"Then under cover we must concert the measures to be taken. That will be for Master Ormerod. Do you still crave the opportunity, knowing now the full measure of its perils, sir!"
"I am more anxious, if possible, sir," I answered. "Master Juggins was good enough to think I had the qualities for the venture. As you will have read, I have spent some years at Versailles and St. Germain. I speak French sufficiently well to pass on the frontier for a Frenchman. As for danger—why, your Excellency, the man who has ruined his life can have no fear for it. He has all to gain and nothing to lose."
"True," assented the governor. "But you know nothing of woodcraft or the life amongst the savages."
"Master Juggins gave me a letter to one Peter Corlaer, a——"
Colden sat suddenly erect.
"Corlaer is now in the kitchen!" he exclaimed.
He turned to the governor.
"Peter came this morning with the Seneca chief, if your Excellency will remember."
"So he did. We will have him in."
Colden went out, and returned at once with two companions. One I recognized, to my amazement, as the Indian I had befriended an hour or two earlier. He greeted me with a faint smile. To the governor he rendered the splendid arm-high salute, and his deep voice boomed out—