Dennis stretched himself up to a height of nearly seven feet.
“If he sassed me back, I’d give him one box on the ear with this shovel of a hand, and he would never speak one word after he felt its swoop; and it will be a sorry day if he ever says ‘Off with your hat’ to me, now!”
He repeated these things to Peter on the green.
Dennis had met a man in Providence by the name of Barton—Colonel Barton. This man was a native of Warren, R. I., and the son of a thrifty farmer who owned a beautiful estate on Touisset Neck. The farm and the family burying-ground are still to be seen there, much as they were in the Revolutionary days. The place is now owned by Elmer Cole.
Barton was a brave, bold man. He conceived a plan to capture the tyrannical Prescott and humiliate the testy Britisher. For this enterprise he desired to enlist strong, fearless, seafaring men.
He had met Dennis and had said to himself that he must have the rugged Irishman’s assistance.
He met Dennis again one day in Providence.
“Dennis O’Hay, can you keep a secret?”
“Sure I can, if anybody. Dennis O’Hay would not betray a secret if the earth were to quake and the heavens were all to come tumbling down, sure as you are living—never that would Dennis O’Hay.”
“Then close your mouth and open your ears. I have a plan to capture General Prescott.”