Before hearing a single word, Isaac understood that these late-comers were no friends of the corporal’s, and he endured the pain in silence, hoping that by so doing he might escape observation.
It was hardly probable the strangers failed 48 to see him, for he had been lying within a few feet of his companion; but that he was not the object of their regard could be readily understood.
The man who had thus pinned the boy to the earth by his heel wore moccasins rather than boots, otherwise Isaac would have received severe injury, and as it was, the corporal’s recruit suffered considerable pain before the foot was finally removed; but yet made no sound.
So far as he could judge by the conversation, these strangers must have been in camp some time before he was awakened, for when he first opened his eyes they were in the midst of an unpleasant conversation with the old soldier, such as had evidently been carried on for some moments.
“If he don’t choose to tell, string him up to a tree,” one of the party cried impatiently 49 at the moment Isaac first became conscious that matters were not running smoothly in this private encampment. “A dead rebel is of more good than a live one, and we have no time to lose.”
“Hang me, if that’s what you’re hankerin’ for!” Corporal ’Lige cried in a voice that sounded thick and choked as if a heavy pressure was upon his throat. “Even though I knew more concernin’ this ’ere expedition than I do, not a word should I speak.”
“We’ll soon see whether you’re so willing to dance on nothing,” the first speaker cried vindictively, and then came noises as if the man was making ready to carry his threat into execution.
“Give him another chance,” one of the Tories suggested. “Let the old fool tell us all he knows of Allen’s plans, an’ we’ll leave him none the worse for our coming.”
“I know nothing!” the corporal cried in a rage. “Do you reckon the colonel would lay out his campaign before me?”
“It is said he did so before you left Pittsfield.”