The Hero of Ticonderoga Part 4

"It's a lie!"

"Call me a liar?" asked the sheriff, of his deputies.

"If you say we have got the writs, yes."

The sheriff raised his musket club fashion, and would have brained the speaker had not Isaac Gerston, one of the posse, caught his arm.

"Father Abraham!" he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed, "are you mad? What if the wallet is in the gra.s.s? Have you searched everywhere?"

The sheriff lowered his weapon, and all went on their hands and knees and felt among the gra.s.s, searching very diligently, but no wallet could be found.

A council of war was held. If the writs could not be found the sheriff would be punished. What excuse could be given?

"What shall we do?"

"Let us go to this man Allen's house, and surprise him. He will not resist, and we can take him prisoner, and in the meantime another writ can be obtained."

It was a risky thing to attempt, but there seemed no other course open, so the march was recommenced.

The loss of the wallet was a mystery. Not one of the posse believed it had been stolen, for they could not think a thief could have escaped detection.

The only surmise was that some squirrels had carried it up a tree. It was a ridiculous a.s.sumption, but the only one tenable.

When within a mile of Bennington Crossroads, where the Allens lived, one of the posse caught his foot in the root of a tree and fell flat on his face.

As he raised himself he felt something soft and slippery. He picked it up, and holding it above his head, cried out:

"The wallet! The wallet!"

The others, who had been a little behind, ran forward, and the sheriff at once accused him of having had the wallet all the time, and only when he fell and dropped it would admit its possession.

The man was indignant at the charge, but the suspicion was so strong that most of his companions believed the sheriff was right.

The latter opened the wallet and saw the great red seal. That was all he cared about it, and, placing it in his pocket securely, he very generously proposed that no more should be said about it.

CHAPTER IV.

"THE RISING OF THE MOON."

Eben Pike burst open the door of Ethan Allen's house without any ceremony.

Ethan and Seth Warner were sitting on the settee in the chimney, talking about the inaction of the governor of New York.

Off flew one of the bolts, and Ethan jumped to his feet and caught the lad by the shoulder, and was giving him a good shaking, when Eben cried out:

"Kill me if you like, colonel, but hear me first."

"Well, what is it?"

"The sheriff of Albany and a big lot of armed men are on their way here. I heard all their plans, and I have run all the way from Eagle's Bridge to tell you. You, colonel, are to be dispossessed first, and then Seth Warner, and if they can kill you, colonel, they will do so."

"Is this true?"

"Every word. I stole the wallet containing the writs, and here they are. I took them out of the wallet and threw that away, 'cause they might recognize it and find out how it was lost. Then I tore the governor's seal off the writs, 'cause that would be treason to steal them."

Eben handed the mutilated writs to Allen, and he saw that they were genuine enough.

"Will they come, now that they have lost the writs?" asked Warner.

"Yes, they will make believe they have got them."

"Then we must rally all the boys. Eben, you are a brave boy."

"Thank you, colonel. Do you want to shake me now?"

"No, my boy, and you can break off the bolts from every door in the house if you like."

"I'll go and fetch the boys."

"You are tired."

"No, Col. Allen, running never tired me yet. Let Ira go one way and I will go the other, for no time must be lost."

"You ought to be a general; you know just what should be done."

If Eben had been tired, those words of praise would have been enough to take away all feeling of fatigue.

Ethan made out a list of the men he wanted and gave each boy a copy.

"Keep as quiet as you can. Whisper your instructions. All you need say is, 'The moon will rise tonight,' and then the answer will be, 'At what time?' to which you will reply, 'As early as you are ready to see it.' That is all you need say."

"Will they come here then?"

"Yes, at once."

Warner hurried home to see that all was in readiness there to withstand an attack, and he left a speedy messenger to hurry to Allen's house in case the sheriff should go to Warner's first.

The first man met by Eben was Silva.n.u.s Brown.

"Silva.n.u.s, the moon will rise to-night."

Silva.n.u.s looked at the boy for a moment as though bewildered, but that feeling pa.s.sed away, and he asked:

"At what time?"