“Governor?”
“Well, my shepherd-boy?”
“One day, it may be, I will see something.”
The Governor went to his war office. People were coming from four different ways, all to consult with the Governor: horsemen, men in gigs, men from the ships, people with provisions, all with something special to say to the Governor.
The Governor met William Williams, “the signer,” at the door of the war office.
“That is a bright boy that you keep to herd sheep,” said he.
“Peter?”
“Yes. He has just said something to me that I think remarkable. Give him freedom to do much as he pleases. He is carrying out secret instructions of mine.”
Peter studied hilltops, and told Dennis of all the curious angles that he discerned on the far and near hills. He set beacons and found out how he could communicate with Plainfield, Providence, and Groton.
In the meantime he watched in the midnight hours at an angle in the turnpike road behind the curious window. He knew that the magazine was near; he did not seek to learn where. While the young patriot’s mind was employed in these things there came to him one night a very strange adventure, which led him to see to how great peril the Governor’s person was exposed.