He paused and looked back at her a moment.
"'T is all settled," he said, "and I am to start at once."
"I was right, then!" she cried, her eyes sparkling in sympathy with his. "I was just telling cousin Tom I believed the governor had a mission for you."
"Well, so he has, and I got my papers not ten minutes since. You could never guess my destination."
"Boston? New York? London?" she questioned, but he shook his head at each, smiling evermore broadly.
"No, 't is none of those. 'T is Venango."
"Venango?" cried Dorothy. "Where, in heaven's name, may that be?" Nor was
I any the less at a loss.
"'T is a French outpost in the Ohio country," answered Washington, "and my mission, in brief, is to warn the French off English territory."
Dorothy gazed at him, eyes wide with amazement. There was something in the speaker's words and look which fired my blood.
"You will need companions, will you not, Major Washington?" I asked.