Ethan Allen was seated in his room in the barracks alone smoking a corncob pipe, a favorite with him and most Green Mountain farmers.
A timid knock was heard at the door, and Allen called out cheerily:
"Come in!"
The door opened and Eben entered.
"Why, Eben, you are a stranger; where have you been?"
"In the fort, colonel, almost a prisoner."
"A prisoner?"
"Yes, colonel. That man—pardon me, I mean Col. Arnold—has told me to keep to my own quarters and not move about the fort until I am ordered."
"By what authority?"
"He says he is commander of the fort and will not have me spying round; that is what he calls it."