“I tell you, General Gage, I did all that a soldier and a gentleman could well do. If the messenger proved a knave and a traitor, the blame is not to be laid at my door.”
Pennington’s hand fell lightly upon Ezra’s shoulder, and he said sneeringly in the boy’s ear:
“Here is good fortune. I knew of Gage, but I did not even dream of your acquaintance Major Buckstone being here.”
[CHAPTER X—TELLS HOW ILL NEWS CAME TO GENERAL GAGE]
For a moment, after hearing the thunderous voice of Major Buckstone, Ezra Prentiss was startled. But an instant’s reflection showed him that the major’s presence could make no difference to him or his plans.
“He knows nothing of me that is not already known,” the lad told himself.
The grave-faced man servant who had admitted them now spoke, in a low-voiced aside, to Ezra.
“I am glad to see you back, sir. We’ve had all sorts of fears for you. The master thought you might have been killed, even.”
Ezra smiled.
“But you see that I am not,” said he, understanding at once that he was again mistaken for George.