"But I know the woods! You, yourself, sir, say I am a very Mohawk in the woods!" I pleaded. "I fear no ambush, though the highwayman Jack Mount himself were after me. Have I not been twice to the Virginia line with Brant? Do you think I could fail to reach Cresap with the whole forest as plain to me as the Stony Way below this hill? And remember I carry no papers to be stolen. I could first go with belts to the Cayugas, and tell the truth about Quider and his party. Then I would deliver the belts as you delivered them to Quider. Then I would find Cresap and show him what a fool he is."
"And so serve the enemies of the King?" said Sir William, looking keenly at me.
"And so serve you, sir," I retorted, in a flash. "Are you an enemy to the King?"
"But, my boy," said Sir William, huskily, "do you understand that you must go alone on this mission?"
I sprang forward and threw my arms around him with a hug like a young bear.
"Then I'm going! I'm going!" I whispered, enchanted, while he murmured brokenly that he could not spare me and that I was all he had on earth.
But I would not be denied; I coaxed him to my little bedroom, lighted the candle, and made him sit down on my cot. Then I explained excitedly my purpose, and to prove that I knew the trails, I sharpened my treasured Faber pencil and made a drawing for him, noting every ford and carrying-place—which latter I proposed to avoid—and finally hazarded a guess as to the exact spot where Colonel Cresap might be found.
Also, in pantomime and whispers, I rehearsed the part I meant to play before the Cayugas, making the speeches that Sir William had made to Quider, as nearly as I could remember, and delivering each belt in dumb show and with all the dignity I could command, till I came to the last, which, by mistake, I spoke of as a red instead of black belt.
"Wait," interrupted Sir William, who had become deeply interested; "what is 'black' in the Mohawk tongue?"
"Kahonji," I replied, promptly.