"You mean you want to make me a present?"
"Yes, Enoch, I want to leave with you something that you will remember me by—something which when you look at it you can say 'This was given me by a man to whom I rendered a greater service than if I had saved his life.'"
"I will take it, sir, and when I look at it will say to myself that it was given me by a gentleman who saved the life of my friend."
"Very neatly turned, my lad. You have a power of flattery which would win your way in a court."
"I wish I had the power that would win me my way in the Continental army."
"Are you intending to enlist?"
"Yes, sir. I do not want to say it boastingly; but yet I am proud because the little which I did last week caused General Washington himself to thank me, and to say that I should attach myself to his staff until I was really made a soldier."
"Indeed, my lad? You must have rendered some signal service. Since you no longer fear me as an enemy, for I am not formidable now that I am the only member of the English army this side of New Jersey, perhaps you will tell me what you did which won for you so great an honor."
Enoch, passing lightly over the incidents in which he figured prominently, told the story of his having been recognized by the Quaker and of subsequently hearing Clinton's order read.
Lord Gordon laughed heartily at the boy's account of his freeing himself from the Quaker's grasp; but grew grave as the story was finished.