“Fifty men, they say, were murdered. At Lexington, in Massachusetts. There were munitions stored there belonging to the militia. The British got word of it and marched from Boston to destroy the goods. They fired on our people at the bridge and when the poor fellows broke and ran they followed and potted them like rabbits! War has begun, friends. Nothing under the blue canopy can stop it now. American blood has been shed and I tell you it is but the beginning of the flood which must pour from our veins until these colonies are free!”
“Oh, Colonel! you do not believe that?” cried the widow. “Surely this trouble can be averted. Calmer and more honest men will gain control and prevail. War is an awful thing.”
“True, Widow Harding. And well may you say it who have two sons to give for freedom. But mark my words, madam! Those two boys of yours will be needed, and if the Almighty spares them they will be some years older before either side in this controversy gives in.... Now friends, I must away. You know what is expected of you, ’Siah. Young Nuck, you’ll be wanted at Bennington to-morrow.”
“Oh, shall our people really attack Ticonderoga?” cried Kate. “The schoolmaster says that is the strongest fortress in the Colonies.”
“Your schoolmaster is a bit of a Tory, I fear, miss,” said Allen, smiling down upon her. “We shall have to ‘view’ him if he tells such tales in school,” and waving his gauntleted hand he rode swiftly away from the homestead.
“I am off at once, folks,” said ’Siah, beginning to make his pack for the journey. “I’ll see you up near Old Ti, Nuck, for the Colonel means business sure! We may have some such doin’s up there as your father and I had under Rogers and Old Put years ago.”
He went away shortly and there was little the Hardings could do that day but talk over the wonderful news and let their fancy run upon the future. The widow saw that coming which she had feared for months, but she was cheerful. Nuck must go on this expedition to Lake Champlain, and she said it with unshaken voice. Bryce was to remain to guard the home, for there was no knowing what the result of the attack on Old Ti might be.
The alarming intelligence brought by Colonel Allen had its effect upon the younger members of the family as well as on the older, for late in the afternoon Harry came running to his mother with the information that there was a man lurking in the forest across the creek. The child had seen the stranger twice and being fearful that the man was there for no good purpose was much troubled. The older boys were in the field at work, but when the widow blew the horn Enoch came up to learn the cause, for it was not yet supper time. Hearing Harry’s report he seized his rifle and went to the creek bank, approaching the spot very carefully, for he feared at once that their enemy, Simon Halpen, might have dared follow him from Westminster.
He had scarcely reached the creek, however, when he was apprised of the identity of the visitor. A head, in the black locks of which a tuft of eagle feathers was fastened, appeared above the bushes, and the next moment the person thus betrayed came out into full view and beckoned him. It was Crow Wing who had approached the Harding place through the forest. Enoch leaped into his own boat and paddled across, remembering the Indian’s promise the year before to visit him at some time for the purpose of examining the vicinity of the spot where Jonas Harding had been slain.