"Yankee Doodle" was caught up by the recumbent groups, and the men thumped the time on the decks with their heels.
"Mr. Washington's jig step," said a sailor, shifting his quid in his cheek. "English feet cannot dance to it. It takes the Yankees to do that."
The group of officers had made their way to the ward-room. The steward had set the table; dinner was waiting.
"Here's confusion to the 'rebels,' and health to King George!" said one of the subalterns. William drank it with the rest.
On the very day that the Minerva was being warped out into mid-stream at Portsmouth, to begin her voyage to America, Colonel Hewes had received the young American Lieutenant, who had ridden over from Stanham Manor, with as much joy as if he had been his own son.
George was surprised to find a company of well-clad soldiers encamped among the houses of the people who worked at the Hewes foundry. Piles of cannon-balls and some roughly moulded cannon were under a long shed.
It was necessary to have a guard for the protection of the works, for the northern part of New Jersey and the southern half of New York swarmed with marauding bands that claimed allegiance sometimes to one side and sometimes to another. "Cowboys" and "Skinners" they were called. The first claimed to be patriots, and were attached to no command; but the others were Tories, under the leadership of a man named Skinner, whose name brought terror with it. They were as lawless and as merciless as the wild red man of the woods, and plundered travellers and the soldiers of either side with the indiscrimination of highwaymen.
In a few words Colonel Hewes had explained the situation to George, and then taking him into the big office, he closed the door behind them.
"You remember your uncle's overseer, Cloud?" he asked. "Well, he has turned bandit; and if I catch him he will get a swing at a tree-limb, for a thieving rascal. He and his cut-throats have returned to the mountains here, I am informed. But it is not of this that I wish to talk with you." Colonel Hewes arose and threw a log on the fire. "Now, young man," he said, "I want you to listen until I have finished, and then—for I may talk at some length—you can do all the question-asking that you wish." He opened the despatch that George carried, read it carefully, and, leaning back in his chair, took a portfolio from a drawer and spread it across his knees. "Listen," he said. "You have a chance now to perform a signal service for your country. I asked them at Morristown to recommend a young man who might volunteer for love of it, and, to be frank, I suggested your name."