“Two thousand, two hundred and fifty,” Ira added quietly. “Anything else, Fred?”
“No,” he at length drawled.
“Hardly necessary for you to take a long ride down to the fort for that news, seeing that I have gathered it already,” the young scout said curtly. “Have dinner with us, and then you may go back home. I promise that by day after to-morrow, if not before, General Burgoyne will have an army in Bennington.”
“But I wanted to see the general,” Fred confessed. “I’m going to ask him if he will give me a place on his staff. Do you know anything about that, cousin Ira?” and there was an eagerness in his voice which showed how much he coveted the position.
“Uncle Horace spoke of it,” Ira replied, “and I’ll tell you what I advise.”
“What?” the listener asked eagerly.
“Go home now, and when the king’s soldiers march out of Bennington loaded with plunder, follow them. Put in a claim that you were the one who first discovered that the rebels were gathering stores. Your father will swear to it, I’ll back him up, and the general will be so good-natured, because of the victory, that he’ll give you anything.”
“A captain’s commission?”
“Perhaps a major’s.”
“I reckon I’ll ask for a colonel’s,” the young Tory declared. “What I have done is worth it,” and he fastened his horse to a tree, after which he went toward the food.