“I will not forbid you to go,” said the father. “But it will be just as well if you’d stay away.”
Tom looked surprised.
“Why, father, what do you mean?”
Mr. Deering laughed.
“After the part you took in the little affair of the night of the fourteenth of September,” said he, “I don’t think your presence will be very welcome upon the Harwood plantation. I hardly think Jasper Harwood looks upon the matter from the same point of view as you, Tom.”
“Do you mean that he is a king’s man, sir,” exclaimed Tom.
“I’m sure of it,” answered his father.
“I can’t bring myself to believe it, father. He is, perhaps, like a great many others just now, reluctant to prove disloyal, but when the real time comes to act, I think you will find him as staunch for the Provincial Congress as any of us.”
Mr. Deering laughed at his son’s earnestness.
“Well, my boy, I trust you’re right, but I don’t think so. Jasper Harwood is a Tory, and will hardly take the trouble to hide it from you. So, you will not be kept long in suspense, if you are going there.”