"I am sure she never did—not since General Howe has been in this city," Enoch replied promptly.
"Why are you so positive?"
"I've heard her say that if we are willing to take your money, we should at least be true to you for the time being."
"It is quite evident you boys are not of the same opinion."
"We expect to go into the army very soon, and it is our duty to do all we can to aid the cause," Jacob said stoutly.
"And you know, while you are trying to aid the cause, what is to be expected if you are captured?"
Jacob understood that he was not aiding his friend by speaking boldly, and Lord Gordon had so clearly the best of him in the matter that he was wholly at loss for a reply.
"We never believed that by going to where Seth would meet the Continentals anything more could come of it than a flogging, and that seemed terrible enough," Enoch cried. "Seth had no idea he might be arrested as a spy!"
"We won't quibble about the fine points of the case, my lad. It is a fact that he has voluntarily placed himself in a position where he certainly appears as if he had been acting the spy, and there is, perhaps, not an officer in his majesty's army, except myself, who would believe that this is his first wrongdoing."
Jacob was on the point of saying that there could be nothing wrong in aiding one's country, but, fortunately for Seth, he realized in time that Lord Gordon considered the Americans rebels, rather than patriots, and to him anything of the kind would not seem praiseworthy.