“That’s true!” exclaimed several of the group.
“Aye, and the time approaches when it may be done,” cried the sheriff.
“But what think you Ethan Allen, Seth Warner, ’Member, and the rest of the boys will be doing, Sir Sheriff?” demanded the same Whig who had before spoken.
“They’ll be clapped into Albany jail–that’s what will become of them!” declared the sheriff.
“And a right good place for them,” said he of the cloak. Enoch was still maneuvring to get a sight of this man, but the shadow of the high mantel was cast across his face. All the boy could see was the gleam of his eyes as he turned with an angry gesture toward the audience. “The boldness of these outlaws is astonishing.”
“That Allen appears to have many followers,” suggested a mild mannered man beside the sheriff.
“He is a bully; they fear him!” declared the former speaker, vigorously.
“How is that, John Norton?” cried the Whig, who evidently was a bold man to so flout the sheriff and his friends. “You know Colonel Allen personally. Should you call him a bully and say that he governs men by fear?”
“Not I!” exclaimed the innkeeper. “And saving your presence, sheriff, it would be a man of some stomach who would dare say that to Ethan Allen’s face. As for these same Green Mountain Boys, it is not fear that keeps them together.”
“I tell you they are a set of masterless villains!” cried the dark man, turning angrily about so that at last the collar of his cloak fell back. “They should be driven out of the colony and their houses burned to the ground—”