“We feel flattered,” said Nat Brewster, with a smile, “that you should think of us.”
Ben Cooper bent forward.
“It has something to do with the big guns at Ticonderoga,” said he.
Colonel Knox laughed.
“You are a clever guesser, Master Cooper,” said he.
“It was no guess,” replied Ben. “I’ve known all along that you’d not give up that idea of yours. I knew that if you’d get permission, you’d be off to the captured forts at once and try to carry it out.”
Ezra, watching the three strangers, fancied them rigid with attention, but at the same time making a show of keeping up a conversation of their own. Once he was about calling his friends’ attention to this, but the fear that it might, after all, be but imagination upon his part, deterred him.
“You are right,” said the young colonel. “The notion was a pet of mine because I thought it practical and likely to succeed. But I’ve had great difficulty in convincing others. When they thought of the vast wilderness to be crossed, the lakes and streams, they scouted the plan. It could not be done, they said; those great cannon could never be dragged so tremendous a distance through such a country.
“But at length I got the ear of the commander-in-chief. I flattered myself that he thought me no fool; for he has a way of looking at one that tells its own story.
“‘Heavy ordnance is badly needed,’ he said, ‘and this would be welcome, indeed, if we could but secure it!’ Then he fixed me with one of his looks and asked: ‘How would you go about getting it here?’