danger. At that moment the scout was within reach of immortal fame had +he only known it. He was not so well informed as Solomon. He asked a +few questions and called for the pass of the stranger. That was +unquestionable. The scout resumed his journey. +</P> + +<P> +André resolved not to stop again. He put the bit in the mare's mouth, +mounted her and rode on with his treasure. The most difficult part of +his journey was behind him. Within twelve hours he should be at +Clinton's headquarters. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly he came to a fork in the road and held up his horse, uncertain +which way to go. Now the great moment was come. Shall he turn to the +right or the left? On his decision rests the fate of the New World and +one of the most vital issues in all history, it would seem. The +left-hand road would have taken him safely to New York, it is fair to +assume. He hesitates. The day is waning. It is a lonely piece of +road. There is no one to tell him. The mare shows a preference for +the turn to the right. Why? Because it leads to Tarrytown, her former +home, and a good master. André lets her have her way. She hurries on, +for she knows where there is food and drink and gentle hands. So a leg +of the mighty hazard has been safely won by the mare Nancy. The +officer rode on, and what now was in his way? A wonder and a mystery +greater even than that of Nancy and the fork in the road. A little out +of Tarrytown on the highway the horseman traveled, a group of three men +were hidden in the bush--ragged, profane, abominable cattle thieves +waiting for cows to come down out of the wild land to be milked. They +were "skinners" in the patriot militia, some have said; some that they +were farmers' sons not in the army. However that may have been, they +were undoubtedly rough, hard-fisted fellows full of the lawless spirit +bred by five years of desperate warfare. They were looking for Tories +as well as for cattle. Tories were their richest prey, for the latter +would give high rewards to be excused from the oath of allegiance. +</P> + +<P> +They came out upon André and challenged him. The latter knew that he +had passed the American outposts and thought that he was near the +British lines. He was not familiar with the geography of the upper +east shore. He knew that the so-called neutral territory was overrun +by two parties--the British being called the "Lower" and the Yankees +the "Upper." +</P> + +<P> +"What party do you belong to?" André demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"The Lower," said one of the Yankees. +</P> + +<P> +It was, no doubt, a deliberate lie calculated to inspire frankness in a +possible Tory. That was the moment for André to have produced his +passports, which would have opened the road for him. Instead he +committed a fatal error, the like of which it would be hard to find in +all the records of human action. +</P> + +<P> +"I am a British officer," he declared. "Please take me to your post." +</P> + +<P> +They were keen-minded men who quickly surrounded him. A British +officer! Why was he in the dress of a Yankee farmer? The pass could +not save him now from these rough, strong handed fellows. The die was +cast. They demanded the right of search. He saw his error and changed +his plea. +</P> + +<P> +"I am only a citizen of New York returning from family business in the +country," he said. +</P> + +<P> +He drew his gold watch from his pocket--that unfailing sign of the +gentleman of fortune--and looked at its dial. +</P> + +<P> +"You can see I am no common fellow," he added. "Let me go on about my +business." +</P> + +<P> +They firmly insisted on their right to search him. He began to be +frightened. He offered them his watch and a purse full of gold and any +amount of British goods to be allowed to go on his way. +</P> + +<P> +Now here is the wonder and the mystery in this remarkable proceeding. +These men were seeking plunder and here was a handsome prospect. Why +did they not make the most of it and be content? The "skinners" were +plunderers, but first of all and above all they were patriots. The +spirit brooding over the Highlands of the Hudson and the hills of New +England had entered their hearts. The man who called himself John +Anderson was compelled to dismount and empty his pockets and take off +his boots, in one of which was the damning evidence of Arnold's +perfidy. A fortune was then within the reach of these three +hard-working men of the hills, but straightway they took their prisoner +and the papers, found in his boot, to the outpost commanded by Colonel +Jameson. +</P> + +<P> +This negotiation for the sale of the United States had met with +unexpected difficulties. The "skinners" had been as hard to buy as the +learned diplomat. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap31"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXXI +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE LOVERS AND SOLOMON'S LAST FIGHT +</H3> + +<P> +Meanwhile, Margaret and her mother had come up the river in a barge +with General and Mrs. Arnold to the house of the latter. Jack had gone +out on a tour of inspection. He had left headquarters after the noon +meal with a curious message in his pocket and a feeling of great +relief. The message had been delivered to him by the mother of a +captain in one of the regiments. She said that it had been given to +her by a man whom she did not know. Jack had been busy when it came +and did not open it until she had gone away. It was an astonishing and +most welcome message in the flowing script of a rapid penman, but +clearly legible. It was without date and very brief. These were the +cheering words in it: +</P> + +<P> +<BR> +"MY DEAR FRIEND: I have good news from down the river. The danger is +passed. +</P> + +<P> + "HENRY THORNHILL." +</P> + +<P> +<BR> +"Well, Henry Thornhill is a man who knows whereof he speaks," the young +officer said to himself, as he rode away. "I should like to meet him +again." +</P> + +<P> +That day the phrase "Good news from down the river" came repeatedly +back to him. He wondered what it meant. +</P> + +<P> +Jack being out of camp, Margaret had found Solomon. Toward the day's +end he had gone out on the south road with the young lady and her +mother and Mrs. Arnold. +</P> + +<P> +Jack was riding into camp from an outpost of the army. The day was in +its twilight. He had been riding fast. He pulled up his horse as he +approached a sentry post. Three figures were standing in the dusky +road. +</P> + +<P> +"Halt! Who comes there?" one of them sang out. +</P> + +<P> +It was the voice of Margaret. Its challenge was more like a phrase of +music than a demand. He dismounted. +</P> + +<P> +"I am one of the great army of lovers," said he. +</P> + +<P> +"Advance and give the countersign," she commanded. +</P> + +<P> +A moment he held her in his embrace and then he whispered: "I love you." +</P> + +<P> +"The countersign is correct, but before I let you pass, give me one +more look into your heart." +</P> + +<P> +"As many as you like--but--why?" +</P> + +<P> +"So I may be sure that you do not blame England for the folly of her +King." +</P> + +<P> +"I swear it." +</P> + +<P> +"Then I shall enlist with you against the tyrant. He has never been my +King." +</P> + +<P> +Lady Hare stood with Mrs. Arnold near the lovers. +</P> + +<P> +"I too demand the countersign," said the latter. +</P> + +<P> +"And much goes with it," said the young man as he kissed her, and then +he embraced the mother of his sweetheart and added: +</P> + +<P> +"I hope that you are also to enlist with us." +</P> + +<P> +"No, I am to leave my little rebel with you and return to New York." +</P> + +<P> +Solomon, who had stood back in the edge of the bush, approached them +and said to Lady Hare: +</P> + +<P> +"I guess if the truth was known, they's more rebels in England than +thar be in Ameriky." +</P> + +<P> +He turned to Jack and added: +</P> + +<P> +"My son, you're a reg'lar Tory privateer--grabbin' for gold. Give 'em +one a piece fer me." +</P> + +<P> +Margaret ran upon the old scout and kissed his bearded cheek. +</P> + +<P> +"Reg'lar lightnin' hurler!" said he. "Soon as this 'ere war is over +I'll take a bee line fer hum--you hear to me. This makes me sick o' +fightin'." +</P> + +<P> +"Will you give me a ride?" Margaret asked her lover. "I'll get on +behind you." +</P> + +<P> +Solomon took off the saddle and tightened the blanket girth. +</P> + +<P> +"Thar, 'tain't over clean, but now ye kin both ride," said he. +</P> + +<P> +Soon the two were riding, she in front, as they had ridden long before +through the shady, mallowed bush in Tryon County. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, that we could hear the thrush's song again!" +</P> + +<P> +"I can hear it sounding through the years," he answered. "As life goes +on with me I hear many an echo from the days of my youth." +</P> + +<P> +They rode a while in silence as the night fell. +</P> + +<P> +"Again the night is beautiful!" she exclaimed. +</P> + +<P> +"But now it is the beauty of the night and the stars," he answered. +</P> + +<P> +"How they glow!" +</P> + +<P> +"I think it is because the light of the future is shining on them." +</P> + +<P> +"It is the light of peace and happiness. I am glad to be free." +</P> + +<P> +"Soon your people shall be free," he answered her. +</P> + +<P> +"My people?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +"Is the American army strong enough to do it?" +</P> + +<P> +"No." +</P> + +<P> +"The French?" +</P> + +<P> +"No." +</P> + +<P> +"Who then is to free us?" +</P> + +<P> +"God and His ocean and His hills and forests and rivers and these +children of His in America, who have been schooled to know their +rights. After this King is broken there will be no other like him in +England." +</P> + +<P> +They dismounted at Arnold's door. +</P> + +<P> +"For a time I shall have much to do, but soon I hope for great +promotion and more leisure," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"Tell me the good news," she urged. +</P> + +<P> +"I expect to be the happiest man in the army, and the master of this +house and your husband." +</P> + +<P> +"And you and I shall be as one," she answered. "God speed the day when +that may be true also of your people and my people." +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +2 +</H3> + +<P> +He kissed her and bade her good night and returned to his many tasks. +He had visited the forts and batteries. He had communicated with every +outpost. His plan was complete. About midnight, when he and Solomon +were lying down to rest, two horsemen came up the road at a gallop and +stopped at his door. They were aides of Washington. They reported +that the General was spending the night at the house of Henry Jasper, +near the ferry, and would reach camp about noon next day. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank God for that news," said the young man. "Solomon, I think that +we can sleep better to-night." +</P> + +<P> +"If you're awake two minutes from now you'll hear some snorin'," +Solomon answered as he drew his boots. "I ain't had a good bar'foot +sleep in a week. I don't like to have socks er luther on when I wade +out into that pond. To-night, I guess, we'll smell the water lilies." +</P> + +<P> +Jack was awake for an hour thinking of the great happiness which had +fallen in the midst of his troubles and of Thornhill and his message. +He heard the two aides going to their quarters. Then a deep silence +fell upon the camp, broken only by the rumble of distant thunder in the +mountains and the feet of some one pacing up and down between his hut +and the house of the General. He put on his long coat and slippers and +went out-of-doors. +</P> + +<P> +"Who's there?" he demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"Arnold," was the answer. "Taking a little walk before I turn in." +</P> + +<P> +There was a weary, pathetic note of trouble in that voice, long +remembered by the young man, who immediately returned to his bed. He +knew not that those restless feet of Arnold were walking in the flames +of hell. Had some premonition of what had been going on down the river +come up to him? Could he hear the feet of that horse, now galloping +northward through the valleys and over the hills toward him with evil +tidings? No more for this man was the comfort of restful sleep or the +joys of home and friendship and affection. Now the touch of his wife's +hand, the sympathetic look in her eyes and all her babble about the +coming marriage were torture to him. He could not endure it. Worst of +all, he was in a way where there is no turning. He must go on. He had +begun to know that he was suspected. The conduct of the scout, Solomon +Binkus, had suggested that he knew what was passing. Arnold had seen +the aides of Washington as they came in. The chief could not be far +behind them. He dreaded to stand before him. Compared to the torture +now beginning for this man, the fate of Bill Scott on Rock Creek in the +wilderness, had been a mercy. +</P> + +<P> +Soon after sunrise came a solitary horseman, wearied by long travel, +with a message from Colonel Jameson to Arnold. A man had been captured +near Tarrytown with important documents on his person. He had +confessed that he was Adjutant-General André of Sir Henry Clinton's +army. The worst had come to pass. Now treason! disgrace! the gibbet! +</P> + +<P> +Arnold was sitting at breakfast. He arose, put the message in his +pocket and went out of the room. <I>The Vulture</I> lay down the river +awaiting orders. The traitor walked hurriedly to the boat-landing. +Solomon was there. It had been his custom when in camp to go down to +the landing every morning with his spy-glass and survey the river. +Only one boatman was at the dock. +</P> + +<P> +"Colonel Binkus, will you help this man to take me down to the British +ship?" Arnold asked. "I have an engagement with its commander and am +half an hour late." +</P> + +<P> +Solomon had had much curiosity about that ship. He wished to see the +man who had gone into the bush and then to Smith's with Arnold. +</P> + +<P> +"Sart'n," Solomon answered. +</P> + +<P> +They got into a small barge with the General in the cushioned rear +seat, his flag in hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Make what speed you can," said the General. +</P> + +<P> +The oarsmen bent to their task and the barge swept on by the forts. A +Yankee sloop overhauled and surveyed them. If its skipper had +entertained suspicions they were dissipated by the presence of Solomon +Binkus in the barge. +</P> + +<P> +They came up to <I>The Vulture</I> and made fast at its landing stage where +an officer waited to receive the General. The latter ascended to the +deck. In a moment a voice called from above: +</P> + +<P> +"General Arnold's boatmen may come aboard." +</P> + +<P> +A British war-ship was a thing of great interest to Solomon. Once +aboard he began to look about him at the shining guns and their gear +and the tackle and the men. He looked for Arnold, but he was not in +sight. +</P> + +<P> +Among the crew then busy on the deck, Solomon saw the Tory desperado +"Slops," one time of the Ohio River country, with his black pipe in his +mouth. Slops paused in his hauling and reeving to shake a fist at +Solomon. They were heaving the anchor. The sails were running up. +The ship had begun to move. What was the meaning of this? Solomon +stepped to the ship's side. The stair had been hove up and made fast. +The barge was not to be seen. +</P> + +<P> +"They will put you all ashore below," an officer said to him. +</P> + +<P> +Solomon knew too much about Arnold to like the look of this. The +officer went forward. Solomon stepped to the opening in the deck rail, +not yet closed, through which he had come aboard. While he was looking +down at the water, some ten feet below, a group of sailors came to fill +in. His arm was roughly seized. Solomon stepped back. Before him +stood the man Slops. An insulting word from the latter, a quick blow +from Solomon, and Slops went through the gate out into the air and +downward. The scout knew it was no time to tarry. +</P> + +<P> +"A night hawk couldn't dive no quicker ner what I done," were his words +to the men who picked him up. He was speaking of that half second of +the twenty-fourth of September, 1780. His brief account of it was +carefully put down by an officer: "I struck not twenty feet from Slops, +which I seen him jes' comin' up when I took water. This 'ere ol' sloop +that had overhauled us goin' down were nigh. Hadn't no more'n come up +than I felt Slops' knife rip into my leg. I never had no practise in +that 'ere knife work. 'Tain't fer decent folks, but my ol' Dan Skinner +is allus on my belt. He'd chose the weapons an' so I fetched 'er out. +Had to er die. We fit a minnit thar in the water. All the while he +had that damn black pipe in his mouth. I were hacked up a leetle, but +he got a big leak in <I>him</I> an' all of a sudden he wasn't thar. He'd +gone. I struck out with ol' Dan Skinner 'twixt my teeth. Then I see +your line and grabbed it. Whar's the British ship now?" +</P> + +<P> +"'Way below Stony P'int an' a fair wind in her sails,' the skipper +answered. +</P> + +<P> +"Bound fer New York," said Solomon sorrowfully. "They'd 'a' took me +with 'em if I hadn't 'a' jumped. Put me over to Jasper's dock. I got +to see Washington quick." +</P> + +<P> +"Washington has gone up the river." +</P> + +<P> +"Then take me to quarters soon as ye kin. I'll give ye ten pounds, +good English gold. My God, boys! My ol' hide is leakin' bad." +</P> + +<P> +He turned to the man who had been washing and binding his wounds. +</P> + +<P> +"Sodder me up best ye kin. I got to last till I see the Father." +</P> + +<P> +Solomon and other men in the old army had often used the word "Father" +in speaking of the Commander-in-Chief. It served, as no other could, +to express their affection for him. +</P> + +<P> +The wind was unfavorable and the sloop found it difficult to reach the +landing near headquarters. After some delay Solomon jumped overboard +and swam ashore. +</P> + +<P> +What follows he could not have told. Washington was standing with his +orderly in the little dooryard at headquarters as Solomon came +staggering up the slope at a run and threw his body, bleeding from a +dozen wounds, at the feet of his beloved Chief. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, my Father!" he cried in a broken voice and with tears streaming +down his cheeks. "Arnold has sold Ameriky an' all its folks an' gone +down the river." +</P> + +<P> +Washington knelt beside him and felt his bloody garments. +</P> + +<P> +"The Colonel is wounded," he said to his orderly. "Go for help." +</P> + +<P> +The scout, weak from the loss of blood, tried to regain his feet but +failed. He lay back and whispered: +</P> + +<P> +"I guess the sap has all oozed out o' me but I had enough." +</P> + +<P> +Washington was one of those who put him on a stretcher and carried him +to the hospital. +</P> + +<P> +When he was lying on his bed and his clothes were being removed, the +Commander-in-Chief paid him this well deserved compliment as he held +his hand: +</P> + +<P> +"Colonel, when the war is won it will be only because I have had men +like you to help me." +</P> + +<P> +Soon Jack came to his side and then Margaret. General Washington asked +the latter about Mrs. Arnold. +</P> + +<P> +"My mother is doing what she can to comfort her," Margaret answered. +</P> + +<P> +Solomon revived under stimulants and was able to tell them briefly of +the dire struggle he had had. +</P> + +<P> +"It were Slops that saved me," he whispered. +</P> + +<P> +He fell into a deep and troubled sleep and when he awoke in the middle +of the night he was not strong enough to lift his head. Then these +faithful friends of his began to know that this big, brawny, +redoubtable soldier was having his last fight. He seemed to be aware +of it himself for he whispered to Jack: +</P> + +<P> +"Take keer o' Mirandy an' the Little Cricket." +</P> + +<P> +Late the next day he called for his Great Father. Feebly and brokenly +he had managed to say: +</P> + +<P> +"Jes' want--to--feel--his hand." +</P> + +<P> +Margaret had sat beside him all day helping the nurse. +</P> + +<P> +A dozen times Jack had left his work and run over for a look at +Solomon. On one of these hurried visits the young man had learned of +the wish of his friend. He went immediately to General Washington, who +had just returned from a tour of the forts. The latter saw the look of +sorrow and anxiety in the face of his officer. +</P> + +<P> +"How is the Colonel?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"I think that he is near his end," Jack answered. "He has expressed a +wish to feel your hand again." +</P> + +<P> +"Let us go to him at once," said the other. "There has been no greater +man in the army." +</P> + +<P> +Together they went to the bedside of the faithful scout. The General +took his hand. Margaret put her lips close to Solomon's ear and said: +</P> + +<P> +"General Washington has come to see you." +</P> + +<P> +Solomon opened his eyes and smiled. Then there was a beauty not of +this world in his homely face. And that moment, holding the hand he +had loved and served and trusted, the heroic soul of Solomon Binkus +went out upon "the lonesome trail." +</P> + +<P> +Jack, who had been kneeling at his side, kissed his white cheek. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, General, I knew and loved this man!" said the young officer as he +arose. +</P> + +<P> +"It will be well for our people to know what men like him have endured +for them," said Washington. +</P> + +<P> +"I shall have to learn how to live without him," said Jack. "It will +be hard." +</P> + +<P> +Margaret took his arm and they went out of the door and stood a moment +looking off at the glowing sky above the western hills. +</P> + +<P> +"Now you have me," she whispered. +</P> + +<P> +He bent and kissed her. +</P> + +<P> +"No man could have a better friend and fighting mate than you," he +answered. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +3 +</H3> + +<P> +"'We spend our years as a tale that is told,'" Jack wrote from +Philadelphia to his wife in Albany on the thirtieth of June, 1787: +"Dear Margaret, we thought that the story was ended when Washington +won. Five years have passed, as a watch in the night, and the most +impressive details are just now falling out. You recall our curiosity +about Henry Thornhill? When stopping at Kinderhook I learned that the +only man of that name who had lived there had been lying in his grave +these twenty years. He was one of the first dreamers about Liberty. +What think you of that? I, for one, can not believe that the man I saw +was an impostor. Was he an angel like those who visited the prophets? +Who shall say? Naturally, I think often of the look of him and of his +sudden disappearance in that Highland road. And, looking back at +Thornhill, this thought comes to me: Who can tell how many angels he +has met in the way of life all unaware of the high commission of his +visitor? +</P> + +<P> +"On my westward trip I found that the Indians who once dwelt in The +Long House were scattered. Only a tattered remnant remains. Near old +Fort Johnson I saw a squaw sitting in her blanket. Her face was +wrinkled with age and hardship. Her eyes were nearly blind. She held +in her withered hands the ragged, moth eaten tail of a gray wolf. I +asked her why she kept the shabby thing. +</P> + +<P> +"'Because of the hand that gave it,' she answered in English. 'I shall +take it with me to The Happy Hunting-Grounds. When he sees it he will +know me.' +</P> + +<P> +"So quickly the beautiful Little White Birch had faded. +</P> + +<P> +"At Mount Vernon, Washington was as dignified as ever but not so grave. +He almost joked when he spoke of the sculptors and portrait painters +who have been a great bother to him since the war ended. +</P> + +<P> +"'Now no dray horse moves more readily to the thill than I to the +painter's chair," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"When I arrived the family was going in to dinner and they waited until +I could make myself ready to join them. The jocular Light Horse Harry +Lee was there. His anecdotes delighted the great man. I had never +seen G. W. in better humor. A singularly pleasant smile lighted his +whole countenance. I can never forget the gentle note in his voice and +his dignified bearing. It was the same whether he were addressing his +guests or his family. The servants watched him closely. A look seemed +to be enough to indicate his wishes. The faithful Billy was always at +his side. I have never seen a sweeter atmosphere in any home. We sat +an hour at the table after the family had retired from it. In speaking +of his daily life he said: +</P> + +<P> +"'I ride around my farms until it is time to dress for dinner, when I +rarely miss seeing strange faces, come, as they say, out of respect for +me. Perhaps the word curiosity would better describe the cause of it. +The usual time of sitting at table brings me to candle-light when I try +to answer my letters.' +</P> + +<P> +"He had much to say on his favorite theme, viz.: the settling of the +immense interior and bringing its trade to the Atlantic cities. +</P> + +<P> +"I was coughing with a severe cold. He urged me to take some remedies +which he had in the house, but I refused them. +</P> + +<P> +"He went to his office while Lee and I sat down together. The latter +told me of a movement in the army led by Colonel Nichola to make +Washington king of America. He had seen Washington's answer to the +letter of the Colonel. It was as follows: +</P> + +<P> +"'Be assured, sir, no occurrence in the course of the war has given me +sensations more painful than your information of there being such ideas +in the army as those you have imparted to me and I must view them with +abhorrence and reprehend them with severity. I am much at a loss to +conceive what part of my conduct could have given encouragement to an +address which to me seems big with the greatest mischiefs which could +befall my country.' +</P> + +<P> +"Is it not a sublime and wonderful thing, dear Margaret, that all our +leaders, save one, have been men as incorruptible as Stephen and Peter +and Paul? +</P> + +<P> +"When I went to bed my cough became more troublesome. After it had +gone on for half an hour or so my door was gently opened and I observed +the glow of a candle. On drawing my bed curtains I saw, to my utter +astonishment, Washington standing at my side with a bowl of hot tea in +his hand. It embarrassed me to be thus waited on by a man of his +greatness. +</P> + +<P> +"We set out next morning for Philadelphia to attend the Convention, +Washington riding in his coach drawn by six horses, I riding the +blaze-faced mare of destiny, still as sweet and strong as ever. A slow +journey it was over the old road by Calvert's to Annapolis, +Chestertown, and so on to the north. +</P> + +<P> +"I found Franklin sitting under a tree in his dooryard, surrounded by +his grandchildren. He looks very white and venerable now. His hair is +a crown of glory." +</P> + +<A NAME="img-410"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-410.jpg" ALT="Ben Franklin, surrounded by his grandchildren." BORDER="2" WIDTH="350" HEIGHT="549"> +<H5> +[Illustration: Ben Franklin, surrounded by his grandchildren.] +</H5> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"'Well, Jack, it has been no small part of my life-work to get you +happily married,' he began in his playful way. 'A celibate is like the +odd half of a pair of scissors, fit only to scrape a trencher. How +many babies have you?' +</P> + +<P> +"'Three,' I answered. +</P> + +<P> +"'It is not half enough,' said he. 'A patriotic American should have +at least ten children. I must not forget to say to you what I say to +every young man. Always treat your wife with respect. It will procure +respect for you not only from her, but from all who observe it. Never +use a slighting word.' +</P> + +<P> +"My beloved, how little I need this advice you know, but I think that +the old philosopher never made a wiser observation. I am convinced +that civilization itself depends largely on the respect that men feel +and show for women. +</P> + +<P> +"I asked about his health. +</P> + +<P> +"'I am weary and the night is falling and I shall soon lie down to +sleep, but I know that I shall awake refreshed in the morning,' he said. +</P> + +<P> +"He told me how, distressed by his infirmity, he came out of France in +the Queen's litter, carried by her magnificent mules. Of England he +had only this to say: +</P> + +<P> +"'She is doing wrong in discouraging emigration to America. Emigration +multiplies a nation. She should be represented in the growth of the +New World by men who have a voice in its government. By this fair +means she could repossess it instead of leaving it to foreigners, of +all nations, who may drown and stifle sympathy for the mother land. It +is now a fact that Irish emigrants and their children are in possession +of the government of Pennsylvania.' +</P> + +<P> +"I must not fail to set down here in the hope that my sons may some +time read it, what he said to me of the treason of Arnold. +</P> + +<P> +"'Here is the vindication of Poor Richard. Extravagance is not the way +to self-satisfaction. The man who does not keep his feet in the old, +honest way of thrift will some time sell himself, and then he will be +ready to sell his friends or his country. By and by nothing is so dear +to him as thirty pieces of silver.' +</P> + +<P> +"I shall conclude my letter with a beautiful confession of faith by +this master mind of the century. It was made on the motion for daily +prayers in the Convention now drafting a constitution for the States. +I shall never forget the look of him as, standing on the lonely summit +of his eighty years, he said to us: +</P> + +<P> +"'In the beginning of our contest with Britain when we were sensible of +danger, we had daily prayers in this room for Divine protection. Our +prayers, sirs, were heard and they were graciously answered. All of us +who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances +of a directing Providence in our affairs. And have we forgotten that +powerful friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need His +assistance? I have lived, sirs, a long time and the longer I live the +more convincing proof I see of this truth that God governs in the +affairs of men. And if a sparrow can not fall to the ground without +His notice is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We +have been assured, sirs, that except the Lord build the house they +labor in vain who build it. I firmly believe this and I also believe +that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political +structure no better than the builders of Babel; we shall be divided and +confounded and we ourselves become a reproach and a byword down to +future ages. And, what is worse, mankind may hereafter despair of +establishing government by human wisdom and leave it to chance, war and +conquest.' +</P> + +<P> +"Dear Margaret, you and I who have been a part of the great story know +full well that in these words of our noble friend is the conclusion of +the whole matter." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="transnote"></A> + +[Transcriber's note: This image shows the exact appearance of the table that appears earlier in this +book. Some of the words in it have a slash through them, and are thus not renderable in plain +or HTML text.] + +<BR><BR> + +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-142.jpg" ALT="The Problem" BORDER="2" WIDTH="401" HEIGHT="142"> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + +<hr noshade> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE DAYS OF POOR RICHARD***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 15608-h.txt or 15608-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/6/0/15608">https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/6/0/15608</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: In the Days of Poor Richard + + +Author: Irving Bacheller + +Release Date: April 12, 2005 [eBook #15608] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE DAYS OF POOR RICHARD*** + + +E-text prepared by Al Haines + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 15608-h.htm or 15608-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/6/0/15608/15608-h/15608-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/6/0/15608/15608-h.zip) + + + + + +IN THE DAYS OF POOR RICHARD + +by + +IRVING BACHELLER + +Author of _The Light in The Clearing_, _A Man for the Ages_, etc. + +Illustrated by John Wolcott Adams + +Indianapolis +The Bobbs-Merrill Company +Publishers +Press Of Braunworth & Co +Book Manufacturers +Brooklyn, N. Y. + +1922 + + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: A young John Irons and Margaret Hare in the forest.] + + + + + +TO MY FRIEND + +ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE + +Discerning Student and Interpreter of the Spirit of the Prophets, the +Struggle of the Heroes and the Wisdom of the Founders of Democracy, I +Dedicate This Volume. + + + + +FOREWORD + +Much of the color of the love-tale of Jack and Margaret, which is a +part of the greater love-story of man and liberty, is derived from old +letters, diaries, and newspaper clippings in the possession of a +well-known American family. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + +BOOK ONE + + I The Horse Valley Adventure + II Sowing the Dragon's Teeth + III The Journey to Philadelphia + IV The Crossing + V Jack Sees London and the Great Philosopher + VI The Lovers + VII The Dawn + VIII An Appointment and a Challenge + IX The Encounter + X The Lady of the Hidden Face + XI The Departure + XII The Friend and the Girl He Left Behind Him + + +BOOK TWO + + XIII The Ferment + XIV Adventures in the Service of the Commander-in-Chief + XV In Boston Jail + XVI Jack and Solomon Meet the Great Ally + XVII With the Army and in the Bush + XVIII How Solomon Shifted the Skeer + XIX The Voice of a Woman Sobbing + XX The First Fourth of July + XXI The Ambush + XXII The Binkussing of Colonel Burley + XXIII The Greatest Trait of a Great Commander + + +BOOK THREE + + XXIV In France with Franklin + XXV The Pageant + XXVI In Which Appears the Horse of Destiny and + the Judas of Washington's Army + XXVII Which Contains the Adventures of Solomon + in the Timber Sack and on the "Hand-made River" + XXVIII In Which Arnold and Henry Thornhill Arrive + in the Highlands + XXIX Love and Treason + XXX "Who Is She that Looketh Forth as the + Morning, Fair as the Moon, Clear as the Sun, + and Terrible as an Army with Banners?" + XXXI The Lovers and Solomon's Last Fight + + + + + +BOOK ONE + +CHAPTER I + +THE HORSE VALLEY ADVENTURE + +"The first time I saw the boy, Jack Irons, he was about nine years old. +I was in Sir William Johnson's camp of magnificent Mohawk warriors at +Albany. Jack was so active and successful in the games, between the +red boys and the white, that the Indians called him 'Boiling Water.' +His laugh and tireless spirit reminded me of a mountain brook. There +was no lad, near his age, who could run so fast, or jump so far, or +shoot so well with the bow or the rifle. I carried him on my back to +his home, he urging me on as if I had been a battle horse and when we +were come to the house, he ran about doing his chores. I helped him, +and, our work accomplished, we went down to the river for a swim, and +to my surprise, I found him a well taught fish. We became friends and +always when I have thought of him, the words Happy Face have come to +me. It was, I think, a better nickname than 'Boiling Water,' although +there was much propriety in the latter. I knew that his energy given +to labor would accomplish much and when I left him, I repeated the +words which my father had often quoted in my hearing: + +"'Seest thou a man diligent in his calling? He shall stand before +kings.'" + +This glimpse of John Irons, Jr.--familiarly known as Jack Irons--is +from a letter of Benjamin Franklin to his wife. + +Nothing further is recorded of his boyhood until, about eight years +later, what was known as the "Horse Valley Adventure" occurred. A full +account of it follows with due regard for background and color: + +"It was the season o' the great moon," said old Solomon Binkus, scout +and interpreter, as he leaned over the camp-fire and flicked a coal out +of the ashes with his forefinger and twiddled it up to his pipe bowl. +In the army he was known as "old Solomon Binkus," not by reason of his +age, for he was only about thirty-eight, but as a mark of deference. +Those who followed him in the bush had a faith in his wisdom that was +childlike. "I had had my feet in a pair o' sieves walkin' the white +sea a fortnight," he went on. "The dry water were six foot on the +level, er mebbe more, an' some o' the waves up to the tree-tops, an' +nobody with me but this 'ere ol' Marier Jane [his rifle] the hull trip +to the Swegache country. Gol' ding my pictur'! It seemed as if the +wind were a-tryin' fer to rub it off the slate. It were a pesky wind +that kep' a-cuffin' me an' whistlin' in the briers on my face an' +crackin' my coat-tails. I were lonesome--lonesomer'n a he-bear--an' +the cold grabbin' holt o' all ends o' me so as I had to stop an' argue +'bout whar my bound'ry-lines was located like I were York State. Cat's +blood an' gun-powder! I had to kick an' scratch to keep my nose an' +toes from gittin'--brittle." + +At this point, Solomon Binkus paused to give his words a chance "to +sink in." The silence which followed was broken only by the crack of +burning faggots and the sound of the night wind in the tall pines above +the gorge. Before Mr. Binkus resumes his narrative, which, one might +know by the tilt of his head and the look of his wide open, right eye, +would soon happen, the historian seizes the opportunity of finishing +his introduction. He had been the best scout in the army of Sir +Jeffrey Amherst. As a small boy he had been captured by the Senecas +and held in the tribe a year and two months. Early in the French and +Indian War, he had been caught by Algonquins and tied to a tree and +tortured by hatchet throwers until rescued by a French captain. After +that his opinion of Indians had been, probably, a bit colored by +prejudice. Still later he had been a harpooner in a whale boat, and in +his young manhood, one of those who had escaped the infamous massacre +at Fort William Henry when English forces, having been captured and +disarmed, were turned loose and set upon by the savages. He was a +tall, brawny, broad-shouldered, homely-faced man of thirty-eight with a +Roman nose and a prominent chin underscored by a short sandy throat +beard. Some of the adventures had put their mark upon his weathered +face, shaven generally once a week above the chin. The top of his left +ear was missing. There was a long scar upon his forehead. These were +like the notches on the stock of his rifle. They were a sign of the +stories of adventure to be found in that wary, watchful brain of his. + +Johnson enjoyed his reports on account of their humor and color and he +describes him in a letter to Putnam as a man who "when he is much +interested, looks as if he were taking aim with his rifle." To some it +seemed that one eye of Mr. Binkus was often drawing conclusions while +the other was engaged with the no less important function of discovery. + +His companion was young Jack Irons--a big lad of seventeen, who lived +in a fertile valley some fifty miles northwest of Fort Stanwix, in +Tryon County, New York. Now, in September, 1768, they were traveling +ahead of a band of Indians bent on mischief. The latter, a few days +before, had come down Lake Ontario and were out in the bush somewhere +between the lake and the new settlement in Horse Valley. Solomon +thought that they were probably Hurons, since they, being discontented +with the treaty made by the French, had again taken the war-path. This +invasion, however, was a wholly unexpected bit of audacity. They had +two captives--the wife and daughter of Colonel Hare, who had been +spending a few weeks with Major Duncan and his Fifty-Fifth Regiment, at +Oswego. The colonel had taken these ladies of his family on a hunting +trip in the bush. They had had two guides with them, one of whom was +Solomon Binkus. The men had gone out in the early evening after moose +and imprudently left the ladies in camp, where the latter had been +captured. Having returned, the scout knew that the only possible +explanation for the absence of the ladies was Indians, although no +peril could have been more unexpected. He had discovered by "the sign" +that it was a large band traveling eastward. He had set out by night +to get ahead of them while Hare and his other guide started for the +fort. Binkus knew every mile of the wilderness and had canoes hidden +near its bigger waters. He had crossed the lake on which his party had +been camping, and the swamp at the east end of it and was soon far +ahead of the marauders. A little after daylight, he had picked up the +boy, Jack Irons, at a hunting camp on Big Deer Creek, as it was then +called, and the two had set out together to warn the people in Horse +Valley, where Jack lived, and to get help for a battle with the savages. + +It will be seen by his words that Mr. Binkus was a man of imagination, +but--again he is talking. + +"I were on my way to a big Injun Pow-wow at Swegache fer Sir Bill--ayes +it were in Feb'uary, the time o' the great moon o' the hard snow. Now +they be some good things 'bout Injuns but, like young brats, they take +natural to deviltry. Ye may have my hide fer sole luther if ye ketch +me in an Injun village with a load o' fire-water. Some Injuns is +smart, an' gol ding their pictur's! they kin talk like a cat-bird. A +skunk has a han'some coat an' acts as cute as a kitten but all the +same, which thar ain't no doubt o' it, his friendship ain't wuth a dam. +It's a kind o' p'ison. Injuns is like skunks, if ye trust 'em they'll +sp'ile ye. They eat like beasts an' think like beasts, an' live like +beasts, an' talk like angels. Paint an' bear's grease, an' squaw-fun, +an' fur, an' wampum, an' meat, an' rum, is all they think on. I've et +their vittles many a time an' I'm obleeged to tell ye it's hard work. +Too much hair in the stew! They stick their paws in the pot an' grab +out a chunk an' chaw it an' bolt it, like a dog, an' wipe their hands +on their long hair. They brag 'bout the power o' their jaws, which I +ain't denyin' is consid'able, havin' had an ol' buck bite off the top +o' my left ear when I were tied fast to a tree which--you hear to +me--is a good time to learn Injun language 'cause ye pay 'tention +clost. They ain't got no heart er no mercy. How they kin grind up a +captive, like wheat in the millstuns, an' laugh, an' whoop at the sight +o' his blood! Er turn him into smoke an' ashes while they look on an' +laugh--by mighty!--like he were singin' a funny song. They'd be men +an' women only they ain't got the works in 'em. Suthin' missin'. By +the hide an' horns o' the devil! I ain't got no kind o' patience with +them mush hearts who say that Ameriky belongs to the noble red man an' +that the whites have no right to bargain fer his land. Gol ding their +pictur's! Ye might as well say that we hain't no right in the woods +'cause a lot o' bears an' painters got there fust, which I ain't +a-sayin' but what bears an' painters has their rights." + +Mr. Binkus paused again to put another coal on his pipe. Then he +listened a moment and looked up at the rocks above their heads, for +they were camped in a cave at the mouth of which they had built a small +fire, in a deep gorge. Presently he went on: + +"I found a heap o' Injuns at Swegache--Mohawks, Senekys, Onandogs an' +Algonks. They had been swappin' presents an' speeches with the French. +Just a little while afore they had had a bellerin' match with us 'bout +love an' friendship. Then sudden-like they tuk it in their heads that +the French had a sharper hatchet than the English. I were skeered, but +when I see that they was nobody drunk, I pushed right into the big +village an' asked fer the old Senecky chief Bear Face--knowin' he were +thar--an' said I had a letter from the Big Father. They tuk me to him. + +"I give him a chain o' wampum an' then read the letter from Sir Bill. +It offered the Six Nations more land an' a fort, an' a regiment to +defend 'em. Then he give me a lot o' hedge-hog quills sewed on to +buckskin an' says he: + +"'You are like a lone star in the night, my brother. We have stretched +out our necks lookin' fer ye. We thought the Big Father had forgot us. +Now we are happy. To-morrer our faces will turn south an' shine with +bear's grease.' + +"Sez I: 'You must wash no more in the same water with the French. You +must return to The Long House. The Big Father will throw his great arm +eround you.' + +"I strutted up an' down, like a turkey gobbler, an' bellered out a lot +o' that high-falutin' gab. I reckon I know how to shove an idee under +their hides. Ye got to raise yer voice an' look solemn an' point at +the stars. A powerful lot o' Injuns trailed back to Sir Bill, but they +was a few went over to the French. I kind o' mistrust thar's some o' +them runnygades behind us. They're 'spectin' to git a lot o' plunder +an' a horse apiece an' ride 'em back an' swim the river at the place o' +the many islands. We'll poke down to the trail on the edge o' the +drownded lands afore sunrise an' I kind o' mistrust we'll see sign." + +Jack Irons was a son of the much respected John Irons from New +Hampshire who, in the fertile valley where he had settled some years +before, was breeding horses for the army and sending them down to Sir +William Johnson. Hence the site of his farm had been called Horse +Valley. + +Mr. Binkus went to the near brook and repeatedly filled his old felt +hat with water and poured it on the fire. "Don't never keep no fire +a-goin' a'ter I'm dried out," he whispered, as he stepped back into the +dark cave, "'cause ye never kin tell." + +The boy was asleep on the bed of boughs. Mr. Binkus covered him with +the blanket and lay down beside him and drew his coat over both. + +"He'll learn that it ain't no fun to be a scout," he whispered with a +yawn and in a moment was snoring. + +It was black dark when he roused his companion. Solomon had been up +for ten minutes and had got their rations of bread and dried venison +out of his pack and brought a canteen of fresh water. + +"The night has been dark. A piece o' charcoal would 'a' made a white +mark on it," said Solomon. + +"How do you know it's morning?" the boy asked as he rose, yawning. + +"Don't ye hear that leetle bird up in the tree-top?" Solomon answered +in a whisper. "He says it's mornin' jest as plain as a clock in a +steeple an' that it's goin' to be cl'ar. If you'll shove this 'ere +meat an' bread into yer stummick, we'll begin fer to make tracks." + +They ate in silence and as he ate Solomon was getting his pack ready +and strapping it on his back and adjusting his powder-horn. + +"Ye see it's growin' light," he remarked presently in a whisper. "Keep +clost to me an' go as still as ye kin an' don't speak out loud +never--not if ye want to be sure to keep yer ha'r on yer head." + +They started down the foot of the gorge then dim in the night shadows. +Binkus stopped, now and then, to listen for two or three seconds and +went on with long stealthy strides. His movements were panther-like, +and the boy imitated them. He was a tall, handsome, big-framed lad +with blond hair and blue eyes. They could soon see their way clearly. +At the edge of the valley the scout stopped and peered out upon it. A +deep mist lay on the meadows. + +"I like day-dark in Injun country," he whispered. "Come on." + +They hurried through sloppy footing in the wet grass that flung its dew +into their garments from the shoulder down. Suddenly Mr. Binkus +stopped. They could hear the sound of heavy feet splashing in the wet +meadow. + +"Scairt moose, runnin' this way!" the scout whispered. "I'll bet ye a +pint o' powder an' a fish hook them Injuns is over east o' here." + +It was his favorite wager--that of a pint of powder and a fish hook. + +They came out upon high ground and reached the valley trail just as the +sun was rising. The fog had lifted. Mr. Binkus stopped well away from +the trail and listened for some minutes. He approached it slowly on +his tiptoes, the boy following in a like manner. For a moment the +scout stood at the edge of the trail in silence. Then, leaning low, he +examined it closely and quickly raised his hand. + +"Hoofs o' the devil!" he whispered as he beckoned to the boy. "See +thar," he went on, pointing to the ground. "They've jest gone by. The +grass ain't riz yit. Wait here." + +He followed the trail a few rods with eyes bent upon it. Near a little +run where there was soft dirt, he stopped again and looked intently at +the earth and then hurried back. + +"It's a big band. At least forty Injuns in it an' some captives, an' +the devil an' Tom Walker. It's a mess which they ain't no mistake." + +"I don't see why they want to be bothered with women," the boy remarked. + +"Hostiges!" Solomon exclaimed. "Makes 'em feel safer. Grab 'em when +they kin. If overtook by a stouter force they're in shape fer a +dicker. The chief stands up an' sings like a bird--'bout the moon an' +the stars an' the brooks an' the rivers an' the wrongs o' the red man, +but it wouldn't be wuth the song o' a barn swaller less he can show ye +that the wimmen are all right. If they've been treated proper, it's +the same as proved. Ye let 'em out o' the bear trap which it has often +happened. But you hear to me, when they go off this way it's to kill +an' grab an' hustle back with the booty. They won't stop at +butcherin'!" + +"I'm afraid my folks are in danger," said the boy as he changed color. + +"Er mebbe Peter Boneses'--'cordin' to the way they go. We got to cut +eround 'em an' plow straight through the bush an' over Cobble Hill an' +swim the big creek an' we'll beat 'em easy." + +It was a curious, long, loose stride, the knees never quite +straightened, with which the scout made his way through the forest. It +covered ground so swiftly that the boy had, now and then, to break into +a dog-trot in order to keep along with the old woodsman. They kept +their pace up the steep side of Cobble Hill and down its far slope and +the valley beyond to the shore of the Big Creek. + +"I'm hot 'nough to sizzle an' smoke when I tech water," said the scout +as he waded in, holding his rifle and powder-horn in his left hand +above the creek's surface. + +They had a few strokes of swimming at mid-stream but managed to keep +their powder dry. + +"Now we've got jest 'nough hoppin' to keep us from gittin' foundered," +said Solomon, as he stood on the farther shore and adjusted his pack. +"It ain't more'n a mile to your house." + +They hurried on, reaching the rough valley road in a few minutes. + +"Now I'll take the bee trail to your place," said the scout. "You cut +ercrost the medder to Peter Boneses' an' fetch 'em over with all their +grit an' guns an' ammunition." + +Solomon found John Irons and five of his sons and three of his +daughters digging potatoes and pulling tops in a field near the house. +The sky was clear and the sun shining warm. Solomon called Irons aside +and told him of the approaching Indians. + +"What are we to do?" Irons asked. + +"Send the women an' the babies back to the sugar shanty," said Solomon. +"We'll stay here 'cause if we run erway the Boneses'll git their ha'r +lifted. I reckon we kin conquer 'em." + +"How?" + +"Shoot 'em full o' meat. They must 'a' traveled all night. Them +Injuns is tired an' hungry. Been three days on the trail. No time to +hunt! I'll hustle some wood together an' start a fire. You bring a +pair o' steers right here handy. We'll rip their hides off an' git the +reek o' vittles in the air soon as God'll let us." + +"My wife can use a gun as well as I can and I'm afraid she won't go," +said Irons. + +"All right, let her hide somewhar nigh with the guns," said Solomon. +"The oldest gal kin go back with the young 'uns. Don't want no skirts +in sight when they git here." + +Mrs. Irons hid in the shed with the loaded guns. + +Ruth Irons and the children set out for the sugar bush. The steers +were quickly led up and slaughtered. As a hide ripper, Solomon was a +man of experience. The loins of one animal were cooking on turnspits +and a big pot of beef, onions and potatoes boiling over the fire when +Jack arrived with the Bones family. + +"It smells good here," said Jack. + +"Ayes! The air be gittin' the right scent on it," said Solomon, as he +was ripping the hide off the other steer. "I reckon it'll start the +sap in their mouths. You roll out the rum bar'l an' stave it in. Mis' +Bones knows how to shoot. Put her in the shed with yer mother an' the +guns, an' take her young 'uns to the sugar shanty 'cept Isr'el who's +big 'nough to help." + +A little later Solomon left the fire. Both his eye and his ear had +caught "sign"--a clamor among the moose birds in the distant bush and a +flock of pigeons flying from the west. + +"Don't none o' ye stir till I come back," he said, as he turned into +the trail. A few rods away he lay down with his ear to the ground and +could distinctly hear the tramp of many feet approaching in the +distance. He went on a little farther and presently concealed himself +in the bushes close to the trail. He had not long to wait, for soon a +red scout came on ahead of the party. He was a young Huron brave, his +face painted black and yellow. His head was encircled by a snake skin. +A fox's tail rose above his brow and dropped back on his crown. A +birch-bark horn hung over his shoulder. + +Solomon stepped out of the bushes after he had passed and said in the +Huron tongue: "Welcome, my red brother, I hear that a large band o' yer +folks is comin' and we have got a feast ready." + +The young brave had been startled by the sudden appearance of Solomon, +but the friendly words had reassured him. + +"We are on a long journey," said the brave. + +"And the flesh of a fat ox will help ye on yer way. Kin ye smell it?" + +"Brother, it is like the smell of the great village in the Happy +Hunting-Grounds," said the brave. "We have traveled three sleeps from +the land of the long waters and have had only two porcupines and a +small deer to eat. We are hungry." + +"And we would smoke the calumet of peace with you," said Solomon. + +They walked on together and in a moment came in sight of the little +farm-house. The brave looked at the house and the three men who stood +by the fire. + +"Come with me and you shall see that we are few," Solomon remarked. + +They entered the house and barn and walked around them, and this, in +effect, is what Solomon said to him: + +"I am the chief scout of the Great Father. My word is like that of old +Flame Tongue--your mighty chief. You and your people are on a bad +errand. No good can come of it. You are far from your own country. A +large force is now on your trail. If you rob or kill any one you will +be hung. We know your plans. A bad white chief has brought you here. +He has a wooden leg with an iron ring around the bottom of it. He come +down lake in a big boat with you. Night before last you stole two +white women." + +A look of fear and astonishment came upon the face of the Indian. + +"You are a son of the Great Spirit!" he exclaimed. + +"And I would keep yer feet out o' the snare. Let me be yer chief. You +shall have a horse and fifty beaver skins and be taken to the border +and set free. I, the scout of the Great Father, have said it, and if +it be not as I say, may I never see the Happy Hunting-Grounds." + +The brave answered: + +"My white brother has spoken well and he shall be my chief. I like not +this journey. I shall bid them to the feast. They will eat and sleep +like the gray wolf for they are hungry and their feet are sore." + +The brave put his horn to his mouth and uttered a wild cry that rang in +the distant hills. Then arose a great whooping and kintecawing back in +the bush. The young Huron went out to meet the band. Returning soon, +he said to Solomon that his chief, the great Splitnose, would have +words with him. + +Turning to John Irons, Solomon said: "He's an outlaw chief. We must +treat him like a king. I'll bring 'em in. You keep the meat +a-sizzlin'!" + +The scout went with the brave to his chief and made a speech of +welcome, after which the wily old Splitnose, in his wonderful +head-dress, of buckskin and eagle feathers, and his band in war-paint, +followed Solomon to the feast. Silently they filed out of the bush and +sat on the grass around the fire. There were no captives among +them--none at least of the white skin. + +Solomon did not betray his disappointment. Not a word was spoken. He +and John Irons and his son began removing the spits from the fire and +putting more meat upon them and cutting the cooked roasts into large +pieces and passing it on a big earthen platter. The Indians eagerly +seized the hot meat and began to devour it. While waiting to be +served, some of the young braves danced at the fire's edge with short, +explosive, yelping, barking cries answered by dozens of guttural +protesting grunts from the older men, who sat eating or eagerly waiting +their turn to grab meat. It was a trying moment. Would the whole band +leap up and start a dance which might end in boiling blood and tiger +fury and a massacre? But the young Huron brave stopped them, aided no +doubt by the smell of the cooking flesh and the protest of the older +men. There would be no war-dance--at least not yet--too much hunger in +the band and the means of satisfying it were too close and tempting. +Solomon had foreseen the peril and his cunning had prevented it. + +In a letter he has thus described the incident: "It were a band o' +cutthroat robbers an' runnygades from the Ohio country--Hurons, Algonks +an' Mingos an' all kinds o' cast off red rubbish with an old Algonk +chief o' the name o' Splitnose. They stuffed their hides with the meat +till they was stiff as a foundered hoss. They grabbed an' chawed an' +bolted it like so many hogs an' reached out fer more, which is the +differ'nce betwixt an Injun an' a white man. The white man gen'ally +knows 'nough to shove down the brakes on a side-hill. The Injun ain't +got no brakes on his wheels. Injuns is a good deal like white brats. +Let 'em find the sugar tub when their ma is to meetin' an' they won't +worry 'bout the bellyache till it comes. Them Injuns filled themselves +to the gullet an' begun to lay back, all swelled up, an' roll an' grunt +an' go to sleep. By an' by they was only two that was up an' pawin' +eround in the stew pot fer 'nother bone, lookin' kind o' unsart'tn an' +jaw weary. In a minute they wiped their hands on their ha'r an' lay +back fer rest. They was drunk with the meat, as drunk as a Chinee +a'ter a pipe o' opium. We white men stretched out with the rest on 'em +till we see they was all in the land o' nod. Then we riz an' set up a +hussle. Hones' we could 'a' killed 'em with a hammer an' done it +delib'rit. I started to pull the young Huron out o' the bunch. He +jumped up very supple. He wasn't asleep. He had knowed better than to +swaller a yard o' meat. + +"Whar was the wimmen? I knowed that a part o' the band would be back +in the bush with them 'ere wimmen. I'd seed suthin' in the trail over +by the drownded lands that looked kind o' neevarious. It were like the +end o' a wooden leg with an iron ring at the bottom an' consid'able +weight on it. An Injun wouldn't have a wooden leg, least ways not one +with an iron ring at the butt. My ol' thinker had been chawin' that +cud all day an' o' a sudden it come to me that a white man were runnin' +the hull crew. That's how I had gained ground with the red scout I +took him out in the aidge o' the bush an' sez I: + +"'What's yer name?' + +"'Buckeye,' sez he. + +"'Who's the white man that's with ye?' + +"'Mike Harpe.' + +"'Are the white wimmin with him?' + +"'Yes.' + +"'How many Injuns?' + +"Two.' + +"'What's yer signal o' victory?' + +"'The call o' the moose.' + +"'Now, Buckeye, you come with us,' I sez. + +"I knowed that the white man were runnin' the hull party an' I itched +to git holt o' him. Gol ding his pictur'! He'd sent the Injuns on +ahead fer to do his dirty work. The Ohio country were full o' robber +whelps which I kind o' mistrusted he were one on 'em who had raked up +this 'ere band o' runnygades an' gone off fer plunder. We got holt o' +most o' their guns very quiet, an' I put John Irons an' two o' his boys +an' Peter Bones an' his boy Isr'el an' the two women with loaded guns +on guard over 'em. If any on 'em woke up they was to ride the +nightmare er lay still. Jack an' me an' Buckeye sneaked back up the +trail fer 'bout twenty rod with our guns, an' then I told the young +Injun to shoot off the moose call. Wall, sir, ye could 'a' heerd it +from Albany to Wing's Falls. The answer come an' jest as I 'spected, +'twere within a quarter o' a mile. I put Jack erbout fifty feet +further up the trail than I were, an' Buckeye nigh him, an' tol 'em +what to do. We skootched down in the bushes an' heerd 'em comin'! +Purty soon they hove in sight--two Injuns, the two wimmin captives an' +a white man--the wust-lookin' bulldog brute that I ever seen--stumpin' +erlong lively on a wooden leg, with a gun an' a cane. He had a broad +head an' a big lop mouth an' thick lips an' a long, red, warty nose an' +small black eyes an' a growth o' beard that looked like hog's bristles. +He were stout built. Stood 'bout five foot seven. Never see sech a +sight in my life. I hopped out afore 'em an' Jack an' Buckeye on their +heels. The Injun had my ol' hanger. + +"'Drop yer guns,' says I. + +"The white man done as he were told. I spoke English an' mebbe them +two Injuns didn't understan' me. We'll never know. Ol' Red Snout +leaned over to pick up his gun, seein' as we'd fired ours. There was a +price on his head an' he'd made up his mind to fight. Jack grabbed +him. He were stout as a lion an' tore 'way from the boy an' started to +pullin' a long knife out o' his boot leg. Jack didn't give him time. +They had it hammer an' tongs. Red Snout were a reg'lar fightin' man. +He jest stuck that 'ere stump in the ground an' braced ag'in' it an' +kep' a-slashin' an' jabbin' with his club cane an' yellin' an' cussin' +like a fiend o' hell. He knocked the boy down an' I reckon he'd 'a' +mellered his head proper if he'd 'a' been spryer on his pins. But Jack +sprung up like he were made o' Injy rubber. The bulldog devil had +drawed his long knife. Jack were smart. He hopped behind a tree. +Buckeye, who hadn't no gun, was jumpin' fer cover. The peg-leg cuss +swore a blue streak an' flung the knife at him. It went cl'ar through +his body an' he fell on his face an' me standin' thar loadin' my gun. +I didn't know but he'd lick us all. But Jack had jumped on him 'fore +he got holt o' the knife ag'in. + +"I thought sure he'd floor the boy an' me not quite loaded, but Jack +were as spry as a rat terrier. He dodged an' rushed in an' grabbed +holt o' the club an' fetched the cuss a whack in the paunch with his +bare fist, an' ol' Red Snout went down like a steer under the ax. + +"'Look out! there's 'nother man comin',' the young womern hollered. + +"She needn't 'a' tuk the trouble 'cause afore she spoke I were lookin' +at him through the sight o' my ol' Marier which I'd managed to git it +loaded ag'in. He were runnin' towards me. He tuk jest one more step, +if I don't make no mistake. + +"The ol' brute that Jack had knocked down quivered an' lay still a +minit an' when he come to, we turned him, eround an' started him +towards Canady an' tol' him to keep a-goin'! When he were 'bout ten +rods off, I put a bullet in his ol' wooden leg fer to hurry him erlong. +So the wust man-killer that ever trod dirt got erway from us with only +a sore belly, we never knowin' who he were. I wish I'd 'a' killed the +cuss, but as 'twere, we had consid'able trouble on our hands. Right +erway we heard two guns go off over by the house. I knowed that our +firin' had prob'ly woke up some o' the sleepers. We pounded the ground +an' got thar as quick as we could. The two wimmen wa'n't fur behind. +They didn't cocalate to lose us--you hear to me. Two young braves had +sprung up an' been told to lie down ag'in. But the English language +ain't no help to an Injun under them surcumstances. They don't +understan' it an' thar ain't no time when ignerunce is more costly. +They was some others awake, but they had learnt suthin'. They was +keepin' quiet, an' I sez to 'em: + +"'If ye lay still ye'll all be safe. We won't do ye a bit o' harm. +You've got in bad comp'ny, but ye ain't done nothin' but steal a pair +o' wimmen. If ye behave proper from now on, ye'll be sent hum.' + +"We didn't have no more trouble with them. I put one o' Boneses' boys +on a hoss an' hustled him up the valley fer help. The wimmen captives +was bawlin'. I tol' 'em to straighten out their faces an' go with Jack +an' his father down to Fort Stanwix. They were kind o' leg weary an' +excited, but they hadn't been hurt yit. Another day er two would 'a' +fixed 'em. Jack an' his father an' mother tuk 'em back to the pasture +an' Jack run up to the barn fer ropes an' bridles. In a little while +they got some hoofs under 'em an' picked up the childern an' toddled +off. I went out in the bush to find Buckeye an' he were dead as the +whale that swallered Jonah." + +So ends the letter of Solomon Binkus. + +Jack Irons and his family and that of Peter Bones--the boys and girls +riding two on a horse--with the captives filed down the Mohawk trail. +It was a considerable cavalcade of twenty-one people and twenty-four +horses and colts, the latter following. + +Solomon Binkus and Peter Bones and his son Israel stood on guard until +the boy John Bones returned with help from the upper valley. A dozen +men and boys completed the disarming of the band and that evening set +out with them on the south trail. + + +2 + +It is doubtful if this history would have been written but for an +accidental and highly interesting circumstance. In the first party +young Jack Irons rode a colt, just broken, with the girl captive, now +happily released. The boy had helped every one to get away; then there +seemed to be no ridable horse for him. He walked for a distance by the +stranger's mount as the latter was wild. The girl was silent for a +time after the colt had settled down, now and then wiping tears from +her eyes. By and by she asked: + +"May I lead the colt while you ride?" + +"Oh, no, I am not tired," was his answer. + +"I want to do something for you." + +"Why?" + +"I am so grateful. I feel like the King's cat. I am trying to express +my feelings. I think I know, now, why the Indian women do the +drudgery." + +As she looked at Him her dark eyes were very serious. + +"I have done little," said he. "It is Mr. Binkus who rescued you. We +live in a wild country among savages and the white folks have to +protect each other. We're used to it." + +"I never saw or expected to see men like you," she went on. "I have +read of them in books, but I never hoped to see them and talk to them. +You are like Ajax and Achilles." + +"Then I shall say that you are like the fair lady for whom they fought." + +"I will not ride and see you walking." + +"Then sit forward as far as you can and I will ride with you," he +answered. + +In a moment he was on the colt's back behind her. She was a comely +maiden. An authority no less respectable than Major Duncan has written +that she was a tall, well shaped, fun loving girl a little past sixteen +and good to look upon, "with dark eyes and auburn hair, the latter long +and heavy and in the sunlight richly colored"; that she had slender +fingers and a beautiful skin, all showing that she had been delicately +bred. He adds that he envied the boy who had ridden before and behind +her half the length of Tryon County. + +It was a close association and Jack found it so agreeable that he often +referred to that ride as the most exciting adventure of his life. + +"What is your name?" he asked. + +"Margaret Hare," she answered. + +"How did they catch you?" + +"Oh, they came suddenly and stealthily, as they do in the story books, +when we were alone in camp. My father and the guides had gone out to +hunt." + +"Did they treat you well?" + +"The Indians let us alone, but the two white men annoyed and frightened +us. The old chief kept us near him." + +"The old chief knew better than to let any harm come to you until they +were sure of getting away with their plunder." + +"We were in the valley of death and you have led us out of it. I am +sure that I do not look as if I were worth saving. I suppose that I +must have turned into an old woman. Is my hair white?" + +"No. You are the best-looking girl I ever saw," he declared with +rustic frankness. + +"I never had a compliment that pleased me so much," she answered, as +her elbows tightened a little on his hands which were clinging to her +coat. "I almost loved you for what you did to the old villain. I saw +blood on the side of your head. I fear he hurt you?" + +"He jabbed me once. It is nothing." + +"How brave you were!" + +"I think I am more scared now than I was then," said Jack. + +"Scared! Why?" + +"I am not used to girls except my sisters." + +She laughed and answered: + +"And I am not used to heroes. I am sure you can not be so scared as I +am, but I rather enjoy it. I like to be scared--a little. This is so +different." + +"I like you," he declared with a laugh. + +"I feared you would not like an English girl. So many North Americans +hate England." + +"The English have been hard on us." + +"What do you mean?" + +"They send us governors whom we do not like; they make laws for us +which we have to obey; they impose hard taxes which are not just and +they will not let us have a word to say about it." + +"I think it is wrong and I'm going to stand up for you," the girl +answered. + +"Where do you live?" he asked. + +"In London. I am an English girl, but please do not hate me for that. +I want to do what is right and I shall never let any one say a word +against Americans without taking their part." + +"That's good," the boy answered. "I'd love to go to London." + +"Well, why don't you?" + +"It's a long way off." + +"Do you like good-looking girls?" + +"I'd rather look at them than eat." + +"Well, there are many in London." + +"One is enough," said Jack. + +"I'd love to show them a real hero." + +"Don't call me that. If you would just call me Jack Irons I'd like it +better. But first you'll want to know how I behave. I am not a +fighter." + +"I am sure that your character is as good as your face." + +"Gosh! I hope it ain't quite so dark colored," said Jack. + +"I knew all about you when you took my hand and helped me on the +pony--or nearly all. You are a gentleman." + +"I hope so." + +"Are you a Presbyterian?" + +"No--Church of England." + +"I was sure of that. I have seen Indians and Shakers, but I have never +seen a Presbyterian." + +When the sun was low and the company ahead were stopping to make a camp +for the night, the boy and girl dismounted. She turned facing him and +asked: + +"You didn't mean it when you said that I was good-looking--did you?" + +The bashful youth had imagination and, like many lads of his time, a +romantic temperament and the love of poetry. There were many books in +his father's home and the boy had lived his leisure in them. He +thought a moment and answered: + +"Yes, I think you are as beautiful as a young doe playing in the +water-lilies." + +"And you look as if you believed yourself," said she. "I am sure you +would like me better if I were fixed up a little." + +"I do not think so." + +"How much better a boy's head looks with his hair cut close like yours. +Our boys have long hair. They do not look so much like--men." + +"Long hair is not for rough work in the bush," the boy remarked. + +"You really look brave and strong. One would know that you could do +things." + +"I've always had to do things." + +They came up to the party who had stopped to camp for the night. It +was a clear warm evening. After they had hobbled the horses in a near +meadow flat, Jack and his father made a lean-to for the women and +children and roofed it with bark. Then they cut wood and built a fire +and gathered boughs for bedding. Later, tea was made and beefsteaks +and bacon grilled on spits of green birch, the dripping fat being +caught on slices of toasting bread whereon the meat was presently +served. + +The masterful power with which the stalwart youth and his father swung +the ax and their cunning craftsmanship impressed the English woman and +her daughter and were soon to be the topic of many a London tea party. +Mrs. Hare spoke of it as she was eating her supper. + +"It may surprise you further to learn that the boy is fairly familiar +with the Aeneid and the Odes of Horace and the history of France and +England," said John Irons. + +"That is the most astonishing thing I have ever heard!" she exclaimed. +"How has he done it?" + +"The minister was his master until we went into the bush. Then I had +to be farmer and school-teacher. There is a great thirst for learning +in this New World." + +"How do you find time for it?" + +"Oh, we have leisure here--more than you have. In England even your +wealthy young men are over-worked. They dine out and play cards until +three in the morning and sleep until midday. Then luncheon and the +cock fight and tea and Parliament! The best of us have only three +steady habits. We work and study and sleep." + +"And fight savages," said the woman. + +"We do that, sometimes, but it is not often necessary. If it were not +for white savages, there would be no red ones. You would find America +a good country to live in." + +"At least I hope it will be good to sleep in this night," the woman +answered, yawning. "Dreamland is now the only country I care for." + +The ladies and children, being near spent by the day's travel and +excitement, turned in soon after supper. The men slept on their +blankets, by the fire, and were up before daylight for a dip in the +creek near by. While they were getting breakfast, the women and +children had their turn at the creekside. + +That day the released captives were in better spirits. Soon after noon +the company came to a swollen river where the horses had some swimming +to do. The older animals and the following colts went through all +right, but the young stallion which Jack and Margaret were riding, +began to rear and plunge. The girl in her fright jumped off his back +in swift water and was swept into the rapids and tumbled about and put +in some danger before Jack could dismount and bring her ashore. + +"You have increased my debt to you," she said, when at last they were +mounted again. "What a story this is! It is terribly exciting." + +"Getting into deeper water," said Jack. "I'm not going to let you +spoil it by drowning." + +"I wonder what is coming next," said she. + +"I don't know. So far it's as good as _Robinson Crusoe_." + +"With a book you can skip and see what happens," she laughed. "But we +shall have to read everything in this story. I'd love to know all +about you." + +He told her with boyish frankness of his plans which included learning +and statesmanship and a city home. He told also of his adventures in +the forest with his father. + +Meanwhile, the elder John Irons and Mrs. Hare were getting acquainted +as they rode along. The woman had been surprised by the man's intimate +knowledge of English history and had spoken of it. + +"Well, you see my wife is a granddaughter of Horatio Walpole of +Wolterton and my mother was in a like way related to Thomas Pitt so you +see I have a right to my interest in the history of the home land," +said John Irons. + +"You have in your veins some of the best blood of England and so I am +sure that you must be a loyal subject of the King," Mrs. Hare remarked. + +"No, because I think this German King has no share in the spirit of his +country," Irons answered. "Our ancient respect for human rights and +fair play is not in this man." + +He presented his reasons for the opinion and while the woman made no +answer, she had heard for the first time the argument of the New World +and was impressed by it. + +Late in the day they came out on a rough road, faring down into the +settled country and that night they stopped at a small inn. At the +supper table a wizened old woman was telling fortunes in a tea cup. + +Miss Hare and her mother drained their cups and passed them to the old +woman. The latter looked into the cup of the young lady and +immediately her tongue began to rattle. + +"Two ways lie before you," she piped in a shrill voice. "One leads to +happiness and many children and wealth and a long life. It is steep +and rough at the beginning and then it is smooth and peaceful. Yes. +It crosses the sea. The other way is smooth at the start and then it +grows steep and rough and in it I see tears and blood and dark clouds +and, do you see that?" she demanded with a look of excitement, as she +pointed into the cup. "It is a very evil thing. I will tell you no +more." + +The wizened old woman rose and, with a determined look in her face, +left the room. + +Mrs. Hare and her daughter seemed to be much troubled by the vision of +the fortune-teller. + +"I hope you do not believe in that kind of rubbish," John Irons +remarked. + +"I believe implicitly in the gift of second sight," said Mrs. Hare. +"In England women are so impatient to know their fortunes that they +will not wait upon Time, and the seers are prosperous." + +"I have no faith in it," said Mr. Irons. "What she said might apply to +the future of any young person. Undoubtedly there are two ways ahead +of your daughter and perhaps more. Each must choose his own way wisely +or come to trouble. It is the ancient law." + +They rode on next morning in a rough road between clearings in the +forest, the boy and girl being again together on the colt's back, she +in front. + +"You did not have your fortune told," said Miss Margaret. + +"It _has_ been told," Jack answered. "I am to be married in England to +a beautiful young lady. I thought that sounded well and that I had +better hold on to it. I might go further and fare worse." + +"Tell me the kind of girl you would fancy." + +"I wouldn't dare tell you." + +"Why?" + +"For fear it would spoil my luck." + +They rode on with light hearts under a clear sky, their spirits playing +together like birds in the sunlight, touching wings and then flying +apart, until it all came to a climax quite unforeseen. The story has +been passed from sire to son and from mother to daughter in a certain +family of central New York and there are those now living who could +tell it. These two were young and beautiful and well content with each +other, it is said. So it would seem that Fate could not let them alone. + +"We are near our journey's end," said he, by and by. + +"Oh, then, let us go very slowly," she urged. + +Another step and they had passed the hidden gate between reality and +enchantment. It would appear that she had spoken the magic words which +had opened it. They rode, for a time, without further speech, in a +land not of this world, although, in some degree, familiar to the best +of its people. Only they may cross that border who have kept much of +the innocence of childhood and felt the delightful fear of youth that +was in those two--they only may know the great enchantment. Does it +not make an undying memory and bring to the face of age, long +afterward, the smile of joy and gratitude? + +The next word? What should it be? Both wondered and held their +tongues for fear--one can not help thinking--and really they had little +need of words. The peal of a hermit thrush filled the silence with its +golden, largo chime and overtones and died away and rang out again and +again. That voice spoke for them far better than either could have +spoken, and they were content. + +"There was no voice on land or sea so fit for the hour and the ears +that heard it," she wrote, long afterward, in a letter. + +They must have felt it in the longing of their own hearts and, perhaps, +even a touch of the pathos in the years to come. They rode on in +silence, feeling now the beauty of the green woods. It had become a +magic garden full of new and wonderful things. Some power had entered +them and opened their eyes. The thrush's song grew fainter in the +distance. The boy was first to speak. + +"I think that bird must have had a long flight sometime," he said. + +"Why?" + +"I am sure that he has heard the music of Paradise. I wonder if you +are as happy as I am." + +"I was never so happy," she answered. + +"What a beautiful country we are in! I have forgotten all about the +danger and the hardship and the evil men. Have you ever seen any place +like it?" + +"No. For a time we have been riding in fairyland." + +"I know why," said the boy. + +"Why?" + +"It is because we are riding together. It is because I see you." + +"Oh, dear! I can not see _you_. Let us get off and walk," she +proposed. + +They dismounted. + +"Did you mean that honestly?" + +"Honestly," he answered. + +She looked up at him and put her hand over her mouth. + +"I was going to say something. It would have been most unmaidenly," +she remarked. + +"There's something in me that will not stay unsaid. I love you," he +declared. + +She held up her hand with a serious look in her eyes. Then, for a +moment, the boy returned to the world of reality. + +"I am sorry. Forgive me. I ought not to have said it," he stammered. + +"But didn't you really mean it?" she asked with troubled eyes. + +"I mean that and more, but I ought not to have said it now. It isn't +fair. You have just escaped from a great danger and have got a notion +that you are in debt to me and you don't know much about me anyhow." + +She stood in his path looking up at him. + +"Jack," she whispered. "Please say it again." + +No, it was not gone. They were still in the magic garden. + +"I love you and I wish this journey could go on forever," he said. + +She stepped closer and he put his arm around her and kissed her lips. +She ran away a few steps. Then, indeed, they were back on the familiar +trail in the thirty-mile bush. A moose bird was screaming at them. +She turned and said: + +"I wanted you to know but I have said nothing. I couldn't. I am under +a sacred promise. You are a gentleman and you will not kiss me or +speak of love again until you have talked with my father. It is the +custom of our country. But I want you to know that I am very happy." + +"I don't know how I dared to say and do what I did, but I couldn't help +it" + +"I couldn't help it either. I just longed to know if you dared." + +"The rest will be in the future--perhaps far in the future." + +His voice trembled a little. + +"Not far if you come to me, but I can wait--I will wait." She took his +hand as they were walking beside each other and added: "_For you_." + +"I, too, will wait," he answered, "and as long as I have to." + +Mrs. Hare, walking down the trail to meet them, had come near. Their +journey out of the wilderness had ended, but for each a new life had +begun. + +The husband and father of the two ladies had reached the fort only an +hour or so ahead of the mounted party and preparations were being made +for an expedition to cut off the retreat of the Indians. He was known +to most of his friends in America only as Colonel Benjamin Hare--a +royal commissioner who had come to the colonies to inspect and report +upon the defenses of His Majesty. He wore the uniform of a Colonel of +the King's Guard. There is an old letter of John Irons which says that +he was a splendid figure of a man, tall and well proportioned and about +forty, with dark eyes, his hair and mustache just beginning to show +gray. + +"I shall not try here to measure my gratitude," he said to Mr. Irons. +"I will see you to-morrow." + +"You owe me nothing," Irons answered. "The rescue of your wife and +daughter is due to the resourceful and famous scout--Solomon Binkus." + +"Dear old rough-barked hickory man!" the Colonel exclaimed. "I hope to +see him soon." + +He went at once with his wife and daughter to rooms in the fort. That +evening he satisfied himself as to the character and standing of John +Irons, learning that he was a patriot of large influence and +considerable means. + +The latter family and that of Peter Bones were well quartered in tents +with a part of the Fifty-Fifth Regiment then at Fort Stanwix. Next +morning Jack went to breakfast with Colonel Hare and his wife and +daughter in their rooms, after which the Colonel invited the boy to +take a walk with him out to the little settlement of Mill River. Jack, +being overawed, was rather slow in declaring himself and the Colonel +presently remarked: + +"You and my daughter seem to have got well acquainted." + +"Yes, sir; but not as well as I could wish," Jack answered. "Our +journey ended too soon. I love your daughter, sir, and I hope you will +let me tell her and ask her to be my wife sometime." + +"You are both too young," said the Colonel. "Besides you have known +each other not quite three days and I have known you not as many hours. +We are deeply grateful to you, but it is better for you and for her +that this matter should not be hurried. After a year has passed, if +you think you still care to see each other, I will ask you to come to +England. I think you are a fine, manly, brave chap, but really you +will admit that I have a right to know you better before my daughter +engages to marry you." + +Jack freely admitted that the request was well founded, albeit he +declared, frankly, that he would like to be got acquainted with as soon +as possible. + +"We must take the first ship back to England," said the Colonel. "You +are both young and in a matter of this kind there should be no haste. +If your affection is real, it will be none the worse for a little +keeping." + +Solomon Binkus and Peter and Israel and John Bones and some settlers +north of Horse Valley arrived next day with the captured Indians, who, +under a military guard, were sent on to the Great Father at Johnson +Castle. + +Colonel Hare was astonished that neither Solomon Binkus nor John Irons +nor his son would accept any gift for the great service they had done +him. + +"I owe you more than I can ever pay," he said to the faithful Binkus. +"Money would not be good enough for your reward." + +Solomon stepped close to the great man and said in a low tone: + +"Them young 'uns has growed kind o' love sick an' I wouldn't wonder. I +don't ask only one thing. Don't make no mistake 'bout this 'ere boy. +In the bush we have a way o' pickin' out men. We see how they stan' up +to danger an' hard work an' goin' hungry. Jack is a reg'lar he-man. I +know 'em when I see 'em, which--it's a sure fact--I've seen all kinds. +He's got brains an' courage, an' a tough arm an' a good heart. He'd +die fer a friend any day. Ye kin't do no more. So don't make no +mistake 'bout him. He ain't no hemlock bow. I cocalate there ain't no +better man-timber nowhere--no, sir, not nowhere in this world--call it +king er lord er duke er any name ye like. So, sir, if ye feel like +doin' suthin' fer me--which I didn't never expect it, when I done what +I did--I'll say be good to the boy. You'd never have to be 'shamed o' +him." + +"He's a likely lad," said Colonel Hare. "And I am rather impressed by +your words, although they present a view that is new to me. We shall +be returning soon and I dare say they will presently forget each other, +but if not, and he becomes a good man--as good a man as his father--let +us say--and she should wish to marry him, I would gladly put her hand +in his." + +A letter of the handsome British officer to his friend, Doctor Benjamin +Franklin, reviews the history of this adventure and speaks of the +learning, intelligence and agreeable personality of John Irons. Both +Colonel and Mrs. Hare liked the boy and his parents and invited them to +come to England, although the latter took the invitation as a mere mark +of courtesy. + +At Fort Stanwix, John Irons sold his farm and house and stock to Peter +Bones and decided to move his family to Albany where he could educate +his children. Both he and his wife had grown weary of the loneliness +of the back country, and the peril from which they had been delivered +was a deciding factor. So it happened that the Irons family and +Solomon went to Albany by bateaux with the Hares. It was a delightful +trip in good autumn weather in which Colonel Hare has acknowledged that +both he and his wife acquired a deep respect "for these sinewy, wise, +upright Americans, some of whom are as well learned, I should say, as +most men you would meet in London." + +They stopped at Schenectady, landing in a brawl between Whigs and +Tories which soon developed into a small riot over the erection of a +liberty pole. Loud and bitter words were being hurled between the two +factions. The liberty lovers, being in much larger force, had erected +the pole without violent opposition. + +"Just what does this mean?" the Colonel asked John Irons. + +"It means that the whole country is in a ferment of dissatisfaction," +said Irons. "We object to being taxed by a Parliament in which we are +not represented. The trouble should be stopped not by force but by +action that will satisfy our sense of injustice--not a very difficult +thing. A military force, quartered in Boston, has done great mischief." + +"What liberty do you want?" + +"Liberty to have a voice in the selection of our governors and +magistrates and in the making of the laws we are expected to obey." + +"I think it is a just demand," said the Colonel. + +Solomon Binkus had listened with keen interest. + +"I sucked in the love o' liberty with my mother's milk," he said. "Ye +mustn't try to make me do nothin' that goes ag'in' my common sense; if +ye do, ye're goin' to have a gosh hell o' a time with the ol' man +which, you hear to me, will last as long as I do. These days there +ortn't to be no sech thing 'mong white men as bein' born into captivity +an' forced to obey a master, no argeyment bein' allowed. If your wife +an' gal had been took erway by the Injuns, that's what would 'a' +happened to 'em, which I'm sart'in they wouldn't 'a' liked it, ner you +nuther, which I mean to say it respectful, sir." + +The Colonel wore a look of conviction. + +"I see how you feel about it," he said. + +"It's the way all America feels about it," said Irons. "There are not +five thousand men in the colonies who would differ with that view." + +Having arrived in the river city, John Irons went, with his family, to +The King's Arms. That very day the Hares took ship for New York on +their way to England. Jack and Solomon went to the landing with them. + +"Where is my boy?" Mrs. Irons asked when Binkus returned alone. + +"Gone down the river," said the latter. + +"Gone down the river!" Mrs. Irons exclaimed. "Why! Isn't that he +coming yonder?" + +"It's only part o' him," said Solomon. "His heart has gone down the +river. But it'll be comin' back. It 'minds me o' the fust time I +throwed a harpoon into a sperm whale. He went off like a bullet an' +sounded an' took my harpoon an' a lot o' good rope with him an' got +away with it. Fer days I couldn't think o' nothin' but that 'ere +whale. Then he b'gun to grow smaller an' less important. Jack has +lost his fust whale." + +"He looks heart-broken--poor boy!" + +"But ye orto have seen her. She's got the ol' harpoon in her side an' +she were spoutin' tears an' shakin' her flukes as she moved away." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +SOWING THE DRAGON'S TEETH + +Solomon Binkus in his talk with Colonel Hare had signalized the arrival +of a new type of man born of new conditions. When Lord Howe and +General Abercrombie got to Albany with regiments of fine, high-bred, +young fellows from London, Manchester and Liverpool, out for a holiday +and magnificent in their uniforms of scarlet and gold, each with his +beautiful and abundant hair done up in a queue, Mr. Binkus laughed and +said they looked "terrible pert." He told the virile and profane +Captain Lee of Howe's staff, that the first thing to do was to "make a +haystack o' their hair an' give 'em men's clothes." + +"A cart-load o' hair was mowed off," to quote again from Solomon, and +all their splendor shorn away for a reason apparent to them before they +had gone far on their ill-fated expedition. Hair-dressing and fine +millinery and drawing-room clothes were not for the bush. + +An inherited sense of old wrongs was the mental background of this new +type of man. Life in the bush had strengthened his arm, his will and +his courage. His words fell as forcefully as his ax under provocation. +He was deliberate as became one whose scalp was often in danger; +trained to think of the common welfare of his neighborhood and rather +careless about the look of his coat and trousers. + +John Irons and Solomon Binkus were differing examples of the new man. +Of large stature, Irons had a reputation of being the strongest man in +the New Hampshire grants. No name was better known or respected in all +the western valleys. His father, a man of some means, had left him a +reasonable competence. + +Certain old records of Cumberland County speak of his unusual gifts, +the best of which was, perhaps, modesty. He had once entertained Sir +William Johnson at his house and had moved west, when the French and +Indian War began, on the invitation of the governor, bringing his +horses with him. For years he had been breeding and training saddle +horses for the markets in New England. On moving he had turned his +stock into Sir William's pasture and built a log house at the fort and +served as an aid and counselor of the great man. Meanwhile his wife +and children had lived in Albany. When the back country was thought +safe to live in, at the urgent solicitation of Sir Jeffrey Amherst, he +had gone to the northern valley with his herd, and prospered there. + +Albany had one wide street which ran along the river-front. It ended +at the gate of a big, common pasture some four hundred yards south of +the landing which was near the center of the little city. In the north +it ran into "the great road" beyond the ample grounds of Colonel +Schuyler. The fort and hospital stood on the top of the big hill. +Close to the shore was a fringe of elms, some of them tall and stately, +their columns feathered with wild grape-vines. A wide space between +the trees and the street had been turned into well-kept gardens, and +their verdure was a pleasant thing to see. The town lay along the foot +of a steep hill, and, midway, a huddle of buildings climbed a few rods +up the slope. At the top was the English Church and below it were the +Town Hall, the market and the Dutch Meeting-House. Other thoroughfares +west of the main one were being laid out and settled. + +John Irons was well known to Colonel Schuyler. The good man gave the +newcomers a hearty welcome and was able to sell them a house ready +furnished--the same having been lately vacated by an officer summoned +to England. So it happened that John Irons and his family were quickly +and comfortably settled in their new home and the children at work in +school. He soon bought some land, partly cleared, a mile or so down +the river and began to improve it. + +"You've had lonesome days enough, mother," he said to his wife. "We'll +live here in the village. I'll buy some good, young niggers if I can, +and build a house for 'em, and go back and forth in the saddle." + +The best families had negro slaves which were, in the main, like +Abraham's servants, each having been born in the house of his master. +They were regarded with affection. + +It was a peaceful, happy, mutually helpful, God-fearing community in +which the affairs of each were the concern of all. Every summer day, +emigrants were passing and stopping, on their way west, towing bateaux +for use in the upper waters of the Mohawk. These were mostly Irish and +German people seeking cheap land, and seeing not the danger in wars to +come. + +There is an old letter from John Irons to his sister in Braintree which +says that Jack, of whom he had a great pride, was getting on famously +in school. "But he shows no favor to any of the girls, having lost his +heart to a young English maid whom he helped to rescue from the +Indians. We think it lucky that she should be far away so that he may +better keep his resolution to be educated and his composure in the +task." + +The arrival of the mail was an event in Albany those days. Letters had +come to be regarded there as common property. They were passed from +hand to hand and read in neighborhood assemblies. Often they told of +great hardship and stirring adventures in the wilderness and of events +beyond the sea. + +Every week the mail brought papers from the three big cities, which +were read eagerly and loaned or exchanged until their contents had +traveled through every street. Benjamin Franklin's _Pennsylvania +Gazette_ came to John Irons, and having been read aloud by the fireside +was given to Simon Grover in exchange for Rivington's _New York Weekly_. + +Jack was in a coasting party on Gallows Hill when his father brought +him a fat letter from England. He went home at once to read it. The +letter was from Margaret Hare--a love-letter which proposed a rather +difficult problem. It is now a bit of paper so brittle with age it has +to be delicately handled. Its neatly drawn chirography is faded to a +light yellow, but how alive it is with youthful ardor: + +"I think of you and pray for you very often," it says. "I hope you +have not forgotten me or must I look for another to help me enjoy that +happy fortune of which you have heard? Please tell me truly. My +father has met Doctor Franklin who told of the night he spent at your +home and that he thought you were a noble and promising lad. What a +pleasure it was to hear him say that! We are much alarmed by events in +America. My mother and I stand up for Americans, but my father has +changed his views since we came down the Mohawk together. You must +remember that he is a friend of the King. I hope that you and your +father will be patient and take no part in the riots and house +burnings. You have English blood in your veins and old England ought +to be dear to you. She really loves America very much, indeed, if not +as much as I love you. Can you not endure the wrongs for her sake and +mine in the hope that they will soon be righted? Whatever happens I +shall not cease to love you, but the fear comes to me that, if you turn +against England, I shall love in vain. There are days when the future +looks dark and I hope that your answer will break the clouds that hang +over it." + +So ran a part of the letter, colored somewhat by the diplomacy of a +shrewd mother, one would say who read it carefully. The neighbors had +heard of its arrival and many of them dropped in that evening, but they +went home none the wiser. After the company had gone, Jack showed the +letter to his father and mother. + +"My boy, it is a time to stand firm," said his father. + +"I think so, too," the boy answered. + +"Are you still in love with her?" his mother asked. + +The boy blushed as he looked down into the fire and did not answer. + +"She is a pretty miss," the woman went on. "But if you have to choose +between her and liberty, what will you say?" + +"I can answer for Jack," said John Irons. "He will say that we in +America will give up father and mother and home and life and everything +we hold dear for the love of liberty." + +"Of course I could not be a Tory," Jack declared. The boy had +studiously read the books which Doctor Franklin had sent to +him--_Pilgrim's Progress_, _Plutarch's Lives_, and a number of the +works of Daniel Defoe. He had discussed them with his father and at +the latter's suggestion had set down his impressions. His father had +assured him that it was well done, but had said to Mrs. Irons that it +showed "a remarkable rightness of mind and temper and unexpected +aptitude in the art of expression." + +It is likely that the boy wrote many letters which Miss Margaret never +saw before his arguments were set down in the firm, gentle and winning +tone which satisfied his spirit. Having finished his letter, at last, +he read it aloud to his father and mother one evening as they sat +together, by the fireside, after the rest of the family had gone to +bed. Tears of pride came to the eyes of the man and woman when the +long letter was finished. + +"I love old England," it said, "because it is your home and because it +was the home of my fathers. But I am sure it is not old England which +made the laws we hate and sent soldiers to Boston. Is it not another +England which the King and his ministers invented? I ask you to be +true to old England which, my father has told me, stood for justice and +human rights. + +"But after all, what has politics to do with you and me as a pair of +human beings? Our love is a thing above that. The acts of the King or +my fellow countrymen can not affect my love for you, and to know that +you are of the same mind holds me above despair. I would think it a +great hardship if either King or colony had the power to put a tax on +you--a tax which demanded my principles. Can not your father differ +with me in politics--although when you were here I made sure that he +agreed with us--and keep his faith in me as a gentleman? I can not +believe that he would like me if I had a character so small and so +easily shifted about that I would change it to please him. I am sure, +too, that if there is anything in me you love, it is my character. +Therefore, if I were to change it I should lose your love and his +respect also. Is that not true?" + +This was part of the letter which Jack had written. + +"My boy, it is a good letter and they will have to like you the better +for it," said John Irons. + +Old Solomon Binkus was often at the Irons home those days. He had gone +back in the bush, since the war ended, and, that winter, his traps were +on many streams and ponds between Albany and Lake Champlain. He came +down over the hills for a night with his friends when he reached the +southern end of his beat. It was probably because the boy had loved +the tales of the trapper and the trapper had found in the boy something +which his life had missed, that an affection began to grow up between +them. Solomon was a childless widower. + +"My wife! I tell ye, sir, she had the eyes an' feet o' the young doe +an' her cheeks were like the wild, red rose," the scout was wont to say +on occasion. "I orto have knowed better. Yes, sir, I orto. We lived +way back in the bush an' the child come 'fore we 'spected it one night. +I done what I could but suthin' went wrong. They tuk the high trail, +both on 'em. I rigged up a sled an' drawed their poor remains into a +settlement. That were a hard walk--you hear to me. No, sir, I +couldn't never marry no other womern--not if she was a queen covered +with dimon's--never. I 'member her so. Some folks it's easy to fergit +an' some it ain't. That's the way o' it." + +Mr. and Mrs. Irons respected the scout, pitying his lonely plight and +loving his cheerful company. He never spoke of his troubles unless +some thoughtless person had put him to it. + + + +2 + +That winter the Irons family and Solomon Binkus went often to the +meetings of the Sons of Liberty. One purpose of this organization was +to induce people to manufacture their own necessities and thus avoid +buying the products of Great Britain. Factories were busy making looms +and spinning-wheels; skilled men and women taught the arts of spinning, +weaving and tailoring. The slogan "Home Made or Nothing," traveled far +and wide. + +Late in February, Jack Irons and Solomon Binkus went east as delegates +to a large meeting of the Sons of Liberty in Springfield. They +traveled on snowshoes and by stage, finding the bitterness of the +people growing more intense as they proceeded. They found many women +using thorns instead of pins and knitting one pair of stockings with +the ravelings of another. They were also flossing out their silk gowns +and spinning the floss into gloves with cotton. All this was to avoid +buying goods sent over from Great Britain. + +Jack tells in a letter to his mother of overtaking a young man with a +pack on his back and an ax in his hand on his way to Harvard College. +He was planning to work in a mill to pay his board and tuition. + +"We hear in every house we enter the stories and maxims of Poor +Richard," the boy wrote in his letter. "A number of them were quoted +in the meeting. Doctor Franklin is everywhere these days." + +The meeting over, Jack and Solomon went on by stage to Boston for a +look at the big city. + +They arrived there on the fifth of March a little after dark. The moon +was shining. A snow flurry had whitened the streets. The air was +still and cold. They had their suppers at The Ship and Anchor. While +they were eating they heard that a company of British soldiers who were +encamped near the Presbyterian Meeting-House had beaten their drums on +Sunday so that no worshiper could hear the preaching. + +"And the worst of it is we are compelled to furnish them food and +quarters while they insult and annoy us," said a minister who sat at +the table. + +After supper Jack and Solomon went out for a walk. They heard violent +talk among people gathered at the street corners. They soon overtook a +noisy crowd of boys and young men carrying clubs. In front of Murray's +Barracks where the Twenty-Ninth Regiment was quartered, there was a +chattering crowd of men and boys. Some of them were hooting and +cursing at two sentinels. The streets were lighted by oil lamps and by +candles in the windows of the houses. + +In Cornhill they came upon a larger and more violent assemblage of the +same kind. They made their way through it and saw beyond, a captain, a +corporal and six private soldiers standing, face to face, with the +crowd. Men were jeering at them; boys hurling abusive epithets. The +boys, as they are apt to do, reflected, with some exaggeration, the +passions of their elders. It was a crowd of rough fellows--mostly +wharfmen and sailors. Solomon sensed the danger in the situation. He +and Jack moved out of the jeering mob. Then suddenly a thing happened +which may have saved one or both of their lives. The Captain drew his +sword and flashed a dark light upon Solomon and called, out: + +"Hello, Binkus! What the hell do you want?" + +"Who be ye?" Solomon asked. + +"Preston." + +"Preston! Cat's blood an' gunpowder! What's the matter?" + +Preston, an old comrade of Solomon, said to him: + +"Go around to headquarters and tell them we are cut off by a mob and in +a bad mess. I'm a little scared. I don't want to get hurt or do any +hurting." + +Jack and Solomon passed through the guard and hurried on. Then there +were hisses and cries of "Tories! Rotten Tories!" As the two went on +they heard missiles falling behind them and among the soldiers. + +"They's goin' to be bad trouble thar," said Solomon. + +"Them lads ain't to blame. They're only doin' as they're commanded. +It's the dam' King that orto be hetchelled." + +They were hurrying on, as he spoke, and the words were scarcely out of +his mouth when they heard the command to fire and a rifle volley--then +loud cries of pain and shrill curses and running feet. They turned and +started back. People were rushing out of their houses, some with guns +in their hands. In a moment the street was full. + +"The soldiers are slaying people," a man shouted. "Men of Boston, we +must arm ourselves and fight." + +[Illustration: "The soldiers are slaying people," a man shouted.] + +It was a scene of wild confusion. They could get no farther on +Cornhill. The crowd began to pour into side-streets. Rumors were +flying about that many had been killed and wounded. An hour or so +later Jack and Solomon were seized by a group of ruffians. + +"Here are the damn Tories!" one of them shouted. + +"Friends o' murderers!" was the cry of another. + +"Le's hang 'em!" + +Solomon immediately knocked the man down who had called them Tories and +seized another and tossed him so far in the crowd as to give it pause. + +"I don't mind bein' hung," he shouted, "not if it's done proper, but no +man kin call me a Tory lessen my hands are tied, without gittin' hurt. +An' if my hands was tied I'd do some hollerin', now you hear to me." + +A man back in the crowd let out a laugh as loud as the braying of an +ass. Others followed his example. The danger was passed. Solomon +shouted: + +"I used to know Preston when I were a scout in Amherst's army fightin' +Injuns an' Frenchmen, which they's more'n twenty notches on the stock +o' my rifle an' fourteen on my pelt, an' my name is Solomon Binkus from +Albany, New York, an' if you'll excuse us, we'll put fer hum as soon as +we kin git erway convenient." + +They started for The Ship and Anchor with a number of men and boys +following and trying to talk with them. + +"I'll tell ye, Jack, they's trouble ahead," said Solomon as they made +their way through the crowded streets. + +Many were saying that there could be no more peace with England. + +In the morning they learned that three men had been killed and five +others wounded by the soldiers. Squads of men and boys with loaded +muskets were marching into town from the country. + +Jack and Solomon attended the town meeting that day in the old South +Meeting-House. It was a quiet and orderly crowd that listened to the +speeches of Josiah Quincy, John Hancock and Samuel Adams, demanding +calmly but firmly that the soldiers be forthwith removed from the city. +The famous John Hancock cut a great figure in Boston those days. It is +not surprising that Jack was impressed by his grandeur for he had +entered the meeting-house in a scarlet velvet cap and a blue damask +gown lined with velvet and strode to the platform with a dignity even +above his garments. As he faced about the boy did not fail to notice +and admire the white satin waistcoat and white silk stockings and red +morocco slippers. Mr. Quincy made a statement which stuck like a bur +in Jack Irons' memory of that day and perhaps all the faster because he +did not quite understand it. The speaker said: "The dragon's teeth +have been sown." + +The chairman asked if there was any citizen present who had been on the +scene at or about the time of the shooting. Solomon Binkus arose and +held up his hand and was asked to go to the minister's room and confer +with the committee. + +Mr. John Adams called at the inn that evening and announced that he was +to defend Captain Preston and would require the help of Jack and +Solomon as witnesses. For that reason they were detained some days in +Boston and released finally on the promise to return when their +services were required. + +They left Boston by stage and one evening in early April, traveling +afoot, they saw the familiar boneheads around the pasture lands above +Albany where the farmers had crowned their fence stakes with the +skeleton heads of deer, moose, sheep and cattle in which birds had the +habit of building their nests. It had been thawing for days, but the +night had fallen clear and cold. They had stopped at the house of a +settler some miles northeast of Albany to get a sled load of Solomon's +pelts which had been stretched and hung there. Weary of the brittle +snow, they took to the river a mile or so above the little city, +Solomon hauling his sled. Jack had put on the new skates which he had +bought in Bennington where they had gone for a visit with old friends. +They were out on the clear ice, far from either shore, when they heard +an alarming peal of "river thunder"--a name which Binkus applied to a +curious phenomenon often accompanied by great danger to those on the +rotted roof of the Hudson. The hidden water had been swelling. + +Suddenly it had made a rip in the great ice vault a mile long with a +noise like the explosion of a barrel of powder. The rip ran north and +south about mid-stream. They were on the west sheet and felt it waver +and subside till it had found a bearing on the river surface. + +"We must git off o' here quick," said Binkus. "She's goin' to break +up." + +"Let me have the sled and as soon as I get going, you hop on," said +Jack. + +The boy began skating straight toward the shore, drawing the sled and +its load, Solomon kicking out behind with his spiked boots until they +were well under way. They heard the east sheet breaking up before they +had made half the distance to safe footing. Then their own began to +crack into sections as big "as a ten-acre lot," Mr. Binkus said, "an' +the noise was like a battle, but Jack kept a-goin' an' me settin' light +an' my mind a-pushin' like a scairt deer." Water was flooding over the +ice which had broken near shore, but the skater jumped the crack before +it was wider than a man's hand and took the sled with him. They +reached the river's edge before the ice began heaving and there the +sloped snow had been wet and frozen to rocks and bushes, so they were +able to make their way through it. + +"Now, we're even," said Solomon when they had hauled the sled up the +river bank while he looked back at the ice now breaking and beginning +to pile up, "I done you a favor an' you've done me one. It's my turn +next." + +This was the third in the remarkable series of adventures which came to +these men. + +They had a hearty welcome at the little house near The King's Arms, +where they sat until midnight telling of their adventures. In the +midst of it, Jack said to his father: + +"I heard a speaker say in Boston that the dragon's teeth had been sown. +What does that mean?" + +"It means that war is coming," said John Irons. "We might as well get +ready for it." + +These words, coming from his father, gave him a shock of surprise. He +began to think of the effect of war on his own fortunes. + + + +3 + +Solomon sent his furs to market and went to work on the farm of John +Irons and lived with the family. The boy returned to school. After +the hay had been cut and stacked in mid-summer, they were summoned to +Boston to testify in the trial of Preston. They left in September +taking with them a drove of horses. + +"It will be good for Jack," John Irons had said to his wife. "He'll be +the better prepared for his work in Philadelphia next fall." + +Two important letters had arrived that summer. One from Benjamin +Franklin to John Irons, offering Jack a chance to learn the printer's +trade in his Philadelphia shop and board and lodging in his home. "If +the boy is disposed to make a wise improvement of his time," the great +man had written, "I shall see that he has an opportunity to take a +course at our Academy. I am sure he would be a help and comfort to +Mrs. Franklin. She, I think, will love to mother him. Do not be +afraid to send him away from home. It will help him along toward +manhood. I was much impressed by his letter to Miss Margaret Hare, +which her mother had the goodness to show me. He has a fine spirit and +a rare gift for expressing it. She and the girl were convinced by its +argument, but the Colonel himself is an obdurate Tory--he being a +favorite of the King. The girl, now very charming and much admired, +is, I happen to know, deeply in love with your son. I have promised +her that, if she will wait for him, I will bring him over in good time +and act as your vicar at the wedding. This, she and her mother are the +more ready to do because of their superstition that God has clearly +indicated him as the man who would bring her happiness and good +fortune. I find that many European women are apt to entertain and +enjoy superstition and to believe in omens--not the only drop of old +pagan blood that lingers in their veins. I am sending, by this boat, +some more books for Jack to read." + +The other letter was from Margaret Hare to the boy, in which she had +said that they were glad to learn that he and Mr. Binkus were friends +of Captain Preston and inclined to help him in his trouble. "Since I +read your letter I am more in love with you than ever," she had +written. "My father was pleased with it. He thinks that all cause of +complaint will be removed. Until it is, I do not ask you to be a Tory, +but only to be patient." + +Jack and Solomon were the whole day getting their horses across Van +Deusen's ferry and headed eastward in the rough road. Mr. Binkus wore +his hanger--an old Damascus blade inherited from his father--and +carried his long musket and an abundant store of ammunition; Jack wore +his two pistols, in the use of which he had become most expert. + +When the horses had "got the kinks worked out," as Solomon put it, and +were a trifle tired, they browsed along quietly with the man and boy +riding before and behind them. By and by they struck into the +twenty-mile bush beyond the valley farms. In the second day of their +travel they passed an Albany trader going east with small kegs of rum +on a pack of horses and toward evening came to an Indian village. They +were both at the head of the herd. + +"Stop," said Solomon as they saw the smoke of the fires ahead. "We got +to behave proper." + +He put his hands to his mouth and shouted a loud halloo, which was +quickly answered. Then two old men came out to him and the talk which +followed in the Mohawk dialect was thus reported by the scout to his +companion: + +"We wish to see the chief," said Solomon. "We have gifts for him." + +"Come with us," said one of the old men as they led Solomon to the +Stranger's House. The old men went from hut to hut announcing the +newcomers. Victuals and pipes and tobacco were sent to the Stranger's +House for them. This structure looked like a small barn and was made +of rived spruce. Inside, the chief sat on a pile of unthrashed wheat. +He had a head and face which reminded Jack of the old Roman emperors +shown in the Historical Collections. There was remarkable dignity in +his deep-lined face. His name was Thunder Tongue. The house had no +windows. Many skins hung from its one cross-beam above their heads. + +Mr. Binkus presented beaver skins and a handsome belt. Then the chief +sent out some women to watch the horses and to bring Jack into the +village. Near by were small fields of wheat and maize. The two +travelers sat down with the chief, who talked freely to Solomon Binkus. + +"If white man comes to our village cold, we warm him; wet, we dry him; +hungry, we feed him," he said. "When Injun man goes to Albany and asks +for food, they say, 'Where's your money? Get out, you Injun dog!' The +white man he comes with scaura and trades it for skins. It steals away +the wisdom of the young braves. It bends my neck with trouble. It is +bad." + +They noted this just feeling of resentment in the old chief and +expressed their sympathy. Soon the Albany trader came with his pack of +rum. The chief greeted him cheerfully and asked for scaura. + +"I have enough to make a hundred men happy," the trader answered. + +"Bring it to me, for I have a sad heart," said Thunder Tongue. + +When the Dutch trader went to his horse for the kegs, Solomon said to +the chief: + +"Why do you let him bring trouble to your village and steal away the +wisdom of your warriors?" + +"Tell me why the creek flows to the great river and I will answer you," +said the chief. + +He began drinking as soon as the trader came with the kegs, while the +young warriors gathered about the door, each with skins on his arm. +Soon every male Indian was staggering and whooping and the squaws with +the children had started into the thickets. + +Solomon nudged Jack and left the hut, followed by the boy. + +"Come on. Let's git out o' here. The squaws an' the young 'uns are +sneakin'. You hear to me--thar'll be hell to pay here soon." + +So while the braves were gathered about the trader and were draining +cups of fire-water, the travelers made haste to mount and get around +the village and back into their trail with the herd. They traveled +some miles in the long twilight and stopped at the Stony Brook Ford, +where there were good water and sufficient grazing. + +"Here's whar the ol' Green Mountain Trail comes down from the north an' +crosses the one we're on," said Solomon. + +They dismounted and Solomon hobbled a number of horses while Jack was +building a fire. The scout, returning from the wild meadow, began to +examine some tracks he had found at the trail crossing. Suddenly he +gave a whistle of surprise and knelt on the ground. + +"Look 'ere, Jack," he called. + +The boy ran to his side. + +"Now this 'ere is suthin' cur'user than the right hoof o' the devil," +said Solomon Binkus, as he pointed with his forefinger at a print in +the soft dirt. + +Jack saw the print of the wooden stump with the iron ring around its +base which the boy had not forgotten. Near it were a number of +moccasin tracks. + +"What does this mean?" he asked. + +"Wall, sir, I cocalate it means that ol' Mike Harpe has been chased out +o' the Ohio country an' has come down the big river an' into Lake +Champlain with some o' his band an' gone to cuttin' up an' been +obleeged to take to the bush. They've robbed somebody an' are puttin' +fer salt water. They'll hire a boat an' go south an' then p'int fer +the 'Ganies. Ol' Red Snout shoved his leg in that 'ere gravel sometime +this forenoon prob'ly." + +They brewed tea to wet their buttered biscuit and jerked venison. + +Solomon looked as if he were sighting on a gun barrel when he said: + +"Now ye see what's the matter with this 'ere Injun business. They're +jest a lot o' childern scattered all over the bush an' they don't have +to look fer deviltry. Deviltry is lookin' fer them an' when they git +together thar's trouble." + +Solomon stopped, now and then, to peer off into the bush as he talked +while the dusk was falling. Suddenly he put his finger to his lips. +His keen eyes had detected a movement in the shadowy trail. + +"Hide an' horns o' the devil!" he exclaimed in a low tone. "This 'ere +may be suthin' neevarious. Shove ol' Marier this way an' grab yer +pistols an' set still." + +He crept on his hands and knees with the strap of his rifle in his +teeth to the edge of the bush, where he sat for a moment looking and +listening. Suddenly Solomon arose and went back in the trail, +indicating with a movement of his hand that the boy was not to follow. +About fifteen rods from their camp-fire he found an Indian maiden +sitting on the ground with bowed head. A low moan came from her lips. +Her skin was of a light copper color. There was a wreath of wild +flowers in her hair. + +"My purty maid, are your people near?" Solomon asked in the Mohawk +tongue. + +She looked up at him, her beautiful dark eyes full of tears, and +sorrowfully shook her head. + +"My father was a great white chief," she said. "Always a little bird +tells me to love the white man. The beautiful young pale face on a red +horse took my heart with him. I go, too." + +"You must go back to your people," said Solomon. + +Again she shook her head, and, pointing up the trail, whispered: + +"They will burn the Little White Birch. No more will I go in the trail +of the red man. It is like climbing a thorn tree." + +He touched her brow tenderly and she seized his hand and held it +against her cheek. + +"I follow the beautiful pale face," she whispered. + +Solomon observed that her lips were shapely and her teeth white. + +"What is your name?" he asked. + +"They call me the Little White Birch." + +Solomon told her to sit still and that he would bring food to her. + +"It's jest only a little squaw," he said to Jack when he returned to +the camp-fire. "Follered us from that 'ere Injun village. I guess she +were skeered o' them drunken braves. I'm goin' to take some meat an' +bread an' tea to her. No, you better stay here. She's as skeery as a +wild deer." + +After Solomon had given her food he made her take his coat for a +blanket and left her alone. + +Next morning she was still there. Solomon gave her food again and when +they resumed their journey they saw her following. + +"She'll go to the end o' the road, I guess," said Solomon. "I'll tell +ye what we'll do. We'll leave her at Mr. Wheelock's School." + +Their trail bore no further signs of Harpe and his followers. + +"I'll bet ye a pint o' powder an' a fish hook they was p'intin' south," +said Solomon. + +They reached the Indian school about noon. A kindly old Mohawk squaw +who worked there was sent back in the trail to find the maiden. In a +few minutes the squaw came in with her. Solomon left money with the +good master and promised to send more. + +When the travelers went on that afternoon the Little White Birch stood +by the door looking down the road at them. + +"She has a coat o' red on her skin, but the heart o' the white man," +said Solomon. + +In a moment Jack heard him muttering, "It's a damn wicked thing to +do--which there ain't no mistake." + +They had come to wagon roads improving as they approached towns and +villages, in the first of which they began selling the drove. When +they reached Boston, nearly a week later, they had only the two horses +which they rode. + +The trial had just begun. Being ardent Whigs, their testimony made an +impression. Jack's letter to his father says that Mr. Adams +complimented them when they left the stand. + +There is an old letter of Solomon Binkus which briefly describes the +journey. He speaks of the "pompy" men who examined them. "They +grinned at me all the time an' the ol' big wig Jedge in the womern's +dress got mad if I tried to crack a joke," he wrote in his letter. "He +looked like he had paid too much fer his whistle an' thought I had sold +it to him. Thought he were goin' to box my ears. John Addums is +erbout as sharp as a razor. Took a likin' to Jack an' me. I tol' him +he were smart 'nough to be a trapper." + +The two came back in the saddle and reached Albany late in October. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE JOURNEY TO PHILADELPHIA + +The _New York Mercury_ of November 4, 1770, contains this item: + +"John Irons, Jr., and Solomon Binkus, the famous scout, arrived +Wednesday morning on the schooner _Ariel_ from Albany. Mr. Binkus is +on his way to Alexandria, Virginia, where he is to meet Major +Washington and accompany him to the Great Kanawha River in the Far +West." + +Solomon was soon to meet an officer with whom he was to find the +amplest scope for his talents. Jack was on his way to Philadelphia. +They had found the ship crowded and Jack and two other boys "pigged +together"--in the expressive phrase of that time--on the cabin floor, +through the two nights of their journey. Jack minded not the hardness +of the floor, but there was much drinking and arguing and expounding of +the common law in the forward end of the cabin, which often interrupted +his slumbers. + +He was overawed by the length and number of the crowded streets of New +York and by "the great height" of many of its buildings. The grandeur +of Broadway and the fashionable folk who frequented it was the subject +of a long letter which he indited to his mother from The City Tavern. + +He took the boat to Amboy as Benjamin Franklin had done, but without +mishap, and thence traveled by stage to Burlington. There he met Mr. +John Adams of Boston, who was on his way to Philadelphia. He was a +full-faced, ruddy, strong-built man of about thirty-five years, with +thick, wavy dark hair that fell in well trimmed tufts on either cheek +and almost concealed his ears. It was beginning to show gray. He had +a prominent forehead, large blue and expressive eyes and a voice clear +and resonant. He was handsomely dressed. + +Mr. Adams greeted the boy warmly and told him that the testimony which +he and Solomon Binkus gave had saved the life of Captain Preston. The +great lawyer took much interest in the boy and accompanied him to the +top of the stage, the weather being clear and warm. Mr. Adams sat +facing Jack, and beside the latter was a slim man with a small sad +countenance which wore a permanent look of astonishment. Jack says in +a letter that his beard "was not composed of hair, but hairs as +straight and numerable as those in a cat's whiskers." They were also +gray like his eyes. After the stage had started this man turned to +Jack and asked: + +"What is your name, boy?" + +"John Irons." + +The man opened his eyes wider and drew in his breath between parted +lips as if he had heard a most astonishing fact. + +"My name is Pinhorn, sir--Eliphalet Pinhorn," he reciprocated. "I have +been visiting my wife in Newark." + +Jack thought it a singular thing that a man should have been visiting +his wife. + +"May I ask where you are going?" the man inquired of the boy. + +"To Philadelphia." + +Mr. Pinhorn turned toward him with a look of increased astonishment and +demanded: + +"Been there before?" + +"Never." + +The man made a sound that was between a sigh and a groan. Then, almost +sternly and in a confidential tone, as if suddenly impressed by the +peril of an immortal soul, he said: + +"Young man, beware! I say to you, beware!" + +Each stiff gray hair on his chin seemed to erect itself into an +animated exclamation point. Turning again, he whispered: + +"You will soon shake its dust from your feet." + +"Why?" + +"A sinking place! Every one bankrupt or nearly so. Display! Nothing +but display! Feasting, drinking! No thought of to-morrow! Ungodly +city!" + +In concluding his indictment, Mr. Pinhorn partly covered his mouth and +whispered the one word: + +"Babylon!" + +A moment of silence followed, after which he added; "I would never +build a house or risk a penny in business there." + +"I am going to work in Doctor Benjamin Franklin's print shop," said +Jack proudly. + +Mr. Pinhorn turned with a look of consternation clearly indicating that +this was the last straw. He warned in a half whisper: + +"Again I say beware! That is the word--beware!" + +He almost shuddered as he spoke, and leaning close to the boy's ear, +added in a confidential tone: + +"The King of Babylon! A sinking business! An evil man!" He looked +sternly into the eyes of the boy and whispered: "Very! Oh, very!" He +sat back in his seat again, while the expression of his whole figure +seemed to say, "Thank God, my conscience is clear, whatever happens to +you." + +Jack was so taken down by all this that, for a moment, his head swam. +Mr. Pinhorn added: + +"Prospered, but how? That is the question. Took the money of a friend +and spent it. Many could tell you. Wine! Women! Infidelity! House +built on the sands!" + +Mr. Adams had heard most of the gloomy talk of the slim man. Suddenly +he said to the slanderer: + +"My friend, did I hear you say that you have been visiting your wife?" + +"You did, sir." + +"Well, I do not wonder that she lives in another part of the country," +said Mr. Adams. "I should think that Philadelphia would feel like +moving away from you. I have heard you say that it was a sinking city. +It is nothing of the kind. It is floating in spite of the fact that +there are human sinkers in it like yourself. I hate the heart of lead. +This is the land of hope and faith and confidence. If you do not like +it here, go back to England. _We_ do not put our money into holes in +the wall. We lend it to our neighbors because they are worthy of being +trusted. We believe in our neighbors. We put our cash into business +and borrow more to increase our profits. It is true that many men in +Philadelphia are in debt, but they are mostly good for what they owe. +It is a thriving place. I could not help hearing you speak evil of +Doctor Franklin. He is my friend. I am proud to say it and I should +be no friend of his if I allowed your words to go unrebuked. Yours, +sir, is a leaden soul. It is without hope or trust in the things of +this life. You seem not to know that a new world is born. It is a +world of three tenses. We who really live in it are chiefly interested +in what a man is and is likely _to be_, not in what he _was_. Doctor +Franklin would not hesitate to tell you that his youth was not all it +should have been. He does not conceal his errors. There is no more +honest gentleman in the wide world than Doctor Franklin." + +Mr. Adams had spoken with feeling and a look of indignation in his +eyes. He was a frank, fearless character. All who sat on the top of +the coach had heard him and when he had finished they clapped their +hands. + +Jack was much relieved. He had been put in mind of what Doctor +Franklin had said long ago, one evening in Albany, of his struggle +against the faults and follies of his youth. For a moment Mr. Pinhorn +was dumb with astonishment. + +"Nevertheless, sir, I hold to my convictions," he said. + +"Of course you do," Mr. Adams answered. "No man like you ever +recovered from his convictions, for the reason that his convictions are +stronger than he is." + +Mr. Pinhorn partly covered his mouth and turned to the boy and +whispered: + +"It is a time of violent men. Let us hold our peace." + +At the next stop where they halted for dinner Mr. Adams asked the boy +to sit down with him at the table. When they were seated the great man +said: + +"I have to be on guard against catching fire these days. Sometimes I +feel the need of a companion with a fire bucket. My headlight is hope +and I have little patience with these whispering, croaking Tories and +with the barons of the south and the upper Hudson. I used to hold the +plow on my father's farm and I am still plowing as your father is." + +Jack turned with a look of inquiry. + +"We are breaking new land," Mr. Adams went on. "We are treading the +ordeal path among the red-hot plowshares of politics." + +"It is what I should like to do," said the boy. + +"You will be needed, but we must be without fear, remembering that +almost every man who has gained real distinction in politics has met a +violent death. There are the shining examples of Brutus, Cassius, +Hampden and Sidney, but it is worth while." + +"I believe you taught school at Worcester," said Jack. + +"And I learned at least one thing doing it--that school-teaching is not +for me. It would have turned me into a shrub. Too much piddling! It +is hard enough to teach men that they have rights which even a king +must respect." + +"Let me remind you, sir," said Mr. Pinhorn, who sat at the same table, +"that the King can do no wrong." + +"But his ministers can do as they please," Mr. Adams rejoined, whereat +the whole company broke into laughter. + +Mr. Pinhorn covered his mouth with astonishment, but presently allowed +himself to say: "Sir, I hold to my convictions." + +"You are wrong, sir. It is your convictions that hold to you. They +are like the dead limbs on a tree," Mr. Adams answered. "The motto of +Great Britain would seem to be, 'Do no right and suffer no wrong.' +They search our ships; they impress our seamen; they impose taxes +through a Parliament in which we are not represented, and if we +threaten resistance they would have us tried for treason. Nero used to +say that he wished that the inhabitants of Rome had only one neck, so +that he could dispose of them with a single blow. It was a rather +merciful wish, after all. A neck had better be chopped off than held +under the yoke of tyranny." + +"Sir, England shielded, protected, us from French and Indians," Mr. +Pinhorn declared with high indignation. + +"It protected its commerce. We were protecting British interests and +ourselves. Connecticut had five thousand under arms; Massachusetts, +seven thousand; New York, New Jersey and New Hampshire, many more. +Massachusetts taxed herself thirteen shillings and four pence to the +pound of income. New Jersey expended a pound a head to help pay for +the war. On that score England is our debtor." + +The horn sounded. The travelers arose from the tables and hurried out +to the coach. + +"It was a good dinner," Mr. Adams said to Jack when they had climbed to +their seat. "We should be eating potatoes and drinking water, instead +of which we have two kinds of meat and wine and pudding and bread and +tea and many jellies. Still, I am a better philosopher after dinner +than before it. But if we lived simpler, we should pay fewer taxes." + +As they rode along a lady passenger sang the ballad of John Barleycorn, +in the chorus of which Mr. Adams joined with much spirit. + +"My capacity for getting fun out of a song is like the gift of a weasel +for sucking eggs," he said. + +So they fared along, and when Jack was taking leave of the +distinguished lawyer at The Black Horse Tavern in Philadelphia the +latter invited the boy to visit him in Boston if his way should lead +him there. + + + +2 + +The frank, fearless, sledge-hammer talk of the lawyer made a deep +impression on the boy, as a long letter written next day to his father +and mother clearly shows. He went to the house of the printer, where +he did not receive the warm welcome he had expected. Deborah Franklin +was a fat, hard-working, illiterate, economical housewife. She had a +great pride in her husband, but had fallen hopelessly behind him. She +regarded with awe and slight understanding the accomplishments of his +virile, restless, on-pushing intellect. She did not know how to enjoy +the prosperity that had come to them. It was a neat and cleanly home, +but, as of old, Deborah was doing most of the work herself. She would +not have had it otherwise. + +"Ben thinks we ortn't to be doin' nothin' but settin' eroun' in silk +dresses an' readin' books an' gabbin' with comp'ny," she said. "Men +don't know how hard tis to git help that cleans good an' cooks decent. +Everybody feels so kind o' big an' inderpendent they won't stan' it to +be found fault with." + +Her daughter, Mrs. Bache, and the latter's children were there. +Suddenly confronted by the problem of a strange lad coming into the +house to live with them, they were a bit dismayed. But presently their +motherly hearts were touched by the look of the big, gentle-faced, +homesick boy. They made a room ready for him on the top floor and +showed him the wonders of the big house--the library, the electrical +apparatus, the rocking chair with its fan swayed by the movement of the +chair, the new stove and grate which the Doctor had invented. That +evening, after an excellent supper, they sat down for a visit in the +library, when Jack suggested that he would like to have a part of the +work to do. + +"I can sweep and clean as well as any one," he said. "My mother taught +me how to do that. You must call on me for any help you need." + +"Now I wouldn't wonder but what we'll git erlong real happy," said Mrs. +Franklin. "If you'll git up 'arly an' dust the main floor an' do the +broom work an' fill the wood boxes an' fetch water, I'll see ye don't +go hungry." + +"I suppose you will be going to England if the Doctor is detained +there," said Jack. + +"No, sir," Mrs. Franklin answered. "I wouldn't go out on that ol' +ocean--not if ye would give me a million pounds. It's too big an' deep +an' awful! No, sir! Ben got a big bishop to write me a letter an' +tell me I'd better come over an' look a'ter him. But Ben knowed all +the time that I wouldn't go a step." + +There were those who said that her dread of the sea had been a blessing +to Ben, for Mrs. Franklin had no graces and little gift for +communication. But there was no more honest, hard-working, economical +housewife in Philadelphia. + +Jack went to the shop and was put to work next morning. He had to +carry beer and suffer a lot of humiliating imposition from older boys +in the big shop, but he bore it patiently and made friends and good +progress. That winter he took dancing lessons from the famous John +Trotter of New York and practised fencing with the well-known Master +Brissac. He also took a course in geometry and trigonometry at the +Academy and wrote an article describing his trip to Boston for _The +Gazette_. The latter was warmly praised by the editor and reprinted in +New York and Boston journals. He joined the company for home defense +and excelled in the games, on training day, especially at the running, +wrestling, boxing and target shooting. There were many shooting +galleries in Philadelphia wherein Jack had shown a knack of shooting +with the rifle and pistol, which had won for him the Franklin medal for +marksmanship. In the back country the favorite amusement of himself +and father had been shooting at a mark. + +Somehow the boy managed to do a great deal of work and to find time for +tramping in the woods along the Schuylkill and for skating and swimming +with the other boys. Mrs. Franklin and Mrs. Bache grew fond of Jack +and before the new year came had begun to treat him with a kind of +motherly affection. + +William, the Doctor's son, who was the governor of the province of New +Jersey, came to the house at Christmas time. He was a silent, morose, +dignified, self-seeking man, who astonished Jack with his rabid +Toryism. He nettled the boy by treating the opinions of the latter +with smiling toleration and by calling his own father--the great +Doctor--"a misguided man." + +Jack forged ahead, not only in the printer's art, but on toward the +fulness of his strength. Under the stimulation of city life and +continuous study, his talents grew like wheat in black soil. In the +summer of seventy-three he began to contribute to the columns of _The +Gazette_. Certain of his articles brought him compliments from the +best people for their wit, penetration and good humor. He had entered +upon a career of great promise when the current of his life quickened +like that of a river come to a steeper grade. It began with a letter +from Margaret Hare, dated July 14, 1773. In it she writes: + +"When you get this please sit down and count up the years that have +passed since we parted. Then think how our plans have gone awry. You +must also think of me waiting here for you in the midst of a marrying +world. All my friends have taken their mates and passed on. I went to +Doctor Franklin to-day and told him that I was an old lady well past +nineteen and accused him of having a heart of stone. He said that he +had not sent for you because you were making such handsome progress in +your work. I said: 'You do not think of the rapid progress I am making +toward old age. You forget, too, that I need a husband as badly as +_The Gazette_ needs a philosopher. I rebel. You have made me an +American--you and Jack, I will no longer consent to taxation without +representation. Year by year I am giving up some of my youth and I am +not being consulted about it.' + +"Said he: 'I would demand justice of the king. I suppose he thinks +that his country can not yet afford a queen, I shall tell him that he +is imitating George the Third and that he had better listen to the +voice of the people.' + +"Now, my beloved hero, the English girl who is not married at nineteen +is thought to be hopeless. There are fine lads who have asked my +father for the right to court me and still I am waiting for my brave +deliverer and he comes not. I can not forget the thrush's song and the +enchanted woods. They hold me. If they have not held you--if for any +reason your heart has changed--you will not fail to tell me, will you? +Is it necessary that you should be great and wise and rich and learned +before you come to me? Little by little, after many talks with the +venerable Franklin, I have got the American notion that I would like to +go away with you and help you to accomplish these things and enjoy the +happiness which was ours, for a little time, and of which you speak in +your letters. Surely there was something very great in those moments. +It does not fade and has it not kept us true to their promise? But, +Jack, how long am I to wait? You must tell me." + +This letter went to the heart of the young man. She had deftly set +before him the gross unfairness of delay. He felt it. Ever since the +parting he had been eager to go, but his father was not a rich man and +the family was large. His own salary had been little more than was +needed for clothing and books. That autumn it had been doubled and the +editor had assured him that higher pay would be forthcoming. He +hesitated to tell the girl how little he earned and how small, when +measured in money, his progress had seemed to be. He was in despair +when his friend Solomon Binkus arrived from Virginia. For two years +the latter had been looking after the interests of Major Washington out +in the Ohio River country. They dined together that evening at The +Crooked Billet and Solomon told him of his adventures in the West, and +frontier stories of the notorious, one-legged robber, Micah Harpe, and +his den on the shore of the Ohio and of the cunning of the outlaw in +evading capture. + +"I got his partner, Mike Fink, and Major Washington give me fifty +pounds for the job," said Solomon. "They say Harpe's son disappeared +long time ago an' I wouldn't wonder if you an' me had seen him do it." + +"The white man that hung back in the bushes so long? I'll never forget +him," said Jack. + +"Them wimmen couldn't 'a' been in wuss hands." + +"It was a lucky day for them and for me," Jack answered. "I have here +a letter from Margaret. I wish you would read it." + +Solomon read the girl's letter and said: + +"If I was you I'd swim the big pond if nec'sary. This 'ere is a real +simon pure, four-masted womern an' she wants you fer Captain. As the +feller said when he seen a black fox, 'Come on, boys, it's time fer to +wear out yer boots.'" + +"I'm tied to my job." + +"Then break yer halter," said Solomon. + +"I haven't money enough to get married and keep a wife." + +"What an ignorant cuss you be!" Solomon exclaimed. "You don't 'pear to +know when ye're well off." + +"What do you mean?" + +"I mean that ye're wuth at least a thousan' pounds cash money." + +"I would not ask my father for help and I have only forty pounds in the +bank," Jack answered. + +Solomon took out his wallet and removed from it a worn and soiled piece +of paper and studied the memoranda it contained. Then he did some +ciphering with a piece of lead. In a moment he said: + +You have got a thousan' an' fifteen pounds an' six shillin' fer to do +with as ye please an' no questions asked--nary one." + +"You mean you've got it." + +"Which means that Jack Irons owns it hide, horns an' taller." + +Tears came to the boy's eyes. He looked down for a moment without +speaking. "Thank you, Solomon," he said presently. "I can't use your +money. It wouldn't be right." + +Solomon shut one eye an' squinted with the other as if he were taking +aim along the top of a gun barrel. Then he shook his head and drawled: + +"Cat's blood an' gunpowder! That 'ere slaps me in the face an' kicks +me on the shin," Solomon answered. "I've walked an' paddled eighty +mile in a day an' been stabbed an' shot at an' had to run fer my life, +which it ain't no fun--you hear to me. Who do ye s'pose I done it fer +but you an' my kentry? There ain't nobody o' my name an' blood on this +side o' the ocean--not nobody at all. An' if I kin't work fer you, +Jack, I'd just erbout as soon quit. This 'ere money ain't no good to +me 'cept fer body cover an' powder an' balls. I'd as leave drop it in +the river. It bothers me. I don't need it. When I git hum I go an' +hide it in the bush somewhars--jest to git it out o' my way. I been +thinkin' all up the road from Virginny o' this 'ere gol demnable money +an' what I were a-goin' to do with it an' what it could do to me. An', +sez I, I'm ergoin' to ask Jack to take it an' use it fer a wall 'twixt +him an' trouble, an' the idee hurried me erlong--honest! Kind o' made +me happy. Course, if I had a wife an' childern, 'twould be different, +but I ain't got no one. An' now ye tell me ye don't want it, which it +makes me feel lonesomer 'n a tarred Tory an' kind o' sorrowful--ayes, +sir, it does." + +Solomon's voice sank to a whisper. + +"Forgive me," said Jack. "I didn't know you felt that way. But I'm +glad you do. I'll take it on the understanding that as long as I live +what I have shall also be yours." + +"I've two hundred poun' an' six shillin' in my pocket an' a lot more +hid in the bush. It's all yourn to the last round penny. I reckon +it'll purty nigh bridge the slough. I want ye to be married +respectable like a gentleman--slick duds, plenty o' cakes an' pies an' +no slightin' the minister er the rum bar'l. + +"Major Washington give me a letter to take to Ben Franklin on t'other +side o' the ocean. Ye see ev'ry letter that's sent ercrost is opened +an' read afore it gits to him lessen it's guarded keerful. This 'ere +one, I guess, has suthin' powerful secret in it. He pays all the +bills. So I'll be goin' erlong with ye on the nex' ship an' when we +git thar I want to shake hands with the gal and tell her how to make ye +behave." + +That evening Jack went to the manager of _The Gazette_ and asked for a +six months' leave of absence. + +"And why would ye be leaving?" asked the manager, a braw Scot. + +"I expect to be married." + +"In England?" + +"Yes." + +"I'll agree if the winsome, wee thing will give ye time to send us news +letters from London. Doctor Franklin could give ye help. He has been +boiling over with praise o' you and has asked me to broach the matter. +Ye'll be sailing on the next ship." + +Before there was any sailing Jack and Solomon had time to go to Albany +for a visit. They found the family well and prosperous, the town +growing. John Irons said that land near the city was increasing +rapidly in value. Solomon went away into the woods the morning of +their arrival and returned in the afternoon with his money, which he +gave to John Irons to be invested in land. Jack, having had a +delightful stay at home, took a schooner for New York that evening with +Solomon. + +The night before they sailed for England his friends in the craft gave +Jack a dinner at The Gray Goose Tavern. He describes the event in a +long letter. To his astonishment the mayor and other well-known men +were present and expressed their admiration for his talents. + +The table was spread with broiled fish and roasted fowls and mutton and +towering spiced hams and sweet potatoes and mince pies and cakes and +jellies. + +"The spirit of hospitality expresses itself here in ham--often, also, +in fowls, fish and mutton, but always and chiefly in ham--cooked and +decorated with the greatest care and surrounded by forms, flavors and +colors calculated to please the eye and fill the human system with a +deep, enduring and memorable satisfaction," he writes. + +In the midst of the festivities it was announced that Jack was to be +married and as was the custom of the time, every man at the table +proposed a toast and drank to it. One addressed himself to the eyes of +the fortunate young lady. Then her lips, her eyebrows, her neck, her +hands, her feet, her disposition and her future husband were each in +turn enthusiastically toasted by other guests in bumpers of French +wine. He adds that these compliments were "so moist and numerous that +they became more and more indistinct, noisy and irrational" and that +before they ended "Nearly every one stood up singing his own favorite +song. There is a stage of emotion which can only be expressed in +noises. That stage had been reached. They put me in mind of David +Culver's bird shop where many song birds--all of a different +feather--engage in a kind of tournament, each pouring out his soul with +a desperate determination to be heard. It was all very friendly and +good natured but it was, also, very wild." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE CROSSING + +There were curious events in the voyage of Jack and Solomon. The date +of the letter above referred to would indicate that they sailed on or +about the eleventh of October, 1773. Their ship was _The Snow_ which +had arrived the week before with some fifty Irish servants, indentured +for their passage. These latter were, in a sense, slaves placed in +bondage to sundry employers by the captain of the ship for a term of +years until the sum due to the owners for their transportation had been +paid--a sum far too large, it would seem. + +Jack was sick for a number of days after the voyage began but Solomon, +who was up and about and cheerful in the roughest weather, having spent +a part of his youth at sea, took care of his young friend. Jack tells +in a letter that he was often awakened in the night by vermin and every +morning by the crowing of cocks. Those days a part of every ship was +known as "the hen coops" where ducks, geese and chickens were confined. +They came in due time through the butcher shop and the galley to the +cabin table. The cook was an able, swearing man whose culinary +experience had been acquired on a Nantucket whaler. Cooks who could +stand up for service every day in a small ship on an angry sea when the +galley rattled like a dice box in the hands of a nervous player, were +hard to get. Their constitutions were apt to be better than their art. +The food was of poor quality, the cooking a tax upon jaw, palate and +digestion, the service unclean. When good weather came, by and by, and +those who had not tasted food for days began to feel the pangs of +hunger the ship was filled with a most passionate lot of pilgrims. It +was then that Solomon presented the petition of the passengers to the +captain. + +"Cap'n, we're 'bout wore out with whale meat an' slobgollion. We're +all down by the head." + +"So'm I," said the Captain. "This 'ere man had a good recommend an' +said he could cook perfect." + +"A man like that kin cook the passengers with their own heat," said +Solomon. "I feel like my belly was full o' hot rocks. If you'll let +me into the galley, I'll right ye up an' shift the way o' the wind an' +the course o' the ship. I'll swing the bow toward Heaven 'stead o' +Hell an' keep her p'inted straight an' it won't cost ye a penny. +They's too much swearin' on this 'ere ship. Can't nobody be a +Christian with his guts a-b'ilin'. His tongue'll break loose an' make +his soul look like a waggin with a smashed wheel an' a bu'sted ex. A +cook could do more good here than a minister." + +"Can you cook?" + +"You try me an' I'll agree to happy ye up so ye won't know yerself. +Yer meat won't be raw ner petrified an' there won't be no insecks in +the biscuit." + +"He'll make a row." + +"I hope so. Leave him to me. I'm a leetle bit in need o' exercise, +but ye needn't worry. I know how to manage him--perfect. You come +with me to the galley an' tell him to git out of it. I'll do the rest." + +Solomon's advice was complied with. The cook--Thomas Crowpot by +name--was ordered out of the galley. The sea cook is said to be the +father of profanity. His reputation has come down through the ages +untarnished, it would seem, by any example of philosophical moderation. +Perhaps it is because, in the old days, his calling was a hard one and +only those of a singular recklessness were willing to engage in it. +_The Snow's_ cook was no exception. He was a big, brawny, black Yankee +with a claw foot look in his eyes. Profanity whizzed through the open +door like buckshot from a musket. He had been engaged for the voyage +and would not give up his job to any man. + +"Don't be so snappish," said Solomon. Turning to the Captain he added: +"Don't ye see here's the big spring. This 'ere man could blister a +bull's heel by talkin' to it. He's hidin' his candle. This ain't no +job fer him. I say he orto be promoted." + +With an outburst still profane but distinctly milder the cook wished to +know what they meant. + +Solomon squinted with his rifle eye as if he were taking careful aim at +a small mark. + +"Why, ye see we passengers have been swearin' stiddy fer a week," he +drawled. "We're wore out. We need a rest. You're a trained swearer. +Ye do it perfect. Ye ortn't to have nothin' else to do. We want you +to go for'ard an' find a comf'table place an' set down an' do all the +swearin' fer the hull ship from now on. You'll git yer pay jest the +same as if ye done the cookin'. It's a big job but I guess ye're ekal +to it. I'll agree that they won't nobody try to grab it. Ye may have +a little help afore the mast but none abaft." + +This unexpected proposition calmed the cook. The prospect of full pay +and nothing to do pleased him. He surrendered. + +An excellent dinner was cooked and served that day. The lobscouse made +of pork, fowl and sliced potatoes was a dish to remember. But the +former cook got a line of food calculated to assist him in the +performance of his singular duty. Happiness returned to the ship and +Solomon was cheered when at length he came out of the galley. Officers +and passengers rendered him more homage after that than they paid to +the rich and famous Mr. Girard who was among their number. That day +this notice was written on the blackboard: + +"Thomas Crowpot has been engaged to do all the swearing that's +necessary on this voyage. Any one who needs his services will find him +on the forward deck. Small and large jobs will be attended to while +you wait." + + + +2 + +Often in calm weather Jack and Solomon amused themselves and the other +passengers with pistol practise by tossing small objects into the air +and shooting at them over the ship's side. They rarely missed even the +smallest object thrown. Jack was voted the best marksman of the two +when he crushed with his bullet four black walnuts out of five thrown +by Mr. Girard. + +In the course of the voyage they overhauled _The Star_, a four-masted +ship bound from New York to Dover. For hours the two vessels were so +close that the passengers engaged in a kind of battle. Those on _The +Star_ began it by hurling turnips at the men on the other ship who +responded with a volley of apples. Solomon discerned on the deck of +the stranger Captain Preston and an English officer of the name of Hawk +whom he had known at Oswego and hailed them. Then said Solomon: + +"It's a ship load o' Tories who've had enough of Ameriky. They's a +cuss on that tub that I helped put a coat o' tar an' feathers on in the +Ohio kentry. He's the one with the black pipe in his mouth. I don't +know his name but they use to call him Slops--the dirtiest, +low-downdest, damn Tory traitor that ever lived. Helped the Injuns out +thar in the West. See that 'ere black pipe? Allus carries it in his +mouth 'cept when he's eatin'. I guess he goes to sleep with it. It's +one o' the features o' his face. We tarred him plenty now you hear to +me." + +That evening a boat was lowered and the Captain of _The Snow_ crossed a +hundred yards of quiet sea to dine with the Captain of _The Star_ in +the cabin of the latter. Next day a stiff wind came out of the west. +All sail was spread, the ships began to jump and gore the waves and +_The Star_ ran away from the smaller ship and was soon out of sight. +Weeks of rough going followed. Meanwhile Solomon stuck to his task. +Every one was sick but Jack and the officers, and there was not much +cooking to be done. + +Because he had to take off his coat while he was working in the galley, +Solomon gave the precious letter into Jack's keeping. + +Near the end of the sixth week at sea they spied land. + +"We cheered, for the ocean had shown us a tiger's heart," the young man +wrote. "For weeks it had leaped and struck at us and tumbled us about. +The crossing is more like hardship than anything that has happened to +me. One woman died and was buried at sea. A man had his leg broken by +being thrown violently against the bulwarks and the best of us were +bumped a little. + +"Some days ago a New Yorker who was suspected of cheating at cards on +the complaint of several passengers was put on trial and convicted +through the evidence of one who had seen him marking a pack of the +ship's cards. He was condemned to be carried up to the round top and +made fast there, in view of all the ship's company for three hours and +to pay a fine of two bottles of brandy. He refused to pay his fine and +we excommunicated the culprit refusing either to eat, drink or speak +with him until he should submit. Today he gave up and paid his fine. +Man is a sociable being and the bitterest of all punishments is +exclusion. He couldn't stand it." + +About noon on the twenty-ninth of November they made Dover and anchored +in the Downs. Deal was about three miles away and its boats came off +for them. They made a circuit and sailed close in shore. Each boat +that went out for passengers had its own landing. Its men threw a rope +across the breakers. This was quickly put on a windlass. With the +rope winding on its windlass the boat was slowly hauled through the +surge, its occupants being drenched and sprinkled with salt water. +They made their way to the inn of The Three Kings where two men stood +watching as they approached. One of them Jack recognized as the man +Slops with the black pipe in his mouth. + +"That's him," said the man with the black pipe pointing at Solomon, +whereupon the latter was promptly arrested. + +"What have I done?" he asked. + +"You'll learn directly at 'eadquarters," said the officer. + +Solomon shook hands with Jack and said: "I'm glad I met ye," and turned +and walked away with the two men. + +Jack was tempted to follow them but feeling a hidden purpose in +Solomon's conduct went into the inn. + +So the friends parted. Jack being puzzled and distressed by the swift +change in the color of their affairs. The letter to Doctor Franklin +was in his pocket--a lucky circumstance. He decided to go to London +and deliver the letter and seek advice regarding the relief of Solomon. +At the desk in the lobby of The Three Kings he learned that he must +take the post chaise for Canterbury which would not be leaving until +six P.M. This gave him time to take counsel in behalf of his friend. +Turning toward the door he met Captain Preston, who greeted him with +great warmth and wished to know where was Major Binkus. + +Jack told the Captain of the arrest of his friend. + +"I expected it," said Preston. "So I have waited here for your ship. +It's that mongrel chap on The Star who got a tarring from Binkus and +his friends. He saw Binkus on your deck, as I did, and proclaimed his +purpose. So I am here to do what I can to help you. I can not forget +that you two men saved my life. Are there any papers on his person +which are likely to make him trouble?" + +"No," said Jack, thinking of the letter lying safely in his own pocket. + +"That's the important thing," Preston resumed. "Binkus is a famous +scout who is known to be anti-British. Such a man coming here is +supposed to be carrying papers. Between ourselves they would arrest +him on any pretext. You leave this matter in my hands. If he had no +papers he'll be coming on in a day or two." + +"I'd like to go with you to find him," said Jack. + +"Better not," Preston answered with a smile. + +"Why?" + +"Because I suspect you have the papers. They'll get you, too, if they +learn you are his friend. Keep away from him. Sit quietly here in the +inn until the post chaise starts for Canterbury. Don't let any one +pick a quarrel with you and remember this is all a sacred confidence +between friends." + +"I thank you and my heart is in every word," said Jack as he pressed +the hand of the Captain. "After all friendship is a thing above +politics--even the politics of these bitter days." + + + +3 + +He sat down with a sense of relief and spent the rest of the afternoon +reading the London papers although he longed to go and look at the +fortress of Deal Castle. He had tea at five and set out on the mail +carriage, with his box and bag, an hour later. The road was rough and +muddy with deep holes in it. At one point the chaise rattled and +bumped over a plowed field. Before dark he saw a man hanging in a +gibbet by the roadside. At ten o'clock they passed the huge gate of +Canterbury and drew up at an inn called The King's Head. The landlady +and two waiters attended for orders. He had some supper and went to +bed. Awakened at five A.M. by the sound of a bugle he arose and +dressed hurriedly and found the post chaise waiting. They went on the +King's Road from Canterbury and a mile out they came to a big, white +gate in the dim light of the early morning. + +A young man clapped his mouth to the window and shouted: + +"Sixpence, Yer Honor!" + +It was a real turnpike and Jack stuck his head out of the window for a +look at it. They stopped for breakfast at an inn far down the pike and +went on through Sittingborn, Faversham, Rochester and the lovely valley +of the River Medway of which Jack had read. + +At every stop it amused him to hear the words "Chaise an' pair," flying +from host to waiter and waiter to hostler and back in the wink of an +eye. + +Jack spent the night at The Rose in Dartford and went on next morning +over Gadshill and Shootershill and Blackheath. Then the Thames and +Greenwich and Deptfort from which he could see the crowds and domes and +towers of the big city. A little past two o'clock he rode over London +bridge and was set down at The Spread Eagle where he paid a shilling a +mile for his passage and ate his dinner. + +Such, those days, was the crossing and the trip up to London, as Jack +describes it in his letters. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +JACK SEES LONDON AND THE GREAT PHILOSOPHER + +The stir and prodigious reach of London had appalled the young man. +His fancy had built and peopled it, but having found no sufficient +material for its task in New York, Boston and Philadelphia, had scored +a failure. It had built too small and too humbly. He was in no way +prepared for the noise, the size, the magnificence, the beauty of it. +In spite of that, something in his mental inheritance had soon awakened +a sense of recognition and familiarity. He imagined that the sooty +odor and the bells, and the clatter of wheels and horses' feet and the +voices--the air was full of voices--were like the echoes of a remote +past. + +The thought thrilled him that somewhere in the great crowd, of which he +was now a part, were the two human beings he had come so far to see. +He put on his best clothes and with the letter which had been carefully +treasured--under his pillow at night and pinned to his pocket lining +through the day--set out in a cab for the lodgings of Doctor Franklin. +Through a maze of streets where people were "thick as the brush in the +forests of Tryon County" he proceeded until after a journey of some +thirty minutes the cab stopped at the home of the famous American on +Bloomsbury Square. Doctor Franklin was in and would see him presently, +so the liveried servant informed the young man after his card had been +taken to the Doctor's office. He was shown into a reception room and +asked to wait, where others were waiting. An hour passed and the day +was growing dusk when all the callers save Jack had been disposed of. +Then Franklin entered. Jack remembered the strong, well-knit frame and +kindly gray eyes of the philosopher. His thick hair, hanging below his +collar, was now white. He was very grand in a suit of black Manchester +velvet with white silk stockings and bright silver buckles on his +shoes. There was a gentle dignity in his face when he took the boy's +hand and said with a smile: + +"You are so big, Jack. You have built a six foot, two inch man out of +that small lad I knew in Albany, and well finished, too--great thighs, +heavy shoulders, a mustache, a noble brow and shall I say the eye of +Mars? It's a wonder what time and meat and bread and potatoes and air +can accomplish. But perhaps industry and good reading have done some +work on the job." + +Jack blushed and answered. "It would be hard to fix the blame." + +Franklin put his hand on the young man's shoulder and said: + +"She is a lovely girl, Jack. You have excellent good taste. I +congratulate you. Her pulchritude has a background of good character +and she is alive with the spirit of the New World. I have given her no +chance to forget you if that had been possible. Since I became the +agent in England of yourself and sundry American provinces, I have seen +her often but never without longing for the gift of youth. How is my +family?" + +"They are well. I bring you letters." + +"Come up to my office and we'll give an hour to the news." + +When they were seated before the grate fire in the large, pleasant room +above stairs whose windows looked out upon the Square, the young man +said: + +"First I shall give you, sir, a letter from Major Washington. It was +entrusted to a friend of mine who came on the same ship with me. He +was arrested at Deal but, fortunately, the letter was in my pocket." + +"Arrested? Why?" + +"I think, sir, the charge was that he had helped to tar and feather a +British subject." + +"Feathers and tar are poor arguments," the Doctor remarked as he broke +the seal of the letter. + +It was a long letter and Franklin sat for near half an hour +thoughtfully reading and rereading it. By and by he folded and put it +into his pocket, saying as he did so: "An angry man can not even trust +himself. I sent some letters to America on condition that they should +be read by a committee of good men and treated in absolute confidence +and returned to me. Certain members of that committee had so much gun +powder in their hearts it took fire and their prudence and my +reputation have been seriously damaged, I fear. The contents of those +letters are now probably known to you." + +"Are they the Hutchinson, Rogers and Oliver letters?" + +"The same." + +"I think they are known to every one in America that reads. We were +indignant that these men born and raised among us should have said that +a colony ought not to enjoy all the liberties of a parent state and +that we should be subjected to coercive measures. They had expressed +no such opinion save in these private letters. It looked like a base +effort to curry favor with the English government." + +"Yes, they were overworking the curry comb," said Franklin. "I had +been protesting against an armed force in Boston. The government +declared that our own best people were in favor of it. I, knowing +better, denied the statement. To prove their claim a distinguished +baronet put the letters in my hands. He gave me leave to send them to +America on condition that they should not be published. Of course they +proved nothing but the treachery of Hutchinson, Rogers and Oliver. Now +I seem to be tarred by the same stick." + +Jack delivered sundry letters from the family of the great man who read +them carefully. + +"It's good to hear from home," he said when he had finished. "You've +heard of the three Greenlanders, off the rocks and ice where there was +not dirt enough to raise a bushel of cabbages or light enough for half +the year to make a shadow, who having seen the world and its splendors +said it was interesting, but that they would prefer to live at home?" + +"These days America is an unhappy land," said Jack. "We are like a +wildcat in captivity--a growling, quarrelsome lot." + +"Well, the British use the right to govern us like a baby rattle and +they find us a poor toy. This petty island, compared with America, is +but a stepping stone in a brook. There's scarcely enough of it out of +water to keep one's feet dry. In two generations our population will +exceed that of the British Isles. But with so many lying agents over +there what chance have they to learn anything about us? They will +expect to hear you tell of people being tomahawked in Philadelphia--a +city as well governed as any in England. They can not understand that +most of us would gladly spend nineteen shillings to the pound for the +right to spend the other shilling as we please." + +"Can they not be made to understand us?" Jack inquired. + +"The power to learn is like your hand--you must use it or it will +wither and die. There are brilliant intellects here which have lost +the capacity to learn. I think that profound knowledge is not for high +heads." + +"I wonder just what you mean." + +"Oh, the moment you lose humility, you stop learning," the Doctor went +on. "There are two doors to every intellect. One lets knowledge in, +the other lets it out. We must keep both doors in use. The mind is +like a purse: if you keep paying out money, you must, now and then, put +some into your purse or it will be empty. I once knew a man who was a +liberal spender but never did any earning. We soon found that he had +been making counterfeit money. The King's intellects have often put me +in mind of him. They are flush with knowledge but they never learn +anything. They can tell you all you may want to know but it is +counterfeit knowledge." + +"How about Lord North?" + +"He has nailed up the door. The African zebra is a good student +compared to him. It is a maxim of Walpole and North that all men are +equally corrupt." + +"It is a hateful notion!" Jack exclaimed. + +"But not without some warrant. You may be sure that a man who has +spent his life in hospitals will have no high opinion of the health of +mankind. He and his friends are so engrossed by their cards and cock +fights and horses and hounds that they have little time for such a +trivial matter as the problems of America. They postpone their +consideration and meanwhile the house is catching fire. By and by +these boys are going to get burned. They think us a lot of +semi-savages not to be taken seriously. Our New England farmers are +supposed to be like the peasants of Europe. The fact is, our average +farmer is a man of better intellect and character than the average +member of Parliament." + +"The King's intellects would seem to be out of order," said Jack. + +"And too cynical. They think only of revenues. They remind me of the +report of the Reverend Commissary Blair who, having projected a college +in Virginia, came to England to ask King William for help. The Queen +in the King's absence ordered her Attorney-General to draw a charter +with a grant of two thousand pounds. The Attorney opposed it on the +ground that they were in a war and needed the money for better purposes. + +"'But, Your Honor, Virginia is in great need of ministers,' said the +commissary. 'It has souls to be saved.' + +"'Souls--damn your souls! Make tobacco,' said the Queen's lawyer. + +"The counselors of royalty have no high opinion of souls or principles. +Think of these taxes on exports needed by neighbors. The minds that +invented them had the genius of a pickpocket." + +"I see that you are not in love with England, sir," said Jack. + +"My boy, you do not see straight," the Doctor answered. "I am fond of +England. At heart she is sound. The King is a kind of wooden leg. He +has no feeling and no connection whatever with her heart and little +with her intellect. The people are out of sympathy with the King. The +best minds in England are directly opposed to the King's policy; so are +most of the people, but they are helpless. He has throttled the voting +power of the country. Jack, I have told you all this and shall tell +you more because--well, you know Plato said that he would rather be a +blockhead than have all knowledge and nobody to share it. You ought to +know the truth but I have told you only for your own information." + +"I am going to write letters to _The Gazette_ but I shall not quote +you, sir, without permission," said Jack. + +At this point the attendant entered and announced that Mr. Thomas Paine +had called to get his manuscript. + +"Bring him up," said the Doctor. + +In a moment a slim, dark-eyed man of about thirty-three in shabby, +ill-fitting garments entered the room. + +Doctor Franklin shook his hand and gave him a bundle of manuscript and +said: + +"It is well done but I think it unsound. I would not publish it." + +"Why?" Paine asked with a look of disappointment. + +"Well, it is spitting against the wind and he who spits against the +wind spits in his own face. It would be a dangerous book. Think how +great a portion of mankind are weak and ignorant men and women; think +how many are young and inexperienced and incapable of serious thought. +They need religion to support their virtue and restrain them from vice. +If men are so wicked with religion what would they be without it? Lay +the manuscript away and we will have a talk about it later." + +"I should like to talk with you about it," the man answered with a +smile and departed, the bundle under his arm. + +"Now, Jack," said Franklin, as he looked at his watch, "I can give you +a quarter of an hour before I must go and dress for dinner. Please +tell me about your resources. Are you able to get married?" + +Jack told him of his prospects and especially of the generosity of his +friend Solomon Binkus and of the plight the latter was in. + +"He must be a remarkable man," said Franklin. "With Preston's help he +will be coming on to London in a day or so. If necessary you and I +will go down there. We shall not neglect him. Have you any dinner +clothes? They will be important to you." + +"I thought, sir, that I should best wait until I had arrived here." + +"You thought wisely. I shall introduce you to a good cloth mechanic. +Go to him at once and get one suit for dinner and perhaps two for the +street. It costs money to be a gentleman here. It's a fine art. +While you are in London you'll have to get the uniform and fall in line +and go through the evolutions or you will be a 'North American savage.' +You shall meet the Hares in my house as soon as your clothes are ready. +Ask the tailor to hurry up. They must be finished by Wednesday noon. +You had better have lodgings near me. I will attend to that for you." + +The Doctor sat down and wrote on a number of cards. "These will +provide for cloth, linen, leather and hats," he said. "Let the bills +be sent to me. Then you will not be cheated. Come in to-morrow at +half after two." + + + +2 + +Jack bade the Doctor good night and drove to The Spread Eagle where, +before he went to bed, he wrote to his parents and a long letter to +_The Pennsylvania Gazette_, describing his voyage and his arrival +substantially as the facts are here recorded. Next morning he ordered +every detail in his "uniforms" for morning and evening wear and +returning again to the inn found Solomon waiting in the lobby. + +"Here I be," said the scout and trapper. + +"What happened to you?" + +"S'arched an' shoved me into a dark hole in the wall. Ye know, Jack, +with you an' me, it allus 'pears to be workin'." + +"What?" + +"Good luck. Cur'us thing the papers was on you 'stid of me--ayes, sir, +'twas. Did ye hand 'em over safe?" + +"Last night I put 'em in Franklin's hands." + +"Hunkidory! I'm ready fer to go hum." + +"Not yet I hope. I want you to help me see the place." + +"Wall, sir, I'll be p'intin' fer hum soon es I kin hop on a ship. +Couldn't stan' it here, too much noise an' deviltry. This 'ere city is +like a twenty-mile bush full o' drunk Injuns--Maumees, hostyle as the +devil. I went out fer a walk an' a crowd follered me eround which I +don't like it. 'Look at the North American,' they kep' a-sayin'. As +soon as I touched shore the tommyhawk landed on me. But fer Cap. +Preston I'd be in that 'ere dark hole now. He see the Jedge an' the +Jedge called fer Slops an' Slops had slopped over. He were layin' +under a tree dead drunk. The Jedge let me go an' Preston come on with +me. Now 'twere funny he turned up jest as he done; funny I got +app'inted cook o' _The Snow_ so as I had to give that 'ere paper to +you. I tell ye it's workin'--allus workin'." + +"Doctor Franklin wants to see you," said Jack. "Put on your Sunday +clothes an' we'll go over to his house. I think I can lead you there. +If we get lost we'll jump into a cab." + +When they set out Solomon was dressed in fine shoes and brown wool +stockings and drab trousers, a butternut jacket and blue coat, and a +big, black three-cornered hat. His slouching gait and large body and +weathered face and the variety of colors in his costume began at once +to attract the attention of the crowd. A half-drunk harridan surveyed +him, from top to toe, and made a profound bow as he passed. A number +of small boys scurried along with them, curiously staring into the face +of Solomon. + +"Ain't this like comin' into a savage tribe that ain't seen no +civilized human bein' fer years?" + +"Wot is it?" a voice shouted. + +"'E's a blarsted bush w'acker from North Hamerica, 'e is," another +answered. + +Jack stopped a cab and they got into it. + +"Show us some of the great buildings and land us in an hour at 10 +Bloomsbury Square, East," he said. + +With a sense of relief they were whisked away in the stream of traffic. + +They passed the King's palace and the great town houses of the Duke of +Bedford and Lord Balcarras, each of which was pointed out by the +driver. Suddenly every vehicle near them stopped, while their male +occupants sat with bared heads. Jack observed a curious procession on +the sidewalk passing between two lines of halted people. + +"Hit's their Majesties!" the driver whispered under his breath. + +The King--a stout, red-nosed, blue-jowled man, with big, gray, staring +eyes--was in a sedan chair surmounted by a crown. He was dressed in +light cloth with silver buttons. Queen Charlotte, also in a chair, was +dressed in lemon colored silk ornamented with brocaded flowers. The +two were smiling and bowing as they passed. In a moment the procession +entered a great gate. Then there was a crack of whips and the traffic +resumed its hurried pace. + +"Hit's their Majesties, sir, goin' to a drawin'-room at Lord Rawdon's, +sir," the driver explained as he drove on. + +"Did you see the unnatural look in his gray eyes?" said Jack, turning +to Solomon. + +"Ayes! Kind o' skeered like! 'Twere a han'some yoke o' men totin' +him--well broke, too, I guess. Pulled even an' nobody yellin' gee er +haw er whoa hush." + +"You know it isn't proper for kings and queens to walk in public," Jack +answered. + +Again Solomon had on his shooting face. With his left eye closed, he +took deliberate aim with the other at the subject before them and thus +discharged his impressions. + +"Uh huh! I suppose 'twouldn't do fer 'em to be like other folks so +they have to have some extry pairs o' legs to kind o' put 'on when they +go ou'doors. I wonder if they ain't obleeged to have an extry set o' +brains fer public use." + +"They have quantities of 'em all made and furnished to order and stored +in the court," said Jack. "His own mind is only for use in the private +rooms." + +"I should think 'twould git out o' order," Solomon remarked. + +"It does. They say he's been as crazy as a loon." + +Soon the two observers became interested in a band of sooty-faced +chimney sweeps decorated with ribbands and gilt paper. They were +making musical sounds with their brushes and scrapers and soliciting +gifts from the passing crowd and, now and then, scrambling for tossed +coins. + +In the Ave Mary Lane they saw a procession of milk men and maids +carrying wreaths of flowers on wheelbarrows, the first of which held a +large white pyramid which seemed to be a symbol of their calling. They +were also begging. + +"It's a lickpenny place," said Jack. + +"Somebody's got to do some 'arnin' to pay fer all the foolin' eround," +Solomon answered. "If I was to stay here I'd git myself ragged up like +these 'ere savages and jine the tribe er else I'd lose the use o' my +legs an' spend all my money bein' toted. I ain't used to settin' down +when I move, you hear to me." + +"I'll take you to Doctor Franklin's tailor," Jack proposed. + +"Major Washington tol' me whar to go. I got the name an' the street +all writ down plain in my wallet but I got t' go hum." + +They had stopped at the door of the famous American. Jack and Solomon +went in and sat down with a dozen others to await their turn. + +When they had been conducted to the presence of the great man he took +Solomon's hand and said: + +"Mr. Binkus, I am glad to bid you welcome." + +He looked down at the sinewy, big-boned, right hand of the scout, still +holding it. + +"Will you step over to the window a moment and give me a look at your +hands?" he asked. + +They went to the window and the Doctor put on his spectacles and +examined them closely. + +"I have never seen such an able, Samsonian fist," he went on. "I think +the look of those hands would let you into Paradise. What a record of +human service is writ upon them! Hands like that have laid the +foundations of America. They have been generous hands. They tell me +all I need to know of your spirit, your lungs, your heart and your +stomach." + +"They're purty heavy--that's why I genially carry 'em in my pockets +when I ain't busy," said Solomon. + +"Over here a pair of hands like that are thought to be a disgrace. +They are like the bloody hands of Macbeth. Certain people would look +at them and say: 'My God, man, you are guilty of hard work. You have +produced food for the hungry and fuel for the cold. You are not an +idler. You have refused to waste your time with Vice and Folly. +Avaunt and quit my sight.' In America every one works--even the horse, +the ass and the ox. Only the hog is a gentleman. There are many +mischievous opinions in Europe but the worst is that useful labor is +dishonorable. Do you like London?" + +Solomon put his face in shape for a long shot. Jack has written that +he seemed to be looking for hostile "Injuns" some distance away and to +be waiting for another stir in the bushes. Suddenly he pulled his +trigger. + +"London an' I is kind o' skeered o' one 'nother. It 'minds me o' the +fust time I run into ol' Thorny Tree. They was a young brave with him +an' both on 'em had guns. They knowed me an' I knowed them. Looked as +if there'd have to be some killin' done. We both made the sign o' +friendship an' kep' edgin' erway f'm one 'nother careless like but +keepin' close watch. Sudden as scat they run like hell in one +direction an' I in t'other. I guess I look bad to London an' London +looks bad to me, but I'll have to do all the runnin' this time." + +The Doctor laughed. "It ha' never seen a man just like you before," he +observed. "I saw Sir Jeffrey Amherst this morning and told him you +were in London. He is fond of you and paid you many compliments and +made me promise to bring you to his home." + +"I'd like to smoke a pipe with ol' Jeff," Solomon answered. "They +ain't no nonsense 'bout him. I learnt him how to talk Injun an' read +rapids an' build a fire with tinder an' elbow grease. He knows me +plenty. He staked his life on me a dozen times in the Injun war." + +"How is Major Washington?" the Doctor asked. + +"Stout as a pot o' ginger," Solomon answered. "I rassled with him one +evenin' down in Virginny an' I'll never tackle him ag'in, you hear to +me. His right flipper is as big as mine an' when it takes holt ye'd +think it were goin' to strip the shuck off yer soul." + +"He's in every way a big man," said the Doctor. "On the whole, he's +about our biggest man. An officer who came out of the ambuscade at +Fort Duquesne with thirty living men out of three companies and four +shot holes in his coat must have an engagement with Destiny. Evidently +his work was not finished. You have traveled about some. What is the +feeling over there toward England?" + +"They're like a b'ilin' pot everywhere. England has got to step +careful now." + +"Tell Sir Jeffrey that, if you see him, just that. Don't mince +matters. Jack, I'll send my man with you and Mr. Binkus to show you +the new lodgings. We found them this morning." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE LOVERS + +The fashionable tailor was done with Jack's equipment. Franklin had +seen and approved the admirably shaped and fitted garments. The young +man and his friend Solomon had moved to their new lodgings on +Bloomsbury Square. The scout had acquired a suit for street wear and +was now able to walk abroad without exciting the multitudes. The +Doctor was planning what he called "a snug little party." So he +announced when Jack and Solomon came, adding: + +"But first you are to meet Margaret and her mother here at half after +four." + +Jack made careful preparation for that event. Fortunately it was a +clear, bright day after foggy weather. Solomon had refused to go with +Jack for fear of being in the way. + +"I want to see her an' her folks but I reckon ye'll have yer hands full +to-day," he remarked. "Ye don't need no scout on that kind o' +reconnoiterin'. You go on ahead an' git through with yer smackin an' +bym-by I'll straggle in." + +Precisely at four thirty-five Jack presented himself at the lodgings of +his distinguished friend. He has said in a letter, when his dramatic +adventures were all behind him, that this was the most thrilling moment +he had known. "The butler had told me that the ladies were there," he +wrote. "Upon my word it put me out of breath climbing that little +flight of stairs. But it was in fact the end of a long journey. It is +curious that my feeling then should remind me, as it does, of moments +when I have been close up to the enemy, within his lines, and lying +hard against the ground in some thicket while British soldiers were +tramping so near I could feel the ground shake. In the room I saw Lady +Hare and Doctor Franklin standing side by side. What a smile he wore +as he looked at me! I have never known a human being who had such a +cheering light in his countenance. I have seen it brighten the darkest +days of the war aided by the light of his words. His faith and good +cheer were immovable. I felt the latter when he said: + +"'See the look of alarm in his face. Now for a pretty drama!' + +"Mrs. Hare gave me her hand and I kissed it and said that I had +expected to see Margaret and hoped that she was not ill. There was a +thistledown touch on my cheek from behind and turning I saw the +laughing face I sought looking up at me. I tell you, my mother, there +never was such a pair of eyes. Their long, dark lashes and the glow +between them I remember chiefly. The latter was the friendly light of +her spirit To me it was like a candle in the window to guide my feet. +'Come,' it seemed to say. 'Here is a welcome for you.' I saw the pink +in her cheeks, the crimson in her lips, the white of her neck, the glow +of her abundant hair, the shapeliness of brow and nose and chin in that +first glance. I saw the beating of her heart even. I remember there +was a tiny mole on her temple under the edge of that beautiful, golden +crown of hers. It did not escape my eye. I tell you she was fair as +the first violets in Meadowvale on a dewy morning. Of course she was +at her best. It was the last moment in years of waiting in which her +imagination had furnished me with endowments too romantic. I have seen +great moments, as you know, but this is the one I could least afford to +give up. I had long been wondering what I should do when it came. Now +it was come and there was no taking thought of what we should do. That +would seem to have been settled out of court. I kissed her lips and +she kissed mine and for a few moments I think we could have stood in a +half bushel measure. Then the Doctor laughed and gave her Ladyship a +smack on the cheek. + +"'I don't know about you, my Lady, but it fills me with the glow of +youth to see such going on,' he remarked. 'I'm only twenty-one and +nobody knows it--nobody suspects it even. These wrinkles and gray hair +are only a mask that covers the heart of a boy.' + +"'I confess that such a scene does push me back into my girlhood,' said +Lady Hare. 'Alas! I feel the old thrill.' + +"Franklin came and stood before us with his hands Upon our shoulders, +his face shining with happiness. "'Margaret, a woman needs something +to hold on to in this slippery world,' said he. 'Here is a man that +stands as firm as an oak tree.' + +"He kissed us as did Lady Hare, also, and then we all sat down together +and laughed. I would not forget, if I could, that we had to wipe our +eyes. No, my life has not been all blood and iron. + +"Would you not call it a wonder that we had kept the sacred fire which +had been kindled in our hearts, so long before, and our faith in each +other? It is because we were both of a steadfast breed of folk--the +English--trained to cling to the things that are worth while. Once +they think they are right how hard it is to turn them aside! Let us +never forget that some of the best of our traits have come from England. + +"Suddenly Solomon arrived. Of course where Solomon is one would expect +solecisms. They were not wanting. I had not tried to prepare him for +the ordeal. Solomon is bound to be himself wherever he is, am why not? +There is no better man living. + +"'You're as purty as a golden robin,' he said to Margaret, shaking her +hand in his big one. + +"He was not so much put out as I thought he would be. I never saw a +gentler man with women. As hard as iron in a fight there has always +been a curious veil of chivalry in the old scout. He stood and joked +with the girl, in his odd fashion, and set us all laughing. Margaret +and her mother enjoyed his talk and spoke of it, often, after that. + +"'Wal, Mis Hare,' he said to Her Ladyship, 'if ye graft this 'ere +sprout on yer fam'ly tree I'll bet ye a pint o' powder an' a fish hook +ye won't never be sorry fer it.' + +"It did not seem to occur to him that there were those to whom a pint +of powder and a fish hook would be no great temptation." + + + +2 + +"I dressed and went to dine with the Hares that evening. They lived in +a large house on a fashionable 'road' as certain, of the streets were +called. It was a typical upper class, English home. There were many +fine old things in it but no bright colors, nothing to dazzle or +astonish; you like the wooden Indian in war-paint and feathers and the +stuffed bear and high colored rugs in the parlor of Mr. Gosport in +Philadelphia. Every piece of furniture was like the quiet, still +footed servants who came and went making the smallest possible demand +upon your attention. + +"I was shown into the library where Sir Benjamin' sat alone reading a +newspaper. He greeted me politely. + +"'The news is disquieting,' he said presently. 'What have you to tell +us of the situation in America?' + +"'It is critical,' I answered. 'It can be mended, however, if the +government will act promptly.' + +"'What should it do?' + +"'Make concessions, sir, stop shipping tea for a time. Don't try to +force an export with a duty on it. I think the government should not +shake the mailed fist at us.' + +"'But think of the violence and the destruction of property!' + +"'All that will abate and disappear if the cause is removed. We who +keep our affection for England have done our best to hold the passions +of the people in check but we get no help from this side of the ocean.' + +"Sir Benjamin sat thoughtfully feeling his silvered mustache. He had +grown stouter and fuller-faced since we had parted in Albany when he +had looked like a prosperous, well-bred merchant in military dress and +had been limbered and soiled by knocking about in the bush. Now he +wore a white wig and ruffles and looked as dignified as a Tory +magistrate. + +"In the moment of silence I mustered up my courage and spoke out. + +"'Sir Benjamin,' I said. 'I have come to claim your daughter under the +promise you gave me at Fort Stanwix. I have not ceased to love her and +if she continues to love me I am sure that our wishes will have your +favor and blessing.' + +"'I have not forgotten the promise,' he said. 'But America has +changed. It is likely to be a hotbed of rebellion--perhaps even the +scene of a bloody war. I must consider my daughter's happiness.' + +"'Conditions in America, sir, are not so bad as you take them to be,' I +assured him. + +"'I hope you are right,' he answered. 'I am told that the whole matter +rests with your Doctor Franklin. If we are to go on from bad to worse +he will be responsible.' + +"'If it rests with him I can assure you, sir, that our troubles will +end,' I said, looking only at the surface of the matter and speaking +confidently out of the bottomless pit of my inexperience as the young +are like to do. + +"'I believe you are right,' he declared and went on with a smile. +'Now, my young friend, the girl has a notion that she loves you. I am +aware of that--so are you, I happen to know. Through Doctor Franklin's +influence we have allowed her to receive your letters and to answer +them. I have no doubt of your sincerity, or hers, but I did not +foresee what has come to pass. She is our only child and you can +scarcely blame me if I balk at a marriage which promises to turn her +away from us and fill our family with dissension.' + +"'May we not respect each other and disagree in politics?' I asked. + +"'In politics, yes, but not in war. I begin to see danger of war and +that is full of the bitterness of death. If Doctor Franklin will do +what he can to reestablish loyalty and order in the colonies my fear +will he removed and I shall welcome you to my family.' + +"I began to show a glint of intelligence and said: 'If the ministers +will cooperate it will not be difficult.' + +"'The ministers will do anything it is in their power to do.' + +"Then the timely entrance of Margaret and her mother. + +"'I suppose that I shall shock my father but I can not help it,' said +the girl as she kissed me. + +"You may be sure that I had my part in that game. She stood beside me, +her arm around my waist and mine around her shoulders. + +"'Father, can you blame me for loving this big, splendid hero who saved +us from the Indians and the bandits? It is unlike you to be such a +hardened wretch. But for him you would have neither wife nor daughter.' + +"She put it on thick but I held my peace as I have done many a time in +the presence of a woman's cunning. Anyhow she is apt to believe +herself and in a matter of the heart can find her way through +difficulties which would appal a man. + +"'Keep yourself in bounds, my daughter,' her father answered. 'I know +his merits and should like to see you married and hope to, but I must +ask you to be patient until you can go to a loyal colony with your +husband.' + +"It was a pleasant dinner through which they kept me telling of my +adventures in the bush. Save the immediate family only Mrs. Biggars, a +sister of Lady Hare, and a young nephew of Sir Benjamin were at the +table." + +Jack has said in another of His letters that Mrs. Biggars was a sweet, +stout lady whose manner of address reminded him of an affectionate +house cat. "That means, as you will know, that I liked her," he added. + +"The ladies sat together at one end of the table. The baronet pumped +me for knowledge of the hunting and fishing in the northern part of +Tryon County where Solomon and I had spent a week, having left our boat +in Lake Champlain and journeyed off in the mountains. + +"'Champlain was a man of imagination,' said my host. 'He tells of +trying to land on a log lying against the lake shore and of +discovering, suddenly, that it was an immense fish.' + +"'Since I learned that I was to meet you I have been reading a book +entitled _The Animals of North America_,' said Mrs. Biggars. 'I have +learned that bears often climb after and above the hunter and double +themselves up and fall toward him, knocking him out of the tree. Have +you seen it done?' + +"'I think it was never done outside a book,' I answered. 'I never saw +a bear that was not running away from me. They hate the look of a man.' + +"Mrs. Biggars was filled with astonishment and went on: 'The author +tells of an animal on the borders of Canada that resembles a horse. It +has cloven hoofs, a shaggy mane, a horn right out of its forehead and a +tail like that of a pig. When hunted it spews hot water upon the dogs. +I wonder if you could have seen such an animal?' + +"'No, that's another nightmare,' I answered. 'People go hunting for +nightmares in America. They enjoy them and often think they have found +them when they have not. It all comes of trying to talk with Indians +and of guessing at the things they say.' + +"Sir Benjamin remarked that when a man wrote about nature he seemed to +regard himself as a first deputy of God. + +"'And undertakes to lend him a hand in the work of creation,' I +suggested. 'Even your great Doctor Johnson has stated that swallows +spend the winter at the bottom of the streams, forgetting that they +might find it a rather slippery place to hang on to and a winter a long +time to hold their breaths. Even Goldsmith has been divinely reckless +in his treatment of 'Animated Nature.' + +"'I am surprised, sir, at your familiarity with English authors,' he +declared. 'When we think of America we are apt to think of savages and +poverty and ignorance and log huts.' + +"'You forget, sir, that we have about all the best books and the +leisure to read them,' I answered. + +"'You undoubtedly have the best game,' said he. 'Tell us about the +shooting and fishing.' + +"I told of the deer, the moose and the caribou, all of which I had +killed, and of our fishing on the long river of the north with a lure +made of the feathers of a woodpecker, and of covering the bottom of our +canoe with beautiful speckled fish. All this warmed the heart of Sir +Benjamin who questioned me as to every detail in my experience on trail +and river. He was a born sportsman and my stories had put a smile on +his face so that I felt sure he had a better feeling for me when we +arose from the table. + +"Then I had an hour alone with Margaret in a corner of the great hall. +We reviewed the years that had passed since our adventure and there was +one detail in her history of which I must tell you. She had had many +suitors, and among them one Lionel Clarke--a son of the distinguished +General. Her father had urged her to accept the young man, but she had +stood firmly for me. + +"'You see, this heart of mine is a stubborn thing,' she said as she +looked into my eyes. + +"Then it was that we gave to each other the long pledge, often on the +lips of lovers since Eros strung his bow, but never more deeply felt. + +"'I am sure the sky will clear soon,' she said to me at last. + +"Indeed as I bade them good night, I saw encouraging signs of that. +Sir Benjamin had taken a liking to me. He pressed my hand as we drank +a glass of Madeira together and said: + +"'My boy, I drink to the happiness of England, the colonies and you.'" + +"'"Time and I" and the will of God,' I whispered, as I left their door." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE DAWN + +The young man was elated by the look and sentiments which had gone with +the parting cup at Sir Benjamin's. But Franklin, whom he saw the next +day, liked not the attitude of the Baronet. + +"He is one of the King's men on the Big chess board," said the old +philosopher. "All that he said to you has the sound of strategy. I +have reason to believe that they are trying to tow us into port and +Margaret is only one of many ropes. Hare's attitude is not that of an +honest man." + +"Is it not true that every one who touches the King gets some of that +tar on him?" Jack queried. + +"It would seem so and yet we must be fair to him. We are not to think +that the King is the only black pot on the fire. He is probably the +best of kings but I can not think of one king who would be respectable +in Boston or Philadelphia. Their expenses have been great, their taxes +robbery, so they have had to study the magic arts of seeming to be just +and righteous. They have been a lot of conjurers trained to create +illusions." + +"I suppose that Britain is no worse than other kingdoms," said the +young man. + +"On the whole she is the best of them. Under the surface here I find +the love of liberty and all good things. Chatham, Burke and Fox are +their voices. We are not to wonder that Lord North puts a price on +every man. His is the soul of a past in which most men have had their +price. It was the old way of removing difficulties in the management +of a state. It succeeded. A new day is at hand. Its forerunners are +here. He has not seen the signs in the sky or heard the cocks crowing. +He is still asleep. I know many men in England whom he could not buy." + +Only three days before the philosopher had had a talk with North at the +urgent request of Howe, who, to his credit, was eager for +reconciliation. The King's friend and minister was contemptuous. + +"I am quite indifferent to war," he had cynically declared at last. +"The confiscations it would produce will provide for many of our +friends." + +It was an astonishing bit of frankness. + +"I take this opportunity of assuring Your Lordship that for all the +property you seize or destroy in America, you will pay to the last +farthing," said Franklin. + +This treatment was like that he had received from other members of the +government since the unfortunate publication of the Hutchinson, Rogers +and Oliver letters. They seemed to entertain the notion that he had +forfeited the respect due a gentleman. + +A few days after Franklin had given air to his suspicion that the +government party would try to tow him into port three stout British +ships had broken their cables on him. An invitation not likely to be +received by one who had really forfeited the respect of gentlemen was +in his hands. The shrewd philosopher did not think twice about it. He +knew that here was the first step in a change of tactics. He could not +properly decline to accept it and so he went to dine and spend the +night with a most distinguished company at the country seat of Lord +Howe. + +On his return he told his young friend of the portal and lodge in a +great triumphal arch marking the entrance to the estate of His +Lordship; of the mile long road to the big house straight as a gun +barrel and smooth as a carpet; of the immense single oaks; of the +artificial stream circling the front of the house and the beautiful +bridge leading to its entrance; of the double flight of steps under the +grand portico; of the great hall with its ceiling forty feet high, +supported by fluted Corinthian columns of red-veined alabaster; of the +rare old tapestries on a golden background in the saloon; of the +immense corridors connecting the wings of the structure. The dinner +and its guests and its setting were calculated to impress the son of +the Boston soap boiler who represented the important colonies in +America. + +Some of the best people were there--Lord and Lady Cathcart, Lord and +Lady Hyde, Lord and Lady Dartmouth. Sir William Erskine, Sir Henry +Clinton, Sir James Baird, Sir Benjamin Hare and their ladies were also +present. Doctor Franklin said that the punch was calculated to promote +cheerfulness and high sentiment. As was the custom at like functions, +the ladies sat together at one end of the table. Franklin being seated +at the right of Lady Howe, who was most gracious and entertaining. The +first toast was to the venerable philosopher. + +"My Ladies, Lords and gentlemen," said the host, "we must look to our +conduct in the presence of one who talked with Sir William Wyndham and +was a visitor in the house of Sir Hans Sloane before we were born; +whose tireless intellect has been a confidant of Nature, a playmate of +the Lightning and an inventor of ingenious and useful things; whose +wisdom has given to Philadelphia a public library, a work house, good +paving, excellent schools, a protection against fire as efficient as +any in the world and the best newspaper in the colonies. Good health +and long life to him and may his love of the old sod increase with his +years." + +The toast was drunk with expressions of approval, and Franklin only +arose and bowed and briefly spoke his acknowledgments in a single +sentence, and then added: + +"Lord Howe can assure you that public men receive more praise and more +blame than they really merit. I have heard much said for and against +Benjamin Franklin, but there could be no better testimony in his favor +than the good opinion of Lord Howe, for which I can never cease to be +grateful. For years I have been weighing the evidence, and my verdict +is that Franklin has meant well." + +He said to Jack that he felt the need of being "as discreet as a +tombstone." + +A member of that party has told in his memoirs how he kept the ladies +laughing with his merry jests. + +"I see by _The Observer_ they are going to open cod and whale fisheries +in the great lakes of the Northwest," Lady Howe said to him. + +He answered very gently: "Your Ladyship, has it never occurred to you +that it would be a sublime spectacle to stand at the foot of the great +falls of Niagara and see the whales leaping over them?" + +"What do you regard as your most important discovery?" one of the +ladies inquired. + +"Well, first, I naturally think of the hospitality of this house and +the beauty and charm of the Lady Howe and her friends," Franklin +answered with characteristic diplomacy. "Then there is this wine," he +added, lifting his glass. "Its importance is as great as its age and +this is old enough to command even my veneration. It reminds me of +another discovery of mine: the value of the human elbow. I was telling +the King's physician of that this morning and it seemed to amuse him. +But for the human elbow every person would need a neck longer than that +of a goose to do his eating and drinking." + +"I had never thought of that," Lady Howe laughingly answered. "It +surely does have some effect on one's manners." + +"And his personal appearance and the cost of his neckwear," said +Franklin. "Here is another discovery." + +He took a leathern case from his pocket and removed from it a sealed +glass tube half full of a colorless liquid. + +"Kindly hold that in your hand and see what happens," he said to Lady +Howe. "It contains plain water." + +In half a moment the water began to boil. + +"It shows how easily water boils in a vacuum," said Franklin as the +ladies were amusing themselves with this odd toy. "It enables us to +understand why a little heat produces great agitation in certain +intellects," he added. + +"Doctor, we are neglecting politics," said Lord Hyde. "You lay much +stress upon thrift. Do you not agree with me that a man who has not +the judgment to practise thrift and acquire property has not the +judgment to vote?" + +"Property is all right, but let's make it stay in its own stall," said +Franklin. "It should never be a qualification of the voter, because it +would lead us up to this dilemma: if I have a jackass I can vote. If +the jackass dies I can not vote. Therefore, my vote would represent +the jackass and not me." + +The dinner over, Lady Howe conducted Doctor Franklin to the library, +where she asked him to sit down. There were no other persons in the +room. She sat near him and began to speak of the misfortunes of the +colony of Massachusetts Bay. + +"Your Ladyship, we are all alike," he answered. "I have never seen a +man who could not bear the misfortunes of another like a Christian. +The trouble is our ministers find it too easy to bear them." + +"I wish you would speak with Lord Howe frankly of these troubles. He +is just by. Will you give me leave to send for him?" + +"By all means, madame, if you think best." Lord Howe joined them in a +moment. He was most polite. + +"I am sensible of the fact that you have been mistreated by the +ministry," he said. "I have not approved of their conduct. I am +unconnected with those men save through personal friendships. My zeal +for the public welfare is my only excuse for asking you to open your +mind." + +Lady Howe arose and offered to withdraw. + +"Your Ladyship, why not honor us with your presence?" Franklin asked. +"For my part I can see no reason for making a secret of a business of +this nature. As to His Lordship's mention of my mistreatment, that +done my country is so much greater I dismiss all thought of the other. +From the King's speech I judge that no accommodation can be expected." + +"The plan is now to send a commission to the colonies, as you have +urged," said His Lordship. + +Then said Lady Howe: "I wish, my brother Franklin, that you were to be +sent thither. I should like that much better than General Howe's going +to command the army there." + +A rather tense moment followed. Franklin broke its silence by saying +in a gentle tone: + +"I think, madame, they should provide the General with more honorable +employment. I beg that your Ladyship will not misjudge me. I am not +capable of taking an office from this government while it is acting +with so much hostility toward my country." + +"The ministers have the opinion that you can compose the situation if +you will," Lord Howe declared. "Many of us have unbounded faith in +your ability. I would not think of trying to influence your judgment +by a selfish motive, but certainly you may, with reason, expect any +reward which it is in the power of the government to bestow." + +Then came an answer which should live in history, as one of the great +credits of human nature, and all men, especially those of English +blood, should feel a certain pride in it. The answer was: + +"Your Lordship, I am not looking for rewards, but only for justice." + +"Let us try to agree as to what is the justice of the matter," Howe +answered. "Will you not draft a plan on which you would be willing to +cooperate?" + +"That I will be glad to do." + +Persisting in his misjudgment, Howe suggested: + +"As you have friends here and constituents in America to keep well +with, perhaps it would better not be in your handwriting. Send it to +Lady Howe and she will copy it and return the original." + +Then said the sturdy old Yankee: "I desire, my friends, that there +shall be no secrecy about it." + +Lord and Lady Howe showed signs of great disappointment as he bade them +good night and begged to be sent to his room. + +"I am growing old, and have to ask for like indulgence from every +hostess," he pleaded. + +Howe was not willing to leave a stone unturned. He could not dismiss +the notion from his mind that the purchase could be effected if the bid +were raised. He drew the Doctor aside and said: + +"We do not expect your assistance without proper consideration. I +shall insist upon generous and ample appointments for the men you take +with you and especially for you as well as a firm promise of +_subsequent rewards_." + +What crown had he in mind for the white and venerable brow of the man +who stood before him? Beneath that brow was a new type of statesman, +born of the hardships and perils and high faith of a new world, and +then and there as these two faced each other--the soul of the past and +the soul of the future--a moment was come than which there had been no +greater in human history. In America, France and England the cocks had +been crowing and now the first light of the dawn of a new day fell upon +the figure of the man who in honor and understanding towered above his +fellows. Now, for a moment, on the character of this man the +unfathomable plan of God for future ages would seem to have been +resting. + +In his sixty-eight years he had discovered, among other things, the +vanity of wealth and splendor. It was no more to him than the idle +wind. These are his exact words as he stood with a gentle smile on his +face: "If you wish to use me, give me the propositions and dismiss all +thought of rewards from your mind. They would destroy the influence +you propose to use." + +Howe, a good man as men went those days, had got beyond his depth. His +philosophy comprehended no such mystery. What manner of man was this +son of a soap boiler who had smiled and shaken his white head and +spoken like a kindly father to the folly of a child when these offers +of wealth and honor and power had been made to him? Did he not +understand that it was really the King who had spoken? + +The old gentleman climbed the great staircase and went to his chamber, +while Lord Howe was, no doubt, communicating the result of his +interview to his other guests. There were those among them who freely +predicted that war was inevitable. + +In the morning at eight o'clock Franklin rode into town with Lord Howe. +They discussed the motion of the Prime Minister under the terms of +which the colonies were to pay money into the British Treasury until +parliament should decide they had paid enough. + +"It is impossible," said Franklin. "No chance is offered us to judge +the propriety of the measure or our ability to pay. These grants are +demanded under a claimed right to tax us at pleasure and compel +payments by armed force. Your Lordship, it is like the proposition of +a highwayman who presents a pistol at the window of your coach and +demands enough to satisfy his greed--no specific sum being named--or +there is the pistol." + +"You are a most remarkable man, but you do not understand the +government," said His Lordship. "You will not let yourself see the +other side of the proposition. You are highly esteemed in America and +if you could but see the justice of our claim you would be as highly +esteemed here and honored and rewarded far beyond any expectation you +are likely to have." + +"If any one supposes that I could prevail upon my countrymen to take +black for white or wrong for right, he does not know them or me," said +Franklin. "My people are incapable of being so imposed upon and I am +incapable of attempting it." + +Next evening came the good Doctor Barclay, a friend of Franklin, and a +noted philanthropist. They played chess together, and after the game, +while they were draining glasses of Madeira, the philanthropist said: + +"Here's to peace and good will between England and her colonies. The +prosperity of both depends upon it." + +They drank the toast and then Barclay proposed: + +"Let us use our efforts to that end. Power is a great thing to have +and the noblest gift a government can bestow is within your reach." + +"Barclay, this is what I would call spitting in the soup," said +Franklin. "It's excellent soup, too. I am sure the ministry would +rather give me a seat in a cart to Tyburn than any other place +whatever. I would despise myself if I needed an inducement to serve a +great cause." + +The philanthropist entered upon a wearisome argument, which lasted for +nearly an hour. + +"Barclay, your opinions on this problem remind me of the iron money of +Lycurgus," observed Franklin. + +The philanthropist desired to know why. + +"Because of their bulk. A cart load of them is not worth a shilling." + +In all parts of Britain those days one heard much ridicule of the New +England home and conscience. Now the ministry and its friends had +begun to butt their heads against the immovable wall of character which +had grown out of them and of which Lord Chatham had said: + +"It has made certain of our able men look like school boys." + + + +2 + +There was at that time a man of great power whose voice spoke for the +soul of England. He had studied the spirit of the New World and probed +to its foundations. He will help us to understand the new diplomacy +which had filled the ministers with astonishment. + +The same week Jack was invited to breakfast with Mr. Edmund Burke and +Doctor Franklin. He was awed by the brilliancy of the massive, +trumpet-tongued orator and statesman. + +He writes: "Burke has a most ungainly figure. His gait is awkward, his +gestures clumsy, his eyes are covered with large spectacles. He is +careless of his dress. His pockets bulged with papers. He spoke +rapidly and with a strong Irish brogue. Power is the thing his face +and form express. His knowledge is astounding. It is easy to talk +with Franklin, but _I_ could not talk with him. He humbled and +embarrassed me. His words shone as they fell from his lips. I can +give you but a feeble notion of them. This was his idea, but I +remember only a few of his glowing words: + +"'I fancy that man, like most other inventions, was, at first, a +disappointment. There seems to have been some doubt, for a time, as to +whether the contrivance could be made to work. In fact, there is good +ground for believing that it wouldn't work. + +"'It was a failure. The tendency to indolence and folly had to be +overcome. Sundry improvements were necessary. An imagination and the +love of adventure were added to the great machine. They were the +things needed. Not all the friction of hardship and peril could stop +it then. From that time, as they say in business, man was a paying +institution. + +"'The lure of adventure led to the discovery of law and truth. The +best child of adventure is revelation. Man is so fashioned that if he +can see a glimmer of the truth he seeks, he will make for it no matter +what may be in his way. The promise of an exciting time solves the +problem of help. America was born of sublime faith and a great +adventure--the greatest in history--that of the three caravels. High +faith is the great need of the world. Columbus had it, and I think, +sir, that the Pilgrims had it and that the same quality of faith is in +you. In these dark years you are like the lanterns of Pharus to your +people. + +"'When prodigious things are to be done, how carefully men are prepared +and chosen for their doing!' + +"He said many things, but these words addressed to my venerable friend +impressed me deeply. It occurs to me that Burke has been chosen to +speak for the soul of Britain. + +"When we think of the choosing of God, who but the sturdy yeomen of our +mother land could have withstood the inhospitalities of the New World +and established its spirit! + +"Now their Son, Benjamin Franklin, full grown in the new school of +liberty, has been chosen of God to define the inalienable rights of +freemen. I think the stage is being set for the second great adventure +in our history. Let us have no fear of it. Our land is sown with the +new faith. It can not fail." + +This conviction was the result of some rather full days in the British +capital. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +AN APPOINTMENT AND A CHALLENGE + +Solomon Binkus had left the city with Preston to visit Sir Jeffrey +Amherst in his country seat, near London. Sir Benjamin had taken Jack +to dine with him at two of his clubs and after dining they had gone to +see the great actor Robert Bensley as Malvolio and the Comedian Dodd as +Sir Andrew Aguecheek. The Britisher had been most polite, but had +seemed studiously to avoid mention of the subject nearest the heart of +the young man. After that the latter was invited to a revel and a cock +fight, but declined the honor and went to spend an evening with his +friend, the philosopher. For days Franklin had been shut in with gout. +Jack had found him in his room with one of his feet wrapped in bandages +and resting on a chair. + +"I am glad you came, my son," said the good Doctor. "I am in need of +better company than this foot. Solitude is like water--good for a dip, +but you can not live in it. Margaret has been here trying to give me +comfort, although she needs it more for herself." + +"Margaret!" the boy exclaimed. "Why does she need comfort?" + +"Oh, largely on your account, my son! Her father is obdurate and the +cause is dear to me. This courtship of yours is taking an +international aspect." + +He gave his young friend a full account of the night at Lord Howe's and +the interviews which had followed it. + +"All London knows how I stand now. They will not try again to bribe +me. The displeasure of Sir Benjamin will react upon you." + +"What shall I do if he continues to be obdurate?" + +"Shove my table this way and I'll show you a problem in prudential +algebra," said the philosopher. "It's a way I have of setting down all +the factors and striking out those that are equal and arriving at the +visible result." + +With his pen and a sheet of paper he set down the factors in the +problem and his estimate of their relative value as follows: + + + The Problem. + + A father=1 Margaret, her mother and Jack= 3+ 1 + A patrimony=10 Happiness for Jack and Margaret= 100+ 90 + Margaret's old friends=1 Margaret's new friends= 1 + A father's love=1 A husband's love= 10+ 9 + A father's tyranny=-1 Your respect for human rights= 5+ 6 + ------- + 106 + + [Transcriber's note: In the original printed book, some of the words + in this table have slashes (strike-outs) through them, and are not + renderable in text format. At the end of the HTML version of this + book is an image of the table, showing these strike-outs.] + + +"Now there is the problem, and while we may differ on the estimates, I +think that most sane Americans would agree that the balance is +overwhelmingly in favor of throwing off the yoke of tyranny, and +asserting your rights, established by agreement as well as by nature. +In a like manner I work out all my important problems, so that every +factor is visible and subject to change. + +"I only fear that I may not be able to provide for her in a suitable +manner," said Jack. + +"Oh, you are well off," said the philosopher. "You have some capital +and recognized talent and occupation for it. When I reached +Philadelphia I had an empty stomach and also a Dutch dollar, a few +pennies, two soiled shirts and a pair of dirty stockings in my pockets. +Many years passed and I had a family before I was as well off as you +are." + +Dinner was brought in and Jack ate with the Doctor and when the table +was cleared they played with magic squares--an invention of the +philosopher with which he was wont to divert himself and friends of an +evening. When Jack was about to go, the Doctor asked: + +"Will you hand me that little red book? I wish to put down a credit +mark for my conscience. This old foot of mine has been rather impudent +to-day. There have been moments when I could have expressed my opinion +of it with joyous violence. But I did not. I let it carry on like a +tinker in a public house, and never said a word." + +He showed the boy an interesting table containing the days of the week, +at the head of seven columns, and opposite cross-columns below were the +virtues he aimed to acquire--patience, temperance, frugality and the +like. The book contained a table for every week in the year. It had +been his practise, at the end of each day, to enter a black mark +opposite the virtues in which he had failed. + +It was a curious and impressive document--a frank, candid record in +black and white of the history of a human soul. To Jack it had a +sacred aspect like the story of the trials of Job. + +"I begin to understand how you have built up this wonderful structure +we call Franklin," he said. + +"Oh, it is but a poor and shaky thing at best, likely to tumble in a +high wind--but some work has gone into it," said the old gentleman. +"You see these white pages are rather spotted, but when I look over the +history of my spirit, as I do now and then, I observe that the pages +are slowly getting cleaner. There is not so much ink on them as there +used to be. You see I was once a free thinker. I had no gods to +bother me, and my friends were of the same stripe. In time I +discovered that they were a lot of scamps and that I was little better. +I found myself in the wrong road and immediately faced about. Then I +began keeping these tables. They have been a help to me." + +This reminded Jack of the evil words of the melancholy Mr. Pinhorn +which had been so promptly rebuked by his friend John Adams on the ride +to Philadelphia. The young man made a copy of one of the tables and +was saying good night to his venerable friend when the latter remarked: + +"I shall go to Sir John Pringle's in the morning for advice. He is a +noted physician. My man will be having a day off. Could you go with +me at ten?" + +"Gladly," said Jack. + +"Then I shall pick you up at your lodgings. You will see your rival at +Pringle's. He is at home on leave and has been going to Sir John's +office every Tuesday morning at ten-thirty with his father. General +Clarke, a gruff, gouty old hero of the French and Indian wars and an +aggressive Tory. He is forever tossing and goring the Whigs. It may +be the only chance you will have to see that rival of yours. He is a +handsome lad." + +Doctor Franklin, with his crutch beside him in the cab, called for his +young friend at the hour appointed. + +"I go to his office when I have need of his advice," said the Doctor. +"If ever he came to me, the wretch would charge me two guineas. We +have much argument over the processes of life in the human body, of +which I have gained some little knowledge. Often he flatters me by +seeking my counsel in difficult cases." + +The office of the Doctor Baronet was on the first floor of a large +building in Gough Square, Fleet Street. A number of gentlemen sat in +comfortable chairs in a large waiting room. + +"Sir John will see you in a moment, sir," an attendant said to Doctor +Franklin as they entered. The moment was a very long one. + +"In London there are many people who disagree with the clock," Franklin +laughed. "In this office, even the moments have the gout. They limp +along with slow feet." + +It was a gloomy room. The chairs, lounges and tables had a venerable +look like that of the men who came there with warped legs and old +mahogany faces. The red rugs and hangings suggested "the effect of old +port on the human countenance, being of a hue like unto that of many +cheeks and noses in the waiting company," as the young man wrote. The +door to the private room of the great physician creaked on its hinges +with a kind of groan when he came out accompanied by a limping patient. + +"Wait here for a minute--a gout minute," said Franklin to his young +friend. "When Pringle dismisses me, I will present you." + +Jack sat and waited while the room filled with ruddy, crotchety +gentlemen supported by canes or crutches--elderly, old and of middle +age. Among those of the latter class was a giant of a man, erect and +dignified, accompanied by a big blond youngster in a lieutenant's +uniform. He sat down and began to talk with another patient of the +troubles in America. + +"I see the damned Yankees have thrown another cargo of tea overboard," +said he in a tone of anger. + +"This time it was in Cape Cod. We must give those Yahoos a lesson." + +Jack surmised now that here was the aggressive Tory General of whom the +Doctor had spoken and that the young man was his son. + +"I fear that it would be a costly business sending men to fight across +three thousand miles of sea," said the other. + +"Bosh! There is not one Yankee in a hundred that has the courage of a +rabbit. With a thousand British grenadiers, I would undertake to go +from one end of America to another and amputate the heads of the males, +partly by force and partly by coaxing." + +A laugh followed these insulting words. Jack Irons rose quickly and +approached the man who had uttered them. The young American was angry, +but he managed to say with good composure: + +"I am an American, sir, and I demand a retraction of those words or a +chance to match my courage against yours." + +A murmur of surprise greeted his challenge. + +The Britisher turned quickly with color mounting to his brow and +surveyed the sturdy form of the young man. + +"I take back nothing that I say," he declared. + +"Then, in behalf of my slandered countrymen, I demand the right to +fight you or any Britisher who has the courage to take up your quarrel." + +Jack Irons had spoken calmly like one who had weighed his words. + +The young Lieutenant who had entered the room with the fiery, +middle-aged Britisher, rose and faced the American and said: + +"I will take up his quarrel, sir. Here is my card." + +"And here is mine," said Jack. "When will you be at home?" + +"At noon to-morrow." + +"Some friend of mine will call upon you," Jack assured the other. + +A look of surprise came to the face of the Lieutenant as he surveyed +the card in his hand. Jack was prepared for the name he read which was +that of Lionel Clarke. + +Franklin wrote some weeks later in a letter to John Irons of Albany: +"When I came out of the physician's office I saw nothing in Jack's face +and manner to suggest the serious proceeding he had entered upon. If I +had, or if some one had dropped a hint to me, I should have done what I +could to prevent this unfortunate affair. He chatted with Sir John a +moment and we went out as if nothing unusual had happened. On the way +to my house we talked of the good weather we were having, of the late +news from America and of my summons to appear before the Privy Council. +He betrayed no sign of the folly which was on foot. I saw him only +once after he helped me into the house and left me to go to his +lodgings. But often I find myself thinking of his handsome face and +heroic figure and gentle voice and hand. He was like a loving son to +me." + + + +2 + +That evening Solomon arrived with Preston. Solomon gave a whistle of +relief as he entered their lodgings on Bloomsbury Square and dropped +into a chair. + +"Wal, sir! We been flyin' eround as brisk as a bee," he remarked. "I +feel as if I had spraint one leg and spavined t'other. The sun was +over the fore yard when we got back, and since then, we went to see the +wild animals, a hip'pottermas, an' lions, an' tigers, an' snakes, an' a +bird with a neck as long as a hoe handle, an' a head like a tommyhawk. +I wouldn't wonder if he could peck some, an' they say he can fetch a +kick that would knock a hoss down. Gosh! I kind o' felt fer my gun! +Gol darn his pictur'! Think o' bein' kicked by a bird an' havin' to be +picked up an' carried off to be mended. We took a long, crooked trail +hum an' walked all the way. It's kind o' hard footin'." + +Solomon spoke with the animation of a boy. At last he had found +something in London which had pleased and excited him. + +"Did you have a good time at Sir Jeffrey's?" the young man asked. + +"Better'n a barn raisin'! Say, hones', I never seen nothin' like +it--'twere so blandiferous! At fust I were a leetle bit like a man +tied to a tree--felt so helpless an' unsart'in. Didn't know what were +goin' to happen. Then ol' Jeff come an' ontied me, as ye might say, +an' I 'gun to feel right. 'Course Preston tol' me not to be +skeered--that the doin's would be friendly, an' they was. Gol darn my +pictur'! I'll bet a pint o' powder an' a fish hook thar ain't no nicer +womern in this world than ol' Jeff's wife--not one. I give her my +jack-knife. She ast me fer it. 'Twere a good knife, but I were glad +to give it to her. Gosh! I dunno what she wants to do with it. Mebbe +she likes to whittle. They's some does. I kind o' like it myself. I +warned her to be keerful not to cut herself 'cause 'twere sharper'n the +tooth o' a weasel. The vittles was tasty--no common ven'son er moose +meat, but the best roast beef, an' mutton, an' ham an' jest 'nough +Santa Cruz rum to keep the timber floatin'! They snickered when I tol' +'em I'd take my tea bar' foot. I set 'mongst a lot o' young folks, +mostly gals, full o' laugh an' ginger, an' as purty to look at as a +flock o' red birds, an' I sot thar tellin' stories 'bout the Injun +wars, an' bear, an' moose, an' painters till the moon were down an' a +clock hollered one. Then I let each o' them gals snip off a grab o' my +hair. I dunno what they wanted to do with it, but they 'pear to be as +fond o' takin' hair as Injuns. Mebbe 'twas fer good luck. I wouldn't +wonder if my head looks like it was shingled. Ayes! I had an almighty +good time. + +"These 'ere British is good folks as fur as I've been able to look 'em +over. It's the gov'ment that's down on us an' the gov'ment ain't the +people--you hear to me. They's lots o' good, friendly folks here, but +I'm ready to go hum. They's a ship leaves Dover Thursday 'fore sunrise +an' my name is put down." + +Jack told them in detail of the unfortunate event of the morning. + +Solomon whistled while his face began to get ready for a shot. + +"Neevarious!" he exclaimed. "Here's suthin' that'll have to be 'tended +to 'fore I take the water." + +"Clarke is full of hartshorn and vinegar," said Preston. "He was like +that in America. He could make more trouble in ten minutes than a +regiment could mend in a year. He is what you would call 'a mean +cuss.' But for him and Lord Cornwallis, I should be back in the +service. They blame me for the present posture of affairs in America." + +"Jack, I'm glad that young pup ain't me," said Solomon. "Thar never +was a man better cocalated to please a friend er hurt an enemy. If he +was to say pistols I guess that ol' sling o' yours would bu'st out +laughin' an' I ain't no idee he could stan' a minnit in front o' your +hanger." + +"It's bad business, and especially for you," said Preston. "Dueling is +not so much in favor here as in France. Of course there are duels, but +the best people in England are set against the practise. You would be +sure to get the worst of it. The old General is a favorite of the +King. He is booked for knighthood. If you were to kill his son in the +present state of feeling here, your neck would be in danger. If you +were to injure him you would have to make a lucky escape, or go to +prison. It is not a pleasant outlook for one who is engaged to an +English girl. He has a great advantage over you." + +"True, but it gives me a better chance to vindicate the courage of an +American. I shall fight. I would rather die than lie down to such an +insult. There has been too much of that kind of talk here. It can not +go on in my hearing without being trumped. If I were capable of taking +such an insult, I could never again face the girl I love. There must +be an apology as public as the insult or a fight. I don't want to kill +any man, but I must show them that their cap doesn't fit me." + +Jack and Solomon sat up late. The young man had tried to see Margaret +that evening, but the door boy at Sir Benjamin's had informed him that +the family was not at home. He rightly suspected that the boy had done +this under orders from the Baronet. He wrote a long letter to the girl +apprising her of late developments in the relations of the ministry and +Doctor Franklin, regarding which the latter desired no secrecy, and of +his own unhappy situation. + +"If I could bear such an insult in silence," he added, "I should be +unworthy of the fairest and dearest girl on earth. With such an +estimate of you, I must keep myself in good countenance. Whatever +happens, be sure that I am loving you with all my heart, and longing +for the time when I can make you my wife." + +This letter he put into his pocket with the purpose of asking Preston +to deliver it if circumstances should drive him out of England or into +prison. + +Captain Preston went with Solomon Binkus next day to the address on the +card of Lieutenant Clarke. It was the house of the General, who was +waiting with his son in the reception room. They walked together to +the Almack Club. The General was self-contained. It would seem that +his bad opinion of Yankees was not quite so comprehensive as it had +been. The whole proceeding went forward with the utmost politeness. + +"General, Mr. Binkus and John Irons, Jr., are my friends," said Captain +Preston. + +"Indeed!" the General answered. + +"Yes, and they are friends of England. They saved my neck in America. +I have assured young Irons that your words, if they were correctly +reported to me, were spoken in haste, and that they do not express your +real opinion." + +"And what, sir, were the words reported to you?" the General asked. + +Preston repeated them. + +"That is my opinion." + +"It is mine also," young Clarke declared. + +Solomon's face changed quickly. He took deliberate aim at the enemy +and drawled: + +"Can't be yer opinion is wuth more than the lives o' these young +fellers that's goin' to fight." + +"Gentlemen, you will save time by dropping all thought of apologies," +said the General. + +"Then it only remains for you to choose your weapons and agree with us +as to time and place," said Preston. + +"I choose pistols," said the young Britisher. "The time and place may +suit your convenience, so it be soon and not too far away," + +"Let us say the cow wallow on Shooter's Hill, near the oaks, at sunrise +to-morrow," Preston proposed. + +"I agree," the Lieutenant answered. + +"Whatever comes of it, let us have secrecy and all possible protection +from each side to the other when the affair is ended," said Preston. + +"I agree to that also," was the answer of young Clarke. + +When they were leaving, Solomon said to Preston: + +"That 'ere Gin'ral is as big as Goliar." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE ENCOUNTER + +Solomon, Jack and their friend left London that afternoon in the saddle +and took lodgings at The Rose and Garter, less than a mile from the +scene appointed for the encounter. That morning the Americans had sent +a friend of Preston by post chaise to Deal, with Solomon's luggage. +Preston had also engaged the celebrated surgeon, Doctor Brooks, to +spend the night with them so that he would be sure to be on hand in the +morning. The doctor had officiated at no less than a dozen duels and +enjoyed these affairs so keenly that he was glad to give his help +without a fee. The party had gone out in the saddle because Preston +had said that the horses might be useful. + +So, having discussed the perils of the immediate future, they had done +all it was in their power to do to prepare for them. Late that evening +the General and his son and four other gentlemen arrived at The Rose +and Garter. Certain of them had spent the afternoon in the +neighborhood shooting birds and rabbits. + +Solomon got Jack to bed early and sat for a time in their room +tinkering with the pistols. When the locks were working "right," as he +put it, he polished their grips and barrels. + +"Now I reckon they'll speak out when ye pull the trigger," he said to +Jack. "An' yer eyesight 'll skate erlong easy on the top o' them +bar'ls." + +"It's a miserable kind of business," said the young man, who was lying +in bed and looking at his friend. "We Americans have a rather hard +time of it, I say. Life is a fight from beginning to end. We have had +to fight with the wilderness for our land and with the Indians and the +French for our lives, and now the British come along and tell us what +we must and mustn't do and burn up our houses." + +"An' spit on us an' talk as if we was a lot o' boar pigs," said +Solomon. "But ol' Jeff tol' me 'twere the King an' his crowd that was +makin' all the trouble." + +"Well, the King and his army can make us trouble enough," Jack +answered. "It's as necessary for an American to know how to fight as +to know how to walk." + +"Now ye stop worryin' an' go to sleep 'er I'll take ye crost my knee," +said Solomon. "They ain't goin' to be no great damage done, not if ye +do as I tell ye. I've been an' looked the ground over an' if we have +to leg it, I know which way to go." + +Solomon had heard from Preston that evening that the Lieutenant was the +best pistol shot in his regiment, but he kept the gossip to himself, +knowing it would not improve the aim of his young friend. But Solomon +was made uneasy by this report. + +"My boy kin throw a bullet straight as a plumb line an' quick as +lightnin'," he had said to Preston. "It's as nat'ral fer him as +drawin' his breath. That ere chap may git bored 'fore he has time to +pull. I ain't much skeered." + +Jack was nervous, although not from fear. His estimate of the value of +human life had been increased by his affection for Margaret. When +Solomon had gone to bed and the lights were blown, the young man felt +every side of his predicament to see if there were any peaceable way +out of it. For hours he labored with this hopeless task, until he fell +into a troubled sleep, in which he saw great battalions marching toward +each other. On one side, the figures of himself and Solomon were +repeated thousands of times, and on the other was a host of Lionel +Clarkes. + +The words came to his ear: "My son, we're goin' to fight the first +battle o' the war." + +Jack awoke suddenly and opened his eyes. The candle was lighted. +Solomon was leaning over him. He was drawing on his trousers. + +"Come, my son," said the scout in a gentle voice. "They ain't a cloud +an' the moon has got a smile on her face. Come, my young David. +Here's the breeches an' the purty stockin's an' shoes, an' the lily +white shirt. Slip 'em on an' we'll kneel down an' have a word o' +prayer. This 'ere ain't no common fight. It's a battle with tyranny. +It's like the fight o' David an' Goliar. Here's yer ol' sling waitin' +fer ye!" + +Solomon felt the pistols and stroked their grips with a loving hand. + +Side by side they knelt by the bed together for a moment of silent +prayer. + +Others were stirring in the inn. They could hear footsteps and low +voices in a room near them. Jack put on his suit of brown velvet and +his white silk stockings and best linen, which he had brought in a +small bag. Jack was looking at the pistols, when there came a rap at +the door. Preston entered with Doctor Brooks. + +"We are to go out quietly ahead of the others," said the Captain. +"They will follow in five minutes." + +Solomon had put on the old hanger which had come to England with him in +his box. He put the pistols in his pocket and they left the inn by a +rear door. A groom was waiting there with the horses saddled and +bridled. They mounted them and rode to the field of honor. When they +dismounted on the ground chosen, the day was dawning, but the great +oaks were still waist deep in gloom. It was cold. + +Preston called his friends to his side and said: + +"You will fight at twenty paces. I shall count three and when I drop +my handkerchief you are both to fire." + +Solomon turned to Jack and said: + +"If ye fire quick mebbe ye'll take the crook out o' his finger 'fore it +has time to pull." + +The other party was coming. There were six men in it. The General and +his son and one other were in military dress. The General was chatting +with a friend. The pistols were loaded by Solomon and General Clarke, +while each watched the other. The Lieutenant's friends and seconds +stood close together laughing at some jest. + +"That's funny, I'll say, what--what!" said one of the gentlemen. + +Jack turned to look at him, for there had been a curious inflection in +his "what, what!" He was a stout, highly colored man with large, +staring gray eyes. The young American wondered where he had seen him +before. + +Preston paced the ground and laid down strips of white ribband marking +the distance which was to separate the principals. He summoned the +young men and said: "Gentlemen, is there no way in which your honor can +be satisfied without fighting?" + +They shook their heads. + +"Your stations have been chosen by lot. Irons, yours is there. Take +your ground, gentlemen." + +The young men walked to their places and at this point the graphic +Major Solomon Binkus, whose keen eyes observed every detail of the +scene, is able to assume the position of narrator, the words which +follow being from a letter he wrote to John Irons of Albany. + +"Our young David stood up thar as straight an' han'some as a young +spruce on a still day--not a quiver in ary twig. The Clarke boy was a +leetle pale an' when he raised his pistol I could see a twitch in his +lips. He looked kind o' stiff. I see they was one thing' 'bout +shootin' he hadn't learnt. It don't do to tighten up. I were +skeered--I don't deny it--'cause a gun don't allus have to be p'inted +careful to kill a man. + +"We all stood watchin' every move. I could hear a bird singin' twenty +rod,--'twere that still. Preston stood a leetle out o' line 'bout +half-way betwixt 'em. Up come his hand with the han'kerchief in it. +Then Jack raised his pistol and took a peek down the line he wanted. +The han'kerchief was in the air. Don't seem so it had fell an inch +when the pistols went pop! pop! Jack's hollered fust. Clarke's pistol +fell. His arm dropped an' swung limp as a rope's end. His hand turned +red an' blood began to spurt above it. I see Jack's bullet had jumped +into his right wrist an' tore it wide open. The Lieutenant staggered, +bleedin' like a stuck whale. He'd 'a' gone to the ground but his +friends grabbed him. I run to Jack. + +"'Be ye hit?' I says. + +"'I think his bullet teched me a little on the top o' the left +shoulder,' says he. + +"I see his coat were tore an' we took it off an' the jacket, an' I +ripped the shirt some an' see that the bullet had kind o' scuffed its +foot on him goin' by, an' left a track in the skin. It didn't mount to +nothin'. The Doctor washed it off an' put a plaster on. + +"'Looks as if he'd drawed a line on yer heart an' yer bullet had lifted +his aim,' I says. 'Ye shoot quick, Jack, an' mebbe that's what saved +ye.' + +"It looked kind o' neevarious like that 'ere Englishman had intended +they was goin' to be one Yankee less. Jack put on his jacket an' his +coat an' we stepped over to see how they was gettin' erlong with the +other feller. The two doctors was tryin' fer to fix his arm and he +were groanin' severe. Jack leaned over and looked down at him. + +"'I'm sorry,' he says. 'Is there anything I can do?' + +"'No, sir. You've done enuff,' growled the old General. + +"One o' his party stepped up to Jack. He were dressed like a high-up +officer in the army. They was a cur'ous look in his eyes--kind o' +skeered like. Seemed so I'd seen him afore somewheres. + +"'I fancy ye're a good shot, sir--a good shot, sir--what--what?' he +says to Jack, an' the words come as fast as a bird's twitter. + +"I've had a lot o' practise,' says our boy. + +"'Kin ye kill that bird--what--what?" says he, p'intin' at a hawk that +were a-cuttin' circles in the air. + +"'If he comes clus' 'nough,' says Jack. + +"I passed him the loaded pistol. In 'bout two seconds he lifted it and +bang she went, an' down come the hawk. + +"Them fellers all looked at one 'nother. + +"'Gin'ral, shake hands with this 'ere boy,' says the man with the +skeered eyes. 'If he is a Yankey he's a decent lad--what--what?' + +"The Gin'ral shook hands with Jack an', says he: 'Young man, I have no +doubt o' 'yer curidge or yer decency.' + +"A grand pair o' hosses an' a closed coach druv up an' the ol' +what-whatter an' two other men got into it an' hustled off 'cross the +field towards the pike which it looked as if they was in a hurry. +'Fore he were out o' sight a military amb'lance druv up. Preston come +over to us an' says he: + +"'We better be goin'.' + +"'Do ye know who he were?' asks Jack. + +"'If ye know ye better fergit it,' says Preston. + +"'How could I? He were the King o' England,' says Jack. 'I knowed him +by the look o' his eyes.' + +"'Sart'in sure,' says I. 'He's the man that wus bein' toted in a +chair.' + +"'Hush! I tell ye to fergit it,' says Preston. + +"'I can fergit all but the fact that he behaved like a gentleman,' says +Jack. + +"'I 'spose he were usin' his private brain,' says I." + +This, with some slight changes in spelling, paragraphing and +punctuation, is the account which Solomon Binkus gave of the most +exciting adventure these two friends had met with. + +Preston came to Jack and whispered: "The outcome is a great surprise to +the other side. Young Clarke is a dead shot. An injured officer of +the English army may cause unexpected embarrassment. But you have time +enough and no haste. You can take the post chaise and reach the ship +well ahead of her sailing." + +"I am of a mind not to go with you," Jack said to Solomon. "When I go, +I shall take Margaret with me." + +So it happened that Jack returned to London while Solomon waited for +the post chaise to Deal. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE LADY OF THE HIDDEN FACE + +Next morning at ten, the door boy at his lodgings informed Jack that a +lady was waiting to see him in the parlor. The lady was deeply veiled. +She did not speak, but arose as he entered the room and handed him a +note. She was tall and erect with a fine carriage. Her silence was +impressive, her costume admirable. + +The note in a script unfamiliar to the young man was as follows: + +"You will find Margaret waiting in a coach at eleven to-day at the +corner of Harley Street and Twickenham Road." + +The veiled lady walked to the door and turned and stood looking at him. + +Her attitude said clearly: "Well, what is your answer ?" + +"I will be there at eleven," said the young man. The veiled lady +nodded, as if to indicate that her mission was ended, and withdrew. + +Jack was thrilled by the information but wondered why it was so wrapped +in mystery. Not ten minutes had passed after the departure of the +veiled lady when a messenger came with a note from Sir Benjamin Hare. +In a cordial tone, it invited Jack to breakfast at the Almack Club at +twelve-thirty. The young man returned his acceptance by the same +messenger, and in his best morning suit went to meet Margaret. A cab +conveyed him to the corner named. There was the coach with shades +drawn low, waiting. A footman stood near it. The door was opened and +he saw Margaret looking out at him and shaking her hand. + +"You see what a sly thing I am!" she said when, the greetings over, he +sat by her side and the coach was moving. "A London girl knows how to +get her way. She is terribly wise, Jack." + +"But, tell me, who was the veiled lady?" + +"A go-between. She makes her living that way. She is wise, discreet +and reliable. There is employment for many such in this wicked city. +I feel disgraced, Jack. I hope you will not think that I am accustomed +to dark and secret ways. This has worried and distressed me, but I had +to see you." + +"And I was longing for a look at you," he said. + +"I was sure you would not know how to pull these ropes of intrigue. I +have heard all about them. I couldn't help that, you know, and be a +young lady who is quite alive." + +"Our time is short and I have much to say," said Jack. "I am to +breakfast with your father at the Almack Club at twelve-thirty." + +She clapped her hands and said, with a laughing face, "I knew he would +ask you!" + +"Margaret, I want to take you to America with the approval of your +father, if possible, and without it, if necessary." + +"I think you will get his approval," said the girl with enthusiasm. +"He has heard all about the duel. He says every one he met, of the +court party, last evening, was speaking of it. They agree that the old +General needed that lesson. Jack, how proud I am of you!" + +She pressed his hand in both of hers. + +"I couldn't help knowing how to shoot," he answered. "And I would not +be worthy to touch this fair hand of yours if I had failed to resent an +insult." + +"Although he is a friend of the General, my father was pleased," she +went on. "He calls you a good sport. 'A young man of high spirit who +is not to be played with,' that is what he said. Now, Jack, if you do +not stick too hard on principles--if you can yield, only a little, I am +sure he will let us be married." + +"I am eager to hear what he may say now," said Jack. "Whatever it may +be, let us stick together and go to America and be happy. It would be +a dark world without you. May I see you to-morrow?" + +"At the same hour and place," she answered. + +They talked of the home they would have in Philadelphia and planned its +garden, Jack having told of the site he had bought with great trees and +a river view. They spent an hour which lent its abundant happiness to +many a long year and when they parted, soon after twelve o'clock, Jack +hurried away to keep his appointment. + + + +2 + +Sir Benjamin received the young man with a warm greeting and friendly +words. Their breakfast was served in a small room where they were +alone together, and when they were seated the Baronet observed: + +"I have heard of the duel. It has set some of the best tongues in +England wagging in praise of 'the Yankee boy.' One would scarcely have +expected that." + +"No, I was prepared to run for my life--not that I planned to do any +great damage," said Jack. + +"You can shoot straight--that is evident. They call your delivery of +that bullet swift, accurate and merciful. Your behavior has pleased +some very eminent people. The blustering talk of the General excites +no sympathy here. In London, strangers are not likely to be treated as +you were." + +"If I did not believe that I should be leaving it," said Jack. "I +should not like to take up dueling for an amusement, as some men have +done in France." + +"You are a well built man inside and out," Sir Benjamin answered. "You +might have a great future in England. I speak advisedly." + +Their talk had taken a turn quite unexpected. It flattered the young +man. He blushed and answered: + +"Sir Benjamin, I have no great faith in my talents." + +"On terms which I would call easy, you could have fame, honor and +riches, I would say." + +"At present I want only your daughter. As to the rest, I shall make +myself content with what may naturally come to me." + +"And let me name the terms on which I should be glad to welcome you to +my family." + +"What are the terms?" + +"Loyalty to your King and a will to understand and assist his plans." + +"I could not follow him unless he will change his plans." + +The Baronet put down his fork and looked up at the young man. "Do you +really mean what you say?" he demanded. "Is it so difficult for you to +do your duty as a British subject?" + +"Sir Benjamin, always I have been taught that it is the duty of a +British subject to resist oppression. The plans of the King are +oppressive. I can not fall in with them. I love Margaret as I love my +life, but I must keep myself worthy of her. If I could think so well +of my conduct, it is because I have principles that are inviolable." + +"At least I hope you would promise me not to take up arms against the +King." + +"Please don't ask me to do that. It would grieve me to fight against +England. I hope it may never be, but I would rather fight than submit +to tyranny." + +The Baronet made no reply to this declaration so firmly made. A new +look came into his face. Indignation and resentment were there, but he +did not forget the duty of a host. He began to speak of other things. +The breakfast went on to its end in an atmosphere of cool politeness. + +When they were out upon the street together, Sir Benjamin turned to him +and said: + +"Now that we are on neutral ground, I want to say that you Americans +are a stiff-necked lot of people. You are not like any other breed of +men. I am done with you. My way can not be yours. Let us part as +friends and gentlemen ought to part. I say good-by with a sense of +regret. I shall never forget your service to my wife and daughter." + +"Think not of that," said the young man. "What I did for them I would +do for any one who needed my help." + +"I have to ask you to give up all hope of marrying my daughter." + +"That I can not do," said Jack. "Over that hope I have no control. I +might as well promise not to breathe." + +"But I must ask you to give me your word as a gentleman that you will +hold no further communication with her." + +"Sir Benjamin, I shall be frank with you. It is an unfair request. I +can not agree to it." + +"What do you say?" the Englishman asked in a tone of astonishment, and +his query was emphasized with a firm tap of his cane on the pavement. + +"I hate to displease you, sir, but if I made such a promise, I would be +sure to break it." + +"Then, sir, I shall see to it that you have no opportunity to oppose my +will." + +In spite of his fine restraint, the eyes of the Baronet glowed with +anger, as he quickly turned from the young man and hurried away. + +"Here is more tyranny," the American thought as he went in the opposite +direction. "But I do not believe he can keep us apart." + +"I walked on and on," he wrote to a friend. "Never had I felt such a +sense of loss and loneliness and dejection. I almost resented the +inflexible tyranny of my own spirit which had turned him against me. I +accused myself of a kind of selfishness in the matter. Had it been +right in me to take a course which endangered the happiness of another, +to say nothing of my own? But I couldn't have done otherwise, not if I +had known that a mountain were to fall upon me. I am like all of those +who follow the star in the west. We do as we must. I had not seen +Franklin since my duel, and largely because I had been ashamed to face +him. Now I felt the need of his wisdom and so I turned my steps toward +his door." + + + +3 + +"I am like the land of Goshen amid the plagues of Egypt," said +Franklin, when the young man was admitted to his office. "My gout is +gone and I am in good spirits in spite of your adventure." + +"And I suppose you will scold me for the adventure." + +"You will scold yourself when the consequences have arrived. They will +be sure to give you a spanking. The deed is done, and well done. On +the whole I think it has been good for the cause, but bad for you." + +"Why?" + +"You may have to run out of England to save your neck and the face of +the King. He was there, I believe?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"The injured lad is in a bad way. The wound caught an infection. +Intense fever and swelling have set in. I helped Sir John Pringle to +amputate the arm this afternoon, but even that may not save the +patient. Here is a storm to warn the wandering linnet to his shade. A +ship goes to-morrow evening. Get ready to take it. In that case your +marriage will have to be delayed. Rash men are often compelled to live +on hope and die fasting." + +"With Sir Benjamin, the duel has been a help instead of a hindrance," +said the young man. "My stubborn soul has been the great obstacle." + +Then he told of his interview with Sir Benjamin Hare. + +Franklin put his hand on Jack's shoulder and said with a smile: + +"My son, I love you. I could wish you to be no different. Cheer up. +Time will lay the dust, and perhaps sooner than you think." + +"I hope to see Margaret to-morrow morning." + +"Ah, then, 'what Grecian arts of soft persuasion!'" Franklin quoted. +"I hope that she, too, will follow the great star in the west!" + +"I hope so, but I greatly fear that our meeting will be prevented." + +"Did you get my note of to-day at your lodgings?" Franklin asked. + +"No," said Jack. "I left there soon after ten." + +"Lord Chatham has kindly offered to secure admission for you and me to +the House of Lords. He is making an important motion. Come, let us go +and see the hereditary legislators." + +Lord Stanhope met them at the door of the House of Lords. There was a +great bustle among the officers when His Lordship announced their names +and his desire to have them admitted. The officers hurried in after +members and there was some delay, in the course of which the Americans +were turned from the division reserved for eldest sons and brothers of +peers. Not less than ten minutes were consumed in the process of +seating Franklin and his friend. + +Soon Lord Chatham arose and moved that His Majesty's forces be +withdrawn from Boston. With a singular charm of personality and +address, the great dissenter made his speech. Jack wrote in his diary +that evening: "The most captivating figure that ever I saw is a +well-bred Englishman trained in the art of public speaking." The words +were no doubt inspired by the impressive speech of Chatham, which is +now an imperishable part of the history of England. These words from +it the young man remembered: + +"If the ministers thus persevere in misleading and misadvising the +King, I will not say that they can alienate the affection of his +subjects from his crown, but I will affirm that they will make his +crown not worth his wearing; I will not say that the King is betrayed, +but I will say that the kingdom is undone." + +Lord Sandwich in a petulant speech declared that the motion ought not +to be received. He could never believe it the production of a British +peer. Turning toward Franklin, he flung out: + +"I fancy that I have in my eye the person who drew it up--one of the +bitterest and most mischievous enemies this country has ever known." + +"Franklin sat immovable and without the slightest change in his +countenance," Jack wrote in a letter to _The Pennsylvania Gazette_. + +Chatham declared that the motion was his own, and added: + +"If I were the first minister of this country, charged with the +settling of its momentous business, I should not be ashamed to call to +my assistance a man so perfectly acquainted with all American affairs, +as the gentleman so injuriously referred to--one whom all Europe holds +in high estimation for his knowledge and wisdom, which are an honor, +not only to England, but to human nature." + +"Franklin told me that this was harder for him to bear than the abuse, +but he kept his countenance as blank as a sheet of white paper," Jack +wrote. "There was much vehement declamation against the measure and it +was rejected. + +"When we had left the chamber, Franklin said to me: + +"'That motion was made by the first statesman of the age, who took the +helm of state when the latter was in the depths of despondency and led +it to glorious victory through a war with two of the mightiest kingdoms +in Europe. Only a few of those men had the slightest understanding of +its merits. Yet they would not even consider it in a second reading. +They are satisfied with their ignorance. They have nothing to learn. +Hereditary legislators! There would be more propriety in hereditary +professors of mathematics! Heredity is a great success with only one +kind of creature.' + +"'What creature?' I asked. + +"'The ass,' he answered, with as serious a countenance as I have seen +him wear. + +"No further word was spoken as we rode back to his home," the young man +wrote. "We knew the die had been cast. We had seen it fall carelessly +out of the hand of Ignorance, obeying intellects swelled with +hereditary passion and conceit. I now had something to say to my +countrymen." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE DEPARTURE + +That evening Jack received a brief note from Preston. It said: + +"I learn that young Clarke is very ill. I think you would better get +out of England for fear of what may come. A trial would be apt to +cause embarrassment in high places. Can I give you assistance?" + +Jack returned this note by the same messenger: + +"Thanks, good friend, I shall go as soon as my business is finished, +which I hope may be to-morrow." + +Just before the young man went to bed a brief note arrived from +Margaret. It read; + + +"DEAREST JACK. My father has learned of our meeting yesterday and of +how it came about. He is angry. He forbids another meeting. I shall +not submit to his tyranny. We must assert our rights like good +Americans. I have a plan. You will learn of it when we meet to-morrow +at eleven. Do not send an answer. Lovingly, MARGARET." + + +He slept little, and in the morning awaited with keen impatience the +hour of his appointment. + +On his way to the place he heard a newsboy shouting the words "duel" +and "Yankee," followed by the suggestive statement: "Bloody murder in +high life." + +Evidently Lionel Clarke had died of his wound. He saw people standing +in groups and reading the paper. He began to share the nervousness of +Preston and the wise, far-seeing Franklin. He jumped into a cab and +was at the corner some minutes ahead of time. Precisely at eleven he +saw the coach draw near. He hurried to its side. The footman +dismounted and opened the door. Inside he saw, not Margaret, but the +lady of the hidden face. + +"You are to get in, sir, and make a little journey with the madame," +said the footman. + +Jack got into the coach. Its door closed, the horses started with a +jump and he was on his way whither he knew not. Nor did he know the +reason for the rapid pace at which the horses had begun to travel. + +"If you do not mind, sir, we will not lift the shades," said the veiled +lady, as the coach started. "We shall see Margaret soon, I hope." + +She had a colorless, cold voice and what was then known in London as +the "patrician manner." Her tone and silence seemed to say: "Please +remember this is all a matter of business and not a highly agreeable +business to me." + +"Where is Margaret?" he asked. + +"A long way from here. We shall meet her at The Ship and Anchor in +Gravesend. She will be making the journey by another road." + +She had answered in a voice as cold as the day and in the manner of one +who had said quite enough. + +"Where is Gravesend?" + +"On the Thames near the sea," she answered briskly, as if in pity of +his ignorance. + +He saw the plan now--an admirable plan. They were to meet near the +port of sailing and be married and go aboard the ship and away. It was +the plan of Margaret and much better than any he could have made, for +he knew little of London and its ports. + +"Should I not take my baggage with me?" + +"There is not time for that," the veiled lady answered. "We must make +haste. I have some clothes for you in a bag." + +She pointed to a leathern case under the front seat. + +He sat thinking of the cleverness of Margaret as they left the edge of +the city and hurried away on the east turnpike. A mist was coming up +from the sea. The air ahead had the color of a wool stack. They +stopped at an inn to feed and water the horses and went on in a dense +fog, which covered the hedge rows on either side and lay thick on the +earth so that the horses seemed to be wading in it. Their pace slowed +to a walk. From that time on, the road was like a long ford over which +they proceeded with caution, the driver now and then winding a horn. + +Each sat quietly in a corner of the seat with a wall of cold fog +between them. The young man liked it better than the wall of mystery +through which he had been able to see the silent, veiled form beside +him. + +"Do you have much weather like this?" he ventured to inquire by and by. + +This answer came out of the bank of fog: "Yes," as if she would have +him understand that she was not being paid for conversation. + +From that time forward they rode in a silence broken only by the +creaking of the coach and the sound of the horses' hoofs. Darkness had +fallen when they reached the little city of Gravesend. The Ship and +Anchor stood by the water's edge. + +"You will please wait here," said the stern lady in a milder voice than +she had used before, as the coach drew up at the inn door, "I shall see +if she has come." + +His strange companion entered the inn and returned presently, saying: +"She has not yet arrived. Delayed by the fog. We will have our +dinner, if you please." + +Jack had not broken his fast since nine and felt keenly the need of +refreshment, but he answered: + +"I think that I would better wait for Margaret." + +"No, she will have dined at Tillbury," said the masterful lady. "It +will save time. Please come and have dinner, sir." + +He followed her into the inn. The landlady, a stout, obsequious woman, +led them to a small dining-room above stairs lighted by many candles +where an open fire was burning cheerfully. + +A handsomely dressed man waited by them for orders and retired with the +landlady when they were given. + +From this point the scene at the inn is described in the diary of the +American. + +"She drew off her hat and veil and a young woman about twenty-eight +years of age and of astonishing beauty stood before me." + +"'There, now, I am out of business,' she remarked in a pleasant voice +as she sat down at the table which, had been spread before the +fireplace. 'I will do my best to be a companion to you until Margaret +arrives.' + +"She looked into my eyes and smiled. Her sheath of ice had fallen from +her. + +"'You will please forgive my impertinence,' said she. 'I earn my +living by it. In a world of sentiment and passion I must be as cold +and bloodless as a stone, but in fact, I am very--very human.' + +"The waiter came with a tray containing soup, glasses and a bottle of +sherry. We sat down at the table and our waiter filled two glasses +with the sherry. + +"'Thank you, but self-denial is another duty of mine,' she remarked +when I offered her a glass of the wine. 'I live in a tipsy world and +drink--water. I live in a merry world and keep a stern face. It is a +vile world and yet I am unpolluted.' + +"I drank my glass of wine and had begun to eat my soup when a strange +feeling came over me. My plate seemed to be sinking through the table. +The wall and fireplace were receding into dim distance. I knew then +that I had tasted the cup of Circe. My hands fell through my lap and +suddenly the day ended. It was like sawing off a board. The end had +fallen. There is nothing more to be said of it because my brain had +ceased to receive and record impressions. I was as totally out of +business as a man in his grave. When I came to, I was in a berth on +the ship _King William_ bound for New York. As soon as I knew +anything, I knew that I had been tricked. My clothes had been removed +and were lying on a chair near me. My watch and money were +undisturbed. I had a severe pain in my head. I dressed and went up on +deck. The Captain was there. + +"'You must have had a night of it in Gravesend,' he said. 'You were +like a dead man when they brought you aboard.' + +"'Where am I going?' I asked. + +"'To New York,' he answered with a laugh. 'You must have had a time!' + +"How much is the fare?" + +"'Young man, that need not concern you,' said the Captain. 'Your fare +has been paid in full. I saw them put a letter in your pocket. Have +you read it?'" + +Jack found the letter and read: + + +"DEAR SIR--When you see this you will be well out of danger and, it is +hoped, none the worse for your dissipation. This from one who admires +your skill and courage and who advises you to keep out of England for +at least a year. + + "A WELL WISHER." + + +He looked back over the stern of the ship. The shore had fallen out of +sight. The sky was clear. The sun shining. The wind was blowing from +the east. + +He stood for a long time looking toward the land he had left. + +"Oh, ye wings of the wind! take my love to her and give her news of me +and bid her to be steadfast in her faith and hope," he whispered. + +He leaned against the bulwark and tried to think. + +"Sir Benjamin has seen to it," he said to himself. "I shall have no +opportunity to meet her again." + +He reviewed the events of the day and their under-current of intrigue. +The King himself might have been concerned in that and Preston also. +It had been on the whole a rather decent performance, he mused, and +perhaps it had kept him out of worse trouble than he was now in. But +what had happened to Margaret? + +He reread her note. + +"My father has learned of our meeting and of how it came about," he +quoted. + +"More bribery," he thought. "The intrigante naturally sold her +services to the highest bidder." + +He recalled the violent haste with which the coach had rolled away from +the place of meeting. Had that been due to a fear that Margaret would +defeat their plans? + +All these speculations and regrets were soon put away. But for a long +time one cause of worry was barking at his heels. It slept beside him +and often touched and awoke him at night. He had been responsible for +the death of a human being. What an unlucky hour he had had at Sir +John Pringle's! Yet he found a degree of comfort in the hope that +those proud men might now have a better thought of the Yankees. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE FRIEND AND THE GIRL HE LEFT BEHIND HIM + +After Jack had been whirled out of London, Franklin called at his +lodgings and learned that he had not been seen for a day. The wise +philosopher entertained no doubt that the young man had taken ship +agreeably with the advice given him. A report had been running through +the clubs of London that Lionel Clarke had succumbed. In fact he had +had a bad turn but had rallied. Jack must have heard the false report +and taken ship suddenly. + +Doctor Franklin went that day to the meeting of the Privy Council, +whither he had been sternly summoned for examination in the matter of +the letters of Hutchinson et al. For an hour he had stood unmoved +while Alexander Wedderburn, the wittiest barrister in the kingdom, +poured upon him a torrent of abuse. Even the Judges, against all +traditions of decorum in the high courts of Britain, laughed at the +cleverness of the assault. That was the speech of which Charles James +Fox declared that it was the most expensive bit of oratory which had +been heard in England since it had cost the kingdom its colonies. + +It was alleged that in some manner Franklin had stolen the letters and +violated their sacred privacy. It is known now that an English +nobleman had put them in his hands to read and that he was in no way +responsible for their publication. The truth, if it could have been +told, would have bent the proud heads of Wedderburn and the judges to +whom he appealed, in confusion. But Franklin held his peace, as a man +of honor was bound to do. He stood erect and dignified with a face +like one carved in wood. + +The counsel for the colonies made a weak defense. The triumph was +complete. The venerable man was convicted of conduct inconsistent with +the character of a gentleman and deprived of his office as Postmaster +General of the Colonies. + +But he had two friends in court. They were the Lady Hare and her +daughter. They followed him out of the chamber. In the great hallway, +Margaret, her eyes wet with tears, embraced and kissed the philosopher. + +"I want you to know that I am your friend, and that I love America," +she said. + +"My daughter, it has been a hard hour, but I am sixty-eight years old +and have learned many things," he answered. "Time is the only avenger +I need. It will lay the dust." + +The girl embraced and kissed him again and said in a voice shaking with +emotion: + +"I wish my father and all Englishmen to know that I am your friend and +that I have a love that can not be turned aside or destroyed and that I +will have my right as a human being." + +"Come let us go and talk together--we three," he proposed. + +They took a cab and drove away. + +"You will think all this a singular proceeding," Lady Hare remarked. +"I must tell you that rebellion has started in our home. Its peace is +quite destroyed. Margaret has declared her right to the use of her own +mind." + +"Well, if she is to use any mind it will have to be that one," Franklin +answered. "I do not see why women should not be entitled to use their +minds as well as their hands and feet." + +"I was kept at home yesterday by force," said Margaret. "Every door +locked and guarded! It was brutal tyranny." + +"The poor child has my sympathy but what can I do?" Lady Hare inquired. + +"Being an American, you can expect but one answer from me," said the +philosopher. "To us tyranny in home or state is intolerable. They +tried it on me when I was a boy and I ran away." + +"That is what I shall do if necessary," said Margaret. + +"Oh, my child! How would you live?" her mother asked. + +"I will answer that question for her, if you will let me," said +Franklin. "If she needs it, she shall have an allowance out of my +purse." + +"Thank you, but that would raise a scandal," said the woman. + +"Oh, Your Ladyship, I am old enough to be her grandfather." + +"I wish to go with Jack, if you know where he is," Margaret declared, +looking up into the face of the philosopher. + +"I think he is pushing toward America," Franklin answered. "Being +alarmed at the condition of his adversary, I advised him to slip away. +A ship went yesterday. Probably he's on it. He had no chance to see +me or to pick up his baggage." + +"I shall follow him soon," the girl declared. + +"If you will only contain yourself, you will get along with your father +very well," said Lady Hare. "I know him better than you. He has +promised to take you to America in December. You must wait and be +patient. After all, your father has a large claim upon you." + +"I think you will do well to wait, my child," said the philosopher. +"Jack will keep and you are both young. Fathers are like other +children. They make mistakes--they even do wrong now and then. They +have to be forgiven and allowed a chance to repent and improve their +conduct. Your father is a good man. Try to win him to your cause." + +"And die a maiden," said the girl with a sigh. + +"Impossible!" Franklin exclaimed. + +"I shall marry Jack or never marry. I would rather be his wife than +the Queen of England." + +"This is surely the age of romance," said the smiling philosopher as +the ladies alighted at their door. "I wish I were young again." + + + + +BOOK TWO + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE FERMENT + +On his voyage to New York, Jack wrote long letters to Margaret and to +Doctor Franklin, which were deposited in the Post-Office on his +arrival, the tenth of March. He observed a great change in the spirit +of the people. They were no longer content with words. The ferment +was showing itself in acts of open and violent disorder. The statue of +George III, near the Battery, was treated to a volley of decayed eggs, +in the evening of his arrival. This hot blood was due to the effort to +prevent free speech in the colonies and the proposal to send political +prisoners to England for trial. + +Jack took the first boat to Albany and found Solomon working on the +Irons farm. In his diary he tells of the delightful days of rest he +enjoyed with his family. Solomon had told them of the great adventure +but Jack would have little to say of it, having no pride in that +achievement. + +Soon the scout left on a mission for the Committee of Safety to distant +settlements in the great north bush. + +"I'll be spendin' the hull moon in the wilderness," he said to Jack. +"Goin' to Virginny when I get back, an' I'll look fer ye on the way +down." + +Jack set out for Philadelphia the day after Solomon left. He stopped +at Kinderhook on his way down the river and addressed its people on +conditions in England. A young Tory interrupted his remarks. At the +barbecue, which followed, this young man was seized and punished by a +number of stalwart girls who removed his collar and jacket by force and +covered his head and neck with molasses and the fuzz of cat tails. +Jack interceded for the Tory and stopped the proceeding. + +"My friends, we must control our anger," he said. "Let us not try to +subdue tyranny by using it ourselves." + +Everywhere he found the people in such a temper that Tories had to hold +their peace or suffer punishment. At the office he learned that his +most important letters had failed to pass the hidden censorship of mail +in England. He began, at once, to write a series of articles which +hastened the crisis. The first of them was a talk with Franklin, which +told how his mail had been tampered with; that no letter had come to +his hand through the Post-Office which had not been opened with +apparent indifference as to the evidence of its violation. The +Doctor's words regarding free speech in America and the proposal to try +the bolder critics for treason were read and discussed in every +household from the sea to the mountains and from Maine to Florida. + +"Grievances can not be redressed unless they are known and they can not +be known save through complaints and petitions," the philosopher had +said. "If these are taken as affronts and the messengers punished, the +vent of grief is stopped up--a dangerous thing in any state. It is +sure to produce an explosion. + +"An evil magistrate with the power to punish for words would be armed +with a terrible weapon. + +"Augustus Caesar, with the avowed purpose of preserving Romans from +defamation, made libel subject to the penalties of treason. +Thenceforward every man's life hung by a thread easily severed by some +lying informer. + +"Soon it was resolved by all good judges of law that whoever should +insinuate the least doubt of Nero's preeminence in the noble art of +fiddling should be deemed a traitor. Grief became treason and one lady +was put to death for bewailing the fate of her murdered son. In time, +silence became treason, and even a look was considered an overt act." + +These words of the wise philosopher strengthened the spirit of the land +for its great ordeal. + +Jack described the prejudice of the Lords who, content with their +ignorance, spurned every effort to inform them of the conditions in +America. + +"And this little tail is wagging the great dog of England, most of +whose people believe in the justice of our complaints," he wrote. + +The young man's work had set the bells ringing and they were the bells +of revolt. The arrival of General Gage at Boston in May, to be civil +governor and commander-in-chief for the continent, and the blockade of +the port twenty days later, compelling its population who had been fed +by the sea to starve or subsist on the bounty of others, drove the most +conservative citizens into the open. Parties went out Tory hunting. +Every suspected man was compelled to declare himself and if +incorrigible, was sent away. Town meetings were held even under the +eyes of the King's soldiers and no tribunal was allowed to sit in any +court-house. At Salem, a meeting was held behind locked doors with the +Governor and his Secretary shouting a proclamation through its keyhole, +declaring it to be dissolved. The meeting proceeded to its end, and +when the citizens filed out, they had invited the thirteen colonies to +a General Congress in Philadelphia. + +It was Solomon Binkus who conveyed the invitation to Pennsylvania and +Virginia. He had gone on a second mission to Springfield and Boston +and had been in the meeting at Salem with General Ward. Another man +carried that historic call to the colonies farther south. In five +weeks, delegates were chosen, and early in August, they were traveling +on many different roads toward the Quaker City. Crowds gathered in +every town and village they passed. Solomon, who rode with the +Virginia delegation, told Jack that he hadn't heard so much noise since +the Injun war. + +"They was poundin' the bells, an shootin' cannons everywhere," he +declared. "Men, women and childern crowded 'round us an' split their +lungs yellin'. They's a streak o' sore throats all the way from +Alexandry to here." + +Solomon and his young friend met John Adams on the street. The +distinguished Massachusetts lawyer said to Jack when the greetings were +over: + +"Young man, your pen has been not writing, but making history." + +"Does it mean war?" Jack queried. + +Mr. Adams wiped his brow with his handkerchief and said; "People in our +circumstances have seldom grown old or died in their beds." + +"We ought to be getting ready," said Jack. + +"And we are doing little but eat and drink and shout and bluster," Mr. +Adams answered. "We are being entertained here with meats and curds +and custards and jellies and tarts and floating islands and Madeira +wine. It is for you to induce the people of Philadelphia to begin to +save. We need to learn Franklin's philosophy of thrift." + +Colonel Washington was a member of the Virginia delegation. Jack wrote +that he was in uniform, blue coat and red waistcoat and breeches; that +he was a big man standing very erect and about six feet, two inches in +height; that his eyes were blue, his complexion light and rather +florid, his face slightly pock-marked, his brown hair tinged with gray; +that he had the largest hands, save those of Solomon Binkus, that he +had ever seen. His letter contains these informing words: + +"I never quite realized the full meaning of the word 'dignity' until I +saw this man and heard his deep rich voice. There was a kind of +magnificence in his manner and person when he said: + +"'I will raise one thousand men toward the relief of Boston and subsist +them at my own expense.' + +"That was all he said and it was the most eloquent speech made in the +convention. It won the hearts of the New Englanders. Thereafter, he +was the central figure in that Congress of trusted men. It is also +evident that he will be the central figure on this side of the ocean +when the storm breaks. Next day, he announced that he was, as yet, +opposed to any definite move toward independence. So the delegates +contented themselves with a declaration of rights opposing importations +and especially slaves." + +When the Congress adjourned October twenty-sixth to meet again on the +tenth of May, there was little hope of peace among those who had had a +part in its proceedings. + +Jack, who knew the conditions in England, knew also that war would come +soon, and freely expressed his views. + + + +2 + +Letters had come from Margaret giving him the welcome news that Lionel +Clarke had recovered and announcing that her own little revolution had +achieved success. She and her father would be taking ship for Boston +in December. Jack had urged that she try to induce him to start at +once, fearing that December would be too late, and so it fell out. +When the news of the Congress reached London, the King made new plans. +He began to prepare for war. Sir Benjamin Hare, who was to be the +first deputy of General Gage, was assigned to a brigade and immediately +put his regiments in training for service overseas. He had spent six +months in America and was supposed, in England, to have learned the art +of bush fighting. Such was the easy optimism of the cheerful young +Minister of War, and his confreres, in the House of Lords. After the +arrival of the _King William_ at Gravesend on the eighth of December, +no English women went down to the sea in ships for a long time. +Thereafter the water roads were thought to be only for fighting men. +Jack's hope was that armed resistance would convince the British of +their folly. + +"A change of front in the Parliament would quickly end the war," he was +wont to say. Not that he quite believed it. But young men in love are +apt to say things which they do not quite believe. In February, 1775, +he gave up his work on _The Gazette_ to aid in the problem of defense. +Solomon, then in Albany, had written that he was going the twentieth of +that month on a mission to the Six Nations of The Long House. + +It was unusual for the northern tribes to hold a council in +winter--especially during the moon of the hard snow, but the growing +bitterness of the white men had alarmed them. They had learned that +another and greater war was at hand and they were restless for fear of +it. The quarrel was of no concern to the red man, but he foresaw the +deadly peril of choosing the wrong side. So the wise men of the tribes +were coming into council. + +"If we fight England, we got to have the Injuns on our side er else +Tryon County won't be no healthy place fer white folks," Solomon wrote. +"I wished you could go 'long with me an' show 'em the kind o' shootin' +we'll do ag'in' the English an' tell 'em they could count the leaves in +the bush easier than the men in the home o' the south wind, an' all +good shooters. Put on a big, two-story bearskin cap with a red ribband +tied around it an' bring plenty o' gewgaws. I don't care what they be +so long as they shine an' rattle. I cocalate you an' me could do good +work." + +Immediately the young man packed his box and set out by stage on his +way to the North. Near West Point, he left the sleigh, which had +stopped for repairs, and put on his skates and with the wind mostly at +his back, made Albany early that evening on the river roof. He found +the family and Solomon eating supper, with the table drawn close to the +fireside, it being a cold night. + +"I think that St. Nicholas was never more welcome in any home or the +creator of more happiness than I was that night," he wrote in a letter +to Margaret, sent through his friend Doctor Franklin. "What a glow was +in the faces of my mother and father and Solomon Binkus--the man who +was so liked in London! What cries of joy came from the children! +They clung to me and my little brother, Josiah, sat on my knee while I +ate my sausage and flapjacks and maple molasses. I shall never forget +that supper hour for, belike, I was hungry enough to eat an ox. You +would never see a homecoming like that in England, I fancy. Here the +family ties are very strong. We have no opera, no theater, no balls +and only now and then a simple party of neighborhood folk. We work +hard and are weary at night. So our pleasures are few and mostly those +shared in the family circles. A little thing, such as a homecoming, or +a new book, brings a joy that we remember as long as we live. I hope +that you will not be appalled by the simplicity of my father's home and +neighborhood. There is something very sweet and beautiful in it, +which, I am sure, you would not fail to discover. + +"Philadelphia and Boston are more like the cities you know. They are +getting ambitious and are beginning to ape the manners of England but, +even there, you would, find most people like my own. The attempts at +grandeur are often ludicrous. In Philadelphia, I have seen men sitting +at public banquets without coat or collar and drinking out of bottles." + +Next day, Jack and Solomon set out with packs and snow-shoes for The +Long House, which was the great highway of the Indians. It cut the +province from the Hudson to Lake Erie. In summer it was roofed by the +leaves of the forest. The chief villages of the Six Tribes were on or +near it. This trail was probably the ancient route of the cloven hoof +on its way to the prairies--the thoroughfare of the elk and the +buffalo. How wisely it was chosen time has shown, for now it is +covered with iron rails, the surveyors having tried in vain to find a +better one. + +Late in the second day out, they came suddenly on a young moose. Jack +presented his piece and brought the animal down. They skinned him and +cut out the loins and a part of each hind quarter. When Solomon +wrapped the meat in a part of the hide and slung it over his shoulder, +night was falling. + +"Cat's blood an' gunpowder! The ol' night has a sly foot," said +Solomon. "We won't see no Crow Hill tavern. We got t' make a snow +house." + +On the south side of a steep hill near them was a deep, hard frozen +drift. Solomon cut the crust with his hatchet and began moving big +blocks of snow. Soon he had made a cavern in the great white pile, a +fathom deep and high, and as long as a full grown man. They put in a +floor of balsam boughs and spread their blankets on it. Then they cut +a small dead pine and built a fire a few feet in front of their house +and fried some bacon and a steak and made snow water and a pot of tea. +The steak and bacon were eaten on slices of bread without knife or +fork. Their repast over, Solomon made a rack and began jerking the +meat with a slow fire of green hardwood smoldering some three feet +below it. The "jerk" under way, they reclined on their blankets in +the snow house secure from the touch of a cold wind that swept down the +hillside, looking out at the dying firelight while Solomon told of his +adventures in the Ohio country. + +Jack was a bit afflicted with "snow-shoe evil," being unaccustomed to +that kind of travel, and he never forgot the sense of relief and +comfort which he found in the snow house, or the droll talk of Solomon. + +"You're havin' more trouble to git married than a Mingo brave," Solomon +said to Jack. "'Mongst them, when a boy an' gal want to git married, +both fam'lies have to go an' take a sweat together. They heat a lot o' +rocks an' roll 'em into a pen made o' sticks put in crotches an' +covered over with skins an' blankets. The hot rocks turn it into a +kind o' oven. They all crawl in thar an' begin to sweat an' hoot an' +holler. You kin hear 'em a mile off. It's a reg'lar hootin' match. +I'd call it a kind o' camp meetin'. When they holler it means that the +devil is lettin' go. They're bein' purified. It kind o' seasons 'em +so they kin stan' the heat o' a family quarrel. When Injuns have had +the grease sweat out of 'em, they know suthin' has happened. The +women'll talk fer years 'bout the weddin' sweat." + +Now and then, as he talked, Solomon arose to put more wood on the fire +and keep "the jerk sizzling." Just before he lay down for the night, +he took some hard wood coals and stored them in a griddle full of hot +ashes so as to save tinder in the morning. + +They were awakened in the night by the ravening of a pack of wolves at +the carcass of the slain moose, which lay within twenty rods of the +snow camp. They were growling and snapping as they tore the meat from +the bones. Solomon rose and drew on his boots. + +"Cat's blood an' gunpowder! I thought the smell o' the jerk would +bring 'em," Solomon whispered. "Say, they's quite a passel o' wolves +thar--you hear to me. No, I ain't skeered o' them thar whelps, but +it's ag'in' my principles to go to sleep if they's nuthin' but air +'twixt me an' them. They might be jest fools 'nough to think I were +good eatin'; which I ain't. I guess it's 'bout time to take keer o' +this 'ere jerk an' start up a fire. I won't give them loafers nothin' +but hell, if they come 'round here--not a crumb." + +Solomon went to work with his ax in the moonlight, while Jack kindled +up the fire. + +"We don't need to tear off our buttons hurryin'," said the former, as +he flung down a dead spruce by the fireside and began chopping it into +sticks. "They won't be lookin' for more fodder till they've picked the +bones o' that 'ere moose. Don't make it a big fire er you'll melt our +roof. We jest need a little belt o' blaze eround our front. Our rear +is safe. Chain lightnin' couldn't slide down this 'ere hill without +puttin' on the brakes." + +Soon they had a good stack of wood inside the fire line and in the pile +were some straight young birches. Solomon made stakes of these and +drove them deep in the snow close up to the entrance of their refuge, +making a stockade with an opening in the middle large enough for a man +to pass through. Then they sat down on their blankets, going out often +to put wood on the fire. While sitting quietly with their rifles in +hand, they observed that the growling and yelping had ceased. + +"They've got that 'ere moose in their packs," Solomon whispered. "Now +keep yer eye peeled. They'll be snoopin' eround here to git our share. +You see." + +In half a moment, Jack's rifle spoke, followed by the loud yelp of a +wolf well away from the firelight. + +"Uh, huh! You warmed the wax in his ear, that's sart'in;" said Solomon +as Jack was reloading. "Did ye hear him say 'Don't'?" + +The scout's rifle spoke and another wolf yelped. + +"Yer welcome," Solomon shouted. "I slammed that 'er hunk o' lead into +the pack leader--a whale of a wolf. The ol' Cap'n stepped right up +clus. Seen 'im plain--gray, long legged ol' whelp. He were walkin' +towards the fire when he stubbed his toe. It's all over now. They'll +snook erway. The army has lost its Gin'ral." + +They saw nothing more of the wolf pack and after an hour or so of +watching, they put more wood on the fire, filled the opening in their +stockade and lay down to rest. Solomon called it a night of "one-eyed +sleep" when they got up at daylight and rekindled the fire and washed +their hands and faces in the snow. The two dead wolves lay within +fifty feet of the fire and Solomon cut off the tail of the larger one +for a souvenir. + +They had more steak and bread, moistened with tea, for breakfast and +set out again with a good store of jerked meat in their packs. So they +proceeded on their journey, as sundry faded clippings inform us, +spending their nights thereafter at rude inns or in the cabins of +settlers until they had passed the village of the Mohawks, where they +found only a few old Indians and their squaws and many dogs and young +children. The chief and his sachems and warriors and their wives had +gone on to the great council fire in the land of Kiodote, the Thorny +Tree. + +They spent a night in the little cabin tavern of Bill Scott on the +upper waters of the Mohawk. Mrs. Scott, a comely woman of twenty-six, +had been a sister of Solomon's wife. She and the scout had a pleasant +visit about old times in Cherry Valley where they had spent a part of +their childhood, and she was most thoughtful and generous in providing +for their comfort. The Scotts had lost two children and another, a +baby, was lying asleep in the cradle. Scott was a hard working, sullen +sort of a man who made his living chiefly by selling rum to the +Indians. Solomon used to say that he had been "hooked by the love o' +money an' et up by land hunger." + +"You'll have to git away from The Long House," Solomon said to Scott. +"One reason I come here was to tell ye." + +"What makes ye think so?" Scott asked. + +"The Injuns'll hug ye when they're drunk but they'll hate ye when +they're sober," Solomon answered. "They lay all their trouble to +fire-water an' they're right. If the cat jumps the wrong way an' they +go on the war-path, ye got to look out." + +"I ain't no way skeered," was Scott's answer. He had a hoarse, damp +voice that suggested the sound of rum gurgling out of a jug. His red +face indicated that he was himself too fond of the look and taste of +fire-water. + +"Ye got to git erway from here I tell ye," Solomon insisted. + +Scott stroked his sandy beard and answered: "I guess I know my business +'bout as well as you do." + +"Le's go back to Cherry Valley, Bill," the woman urged. + +"Oh, keep yer trap shet," Scott said to her. + +"He's as selfish as a he-bear," said Solomon as he and Jack were +leaving soon after daylight. "Don't think o' nuthin' but gittin' rich. +Keeps swappin' firewater fer land an' no idee o' the danger." + +They left the woman in tears. + +"It's awful lonesome here. I'll never see ye ag'in," she declared as +she stood wiping her eyes with her apron. + +"Here now--you behave!" Solomon exclaimed. "I'll toddle up to your +door some time next summer." + +"Mirandy is a likely womern--I tell ye," Solomon whispered as they went +away. "He is a mean devil! Ain't the kind of a man fer her--nary bit. +A rum bottle is the only comp'ny he keers fer." + +They often spoke of the pathetic loneliness of this good-looking, +kindly, mismated woman. Jack and Solomon reached the council on the +fifth day of their travel. There, a level plain in the forest was +covered with Indians and the snow trodden smooth. Around it were their +tents and huts and houses. There were males and females, many of the +latter in rich silks and scarlet cloths bordered with gold fringe. +Some wore brooches and rings in their noses. Among them were handsome +faces and erect and noble forms. + +In the center of the plain stood a great stack of wood and green boughs +of spruce and balsam built up in layers for the evening council fire. + +Old Kiodote knew Solomon and remembered Jack, whom he had seen in the +great council at Albany in 1761. + +"He says your name was 'Boiling Water,'" Solomon said to Jack after a +moment's talk with the chief. + +"He has a good memory," the young man answered. + +The two white men were invited to take part in the games. All the +warriors had heard of Solomon's skill with a rifle. "Son of the +Thunder," they called him in the League of the Iroquois. The red men +gathered in great numbers to see him shoot. Again, as of old, they +were thrilled by his feats with the rifle, but when Jack began his +quick and deadly firing, crushing butternuts thrown into the air, with +rifle and pistol, a kind of awe possessed the crowd. Many came and +touched him and stared into his face and called him "The Brother of +Death." + + + +3 + +Solomon's speech that evening before the council fire impressed the +Indians. He had given much thought to its composition and Jack had +helped him in the invention of vivid phrases loved by the red men. He +addressed them in the dialect of the Senecas, that being the one with +which he was most familiar. He spoke of the thunder cloud of war +coming up in the east and the cause of it and begged them to fight with +their white neighbors, under the leadership of The Great Spirit for the +justice which He loved. Solomon had brought them many gifts in token +of the friendship of himself and his people. + +Old Theandenaga, of the Mohawks, answered him in a speech distinguished +by its noble expressions of good will and by an eloquent, but not +ill-tempered, account of the wrongs of the red men. He laid particular +stress on the corrupting of the young braves with fire-water. + +"Let all bad feeling be buried in a deep pool," Solomon answered. +"There are bad white men and there are bad Indians but they are not +many. The good men are like the leaves of the forest--you can not +count them--but the bad man is like the scent pedlar [the skunk]. +Though he is but one, he can make much trouble." + +Every judgment of the league in council had to be unanimous. They +voted in sections, whereupon each section sent its representative into +the higher council and no verdict was announced until its members were +of one mind. The deliberations were proceeding toward a favorable +judgment as Solomon thought, when Guy Johnson arrived from Johnson +Castle with a train of pack bearers. A wild night of drunken revelry +followed his arrival. Jack and Solomon were lodging at a log inn, kept +by a Dutch trader, half a mile or so from the scene of the council. A +little past midnight, the trader came up into the loft where they were +sleeping on a heap of straw and awakened Solomon. + +"Come down the ladder," said the Dutchman. "A young squaw has come out +from the council. She will speak to you." + +Solomon slipped on his trousers, coat and boots, and went below. The +squaw was sitting on the floor against the wall. A blanket was drawn +over the back of her head. Her handsome face had a familiar look. + +"Put out the light," she whispered in English. + +The candle was quickly snuffed and then: + +"I am the Little White Birch," she said. "You and my beautiful young +brave were good to me. You took me to the school and he kissed my +cheek and spoke words like the song of the little brown bird of the +forest. I have come here to warn you. Turn away from the great camp +of the red man. Make your feet go fast. The young warriors are drunk. +They will come here to slay you. I say go like the rabbit when he is +scared. Before daylight, put half a sleep between you and them." + +Solomon called Jack and in the darkness they quickly got ready to go. +The Dutchman could give them only a loaf of bread, some salt and a slab +of bacon. The squaw stood on the door-step watching while they were +getting ready. Snow was falling. + +"They are near," she whispered when the men came out. "I have heard +them." + +She held Jack's hand to her lips and said: + +"Let me feel your face. I can not see it. I shall see it not again +this side of the Happy Hunting-Grounds." + +For a second she touched the face of the young man and he kissed her +forehead. + +"This way," she whispered. "Now go like the snow in the wind, my +beautiful pale face." + +"Can we help you?" Jack queried. "Will you go with us back to the +white man's school?" + +"No, I am old woman now. I have taken the yoke of the red man. In the +Happy Hunting-Grounds maybe the Great Spirit will give me a pale face. +Then I will go with my father and his people and my beautiful young +brave will take me to his house and not be ashamed. Go now. Good-by." + +"Little White Birch, I give you this," said Jack, as he put in her hand +the tail of the great gray wolf, beautifully adorned with silver braid +and blue ribbands. + +It was snowing hard. Jack and Solomon started toward a belt of timber +east of the log inn. Before they reached it, their clothes were white +with snow--a fact which probably saved their lives. They were shot at +from the edge of the bush. Solomon shouted to Jack to come on and +wisely ran straight toward the spot from which the rifle flashes had +proceeded. In the edge of the woods, Jack shot an Indian with his +pistol. The red man was loading. So they got through what appeared to +be a cordon around the house and cut into the bush. + +"They won't foller us," said Solomon, as the two stopped presently to +put on their snow-shoes. + +"What makes you think so ?" + +"They don't keer to see us lessen they're hid. We are the Son o' the +Thunder an' the Brother o' Death. It would hurt to see us. The second +our eyes drop on an Injun, he's got a hole in his guts an' they know +it. They'd ruther go an' set down with a jug o' rum." + +"It was a low and devilish trick to bring fire-water into that camp," +said Jack. + +"Guy Johnson is mean enough to steal acorns from a blind hog," Solomon +answered. + +Suddenly they heard a loud whooping in the distance and looking back +into the valley they saw a great flare of light. + +"They've put the torch to the tavern and will have a dance," said +Solomon. "We got out jest in time." + +"I am afraid for the Little White Birch," said Jack. + +"They'll let her alone. She is one of the wives of ol' Theandenaga. +She will lead the Dutchman an' his family to the house o' the great +chief. She won't let 'em be hurt if she kin help it. She knowed they +was a'ter us." + +"Why do they want to kill us?" Jack queried. + +"'Cause they're goin' to fight with the British an' we shoot so damn +well they want to git us out o' the way an' do it sly an' without +gittin' hurt. But fer the squaw, we'd be hoppin' eround in that 'ere +loft like a pair o' rats. They'd 'a' sneaked the Dutchman an' his +folks outdoors with tommyhawks over their heads and scattered grease +an' gunpowder an' boughs on the floor, an' set 'er goin' an' me an' you +asleep above the ladder. I reckon we'd had to do some climbin' an' +they's no tellin' where we'd 'a' landed, which there ain't do doubt +'bout that." + +Solomon seemed to know his way by an instinct like that of a dog. They +were in the deep woods, traveling by snow light without a trail. Jack +felt sure they were going wrong, but he said nothing. By and by there +was a glow in the sky ahead. The snow had ceased falling and the +heavens were clear. + +"Ye see we're goin' right," said Solomon. "The sun'll be up in half an +hour, but afore we swing to the trail we better git a bite. Gulf Brook +is down yender in the valley an' I'd kind o' like to taste of it." + +They proceeded down a long, wooded slope and came presently to the +brook whose white floored aisle was walled with evergreen thickets +heavy with snow. Beneath its crystal vault they could hear the song of +the water. It was a grateful sound for they were warm and thirsty. +Near the point where they deposited their packs was a big beaver dam. + +Solomon took his ax and teapot and started up stream. + +"Want to git cl'ar 'bove," said he. + +"Why?" Jack inquired. + +"This 'ere is a beaver nest," said Solomon. + +He returned in a moment with his pot full of beautiful clear water of +which they drank deeply. + +"Ye see the beavers make a dam an' raise the water," Solomon explained. +"When it gits a good ice roof so thick the sun won't burn a hole in it +afore spring, they tap the dam an' let the water out. Then they've got +a purty house to live in with a floor o' clean water an' a glass roof +an' plenty o' green popple sticks stored in the corners to feed on. +They have stiddy weather down thar--no cold winds 'er deep snow to +bother 'em. When the roof rots an' breaks in the sunlight an' slides +off they patch up the dam with mud an' sticks an' they've got a +swimmin' hole to play in." + +They built a fire and spread their blankets on a bed of boughs and had +some hot tea and jerked meat and slices of bread soaked in bacon fat. + +"Ye see them Injuns is doomed," said Solomon. "Some on 'em has got +good sense, but rum kind o' kills all argeyment. Rum is now the great +chief o' the red man. Rum an' Johnson 'll win 'em over. Sir William +was their Great White Father. They trusted him. Guy an' John have got +his name behind 'em. The right an' wrong o' the matter ain't able to +git under the Injun's hide. They'll go with the British an' burn, an' +rob, an' kill. The settlers 'll give hot blood to their childern. The +Injun 'll be forever a brother to the snake. We an' our childern an' +gran'childern 'll curse him an' meller his head. The League o' the +Iroquois 'll be scattered like dust in the wind, an' we'll wonder where +it has gone. But 'fore then, they's goin' to be great trouble. The +white settlers has got to give up their land an' move, 'er turn Tory, +'er be tommy-hawked." + +With a sense of failure, they slowly made their way back to Albany, +riding the last half of it on the sled of a settler who was going to +the river city with a grist and a load of furs. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +ADVENTURES IN THE SERVICE OF THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF + +Soon after they reached home Jack received a letter from Doctor +Franklin who had given up his fruitless work in London and returned to +Philadelphia. + +It said: 'My work in England has been fruitless and I am done with it. +I bring you much love from the fair lady of your choice. That, my +young friend, is a better possession than houses and lands, for even +the flames of war can not destroy it. I have not seen, in all this +life of mine, a dearer creature or a nobler passion. And I will tell +you why it is dear to me, as well as to you. She is like the good +people of England whose heart is with the colonies, but whose will is +being baffled and oppressed. Let us hope it may not be for long. My +good wishes for you involve the whole race whose blood is in my veins. +That race has ever been like the patient ox, treading out the corn, +whose leading trait is endurance. + +"There is little light in the present outlook. You and Binkus will do +well to come here. This, for a time, will be the center of our +activities and you may be needed any moment." + +Jack and Solomon went to Philadelphia soon after news of the battle of +Lexington had reached Albany in the last days of April. They were +among the cheering crowds that welcomed the delegates to the Second +Congress. + +Colonel Washington, the only delegate in uniform, was the most +impressive figure in the Congress. He had come up with a coach and six +horses from Virginia. The Colonel used to say that even with six +horses, one had a slow and rough journey in the mud and sand. His +dignity and noble stature, the fame he had won in the Indian wars and +his wisdom and modesty in council, had silenced opposition and opened +his way. He was a man highly favored of Heaven. The people of +Philadelphia felt the power of his personality. They seemed to regard +him with affectionate awe. All eyes were on him when he walked around. +Not even the magnificent Hancock or the eloquent Patrick Henry +attracted so much attention. Yet he would stop in the street to speak +to a child or to say a pleasant word to an old acquaintance as he did +to Solomon. + +That day in June when the beloved Virginian was chosen to be +Commander-in-Chief of the American forces, Jack and Solomon dined with +Franklin at his home. John Adams of Boston and John Brown, the great +merchant of Providence, were his other guests. The distinguished men +were discussing the choice of Colonel Washington. + +"I think that Ward is a greater soldier," said Brown. "Washington has +done no fighting since '58. Our battles will be in the open. He is a +bush fighter." + +"True, but he is a fighter and, like Achilles, a born master of men," +Franklin answered. "His fiery energy saved Braddock's army from being +utterly wiped out. His gift for deliberation won the confidence of +Congress. He has wisdom and personality. He can express them in calm +debate or terrific action. Above all, he has a sense of the oneness of +America. Massachusetts and Georgia are as dear to him as Virginia." + +"He is a Christian gentleman of proved courage and great sagacity," +said Adams. "His one defeat proved him to be the master of himself. +It was a noble defeat." + +Doctor Franklin, who never failed to show some token of respect for +every guest at his table, turned to Solomon and said: + +"Major Binkus, you have been with him a good deal. What do you think +of Colonel Washington?" + +"I think he's a hull four hoss team an' the dog under the waggin," said +Solomon. + +John Adams often quoted these words of the scout and they became a +saying in New England. + +"To ask you a question is like priming a pump," said Franklin, as he +turned to Solomon with a laugh. "Washington is about four times the +average man, with something to spare and that something is the dog +under the wagon. It would seem that the Lord God has bred and prepared +and sent him among us to be chosen. We saw and knew and voted. There +was no room for doubt in my mind." + +"And while I am a friend of Ward, I am after all convinced that +Washington is the man," said Brown. "Nothing so became him as when he +called upon all gentlemen present to remember that he thought himself +unequal to the task." + +Washington set out in June with Colonel Lee and a company of Light +Horse for Boston where some sixteen thousand men had assembled with +their rifles and muskets to be organized into an army for the defense +of Massachusetts. + + + +2 + +A little later Jack and Solomon followed with eight horses and two +wagons loaded with barrels of gunpowder made under the direction of +Benjamin Franklin and paid for with his money. A British fleet being +in American waters, the overland route was chosen as the safer one. It +was a slow and toilsome journey with here and there a touch of stern +adventure. Crossing the pine barrens of New Jersey, they were held up +by a band of Tory refugees and deprived of all the money in their +pockets. Always Solomon got a squint in one eye and a solemn look in +the other when that matter was referred to. + +"'Twere all due to the freight," he said to a friend. "Ye see their +guns was p'intin' our way and behind us were a ton o' gunpowder. She's +awful particular comp'ny. Makes her nervous to have anybody nigh her +that's bein' shot at. Ye got to be peaceful an' p'lite. Don't let no +argements come up. If some feller wants yer money an' has got a gun +it'll be cheaper to let him have it. I tell ye she's an uppity, +hot-tempered ol' critter--got to be treated jest so er she'll stomp her +foot an' say, 'Scat,' an' then--" + +Solomon smiled and gave his right hand a little upward fling and said +no more, having lifted the burden off his mind. + +On the post road, beyond Horse Neck in Connecticut, they had a more +serious adventure. They had been traveling with a crude map of each +main road, showing the location of houses in the settled country where, +at night, they could find shelter and hospitality. Owing to the +peculiar character of their freight, the Committee in Philadelphia had +requested them to avoid inns and had caused these maps to be sent to +them at post-offices on the road indicating the homes of trusted +patriots from twenty to thirty miles apart. About six o'clock in the +evening of July twentieth, they reached the home of Israel Lockwood, +three miles above Horse Neck. They had ridden through a storm which +had shaken and smitten the earth with its thunder-bolts some of which +had fallen near them. Mr. Lockwood directed them to leave their wagons +on a large empty barn floor and asked them in to supper. + +"If you'll bring suthin' out to us, I guess we better stay by her," +said Solomon. "She might be nervous." + +"Do you have to stay with this stuff all the while?" Lockwood asked. + +"Night an' day," said Solomon. "Don't do to let 'er git lonesome. +To-day when the lightnin' were slappin' the ground on both sides o' me, +I wanted to hop down an' run off in the bush a mile er so fer to see +the kentry, but I jest had to set an' hope that she would hold her +temper an' not go to slappin' back." + +"She," as Solomon called the two loads, was a most exacting mistress. +They never left her alone for a moment. While one was putting away the +horses the other was on guard. They slept near her at night. + +Israel Lockwood sat down for a visit with them when he brought their +food. While they were eating, another terrific thunder-storm arrived. +In the midst of it a bolt struck the barn and rent its roof open and +set the top of the mow afire. Solomon jumped to the rear wheel of one +of the wagons while Jack seized the tongue. In a second it was rolling +down the barn bridge and away. The barn had filled with smoke and +cinders but these dauntless men rolled out the second wagon. + +Rain was falling. Solomon observed a wisp of smoke coming out from +under the roof of this wagon. He jumped in and found a live cinder +which had burned through the cover and fallen on one of the barrels. +It was eating into the wood. Solomon tossed it out in the rain and +smothered "the live spot." He examined the barrels and the wagon floor +and was satisfied. In speaking of that incident next day he said to +Jack: + +"If I hadn't 'a' had purty good control o' my legs, I guess they'd 'a' +run erway with me. I had to put the whip on 'em to git 'em to step in +under that wagon roof--you hear to me." + +While Solomon was engaged with this trying duty, Lockwood had led the +horses out of the stable below and rescued the harness. A heavy shower +was falling. The flames had burst through the roof and in spite of the +rain, the structure was soon destroyed. + +"The wind was favorable and we all stood watching the fire, safe but +helpless to do anything for our host," Jack wrote in a letter. +"Fortunately there was another house near and I took the horses to its +barn for the night. We slept in a woodshed close to the wagons. We +slipped out of trouble by being on hand when it started. If we had +gone into the house for supper, I'm inclined to think that the British +would not have been driven out of Boston. + +"We passed many companies of marching riflemen. In front of one of +these, the fife and drum corps playing behind him, was a young Tory, +who had insulted the company, and was, therefore, made to carry a gray +goose in his arms with this maxim of Poor Richard on his back: 'Not +every goose has feathers on him.' + +"On the twentieth we reported to General Washington in Cambridge. This +was the first time I saw him in the uniform of a general. He wore a +blue coat with buff facings and buff underdress, a small sword, rich +epaulets, a black cockade in his three-cornered hat, and a blue sash +under his coat. His hair was done up in a queue. He was in boots and +spurs. He received us politely, directing a young officer to go with +us to the powder house. There we saw a large number of barrels. + +"'All full of sand,' the officer whispered. 'We keep 'em here to fool +the enemy,' + +"Not far from the powder house I overheard this little dialogue between +a captain and a private. + +"'Bill, go get a pail o' water,' said the captain. + +"'I shan't do it. 'Tain't my turn,' the private answered." + +The men and officers were under many kinds of shelter in the big camp. +There were tents and marquees and rude structures built of boards and +roughly hewn timber, and of stone and turf and brick and brush. Some +had doors and windows wrought out of withes knit together in the +fashion of a basket. There were handsome young men whose thighs had +never felt the touch of steel; elderly men in faded, moth-eaten +uniforms and wigs. + +In their possession were rifles and muskets of varying size, age and +caliber. Some of them had helped to make the thunders of Naseby and +Marston Moor. There were old sabers which had touched the ground when +the hosts of Cromwell had knelt in prayer. + +Certain of the men were swapping clothes. No uniforms had been +provided for this singular assemblage of patriots all eager for +service. Sergeants wore a strip of red on the right shoulder; +corporals a strip of green. Field officers mounted a red cockade; +captains flaunted a like signal in yellow. Generals wore a pink +ribband and aides a green one. + +This great body of men which had come to besiege Boston was able to +shoot and dig. That is about all they knew of the art of war. +Training had begun in earnest. The sergeants were working with squads; +Generals Lee and Ward and Green and Putnam and Sullivan with companies +and regiments from daylight to dark. + +Jack was particularly interested in Putnam--a short, rugged, fat, +white-haired farmer from Connecticut of bluff manners and nasal twang +and of great animation for one of his years--he was then fifty-seven. +He was often seen flying about the camp on a horse. The young man had +read of the heroic exploits of this veteran of the Indian wars. + +Their mission finished, that evening Jack and Solomon called at General +Washington's headquarters. + +[Illustration: Jack Irons and Solomon Binkus with General George +Washington.] + +"General, Doctor Franklin told us to turn over the bosses and wagons to +you," said Solomon. "He didn't tell us what to do with ourselves +'cause 'twasn't necessary an' he knew it. We want to enlist." + +"For what term?" + +"Till the British are licked." + +"You are the kind of men I need," said Washington. "I shall put you on +scout duty. Mr. Irons will go into my regiment of sharp shooters with +the rank of captain. You have told me of his training in Philadelphia." + + + +3 + +So the two friends were enlisted and began service in the army of +Washington. + +A letter from Jack to his mother dated July 25, 1775, is full of the +camp color: + +"General Charles Lee is in command of my regiment," he writes. "He is +a rough, slovenly old dog of a man who seems to bark at us on the +training ground. He has two or three hunting dogs that live with him +in his tent and also a rare gift of profanity which is with him +everywhere--save at headquarters. + +"To-day I saw these notices posted in camp: + +"'Punctual attendance on divine service is required of all not on +actual duty.' + +"'No burning of the pope allowed.' + +"'Fifteen stripes for denying duty.' + +"'Ten for getting drunk.' + +"'Thirty-nine for stealing and desertion.' + +"Rogues are put in terror, lazy men are energized. The quarters are +kept clean, the food is well cooked and in plentiful supply, but the +British over in town are said to be getting hungry." + +Early in August a London letter was forwarded to Jack from +Philadelphia. He was filled with new hope as he read these lines: + +"Dearest Jack: I am sailing for Boston on one of the next troop ships +to join my father. So when the war ends--God grant it may be +soon!--you will not have far to go to find me. Perhaps by Christmas +time we may be together. Let us both pray for that. Meanwhile, I +shall be happier for being nearer you and for doing what I can to heal +the wounds made by this wretched war. I am going to be a nurse in a +hospital. You see the truth is that since I met you, I like all men +better, and I shall love to be trying to relieve their sufferings . . ." + +It was a long letter but above is as much of it as can claim admission +to these pages. + +"Who but she could write such a letter?" Jack asked himself, and then +he held it to his lips a moment. It thrilled him to think that even +then she was probably in Boston. In the tent where he and Solomon +lived when they were both in camp, he found the scout. The night +before Solomon had slept out. Now he had built a small fire in front +of the tent and lain down on a blanket, having delivered his report at +headquarters. + +"Margaret is in Boston," said Jack as soon as he entered, and then +standing in the firelight read the letter to his friend. + +"Thar is a real, genewine, likely gal," said the scout. + +"I wish there were some way of getting to her," the young man remarked. + +"Might as well think o' goin' to hell an' back ag'in," said Solomon. +"Since Bunker Hill the British are like a lot o' hornets. I run on to +one of 'em to-day. He fired at me an' didn't hit a thing but the air +an' run like a scared rabbit. Could 'a' killed him easy but I kind o' +enjoyed seein' him run. He were like chain lightnin' on a greased +pole--you hear to me." + +"If the General will let me, I'm going to try spy duty and see if I can +get into town and out again," he proposed. + +"You keep out o' that business," said Solomon. "They's too many that +know ye over in town. The two Clarkes an' their friends an' Colonel +Hare an' his friends, an' Cap. Preston, an' a hull passle. They know +all 'bout ye. If you got snapped, they'd stan' ye ag'in' a wall an' +put ye out o' the way quick. It would be pie for the Clarkes, an' the +ol' man Hare wouldn't spill no tears over it. Cap. Preston couldn't +save ye that's sart'in. No, sir, I won't 'low it. They's plenty o' +old cusses fer such work." + +For a time Jack abandoned the idea, but later, when Solomon failed to +return from a scouting tour and a report reached camp that he was +captured, the young man began to think of that rather romantic plan +again. He had grown a full beard; his skin was tanned; his clothes +were worn and torn and faded. His father, who had visited the camp +bringing a supply of clothes for his son, had failed, at first, to +recognize him. + +December had arrived. The General was having his first great trial in +keeping an army about him. Terms of enlistment were expiring. Cold +weather had come. The camp was uncomfortable. Regiments of the +homesick lads of New England were leaving or preparing to leave. Jack +and a number of young ministers in the service organized a campaign of +persuasion and many were prevailed upon to reenlist. But hundreds of +boys were hurrying homeward on the frozen roads. The southern +riflemen, who were a long journey from their homes, had not the like +temptation to break away. Bitter rivalry arose between the boys of the +north and the south. The latter, especially the Virginia lads, were in +handsome uniforms. They looked down upon the awkward, homespun ranks +in the regiments of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. Then +came the famous snowball battle between the boys of Virginia and New +England. In the midst of it, Washington arrived and, leaping from his +white horse, was quickly in the thick of the fight. He seized a couple +of Virginia lads and gave them a shaking. + +"No more of this," he commanded. + +It was all over in a moment. The men were running toward their +quarters. + +"There is a wholesome regard here for the Commander-in-Chief," Jack +wrote to his mother. "I look not upon his heroic figure without a +thought of the great burden which rests upon it and a thrill of +emotion. There are many who fear him. Most severely he will punish +the man who neglects his duty, but how gentle and indulgent he can be, +especially to a new recruit, until the latter has learned the game of +war! He is like a good father to these thousands of boys and young +men. No soldier can be flogged when he is near. If he sees a fellow +tied to the halberds, he will ask about his offense and order him to be +taken down. In camp his black servant, Bill, is always with him. Out +of camp he has an escort of light horse. Morning and evening he holds +divine service in his tent. When a man does a brave act, the Chief +summons him to headquarters and gives him a token of his appreciation. +I hope to be called one of these days." + +Soon after this letter was written, the young man was sent for. He and +his company had captured a number of men in a skirmish. + +"Captain, you have done well," said the General. "I want to make a +scout of you. In our present circumstances it's about the most +important, dangerous and difficult work there is to be done here, +especially the work which Solomon Binkus undertook to do. There is no +other in whom I should have so much confidence." + +"You do me great honor," said Jack. "I shall make a poor showing +compared with that of my friend Major Binkus, but I have some knowledge +of his methods and will do my best." + +"You will do well to imitate them with caution," said the General. "He +was a most intrepid and astute observer. In the bush they would not +have captured him. The clearings toward the sea make the work arduous +and full of danger. It is only for men of your strength and courage. +Major Bartlett knows the part of the line which Colonel Binkus +traversed. He will be going out that way to-morrow. I should like +you, sir, to go with him. After one trip I shall be greatly pleased if +you are capable of doing the work alone." + +Orders were delivered and Jack reported to Bartlett, an agreeable, +middle-aged farmer-soldier, who had been on scout duty since July. +They left camp together next morning an hour before reveille. They had +an uneventful day, mostly in wooded flats and ridges, and from the +latter looking across with a spy-glass into Bruteland, as they called +the country held by the British, and seeing only, now and then, an +enemy picket or distant camps. About midday they sat down in a thicket +together for a bite to eat and a whispered conference. + +"Binkus, as you know, had his own way of scouting," said the Major. +"He was an Indian fighter. He liked to get inside the enemy lines and +lie close an' watch 'em an' mebbe hear what they were talking about. +Now an' then he would surprise a British sentinel and disarm him an' +bring him into camp." + +Jack wondered that his friend had never spoken of the capture of +prisoners. + +"He was a modest man," said the young scout. + +"He didn't want the British to know where Solomon Binkus was at work, +and I guess he was wise," said the Major. "I advise you against taking +the chances that he took. It isn't necessary. You would be caught +much sooner than he was." + +That day Bartlett took Jack over Solomon's trail and gave him the lay +of the land and much good advice. A young man of Jack's spirit, +however, is apt to have a degree of enterprise and self-confidence not +easily controlled by advice. He had been traveling alone for three +days when he felt the need of more exciting action. That night he +crossed the Charles River on the ice in a snow-storm and captured a +sentinel and brought him back to camp. + +About this time he wrote another letter to the family, in which he said: + +"The boys are coming back from home and reenlisting. They have not +been paid--no one has been paid--but they are coming back. More of +them are coming than went away. + +"They all tell one story. The women and the old men made a row about +their being at home in time of war. On Sunday the minister called them +shirks. Everybody looked askance at them. A committee of girls went +from house to house reenlisting the boys. So here they are, and +Washington has an army, such as it is." + + + +4 + +Soon after that the daring spirit of the youth led him into a great +adventure. It was on the night of January fifth that Jack penetrated +the British lines in a snow-storm and got close to an outpost in a +strip of forest. There a camp-fire was burning. He came close. His +garments had been whitened by the storm. The air was thick with snow, +his feet were muffled in a foot of it. He sat by a stump scarcely +twenty feet from the fire, seeing those in its light, but quite +invisible. There he could distinctly hear the talk of the Britishers. +It related to a proposed evacuation of the city by Howe. + +"I'm weary of starving to death in this God-forsaken place," said one +of them. "You can't keep an army without meat or vegetables. I've +eaten fish till I'm getting scales on me." + +"Colonel Riffington says that the army will leave here within a +fortnight," another observed. + +It was important information which had come to the ear of the young +scout. The talk was that of well bred Englishmen who were probably +officers. + +"We ought not to speak of those matters aloud," one of them remarked. +"Some damned Yankee may be listening like the one we captured." + +"He was Amherst's old scout," said another. "He swore a blue streak +when we shoved him into jail. They don't like to be treated like +rebels. They want to be prisoners of war." + +"I don't know why they shouldn't," another answered. "If this isn't a +war, I never saw one. There are twenty thousand men under arms across +the river and they've got us nailed in here tighter than a drum. They +used to say in London that the rebellion was a teapot tempest and that +a thousand grenadiers could march to the Alleghanies in a week and +subdue the country on the way. You are aware of how far we have +marched from the sea. It's just about to where we are now. We've gone +about five miles in eight months. How many hundreds of years will pass +before we reach the Alleghanies? But old Gage will tell you that it +isn't a war." + +A young man came along with his rifle on his shoulder. + +"Hello, Bill!" said one of the men. "Going out on post?" + +"I am, God help me," the youth answered. "It's what I'd call a hell of +a night." + +The sentinel passed close by Jack on his way to his post. The latter +crept away and followed, gradually closing in upon his quarry. When +they were well away from the fire, Jack came close and called, "Bill." + +The sentinel stopped and faced about. + +"You've forgotten something," said Jack, in a genial tone. + +"What is it?" + +"Your caution," Jack answered, with his pistol against the breast of +his enemy. "I shall have to kill you if you call or fail to obey me. +Give me the rifle and go on ahead. When I say gee go to the right, haw +to the left." + +So the capture was made, and on the way out Jack picked up the sentinel +who stood waiting to be relieved and took both men into camp. + +From documents on the person of one of these young Britishers, it +appeared that General Clarke was in command of a brigade behind the +lines which Jack had been watching and robbing. + +When Jack delivered his report the Chief called him a brave lad and +said: + +"It is valuable information you have brought to me. Do not speak of +it. Let me warn you. Captain, that from now on they will try to trap +you. Perhaps, even, you may look for daring enterprises on that part +of their line." + +The General was right. The young scout ran into a most daring and +successful British enterprise on the twentieth of January. The snow +had been swept away in a warm rain and the ground had frozen bare, or +it would not have been possible. Jack had got to a strip of woods in a +lonely bit of country near the British lines and was climbing a tall +tree to take observations when he saw a movement on the ground beneath +him. He stopped and quickly discovered that the tree was surrounded by +British soldiers. One of them, who stood with a raised rifle, called +to him: + +"Irons, I will trouble you to drop your pistols and come down at once." + +Jack saw that he had run into an ambush. He dropped his pistols and +came down. He had disregarded the warning of the General. He should +have been looking out for an ambush. A squad of five men stood about +him with rifles in hand. Among them was Lionel Clarke, his right +sleeve empty. + +"We've got you at last--you damned rebel!" said Clarke. + +"I suppose you need some one to swear at," Jack answered. + +"And to shoot at," Clarke suggested. + +"I thought that you would not care for another match with me," the +young scout remarked as they began to move away. + +"Hereafter you will be treated like a rebel and not like a gentleman," +Clarke answered. + +"What do you mean?" + +"I mean that you will be standing, blindfolded against a wall." + +"That kind of a threat doesn't scare me," Jack answered. "We have too +many of your men in our hands." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +IN BOSTON JAIL + +Jack was marched under a guard into the streets of Boston. Church +bells were ringing. It was Sunday morning. Young Clarke came with the +guard beyond the city limits. They had seemed to be very careless in +the control of their prisoner. They gave him every chance to make a +break for liberty. Jack was not fooled. + +"I see that you want to get rid of me," said Jack to the young officer. +"You'd like to have me run a race with your bullets. That is base +ingratitude. I was careful of you when we met and you do not seem to +know it." + +"I know how well you can shoot," Clarke answered. "But you do not know +how well I can shoot." + +"And when I learn, I want to have a fair chance for my life." + +Beyond the city limits young Clarke, who was then a captain, left them, +and Jack proceeded with the others. + +The streets were quiet--indeed almost deserted. There were no children +playing on the common. A crowd was coming out of one of the churches. +In the midst of it the prisoner saw Preston and Lady Hare. They were +so near that he could have touched them with his hand as he passed. +They did not see him. He noted the name of the church and its +minister. In a few minutes he was delivered at the jail--a noisome, +ill-smelling, badly ventilated place. The jailer was a tall, slim, +sallow man with a thin gray beard. His face and form were familiar. +He heard Jack's name with a look of great astonishment. Then the young +man recognized him. He was Mr. Eliphalet Pinhorn, who had so +distinguished himself on the stage trip to Philadelphia some years +before. + +"It is a long time since we met," said Jack. + +Mr. Pinhorn's face seemed to lengthen. His mouth and eyes opened wide +in a silent demand for information. + +Jack reminded him of the day and circumstances. + +For a moment Mr. Pinhorn held his hand against his forehead and was +dumb with astonishment. Then he said: + +"I knew! I foresaw! But it is not too late." + +"Too late for what?" + +"To turn, to be redeemed, loved, forgiven. Think it over, sir. Think +it over." + +Jack's name and age and residence were registered. Then Pinhorn took +his arm and walked with him down the corridor toward an open door. +About half-way to the door he stopped and put his hand on Jack's +shoulder and said with a look of great seriousness: + +"A sinking cause! Death! Destruction! Misery! The ship is going +down. Leave it." + +"You are misinformed. There is no leak in our ship," said Jack. + +Mr. Pinhorn shut his eyes and shook his head mournfully. Then, with a +wave of his hand, he pronounced the doom of the western world in one +whispered word: + +"Ashes!" + +For a moment his face and form were alive with exclamatory suggestion. +Then he shook his head and said: + +"Doomed! Poor soul! Go out in the yard with your fellow rebels. They +are taking the air." + +The yard was an opening walled in by the main structure and its two +wings and a wooden fence some fifteen feet high. There was a ragged, +dirty rabble of "rebel" prisoners, among whom was Solomon Binkus, all +out for an airing. The old scout had lost flesh and color. He held +Jack's hand and stood for a moment without speaking. + +"I never was so glad and so sorry in my life," said Solomon. "It's a +hell-mogrified place to be in. Smells like a blasted whale an' is as +cold as the north side of a grave stun on a Janooary night, an' +starvation fare, an' they's a man here that's come down with the +smallpox. How'd ye git ketched?" + +Jack briefly told of his capture. + +"I got sick one day an' couldn't hide 'cause I were makin' tracks in +the snow so I had to give in," said Solomon. "Margaret has been here, +but they won't let 'er come no more 'count o' the smallpox. Sends me +suthin' tasty ev'ry day er two. I tol' er all 'bout ye. I guess the +smallpox couldn't keep 'er 'way if she knowed you was here. But she +won't be 'lowed to know it. This 'ere Clarke boy has p'isoned the +jail. Nobody 'll come here 'cept them that's dragged. He's got it all +fixed fer ye. I wouldn't wonder if he'd be glad to see ye rotted up +with smallpox." + +"What kind of a man is Pinhorn?" + +"A whey-faced hypercrit an' a Tory. Licks the feet o' the British when +they come here." + +Jack and Solomon lay for weeks in this dirty, noisome jail, where their +treatment was well calculated to change opinions not deeply rooted in +firm soil. They did not fear the smallpox, as both were immune. But +their confinement was, as doubtless it was intended to be, memorably +punitive. They were "rebels"--law-breakers, human rubbish whose +offenses bordered upon treason. The smallpox patient was soon taken +away, but other conditions were not improved. They slept on straw +infested with vermin. Their cover and food were insufficient and "not +fit fer a dog," in the words of Solomon. Some of the boys gave in and +were set free on parole, and there was one, at least, who went to work +in the ranks of the British. + +There is a passage in a letter of Jack Irons regarding conditions in +the jail which should be quoted here: + +"One boy has lung fever and every night I hear him sobbing. His sorrow +travels like fire among the weaker men. I have heard a number of cold, +half-starved, homesick lads crying like women in the middle of the +night. It makes me feel like letting go myself. There is one man who +swears like a trooper when it begins. I suppose that I shall be as +hysterical as the rest of them in time. I don't believe General Howe +knows what is going on here. The jail is run by American Tories, who +are wreaking their hatred on us." + +Jack sent a line to the rector of the Church of England, where he had +seen Preston and Lady Howe, inviting him to call, but saw him not, and +no word came from him. Letters were entrusted to Mr. Pinhorn for +Preston, Margaret and General Sir Benjamin Hare with handsome payment +for their delivery, but they waited in vain for an answer. + +"They's suthin' wrong 'bout this 'ere business," said Solomon. "You'll +find that ol' Pinhorn has got a pair o' split hoofs under his luther." + +One day Jack was sent for by Mr. Pinhorn and conducted to his office. + +"Honor! Good luck! Relief!" was the threefold exclamation with which +the young man was greeted. + +"What do you mean?" Jack inquired. + +"General Howe! You! Message to Mr. Washington! To-night!" + +"Do you mean General Washington?" + +"No. Mister! Title not recognized here!"' + +"I shall take no message to 'Mr.' Washington," Jack answered. "If I +did, I am sure that he would not receive it." + +Mr. Pinhorn's face expressed a high degree of astonishment. + +"Pride! Error! Persistent error!" he exclaimed. "Never mind! +Details can be fixed. You are to go to-night. Return to-morrow!" + +The prospect of getting away from his misery even for a day or two was +alluring. + +"Let me have the details in writing and I will let you know at once," +he answered. + +The plan was soon delivered. Jack was to pass the lines on the +northeast front in the vicinity of Breed's Hill with a British +sergeant, under a white flag, and proceed to Washington's headquarters. + +"Looks kind o' neevarious," said Solomon when they were out in the jail +yard together. "Looks like ye might be grabbed in the jaws o' a trap. +Nobody's name is signed to this 'ere paper. There's nothin' behind the +hull thing but ol' Pinhorn an'--who? I'm skeered o' Mr. Who? Pinhorn +an' Who an' a Dark Night! There's a pardnership! Kind o' well mated! +They want ye to put yer life in their hands. What fer? Wal, ye know +it 'pears to me they'd be apt to be car'less with it. It's jest +possible that there's some feller who'll be happier if you was rubbed +off the slate. War is goin' on an' you belong to that breed o' pups +they call rebels. A dead rebel don't cause no hard feelin's in the +British army. Now, Jack, you stay where ye be. 'Tain't a fust rate +place, but it's better'n a hole in the ground. Suthin' is goin' to +happen--you mark my words, boy. I kind o' think Margaret is gittin' +anxious to talk with me an' kin't be kept erway no longer. Mebbe the +British army is goin' to move. Ye know fer two days an' nights we been +hearin' cannon fire." + +"Solomon, I'm not going out to be shot in the back," said the young +man. "If I am to be executed, it must be done with witnesses in proper +form. I shall refuse to go. If Margaret should come, and it is +possible, I want you to sit down with her in front of my cell so that I +can see her, but do not tell her that I am here. It would increase her +trouble and do no good. Besides, I could not permit myself to touch +her hand even, but I would love to look into her face." + +So it happened that the proposal which had come to Jack through Mr. +Pinhorn was firmly declined, whereupon the astonishment of that +official was expressed in a sorrowful gesture and the exclamation: +"Doomed! Stubborn youth!" + + + +2 + +Solomon Binkus was indeed a shrewd man. In the faded packet of letters +is one which recites the history of the confinement of the two scouts +in the Boston jail. It tells of the coming of Margaret that very +evening with an order from the Adjutant General directing Mr. Pinhorn +to allow her to talk with the "rebel prisoner Solomon Binkus." + +The official conducted her to the iron grated door in front of +Solomon's cell. + +"I will talk with him in the corridor, if you please," she said, as she +gave the jailer a guinea, whereupon he became most obliging. The cell +door was opened and chairs were brought for them to sit upon. Cannons +were roaring again and the sound was nearer than it had been before. + +"Have you heard from Jack?" she asked when they were seated in front of +the cell of the latter. + +"Yes, ma'am. He is well, but like a man shot with rock salt." + +"What do you mean?" + +"Sufferin'," Solomon answered. "Kind o' riddled with thoughts o' you +an' I wouldn't wonder." + +"Did you get a letter?" she asked. + +"No. A young officer who was ketched an' brought here t'other day has +told me all 'bout him." + +"Is the officer here?" + +"Yes, ma'am," Solomon answered. + +"I want to see him--I want to talk with him. I must meet the man who +has come from the presence of my Jack." + +Solomon was visibly embarrassed. He was in trouble for a moment and +then he answered: "I'm 'fraid 'twouldn't do no good." + +"Why?" + +"'Cause he's deef an' dumb." + +"But do you not understand? It would be a comfort to look at him." + +"He's in this cell, but I wouldn't know how to call him," Solomon +assured her. + +She went to Jack's door and peered at him through the grating. He was +lying on his straw bed. The light which came from candles set in +brackets on the stone wall of the corridor was dim. + +"Poor, poor fellow!" she exclaimed. "I suppose he is thinking of his +sweetheart or of some one very dear to him. His eyes are covered with +his handkerchief. So you have lately seen the boy I love! How I wish +you could tell me about him!" + +The voice of the young lady had had a curious effect upon that +nerve-racked, homesick company of soldier lads in prison. Doubtless it +had reminded some of dear and familiar voices which they had lost hope +of hearing again. + +One began to groan and sob, then another and another. + +"Ain't that like the bawlin' o' the damned?" Solomon asked. "Some on +'em is sick; some is wore out. They're all half starved!" + +"It is dreadful!" said she, as she covered her eyes with her +handkerchief. "I can not help thinking that any day _he_ may have to +come here. I shall go to see General Howe to-night." + +"To-morrer I'll git this 'ere boy to write out all he knows 'bout Jack, +but if ye see it, ye'll have to come 'ere an' let me put it straight +into yer hands," Solomon assured her. + +"I'll be here at ten o'clock," she said, and went away. + +Pinhorn stepped into the corridor as Solomon called to Jack: + +"Things be goin' to improve, ol' man. Hang on to yer hosses. The +English people is to have a talk with General Howe to-night an' suthin' +'ll be said, now you hear to me. That damn German King ain't a-goin' +to have his way much longer here in Boston jail." + +Early next morning shells began to fall in the city. Suddenly the +firing ceased. At nine o'clock all prisoners in the jail were sent +for, to be exchanged. Preston came with the order from General Howe +and news of a truce. + +"This means yer army is lightin' out," Solomon said to him. + +"The city will be evacuated," was Preston's answer. + +"Could I send a message to Gin'ral Hare's house?" + +"The General and his brigade and family sailed for another port at +eight. If you wish, I'll take your message." + +Solomon delivered to Preston a letter written by Jack to Margaret. It +told of his capture and imprisonment. + +"Better than I, you will know if there is good ground for these dark +suspicions which have come to us," he wrote. "As well as I, you will +know what a trial I underwent last evening. That I had the strength to +hold my peace, I am glad, knowing that you are the happier to-day +because of it." + +The third of March had come. The sun was shining. The wind was in the +south. They were not strong enough to walk, so Preston had brought +horses for them to ride. There were long patches of snow on the +Dorchester Heights. A little beyond they met the brigade of Putnam. +It was moving toward the city and had stopped for its noon mess. The +odor of fresh beef and onions was in the air. + +"Cat's blood an' gunpowder!" said Solomon. "Tie me to a tree." + +"What for?" Preston asked. + +"I'll kill myself eatin'," the scout declared. "I'm so got durn hungry +I kin't be trusted." + +"I guess we'll have to put the brakes on each other," Jack remarked. + +"An' it'll be steep goin'," said Solomon. + +Washington rode up to the camp with a squad of cavalry while they were +eating. He had a kind word for every liberated man. To Jack he said: + +"I am glad to address you as Colonel Irons. You have suffered much, +but it will be a comfort for you to know that the information you +brought enabled me to hasten the departure of the British." + +Turning to Solomon, he added: + +"Colonel Binkus, I am indebted to you for faithful, effective and +valiant service. You shall have a medal." + +"Gin'ral Washington, we're a-goin' to lick 'em," said Solomon. "We're +a-goin' to break their necks." + +"Colonel, you are very confident," the General answered with a smile. + +"You'll see," Solomon continued. "God A'mighty is sick o' tyrants. +They're doomed." + +"Let us hope so," said the Commander-in-Chief. "But let us not forget +the words of Poor Richard: 'God helps those who help themselves.'" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +JACK AND SOLOMON MEET THE GREAT ALLY + +The Selectmen of Boston, seeing the city threatened with destruction, +had made terms with Washington for the British army. It was to be +allowed peaceably to abandon the city and withdraw in its fleet of one +hundred and fifty vessels. The American army was now well organized +and in high spirit. Washington waited on Dorchester Heights for the +evacuation of Boston to be completed. Meanwhile, a large force was +sent to New York to assist in the defense of that city. Jack and +Solomon went with it. On account of their physical condition, horses +were provided for them, and on their arrival each was to have a leave +of two weeks, "for repairs," as Solomon put it. They went up to Albany +for a rest and a visit and returned eager for the work which awaited +them. + +They spent a spring and summer of heavy toil in building defenses and +training recruits. The country was aflame with excitement. Rhode +Island and Connecticut declared for independence. The fire ran across +their borders and down the seaboard. Other colonies were making or +discussing like declarations. John Adams, on his way to Congress, told +of the defeat of the Northern army in Canada and how it was heading +southward "eaten with vermin, diseased, scattered, dispirited, unclad, +unfed, disgraced." Colonies were ignoring the old order of things, +electing their own assemblies and enacting their own laws. The Tory +provincial assemblies were unable to get men enough together to make a +pretense of doing business. + +In June, by a narrow margin, the Congress declared for independence, on +the motion of Richard Henry Lee of Virginia. A declaration was drafted +and soon adopted by all the Provincial Congresses. It was engrossed on +parchment and signed by the delegates of the thirteen states on the +second of August. Jack went to that memorable scene as an aid to John +Adams, who was then the head of the War Board. + +He writes in a letter to his friends in Albany: + +"They were a solemn looking lot of men with the exception of Doctor +Franklin and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. The latter wore a +long-tailed buff coat with round gold buttons. He is a tall, big-boned +man. I have never seen longer arms than he has. His wrists and hands +are large and powerful. + +"When they began to sign the parchment he smiled and said: + +"'Gentlemen, Benjamin Franklin should have written this document. The +committee, however, knew well that he would be sure to put a joke in +it.' + +"'Let me remind you that behind it all is the greatest joke in +history,' said the philosopher. + +"'What is that?' Mr. Jefferson asked, + +"'The British House of Lords,' said Franklin. + +"A smile broke through the cloud of solemnity on those many faces, and +was followed by a little ripple of laughter. + +"'The committee wishes you all to know that it is indebted to Doctor +Franklin for wise revision of the instrument,' said Mr. Jefferson. + +"When the last man had signed, Mr. Jefferson rose and said: + +"'Gentlemen, we have taken a long and important step. On this new +ground we must hang together to the end.' + +"'We must all hang together or assuredly we shall all hang separately,' +said Franklin with that gentle, fatherly smile of his. + +"Again the signers laughed. + +"Last night I heard Patrick Henry speak. He thrilled us with his +eloquence. He is a spare but rugged man, whose hands have been used to +toil like my own. They tell me that he was a small merchant, farmer +and bar-keeper down in Virginia before he became a lawyer and that he +educated himself largely by the reading of history. He has a rapid, +magnificent diction, slightly flavored with the accent of the Scot." + + + +2 + +In August, Howe had moved a part of his army from Halifax to Staten +Island and offensive operations were daily expected in Washington's +army. Jack hurried to his regiment, then in camp with others on the +heights back of Brooklyn. The troops there were not ready for a strong +attack. General Greene, who was in command of the division, had +suddenly fallen ill. Jack crossed the river the night of his arrival +with a message to General Washington. The latter returned with the +young Colonel to survey the situation. They found Solomon at +headquarters. He had discovered British scouts in the wooded country +near Gravesend. He and Jack were detailed to keep watch of that part +of the island and its shores with horses posted at convenient points so +that, if necessary, they could make quick reports. + +Next day, far beyond the outposts in the bush, they tied their horses +in the little stable near Remsen's cabin on the south road and went on +afoot through the bush. Jack used to tell his friends that the +singular alertness and skill of Solomon had never been so apparent as +in the adventures of that day. + +"Go careful," Solomon warned as they parted. "Keep a-goin' south an' +don't worry 'bout me." + +"I thought that I knew how to be careful, but Solomon took the conceit +out of me," Jack was wont to say. "I was walking along in the bush +late that day when I thought I saw a move far ahead. I stopped and +suddenly discovered that Solomon was standing beside me. + +"I was so startled that I almost let a yelp out of me. + +"He beckoned to me and I followed him. He began to walk about as fast +as I had ever seen him go. He had been looking for me. Soon he slowed +his gait and said in a low voice: + +"'Ain't ye a leetle bit car'less? An Injun wouldn't have no trouble +smashin' yer head with a tommyhawk. In this 'ere business ye got to +have a swivel in yer neck an' keep 'er twistin'. Ye got to know what's +goin' on a-fore an' behind ye an' on both sides. We must p'int fer +camp. This mornin' the British begun to land an army at Gravesend. +Out on the road they's waggin loads o' old folks an' women, an' babies +on their way to Brooklyn. We got to skitter 'long. Some o' their +skirmishers have been workin' back two ways an' may have us cut off.'" + +Suddenly Solomon stopped and lifted his hand and listened. Then he +dropped and put his ear to the ground. He beckoned to Jack, who crept +near him. + +"Somebody's nigh us afore an' behind," he whispered. "We better hide +till dark comes. You crawl into that ol' holler log. I'll nose myself +under a brush pile." + +They were in a burnt slash where the soft timber had been cut some time +before. The land was covered with a thick, spotty growth of poplar and +wild cherry and brush heaps and logs half-rotted. The piece of timber +to which Solomon had referred was the base log of a giant hemlock +abandoned, no doubt, because, when cut, it was found to be a shell. It +was open only at the butt end. Its opening was covered by an immense +cobweb. Jack brushed it away and crept backward into the shell. He +observed that many black hairs were caught upon the rough sides of this +singular chamber. Through the winter it must have been the den of a +black bear. As soon as he had settled down, with his face some two +feet from the sunlit air of the outer world. Jack observed that the +industrious spider had begun again to throw his silvery veil over the +great hole in the log's end. He watched the process. First the outer +lines of the structure were woven across the edges of the opening and +made fast at points around its imperfect circle. Then the weaver +dropped to opposite points, unreeling his slender rope behind him and +making it taut and fast. He was no slow and clumsy workman. He knew +his task and rushed about, rapidly strengthening his structure with +parallel lines, having a common center, until his silken floor was in +place again and ready for the death dance of flies and bees and wasps. +Soon a bumble bee was kicking and quivering like a stricken ox on its +surface. The spider rushed upon him and buried his knives in the back +and sides of his prey. The young man's observation of this interesting +process was interrupted by the sound of voices and the tread of feet. +They were British voices. + +"They came this way. I saw them when they turned," a voice was saying. +"If I had been a little closer, I could have potted both men with one +bullet." + +"Why didn't you take a shot anyhow?" another asked. + +"I was creeping up, trying to get closer. They have had to hide or run +upon the heels of our people." + +A number of men were now sitting on the very log in which Jack was +hidden. The young scout saw the legs of a man standing opposite the +open end of the log. Then these memorable words were spoken: + +"This log is good cover for a man to hide in, but nobody is hid in it. +There's a big spider's web over the opening." + +There was more talk, in which it came out that nine thousand men were +crossing to Gravesend. + +"Come on, boys, I'm going back," said one of the party. Whereupon they +went away. + +Dusk was falling. Jack waited for a move from Solomon. In a few +minutes he heard a stir in the brush. Then he could dimly see the face +of his friend beyond the spider's web. + +"Come on, my son," the latter whispered. With a feeling of real +regret, Jack rent the veil of the spider and came out of his +hiding-place. He brushed the silken threads from his hair and brow as +he whispered: + +"That old spider saved me--good luck to him!" + +"We'll keep clus together," Solomon whispered. "We got to push right +on an' work 'round 'em. If any one gits in our way, he'll have to +change worlds sudden, that's all. We mus' git to them hosses 'fore +midnight." + +Darkness had fallen, but the moon was rising when they set out. +Solomon led the way, with that long, loose stride of his. Their +moccasined feet were about as noiseless as a cat's. On and on they +went until Solomon stopped suddenly and stood listening and peering +into the dark bush beyond. Jack could hear and see nothing. Solomon +turned and took a new direction without a word and moving with the +stealth of a hunted Indian. Jack followed closely. Soon they were +sinking to their knees in a mossy tamarack swamp, but a few minutes of +hard travel brought them to the shore of a pond. + +"Wait here till I git the canoe," Solomon whispered. + +The latter crept into a thicket and soon Jack could hear him cautiously +shoving his canoe into the water. A little later the young man sat in +the middle of the shell of birch bark while Solomon knelt in its stern +with his paddle. Silently he pushed through the lilied margin of the +pond into clear water. The moon was hidden behind the woods. The +still surface of the pond was now a glossy, dark plane between two +starry deeps--one above, the other beneath. In the shadow of the +forest, near the far shore, Solomon stopped and lifted his voice in the +long, weird cry of the great bush owl. This he repeated three times, +when there came an answer out of the woods. + +"That's a warnin' fer ol' Joe Thrasher," Solomon whispered. "He'll go +out an' wake up the folks on his road an' start 'em movin'." + +They landed and Solomon hid his canoe in a thicket. + +"Now we kin skitter right long, but I tell ye we got purty clus to 'em +back thar." + +"How did you know it?" + +"Got a whiff o' smoke. They was strung out from the pond landing over +'crost the trail. They didn't cover the swamp. Must 'a' had a fire +for tea early in the evenin'. Wherever they's an Englishman, thar's +got to be tea." + +Before midnight they reached Remsen's barn and about two o'clock +entered the camp on lathering horses. As they dismounted, looking back +from the heights of Brooklyn toward the southeast, they could see a +great light from many fires, the flames of which were leaping into the +sky. + +"Guess the farmers have set their wheat stacks afire," said Solomon. +"They're all scairt an' started fer town." + +General Washington was with his forces some miles north of the other +shore of the river. A messenger was sent for him. Next day the +Commander-in-Chief found his Long Island brigades in a condition of +disorder and panic. Squads and companies, eager for a fight, were +prowling through the bush in the south like hunters after game. A +number of the new Connecticut boys had deserted. Some of them had been +captured and brought back. In speaking of the matter, Washington said: + +"We must be tolerant. These lads are timid. They have been dragged +from the tender scenes of domestic life. They are unused to the +restraints of war. We must not be too severe." + +Jack heard the Commander-in-Chief when he spoke these words. + +"The man has a great heart in him, as every great man must," he wrote +to his father. "I am beginning to love him. I can see that these +thousands in the army are going to be bound to him by an affection like +that of a son for a father. With men like Washington and Franklin to +lead us, how can we fail?" + +The next night Sir Henry Clinton got around the Americans and turned +their left flank. Smallwood's command and that of Colonel Jack Irons +were almost destroyed, twenty-two hundred having been killed or taken. +Jack had his left arm shot through and escaped only by the swift and +effective use of his pistols and hanger, and by good luck, his horse +having been "only slightly cut in the withers." The American line gave +way. Its unseasoned troops fled into Brooklyn. There was the end of +the island. They could go no farther without swimming. With a British +fleet in the harbor under Admiral Lord Howe, the situation was +desperate. Sir Henry had only to follow and pen them in and unlimber +his guns. The surrender of more than half of Washington's army would +have to follow. At headquarters, the most discerning minds saw that +only a miracle could prevent it. + +The miracle arrived. Next day a fog thicker than the darkness of a +clouded night enveloped the island and lay upon the face of the waters. +Calmly, quickly Washington got ready to move his troops. That night, +under the friendly cover of the fog, they were quietly taken across the +East River, with a regiment of Marblehead sea dogs, under Colonel +Glover, manning the boats. Fortunately, the British army had halted, +waiting for clear weather. + + + +3 + +For nearly two weeks Jack was nursing his wound in Washington's army +hospital, which consisted of a cabin, a tent, a number of cow stables +and an old shed on the heights of Harlem. Jack had lain in a stable. + +Toward the end of his confinement, John Adams came to see him. + +"Were you badly hurt ?" the great man asked. + +"Scratched a little, but I'll be back in the service to-morrow," Jack +replied. + +"You do not look like yourself quite. I think that I will ask the +Commander-in-Chief to let you go with me to Philadelphia. I have some +business there and later Franklin and I are going to Staten Island to +confer with Admiral Lord Howe. We are a pair of snappish old dogs and +need a young man like you to look after us. You would only have to +keep out of our quarrels, attend to our luggage and make some notes in +the conference." + +So it happened that Jack went to Philadelphia with Mr. Adams, and, +after two days at the house of Doctor Franklin, set out with the two +great men for the conference on Staten Island. He went in high hope +that he was to witness the last scene of the war. + +In Amboy he sent a letter to his father, which said: + +"Mr. Adams is a blunt, outspoken man. If things do not go to his +liking, he is quick to tell you. Doctor Franklin is humorous and +polite, but firm as a God-placed mountain. You may put your shoulder +against the mountain and push and think it is moving, but it isn't. He +is established. He has found his proper bearings and is done with +moving. These two great men differ in little matters. They had a +curious quarrel the other evening. We had reached New Brunswick on our +way north. The taverns were crowded. I ran from one to another trying +to find entertainment for my distinguished friends. At last I found a +small chamber with one bed in it and a single window. The bed nearly +filled the room. No better accommodation was to be had. I had left +them sitting on a bench in a little grove near the large hotel, with +the luggage near them. When I returned they were having a hot argument +over the origin of northeast storms, the Doctor asserting that he had +learned by experiment that they began in the southwest and proceeded in +a north-easterly direction. I had to wait ten minutes for a chance to +speak to them. Mr. Adams was hot faced, the Doctor calm and smiling. +I imparted the news. + +"'God of Israel!' Mr. Adams exclaimed. 'Is it not enough that I have +to agree with you? Must I also sleep with you?' + +"'Sir, I hope that you must not, but if you must, I beg that you will +sleep more gently than you talk,' said Franklin. + +"I went with them to their quarters carrying the luggage. On the way +Mr. Adams complained that he had picked up a flea somewhere. + +"'The flea, sir, is a small animal, but a big fact,' said Franklin. +'You alarm me. Two large men and a flea will be apt to crowd our +quarters.' + +"In the room they argued with a depth of feeling which astonished me, +as to whether the one window should be open or closed. Mr. Adams had +closed it. + +"'Please do not close the window,' said Franklin. 'We shall suffocate.' + +"'Sir, I am an invalid and afraid of the night air,' said Adams rather +testily. + +"'The air of this room will be much worse for you than that +out-of-doors,' Franklin retorted. He was then between the covers. 'I +beg of you to open the window and get into bed and if I do not prove my +case to your satisfaction, I will consent to its being closed.' + +"I lay down on a straw filled mattress outside their door. I heard Mr. +Adams open the window and get into bed. Then Doctor Franklin began to +expound his theory of colds. He declared that cold air never gave any +one a cold; that respiration destroyed a gallon of air a minute and +that all the air in the room would be consumed in an hour. He went on +and on and long before he had finished his argument, Mr. Adams was +snoring, convinced rather by the length than the cogency of the +reasoning. Soon the two great men, whose fame may be said to fill the +earth, were asleep in the same bed in that little box of a room and +snoring in a way that suggested loud contention. I had to laugh as I +listened. Mr. Adams would seem to have been defeated, for, by and by, +I heard him muttering as he walked the floor." + +Howe's barge met the party at Amboy and conveyed them to the landing +near his headquarters. It was, however, a fruitless journey. Howe +wished to negotiate on the old ground now abandoned forever. The +people of America had spoken for independence--a new, irrevocable fact +not to be put aside by ambassadors. The colonies were lost. The +concessions which the wise Franklin had so urgently recommended to the +government of England, Howe seemed now inclined to offer, but they +could not be entertained. + +"Then my government can only maintain its dignity by fighting," said +Howe. + +"That is a mistaken notion," Franklin answered; "It will be much more +dignified for your government to acknowledge its error than to persist +in it." + +"We shall fight," Howe declared. + +"And you will have more fighting to do than you anticipate," said +Franklin. "Nature is our friend and ally. The Lord has prepared our +defenses. They are the sea, the mountains, the forest and the +character of our people. Consider what you have accomplished. At an +expense of eight million pounds, you have killed about eight hundred +Yankees. They have cost you ten thousand pounds a head. Meanwhile, at +least a hundred thousand children have been born in America. There are +the factors in your problem. How much time and money will be required +for the job of killing all of us?" + +The British Admiral ignored the query. + +"My powers are limited," said he, "but I am authorized to grant pardons +and in every way to exercise the King's paternal solicitude." + +"Such an offer shows that your proud nation has no flattering opinion +of us," Franklin answered. "We, who are the injured parties, have not +the baseness to entertain it. You will forgive me for reminding you +that the King's paternal solicitude has been rather trying. It has +burned our defenseless towns in mid-winter; if has incited the savages +to massacre our farmers' in the back country; it has driven us to a +declaration of independence. Britain and America are now distinct +states. Peace can be considered only on that basis. You wish to +prevent our trade from passing into foreign channels. Let me remind +you, also, that the profit of no trade can ever be equal to the expense +of holding it with fleets and armies." + +"On such a basis I am not empowered to treat with you," Howe answered. +"We shall immediately move against your army." + +The conference ended. The ambassadors and their secretary shook hands +with the British Admiral. + +"Mr. Irons, I have heard much of you," said the latter as he held +Jack's hand. "You are deeply attached to a young lady whom I admire +and whose father is my friend. I offer you a chance to leave this +troubled land and go to London and marry and lead a peaceable, +Christian life. You may keep your principles, if you wish, as I have +no use for them. You will find sympathizers in England." + +"Lord Howe, your kindness touches me," the young man answered. "What +you propose is a great temptation. It is like Calypso's offer of +immortal happiness to Ulysses. I love England. I love peace, and more +than either, I love the young lady, but I couldn't go and keep my +principles." + +"Why not, sir?" + +"Because we are all of a mind with our Mr. Patrick Henry. We put +Liberty above happiness and even above life. So I must stay and help +fight her battles, and when I say it I am grinding my own heart under +my heel. Don't think harshly of me. I can not help it. The feeling +is bred in my bones." + +His Lordship smiled politely and bowed as the three men withdrew. + +Franklin took the hand of the young man and pressed it silently as they +were leaving the small house in which Howe had established himself. + +Jack, who had been taking notes of the fruitless talk of these great +men, was sorely disappointed. He could see no prospect now of peace. + +"My hopes are burned to the ground," he said to Doctor Franklin. + +"It is a time of sacrifice," the good man answered. "You have the +invincible spirit that looks into the future and gives all it has. You +are America." + +"I have been thinking too much of myself," Jack answered. "Now I am +ready to lay down my life in this great cause of ours." + +"Boy, I like you," said Mr. Adams. "I have arranged to have you safely +conveyed to New York. There an orderly will meet and conduct you to +our headquarters." + +"Thank you, sir," Jack replied. Turning to Doctor Franklin, he added: + +"One remark of yours to Lord Howe impressed me. You said that Nature +was our friend and ally. It put me in mind of the fog that helped us +out of Brooklyn and of a little adventure of mine." + +Then he told the story of the spider's web. + +"I repeat that all Nature is with us," said Franklin. "It was a sense +of injustice in human nature that sent us across the great barrier of +the sea into conditions where only the strong could survive. Here we +have raised up a sturdy people with three thousand miles of water +between them and tyranny. Armies can not cross it and succeed long in +a hostile land. They are too far from home. The expense of +transporting and maintaining them will bleed our enemies until they are +spent. The British King is powerful, but now he has picked a quarrel +with Almighty God, and it will go hard with him." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +WITH THE ARMY AND IN THE BUSH + +In January, 1777, Colonel Irons writes to his father from Morristown, +New Jersey, as follows: + +"An army is a despotic machine. For that reason chiefly our men do not +like military service. It is hard to induce them to enlist for long +terms. They are released by expiration long before they have been +trained and seasoned for good service. So Washington has found it +difficult to fill his line with men of respectable fighting quality. + +"Our great Commander lost his patience on the eve of our leaving New +York. Our troops, posted at Kip's Bay on the East River to defend the +landing, fled in a panic without firing a gun at the approach of Howe's +army. I happened to be in a company of Light Horse with General +Washington, who had gone up to survey the ground. Before his eyes two +brigades of New England troops ran away, leaving us exposed to capture. + +"The great Virginian was hot with indignation. He threw his hat to the +ground and exclaimed: + +"'Are these the kind of men with whom I am to defend America?' + +"Next day our troops behaved better and succeeded in repulsing the +enemy. This put new spirit in them. Putnam got his forces out of New +York and well up the shore of the North River. For weeks we lay behind +our trenches on Harlem Heights, building up the fighting spirit of our +men and training them for hard service. The stables, cabins and sheds +of Harlem were full of our sick. Smallpox had got among them. Cold +weather was coming on and few were clothed to stand it. The +proclamation of Admiral Lord Howe and his brother, the General, +offering pardon and protection to all who remained loyal to the crown, +caused some to desert us, and many timid settlers in the outlying +country, with women and children to care for, were on the fence ready +to jump either way. Hundreds were driven by fear toward the British. + +"In danger of being shut in, we crossed King's Bridge and retreated to +White Plains. How we toiled with our baggage on that journey, many of +us being yoked like oxen to the wagons! Every day troops, whose terms +of enlistment had expired, were leaving us. It seemed as if our whole +flying camp would soon be gone. But there were many like Solomon and +me who were willing to give up everything for the cause and follow our +beloved Commander into hell, if necessary. There were some four +thousand of us who streaked up the Hudson with him to King's Ferry, at +the foot of the Highlands, to get out of the way of the British ships. +There we crossed into Jersey and dodged about, capturing a thousand men +at Trenton and three hundred at Princeton, defeating the British +regiments who pursued us and killing many officers and men and cutting +off their army from its supplies. We have seized a goodly number of +cannon and valuable stores and reclaimed New Jersey and stiffened the +necks of our people. It has been, I think, a turning point in the war. +Our men have fought like Homeric heroes and endured great hardships in +the bitter cold with worn-out shoes and inadequate clothing. A number +have been frozen to death. I loaned my last extra pair of shoes to a +poor fellow whose feet had been badly cut and frozen. When I tell you +that coming into Morristown I saw many bloody footprints in the snow +behind the army, you will understand. We are a ragamuffin band, but we +have taught the British to respect us. Send all the shoes and clothing +you can scare up. + +"I have seen incidents which have increased my love of Washington. +When we were marching through a village in good weather there was a +great crowd in the street. In the midst of it was a little girl crying +out because she could not see Washington. He stopped and called for +her. They brought the child and he lifted her to the saddle in front +of him and carried her a little way on his big white horse. + +"At the first divine service here in Morristown he observed an elderly +woman, a rough clad farmer's wife, standing back in the edge of the +crowd. He arose and beckoned to her to come and take his seat. She +did so, and he stood through the service, save when he was kneeling. +Of course, many offered him their seats, but he refused to take one. + +"We have been deeply impressed and inspirited by the address of a young +man of the name of Alexander Hamilton. He is scarcely twenty years of +age, they tell me, but he has wit and eloquence and a maturity of +understanding which astonished me. He is slender, a bit under middle +stature and has a handsome face and courtly manners. He will be one of +the tallest candles of our faith, or I am no prophet. + +"Solomon has been a tower of strength in this campaign. I wish you +could have seen him lead the charge against Mercer's men and bring in +the British general, whom he had wounded. He and I are scouting around +the camp every day. Our men are billeted up and down the highways and +living in small huts around headquarters." + +Washington had begun to show his great and singular gifts. One of +them, through which he secured rest and safety for his shattered +forces, shone out there in Morristown. There were only about three +thousand effective men in his army. To conceal their number, he had +sent them to many houses on the roads leading into the village. The +British in New York numbered at least nine thousand well seasoned +troops, and with good reason he feared an attack. The force at +Morristown was in great danger. One day a New York merchant was +brought into camp by the famous scout Solomon Binkus. The merchant had +been mistreated by the British. He had sold his business and crossed +the river by night and come through the lines on the wagon of a farmer +friend who was bringing supplies to the American army. He gave much +information as to plans and positions of the British, which was known +to be correct. He wished to enlist in the American army and do what he +could to help it. He was put to work in the ranks. A few days later +the farmer with whom he had arrived came again and, after selling his +wagon load, found the ex-merchant and conferred with him in private. +That evening, when the farmer had got a mile or so from camp, he was +stopped and searched by Colonel Irons. A letter was found in the +farmer's pocket which clearly indicated that the ex-merchant was a spy +and the farmer a Tory. Irons went at once to General Washington with +his report, urging that the spy be taken up and put in confinement. + +The General sat thoughtfully looking into the fire, but made no answer. + +"He is here to count our men and report our weakness," said the Colonel. + +"The poor fellow has not found it an easy thing to do," the General +answered. "I shall see that he gets help." + +They went together to the house where the Adjutant General had his home +and office. To this officer Washington said: + +"General, you have seen a report from one Weatherly, a New York +merchant, who came with information from that city. Will you kindly do +him the honor of asking him to dine with you here alone to-morrow +evening? Question him as to the situation in New York in a friendly +manner and impart to him such items of misinformation as you may care +to give, but mainly look to this. Begin immediately to get signed +returns from the brigadiers showing that we have an effective force +here of twelve thousand men. These reports must be lying on your desk +while you are conferring with Weatherly. Treat the man with good food +and marked politeness and appreciation of the service he is likely to +render us. Soon after you have eaten, I shall send an orderly here. +He will deliver a message. You will ask the man to make himself at +home while you are gone for half an hour or so. You will see that the +window shades are drawn and the door closed and that no one disturbs +the man while he is copying those returns, which he will be sure to do. +Colonel Irons, I depend upon you to see to it that he has an +opportunity to escape safely with his budget. I warn you not to let +him fail. It is most important." + +The next morning, Weatherly was ordered to report to Major Binkus for +training in scout duty, and the morning after that he was taken out +through the lines, mounted, with Colonel Irons and carefully lost in +the pine bush. He was seen no more in the American camp. The spy +delivered his report to the British and the little remnant of an army +at Morristown was safe for the winter. Cornwallis and Howe put such +confidence in this report that when Luce, another spy, came into their +camp with a count of Washington's forces, which was substantially +correct, they doubted the good faith of the man and threw him into +prison. + +So the great Virginian had turned a British spy into one of his most +effective helpers. + +Meanwhile good news had encouraged enlistment for long terms. Four +regiments of horse were put in training, ten frigates were built and +sent to sea and more were under construction. The whole fighting force +of America was being reorganized. Moreover, in this first year the +Yankee privateers had so wounded a leg of the British lion that he was +roaring with rage. Three hundred and fifty of his ships, well laden +from the West Indies, had been seized. Their cargoes were valued at a +million pounds. The fighting spirit of America was encouraged also by +events in France, where Franklin and Silas Deane were now at work. +France had become an ally. A loan of six hundred thousand dollars had +been secured in the French capital and expert officers from that +country had begun to arrive to join the army of Washington. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +HOW SOLOMON SHIFTED THE SKEER + +In the spring news came of a great force of British which was being +organized in Canada for a descent upon New York through Lake Champlain. +Frontier settlers in Tryon County were being massacred by Indians. + +Generals Herkimer and Schuyler had written to Washington, asking for +the services of the famous scout, Solomon Binkus, in that region. + +"He knows the Indian as no other man knows him and can speak his +language and he also knows the bush," Schuyler had written. "If there +is any place on earth where his help is needed just now, it is here." + +"Got to leave ye, my son," Solomon said to Jack one evening soon after +that. + +"How so?" the young man asked. + +"Goin' hum to fight Injuns. The Great Father has ordered it. I'll +like it better. Gittin' lazy here. Summer's comin' an' I'm a born +bush man. I'm kind o' oneasy--like a deer in a dooryard. I ain't had +to run fer my life since we got here. My hoofs are complainin'. I +ain't shot a gun in a month." + +A look of sorrow spread over the face of Solomon. + +"I'm tired of this place," said Jack. "The British are scared of us +and we're scared of the British. There's nothing going on. I'd love +to go back to the big bush with you." + +"I'll tell the Great Father that you're a born bush man. Mebbe he'll +let ye go. They'll need us both. Rum, Injuns an' the devil have +j'ined hands. The Long House will be the center o' hell an' its line +fences 'll take in the hull big bush." + +That day Jack's name was included in the order. + +"I am sorry that it is not yet possible to pay you or any of the men +who have served me so faithfully," said Washington. "If you need money +I shall be glad to lend you a sum to help you through this journey." + +"I ain't fightin' fer pay," Solomon answered. "I'll hoe an' dig, an' +cook, an' guide fer money. But I won't fight no more fer money--partly +'cause I don't need it--partly 'cause I'm fightin' fer myself. I got a +little left in my britches pocket, but if I hadn't, my ol' Marier +wouldn't let me go hungry." + + + +2 + +In April the two friends set out afoot for the lower end of the +Highlands. On the river they hired a Dutch farmer to take them on to +Albany in his sloop. After two delightful days at home, General +Schuyler suggested that they could do a great service by traversing the +wilderness to the valley of the great river of the north, as far as +possible toward Swegachie, and reporting their observations to Crown +Point or Fort Edward, if there seemed to be occasion for it, and if +not, they were to proceed to General Herkimer's camp at Oriskany and +give him what help they could in protecting the settlers in the west. + +"You would need to take all your wit and courage with you," the General +warned them. "The Indians are in bad temper. They have taken to +roasting their prisoners at the stake and eating their flesh. This is +a hazardous undertaking. Therefore, I give you a suggestion and not an +order." + +"I'll go 'lone," said Solomon. "If I get et up it needn't break +nobody's heart. Let Jack go to one o' the forts." + +"No, I'd rather go into the bush with you," said Jack. "We're both +needed there. If necessary we could separate and carry our warning in +two directions. We'll take a couple of the new double-barreled rifles +and four pistols. If we had to, I think we could fight a hole through +any trouble we are likely to have." + +So it was decided that they should go together on this scouting trip +into the north bush. Solomon had long before that invented what he +called "a lightnin' thrower" for close fighting with Indians, to be +used if one were hard pressed and outnumbered and likely to have his +scalp taken. This odd contrivance he had never had occasion to use. +It was a thin, round shell of cast iron with a tube, a flint and +plunger. The shell was of about the size of a large apple. It was to +be filled with missiles and gunpowder. The plunger, with its spring, +was set vertically above the tube. In throwing this contrivance one +released its spring by the pressure of his thumb. The hammer fell and +the spark it made ignited a fuse leading down to the powder. Its owner +had to throw it from behind a tree or have a share in the peril it was +sure to create. + +While Jack was at home with his people Solomon spent a week in the +foundry and forge and, before they set out on their journey, had three +of these unique weapons, all loaded and packed in water-proof wrappings. + +About the middle of May they proceeded in a light bark canoe to Fort +Edward and carried it across country to Lake George and made their way +with paddles to Ticonderoga. There they learned that scouts were +operating only on and near Lake Champlain. The interior of Tryon +County was said to be dangerous ground. Mohawks, Cagnawagas, Senecas, +Algonquins and Hurons were thick in the bush and all on the warpath. +They were torturing and eating every white man that fell in their +hands, save those with a Tory mark on them. + +"We're skeered o' the bush," said an elderly bearded soldier, who was +sitting on a log. "A man who goes into the wildwood needs to be a good +friend o' God." + +"But Schuyler thinks a force of British may land somewhere along the +big river and come down through the bush, building a road as they +advance," said Jack. + +"A thousand men could make a tol'able waggin road to Fort Edward in a +month," Solomon declared. "That's mebbe the reason the Injuns are out +in the bush eatin' Yankees. They're tryin' fer to skeer us an' keep us +erway. By the hide an' horns o' the devil! We got to know what's +a-goin' on out thar. You fellers are a-settin' eround these 'ere forts +as if ye had nothin' to do but chaw beef steak an' wipe yer rifles an' +pick yer teeth. Why don't ye go out thar in the bush and do a little +skeerin' yerselves? Ye're like a lot o' ol' women settin' by the fire +an' tellin' ghos' stories." + +"We got 'nuff to do considerin' the pay we git," said a sergeant. + +"Hell an' Tophet! What do ye want o' pay?" Solomon answered. "Ain't +ye willin' to fight fer yer own liberty without bein' paid fer it? Ye +been kicked an' robbed an' spit on, an' dragged eround by the heels, +an' ye don't want to fight 'less somebody pays ye. What a dam' corn +fiddle o' a man ye mus' be!" + +Solomon was putting fresh provisions in his pack as he talked. + +"All the Injuns o' Kinady an' the great grass lands may be snookin' +down through the bush. We're bound fer t' know what's a-goin' on out +thar. We're liable to be skeered, but also an' likewise we'll do some +skeerin' 'fore we give up--you hear to me." + +Jack and Solomon set out in the bush that afternoon and before night +fell were up on the mountain slants north of the Glassy Water, as Lake +George was often called those days. But for Solomon's caution an evil +fate had perhaps come to them before their first sleep on the journey. +The new leaves were just out, but not quite full. The little maples +and beeches flung their sprays of vivid green foliage above the darker +shades of the witch hopple into the soft-lighted air of the great house +of the wood and filled it with a pleasant odor. A mile or so back, +Solomon had left the trail and cautioned Jack to keep close and step +softly. Soon the old scout stopped, and listened and put his ear to +the ground. He rose and beckoned to Jack and the two turned aside and +made their way stealthily up the slant of a ledge. In the edge of a +little thicket on a mossy rock shelf they sat down. Solomon looked +serious. There were deep furrows in the skin above his brow. + +When he was excited in the bush he had the habit of swallowing and the +process made a small, creaky sound in his throat. This Jack observed +then and at other times. Solomon was peering down through the bushes +toward the west, now and then moving his head a little. Jack looked in +the same direction and presently saw a move in the bushes below, but +nothing more. After a few minutes Solomon turned and whispered: + +"Four Injun braves jist went by. Mebbe they're scoutin' fer a big +band--mebbe not. If so, the crowd is up the trail. If they're comin' +by, it'll be 'fore dark. We'll stop in this 'ere tavern. They's a +cave on t'other side o' the ledge as big as a small house." + +They watched until the sun had set. Then Solomon led Jack to the cave, +in which their packs were deposited. + +From the cave's entrance they looked upon the undulating green roof of +the forest dipping down into a deep valley, cut by the smooth surface +of a broad river with mirrored shores, and lifting to the summit of a +distant mountain range. Its blue peaks rose into the glow of the +sunset. + +"Yonder is the great stairway of Heaven!" Jack exclaimed. + +"I've put up in this 'ere ol' tavern many a night," said Solomon. "Do +ye see its sign?" + +He pointed to a great dead pine that stood a little below it, towering +with stark, outreaching limbs more than a hundred and fifty feet into +the air. + +"I call it The Dead Pine Tavern," Solomon remarked. + +"On the road to Paradise," said Jack as he gazed down the valley, his +hands shading his eyes. + +"Wisht we could have a nice hot supper, but 'twon't do to build no +fire. Nothin' but cold vittles! I'll go down with the pot to a spring +an' git some water. You dig fer our supper in that pack o' mine an' +spread it out here. I'm hungry." + +They ate their bread and dried meat moistened with spring water, picked +some balsam boughs and covered a corner of the mossy floor with them. +When the rock chamber was filled with their fragrance, Jack said: + +"If my dream comes true and Margaret and I are married, I shall bring +her here. I want her to see The Dead Pine Tavern and its outlook." + +"Ayes, sir, when ye're married safe," Solomon answered. "We'll come up +here fust summer an' fish, an' hunt, an' I'll run the tavern an' do the +cookin' an' sweep the floor an' make the beds!" + +"I'm a little discouraged," said Jack. "This war may last for years." + +"Keep up on high ground er ye'll git mired down," Solomon answered. +"Ain't nuther on ye very old yit, an' fust ye know these troubles 'll +be over an' done." + +Jack awoke at daylight and found that he was alone. Solomon returned +in half an hour or so. + +"Been scoutin' up the trail," he said. "Didn't see a thing but an ol' +gnaw bucket. We'll jest eat a bite an' p'int off to the nor'west an' +keep watch o' this 'ere trail. They's Injuns over thar on the slants. +We got to know how they look an' 'bout how many head they is." + +They went on, keeping well away from the trail. + +"We'll have to watch it with our ears," said Solomon in a whisper. + +His ear was often on the ground that morning and twice he left Jack "to +snook" out to the trail and look for tracks. Solomon could imitate the +call of the swamp robin, and when they were separated in the bush, he +gave it so that his friend could locate him. At midday they sat down +in deep shade by the side of a brook and ate their luncheon. + +"This 'ere is Peppermint Brook," said Solomon. "It's 'nother one o' my +taverns." + +"Our food isn't going to last long at the rate we are eating it," Jack +remarked. "If we can't shoot a gun what are we going to do when it's +all gone?" + +"Don't worry," Solomon answered. "Ye're in my kentry now an' there's a +better tavern up in the high trail." + +They fared along, favored by good weather, and spent that night on the +shore of a little pond not more than fifty paces off the old blazed +thoroughfare. Next day, about "half-way from dawn to dark," as Solomon +was wont, now and then, to speak of the noon hour, they came suddenly +upon fresh "sign." It was where the big north trail from the upper +waters of the Mohawk joined the one near which they had been traveling. +When they were approaching the point Solomon had left Jack in a thicket +and cautiously crept out to the "juncshin." There was half an hour of +silence before the old scout came back in sight and beckoned to Jack. +His face had never looked more serious. The young man approached him. +Solomon swallowed--a part of the effort to restrain his emotions. + +"Want to show ye suthin'," he whispered. + +The two went cautiously toward the trail. When they reached it the old +scout led the way to soft ground near a brook. Then he pointed down at +the mud. There were many footprints, newly made, and among them the +print of that wooden peg with an iron ring around its bottom, which +they had seen twice before, and which was associated with the blackest +memories they knew. For some time Solomon studied the surface of the +trail in silence. + +"More'n twenty Injuns, two captives, a pair o' hosses, a cow an' the +devil," he whispered to Jack. "Been a raid down to the Mohawk Valley. +The cow an' the hosses are loaded with plunder. I've noticed that when +the Injuns go out to rob an' kill folks ye find, 'mong their tracks, +the print o' that 'ere iron ring. I seen it twice in the Ohio kentry. +Here is the heart o' the devil an' his fire-water. Red Snout has got +to be started on a new trail. His ol' peg leg is goin' down to the +gate o' hell to-night." + +Solomon's face had darkened with anger. There were deep furrows across +his brow. + +Standing before Jack about three feet away, he drew out his ram rod and +tossed it to the young man, who caught it a little above the middle. +Jack knew the meaning of this. They were to put their hands upon the +ram rod, one above the other. The last hand it would hold was to do +the killing. It was Solomon's. + +"Thank God!" he whispered, as his face brightened. + +He seemed to be taking careful aim with his right eye. + +"It's my job," said he. "I wouldn't 'a' let ye do it if ye'd drawed +the chanst. It's my job--proper. They ain't an hour ahead. +Mebbe--it's jest possible--he may go to sleep to-night 'fore I do, an' +I wouldn't be supprised. They'll build their fire at the Caverns on +Rock Crick an' roast a captive. We'll cross the bush an' come up on t' +other side an' see what's goin' on." + +They crossed a high ridge, with Solomon tossing his feet in that long, +loose stride of his, and went down the slope into a broad valley. The +sun sank low and the immeasurable green roofed house of the wild was +dim and dusk when the old scout halted. Ahead in the distance they had +heard voices and the neighing of a horse. + +"My son," said Solomon as he pointed with his finger, "do you see the +brow o' the hill yonder whar the black thickets be?" + +Jack nodded. + +"If ye hear to me yell stay this side. This 'ere business is kind o' +neevarious. I'm a-goin' clus up. If I come back ye'll hear the call +o' the bush owl. If I don't come 'fore mornin' you p'int fer hum an' +the good God go with ye." + +"I shall go as far as you go," Jack answered. + +Solomon spoke sternly. The genial tone of good comradeship, had left +him. + +"Ye kin go, but ye ain't obleeged," said he. "Bear in mind, boy. +To-night I'm the Cap'n. Do as I tell ye--_exact_." + +He took the lightning hurlers out of the packs and unwrapped them and +tried the springs above the hammers. Earlier in the day he had looked +to the priming. Solomon gave one to Jack and put the other two in his +pockets. Each examined his pistols and adjusted them in his belt. +They started for the low lying ridge above the little valley of Rock +Creek. It was now quite dark and looking down through the thickets of +hemlock they could see the firelight of the Indians and hear the wash +of the creek water. Suddenly a wild whooping among the red men, savage +as the howl of wolves on the trail of a wounded bison, ran beyond them, +far out into the forest, and sent its echoes traveling from hilltop to +mountain side. Then came a sound which no man may hear without +getting, as Solomon was wont to say, "a scar on his soul which he will +carry beyond the last cape." It was the death cry of a captive. +Solomon had heard it before. He knew what it meant. The fire was +taking hold and the smoke had begun to smother him. Those cries were +like the stabbing of a knife and the recollection of them like +blood-stains. + +They hurried down the slant, brushing through the thicket, the sound of +their approach being covered by the appalling cries of the victim and +the demon-like tumult of the drunken braves. The two scouts were +racked with soul pain as they went on so that they could scarcely hold +their peace and keep their feet from running. A new sense of the +capacity for evil in the heart of man entered the mind of Jack. They +had come close to the frightful scene, when suddenly a deep silence +fell upon it. Thank God, the victim had gone beyond the reach of pain. +Something had happened in his passing--perhaps the savages had thought +it a sign from Heaven. For a moment their clamor had ceased. The two +scouts could plainly see the poor man behind a red veil of flame. +Suddenly the white leader of the raiders approached the pyre, limping +on his wooden stump, with a stick in his hand, and prodded the face of +the victim. It was his last act. Solomon was taking aim. His rifle +spoke. Red Snout tumbled forward into the fire. Then what a scurry +among the Indians! They vanished and so suddenly that Jack wondered +where they had gone. Solomon stood reloading the rifle barrel he had +just emptied. Then he said: + +"Come on an' do as I do." + +Solomon ran until they had come near. Then he jumped from tree to +tree, stopping at each long enough to survey the ground beyond it. +This was what he called "swapping cover." From behind a tree near the +fire he shouted in the Indian tongue: + +"Red men, you have made the Great Spirit angry. He has sent the Son of +the Thunder to slay you with his lightning." + +No truer words had ever left the lips of man. His hand rose and swung +back of his shoulder and shot forward. The round missile sailed +through the firelight and beyond it and sank into black shadows in the +great cavern at Rocky Creek--a famous camping-place in the old time. +Then a flash of white light and a roar that shook the hills! A blast +of gravel and dust and debris shot upward and pelted down upon the +earth. Bits of rock and wood and an Indian's arm and foot fell in the +firelight. A number of dusky figures scurried out of the mouth of the +cavern and ran for their lives shouting prayers to Manitou as they +disappeared in the darkness. Solomon pulled the embers from around the +feet of the victim. + +"Now, by the good God A'mighty, 'pears to me we got the skeer shifted +so the red man'll be the rabbit fer a while an' I wouldn't wonder," +said Solomon, as he stood looking down at the scene. "He ain't a-goin' +to like the look o' a pale face--not overly much. Them Injuns that got +erway 'll never stop runnin' till they've reached the middle o' next +week." + +He seized the foot of Red Snout and pulled his head out of the fire. + +"You ol' hellion!" Solomon exclaimed. "You dog o' the devil! Tumbled +into hell whar ye b'long at last, didn't ye? Jack, you take that +luther bucket an' bring some water out o' the creek an' put out this +fire. The ring on this 'ere ol' wooden leg is wuth a hundred pounds." + +Solomon took the hatchet from his belt and hacked off the end of Red +Snout's wooden leg and put it in his coat pocket, saying: + +"'From now on a white man can walk in the bush without gittin' his +bones picked. Injuns is goin' to be skeered o' us--a few an' I +wouldn't be supprised." + +When Jack came back with the water, Solomon poured it on the embers, +and looked at the swollen form which still seemed to be straining at +the green withes of moose wood. + +"Nothin' kin be done fer him," said the old scout. "He's gone erway. +I tell ye, Jack, it g'in my soul a sweat to hear him dyin'." + +A moment of silence full of the sorrow of the two men followed. +Solomon broke it by saying: + +"That 'ere black pill o' mine went right down into the stummick o' the +hill an' give it quite a puke--you hear to me." + +They went to the cavern's mouth and looked in. + +"They's an awful mess in thar. I don't keer to see it," said Solomon. + +Near them they discovered a warrior who had crawled out of that death +chamber in the rocks. He had been stunned and wounded about the +shoulders. They helped him to his feet and led him away. He was +trembling with fear. Solomon found a pine torch, still burning, near +where the fire had been. By its light they dressed his wounds--the old +scout having with him always a small surgeon's outfit. + +"Whar is t' other captive?" he asked in the Indian tongue. + +"About a mile down the trail. It's a woman and a boy," said the +warrior. + +"Take us whar they be," Solomon commanded. + +The three started slowly down the trail, the warrior leading them. + +"Son of the Thunder, throw no more lightning and I will kiss your +mighty hand and do as you tell me," said the Indian, as they set out. + +It was now dark. Jack saw, through the opening in the forest roof +above the trail, Orion and the Pleiades looking down at them, as +beautiful as ever, and now he could hear the brook singing merrily. + +"I could have chided the stars and the brook while the Indian and I +were waiting for Solomon to bring the packs," he wrote in his diary. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE VOICE OF A WOMAN SOBBING + +Over the ridge and more than a mile away was a wet, wild meadow. They +found the cow and horses feeding on its edge near the trail. The moon, +clouded since dark, had come out in the clear mid-heavens and thrown +its light into the high windows of the forest above the ancient +thoroughfare of the Indian. The red guide of the two scouts gave a +call which was quickly answered. A few rods farther on, they saw a +pair of old Indians sitting in blankets near a thicket of black timber. +They could hear the voice of a woman sobbing near where they stood. + +"Womern, don't be skeered o' us--we're friends--we're goin' to take ye +hum," said Solomon. + +The woman came out of the thicket with a little lad of four asleep in +her arms. + +"Where do ye live?" Solomon asked. + +"Far south on the shore o' the Mohawk," she answered in a voice +trembling with emotion. + +"What's yer name?" + +"I'm Bill Scott's wife," she answered. + +"Cat's blood and gunpowder!" Solomon exclaimed. "I'm Sol Binkus." + +She knelt before the old scout and kissed his knees and could not speak +for the fulness of her heart. Solomon bent over and took the sleeping +lad from her arms and held him against his breast. + +"Don't feel bad. We're a-goin' to take keer o' you," said Solomon. +"Ayes, sir, we be! They ain't nobody goin' to harm ye--nobody at all." + +There was a note of tenderness in the voice of the man as he felt the +chin of the little lad with his big thumb and finger. + +"Do ye know what they done with Bill?" the woman asked soon in a +pleading voice. + +The scout swallowed as his brain began to work on the problem in hand. + +"Bill broke loose an' got erway. He's gone," Solomon answered in a sad +voice. + +"Did they torture him?" + +"What they done I couldn't jes' tell ye. But they kin't do no more to +him. He's gone." + +She seemed to sense his meaning and lay crouched upon the ground with +her sorrow until Solomon lifted her to her feet and said: + +"Look here, little womern, this don't do no good. I'm goin' to spread +my blanket under the pines an' I want ye to lay down with yer boy an' +git some sleep. We got a long trip to-morrer. + +"'Tain't so bad as it might be--ye're kind o' lucky a'ter all is said +an' done," he remarked as he covered the woman and the child. + +The wounded warrior and the old men were not to be found. They had +sneaked away into the bush. Jack and Solomon looked about and the +latter called but got no answer. + +"They're skeered cl'ar down to the toe nails," said Solomon. "They +couldn't stan' it here. A lightnin' thrower is a few too many. They'd +ruther be nigh a rattlesnake." + +The scouts had no sleep that night. They sat down by the trail side +leaning against a log and lighted their pipes. + +"You 'member Bill Scott?" Solomon whispered. + +"Yes. We spent a night in his house." + +"He were a mean cuss. Sold rum to the Injuns. I allus tol' him it +were wrong but--my God A'mighty!--I never 'spected that the fire in the +water were a goin' to burn him up sometime. No, sir--I never dreamed +he were a-goin' to be punished so--never." + +They lay back against the log with their one blanket spread and spent +the night in a kind of half sleep. Every little sound was "like a kick +in the ribs," as Solomon put it, and drove them "into the look and +listen business." The woman was often crying out or the cow and horses +getting up to feed. + +"My son, go to sleep," said Solomon. "I tell ye there ain't no danger +now--not a bit. I don't know much but I know Injuns---plenty." + +In spite of his knowledge even Solomon himself could not sleep. A +little before daylight they arose and began to stir about. + +"I was badly burnt by that fire," Jack whispered. + +"Inside!" Solomon answered. "So was I. My soul were a-sweatin' all +night." + +The morning was chilly. They gathered birch bark and dry pine and soon +had a fire going. Solomon stole over to the thicket where the woman +and child were lying and returned in a moment. + +"They're sound asleep," he said in a low tone. "We'll let 'em alone." + +He began to make tea and got out the last of their bread and dried meat +and bacon. He was frying the latter when he said: + +"That 'ere is a mighty likely womern." + +He turned the bacon with his fork and added: + +"Turrible purty when she were young. Allus hated the rum business." + +Jack went out on the wild meadow and brought in the cow and milked her, +filling a basin and a quart bottle. + +Solomon went to the thicket and called: + +"Mis' Scott!" + +The woman answered. + +"Here's a tow'l an' a leetle jug o' soap, Mis' Scott. Ye kin take the +boy to the crick an' git washed an' then come to the fire an' eat yer +breakfust." + +The boy was a handsome, blond lad with blue eyes and a serious manner. +His confidence in the protection of his mother was sublime. + +"What's yer name?" Solomon asked, looking up at the lad whom he had +lifted high in the air. + +"Whig Scott," the boy answered timidly with tears in his eyes. + +"What! Be ye skeered o' me?" + +These words came from the little lad as he began to cry. "No, sir. I +ain't skeered. I'm a brave man." + +"Courage is the first virtue in which the young are schooled on the +frontier," Jack wrote in a letter to his friends at home in which he +told of the history of that day. "The words and manner of the boy +reminded me of my own childhood. + +"Solomon held Whig in his lap and fed him and soon won his confidence. +The backs of the horses and the cow were so badly galled they could not +be ridden, but we were able to lash the packs over a blanket on one of +the horses. We drove the beasts ahead of us. The Indians had timbered +the swales here and there so that we were able to pass them with little +trouble. Over the worst places I had the boy on my back while Solomon +carried 'Mis' Scott' in his arms as if she were a baby. He was very +gentle with her. To him, as you know, a woman has been a sacred +creature since his wife died. He seemed to regard the boy as a +wonderful kind of plaything. At the camping-places he spent every +moment of his leisure tossing him in the air or rolling on the ground +with him." + +[Illustration: Solomon Binkus with Whig Scott on his shoulder.] + +"One day when the woman sat by the fire crying, the little lad touched +her brow with his hand and said: + +"'Don't be skeered, mother. I'm brave. I'll take care o' you.' + +"Solomon came to where I was breaking some dry sticks for the fire and +said laughingly, as he wiped a tear from his cheek with the back of his +great right hand: + +"'Did ye ever see sech a gol' durn cunnin' leetle cricket in yer born +days--ever?' + +"Always thereafter he referred to the boy as the Little Cricket. + +"That would have been a sad journey but for my interest in these +reactions on this great son of Pan, with whom I traveled. I think that +he has found a thing he has long needed, and I wonder what will come of +it. + +"When he had discovered, by tracks in the trail, that the Indians who +had run away from us were gone South, he had no further fear of being +molested. + +"'They've gone on to tell what happened on the first o' the high slants +an' to warn their folks that the Son o' the Thunder is comin' with +lightnin' in his hands. Injuns is like rabbits when the Great Spirit +begins to rip 'em up. They kin't stan' it." + +That afternoon Solomon, with a hook and line and grubs, gathered from +rotted stumps, caught many trout in a brook crossing the trail and +fried them with slices of salt pork. In the evening they had the best +supper of their journey in what he called "The Catamount Tavern." It +was an old bark lean-to facing an immense boulder on the shore of a +pond. There, one night some years before, he had killed a catamount. +It was in the foot-hills remote from the trail. In a side of the rock +was a small bear den or cavern with an overhanging roof which protected +it from the weather. On a shelf in the cavern was a round block of +pine about two feet in diameter and a foot and a half long. This block +was his preserve jar. A number of two-inch augur holes had been bored +in its top and filled with jerked venison and dried berries. They had +been packed with a cotton wick fastened to a small bar of wood at the +bottom of each hole. Then hot deer's fat had been poured in with the +meat and berries until the holes were filled within an inch or so of +the top. When the fat had hardened a thin layer of melted beeswax +sealed up the contents of each hole. Over all wooden plugs had been +driven fast. + +"They's good vittles in that 'ere block," said Solomon. "'Nough, I +guess, to keep a man a week. All he has to do is knock out the plug +an' pull the wick an' be happy." + +"Going to do any pulling for supper?" Jack queried. + +"Nary bit," said Solomon. "Too much food in the woods now. We got to +be savin'. Mebbe you er I er both on us 'll be comin' through here in +the winter time skeered o' Injuns an' short o' fodder. Then we'll open +the pine jar." + +They had fish and tea and milk and that evening as he sat on his +blanket before the fire with the little lad in his lap he sang an old +rig-a-dig tune and told stories and answered many a query. + +Jack wrote in one of his letters that as they fared along, down toward +the sown lands of the upper Mohawk, Solomon began to develop talents of +which none of his friends had entertained the least suspicion. + +"He has had a hard life full of fight and peril like most of us who +were born in this New World," the young man wrote. "He reminds me of +some of the Old Testament heroes, and is not this land we have +traversed like the plains of Mamre? What a gentle creature he might +have been if he had had a chance! How long, I wonder, must we be +slayers of men? As long, I take it, as there are savages against whom +we must defend ourselves." + +The next morning they met a company of one of the regiments of General +Herkimer who had gone in pursuit of Red Snout and his followers. +Learning what had happened to that evil band and its leader the +soldiers faced about and escorted Solomon and his party to Oriskany. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE FIRST FOURTH OF JULY + +Mrs. Scott and her child lived in the family of General Herkimer for a +month or so. Settlers remote from towns and villages had abandoned +their farms. The Indians had gone into the great north bush perhaps to +meet the British army which was said to be coming down from Canada in +appalling numbers. Hostilities in the neighborhood of The Long House +had ceased. The great Indian highway and its villages were deserted +save by young children and a few ancient red men and squaws, too old +for travel. Late in June, Jack and Solomon were ordered to report to +General Schuyler at Albany. + +"We're gettin' shoveled eroun' plenty," Solomon declared. "We'll take +the womern an' the boy with us an' paddle down the Mohawk to Albany. +They kind o' fell from Heaven into our hands an' we got to look a'ter +'em faithful. Fust ye know ol' Herk 'll be movin' er swallered hull by +the British an' the Injuns, like Jonah was by the whale, then what 'ud +become o' her an' the Leetle Cricket? We got to look a'ter 'em." + +"I think my mother will be glad to give them a home," said Jack. "She +really needs some help in the house these days." + + + +2 + +The Scotts' buildings had been burned by the Indians and their boats +destroyed save one large canoe which had happened to be on the south +shore of the river out of their reach. In this Jack and Solomon and +"Mis' Scott" and the Little Cricket set out with loaded packs in the +moon of the new leaf, to use a phrase of the Mohawks, for the city of +the Great River. They had a carry at the Wolf Riff and some shorter +ones but in the main it was a smooth and delightful journey, between +wooded shores, down the long winding lane of the Mohawk. Without fear +of the Indians they were able to shoot deer and wild fowl and build a +fire on almost any part of the shore. Mrs. Scott insisted on her right +to do the cooking. Jack kept a diary of the trip, some pages of which +the historian has read. From them we learn: + +"Mrs. Scott has bravely run the gauntlet of her sorrows. Now there is +a new look in her face. She is a black eyed, dark haired, energetic, +comely woman of forty with cheeks as red as a ripe strawberry. Solomon +calls her 'middle sized' but she seems to be large enough to fill his +eye. He shows her great deference and chooses his words with +particular care when he speaks to her. Of late he has taken to +singing. She and the boy seem to have stirred the depths in him and +curious things are coming up to the surface--songs and stories and +droll remarks and playful tricks and an unusual amount of laughter. I +suppose that it is the spirit of youth in him, stunned by his great +sorrow. Now touched by miraculous hands he is coming back to his old +self. There can be no doubt of this: the man is ten years younger than +when I first knew him even. The Little Cricket has laid hold of his +heart. Whig sits between the feet of Solomon in the stern during the +day and insists upon sleeping with him at night. + +"One morning my old friend was laughing as we stood on the river bank +washing ourselves. + +"'What are you laughing at?' I asked. + +"'That got dum leetle skeezucks!' he answered. 'He were kickin' all +night like a mule fightin' a bumble bee. 'Twere a cold night an' I +held him ag'in' me to keep the leetle cuss warm.' + +"'Hadn't you better let him sleep with his mother?' I asked. + +"'Wall, if it takes two to do his sleepin' mebbe I better be the one +that suffers. Ain't she a likely womern?' + +"Of course I agreed, for it was evident that she was likely, sometime, +to make him an excellent wife and the thought of that made me happy." + +They had fared along down by the rude forts and villages traveling +stealthily at night in tree shadows through "the Tory zone," as the +vicinity of Fort Johnson was then called, camping, now and then, in +deserted farm-houses or putting up at village inns. They arrived at +Albany in the morning of July fourth. Setting out from their last camp +an hour before daylight they had heard the booming of cannon at +sunrise, Solomon stopped his paddle and listened. + +"By the hide an' horns o' the devil!" he exclaimed. "I wonder if the +British have got down to Albany." + +They were alarmed until they hailed a man on the river road and learned +that Albany was having a celebration. + +"What be they celebratin'?" Solomon asked. + +"The Declaration o' Independence," the citizen answered. + +"It's a good idee," said Solomon. "When we git thar this 'ere ol' +rifle o' mine 'll do some talkin' if it has a chanst." + +Church bells were ringing as they neared the city. Its inhabitants +were assembled on the river-front. The Declaration was read and then +General Schuyler made a brief address about the peril coming down from +the north. He said that a large force under General Burgoyne was on +Lake Champlain and that the British were then holding a council with +the Six Nations on the shore of the lake above Crown Point. + +"At present we are unprepared to meet this great force but I suppose +that help will come and that we shall not be dismayed. The modest man +who leads the British army from the north declares in his proclamation +that he is 'John Burgoyne, Esq., Lieutenant General of His Majesty's +forces in America, Colonel of the Queen's Regiment of Light Dragoons, +Governor of Fort William in North Britain, one of the Commons in +Parliament and Commander of an Army and Fleet Employed on an Expedition +from Canada!' My friends, such is the pride that goeth before a fall. +We are an humble, hard-working people. No man among us can boast of a +name so lavishly adorned. Our names need only the simple but glorious +adornments of firmness, courage and devotion. With those, I verily +believe, we shall have an Ally greater than any this world can offer. +Let us all kneel where we stand while the Reverend Mr. Munro leads us +in prayer to Almighty God for His help and guidance." + +It was an impressive hour and that day the same kind of talk was heard +in many places. The church led the people. Pulpiteers of inspired +vision of which, those days, there were many, spoke with the tongues of +men and of angels. A sublime faith in "The Great Ally" began to travel +up and down the land. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE AMBUSH + +Mrs. Scott and her little son were made welcome in the home of John +Irons. Jack and Solomon were immediately sent up the river and through +the bush to help the force at Ti. In the middle and late days of July, +they reported to runners the southward progress of the British. They +were ahead of Herkimer's regiment of New York militia on August third +when they discovered the ambush--a misfortune for which they were in no +way responsible. Herkimer and his force had gone on without them to +relieve Fort Schuyler. The two scouts had ridden post to join him. +They were afoot half a mile or so ahead of the commander when Jack +heard the call of the swamp robin. He hurried toward his friend. +Solomon was in a thicket of tamaracks. + +"We got to git back quick," said the latter. "I see sign o' an ambush." + +They hurried to their command and warned the General. He halted and +faced his men about and began a retreat. Jack and Solomon hurried out +ahead of them some twenty rods apart. In five minutes Jack heard +Solomon's call again. Thoroughly alarmed, he ran in the direction of +the sound. In a moment he met Solomon. The face of the latter had +that stern look which came only in a crisis. Deep furrows ran across +his brow. His hands were shut tight. There was an expression of anger +in his eyes. He swallowed as Jack came near. + +"It's an ambush sure as hell's ahead," he whispered. + +As they were hurrying toward the regiment, he added: + +"We got to fight an' ag'in' big odds--British an' Injuns. Don't never +let yerself be took alive, my son, lessen ye want to die as Scott did. +But, mebbe, we kin bu'st the circle." + +In half a moment they met Herkimer. + +"Git ready to fight," said Solomon. "We're surrounded." + +The men were spread out in a half-circle and some hurried orders given, +but before they could take a step forward the trap was sprung. "The +Red Devils of Brant" were rushing at them through the timber with yells +that seemed to shake the tree-tops. The regiment fired and began to +advance. Some forty Indians had fallen as they fired. General +Herkimer and others were wounded by a volley from the savages. + +"Come on, men. Foller me an' use yer bayonets," Solomon shouted. +"We'll cut our way out." + +The Indians ahead had no time to load. Scores of them were run +through. Others fled for their lives. But a red host was swarming up +from behind and firing into the regiment. Many fell. Many made the +mistake of turning to fight back and were overwhelmed and killed or +captured. A goodly number had cut their way through with Jack and +Solomon and kept going, swapping cover as they went. Most of them were +wounded in some degree. Jack's right shoulder had been torn by a +bullet. Solomon's left hand was broken and bleeding. The savages were +almost on their heels, not two hundred yards behind. The old scout +rallied his followers in a thicket at the top of a knoll with an open +grass meadow between them and their enemies. There they reloaded their +rifles and stood waiting. + +"Don't fire--not none o' ye--till I give the word. Jack, you take my +rifle. I'm goin' to throw this 'ere bunch o' lightnin'." + +Solomon stepped out of the thicket and showed himself when the savages +entered the meadow. Then he limped up the trail as if he were badly +hurt, in the fashion of a hen partridge when one has come near her +brood. In a moment he had dodged behind cover and crept back into the +thicket. + +There were about two hundred warriors who came running across the flat +toward that point where Solomon had disappeared. They yelled like +demons and overran the little meadow with astonishing speed. + +"Now hold yer fire--hold yer fire till I give ye the word, er we'll all +be et up. Keep yer fingers off the triggers now." + +He sprang into the open. Astonished, the foremost runners halted while +others crowded upon them. The "bunch of lightning" began its curved +flight as Solomon leaped behind a tree and shouted, "Fire!" + +"'Tain't too much to say that the cover flew off o' hell right thar at +the edge o' the Bloody Medder that minnit--you hear to me," he used to +tell his friends. "The air were full o' bu'sted Injun an' a barrel o' +blood an' grease went down into the ground. A dozen er so that wasn't +hurt run back ercrost the medder like the devil were chasin' 'em all +with a red-hot iron. I reckon it'll allus be called the Bloody Medder." + +In this retreat Jack had lost so much blood that he had to be carried +on a litter. Before night fell they met General Benedict Arnold and a +considerable force. After a little rest the tireless Solomon went back +into the bush with Arnold and two regiments to find the wounded +Herkimer, if possible, and others who might be in need of relief. They +met a band of refugees coming in with the body of the General. They +reported that the far bush was echoing with the shrieks of tortured +captives. + +"Beats all what an amount o' sufferin' it takes to start a new nation," +Solomon used to say. + +Next day Arnold fought his way to the fort, and many of St. Leger's +Rangers and their savage allies were slain or captured or broken into +little bands and sent flying for their lives into the northern bush. +So the siege of Fort Schuyler was raised. + +"I never see no better fightin' man than Arnold," Solomon used to say. +"I seen him fight in the middle bush an' on the Stillwater. Under fire +he was a regular wolverine. Allus up ag'in' the hottest side o' hell +an' sayin': + +"'Come on, boys. We kin't expec' to live forever.' + +"But Arnold were a sore head. Allus kickin' over the traces an' +complainin' that he never got proper credit." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE BINKUSSING OF COLONEL BURLEY + +Solomon had been hit in the thigh by a rifle bullet on his way to the +fort. He and Jack and other wounded men were conveyed in boats and +litters to the hospital at Albany where Jack remained until the leaves +were gone. Solomon recovered more quickly and was with Lincoln's +militia under Colonel Brown when they joined Johnson's Rangers at +Ticonderoga and cut off the supplies of the British army. Later having +got around the lines of the enemy with this intelligence he had a part +in the fighting on Bemus Heights and the Stillwater and saw the +defeated British army under Burgoyne marching eastward in disgrace to +be conveyed back to England. + +Jack had recovered and was at home when Solomon arrived in Albany with +the news. + +"Wal, my son, I cocalate they's goin' to be a weddin' in our fam'ly +afore long," said the latter. + +"What makes you think so?" Jack inquired. + +"'Cause John Burgoyne, High Cockylorum and Cockydoodledo, an' all his +army has been licked an' kicked an' started fer hum an' made to promise +that they won't be sassy no more. I tell ye the war is goin' to end. +They'll see that it won't pay to keep it up." + +"But you do not know that Howe has taken Philadelphia," said Jack. +"His army entered it on the twenty-sixth of September. Washington is +in a bad fix. You and I have been ordered to report to him at White +Marsh as soon as possible." + +"That ol' King 'ud keep us fightin' fer years if he had his way," said +Solomon. "He don't have to bleed an' groan an' die in the swamps like +them English boys have been doin'. It's too bad but we got to keep +killin' 'em, an' when the bad news reaches the good folks over thar +mebbe the King'll git spoke to proper. We got to keep a-goin'. Fer +the fust time in my life I'm glad to git erway from the big bush. The +Injuns have found us a purty tough bit o' fodder but they's no tellin', +out thar in the wilderness, when a man is goin' to be roasted and +chawed up." + +Solomon spent a part of the evening at play with the Little Cricket and +the other children and when the young ones had gone to bed, went out +for a walk with "Mis' Scott" on the river-front. + +Mrs. Irons had said of the latter that she was a most amiable and +useful person. + +"The Little Cricket has won our hearts," she added. "We love him as we +love our own." + +When Jack and Solomon were setting out in a hired sloop for the +Highlands next morning there were tears in the dark eyes of "Mis' +Scott." + +"Ain't she a likely womern?" Solomon asked again when with sails spread +they had begun to cut the water. + +Near King's Ferry in the Highlands on the Hudson they spent a night in +the camp of the army under Putnam. There they heard the first note of +discontent with the work of their beloved Washington. It came from the +lips of one Colonel Burley of a Connecticut regiment. The +Commander-in-Chief had lost Newport, New York and Philadelphia and been +defeated on Long Island and in two pitched battles on ground of his own +choosing at Brandywine and Germantown. + +The two scouts were angry. + +It had been a cold, wet afternoon and they, with others, were drying +themselves around a big, open fire of logs in front of the camp +post-office. + +Solomon was quick to answer the complaint of Burley. + +"He's allus been fightin' a bigger force o' well trained, well paid men +that had plenty to eat an' drink an' wear. An' he's fit 'em with jest +a shoe string o' an army. When it come to him, it didn't know nothin' +but how to shoot an' dig a hole in the ground. The men wouldn't enlist +fer more'n six months an' as soon as they'd learnt suthin', they put +fer hum. An' with that kind o' an army, he druv the British out o' +Boston. With a leetle bunch o' five thousand unpaid, barefoot, ragged +backed devils, he druv the British out o' Jersey an' they had twelve +thousan' men in that neighborhood. He's had to dodge eround an' has +kep' his army from bein' et up, hide, horns an' taller, by the power o' +his brain. He's managed to take keer o' himself down thar in Jersey +an' Pennsylvaney with the British on all sides o' him, while the best +fighters he had come up here to help Gates. I don't see how he could +'a' done it--damned if I do--without the help o' God." + +"Gates is a real general," Burley answered. "Washington don't amount +to a hill o' beans." + +Solomon turned quickly and advanced upon Burley. "I didn't 'spect to +find an enemy o' my kentry in this 'ere camp," he said in a quiet tone. +"Ye got to take that back, mister, an' do it prompt, er ye're goin' to +be all mussed up." + +"Ye could see the ha'r begin to brustle under his coat," Solomon was +wont to say of Burley, in speaking of that moment. "He stepped up clus +an' growled an' showed his teeth an' then he begun to git rooined." + +Burley had kept a public house for sailors at New Haven and had had the +reputation of being a bad man in a quarrel. Of just what happened +there is a full account in a little army journal of that time called +_The Camp Gazette_. Burley aimed a blow at Solomon with his fist. +Then as Solomon used to put it, "the water bu'st through the dam." It +was his way of describing the swift and decisive action which was +crowded into the next minute. He seized Burley and hurled him to the +ground. With one hand on the nape of his neck and the other on the +seat of his trousers, Solomon lifted his enemy above his head and +quoited him over the tent top. + +Burley picked himself up and having lost his head drew his hanger, and, +like a mad bull, rushed at Solomon. Suddenly he found his way barred +by Jack. + +"Would you try to run a man through before he can draw?" the latter +asked. + +Solomon's old sword flashed out of its scabbard. + +"Let him come on," he shouted. "I'm more to hum with a hanger than I +be with good vittles." + +Of all the words on record from the lips of this man, these are the +most immodest, but it should be remembered that when he spoke them his +blood was hot. + +Jack gave way and the two came together with a clash of steel. A crowd +had gathered about them and was increasing rapidly. They had been +fighting for half a moment around the fire when Solomon broke the blade +of his adversary. The latter drew his pistol! Before he could raise +it Solomon had fired his own weapon. Burley's pistol dropped on the +ground. Instantly its owner reeled and fell beside it. The battle +which had lasted no more than a minute had come to its end. There had +been three kinds of fighting in that lively duel. + +Solomon's voice trembled when he cried out: + +"Ary man who says a word ag'in' the Great Father is goin' to git mussed +up." + +He pushed his way through the crowd which had gathered around the +wounded man. + +"Let me bind his arm," he said. + +But a surgeon had stood in the crowd. He was then doing what he could +for the shattered member of the hot-headed Colonel Burley. Jack was +helping him. Some men arrived with a litter and the unfortunate +officer was quickly on his way to the hospital. + +Jack and Solomon set out for headquarters. They met Putnam and two +officers hurrying toward the scene of the encounter. Solomon had +fought in the bush with him. Twenty years before they had been friends +and comrades. Solomon saluted and stopped the grizzled hero of many a +great adventure. + +"Binkus, what's the trouble here?" the latter asked, as the crowd who +had followed the two scouts gathered about them. + +Solomon gave his account of what had happened. It was quickly verified +by many eye-witnesses. + +"Ye done right," said the General. "Burley has got to take it back an' +apologize. He ain't fit to be an officer. He behaved himself like a +bully. Any man who talks as he done orto be cussed an' Binkussed an' +sent to the guard house." + +Within three days Burley had made an ample apology for his conduct and +this bulletin was posted at headquarters: + +"Liberty of speech has its limits. It must be controlled by the law of +decency and the general purposes of our army and government. The man +who respects no authority above his own intellect is a conceited ass +and would be a tyrant if he had the chance. No word of disrespect for +a superior officer will be tolerated in this army." + +"The Binkussing of Burley"--a phrase which traveled far beyond the +limits of Putnam's camp--and the notice of warning which followed was +not without its effect on the propaganda of Gates and his friends. + + + +2 + +Next day Jack and Solomon set out with a force of twelve hundred men +for Washington's camp at White Marsh near Philadelphia. There Jack +found a letter from Margaret. It had been sent first to Benjamin +Franklin in Paris through the latter's friend Mr. David Hartley, a +distinguished Englishman who was now and then sounding the Doctor on +the subject of peace. + +"I am sure that you will be glad to know that my love for you is not +growing feeble on account of its age," she wrote. "The thought has +come to me that I am England and that you are America. It will be a +wonderful and beautiful thing if through all this bitterness and +bloodshed we can keep our love for each other. My dear, I would have +you know that in spite of this alien King and his followers, I hold to +my love for you and am waiting with that patience which God has put in +the soul of your race and mine, for the end of our troubles. If you +could come to France I would try to meet you in Doctor Franklin's home +at Passy. So I have the hope in me that you may be sent to France." + +This is as much of the letter as can claim admission to our history. +It gave the young man a supply of happiness sufficient to fill the many +days of hardship and peril in the winter at Valley Forge. It was read +to Solomon. + +"Say, this 'ere letter kind o' teches my feelin's--does sart'in," said +Solomon. "I'm goin' to see what kin be done." + +Unknown to Jack, within three days Solomon had a private talk with the +Commander-in-Chief at his headquarters. The latter had a high regard +for the old scout. He maintained a dignified silence while Solomon +made his little speech and then arose and offered his hand saying in a +kindly tone: + +"Colonel Binkus, I must bid you good night." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE GREATEST TRAIT OF A GREAT COMMANDER + +Jack Irons used to say that no man he had known had such an uncommon +amount of common sense as George Washington. He wrote to his father: + +"It would seem that he must be in communication with the all-seeing mind. +If he were to make a serious blunder here our cause would fail. The +enemy tries in vain to fool him. Their devices are as an open book to +Washington. They have fooled me and Solomon and other officers but not +him. I had got quite a conceit of myself in judging strategy but now it +is all gone. + +"One day I was scouting along the lines, a few miles from Philadelphia, +when I came upon a little, ragged, old woman. She wished to go through +the lines into the country to buy flour. The moment she spoke I +recognized her. It was old Lydia Darrah who had done my washing for me +the last year of my stay in Philadelphia. + +"'Why, Lydia, how do you do?' I asked. + +"'The way I have allus done, laddie buck," she answered in her good Irish +brogue. 'Workin' at the tub an' fightin' the divil--bad 'cess to +him--but I kape me hilth an' lucky I am to do that--thanks to the good +God! How is me fine lad that I'd niver 'a' knowed but for the voice o' +him?' + +"'Not as fine as when I wore the white ruffles but stout as a moose,' I +answered. 'The war is a sad business.' + +"'It is that--may the good God defind us! We cross the sea to be rid o' +the divil an' he follys an' grabs us be the neck.' + +"We were on a lonely road. She looked about and seeing no one, put a +dirty old needle case in my hands. "'Take that, me smart lad. It's fer +good luck,' she answered. + +"As I left her I was in doubt of the meaning of her generosity. Soon I +opened the needle book and found in one of its pockets a piece of thin +paper rolled tight. On it I found the information that Howe would be +leaving the city next morning with five thousand men, and baggage wagons +and thirteen cannon and eleven boats. The paper contained other details +of the proposed British raid. I rode post to headquarters and luckily +found the General in his tent. On the way I arrived at a definite +conviction regarding the plans of Howe. I was eager to give it air, +having no doubt of its soundness. The General gave me respectful +attention while I laid the facts before him. Then I took my courage in +my hands and asked: + +"'General, may I venture to express an opinion?' + +"'Certainly,' he answered. + +"'It is the plan of Howe to cross the Delaware in his boats so as to make +us believe that he is going to New York. He will recross the river above +Bristol and suddenly descend upon our rear.' + +"Washington sat, with his arms folded, looking very grave but made no +answer. + +"In other words, again I presented my conviction. + +"Still he was silent and I a little embarrassed. In half a moment I +ventured to ask: + +"'General, what is your opinion?' + +"He answered in a kindly tone: 'Colonel Irons, the enemy has no business +in our rear. The boats are only for our scouts and spies to look at. +The British hope to fool us with them. To-morrow morning about daylight +they will be coming down the Edgely Bye Road on our left.' + +"He called an aid and ordered that our front be made ready for an attack +in the early morning. + +"I left headquarters with my conceit upon me and half convinced that our +Chief was out in his judgment of that matter. No like notion will enter +my mind again. Solomon and I have quarters on the Edgely Bye Road. A +little after three next morning the British were reported coming down the +road. A large number of them were killed and captured and the rest +roughly handled. + +"A smart Yankee soldier in his trial for playing cards yesterday, set up +a defense which is the talk of the camp. For a little time it changed +the tilt of the wrinkles on the grim visage of war. His claim was that +he had no Bible and that the cards aided him in his devotions. + +"The ace reminded him of the one God; the deuce of the Father and Son; +the tray of the Trinity; the four spot of the four evangelists--Matthew, +Luke, Mark and John; the five spot of the five wise and the five foolish +virgins; the six spot of the six days of creation; the seven of the +Sabbath; the eight of Noah and his family; the nine of the nine +ungrateful lepers; the ten of the Ten Commandments; the knave of Judas; +the queen was to him the Queen of Sheba and the king was the one great +King of Heaven and the Universe. + +"'You will go to the guard house for three days so that, hereafter, a +pack of cards will remind you only of a foolish soldier,' said Colonel +Provost." + +Snow and bitter winds descended upon the camp early in December. It was +a worn, ragged, weary but devoted army of about eleven thousand men that +followed Washington into Valley Forge to make a camp for the winter. Of +these, two thousand and ninety-eight were unfit for duty. Most of the +latter had neither boots nor shoes. They marched over roads frozen hard, +with old rags and pieces of hide wrapped around their feet. There were +many red tracks in the snow in the Valley of the Schuylkill that day. +Hardly a man was dressed for cold weather. Hundreds were shivering and +coughing with influenza. + +"When I look at these men I can not help thinking how small are my +troubles," Jack wrote to his mother. "I will complain of them no more. +Solomon and I have given away all the clothes we have except those on our +backs. A fiercer enemy than the British is besieging us here. He is +Winter. It is the duty of the people we are fighting for to defend us +against this enemy. We should not have to exhaust ourselves in such a +battle. Do they think that because God has shown His favor at Brooklyn, +Saratoga, and sundry other places, He is in a way committed? Are they +not disposed to take it easy and over-work the Creator? I can not resist +the impression that they are praying too much and paying too little. I +fear they are lying back and expecting God to send ravens to feed us and +angels to make our boots and weave our blankets and clothing. He will +not go into that kind of business. The Lord is not a shoemaker or a +weaver or a baker. He can have no respect for a people who would leave +its army to starve and freeze to death in the back country. If they are +to do that their faith is rotten with indolence and avarice. + +"There are many here who have nothing to wear but blankets with armholes, +belted by a length of rope. There are hundreds who have no blankets to +cover them at night. They have to take turns sitting by the fire while +others are asleep. For them a night's rest is impossible. Let this +letter be read to the people of Albany and may they not lie down to sleep +until they have stirred themselves in our behalf, and if any man dares to +pray to God to help us until he has given of his abundance to that end +and besought his neighbors to do the same, I could wish that his praying +would choke him. Are we worthy to be saved--that is the question. If we +expect God to furnish the flannel and the shoe leather, we are not. That +is our part of the great task. Are we going to shirk it and fail? + +"We are making a real army. The men who are able to work are being +carefully trained by the crusty old Baron Steuben and a number of French +officers." + +That they did not fail was probably due to the fact that there were men +in the army like this one who seemed to have some little understanding of +the will of God and the duty of man. This letter and others like it, +traveled far and wide and more than a million hands began to work for the +army. + +The Schuylkill was on one side of the camp and wooded ridges, protected +by entrenchments, on the other. Trees were felled and log huts +constructed, sixteen by fourteen feet in size. Twelve privates were +quartered in each hut. + +The Gates propaganda was again being pushed. Anonymous letters +complaining that Washington was not protecting the people of Pennsylvania +and New Jersey from depredations were appearing in sundry newspapers. By +and by a committee of investigation arrived from Congress. They left +satisfied that Washington had done well to keep his army alive, and that +he must have help or a large part of it would die of cold and hunger. + + + +2 + +It was on a severe day in March that Washington sent for Jack Irons. The +scout found the General sitting alone by the fireside in his office which +was part of a small farm-house. He was eating a cold luncheon of baked +beans and bread without butter. Jack had just returned from Philadelphia +where he had risked his life as a spy, of which adventure no details are +recorded save the one given in the brief talk which follows. The scout +smiled as he took the chair offered. + +"The British are eating no such frugal fare," he remarked. + +"I suppose not," the General answered. + +"The night before I left Philadelphia Howe and his staff had a banquet at +The Three Mariners. There were roasted hams and geese and turkeys and +patties and pies and jellies and many kinds of wine and high merriment. +The British army is well fed and clothed." + +"We are not so provided but we must be patient," said Washington. "Our +people mean well, they are as yet unorganized. This matter of being +citizens of an independent nation at war is new to them. The men who are +trying to establish a government while they are defending it against a +powerful enemy have a most complicated problem. Naturally, there are +disagreements and factions. Congress may, for a time, be divided but the +army must stand as one man. This thing we call human liberty has become +for me a sublime personality. In times when I could see no light, she +has kept my heart from failing." + +"She is like the goddess of old who fought in the battles of Agamemnon," +said Jack. "Perhaps she is the angel of God who hath been given charge +concerning us. Perhaps she is traveling up and down the land and +overseas in our behalf." + +Washington sat looking thoughtfully into the fire. In a moment he said: + +"She is like a wise and beautiful mother assuring us that our sorrows +will end, by and by, and that we must keep on." + +The General arose and went to his desk and returned with sealed letters +in his hand and said: + +"Colonel, I have a task for you. I could give it to no man in whom I had +not the utmost confidence. You have earned a respite from the hardships +and perils of this army. Here is a purse and two letters. With them I +wish you to make your way to France as soon as possible and turn over the +letters to Franklin. The Doctor is much in need of help. Put your +services at his disposal. A ship will be leaving Boston on the +fourteenth. A good horse has been provided; your route is mapped. You +will need to start after the noon mess. For the first time in ten days +there will be fresh beef on the tables. Two hundred blankets have +arrived and more are coming. After they have eaten, give the men a +farewell talk and put them in good heart, if you can. We are going to +celebrate the winter's end which can not be long delayed. When you have +left the table, Hamilton will talk to the boys in his witty and inspiring +fashion." + +Soon after one o'clock on the seventh of March, 1778, Colonel Irons bade +Solomon good-by and set out on his long journey. That night he slept in +a farmhouse some fifty miles from Valley Forge. + +Next morning this brief note was written to his mother: + +"I am on my way to France, leaving mother and father and sister and +brother and friend, as the Lord has commanded, to follow Him, I verily +believe. Yesterday the thought came to me that this thing we call the +love of Liberty which is in the heart of every man and woman of us, +urging that we stop at no sacrifice of blood and treasure, is as truly +the angel of God as he that stood with Peter in the prison house. Last +night I saw Liberty in my dreams--a beautiful woman she was, of heroic +stature with streaming hair and the glowing eyes of youth and she was +dressed in a long white robe held at the waist by a golden girdle. And I +thought that she touched my brow and said: + +"'My son, I am sent for all the children of men and not for America +alone. You will find me in France for my task is in many lands.' + +"I left the brave old fighter, Solomon, with tears in his eyes. What a +man is Solomon! Yet, God knows, he is the rank and file of Washington's +army as it stands to-day--ragged, honest, religious, heroic, half fed, +unappreciated, but true as steel and willing, if required, to give up his +comfort or his life! How may we account for such a man without the help +of God and His angels?" + + + + +BOOK THREE + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +IN FRANCE WITH FRANKLIN + +Jack shipped in the packet Mercury, of seventy tons, under Captain +Simeon Sampson, one of America's ablest naval commanders. She had been +built for rapid sailing and when, the second day out, they saw a +British frigate bearing down upon her they wore ship and easily ran +away from their enemy. Their first landing was at St. Martin on the +Isle de Rhe. They crossed the island on mules, being greeted with the +cry: + +"_Voila les braves Bostones_!" + +In France the word _Bostone_ meant American revolutionist. At the +ferry they embarked on a long gabbone for La Rochelle. There the young +man enjoyed his first repose on a French _lit_ built up of sundry +layers of feather beds. He declares in his diary that he felt the need +of a ladder to reach its snowy summit of white linen. He writes a +whole page on the sense of comfort and the dreamless and refreshing +sleep which he had found in that bed. The like of it he had not known +since he had been a fighting man. + +In the morning he set out in a heavy vehicle of two wheels, drawn by +three horses. Its postillion in frizzed and powdered hair, under a +cocked hat, with a long queue on his back and in great boots, hooped +with iron, rode a lively little _bidet_. Such was the French +stagecoach of those days, its running gear having been planned with an +eye to economy, since vehicles were taxed according to the number of +their wheels. The diary informs one that when the traveler stopped for +food at an inn, he was expected to furnish his own knife. The highways +were patrolled, night and day, by armed horsemen and robberies were +unknown. The vineyards were not walled or fenced. All travelers had a +license to help themselves to as much fruit as they might wish to eat +when it was on the vines. + +They arrived at Chantenay on a cold rainy evening. They were settled +in their rooms, happy that they had protection from the weather, when +their landlord went from room to room informing them that they would +have to move on. + +"Why?" Jack ventured to inquire. + +"Because a _seigneur_ has arrived." + +"A _seigneur_!" Jack exclaimed. + +"_Oui_, Monsieur. He is a very great man." + +"But suppose we refuse to go," said Jack. + +"Then, Monsieur, I shall detain your horses. It is a law of _le grand +monarque_." + +There was no dodging it. The coach and horses came back to the inn +door. The passengers went out into the dark, rainy night to plod along +in the mud, another six miles or so, that the seigneur and his suite +could enjoy that comfort the weary travelers had been forced to leave. +Such was the power of privilege with which the great Louis had saddled +his kingdom. + +They proceeded to Ancenis, Angers and Breux. From the latter city the +road to Versailles was paved with flat blocks of stone. There were +swarms of beggars in every village and city crying out, with hands +extended, as the coach passed them: + +"_La charite, au nom de Dieu_!" + +"France is in no healthy condition when this is possible," the young +man wrote. + +If he met a priest carrying a Bon Dieu in a silver vase every one +called out, "_Aux genoux_!" and then the beholder had to kneel, even if +the mud were ankle deep. So on a wet day one's knees were apt to be as +muddy as his feet. + +The last stage from Versailles to Paris was called the post royale. +There the postillion had to be dressed like a gentleman. It was a +magnificent avenue, crowded every afternoon by the wealth and beauty of +the kingdom, in gorgeously painted coaches, and lighted at night by +great lamps, with double reflectors, over its center. They came upon +it in the morning on their way to the capital. There were few people +traveling at that hour. Suddenly ahead they saw a cloud of dust. The +stage stopped. On came a band of horsemen riding at a wild gallop. +They were the King's couriers. + +"Clear the way," they shouted. "The King's hunt is coming." + +All travelers, hearing this command, made quickly for the sidings, +there to draw rein and dismount. The deer came in sight, running for +its life, the King close behind with all his train, the hounds in full +cry. Near Jack the deer bounded over a hedge and took a new direction. +His Majesty--a short, stout man with blue eyes and aquiline nose, +wearing a lace cocked hat and brown velvet coatee and high boots with +spurs--dismounted not twenty feet from the stage-coach, saying with +great animation: + +"_Vite! Donnez moi un cheval frais_." + +Instantly remounting, he bounded over the hedge, followed by his train. + + + +2 + +A letter from Jack presents all this color of the journey and avers +that he reached the house of Franklin in Passy about two o'clock in the +afternoon of a pleasant May day. The savant greeted his young friend +with an affectionate embrace. + +"Sturdy son of my beloved country, you bring me joy and a new problem," +he said. + +"What is the problem?" Jack inquired. + +"That of moving Margaret across the channel. I have a double task now. +I must secure the happiness of America and of Jack Irons." + +He read the despatches and then the Doctor and the young man set out in +a coach for the palace of Vergennes, the Prime Minister. Colonel Irons +was filled with astonishment at the tokens of veneration for the +white-haired man which he witnessed in the streets of Paris. + +"The person of the King could not have attracted more respectful +attention," he writes. "A crowd gathered about the coach when we were +leaving it and every man stood with uncovered head as we passed on our +way to the palace door. In the crowd there was much whispered praise +of '_Le grand savant_.' I did not understand this until I met, in the +office of the Compte de Vergennes, the eloquent Senator Gabriel Honore +Riquetti de Mirabeau. What an impressive name! Yet I think he +deserves it. He has the eye of Mars and the hair of Samson and the +tongue of an angel, I am told. In our talk, I assured him that in +Philadelphia Franklin came and went and was less observed than the town +crier. + +"'But your people seem to adore him,' I said. + +"'As if he were a god,' Mirabeau answered. 'Yes, it is true and it is +right. Has he not, like Jove, hurled the lightning of heaven in his +right hand? Is he not an unpunished Prometheus? Is he not breaking +the scepter of a tyrant?' + +"Going back to his home where in the kindness of his heart he had asked +me to live, he endeavored, modestly, to explain the evidences of high +regard which were being showered upon him. + +"'It happens that my understanding and small control of a mysterious +and violent force of nature has appealed to the imagination of these +people,' he said, 'I am the only man who has used thunderbolts for his +playthings. Then, too, I am speaking for a new world to an old one. +Just at present I am the voice of Human Liberty. I represent the +hunger of the spirit of man. It is very strong here. You have not +traveled so far in France without seeing thousands of beggars. They +are everywhere. But you do not know that when a child comes in a poor +family, the father and mother go to prison _pour mois de nourrice_. It +is a pity that the poor can not keep their children at home. This old +kingdom is a muttering Vesuvius, growing hotter, year by year, with +discontent. You will presently hear its voices.'" + +[Illustration: Ben Franklin] + +There was a dinner that evening at Franklin's house, at which the +Marquis de Mirabeau, M. Turgot, the Madame de Brillon, the Abbe Raynal +and the Compte and Comptesse d' Haudetot, Colonel Irons and three other +American gentlemen were present. The Madame de Brillon was first to +arrive. She entered with a careless, jaunty air and ran to meet +Franklin and caught his hand and gave him a double kiss on each cheek +and one on his forehead and called him "papa." + +"At table she sat between me and Doctor Franklin," Jack writes. "She +frequently locked her hand in the Doctor's and smiled sweetly as she +looked into his eyes. I wonder what the poor, simple, hard-working +Deborah Franklin would have thought of these familiarities. Yet here, +I am told, no one thinks ill of that kind of thing. The best women of +France seem to treat their favorites with like tokens of regard. Now +and then she spread her arms across the backs of our chairs, as if she +would have us feel that her affection was wide enough for both. + +"She assured me that all the women of France were in love with _le +grand savant_. + +"Franklin, hearing the compliment, remarked: 'It is because they pity +my age and infirmities. First we pity, then embrace, as the great Mr. +Pope has written.' + +"'We think it a compliment that the greatest intellect in the world is +willing to allow itself to be, in a way, captured by the charms of +women,' Madame Brillon declared. + +"'My beautiful friend! You are too generous,' the Doctor continued +with a laugh. 'If the greatest man were really to come to Paris and +lose his heart, I should know where to find it.' + +"The Doctor speaks an imperfect and rather broken French, but these +people seem to find it all the more interesting on that account. +Probably to them it is like the English which we have heard in America +from the lips of certain Frenchmen. How fortunate it is that I learned +to speak the language of France in my boyhood! + +"From the silver-tongued Mirabeau I got further knowledge of Franklin, +with which I, his friend and fellow countryman, should have been +acquainted, save that the sacrifices of the patriot are as common as +mother's milk and cause little comment among us. The great orator was +expected to display his talents, if there were any excuse for it, +wherever he might be, so the ladies set up a demand for a toast. He +spoke of Franklin, 'The Thrifty Prodigal,' saying; + +"'He saves only to give. There never was such a squanderer of his own +immeasurable riches. For his great inventions and discoveries he has +never received a penny. Twice he has put his personal fortune at the +disposal of his country. Once when he paid the farmers for their +horses and wagons to transport supplies for the army of Braddock, and +again when he offered to pay for the tea which was thrown into Boston +Harbor.' + +"The great man turned to me and added: + +"'I have learned of these things, not from him, but from others who +know the truth, and we love him in France because we are aware that he +is working for Human Liberty and not for himself or for any greedy +despot in the 'west.' + +"It is all so true, yet in America nothing has been said of this. + +"As the dinner proceeded the Abbe Raynal asked the Doctor if it was +true that there were signs of degeneracy in the average male American. + +"'Let the facts before us be my answer," said Franklin. "There are at +this table four Frenchmen and four Americans. Let these gentlemen +stand up." + +"The Frenchmen were undersized, the Abbe himself being a mere shrimp of +a man. The Americans, Carmichael, Harmer, Humphries and myself, were +big men, the shortest being six feet tall. The contrast raised a laugh +among the ladies. Then said Franklin in his kindest tones: + +"'My dear Abbe, I am aware that manhood is not a matter of feet and +inches. I only assure you that these are average Americans and that +they are pretty well filled with brain and spirit.' + +"The Abbe spoke of a certain printed story on which he had based his +judgment. + +"Franklin laughed and answered: 'I know that is a fable, because I +wrote it myself one day, long ago, when we were short of news.'" + +The guests having departed, Franklin asked the young man to sit down +for a talk by the fireside. The Doctor spoke of the women of France, +saying: + +"'You will not understand them or me unless you remind yourself that we +are in Europe and that it is the eighteenth century. Here the clocks +are lagging. Time moves slowly. With the poor it stands still. They +know not the thing we call progress.' + +"'Those who have money seem to be very busy having fun,' I said. + +"'There is no morning to their day,' he went on. 'Their dawn is +noontime. Our kind of people have had longer days and have used them +wisely. So we have pushed on ahead of this European caravan. Our +fathers in New England made a great discovery.' + +"'What was it?' I asked. + +"'That righteousness was not a joke; that Christianity was not a solemn +plaything for one day in the week, but a real, practical, working +proposition for every day in the year; that the main support of the +structure is industry; that its most vital commandment is this, 'six +days shalt thou labor'; that no amount of wealth can excuse a man from +this duty. Every one worked. There was no idleness and therefore +little poverty. The days were all for labor and the nights for rest. +The wheels of progress were greased and moving.' + +"'And our love of learning helped to push them along,' I suggested. + +"'True. Our people have been mostly like you and me,' he went on. 'We +long for knowledge of the truth. We build schools and libraries and +colleges. We have pushed on out of the eighteenth century into a new +time. There you were born. Now you have stepped a hundred years +backward into Europe. You are astonished, and this brings me to my +point. Here I am with a great task on my hands. It is to enlist the +sympathy and help of France. I must take things, not as I could wish +them to be, but as I find them. At this court women are all powerful. +It has long been a maxim here that a diplomatist must stand well with +the ladies. Even though he is venerable, he must be gallant, and I do +not use the word in a shady sense. The ladies are not so bad as you +would think them. They are playthings. To them, life is not as we +know it, filled with realities. It is a beautiful drama of rich +costumes and painted scenes and ingenious words, all set in the +atmosphere of romance. The players only pretend to believe each other. +In the salon I am one of these players. I have to be.' + +"'Mirabeau seemed to mean what he said,' was my answer. + +"'Yes. He is one of those who often speak from the heart. All these +players love the note of sincerity when they hear it. In the salon it +is out of key, but away from the ladies the men are often living and +not playing. Mirabeau, Condorcet, Turgot and others have heard the +call of Human Liberty. Often they come to this house and speak out +with a strong candor.' + +"'I suppose that this great drama of despotism in France will end in a +tragedy whose climax will consume the stage and half the players,' I +ventured to say. + +"'That is a theme, Jack, on which you and I must be silent,' Franklin +answered. 'We must hold our mouths as with a bridle.' + +"For a moment he sat looking sadly into the glowing coals on the grate. +Franklin loved to talk, but no one could better keep his own counsel. + +"'At heart I am no revolutionist,' he said presently. 'I believe in +purifying--not in breaking down. I would to God that I could have +convinced the British of their error. Mainly I am with the prophet who +says: + +"'"Stand in the old ways. View the ancient paths. Consider them well +and be not among those who are given to change."' + +"I sat for a moment thinking of the cruelties I had witnessed, and +asking myself if it had been really worth while. Franklin interrupted +my thoughts. + +"'I wish we could discover a plan which would induce and compel nations +to settle their differences without cutting each other's throats. When +will human wisdom be sufficient to see the advantage of this?' + +"He told me the thrilling details of his success in France; how he had +won the kingdom for an ally and secured loans and the help of a fleet +and army then on the sea. + +"'And you will not be surprised to learn that the British have been +sounding me to see if we would be base enough to abandon our ally,' he +laughed. + +"In a moment he added: + +"'Come, it is late and you must write a letter to the heart of England +before you lie down to rest.' + +"Often thereafter he spoke of Margaret as 'the heart of England.'" + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE PAGEANT + +Jack began to assist Franklin in his correspondence and in the many +business details connected with his mission. + +"I have never seen a man with a like capacity for work," the young +officer writes. "Every day he is conferring with Vergennes or other +representatives of the King, or with the ministers of Spain, Holland +and Great Britain. The greatest intellect in the kingdom is naturally +in great request. To-day, after many hours of negotiation with the +Spanish minister, in came M. Dubourg, the most distinguished physician +in Europe. + +"'_Mon chere maitre_,' he said. 'I have a most difficult case and as +you know more about the human body than any man of my acquaintance I +wish to confer with you.' + +"Yesterday, Doctor Ingenhauz, physician to the Emperor of Austria, came +to consult him regarding the vaccination of the royal family of France. + +"In the evening, M. Robespierre, a slim, dark-skinned, studious young +attorney from Arras, wearing gold-rimmed spectacles, came for +information regarding lightning rods, he having doubts of their +legality. While they were talking, M. Joseph Ignace Guillotin, another +physician, arrived. He was looking for advice regarding a proposed new +method of capital punishment, and wished to know if, in the Doctor's +opinion, a painless death could be produced by quickly severing the +head from the body. Next morning, M. Jourdan, with hair and beard as +red as the flank of my bay mare and a loud voice, came soon after +breakfast, to sell us mules by the ship load. + +"So you see that even I, living in his home and seeing him almost every +hour of the day, have little chance to talk with him. Last night we +met M. Voltaire--dramatist and historian--now in the evening of his +days. We were at the Academy, where we had gone to hear an essay by +D'Alembert. Franklin and Voltaire--a very thin old gentleman of +eighty-four, with piercing black eyes--sat side by side on the +platform. The audience demanded that the two great men should come +forward and salute each other. They arose and advanced and shook hands. + +"'_A la Francaise_,' the crowd demanded. + +"So the two white-haired men embraced and kissed each other amidst loud +applause. + +"We are up at sunrise and at breakfast, for half an hour or so, I have +him to myself. Then we take a little walk in the palace grounds of M. +le Ray de Chaumont, Chief Forester of the kingdom, which adjoins us. +To the Count's generosity Franklin is indebted for the house we live +in. The Doctor loves to have me with him in the early morning. He +says breakfasting alone is the most _triste_ of all occupations. + +"'I think that the words of Demosthenes could not have been more sought +than yours,' I said to him at breakfast this morning. + +"He laughed as he answered: 'Demosthenes said that the first point in +speaking was action. Probably he meant the action which preceded the +address--a course of it which had impressed people with the integrity +and understanding of the speaker. For years I have had what Doctor +Johnson would call 'a wise and noble curiosity' about nature and have +had some success in gratifying it. Then, too, I have tried to order my +life so that no man could say that Ben Franklin had intentionally done +him a wrong. So I suppose that my words are entitled to a degree of +respect--a far more limited degree than the French are good enough to +accord them.' + +"As we were leaving the table he said: 'Jack, I have an idea worthy of +Demosthenes. My friend, David Hartley of London, who still has hope of +peace by negotiation, wishes to come over and confer with me. I shall +tell him that he may come if he will bring with him the Lady Hare and +her daughter.' + +"'More thrilling words were never spoken by Demosthenes,' I answered. +'But how about Jones and his _Bonne Homme Richard_? He is now a terror +to the British coasts. They would fear destruction.' + +"'I shall ask Jones to let them alone,' he said. 'They can come under +a special flag.' + +"Commodore Jones did not appear again in Paris until October, when he +came to Passy to report upon a famous battle. + +"I was eager to meet this terror of the coasts. His impudent courage +and sheer audacity had astonished the world. The wonder was that men +were willing to join him in such dare devil enterprises. + +"I had imagined that Jones would be a tall, gaunt, swarthy, raw-boned, +swearing man of the sea. He was a sleek, silent, modest little man, +with delicate hands and features. He wished to be alone with the +Doctor, and so I did not hear their talk. I know that he needed money +and that Franklin, having no funds, provided the sea fighter from his +own purse. + +"Commodore Jones had brought with him a cartload of mail from captured +British ships. In it were letters to me from Margaret. + +"'Now you are near me and yet there is an impassable gulf between us,' +she wrote. 'We hear that the seas are overrun with pirates and that no +ship is safe. Our vessels are being fired upon and sunk. I would not +mind being captured by a good Yankee captain, if it were carefully +done. But cannons are so noisy and impolite! I have a lot of British +pluck in me, but I fear that you would not like to marry a girl who +limped because she had been shot in the war. And, just think of the +possible effect on my disposition. So before we start Doctor Franklin +will have to promise not to fire his cannons at us.' + +"I showed the letter to Franklin and he laughed and said: + +"'They will be treated tenderly. The Commodore will convoy them across +the channel. I shall assure Hartley of that in a letter which will go +forward today.' + +"Anxious days are upon us. Our money in America has become almost +worthless and we are in extreme need of funds to pay and equip the +army. We are daily expecting a loan from the King of three million +livres. But Vergennes has made it clear to us that the government of +France is itself in rather desperate straits. The loan has been +approved, but the treasury is waiting upon certain taxes not yet +collected. The moment the money is available the Prime Minister will +inform us of the fact. + +"On a fine autumn day we drove with the Prince of Conde in his great +coach, ornamented with costly paintings, to spend a day at his country +seat in Chantilly. The palace was surrounded by an artificial canal; +the gardens beautified with ponds and streams and islands and cascades +and grottos and labyrinths, the latter adorned with graceful +sculptures. His stables were lined with polished woods; their windows +covered with soft silk curtains. Of such a refinement of luxury I had +never dreamed. Having seen at least a thousand beggars on the way, I +was saddened by these rich, lavish details of a prince's +self-indulgence. + +"On the wish of our host, Franklin had taken with him a part of his +electrical apparatus, with which he amused a large company of the +friends of the great _Seigneur_ in his palace grounds. Spirits were +fired by a spark sent from one pond to another with no conductor but +the water of a stream. The fowls for dinner were slain by electrical +shocks and cooked over a fire kindled by a current from an electrical +bottle. At the table the success of America was toasted in electrified +bumpers with an accompaniment of guns fired by an electrical battery. + +"A poet had written a _Chanson a Boire_ to Franklin, which was read and +merrily applauded at the dinner--one stanza of which ran as follows: + + "'Tout, en fondant un empire, + Vous le voyez boire et rire + Le verre en main + Chantons notre Benjamin.' + +"To illustrate the honest candor with which often he speaks, even in +the presence of Frenchmen who are near the throne, I quote a few words +from his brief address to the Prince and his friends; + +"'A good part of my life I have worked with my hands. If Your Grace +will allow me to say so, I wish to see in France a deeper regard for +the man who works with his hands--the man who supplies food. He really +furnishes the standard of all value. The value of everything depends +on the labor given to the making of it. If the labor in producing a +bushel of wheat is the same as that consumed in the production of an +ounce of silver, their value is the same. + +"'The food maker also supplies a country with its population. By 1900 +he will have given to America a hundred million people and a power and +prosperity beyond our reckoning. Frugality and Industry are the most +fruitful of parents, especially where they are respected. When luxury +and the cost of living have increased, people have become more cautious +about marriage and populations have begun to dwindle.' + +"The Bourbon Prince, a serious-minded man, felt the truth of all this +and was at pains to come to my venerable friend and heartily express +his appreciation. + +"'We know that we are in a bad way, but we know not how to get out of +it,' he said. + +"The Princess, who sat near us at table, asked the Doctor for +information about the American woman. + +"'"She riseth while it is yet night and giveth meat to her household, +and a portion to her maidens,"' he quoted. 'She is apt to be more +industrious than her husband. She works all day and often a part of +the night. She is weaver, knitter, spinner, tailor, cook, washerwoman, +teacher, doctor, nurse. While she is awake her hands are never idle, +and their most important work is that of slowly building up the manhood +of America. Ours is to be largely a mother-made land.' + +"'_Mon Dieu_! I should think she would be cross with so much to do,' +said the Princess. + +"'Often she is a little cross,' Franklin answered. 'My friend, James +Otis of Massachusetts, complained of the fish one day at dinner when +there was company at the table. Mrs. Otis frankly expressed her +opinion of his bad manners. He was temperamental and himself a bit +overworked. He made no answer, but in the grace which followed the +meal he said: + +"'"O Lord, we thank Thee that we have been able to finish this dinner +without getting slapped." + +"'But I would ask Your Highness to believe that our men are mostly +easier to get along with. They do not often complain of the food. +They are more likely to praise it.' + +"On our way back to Paris the Doctor said to me: + +"'The great error of Europe is entailment--entailed estates, entailed +pride, entailed luxury, entailed conceit. A boy who inherits honor +will rarely honor himself. I like the method of China, where honor +ascends, but does not descend. It goes back to his parents who taught +him his virtues. It can do no harm to his parents, but it can easily +ruin him and his children. I regard humility as one of the greatest +virtues.'" + + + +2 + +"That evening our near neighbors, Le Compte de Chaumont and M. +LeVilleard, came to announce that a dinner and ball in honor of +Franklin would occur at the palace of Compte de Chaumont less than a +week later. + +"'My good friends,' said the philosopher, 'I value these honors which +are so graciously offered me, but I am old and have much work to do. I +need rest more than I need the honors.' + +"'It is one of the penalties of being a great savant that people wish +to see and know him,' said the Count. 'The most distinguished people +in France will be among those who do you honor. I think, if you can +recall a talk we had some weeks ago, you will wish to be present.' + +"'Oh, then, you have heard from the Hornet.' + +"'I have a letter here which you may read at your convenience.' + +"'My dear friend, be pleased to receive my apologies and my hearty +thanks,' said Franklin. 'Not even the gout could keep me away.' + +"Next day I received a formal invitation to the dinner and ball. I +told the Doctor that in view of the work to be done, I would decline +the invitation. He begged me not to do it and insisted that he was +counting upon me to represent the valor and chivalry of the New World; +that as I had grown into the exact stature of Washington and was so +familiar with his manners and able to imitate them in conversation, he +wished me to assume the costume of our Commander-in-Chief. He did me +the honor to say: + +"'There is no other man whom it would be safe to trust in such an +exalted role. I wish, as a favor to me, you would see what can be done +at the costumer's and let me have a look at you.' + +"I did as he wished. The result was an astonishing likeness. I +dressed as I had seen the great man in the field. I wore a wig +slightly tinged with gray, a blue coat, buff waistcoat and sash and +sword and the top boots and spurs. When I strode across the room in +the masterly fashion of our great Commander, the Doctor clapped his +hands. + +"'You are as like him as one pea is like another!' he exclaimed. +'Nothing would so please our good friends, the French, who have an +immense curiosity regarding _Le Grand Vasanton_, and it will give me an +opportunity to instruct them as to our spirit.' + +"He went to his desk and took from a drawer a cross of jeweled gold on +a long necklace of silver--a gift from the King--and put it over my +head so that the cross shone upon my breast. + +"'That is for the faith of our people,' he declared. 'The guests will +assemble on the grounds of the Count late in the afternoon. You will +ride among them on a white horse. A beautiful maiden in a white robe +held at the waist with a golden girdle will receive you. She will be +Human Liberty. You will dismount and kneel and kiss her hand. Then +the Prime Minister of France will give to each a blessing and to you a +sword and a purse. You will hold them up and say: + +"'"For these things I promise you the friendship of my people and their +prosperity." + +"'You will kiss the sword and hang it beside your own and pass the +purse to me and then I shall have something to say.' + +"So it was all done, but with thrilling details, of which no suspicion +had come to me. I had not dreamed, for instance, that the King and +Queen would be present and that the enthusiasm would be so great. You +will be able to judge of my surprise when, riding my white horse +through the cheering crowd, throwing flowers in my way, I came suddenly +upon Margaret Hare in the white robe of Human Liberty. Now facing me +after these years of trial, her spirit was equal to her part. She was +like unto the angel I had seen in my dreams. The noble look of her +face thrilled me. It was not so easy to maintain the calm dignity of +Washington in that moment. I wanted to lift her in my arms and hold +her there, as you may well believe, but, alas, I was Washington! I +dismounted and fell upon one knee before her and kissed her hand not +too fervently, I would have you know, in spite of my temptation. She +stood erect, although tears were streaming down her cheeks and her dear +hand trembled when it rested on my brow and she could only whisper the +words: + +"'May the God of your fathers aid and keep you.' + +"The undercurrent of restrained emotion in this little scene went out +to that crowd, which represented the wealth, beauty and chivalry of +France. I suppose that some of them thought it a bit of good acting. +These people love the drama as no others love it. I suspect that many +of the friends of Franklin knew that she who was Liberty was indeed my +long lost love. A deep silence fell upon them and then arose a wild +shout of approval that seemed to come out of the very heart of France +and to be warm with its noble ardor. Every one in this beautiful +land--even the King and Queen and their kin--are thinking of Liberty +and have begun to long for her blessing. That, perhaps, is why the +scene had so impressed them. + +"But we were to find in this little drama a climax wholly unexpected by +either of us and of an importance to our country which I try in vain to +estimate. When the Prime Minister handed the purse to Franklin he bade +him open it. This the latter did, finding therein letters of credit +for the three million livres granted, of which we were in sore need. +With it was the news that a ship would be leaving Boulogne in the +morning and that relays on the way had been provided for his messenger. +The invention of our beloved diplomat was equal to the demand of the +moment and so he announced: + +"'Washington is like his people. He turns from all the loves of this +world to obey the call of duty. My young friend who has so well +presented the look and manner of Washington will now show you his +spirit.' + +"He looked at his watch and added: + +"'Within forty minutes he will be riding post to Boulogne, there to +take ship for America.' + +"So here I am on the ship _L'Etoile_ and almost in sight of Boston +harbor, bringing help and comfort to our great Chief. + +"I was presented to the King and Queen. Of him I have written--a +stout, fat-faced man, highly colored, with a sloping forehead and large +gray eyes. His coat shone with gold embroidery and jeweled stars. His +close-fitting waistcoat of milk white satin had golden buttons and a +curve which was not the only sign he bore of rich wine and good capon. +The queen was a beautiful, dark-haired lady of some forty years, with a +noble and gracious countenance. She was clad in no vesture of gold, +but in sober black velvet. Her curls fell upon the loose ruff of lace +around her neck. There were no jewels on or about her bare, white +bosom. Her smile and gentle voice, when she gave me her bon-voyage and +best wishes for the cause so dear to us, are jewels I shall not soon +forget. + +"Yes, I had a little talk with Margaret and her mother, who walked with +me to Franklin's house. There, in his reception room, I took a good +look at the dear girl, now more beautiful than ever, and held her to my +heart a moment. + +"'I see you and then I have to go,' I said. + +"'It is the fault of my too romantic soul,' she answered mournfully. +'For two days we have been in hiding here. I wanted to surprise you.' + +"And this protest came involuntarily from my lips: + +"'Here now is the happiness for which I have longed, and yet forthwith +I must leave it. What a mystery is the spirit of man!' + +"'When it is linked to the spirit of God it ceases to understand +itself,' she answered. 'Oh, that I had the will for sacrifice which is +in you!' + +"She lifted the jeweled cross I wore to her lips and kissed it. I wish +that I could tell you how beautiful she looked then. She is twenty-six +years old and her womanhood is beginning. + +"'Now you may go,' she said. 'My heart goes with you, but I fear that +we shall not meet again.' + +"'Why ?' was my question. + +"'I am utterly discouraged.' + +"'You can not expect her to wait for you any longer. It is not fair,' +said her mother. + +"'Margaret, I do not ask you to wait,' I said. 'I am not quite a human +being. I seem to have no time for that. I am of the army of God. I +shall not expect you to wait.' + +"So it befell that the stern, strong hand of a soldier's duty drew me +from her presence almost as soon as we had met I kissed her and left +her weeping, for there was need of haste. Soon I was galloping out of +Passy on my way to the land I love. I try not to think of her, but how +can I put out of mind the pathos of that moment? Whenever I close my +eyes I see her beautiful figure sitting with bowed head in the +twilight." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +IN WHICH APPEARS THE HORSE OF DESTINY AND THE JUDAS OF WASHINGTON'S ARMY + +In Boston harbor, Jack learned of the evacuation of Philadelphia by the +British and was transferred to a Yankee ship putting out to sea on its +way to that city. There he found the romantic Arnold, crippled by his +wounds, living in the fine mansion erected by William Penn. He had +married a young daughter of one of the rich Tory families, for his +second wife, and was in command of the city. Colonel Irons, having +delivered the letters to the Treasurer of the United States, reported +at Arnold's office. It was near midday and the General had not +arrived. The young man sat down to wait and soon the great soldier +drove up with his splendid coach and pair. His young wife sat beside +him. He had little time for talk. He was on his way to breakfast. +Jack presented his compliments and the good tidings which he had +brought from the Old Country. Arnold listened as if he were hearing +the price of codfish and hams. + +The young man was shocked by the coolness of the Commandant. The +former felt as if a pail of icy water had been thrown upon him, when +Arnold answered: + +"Now that they have money I hope that they will pay their debt to me." + +This kind of talk Jack had not heard before. He resented it but +answered calmly: "A war and an army is a great extravagance for a young +nation that has not yet learned the imperial art of gathering taxes. +Many of us are going unpaid but if we get liberty it will be worth all +it costs." + +"That sounds well but there are some of us who are also in need of +justice," Arnold answered as he turned away. + +"General, you who have not been dismayed by force will never, I am +sure, surrender to discouragement," said Jack. + +The fiery Arnold turned suddenly and lifting his cane in a threatening +manner said in a loud voice: + +"Would you reprimand me--you damned upstart?" + +"General, you may strike me, if you will, but I can not help saying +that we young men must look to you older ones for a good example." + +Very calmly and politely the young man spoke these words. He towered +above the man Arnold in spirit and stature. The latter did not commit +the folly of striking him but with a look of scorn ordered him to leave +the office. + +Jack obeyed the order and went at once to call upon his old friend, +Governor Reed. He told the Governor of his falling out with the +Major-General. + +"Arnold is a sordid, selfish man and a source of great danger to our +cause," said the Governor. "He is vain and loves display and is living +far beyond his means. To maintain his extravagance he has resorted to +privateering and speculation, and none of it has been successful. He +is deeply involved in debt. It is charged that he has used his +military authority for private gain. He was tried by a court-martial +but escaped with only a reprimand from the Commander-in-Chief. He is +thick with the Tories. He is the type of man who would sell his master +for thirty pieces of silver." + +"This is alarming," said Jack. + +"My boy an ill wind is blowing on us," the Governor went on. "We have +all too many Arnolds in our midst. Our currency has depreciated until +forty shillings will not buy what one would have bought before the war. +The profit makers are rolling in luxury and the poor army starves. The +honest and patriotic are impoverished while those who practise fraud +and Toryism are getting rich." + +Depressed by this report of conditions in America Jack set out for +Washington's headquarters on the Hudson. Never had the posture of +American affairs looked so hopeless. The Governor had sold him a young +mare with a white star in her forehead and a short, white stocking on +her left fore-leg, known in good time as the horse of destiny. + +"She was a well turned, high spirited creature with good plumes, a +noble eye and a beautiful head and neck," Jack wrote long after the day +he parted with her. "I have never ridden a more distinguished animal. +She was in every way worthy of the task ahead of her." + +When he had crossed the King's Ferry the mare went lame. A little +beyond the crossing he met a man on a big, roan gelding. Jack stopped +him to get information about the roads in the north. + +"That's a good-looking mare," the man remarked. + +"And she is better than she looks," Jack answered. "But she has thrown +a shoe and gone lame." + +"I'll trade even and give you a sound horse," the man proposed. + +"What is your name and where do you live?" Jack inquired. + +"My name is Paulding and I live at Tarrytown in the neutral territory." + +"I hope that you like horses." + +"You can judge of that by the look of this one. You will observe that +he is well fed and groomed." + +"And your own look is that of a good master," said Jack, as he examined +the teeth and legs of the gelding. "Pardon me for asking. I have +grown fond of the mare. She must have a good master." + +"I accepted his offer not knowing that a third party was looking on and +laying a deeper plan than either of us were able to penetrate," Jack +used to say of that deal. + +He approached the little house in which the Commander-in-Chief was +quartered with a feeling of dread, fearing the effect of late +developments on his spirit. + +The young man wrote to Margaret in care of Franklin this account of the +day which followed his return to camp: + +"Thank God! I saw on the face of our Commander the same old look of +unshaken confidence. I knew that he could see his way and what a sense +of comfort came of that knowledge! More than we can tell we are +indebted to the calm and masterful face of Washington. It holds up the +heart of the army in all discouragements. His faith is established. +He is not afraid of evil tidings. This great, god-like personality of +his has put me on my feet again. I was in need of it, for a different +kind of man, of the name of Arnold, had nearly floored me." + +"'Sit down here and tell me all about Franklin,' he said with a smile. + +"I told him what was going on in Paris and especially of the work of +our great minister to the court of Louis XVI. + +"He heard me with deep interest and when I had finished arose and gave +me his hand saying: + +"'Colonel, again you have won my gratitude. We must keep our courage.' + +"I told him of my unhappy meeting with Arnold. + +"'The man has his faults--he is very human, but he has been a good +soldier,' Washington answered. + +"The thought came to me that the love of liberty had lifted many of us +above the human plane of sordid striving. + +"Solomon came into camp that evening. He was so glad to see me that he +could only wring my hand and utter exclamations. + +"'How is the gal?' he asked presently. + +"I told him of our meeting in Passy and of my fear that we should not +meet again. + +"'It seems as if the Lord were not yet willing to let us marry,' I said. + +"'Course not,' he answered. 'When yer boat is in the rapids it's no +time fer to go ashore an' pick apples. I cocalate the Lord is usin' ye +fer to show the Ol' World what's inside o' us Americans.' + +"Margaret, I wonder if the Lord really wished to show you and others +the passion which is in the heart of Washington and his army. On the +way to my ship I was like one making bloody footprints in the snow. +How many of them I have seen! And now is the time to tell you that +Doctor Franklin has written a letter informing me how deeply our part +in the little pageant had impressed Mr. Hartley and the court people of +France and that he had secured another loan. + +"Solomon is a man of faith. He never falters. + +"He said to me: 'Don't worry. That gal has got a backbone. She ain't +no rye straw. She's a-goin' to think it over.' + +"Neither spoke for a time. We sat by an open fire in front of his tent +as the night fell. Solomon was filling his pipe. He swallowed and his +right eye began to take aim. I knew that some highly important theme +would presently open the door of his intellect and come out. + +"'Jack, I been over to Albany,' he said. 'Had a long visit with +Mirandy. They ain't no likelier womern in Ameriky. I'll bet a pint o' +powder an' a fish hook on that. Ye kin look fer 'em till yer eyes run +but ye'll be obleeged to give up.' + +"He lighted his pipe and smoked a few whiffs and added: 'Knit seventy +pair o' socks fer my regiment this fall.' + +"'Have you asked her to marry you?' I inquired. + +"'No. 'Tain't likely she'd have me,' he answered. 'She's had troubles +enough. I wouldn't ask no womern to marry me till the war is fit out. +I'm liable to git all shot up any day. I did think I'd ask her but I +didn't. Got kind o' skeered an' skittish when we sot down together, +an' come to think it all over, 'twouldn't 'a' been right.' + +"'You're wrong, Solomon,' I answered. 'You ought to have a home of +your own and a wife to make you fond of it. How is the Little Cricket?' + +"'Cunnin'est little shaver that ever lived,' said he. 'I got him a +teeny waggin an' drawed him down to the big medder an' back. He had a +string hitched on to my waist an' he pulled an' hauled an' hollered +whoa an' git ap till he were erbout as hoarse as a bull frog. When we +got back he wanted to go all over me with a curry comb an' braid my +mane.' + +"The old scout roared with laughter as he thought of the child's play +in which he had had a part. He told me of my own people and next to +their good health it pleased me to learn that my father had given all +his horses--save two--to Washington. That is what all our good men are +doing. So you will see how it is that we are able to go on with this +war against the great British empire. + +"That night the idea came to me that I would seek an opportunity to +return to France in the hope of finding you in Paris. I applied for a +short furlough to give me a chance to go home and see the family. +There I found a singular and disheartening situation. My father's +modest fortune is now a part of the ruin of war. Soon after the +beginning of hostilities he had loaned his money to men who had gone +into the business of furnishing supplies to the army. He had loaned +them dollars worth a hundred cents. They are paying their debts to him +in dollars worth less than five cents. Many, and Washington among +them, have suffered in a like manner. My father has little left but +his land, two horses, a yoke of oxen and a pair of slaves. So I am too +poor to give you a home in any degree worthy of you. + +"Dear old Solomon has proposed to make me his heir, but now that he has +met the likely womern I must not depend upon him. So I have tried to +make you know the truth about me as well as I do. If your heart is +equal to the discouragement I have heaped upon it I offer you this poor +comfort. When the war is over I can borrow a thousand pounds to keep a +roof over our heads and a fowl in the pot and pudding in the twifflers +while I am clearing the way to success. The prospect is not inviting, +I fear, but if, happily, it should appeal to you, I suggest that you +join your father in New York at the first opportunity so that we may +begin our life together as soon as the war ends. And now, whatever +comes, I would wish you to keep these thoughts of me: I have loved you, +but there are things which I have valued above my own happiness. If I +can not have you I shall have always the memory of the hours we have +spent together and of the great hope that was mine. + +"While I was at home the people of our neighborhood set out at daylight +one morning for a pigeon party. We had our breakfast on an island. +Then the ladies sat down to knit and sew, while the men went fishing. +In the afternoon we gathered berries and returned at dusk with filled +pails and many fish. So our people go to the great storehouse of +Nature and help themselves." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +WHICH CONTAINS THE ADVENTURES OF SOLOMON IN THE TIMBER SACK AND ON THE +"HAND-MADE RIVER" + +In the spring of 1779, there were scarcely sixteen thousand men in the +American army, of which three thousand were under Gates at Providence; +five thousand in the Highlands under McDougall, who was building new +defenses at West Point, and on the east shore of the Hudson under +Putnam; seven thousand were with Washington at Middlebrook where he had +spent a quiet winter; a few were in the south. The British, +discouraged in their efforts to conquer the northern and middle +colonies, sent a force of seven thousand men to take Georgia and South +Carolina. They hoped that Washington, who could not be induced to risk +his army in decisive action against superior numbers, would thus be +compelled to scatter and weaken it. But the Commander-in-Chief, +knowing how seriously Nature, his great ally, was gnawing at the vitals +of the British, bided his time and kept his tried regiments around him. +Now and then, a staggering blow filled his enemies with a wholesome +fear of him. His sallies were as swift and unexpected as the rush of a +panther with the way of retreat always open. Meanwhile a cry of +affliction and alarm had arisen in England. Its manufacturers were on +the verge of bankruptcy, its people out of patience. + +As soon as the ice was out of the lakes and rivers, Jack and Solomon +joined an expedition under Sullivan against the Six Nations, who had +been wreaking bloody vengeance on the frontiers of Pennsylvania and New +York. The Senecas had been the worst offenders, having spilled the +blood of every white family in their reach. Sullivan's expedition +ascended the Chemung branch of the Susquehanna and routed a great force +of Indians under Brant and Johnson at Newtown and crossed to the Valley +of the Genessee, destroying orchards, crops and villages. The red men +were slain and scattered. The fertile valley was turned into a +flaming, smoking hell. Simultaneously a force went up the Alleghany +and swept its shores with the besom of destruction. + +Remembrance of the bold and growing iniquities of the savage was like a +fire in the heart of the white man. His blood boiled with anger. He +was without mercy. Like every reaping of the whirlwind this one had +been far more plentiful than the seed from which it sprang. Those +April days the power of the Indian was forever broken and his cup +filled with bitterness. Solomon had spoken the truth when he left the +Council Fire in the land of Kiodote: + +"Hereafter the Injun will be a brother to the snake." + +Jack and Solomon put their lives in danger by entering the last village +ahead of the army and warning its people to flee. The killing had made +them heart-sick, although they had ample reason for hating the red men. + +In the absence of these able helpers Washington had moved to the +Highlands. This led the British General, Sir Henry Clinton, to decide +to block his return. So he sent a large force up the river and +captured the fort at Stony Point and King's Ferry connecting the great +road from the east with the middle states. The fort and ferry had to +be retaken, and, early in July, Jack and Solomon were sent to look the +ground over. + +In the second day of their reconnoitering above Stony Point they came +suddenly upon a British outpost. They were discovered and pursued but +succeeded in eluding the enemy. Soon a large party began beating the +bush with hounds. Jack escaped by hiding behind a waterfall. Solomon +had a most remarkable adventure in making his way northward. Hearing +the dogs behind him he ran to the shore of a bay, where a big drive of +logs had been boomed in, and ran over them a good distance and dropped +out of sight. He lay between two big sections of a great pine with his +nose above water for an hour or so. A band of British came down to the +shore and tried to run the logs but, being unaccustomed to that kind of +work, were soon rolled under and floundering to their necks. + +"I hadn't na skeer o' their findin' me," Solomon said to Jack. "'Cause +they was a hundred acres o' floatin' timber in that 'ere bay. I heard +'em slippin' an' sloshin' eround nigh shore a few minutes an' then they +give up an' went back in the bush. They were a strip o' open water +'twixt the logs an' the shore an' I clumb on to the timber twenty rod +er more from whar I waded in so's to fool the dogs." + +"What did you do with your rifle an' powder?" Jack inquired. + +"Wal, ye see, they wuz some leetle logs beyond me that made a kind o' a +holler an' I jest put ol' Marier 'crost 'em an' wound the string o' my +powder-horn on her bar'l. I lay thar a while an' purty soon I heard a +feller comin' on the timber. He were clus up to me when he hit a log +wrong an' it rolled him under. I dim' up an' grabbed my rifle an' thar +were 'nother cuss out on the logs not more'n ten rod erway. He took a +shot at me, but the bullet didn't come nigh 'nough so's I could hear it +whisper he were bobbin' eround so. I lifted my gun an' says I: + +"'Boy, you come here to me.' + +"But he thought he'd ruther go somewhar else an' he did--poor, ignorant +devil! I went to t' other feller that was rasslin' with a log tryin' +to git it under him. He'd flop the log an' then it would flop him. +He'd throwed his rifle 'crost the timber. I goes over an' picks it up +an' says I: + +"'Take it easy, my son. I'll help ye in a minute.' + +"His answer wa'n't none too p'lite. He were a leetle runt of a +sergeant. I jest laughed at him an' went to t' other feller an' took +the papers out o' his pockets. I see then a number o' British boys was +makin' fer me on the wobbly top o' the river. They'd see me goin' as +easy as a hoss on a turnpike an' they was tryin' fer to git the knack +o' it. In a minute they begun poppin' at me. But shootin' on logs is +like tryin' to walk a line on a wet deck in a hurricane. Ye got to +know how to offset the wobble. They didn't skeer me. I went an' +hauled that runt out o' the water an' with him under my right arm an' +the two rifles under the left un I started treadin' logs headin' fer +the north shore. They quit shootin' but come on a'ter me pell-mell. +They got to comin' too fast an' I heard 'em goin' down through the roof +o' the bay behind me an' rasslin' with the logs. That put meat on my +bones! I could 'a' gone back an' made a mess o' the hull party with +the toe o' my boot but I ain't overly fond o' killin'. Never have +been. I took my time an' slopped erlong toward shore with the runt +under my arm cussin' like a wildcat. We got ashore an' I made the +leetle sergeant empty his pockets an' give me all the papers he had. I +took the strip o' rawhide from round my belt an' put a noose above his +knees an' 'nother on my wrist an' sot down to wait fer dark which the +sun were then below the tree-tops. I looked with my spy-glass 'crost +the bay an' could see the heads bobbin' up an' down an' a dozen men +comin' out with poles to help the log rasslers. Fer some time they had +'nough to do an' I wouldn't be supprised. If we had the hull British +army on floatin' timber the logs would lick 'em in a few minutes." + +Solomon came in with his prisoner and accurate information as to the +force of British in the Highlands. + +On the night of the fifteenth of July, a detachment of Washington's +troops under Wayne, preceded by the two scouts, descended upon Stony +Point and King's Ferry and routed the enemy, capturing five hundred and +fifty men and killing sixty. Within a few days the British came up the +river in great force and Washington, unwilling to risk a battle, +quietly withdrew and let them have the fort and ferry and their labor +for their pains. It was a bitter disappointment to Sir Henry Clinton. +The whole British empire clamored for decisive action and their great +Commander was unable to bring it about and meanwhile the French were +preparing to send a heavy force against them. + + + +2 + +Solomon, being the ablest bush scout in the American army, was needed +for every great enterprise in the wilderness. So when a small force +was sent up the Penobscot River to dislodge a regiment of British from +Nova Scotia, in the late summer of 1779, he went with it. The fleet +which conveyed the Americans was in command of a rugged old sea captain +from Connecticut of the name of Saltonstall who had little knowledge of +the arts of war. He neglected the precautions which a careful +commander would have taken. + +A force larger than his own should have guarded the mouth of the river. +Of this Solomon gave him warning, but Captain Saltonstall did not share +the apprehension of the great scout. In consequence they were pursued +and overhauled far up the river by a British fleet. Saltonstall in a +panic ran his boats ashore and blew them up with powder. Again a force +of Americans was compelled to suffer the bitter penalty of ignorance. +The soldiers and crews ran wild in the bush a hundred miles from any +settlement. It was not possible to organize them. They fled in all +directions. Solomon had taken with him a bark canoe. This he carried, +heading eastward and followed by a large company, poorly provisioned. +A number of the ships' boats which had been lowered--and moved, before +the destruction began, were carried on the advice of Solomon. +Fortunately this party was not pursued. Nearly every man in it had his +gun and ammunition. The scout had picked up a goodly outfit of axes +and shovels and put them in the boats. He organized his retreat with +sentries, rear guard, signals and a plan of defense. The carriers were +shifted every hour. After two days of hard travel through the deep +woods they came to a lake more than two miles long and about half as +wide. Their provisions were gone save a few biscuit and a sack of +salt. There were sixty-four men in the party. + +Solomon organized a drive. A great loop of weary men was flung around +the end of the lake more than a mile from its shore. Then they began +approaching the camp, barking like dogs as they advanced. In this +manner three deer and a moose were driven to the water and slain. +These relieved the pangs of hunger and insured the party, for some +little time, against starvation. They were, however, a long way from +help in an unknown wilderness with a prospect of deadly hardships. +Solomon knew that the streams in this territory ran toward the sea and +for that reason he had burdened the party with boats and tools. + +The able scout explored a long stretch of the lake's outlet which +flowed toward the south. It had a considerable channel but not enough +water for boats or canoes even. That night he began cutting timber for +a dam at the end of the lake above its outlet. Near sundown, next day, +the dam was finished and the water began rising. A rain hurried the +process. Two days later the big water plane had begun to spill into +its outlet and flood the near meadow flats. The party got the boats in +place some twenty rods below and ready to be launched. Solomon drove +the plug out of his dam and the pent-up water began to pour through. +The stream was soon flooded and the boats floating. Thus with a +spirited water horse to carry them they began their journey to the sea. +Men stood in the bow and stern of each boat with poles to push it along +and keep it off the banks. Some ten miles below they swung into a +large river and went on, more swiftly, with the aid of oars and paddles. + +Thus Solomon became the hero of this ill-fated expedition. After that +he was often referred to in the army as the River Maker, although the +ingenious man was better known as the Lightning Hurler, that phrase +having been coined in Jack's account of his adventures with Solomon in +the great north bush. In the ranks he had been regarded with a kind of +awe as a most redoubtable man of mysterious and uncanny gifts since he +and Jack had arrived in the Highlands fresh from their adventure of +"shifting the skeer"--as Solomon was wont to put it--whereupon, with no +great delay, the rash Colonel Burley had his Binkussing. The scout was +often urged to make a display of his terrible weapon but he held his +tongue about it, nor would he play with the lightning or be induced to +hurl it upon white men. + +"That's only fer to save a man from bein' burnt alive an' et up," he +used to say. + +At the White Pine Mills near the sea they were taken aboard a lumber +ship bound for Boston. Solomon returned with a great and growing +influence among the common soldiers. He had spent a week in Newport +and many of his comrades had reached the camp of Washington in advance +of the scout's arrival. + +When Solomon--a worn and ragged veteran--gained the foot of the +Highlands, late in October, he learned to his joy that Stony Point and +King's Ferry had been abandoned by the British. He found Jack at Stony +Point and told him the story of his wasted months. Then Jack gave his +friend the news of the war. + +D'Estaing with a French fleet had arrived early in the month. This had +led to the evacuation of Newport and Stony Point to strengthen the +British position in New York. But South Carolina had been conquered by +the British. It took seven hundred dollars to buy a pair of shoes with +the money of that state, so that great difficulties had fallen in the +way of arming and equipping a capable fighting force. + +"I do not talk of it to others, but the troubles of our beloved +Washington are appalling," Jack went on. "The devil loves to work with +the righteous, waiting his time. He had his envoy even among the +disciples of Jesus. He is among us in the person of Benedict +Arnold--lover of gold. The new recruits are mostly of his stripe. He +is their Captain. They demand big bounties. The faithful old guard, +who have fought for the love of liberty and are still waiting for their +pay, see their new comrades taking high rewards. It isn't fair. +Naturally the old boys hate the newcomers. They feel like putting a +coat of tar and feathers on every one of them. You and I have got to +go to work and put the gold seekers out of the temple. They need to +hear some of your plain talk. Our greatest peril is Arnoldism." + +"You jest wait an' hear to me," said Solomon. "I got suthin' to say +that'll make their ears bleed passin' through 'em." + +The evening of his arrival in camp Solomon talked at the general +assembly of the troops. He was introduced with most felicitous good +humor by Washington's able secretary, Mr. Alexander Hamilton. The +ingenious and rare accomplishments of the scout and his heroic loyalty +were rubbed with the rhetoric of an able talker until they shone. + +"Boys, ye kint make no hero out o' an old scrag o' a man like me," +Solomon began. "You may b'lieve what Mr. Hamilton says but I know +better. I been chased by Death an' grabbed by the coat-tails frequent, +but I been lucky enough to pull away. That's all. You new recruits +'a' been told how great ye be. I'm a-goin' fer to tell ye the truth. +I don't like the way ye look at this job. It ain't no job o' workin' +out. We're all workin' fer ourselves. It's my fight an' it's yer +fight. I won't let no king put a halter on my head an', with the stale +in one hand an' a whip in t' other, lead me up to the tax collector to +pay fer his fun. I'd ruther fight him. Some o' you has fam'lies. +Don't worry 'bout 'em. They'll be took care of. I got some confidence +in the Lord myself. Couldn't 'a' lived without it. Look a' me. I'm +so ragged that I got patches o' sunburn on my back an' belly. I'm what +ye might call a speckled man. My feet 'a' been bled. My body looks +like an ol' tree that has been clawed by a bear an' bit by woodpeckers. +I've stuck my poker into the fire o' hell. I've been singed an' frost +bit an' half starved an' ripped by bullets, an' all the pay I want is +liberty an' it ain't due yit. I've done so little I'm 'shamed o' +myself. Money! Lord God o' Israel! If any man has come here fer to +make money let him stan' up while we all pray fer his soul. These 'ere +United States is your hum an' my hum an' erway down the trail afore us +they's millions 'pon millions o' folks comin' an' we want 'em to be +free. We're a-fightin' fer 'em an' fer ourselves. If ye don't fight +ye'll git nothin' but taxes to pay the cost o' lickin' ye. It'll cost +a hundred times more to be licked than it'll cost to win. Ye won't +find any o' the ol' boys o' Washington squealin' erbout pay. We're +lookin' fer brothers an' not pigs. Git down on yer knees with me, +every one o' ye, while the Chaplain asks God A'mighty to take us all +into His army." + +The words of Solomon put the new men in better spirit and there was +little complaining after that. They called that speech "The Binkussing +of the Recruits." Solomon was the soul of the old guard. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +IN WHICH ARNOLD AND HENRY THORNHILL ARRIVE IN THE HIGHLANDS + +Margaret and her mother returned to England with David Hartley soon +after Colonel Irons had left France. The British Commissioner had not +been able to move the philosopher. Later, from London, he had sent a +letter to Franklin seeking to induce America to desert her new ally. +Franklin had answered: + +"I would think the destruction of our whole country and the extirpation +of our people preferable to the infamy of abandoning our allies. We +may lose all but we shall act in good faith." + +Here again was a new note in the history of diplomatic intercourse. + +Colonel Irons' letter to Margaret Hare, with the greater part of which +the reader is familiar, was forwarded by Franklin to his friend +Jonathan Shipley, Bishop of St. Asaph, and by him delivered. Another +letter, no less vital to the full completion of the task of these pages +was found in the faded packet. It is from General Sir Benjamin Hare to +his wife in London and is dated at New York, January 10, 1780. This is +a part of the letter: + +"I have a small house near the barracks with our friend Colonel Ware +and the best of negro slaves and every comfort. It is now a loyal +city, secure from attack, and, but for the soldiers, one might think it +a provincial English town. This war may last for years and as the sea +is, for a time, quite safe, I have resolved to ask you and Margaret to +take passage on one of the first troop ships sailing for New York, +after this reaches you. Our friend Sir Roger and his regiments will be +sailing in March as I am apprised by a recent letter. I am, by this +post, requesting him to offer you suitable accommodations and to give +you all possible assistance. The war would be over now if Washington +would only fight. His caution is maddening. His army is in a +desperate plight, but he will not come out and meet us in the open. He +continues to lean upon the strength of the hills. But there are +indications that he will be abandoned by his own army." + +Those "indications" were the letters of one John Anderson, who +described himself as a prominent officer in the American army. The +letters were written to Sir Henry Clinton. They asked for a command in +the British army and hinted at the advantage to be derived from facts, +of prime importance, in the writer's possession. + +Margaret and her mother sailed with Sir Roger Waite and his regiments +on the tenth of March and arrived in New York on the twenty-sixth of +April. _Rivington's Gazette_ of the twenty-eighth of that month +describes an elaborate dinner given by Major John Andre, +Adjutant-General of the British Army, at the City Hotel to General Sir +Benjamin Hare and Lady Hare and their daughter Margaret. Indeed the +conditions in New York differed from those in the camp of Washington as +the day differs from the night. + +A Committee of Congress had just finished a visit to Washington's +Highland camp. They reported that the army had received no pay in five +months; that it often went "sundry successive days without meat"; that +it had scarcely six days' provisions ahead; that no forage was +available; that the medical department had neither sugar, tea, +chocolate, wine nor spirits. + +The month of May, 1780, gave Washington about the worst pinch in his +career. It was the pinch of hunger. Supplies had not arrived. Famine +had entered the camp and begun to threaten its life. Soldiers can get +along without pay but they must have food. Mutiny broke out among the +recruits. + +In the midst of this trouble, Lafayette, the handsome French Marquis, +then twenty-three years old, arrived on his white horse, after a winter +in Paris, bringing word that a fleet and army from France were heading +across the sea. This news revived the drooping spirit of the army. +Soon boats began to arrive from down the river with food from the east. +The crisis passed. In the north a quiet summer followed. The French +fleet with six thousand men under Rochambeau arrived at Newport, July +tenth, and were immediately blockaded by the British as was a like +expedition fitting out at Brest. So Washington could only hold to his +plan of prudent waiting. + + + +2 + +On a clear, warm day, late in July, 1780, a handsome coach drawn by +four horses crossed King's Ferry and toiled up the Highland road. It +carried Benedict Arnold and his wife and their baggage. Jack and +Solomon passed and recognized them. + +"What does that mean, I wonder?" Jack queried. + +"Dun know," Solomon answered. + +"I'm scared about it," said the younger scout. "I am afraid that this +money seeker has the confidence of Washington. He has been a good +fighting man. That goes a long way with the Chief." + +Colonel Irons stopped his horse. "I am of half a mind to go back," he +declared. + +"Why?" + +"I didn't tell the General half that Reed said to me. It was so bitter +and yet I believe it was true. I ought to have told him. Perhaps I +ought now to go and tell him." + +"There's time 'nough," said Solomon. "Wait till we git back. +Sometimes I've thought the Chief needed advice but it's allus turned +out that I was the one that needed it." + +The two horsemen rode on in silence. It was the middle of the +afternoon of that memorable July day. They were bound for the neutral +territory between the American and British lines, infested by "cow +boys" from the south and "skinners" from the north who were raiding the +farms of the settlers and driving away their cattle to be sold to the +opposing armies. The two scouts were sent to learn the facts and +report upon them. They parted at a cross-road. It was near sundown +when at a beautiful brook, bordered with spearmint and wild iris, Jack +watered and fed his horse and sat down to eat his luncheon. He was +thinking of Arnold and the new danger when he discovered that a man +stood near him. The young scout had failed to hear his approach--a +circumstance in no way remarkable since the road was little traveled +and covered with moss and creeping herbage. He thought not of this, +however, but only of the face and form and manner of the stranger. The +face was that of a man of middle age. The young man wrote in a letter: + +"It was a singularly handsome face, smooth shaven and well shaped with +large, dark eyes and a skin very clean and perfect--I had almost said +it was transparent. Add to all this a look of friendliness and +masterful dignity and you will understand why I rose to my feet and +took off my hat. His stature was above my own, his form erect. I +remember nothing about his clothes save that they were dark in color +and seemed to be new and admirably fitted. + +"'You are John Irons, Jr., and I am Henry Thornhill,' said he. 'I saw +you at Kinderhook where I used to live. I liked you then and, since +the war began, I have known of your adventures.' + +"'I did not flatter myself that any one could know of them except my +family, and my fellow scout and General Washington,' I answered. + +"'Well, I happen to have had the chance to know of them,' he went on. +'You are a true friend of the great cause. I saw you passing a little +way back and I followed for I have something to say to you.' + +"'I shall be glad to hear of it,' was my answer. + +"'Washington can not be overcome by his enemies unless he is betrayed +by his friends. Arnold has been put in command at West Point. He has +planned the betrayal of the army.' + +"'Do you know that?' I asked. + +"'As well as I know light and darkness.' + +"'Have you told Washington?' + +"'No. As yet I have had no opportunity. I am telling him, now, +through you. In his friendships he is a singularly stubborn man. The +wiles of an enemy are as an open book to him but those of a friend he +is not able to comprehend. He will discredit or only half believe any +warning that you or I may give him. But it is for you and Solomon to +warn him and be not deceived.' + +"'I shall turn about and ride back to camp,' I said. + +"'There is no need of haste,' he answered. 'Arnold does not assume +command until the third of August.' + +"He shaded his eyes and looked toward the west where the sun was +setting and the low lying clouds were like rose colored islands in a +golden sea, and added as he hurried away down the road to the south: + +"'It is a beautiful world.' + +"'Too good for fighting men,' I answered as I sat down to finish my +luncheon for I was still hungry. + +"While I ate, the tormenting thought came to me that I had neglected to +ask for the source of his information or for his address. It was a +curious oversight due to his masterly manner and that sense of the +guarded tongue which an ordinary mortal is apt to feel in the presence +of a great personality. I had been, in a way, self-bridled and +cautious in my speech, as I have been wont to be in the presence of +Washington himself. I looked down the road ahead. The stranger had +rounded a bend and was now hidden by the bush. I hurried through my +repast, bridled my horse and set off at a gallop expecting to overtake +him, but to my astonishment he had left the road. I did not see him +again, but his words were ever with me in the weeks that followed. + +"I reached the Corlies farm, far down in the neutral territory, at ten +o'clock and a little before dawn was with Corlies and his neighbors in +a rough fight with a band of cattle thieves, in the course of which +three men and a boy were seriously disabled by my pistols. We had +salted a herd and concealed ourselves in the midst of it and so were +able to shoot from good cover when the thieves arrived. Solomon and I +spent four days in the neutral territory. When we left it a dozen +cattle thieves were in need of repair and three had moved to parts +unknown. Save in the southern limit, their courage had been broken. + +"I had often thought of Nancy, the blaze-faced mare, that I had got +from Governor Reed and traded to Mr. Paulding. I was again reminded of +her by meeting a man who had just come from Tarrytown. Being near that +place I rode on to Paulding's farm and spent a night in his house. I +found Nancy in good flesh and spirits. She seemed to know and like the +touch of my hand and, standing by her side, the notion came to me that +I ought to own her. Paulding was reduced in circumstances. Having +been a patriot and a money-lender, the war had impoverished him. My +own horse was worn by overwork and so I proposed a trade and offered a +sum to boot which he promptly accepted. I came back up the north road +with the handsome, high-headed mare under my saddle. The next night I +stopped with one Reuben Smith near the northern limit of the neutral +territory below Stony Point. Smith had prospered by selling supplies +to the patriot army. I had heard that he was a Tory and so I wished to +know him. I found him a rugged, jovial, long-haired man of middle age, +with a ready ringing laugh. His jokes were spoken in a low tone and +followed by quick, stertorous breathing and roars and gestures of +appreciation. His cheerful spirit had no doubt been a help to him in +our camp. + +"'I've got the habit o' laughin' at my own jokes,' said he. 'Ye see +it's a lonely country here an' if I didn't give 'em a little +encouragement they wouldn't come eround,' the man explained. + +"He lifted a foot and swung it in the air while he bent the knee of the +leg on which he was standing and opened his mouth widely and blew the +air out of his lungs and clapped his hands together. + +"'It also gives you exercise,' I remarked. + +"'A joke is like a hoss; it has to be fed or it won't work,' he +remarked, as he continued his cheerful gymnastics. I have never known +a man to whom a joke was so much of an undertaking. He sobered down +and added: + +"'This mare is no stranger to oats an' the curry comb." + +"He looked her over carefully before he led her to the stable. + +"Next morning as he stood by her noble head, Smith said to me: + +"'She's a knowin' beast. She'd be smart enough to laugh at my jokes +an' I wouldn't wonder.' + +"He was immensely pleased with this idea of his. Then, turning +serious, he asked if I would sell her. + +"'You couldn't afford to own that mare,' I said. + +"I had touched his vanity. In fact I did not realize how much he had +made by his overcharging. He was better able to own her than I and +that he proposed to show me. + +"He offered for her another horse and a sum which caused me to take +account of my situation. The money would be a help to me. However, I +shook my head. He increased his offer. + +"'What do you want of her?" I asked. + +"'I've always wanted to own a hoss like that,' he answered. + +"'I intended to keep the mare,' said I. 'But if you will treat her +well and give her a good home I shall let you have her.' + +"'A man who likes a good joke will never drive a spavined hoss,' he +answered merrily. + +"So it happened that the mare Nancy fell into the hands of Reuben +Smith." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +LOVE AND TREASON + +When Jack and Solomon returned to headquarters, Arnold and his wife +were settled in a comfortable house overlooking the river. Colonel +Irons made his report. The Commander-in-Chief complimented him and +invited the young man to make a tour of the camp in his company. They +mounted their horses and rode away together. + +"I learn that General Arnold is to be in command here," Jack remarked +soon after the ride began. + +"I have not yet announced my intention," said Washington. "Who told +you?" + +"A man of the name of Henry Thornhill." + +"I do not know him but he is curiously well informed. Arnold is an +able officer. We have not many like him. He is needed here for I have +to go on a long trip to eastern Connecticut to confer with Rochambeau. +In the event of some unforeseen crisis Arnold would know what to do." + +Then Jack spoke out: "General, I ought to have reported to you the +exact words of Governor Reed. They were severe, perhaps, even, unjust. +I have not repeated them to any one. But now I think you should know +their full content and Judge of them in your own way. The Governor +insists that Arnold is bad at heart--that he would sell his master for +thirty pieces of silver." + +Washington made no reply, for a moment, and then his words seemed to +have no necessary relation to those of Jack Irons. + +"General Arnold has been badly cut up in many battles," said he. "I +wish him to be relieved of all trying details. You are an able and +prudent man. I shall make you his chief aide with the rank of +Brigadier-General. He needs rest and will concern himself little with +the daily routine. In my absence, you will be the superintendent of +the camp, and subject to orders I shall leave with you. Colonel Binkus +will be your helper. I hope that you may be able to keep yourself on +friendly terms with the General." + +Jack reported to the Commander-in-Chief the warning of Thornhill, but +the former made light of it. + +"The air is full of evil gossip," he said. "You may hear it of me." + +When they rode up to headquarters Arnold was there. To Jack's surprise +the Major-General greeted him with friendly words, saying: + +"I hope to know you better for I have heard much of your courage and +fighting quality." + +"There are good soldiers here," said Jack. "If I am one of them it is +partly because I have seen you fight. You have given all of us the +inspiration of a great example." + +It was a sincere and deserved tribute. + +On the third of August--the precise date named by Henry +Thornhill--Arnold took command of the camp and Irons assumed his new +duties. The Major-General rode with Washington every day until, on the +fourteenth of September, the latter set out with three aides and +Colonel Binkus on his trip to Connecticut. Solomon rode with the party +for two days and then returned. Thereafter Arnold left the work of his +office to Jack and gave his time to the enjoyment of the company of his +wife and a leisure that suffered little interruption. For him, grim +visaged war had smoothed his wrinkled front. Like Richard he had hung +up his bruised arms. The day of Washington's departure, Mrs. Arnold +invited Jack to dinner. The young man felt bound to accept this +opportunity for more friendly relations. + +Mrs. Arnold was a handsome, vivacious, blonde young woman of thirty. +The officer speaks in a letter of her lively talk and winning smiles +and splendid figure, well fitted with a costume that reminded him of +the court ladies in France. + +"What a contrast to the worn, patched uniforms to be seen in that +camp!" he added. + +Soon after the dinner began, Mrs. Arnold said to the young man, "We +have heard of your romance. Colonel and Mrs. Hare and their young +daughter spent a week in our home in Philadelphia on their first trip +to the colonies. Later Mrs. Hare wrote to my mother of their terrible +adventure in the great north bush and spoke of Margaret's attachment +for the handsome boy who had helped to rescue them, so I have some +right to my interest in you." + +"And therefor I thank you and congratulate myself," said the young man. +"It is a little world after all." + +"And your story has been big enough to fill it," she went on. "The +ladies in Philadelphia seem to know all its details. We knew only how +it began. They have told us of the thrilling duel and how the young +lovers were separated by the war and how you were sent out of England." + +"You astonish me," said the officer. "I did not imagine that my humble +affairs would interest any one but myself and my family. I suppose +that Doctor Franklin must have been talking about them. The dear old +soul is the only outsider who knows the facts." + +"And if he had kept them to himself he would have been the most inhuman +wretch in the world," said Mrs. Arnold. "Women have their rights. +They need something better to talk about than Acts of Parliament and +taxes and war campaigns. I thank God that no man can keep such a story +to himself. He has to have some one to help him enjoy it. A good +love-story is like murder. It will out." + +"It has caused me a lot of misery and a lot of happiness," said the +young man. + +"I long to see the end of it," the woman went on. "I happen to know a +detail in your story which may be new to you. Miss Hare is now in New +York." + +"In New York!" + +"Oddso! In New York! We heard in Philadelphia that she and her mother +had sailed with Sir Roger Waite in March. How jolly it would be if the +General and I could bring you together and have a wedding at +headquarters!" + +"I could think of no greater happiness save that of seeing the end of +the war," Jack answered. + +"The war! That is a little matter. I want to see a proper end to this +love-story." + +She laughed and ran to the spinnet and sang _Shepherds, I Have Lost My +Love_. + +The General would seem to have been in bad spirits. He had spoken not +half a dozen words. To him the talk of the others had been as spilled +water. Jack has described him as a man of "unstable temperament." + +The young man's visit was interrupted by Solomon who came to tell him +that he was needed in the matter of a quarrel between some of the new +recruits. + +Jack and Solomon exercised unusual care in guarding the camp and +organizing for defense in case of attack. It was soon after +Washington's departure that Arnold went away on the road to the south. +Solomon followed keeping out of his field of vision. The General +returned two days later. Solomon came into Jack's hut about midnight +of the day of Arnold's return with important news. + +Jack was at his desk studying a map of the Highlands. The camp was at +rest. The candle in Jack's hut was the only sign of life around +headquarters when Solomon, having put out his horse, came to talk with +his young friend. He stepped close to the desk, swallowed nervously +and began his whispered report. + +"Suthin' neevarious be goin' on," he began. "A British ship were lyin' +nigh the mouth o' the Croton River. Arnold went aboard. An' officer +got into his boat with him an' they pulled over to the west shore and +went into the bush. Stayed thar till mos' night. If 'twere honest +business, why did they go off in the bush alone fer a talk?" + +Jack shook his head. + +"Soon as I seen that I went to one o' our batteries an' tol' the Cap'n +what were on my mind. + +"'Damn the ol' British tub. We'll make 'er back up a little,' sez he. +'She's too clus anyhow.' + +"Then he let go a shot that ripped the water front o' her bow. Say, +Jack, they were some hoppin' eround on the deck o' the big British war +sloop. They h'isted her sails an' she fell away down the river a mile +'er so. The sun were set when Arnold an' the officer come out o' the +bush. I were in a boat with a fish rod an' could jes' see 'em with my +spy-glass, the light were so dim. They stood thar lookin' fer the +ship. They couldn't see her. They went back into the bush. It come +to me what they was goin' to do. Arnold were a-goin' to take the +Britisher over to the house o' that ol' Tory, Reub Smith. I got thar +fust an' hid in the bushes front o' the house. Sure 'nough!--that's +what were done. Arnold an' t' other feller come erlong an' went into +the house. 'Twere so dark I couldn't see 'em but I knowed 'twere them." + +"How?" the young man asked. + +"'Cause they didn't light no candle. They sot in the dark an' they +didn't talk out loud like honest men would. I come erway. I couldn't +do no more." + +"I think you've done well," said Jack. "Now go and get some rest. +To-morrow may be a hard day." + + + +2 + +Jack spent a bad night in the effort to be as great as his problem. In +the morning he sent Solomon and three other able scouts to look the +ground over east, west and south of the army. One of them was to take +the road to Hartford and deliver a message to Washington. + +After the noon mess, Arnold mounted his horse and rode away alone. The +young Brigadier sent for his trusted friend, Captain Merriwether. + +"Captain, the General has set out on the east road alone," said Jack. +"He is not well. There's something wrong with his heart. I am a +little worried about him. He ought not to be traveling alone. My +horse is in front of the door. Jump on his back and keep in sight of +the General, but don't let him know what you are doing." + +A little later Mrs. Arnold entered the office of the new Brigadier in a +most cheerful mood. + +"I have good news for you," she announced. + +"What is it?" + +"Soon I hope to make a happy ending of your love-story." + +"God prosper you," said the young man. + +She went on with great animation: "A British officer has come in a ship +under a flag of truce to confer with General Arnold. I sent a letter +to Margaret Hare on my own responsibility with the General's official +communication. I invited her to come with the party and promised her +safe conduct to our house. I expect her. For the rest we look to you." + +The young man wrote: "This announcement almost took my breath. My joy +was extinguished by apprehension before it could show itself. I did +not speak, being for a moment confused and blinded by lightning flashes +of emotion." + +"It is your chance to bring the story to a pretty end," she went on. +"Let us have a wedding at headquarters. On the night of the +twenty-eighth, General Washington will have returned. He has agreed to +dine with us that evening." + +"I think that she must have observed the shadow on my face for, while +she spoke, a great fear had come upon me," he testified in the Court of +Inquiry. "It seemed clear to me that, if there was a plot, the capture +of Washington himself was to be a part of it and my sweetheart a +helpful accessory." + +"'Are you not pleased?' Mrs. Arnold asked. + +"I shook off my fear and answered: 'Forgive me. It is all so +unexpected and so astonishing and so very good of you! It has put my +head in a whirl.' + +"Gentlemen, I could see no sinister motive in this romantic enterprise +of Mrs. Arnold," the testimony proceeds. "I have understood that her +sympathies were British but, if so, she had been discreet enough in +camp to keep them to herself. Whatever they may have been, I felt as +sure then, as I do now, that she was a good woman. Her kindly interest +in my little romance was just a bit of honest, human nature. It +pleased me and when I think of her look of innocent, unguarded, womanly +frankness, I can not believe that she had had the least part in the +dark intrigue of her husband. + +"I arose and kissed her hand and I remember well the words I spoke: +'Madame,' I said, 'let me not try now to express my thanks. I shall +need time for friendly action and well chosen words. Do you think that +Margaret will fall in with your plans?' + +"She answered: + +"'How can she help it? She is a woman. Have you not both been waiting +these many years for the chance to marry? I think that I know a +woman's heart.' + +"'You know much that I am eager to know,' I said. 'The General has not +told me that he is to meet the British. May I know all the good news?' + +"'Of course he will tell you about that,' she assured me. 'He has told +me only a little. It is some negotiation regarding an exchange of +prisoners. I am much more interested in Margaret and the wedding. I +wish you would tell me about her. I have heard that she has become +very beautiful.' + +"I showed Mrs. Arnold the miniature portrait which Margaret had given +me the day of our little ride and talk in London and then an orderly +came with a message and that gave me an excuse to put an end to this +untimely babbling for which I had no heart. The message was from +Solomon. He had got word that the British war-ship had come back up +the river and was two miles above Stony Point with a white flag at her +masthead. + +"My nerves were as taut as a fiddle string. A cloud of mystery +enveloped the camp and I was unable to see my way. Was the whole great +issue for which so many of us had perished and fought and endured all +manner of hardships, being bartered away in the absence of our beloved +Commander? I have suffered much but never was my spirit so dragged and +torn as when I had my trial in the thorny way of distrust. I have had +my days of conceit when I felt equal to the work of Washington, but +there was no conceit in me then. Face to face with the looming peril, +of which warning had come to me, I felt my own weakness and the need of +his masterful strength. + +"I went out-of-doors. Soon I met Merriwether coming into camp. Arnold +had returned. He had ridden at a walk toward the headquarters of the +Second Brigade and turned about and come back without speaking to any +one. Arnold was looking down as if absorbed in his own thoughts when +Merriwether passed him in the road. He did not return the latter's +salute. It was evident that the General had ridden away for the sole +purpose of being alone. + +"I went back to my hut and sat down to try to find my way when suddenly +the General appeared at my door on his bay mare and asked me to take a +little ride with him. I mounted my horse and we rode out on the east +road together for half a mile or so. + +"'I believe that my wife had some talk with you this morning,' he began. + +"'Yes,' I answered. + +"'A British officer has come up the river in a ship under a white flag +with a proposal regarding an exchange of prisoners. In my answer to +their request for a conference, some time ago, I enclosed a letter from +Mrs. Arnold to Miss Margaret Hare inviting her to come to our home +where she would find a hearty welcome and her lover--now an able and +most valued officer of the staff. A note received yesterday says that +Miss Hare is one of the party. We are glad to be able to do you this +little favor.' + +"I thanked him. + +"'I wish that you could go with me down the river to meet her in the +morning,' he said. 'But in my absence it will, of course, be necessary +for you to be on duty. Mrs. Arnold will go with me and we shall, I +hope, bring the young lady safely to head-quarters.' + +"He was preoccupied. His face wore a serious look. There was a +melancholy note in his tone--I had observed that in other talks with +him--but it was a friendly tone. It tended to put my fears at rest. + +"I asked the General what he thought of the prospects of our cause. + +"'They are not promising,' he answered. 'The defeat of Gates in the +south and the scattering of his army in utter rout is not an +encouraging event.' + +"'I think that we shall get along better now that the Gates bubble has +burst,' I answered." + +This ends the testimony of "the able and most valued officer," Jack +Irons, Jr. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +"WHO IS SHE THAT LOOKETH FORTH AS THE MORNING, FAIR AS THE MOON, CLEAR +AS THE SUN, AND TERRIBLE AS AN ARMY WITH BANNERS?" + +The American army had been sold by Arnold. The noble ideal it had +cherished, the blood it had given, the bitter hardships it had +suffered--torture in the wilderness, famine in the Highlands, long +marches of half naked men in mid-winter, massacres at Wyoming and +Cherry Valley--all this had been bartered away, like a shipload of +turnips, to satisfy the greed of one man. Again thirty pieces of +silver! Was a nation to walk the bitter way to its Calvary? Major +Andre, the Adjutant-General of Sir Henry Clinton's large force in New +York, was with the traitor when he rowed from the ship to the west +shore of the Hudson and went into the bush under the observation of +Solomon with his spy-glass. Arnold was to receive a command and large +pay in the British army. The consideration had been the delivery of +maps showing the positions of Washington's men and the plans of his +forts and other defenses, especially those of Forts Putnam and Clinton +and Battery Knox. Much other information was put in the hands of the +British officer, including the prospective movements of the +Commander-in-Chief. He was to be taken in the house of the man he had +befriended. Andre had only to reach New York with his treasure and +Arnold to hold the confidence of his chief for a few days and, before +the leaves had fallen, the war would end. The American army and its +master mind would be at the mercy of Sir Henry Clinton. + +Those September days the greatest love-story this world had known was +feeling its way in a cloud of mystery. The thrilling tale of Man and +Liberty, which had filled the dreams of sage and poet, had been nearing +its golden hours. Of a surety, at last, it would seem the lovers were +to be wed. What time, in the flying ages, they had greeted each other +with hearts full of the hope of peace and happiness, some tyrant king +and his armies had come between them. Then what a carnival of lust, +rapine and bloody murder! Man was broken on the wheel of power and +thwarted Hope sat brooding in his little house. History had been a +long siege, like that of Troy, to deliver a fairer Helen from the +established power of Kings. Now, beyond three thousand miles of sea, +supported by the strength of the hills and hearts informed and sworn to +bitter duty, Man, at last, had found his chance. Again Liberty, in +robes white as snow and sweet as the morning, beckoned to her lover. +Another king was come with his armies to keep them apart. The armies +being baffled, Satan had come also and spread his hidden snares. Could +Satan prevail? Was the story nearing another failure--a tragedy dismal +and complete as that of Thermopylae? + +This day we shall know. This day holds the moment which is to round +out the fulness of time. It is the twenty-third of September, 1780, +and the sky is clear. Now as the clock ticks its hours away, we may +watch the phrases of the capable Author of the great story as they come +from His pen. His most useful characters are remote and unavailable. +It would seem that the villain was likely to have his way. The Author +must defeat him, if possible, with some stroke of ingenuity. For this +He was not unprepared. + +Before the day begins it will be well to review, briefly, the hours +that preceded it. + +Andre would have reached New York that night if _The Vulture_ had not +changed her position on account of a shot from the battery below Stony +Point. For that, credit must be given to the good scout Solomon +Binkus. The ship was not in sight when the two men came out in their +boat from the west shore of the river while the night was falling. +Arnold had heard the shot and now that the ship had left her anchorage +a fear must have come to him that his treachery was suspected. + +"I may want to get away in that boat myself," he suggested to Andre. + +"She will not return until she gets orders from you or me," the +Britisher assured him. + +"I wonder what has become of her," said Arnold. + +"She has probably dropped down the river for some reason," Andre +answered. "What am I to do?" + +"I'll take you to the house of a man I know who lives near the river +and send you to New York by horse with passports in the morning. You +can reach the British lines to-morrow." + +"I would like that," Andre exclaimed. "It would afford me a welcome +survey of the terrain." + +"Smith will give you a suit of clothes that will fit you well enough," +said the traitor. "You and he are about of a size. It will be better +for you to be in citizen's dress." + +So it happened that in the darkness of the September evening Smith and +Andre, the latter riding the blazed-face mare, set out for King's +Ferry, where they were taken across the river. They rode a few miles +south of the landing to the shore of Crom Pond and spent the night with +a friend of Smith. In the morning the latter went on with Andre until +they had passed Pine's Bridge on the Croton River. Then he turned back. + + +Now Andre fared along down the road alone on the back of the mare +Nancy. He came to an outpost of the Highland army and presented his +pass. It was examined and endorsed and he went on his way. He met +transport wagons, a squad of cavalry and, later, a regiment of militia +coming up from western Connecticut, but no one stopped him. In the +faded hat and coat and trousers of Reuben Smith, this man, who called +himself John Anderson, was not much unlike the farmer folk who were +riding hither and thither in the neutral territory, on their petit +errands. His face was different. It was the well kept face of an +English aristocrat with handsome dark eyes and hair beginning to turn +gray. Still, shadowed by the brim of the old hat, his face was not +likely to attract much attention from the casual observer. The +handsome mare he rode was a help in this matter. She took and held the +eyes of those who passed him. He went on unchallenged. A little past +the hour of the high sun he stopped to drink at a wayside spring and to +give his horse some oats out of one of the saddle-bags. It was then +that a patriot soldier came along riding northward. He was one of +Solomon's scouts. The latter stopped to let his horse drink. As his +keen eyes surveyed the south-bound traveler, John Anderson felt his +danger. At that moment the scout was within reach of immortal fame had +he only known it. He was not so well informed as Solomon. He asked a +few questions and called for the pass of the stranger. That was +unquestionable. The scout resumed his journey. + +Andre resolved not to stop again. He put the bit in the mare's mouth, +mounted her and rode on with his treasure. The most difficult part of +his journey was behind him. Within twelve hours he should be at +Clinton's headquarters. + +Suddenly he came to a fork in the road and held up his horse, uncertain +which way to go. Now the great moment was come. Shall he turn to the +right or the left? On his decision rests the fate of the New World and +one of the most vital issues in all history, it would seem. The +left-hand road would have taken him safely to New York, it is fair to +assume. He hesitates. The day is waning. It is a lonely piece of +road. There is no one to tell him. The mare shows a preference for +the turn to the right. Why? Because it leads to Tarrytown, her former +home, and a good master. Andre lets her have her way. She hurries on, +for she knows where there is food and drink and gentle hands. So a leg +of the mighty hazard has been safely won by the mare Nancy. The +officer rode on, and what now was in his way? A wonder and a mystery +greater even than that of Nancy and the fork in the road. A little out +of Tarrytown on the highway the horseman traveled, a group of three men +were hidden in the bush--ragged, profane, abominable cattle thieves +waiting for cows to come down out of the wild land to be milked. They +were "skinners" in the patriot militia, some have said; some that they +were farmers' sons not in the army. However that may have been, they +were undoubtedly rough, hard-fisted fellows full of the lawless spirit +bred by five years of desperate warfare. They were looking for Tories +as well as for cattle. Tories were their richest prey, for the latter +would give high rewards to be excused from the oath of allegiance. + +They came out upon Andre and challenged him. The latter knew that he +had passed the American outposts and thought that he was near the +British lines. He was not familiar with the geography of the upper +east shore. He knew that the so-called neutral territory was overrun +by two parties--the British being called the "Lower" and the Yankees +the "Upper." + +"What party do you belong to?" Andre demanded. + +"The Lower," said one of the Yankees. + +It was, no doubt, a deliberate lie calculated to inspire frankness in a +possible Tory. That was the moment for Andre to have produced his +passports, which would have opened the road for him. Instead he +committed a fatal error, the like of which it would be hard to find in +all the records of human action. + +"I am a British officer," he declared. "Please take me to your post." + +They were keen-minded men who quickly surrounded him. A British +officer! Why was he in the dress of a Yankee farmer? The pass could +not save him now from these rough, strong handed fellows. The die was +cast. They demanded the right of search. He saw his error and changed +his plea. + +"I am only a citizen of New York returning from family business in the +country," he said. + +He drew his gold watch from his pocket--that unfailing sign of the +gentleman of fortune--and looked at its dial. + +"You can see I am no common fellow," he added. "Let me go on about my +business." + +They firmly insisted on their right to search him. He began to be +frightened. He offered them his watch and a purse full of gold and any +amount of British goods to be allowed to go on his way. + +Now here is the wonder and the mystery in this remarkable proceeding. +These men were seeking plunder and here was a handsome prospect. Why +did they not make the most of it and be content? The "skinners" were +plunderers, but first of all and above all they were patriots. The +spirit brooding over the Highlands of the Hudson and the hills of New +England had entered their hearts. The man who called himself John +Anderson was compelled to dismount and empty his pockets and take off +his boots, in one of which was the damning evidence of Arnold's +perfidy. A fortune was then within the reach of these three +hard-working men of the hills, but straightway they took their prisoner +and the papers, found in his boot, to the outpost commanded by Colonel +Jameson. + +This negotiation for the sale of the United States had met with +unexpected difficulties. The "skinners" had been as hard to buy as the +learned diplomat. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +THE LOVERS AND SOLOMON'S LAST FIGHT + +Meanwhile, Margaret and her mother had come up the river in a barge +with General and Mrs. Arnold to the house of the latter. Jack had gone +out on a tour of inspection. He had left headquarters after the noon +meal with a curious message in his pocket and a feeling of great +relief. The message had been delivered to him by the mother of a +captain in one of the regiments. She said that it had been given to +her by a man whom she did not know. Jack had been busy when it came +and did not open it until she had gone away. It was an astonishing and +most welcome message in the flowing script of a rapid penman, but +clearly legible. It was without date and very brief. These were the +cheering words in it: + + +"MY DEAR FRIEND: I have good news from down the river. The danger is +passed. + + "HENRY THORNHILL." + + +"Well, Henry Thornhill is a man who knows whereof he speaks," the young +officer said to himself, as he rode away. "I should like to meet him +again." + +That day the phrase "Good news from down the river" came repeatedly +back to him. He wondered what it meant. + +Jack being out of camp, Margaret had found Solomon. Toward the day's +end he had gone out on the south road with the young lady and her +mother and Mrs. Arnold. + +Jack was riding into camp from an outpost of the army. The day was in +its twilight. He had been riding fast. He pulled up his horse as he +approached a sentry post. Three figures were standing in the dusky +road. + +"Halt! Who comes there?" one of them sang out. + +It was the voice of Margaret. Its challenge was more like a phrase of +music than a demand. He dismounted. + +"I am one of the great army of lovers," said he. + +"Advance and give the countersign," she commanded. + +A moment he held her in his embrace and then he whispered: "I love you." + +"The countersign is correct, but before I let you pass, give me one +more look into your heart." + +"As many as you like--but--why?" + +"So I may be sure that you do not blame England for the folly of her +King." + +"I swear it." + +"Then I shall enlist with you against the tyrant. He has never been my +King." + +Lady Hare stood with Mrs. Arnold near the lovers. + +"I too demand the countersign," said the latter. + +"And much goes with it," said the young man as he kissed her, and then +he embraced the mother of his sweetheart and added: + +"I hope that you are also to enlist with us." + +"No, I am to leave my little rebel with you and return to New York." + +Solomon, who had stood back in the edge of the bush, approached them +and said to Lady Hare: + +"I guess if the truth was known, they's more rebels in England than +thar be in Ameriky." + +He turned to Jack and added: + +"My son, you're a reg'lar Tory privateer--grabbin' for gold. Give 'em +one a piece fer me." + +Margaret ran upon the old scout and kissed his bearded cheek. + +"Reg'lar lightnin' hurler!" said he. "Soon as this 'ere war is over +I'll take a bee line fer hum--you hear to me. This makes me sick o' +fightin'." + +"Will you give me a ride?" Margaret asked her lover. "I'll get on +behind you." + +Solomon took off the saddle and tightened the blanket girth. + +"Thar, 'tain't over clean, but now ye kin both ride," said he. + +Soon the two were riding, she in front, as they had ridden long before +through the shady, mallowed bush in Tryon County. + +"Oh, that we could hear the thrush's song again!" + +"I can hear it sounding through the years," he answered. "As life goes +on with me I hear many an echo from the days of my youth." + +They rode a while in silence as the night fell. + +"Again the night is beautiful!" she exclaimed. + +"But now it is the beauty of the night and the stars," he answered. + +"How they glow!" + +"I think it is because the light of the future is shining on them." + +"It is the light of peace and happiness. I am glad to be free." + +"Soon your people shall be free," he answered her. + +"My people?" + +"Yes." + +"Is the American army strong enough to do it?" + +"No." + +"The French?" + +"No." + +"Who then is to free us?" + +"God and His ocean and His hills and forests and rivers and these +children of His in America, who have been schooled to know their +rights. After this King is broken there will be no other like him in +England." + +They dismounted at Arnold's door. + +"For a time I shall have much to do, but soon I hope for great +promotion and more leisure," he said. + +"Tell me the good news," she urged. + +"I expect to be the happiest man in the army, and the master of this +house and your husband." + +"And you and I shall be as one," she answered. "God speed the day when +that may be true also of your people and my people." + + + +2 + +He kissed her and bade her good night and returned to his many tasks. +He had visited the forts and batteries. He had communicated with every +outpost. His plan was complete. About midnight, when he and Solomon +were lying down to rest, two horsemen came up the road at a gallop and +stopped at his door. They were aides of Washington. They reported +that the General was spending the night at the house of Henry Jasper, +near the ferry, and would reach camp about noon next day. + +"Thank God for that news," said the young man. "Solomon, I think that +we can sleep better to-night." + +"If you're awake two minutes from now you'll hear some snorin'," +Solomon answered as he drew his boots. "I ain't had a good bar'foot +sleep in a week. I don't like to have socks er luther on when I wade +out into that pond. To-night, I guess, we'll smell the water lilies." + +Jack was awake for an hour thinking of the great happiness which had +fallen in the midst of his troubles and of Thornhill and his message. +He heard the two aides going to their quarters. Then a deep silence +fell upon the camp, broken only by the rumble of distant thunder in the +mountains and the feet of some one pacing up and down between his hut +and the house of the General. He put on his long coat and slippers and +went out-of-doors. + +"Who's there?" he demanded. + +"Arnold," was the answer. "Taking a little walk before I turn in." + +There was a weary, pathetic note of trouble in that voice, long +remembered by the young man, who immediately returned to his bed. He +knew not that those restless feet of Arnold were walking in the flames +of hell. Had some premonition of what had been going on down the river +come up to him? Could he hear the feet of that horse, now galloping +northward through the valleys and over the hills toward him with evil +tidings? No more for this man was the comfort of restful sleep or the +joys of home and friendship and affection. Now the touch of his wife's +hand, the sympathetic look in her eyes and all her babble about the +coming marriage were torture to him. He could not endure it. Worst of +all, he was in a way where there is no turning. He must go on. He had +begun to know that he was suspected. The conduct of the scout, Solomon +Binkus, had suggested that he knew what was passing. Arnold had seen +the aides of Washington as they came in. The chief could not be far +behind them. He dreaded to stand before him. Compared to the torture +now beginning for this man, the fate of Bill Scott on Rock Creek in the +wilderness, had been a mercy. + +Soon after sunrise came a solitary horseman, wearied by long travel, +with a message from Colonel Jameson to Arnold. A man had been captured +near Tarrytown with important documents on his person. He had +confessed that he was Adjutant-General Andre of Sir Henry Clinton's +army. The worst had come to pass. Now treason! disgrace! the gibbet! + +Arnold was sitting at breakfast. He arose, put the message in his +pocket and went out of the room. _The Vulture_ lay down the river +awaiting orders. The traitor walked hurriedly to the boat-landing. +Solomon was there. It had been his custom when in camp to go down to +the landing every morning with his spy-glass and survey the river. +Only one boatman was at the dock. + +"Colonel Binkus, will you help this man to take me down to the British +ship?" Arnold asked. "I have an engagement with its commander and am +half an hour late." + +Solomon had had much curiosity about that ship. He wished to see the +man who had gone into the bush and then to Smith's with Arnold. + +"Sart'n," Solomon answered. + +They got into a small barge with the General in the cushioned rear +seat, his flag in hand. + +"Make what speed you can," said the General. + +The oarsmen bent to their task and the barge swept on by the forts. A +Yankee sloop overhauled and surveyed them. If its skipper had +entertained suspicions they were dissipated by the presence of Solomon +Binkus in the barge. + +They came up to _The Vulture_ and made fast at its landing stage where +an officer waited to receive the General. The latter ascended to the +deck. In a moment a voice called from above: + +"General Arnold's boatmen may come aboard." + +A British war-ship was a thing of great interest to Solomon. Once +aboard he began to look about him at the shining guns and their gear +and the tackle and the men. He looked for Arnold, but he was not in +sight. + +Among the crew then busy on the deck, Solomon saw the Tory desperado +"Slops," one time of the Ohio River country, with his black pipe in his +mouth. Slops paused in his hauling and reeving to shake a fist at +Solomon. They were heaving the anchor. The sails were running up. +The ship had begun to move. What was the meaning of this? Solomon +stepped to the ship's side. The stair had been hove up and made fast. +The barge was not to be seen. + +"They will put you all ashore below," an officer said to him. + +Solomon knew too much about Arnold to like the look of this. The +officer went forward. Solomon stepped to the opening in the deck rail, +not yet closed, through which he had come aboard. While he was looking +down at the water, some ten feet below, a group of sailors came to fill +in. His arm was roughly seized. Solomon stepped back. Before him +stood the man Slops. An insulting word from the latter, a quick blow +from Solomon, and Slops went through the gate out into the air and +downward. The scout knew it was no time to tarry. + +"A night hawk couldn't dive no quicker ner what I done," were his words +to the men who picked him up. He was speaking of that half second of +the twenty-fourth of September, 1780. His brief account of it was +carefully put down by an officer: "I struck not twenty feet from Slops, +which I seen him jes' comin' up when I took water. This 'ere ol' sloop +that had overhauled us goin' down were nigh. Hadn't no more'n come up +than I felt Slops' knife rip into my leg. I never had no practise in +that 'ere knife work. 'Tain't fer decent folks, but my ol' Dan Skinner +is allus on my belt. He'd chose the weapons an' so I fetched 'er out. +Had to er die. We fit a minnit thar in the water. All the while he +had that damn black pipe in his mouth. I were hacked up a leetle, but +he got a big leak in _him_ an' all of a sudden he wasn't thar. He'd +gone. I struck out with ol' Dan Skinner 'twixt my teeth. Then I see +your line and grabbed it. Whar's the British ship now?" + +"'Way below Stony P'int an' a fair wind in her sails,' the skipper +answered. + +"Bound fer New York," said Solomon sorrowfully. "They'd 'a' took me +with 'em if I hadn't 'a' jumped. Put me over to Jasper's dock. I got +to see Washington quick." + +"Washington has gone up the river." + +"Then take me to quarters soon as ye kin. I'll give ye ten pounds, +good English gold. My God, boys! My ol' hide is leakin' bad." + +He turned to the man who had been washing and binding his wounds. + +"Sodder me up best ye kin. I got to last till I see the Father." + +Solomon and other men in the old army had often used the word "Father" +in speaking of the Commander-in-Chief. It served, as no other could, +to express their affection for him. + +The wind was unfavorable and the sloop found it difficult to reach the +landing near headquarters. After some delay Solomon jumped overboard +and swam ashore. + +What follows he could not have told. Washington was standing with his +orderly in the little dooryard at headquarters as Solomon came +staggering up the slope at a run and threw his body, bleeding from a +dozen wounds, at the feet of his beloved Chief. + +"Oh, my Father!" he cried in a broken voice and with tears streaming +down his cheeks. "Arnold has sold Ameriky an' all its folks an' gone +down the river." + +Washington knelt beside him and felt his bloody garments. + +"The Colonel is wounded," he said to his orderly. "Go for help." + +The scout, weak from the loss of blood, tried to regain his feet but +failed. He lay back and whispered: + +"I guess the sap has all oozed out o' me but I had enough." + +Washington was one of those who put him on a stretcher and carried him +to the hospital. + +When he was lying on his bed and his clothes were being removed, the +Commander-in-Chief paid him this well deserved compliment as he held +his hand: + +"Colonel, when the war is won it will be only because I have had men +like you to help me." + +Soon Jack came to his side and then Margaret. General Washington asked +the latter about Mrs. Arnold. + +"My mother is doing what she can to comfort her," Margaret answered. + +Solomon revived under stimulants and was able to tell them briefly of +the dire struggle he had had. + +"It were Slops that saved me," he whispered. + +He fell into a deep and troubled sleep and when he awoke in the middle +of the night he was not strong enough to lift his head. Then these +faithful friends of his began to know that this big, brawny, +redoubtable soldier was having his last fight. He seemed to be aware +of it himself for he whispered to Jack: + +"Take keer o' Mirandy an' the Little Cricket." + +Late the next day he called for his Great Father. Feebly and brokenly +he had managed to say: + +"Jes' want--to--feel--his hand." + +Margaret had sat beside him all day helping the nurse. + +A dozen times Jack had left his work and run over for a look at +Solomon. On one of these hurried visits the young man had learned of +the wish of his friend. He went immediately to General Washington, who +had just returned from a tour of the forts. The latter saw the look of +sorrow and anxiety in the face of his officer. + +"How is the Colonel?" he asked. + +"I think that he is near his end," Jack answered. "He has expressed a +wish to feel your hand again." + +"Let us go to him at once," said the other. "There has been no greater +man in the army." + +Together they went to the bedside of the faithful scout. The General +took his hand. Margaret put her lips close to Solomon's ear and said: + +"General Washington has come to see you." + +Solomon opened his eyes and smiled. Then there was a beauty not of +this world in his homely face. And that moment, holding the hand he +had loved and served and trusted, the heroic soul of Solomon Binkus +went out upon "the lonesome trail." + +Jack, who had been kneeling at his side, kissed his white cheek. + +"Oh, General, I knew and loved this man!" said the young officer as he +arose. + +"It will be well for our people to know what men like him have endured +for them," said Washington. + +"I shall have to learn how to live without him," said Jack. "It will +be hard." + +Margaret took his arm and they went out of the door and stood a moment +looking off at the glowing sky above the western hills. + +"Now you have me," she whispered. + +He bent and kissed her. + +"No man could have a better friend and fighting mate than you," he +answered. + + + +3 + +"'We spend our years as a tale that is told,'" Jack wrote from +Philadelphia to his wife in Albany on the thirtieth of June, 1787: +"Dear Margaret, we thought that the story was ended when Washington +won. Five years have passed, as a watch in the night, and the most +impressive details are just now falling out. You recall our curiosity +about Henry Thornhill? When stopping at Kinderhook I learned that the +only man of that name who had lived there had been lying in his grave +these twenty years. He was one of the first dreamers about Liberty. +What think you of that? I, for one, can not believe that the man I saw +was an impostor. Was he an angel like those who visited the prophets? +Who shall say? Naturally, I think often of the look of him and of his +sudden disappearance in that Highland road. And, looking back at +Thornhill, this thought comes to me: Who can tell how many angels he +has met in the way of life all unaware of the high commission of his +visitor? + +"On my westward trip I found that the Indians who once dwelt in The +Long House were scattered. Only a tattered remnant remains. Near old +Fort Johnson I saw a squaw sitting in her blanket. Her face was +wrinkled with age and hardship. Her eyes were nearly blind. She held +in her withered hands the ragged, moth eaten tail of a gray wolf. I +asked her why she kept the shabby thing. + +"'Because of the hand that gave it,' she answered in English. 'I shall +take it with me to The Happy Hunting-Grounds. When he sees it he will +know me.' + +"So quickly the beautiful Little White Birch had faded. + +"At Mount Vernon, Washington was as dignified as ever but not so grave. +He almost joked when he spoke of the sculptors and portrait painters +who have been a great bother to him since the war ended. + +"'Now no dray horse moves more readily to the thill than I to the +painter's chair," he said. + +"When I arrived the family was going in to dinner and they waited until +I could make myself ready to join them. The jocular Light Horse Harry +Lee was there. His anecdotes delighted the great man. I had never +seen G. W. in better humor. A singularly pleasant smile lighted his +whole countenance. I can never forget the gentle note in his voice and +his dignified bearing. It was the same whether he were addressing his +guests or his family. The servants watched him closely. A look seemed +to be enough to indicate his wishes. The faithful Billy was always at +his side. I have never seen a sweeter atmosphere in any home. We sat +an hour at the table after the family had retired from it. In speaking +of his daily life he said: + +"'I ride around my farms until it is time to dress for dinner, when I +rarely miss seeing strange faces, come, as they say, out of respect for +me. Perhaps the word curiosity would better describe the cause of it. +The usual time of sitting at table brings me to candle-light when I try +to answer my letters.' + +"He had much to say on his favorite theme, viz.: the settling of the +immense interior and bringing its trade to the Atlantic cities. + +"I was coughing with a severe cold. He urged me to take some remedies +which he had in the house, but I refused them. + +"He went to his office while Lee and I sat down together. The latter +told me of a movement in the army led by Colonel Nichola to make +Washington king of America. He had seen Washington's answer to the +letter of the Colonel. It was as follows: + +"'Be assured, sir, no occurrence in the course of the war has given me +sensations more painful than your information of there being such ideas +in the army as those you have imparted to me and I must view them with +abhorrence and reprehend them with severity. I am much at a loss to +conceive what part of my conduct could have given encouragement to an +address which to me seems big with the greatest mischiefs which could +befall my country.' + +"Is it not a sublime and wonderful thing, dear Margaret, that all our +leaders, save one, have been men as incorruptible as Stephen and Peter +and Paul? + +"When I went to bed my cough became more troublesome. After it had +gone on for half an hour or so my door was gently opened and I observed +the glow of a candle. On drawing my bed curtains I saw, to my utter +astonishment, Washington standing at my side with a bowl of hot tea in +his hand. It embarrassed me to be thus waited on by a man of his +greatness. + +"We set out next morning for Philadelphia to attend the Convention, +Washington riding in his coach drawn by six horses, I riding the +blaze-faced mare of destiny, still as sweet and strong as ever. A slow +journey it was over the old road by Calvert's to Annapolis, +Chestertown, and so on to the north. + +"I found Franklin sitting under a tree in his dooryard, surrounded by +his grandchildren. He looks very white and venerable now. His hair is +a crown of glory." + +[Illustration: Ben Franklin, surrounded by his grandchildren.] + +"'Well, Jack, it has been no small part of my life-work to get you +happily married,' he began in his playful way. 'A celibate is like the +odd half of a pair of scissors, fit only to scrape a trencher. How +many babies have you?' + +"'Three,' I answered. + +"'It is not half enough,' said he. 'A patriotic American should have +at least ten children. I must not forget to say to you what I say to +every young man. Always treat your wife with respect. It will procure +respect for you not only from her, but from all who observe it. Never +use a slighting word.' + +"My beloved, how little I need this advice you know, but I think that +the old philosopher never made a wiser observation. I am convinced +that civilization itself depends largely on the respect that men feel +and show for women. + +"I asked about his health. + +"'I am weary and the night is falling and I shall soon lie down to +sleep, but I know that I shall awake refreshed in the morning,' he said. + +"He told me how, distressed by his infirmity, he came out of France in +the Queen's litter, carried by her magnificent mules. Of England he +had only this to say: + +"'She is doing wrong in discouraging emigration to America. Emigration +multiplies a nation. She should be represented in the growth of the +New World by men who have a voice in its government. By this fair +means she could repossess it instead of leaving it to foreigners, of +all nations, who may drown and stifle sympathy for the mother land. It +is now a fact that Irish emigrants and their children are in possession +of the government of Pennsylvania.' + +"I must not fail to set down here in the hope that my sons may some +time read it, what he said to me of the treason of Arnold. + +"'Here is the vindication of Poor Richard. Extravagance is not the way +to self-satisfaction. The man who does not keep his feet in the old, +honest way of thrift will some time sell himself, and then he will be +ready to sell his friends or his country. By and by nothing is so dear +to him as thirty pieces of silver.' + +"I shall conclude my letter with a beautiful confession of faith by +this master mind of the century. It was made on the motion for daily +prayers in the Convention now drafting a constitution for the States. +I shall never forget the look of him as, standing on the lonely summit +of his eighty years, he said to us: + +"'In the beginning of our contest with Britain when we were sensible of +danger, we had daily prayers in this room for Divine protection. Our +prayers, sirs, were heard and they were graciously answered. All of us +who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances +of a directing Providence in our affairs. And have we forgotten that +powerful friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need His +assistance? I have lived, sirs, a long time and the longer I live the +more convincing proof I see of this truth that God governs in the +affairs of men. And if a sparrow can not fall to the ground without +His notice is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We +have been assured, sirs, that except the Lord build the house they +labor in vain who build it. I firmly believe this and I also believe +that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political +structure no better than the builders of Babel; we shall be divided and +confounded and we ourselves become a reproach and a byword down to +future ages. And, what is worse, mankind may hereafter despair of +establishing government by human wisdom and leave it to chance, war and +conquest.' + +"Dear Margaret, you and I who have been a part of the great story know +full well that in these words of our noble friend is the conclusion of +the whole matter." + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE DAYS OF POOR RICHARD*** + + +******* This file should be named 15608.txt or 15608.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/6/0/15608 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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