I looked from one to the other with astonishment; but 'twas the governor who intervened.
"Your pardon, Peter," he said good-humoredly enough, "but that letter happens to deal with a most confidential subject."
"Oh, ja," said Corlaer indifferently. "But I do not readt."
"Take the letter, Ga-en-gwa-ra-go," said the Indian. "Ta-wan-ne-ars does not seek your secrets. But you need have no fears. This young Englishman is Ta-wan-ne-ars' friend."
"How! What is that?" exclaimed the governor, much perplexed. "You know Master Ormerod?"
"Ta-wan-ne-ars knows not the Englishman's name," replied the Indian with his grave smile; "but he knows the Englishman's heart."
And in his sonorous English, with a slightly guttural intonation, he recounted how I had rescued him from his childish persecutors.
The incident recalled my promise, and I broke in impetuously upon his closing words.
"Aye, your Excellency, but he hath forgotten to add that I pledged myself to beseech you to make it illegal to mock at Indians in the city streets."
"An excellent thought," approved Colden. "We have trouble enough winning the friendship of the tribes without subjecting the visiting chiefs to humiliation in our midst."