"Hark you, Nathan Shelby, I am tired of hearing your long-winded speeches, and we will have done with them from this out—at least, so long as I am the master."
"So long as you are the master!" Evan repeated in a tone of contempt. "We haven't been aware that such was the case."
"Then you may know it now for a certainty. I am counting on you two trying to escape, and therefore have come to stand guard in this room."
"And a valiant guard you will be, Ephraim Sowers, if your courage is no greater than it was one year ago, when you fled in hot haste from what proved to be a turkey-cock, thinking you saw the head of an Indian among the weeds," Nathan said jeeringly, and the spy retorted angrily:
"Have a care over your tongue, my bold rebel! Matters have changed now from what they were forty-eight hours ago. You are among those who obey the king, and do not allow sedition-breeders free rein of their tongues."
"And now hark you, Master Sowers," Nathan cried, losing his temper somewhat because of the air of authority which this fellow assumed. "'Rebels and sedition-breeders' are names which have too much meaning in these days for you to let them fall so trippingly from your tongue! Have a care, you Tory sneak, lest even while acting the part of guard over your betters, you come to grief! I'm not minded to take many threats from a coward and a spy."
"In this case, however, you will take whatsoever I choose to give, Nathan Shelby, for it needs only that I raise my voice to bring here those who would shoot you down did you so much as lift your hand against me."
"And it is such knowledge which makes you so wondrous brave," Evan said with a laugh of scorn which did more to rouse the young spy's anger than words could have done.
He struggled for an instant to speak; but stammered and hesitated as the blood rushed into his face until, losing the last semblance of patience, he motioned for them to move back toward the window from which they had just come.
"If this is what you mean, we are willing to take our stations here without your running the risk of bursting because of your own sense of importance," Nathan said as he moved back a few paces, Evan following the example. "Have a care, however, that you do not attempt to give such orders as we shall be indisposed to obey, lest it seem as if your authority amounted to nothing."