“Captain Holmes is there.”
“Yes. His brother is next in command, and Barlow next. I should not care to fight them if they are on their guard.”
“I never heard of this brother of Holmes’.”
“He has never been in Good Hope; I do not know that I have seen him. He is represented as a man under forty, active, vigilant and acute—a man formed by nature for a life in the woods.”
“You describe such a man as I take this very Bainbridge to be.”
“You are mistaken; I know the man well; he may have taken the attitude of a brave man because they were two to one; but, in reality, he is one of the most egregious cowards upon the face of the earth.”
“This is pleasant news to come to a man’s ears,” muttered the peddler, lying perdu beneath the shelter of the eaves. “They say listeners never hear any good of themselves, and I am not inclined to doubt it; but go on—go on, the time will come to settle yet, and I will give you back that coward in your teeth. Phew! how the rain comes down.”
“The Windsor people are not in a very strong stockade, and I think I may succeed. I shall march on the afternoon of to-morrow.”
“Who will you leave here?”
“I don’t know certainly. We shall not be long gone, and I think one of my blockheads may be trusted for a day. Come, taste this aqua vitæ, which was sent to me from Manhattan by my worthy friend, Wilhelem Kieft, and then to bed, to be ready for the morning. ’Tis a wild night.”