“Then I must have more men to my following than anybody else,” declared Allen, vigorously. “I have seen a great many myself, but there are districts I haven’t been able to reach.”
“We must send out a cross of fire to rouse the clans,” Captain Warner said, with a smile. “But who shall go? Bolderwood?”
“’Siah has reached his own land–where he’s let the light in upon some acres, I understand–near Old Ti. And he’s got his work cut out for him there. No; I have the chap in mind to send up along the Otter. There’s only one thing I fear. I understand that a plaguey Yorker has been seen about Manchester for a week past. Just what he’s so attentive to certain people for at this time bothers me, Seth.”
“But if he’s only a surveyor, or speculator—”
“A Yorker means a King’s man these times,” exclaimed Allen. “I got a sight of him–a lean, hook-nosed fellow with a face puckered like a walnut; but we didn’t pass the time o’ day. I think he’s spying on us.”
“If he is—” began Warner, wrathfully.
“I’m sorry for him, that’s all,” declared the Green Mountain leader. “If I catch him and it’s proven against him, I’ll hang him to the highest limb in this neck of woods.”
“But the person you will send out with the warning, Colonel?” cried Warner. “Whom have you in your mind?”
“I see him coming now,” declared the leader, laughing. “I sent word to him last evening. He should have been to Castleton ere this; but the widow—”
“It’s young Harding!” cried Captain Warner. “I recognize him. And, Colonel, from what I have seen of the young man, he’ll bear out your confidence in him.”