I nursed my knee a moment and then said: "What may one man do to help, Colonel Davie?"
He looked up quickly. "Much, if you are that man, and you do not value your life too highly, Captain Ireton."
"You may leave that out of the question," said I. "I shall count it the happiest moment of my life when I shall have done something worth their killing me for."
Again he gave me that curious look I had noted before. Then he laughed.
"If you were as young as Major Joe Graham, and had been well crossed in love, I could understand you better, Captain. But, jesting aside, there is a thing to do, and you are the man to do it. Our spies are thick in Cornwallis's camp, but what is needed is some master spirit who can plot as well as spy for us. Major Ferguson moves as Cornwallis pulls the strings. Could we know the major's instructions and designs, we might cut him off, bring the Tory uprising to the ground, and so hearten the country beyond measure. I say we might cut him off, though I know not where the men would come from to do it."
"Well?" said I, when he paused.
"The preliminary is some better information than our spies can give us. Now you have been an officer in the British service, and—"
I smiled. "Truly; and I have the honor, if you please to call it so, of his Lordship's acquaintance. Also, I have that of Colonel Tarleton and the members of his staff, the same having tried and condemned me as a spy at Appleby Hundred some few weeks before this chase I have told you of."
His face fell. "Then, of course, it is out of the question for you to show yourself in Cornwallis's headquarters."
I rose and buttoned my borrowed coat.