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Cornell University Library 
 PZ 7.S689GU 
 
 Guert Ten Eyck; a hero story, by W.O. Stod 
 
 3 1924 014 519 064 
 
The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924014519064 
 
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 LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO. 
 BOSTON 
 
GUERT TEN EYGK 
 
 A HERO STORY 
 
 BT 
 
 W. O. STODDARD 
 
 Author of 
 ''Chuoc Pdkdy," "Gm Granger," "Thk Battle op New YoaK," 
 
 and others 
 
 Elagtrattona ig jF. 5C. iWerrfll 
 
 BOSTON 
 LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO. 
 
COPTBIOBT, 1893. 
 
 BY 
 
 D. LOTHEOP COMPAMT. 
 
 AU riglits resened. 
 

 CONTENTS. 
 
 
 Chap. 
 I. 
 
 The New Toek Teacup ... 
 
 3 
 
 II. 
 
 The Shaeks m the Bat . . . , 
 
 21 
 
 in. 
 
 The Peess-gawg and the Noamk . , 
 
 43 
 
 IV. 
 
 The Cextise or the Noank 
 
 64 
 
 V. 
 
 Dispatches feom Boston . 
 
 85 
 
 VI. 
 
 The News feom Lexington 
 
 107 
 
 Vll. 
 
 The Geeat Chief and ITp-na-tan . 
 
 127 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Guns and Men 
 
 148 
 
 IX. 
 
 The Scouting Paett .... 
 
 171 
 
 X. 
 
 The Lost Battle .... 
 
 194 
 
 XI. 
 
 Cutting out the Noank . . . , 
 
 217 
 
 xn. 
 
 Tub H£bo ,,•..,, 
 
 288 
 
nST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Ouert, Co-co and TTp-na-tcm . . . Frontis. 
 " We must all spin, Maud. I dorCt want to wear a 
 
 yard of anything made in England " . . 29 
 
 " Think of the heft of him" said Qv£,rt ... 51 
 
 Boom ! boom I roared out the angry thunder of the 
 
 Merlin 73 
 
 Se was like Pond Mevere, carrying committee dis- 
 patches 91 
 
 " Guert, that was your father^s gun" . . . 121 
 
 « God bless the mothers of all the brave boys of 
 
 America" 143 
 
 Vp-na-tan handed out bag after bag to Co-co . . 153 
 " How^s fleet must be close at hand" . . . 185 
 " General Cornwallis, shall we shoot these fellows?" 211 
 
GUERT TEN EYCK. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE NEW YORK TEACUP. 
 
 rwas a placid-looking pond. In shape it was 
 long and irregular, but it was nearly two miles in 
 circumference. Southeast of it, on pretty high ground, 
 lay the Commons, or what some of the old Dutch set- 
 tlers still called the Vlacte, or Flat. Along the west- 
 erly side of that, and up past King's Farm on the 
 ridge, ran the splendid road known as Broadway, lined 
 with villas and fine, country-like residences. Winding 
 along at no great distance south of the big pond ran 
 Bowery Lane, turning up northerly and following the 
 estate lines untU it changed into the Bloomingdale 
 Road, and went out to the Harlem. East of Bowery 
 Lane lay the East Ward, where the De Lanceys lived, 
 and the Crugers, and no end of rich people ; and away 
 above the Commons and the pond were the North Ward 
 
 3 
 
4 GUERT TEN EYCK. 
 
 and Montgomery Ward, but they were more country 
 tlian city. 
 
 The great city, with its business and its commerce 
 and most of its inhabitants, lived below the corner 
 of Broadway and Bowery Lane, opposite St. Paul's 
 churchyard. South of the Commons were the Dock 
 Ward and the South Ward and most of the West Ward, 
 and they contained over twenty thousand people in 
 that year of 1774, if the slaves were to be counted. 
 
 The city of New York was growing great and rich, 
 and Guert Ten Eyck was sitting in his boat, away out 
 on the Fresh Water Pond, and was not thinking about 
 that. 
 
 The few perch and pumpkin seeds that were scat- 
 tered on the bottom of his boat did not speak loudly in 
 praise of his fishing ground. He was evidently a fel- 
 low capable of puUing in much larger fish ; for, without 
 being what some people would have called good-look- 
 ing, he was an exceedingly sturdy and muscular four- 
 teen-year-old, of full height for his age. He was 
 plainly but almost neatly dressed in butternut home- 
 spun. His brown hair curled a little closely, and his 
 keen gray eyes had a kind of dancing light in them. 
 That sort of boy is never contented to sit still at his 
 fishing any length of time without bites. In fact, you 
 can hardly expect him to be very still or contented 
 anywhere, for he must and will be doing something. 
 
 Guert was discontentedly thinking, therefore, and 
 
THE NEW YORK TEACUP. 
 
 he was glancing all around the pond. As he looked 
 northward, he could see nothing heyond the flags and 
 bushes along the shore, but he knew that a creek ran 
 out through them, and aU the way across the island 
 to the swampy border of the North River. When he 
 looked south, however, he could see a new boathouse 
 building near several others, and he exclaimed aloud : 
 
 " That's it. The reason the fish won't bite is, 
 they're aU fished out. There are too many folks com- 
 ing after 'em all the while." 
 
 " Ugh ! " came as if in reply from a deep, guttural 
 voice near him. " So, so ! Up-na-tan ! " 
 
 Guert was not startled, exactly, for he knew he had 
 been drifting and was now pretty near the only other 
 boat out. He had not tried to anchor his own to fish, 
 for the pond was deep. He could have run out fifty 
 feet of line there, and everybody knew that in some 
 places the pond was bottomless. StiU, what he saw, 
 as he twisted his head toward the speaker, did not 
 make him feel any better, for Up-na-tan was pulling 
 in a very large, fat bullhead. 
 
 " To, yo ! Yo-oh ! " chuckled and aU but shouted 
 another and very different voice, and an even larger 
 bullhead came whirling up, and was thrown flounder- 
 ing into the bottom of the rude punt which held the 
 successful fishermen. 
 
 Guert had now floated near enough to look in and see 
 that this was by no means the beginning of their luck. 
 
b GUEKT TEN EYCK. 
 
 "I say, Co-co," he asked, "how is it that you 
 can catch fish when nobody else can? You and 
 Up-na-tan? " 
 
 "Who you call Co-co?" sharply demanded the 
 almost weird-looking black man, who was sitting at one 
 end of the punt. " Name Senor Alfonso, any day de 
 fish bite. Call him Co-co some oder time. Yo, 
 dar ! " 
 
 Tall, sinewy, brawny, clad in ragged homespun 
 shirt and trousers, barefooted, with a face as black as 
 ink, but with woolly hair as white as the wool of a 
 sheep, and with hands that suggested the talons of a 
 condor, Co-co was indeed a remarkable figure. Even 
 when he laughed, he was all the uglier for his white 
 teeth. They were so good, but they were pointed. 
 They had been filed. No man wishing a slave would 
 have thought of buying Co-co after seeing him laugh. 
 
 "Did Up-na-tan catch as many as you did?" 
 asked Gruert. " What whoppers ! ' ' 
 
 "Up-na-tan great chief," remarked the fisherman 
 at the other end of the boat. 
 
 "Fish know him. Know he own 'em. All fish 
 come to Up-na-tan. Own pond. Own all island. 
 Own city. So, so ! Up-na-tan ! ' ' 
 
 A trifle taller than Co-co, but with straight, coarse 
 black hair and a dark, coppery-bronze complexion, the 
 deep leathery wrinkles of Up-na-tan's face ran across 
 a curious web of tattooing. His high nose, prominent 
 
THE NEW YORK TEACUP. 7 
 
 ears, thin lips and sloping forehead, with his sunken 
 eyes, gave him a face that had ia it as little beauty as 
 Co-co's own. 
 
 "No, you don't," thoughtfully replied Guert. "I 
 wish I knew how to fish. The Indians sold the whole 
 island, long ago." 
 
 "No sell for Up-na-tan," sternly responded the 
 red man. "He not dar. Not born here. Only 
 other Indian seU. All dead, now. No seU island for 
 Up-na-tan. He aU alone. Other Man-hat-tan aU 
 gone. He own all himself." 
 
 There must have been a pretty strong element of fun 
 in Guert, or he would not have poked any at so fero- 
 cious a subject as the gaunt Manhattan. He was 
 standing up now, looking aU the taUer for being in so 
 small a boat. He wore a battered straw hat, a dingy 
 red calico shirt, but below the broad belt at his waist 
 were fringed buckskin leggings and beaded moccasins 
 that had not been made by any pale-faced tailor. 
 
 " Yes, they did ; they sold it," said Guert tantaliz- 
 ingly. " Got a whole bushel of things for it. Sold 
 the fish, too." 
 
 "Look! " said Up-na-tan, waving his hand in a 
 circle. " AH Man-hat-tan land. Dutch come, give 
 bead, blanket, rum ; 'teal it aU. By and by redcoat 
 come, not give anyt'ing ; 'teal it aU. All w'ite men 
 cut land up ; say own it. Not own it. Up-na-tan 
 own it. Some day Mohawk come — Onondaga, Seneca, 
 
8 GUERT TEN EYCK. 
 
 Cayuga, Oneida, Tuscarora — kill all w'ite t'ief; give 
 island back to Man-hat-tan. Up-na-tan help. Black 
 man help ' ' — 
 
 " Yo, yo ! " suddenly exclaimed Co-co. "Not say 
 so much debbil. Not say 'bout brack man. Guert 
 good feUer. Nebber say a word. Up-na-tan got he 
 chief in he head. Get heself kill dead, if he don't 
 look out. ' ' 
 
 " 'Fraid he's got something else in his head," said 
 Guert to himself. "I'll go ashore. Old pirate! 
 Doesn't he look as if he reaUy had been one of Captain 
 Kidd'smen?" 
 
 He took to his oars as he spoke, and before the tall 
 savage sat down again, Guert had taken several vigor- 
 ous pulls. 
 
 " Co-co's another savage," he remarked, as he 
 tugged at his oars. "Never was a slave. Fought 
 his way out of a slaver. Killed ever so many Span- 
 iards. He's lived among the Mohawks, and so has 
 Up-na-tan. Old scalpers ! Cut my head off as quick 
 as look at me. But how they do hate the redcoats ! 
 So do I, some. They'd hang Co-co and Up-na-tan 
 both, though, if they heard them talk of a slave-rising 
 and the Mohawks." 
 
 He and the two dangerous-looking fishermen were 
 evidently not new acquaintances, and he seemed to 
 know what might be commonly known, or rumored, of 
 their history. From what he said there was nothing 
 
THE NEW YOEK TEACUP. 9 
 
 in it to make anybody wish to know them very well. 
 They on their part may have been already satisfied 
 with their day's luck, for before Guert was half-way to 
 ihe shore they were pulling after him. They were not 
 rowing, for each was working a broad-bladed paddle 
 with a skill and power that was marvelous. 
 
 "Take all fish to Mom Van Boom," said Co-co. 
 " Mebbe some dose Souf Sea debbil come ashore." 
 
 Up-na-tan replied, but not in a tongue to be under- 
 stood by civilized people. Either of them could doubt- 
 less have conversed with an Iroquois, and perhaps with 
 red men of other tribes, but what was to be made of 
 talk which contained also English words, Dutch, Span- 
 ish, and to which Co-co added more than one rough 
 exclamation which must have come all the way from 
 Africa ? The very filing of his sharkish teeth proved 
 that he himself had done so ; and not only their talk, 
 but the expression of their faces indicated that both of 
 them were just now excited and were thinking of some 
 plot or errand of much more than ordinary interest. 
 
 Gruert's boat reached the shore first, and, as he 
 sprang out, leaving his despised perch and pumpkin- 
 seeds behind him, he exclaimed : 
 
 " I wish mother had some fish, but it's no use. I'm 
 going down to see what the Mohawks and Liberty Boys 
 are doing about that tea. ' ' 
 
 Plainly as he was dressed, there was something in 
 the very way he walked, and much more in his correct- 
 
10 GUERT TEN" ETCK. 
 
 ness of speech, which marked him out as a boy of 
 pretty fair education. 
 
 "I don't care," was his next remark to himself, 
 ' ' Up-na-tan has as good a right to this land as King 
 George has. I heard them say so at the Liberty 
 meeting on the Common. I don't want any tea, and 
 mother says she'll never drink another drop. Hurrah 
 for the Liberty Boys ! " 
 
 Whatever he meant by all that, there was, neverthe- 
 less, more than one tea-fight going on at that very 
 hour of midday meals and luncheons. 
 
 One was just beginning in the ample dining-room of 
 an elegant mansion just beyond the fork of Bowery 
 Lane with the Bloomingdale Road. The long, highly- 
 polished mahogany table was not set for a dinner, but 
 at one end of it several ladies seemed about to seat 
 themselves, and among the luncheon furniture before 
 them was a steaming tea-urn of solid silver. 
 
 If they had been about to sit down they had not yet 
 done so, and one of them, a prim, stern-looking, dark- 
 faced woman, was putting all her considerable weight 
 into the indignation with which she demanded : 
 
 "Sarah Murray, what does thee mean by putting 
 this stuiF before me ? Does thee suppose I would drink 
 it? I should think it would choke thee." 
 
 "No; it won't, Rachel Tarns," laughingly replied 
 the lady of the house, with one jeweled, hand on the 
 faucet of the tea-urn. "You had better sit down. 
 
THE NEW YORK TEACUP. 11 
 
 It's the last tea you wiU get in this house. It came 
 from the West Indies ' ' — 
 
 "Does thee mean it never paid George his tax? " 
 asked Rachel Tarns. 
 
 "Not a penny," exclaimed Mrs. Murray; and 
 there was more light than usual in her fine but some- 
 what mocking hazel eyes, as she added : " There won't 
 be any taxed tea m this house, but I mean to save 
 some for treats. Sit down, Mrs. Ten Eyck " — 
 
 ' ' Maud Wolcott, why art thou so red in the face ? ' ' 
 exclaimed Rachel. But the answer came suddenly. 
 
 A slight, graceful, very pretty girl, of perhaps fifteen, 
 had entered the dining-room with a haste and dash 
 altogether out of rule. Her chip hat was swinging in 
 her hand, and her light ripples of flaxen hair were down 
 about her shoulders as she breathlessly reported : 
 
 " Aunt Murray, I walked aU the way. I ran, too. 
 They've found the tea. It's on board the London. 
 The Liberty Boys and the committee say it sha'n't be 
 landed. There are no men-of-war in the harbor, and 
 they say there are not enough soldiers to protect the 
 tea, unless they take it into the fort. There's going to 
 be a battle. Oh ! I wish I were a man." 
 
 ' ' Mistress Murray, ' ' slowly remarked a dignified- 
 looking woman, bridling angrily as she arose from the 
 table, " it is time for me to go. It is time for me 
 to go. No member of the De Lancey family can sit 
 and listen to treason. ' ' 
 
12 GUEET TEN ETCK. 
 
 " Sit down, Jane," replied Mrs. Murray. " Drink 
 your tea. We are as loyal as you are. What are 
 they doing, Maud ? ' ' 
 
 " Such a crowd. Aunt Murray. Everybody's so 
 excited. There's going to* he a meeting on the Com- 
 mons. The ship's out in the river, where they can't 
 get at it. I hope they'll pitch it overboard, and I said 
 so to Aleck Hamilton. ' ' 
 
 "Did you see my son?" asked Mrs. Ten Eyck. 
 " He is down there." 
 
 "I didn't see Gruert," said Maud, " but there are 
 swarms of boys, and they are aU getting clubs." 
 
 Miss De Lancey's eagerness to hear the news may 
 have assisted Mrs. Murray's urgency in getting her 
 seated again, but her aristocratic face was flushed, and 
 she beat the floor with one foot while Maud replied to 
 curious questions of all sorts. The remarks that were 
 dropping thick and fast were by no means complimen- 
 tary to either Kiag George or his ministers, and ex- 
 treme loyalism could not but perceive that there was 
 peril to the crown and throne, if this sort of thing were 
 to go on. 
 
 As for Maud, so young a girl was not expected to 
 take a noon-tea with her elders, and she speedily dis- 
 appeared, remarking to herself : " They will never land 
 any in New London — not while Uncle Wolcott is gov- 
 ernor. They won't in Boston, either. I wish these 
 New York people were all Yankees." 
 
THE NEW YORK TEACUP. 13 
 
 She need not have wished them to be any more 
 angrily stirred up concerning tea and taxes, nor any 
 more defiant of George the Third, for all she had re- 
 lated of the excitement in the city feU short of the 
 reality. Doubtless things had gone from bad to worse 
 since she set out for the Murray Mansion with her 
 news, for when Gruert reached the corner of Wall and 
 Broad Streets, he found that there had already been a 
 kind of rebellion. It had not as yet called for a battle, 
 and nobody had been hurt ; but he heard a man say : 
 
 "Yes, sir; they are going to board the London. 
 We'll teach King George how to make tea." 
 
 If there had been, up to that moment, anything 
 doubtful or thoughtful about the manner of Guert Ten 
 Eyck, it vanished as he heard that, and he exclaimed : 
 
 ' ' I can get there first. I can reach the Albany pier 
 before they can. Hurrah ! " 
 
 There was probably something in knowing just where 
 to go, but the general crowd of boys that he turned 
 away from went marching down Broadway with an aU 
 but orderly procession of stalwart men. 
 
 "Those are Liberty Boys," Guert had remarked. 
 "Why didn't they wait and get out the Mohawks? 
 No time to paint and fix up, I s'pose. I'U get there." 
 
 He was running now, and he ran very well indeed, 
 past the fine residences on Wall and Broad Streets and 
 out through the narrow cross streets which led to the 
 East River docks and basins. 
 
14 GUEET TEN ETCK. 
 
 His comparative slowness just after leaving the pond, 
 however, had given an advantage to a pair of very fast 
 walkers, taking a shorter cut, and the two lucky fisher- 
 men were already entering a low-built, tavern-like 
 place, not far from the foot of a long wooden pier that 
 jutted out into the water as if it were aiming at a 
 three-masted merchantman, lying at anchor out in the 
 stream. Over the door swung a sign with a rudely- 
 painted, open-jawed shark's head. 
 
 Co-co and the Manhattan were walking right in, 
 through a narrow entry in the middle of what might he 
 called the Shark's Head Inn, when their way was 
 barred by a woman who seemed to almost fill the 
 passageway. 
 
 " Squaw get out of chief's way," growled the In- 
 dian haughtily ; but Co-co only remarked : 
 
 ' ' Mom Van Boom ' ' — before he was cut off by 
 sharp, decisive utterances of her own. 
 
 Translated from Dutch into EngUsh and illustrated 
 by gesticulations, they meant : 
 
 " The redskin may go in, but that black fellow does 
 not belong there. He can't go in. " 
 
 Co-co's temper was showing itself in his face dan- 
 gerously, but his friend put out one hand and pushed 
 the landlady by the shoulder, while with the other he 
 pointed at his comrade, and said : 
 
 " No Co-co. Senor Alfonso. So, so ! Up-na-tan. 
 Mom Van Boom get out of the way. ' ' 
 
THE KEW TOEK TEACUP. 15 
 
 Almost anybody living would have done so, glancing 
 in those two faces ; but a gleam of intelligence shot 
 across that of Mom Van Boom, and she stepped aside. 
 As she did so, Co-co handed her a pretty heavy string 
 of perch and bullheads, saying something in Dutch 
 about what may have been a tavern score she had 
 against him. She and her finny load went out of the 
 entry through a door at the left, while her two unhand- 
 some guests stalked on through the house, went across 
 a small paved yard, and a door that was at once opened 
 before them let them into a room which seemed to be 
 dense with the smoke from many tobacco pipes. 
 
 Just as Co-co, if he were not to be feathered as 
 Senor Alfonso, with Up-na-tan, disappeared through 
 that low doorway, Guert Ten Eyck came springing like 
 a young deer toward the Albany pier, exclaiming : 
 
 "I'll take any boat I can find. It isn't any time to 
 pick and choose." 
 
 There was no picking and choosing for any man to 
 do in that vicinity. It was not any kind of boating 
 station. There was not even a vessel lying at that 
 wharf, although others above were by no means un- 
 occupied, and there was a large Bast Indiaman in the 
 West Dock undergoing repairs. 
 
 The tide was running out, and it floated, at the end 
 of a short hawser, a very serviceable-looking little craft 
 that plainly did not belong to any ship. 
 
 "Hurrah!" shouted Gruert, pulling it in, and 
 
16 GUERT TEN ETCK. 
 
 springing on board. " Steven De Lancey's Petrel. 
 Wouldn't he be mad if he knew what she's going to 
 do ? Two pair of oars and a sail. ' ' 
 
 He did not put the sail up, but he had cast loose in 
 a moment, and he showed right good muscle as well as 
 skill in the way he sculled the Petrel out and across 
 toward the West Dock. 
 
 "There go the Liberty Boys," he shouted. "I'll 
 be there in time. They're going out after the tea." 
 
 While he was making the Petrel — the first prize 
 captured in the long struggle against King George and 
 his taxes — Up-na-tan and Co-co were talking, in other 
 tongues than English, with a lot of men who were almost 
 as remarkable as they were themselves. That is, they 
 looked like seafaring men, picked out of the worst lots 
 that could be found, all over the world. One of them 
 was a Chinaman, and another looked like a Malay, and 
 another may have been a South Sea Islander. It was 
 hard to guess where all the rest of the baker's dozen 
 came from ; and what they might be there for was even 
 a greater mystery. If there had been a British man- 
 of-war in the harbor, short of seamen, it would have 
 needed to send half its crew as a press-gang to capture 
 the sailor guests of Mom Van Boom. They all carried 
 sheath-knives openly, but only one of their number, 
 seemingly of some authority, wore a sword. It was 
 a "hanger," a cut- and- thrust weapon, half-way be- 
 tween a cutlass and a gentleman's dress sword. 
 
THE NEW TOEK TEACUP. 17 
 
 Co-co was on his dignity, and, as if by common con- 
 sent, they called' him Senor, while they seemed to have 
 an especial knowledge of, and respect for, " the chief," 
 as they called the Manhattan. Not any ordinary 
 chance listener could have gathered much information 
 from the conversation, but it seemed to relate to some 
 deeply interesting subject, if not to several subjects, 
 such as might interest that kind, or those kinds of men. 
 
 Mom Van Boom was in her kitchen, preparing bull- 
 heads for the frying-pan, and she had hardly thrown 
 in her first fish when Gruert Ten Byck, sculling the 
 Petrel up to the wharf, was greeted with : 
 
 "HaUoo, boy ! We want that boat." 
 
 " That's what I brought her for, Mr. Verplanck," 
 shouted Guert. "I want four oarsmen, though. 
 ■We'll put the Liberty Boys right on board the 
 London." 
 
 "You are one of them," responded, heartily, an- 
 other voice. " We needed another boat." 
 
 " Here she is," said Guert ; and he looked as if he 
 had woti a victory. 
 
 His brown-tanned face was all aglow ; his eyes were 
 jubilant, and so was his voice. He seemed a year 
 older. He did not know how perfectly he was a repre- 
 sentative of all the hearty, healthy boys of the land he 
 belonged to ; brimming with courage, intelligence and 
 love of adventure, but ready, first of all, to take fire 
 in opposition to anything like tyranny or oppression. 
 
18 
 
 GUEKT TEN EYCK. 
 
 If he knew very little about the authority of the 
 King and Parliament to levy taxes on the American 
 colonies, he felt, by instinct, that he was in the right 
 place, steering a boat for the grown-up patriots who 
 were going to board the London. Stronger arms took 
 possession of the oars, but Guert seated himself at the 
 rudder, no one objecting, and the boat was instantly 
 fuU of men. None of them were armed, apparently, 
 but all wore looks of grim determination. There were 
 three other boats, of different sizes, putting oif at the 
 same time ; but orders shouted by some one in command 
 kept them in company, and they aU arrived together at 
 the starboard side of the London. One man was left 
 in each boat, but Guert was among the swarm that 
 clambered over the low bulwarks of the vessel contain- 
 ing the tea that threatened the liberties of America. 
 
 Away up, beyond the Bowery Lane, a little luncheon 
 party of ladies was just then breaking up with a deal 
 of stiffness and formality, considering they were aU old 
 neighbors, who had known each other from childhood. 
 
 "It will be treason if they touch that tea," said 
 Miss De Lancey. ' ' How can a Quaker like Rachel 
 Tarns favor rebellion ? ' ' 
 
 " Thee is wrong, Jane," said Rachel. " I counsel 
 not the use of carnal weapons, nor resistance to author- 
 ity, but I wiU not drink thy tea after it is taxed. ' ' 
 
 Barely was Miss De Lancey out of hearing before 
 Maud Wolcott loudly whispered to the unpeaceful- 
 
THE NEW YORK TEACUP. 19 
 
 looking disciple of WiUiam Penn : "Eachel Tarns, I 
 wouldn't say it while she was here — they are really 
 going to pitch it all overboard." 
 
 i " Thee is a good girl," said Kachel. " Thy people 
 in Connecticut wiU not be partakers of the evil thing. " 
 
 "Aunt Murray won't," said Maud, "nor any of 
 the Wolcotts." 
 
 On board the London it began to look as if Maud 
 might be correct. There was no loud talking, and there 
 was no need for violence. Men went at once down 
 into the hold, and a tackle was rigged down a hatchway. 
 
 " Ready? " asked the man at the tackle. 
 
 " Up ! " shouted a voice below, and a fine green tea- 
 chest came swinging up and was landed on the deck. 
 
 Down went the tackle-hooks for another, but Guert 
 could not have restrained himself, if he had tried. He 
 was at the side of that tea-chest like a flash, and it 
 went end over end to the side of the vessel. 
 
 "Up!" again shouted the men below, but the 
 word seemed also a command to a couple of stalwart 
 patriots who had followed Guert. He did not have to 
 lift the chest after he had knocked off its cover with a 
 hand spike. It arose to the bulwark as if it did not 
 weigh an ounce, and out went the fragrant China leaves 
 into the salt water. 
 
 That was the last chest Guert could get hold of. 
 One after another, more came up, however, until no 
 less than, eighteen had been opened and emptied. 
 
20 GUEKT TEN EYCK. 
 
 "It's all there was on board," said Guert. " What 
 a pity ; I wish there had been a thousand. It's 
 pretty weak tea." 
 
 He was looking into the water as he said that, but 
 there was a general movement toward the boats, and it 
 forced him to think of the Petrel. 
 
 "Steve De Lancey'U never know," he said, as he 
 went down into her; "but if it's treason, his boat 
 helped do it. I want to tell mother and Maud 
 Wolcott." 
 
 He was not to teU the story of his wonderful after- 
 noon to anybody up town, right away. His first land- 
 ing was made quickly enough, and after the men were 
 out of her he sculled the Petrel to the wharf where he 
 had found her. 
 
 Two taU figures stood there, watching him as if 
 waiting for him. No sooner did the boat's nose come 
 within their reach than Up-na-tan first and then Co-co 
 stepped on board, pushed her off with sudden vigor, and 
 silently put up the saU. Guert was so astonished that 
 for a moment he said nothing, but the first indignant 
 protest he uttered was replied to by : 
 
 " Chief no hurt boy. Bring him back safe. Want 
 boat. So, so ! Up-na-tan." 
 
 ' ' Whar you been ? ' ' asked Co-co somberly, and 
 Guert was willing enough to tell them about the tea, 
 while they steered the Petrel straight out for Butter- 
 milk Channel, that led to the bay and the sea. 
 
CHAPTER n. 
 
 THE SHARKS IN THE BAY. 
 
 THERE was a ringing of rapid horse-hoofs upon the 
 graveled carriage-way leading up to the piazza 
 of the Murray mansion. 
 
 The guests who had so nearly quarreled over the tea 
 question had all departed, and they had all gone away 
 on good terms with Mrs. Murray. She was a very 
 bright, polite, hospitable little woman, with a rare tact 
 for meeting aU sorts of people, and for saying what she 
 pleased to them without letting them get offended. 
 That was why, perhaps, people on opposite sides could 
 come to her house and talk at each other. So it was 
 about the best visited house in aU that neighborhood. 
 
 " Somebody's coming ! " exclaimed Maud, hurrying 
 out, and in a moment more Mrs. Murray herself greeted 
 a horseman, who was dismounting at the foot of the 
 steps, with : 
 
 "0, Steven ! Your Aunt Jane has just gone home. 
 Is there any more news ? Tell me, quick ! " 
 
 21 
 
22 GUERT TEN ETCK. 
 
 Maud Wolcott was just behind her, and added 
 excitedly : 
 
 "Please, Mr. De Lancey! What did they do with 
 the tea?" 
 
 He was a broad-shouldered, handsome young fellow, 
 carefully well-dressed, and his somewhat haughty face 
 was more than a little flushed, as he replied : 
 
 "I've raced all the way down from East Chester. 
 Mounted and rode as soon as I heard that anything 
 was up. The rebels ! I stopped here to learn what I 
 could" — 
 
 "0, dear! " exclaimed Mrs. Murray. "I hoped 
 you could teU us something. All we know is " — and 
 with Maud's help the young patrician quickly knew as 
 much as they did, and perhaps more than they knew, 
 with any certainty. 
 
 The young man heard with every token of well-bred 
 deference, but he said : 
 
 " There should have been a regiment of the line 
 there, or at least a company of troopers, to scatter 
 those fellows. I'll ride on down, and find out what 
 they did. It is time loyal men began to do something. ' ' 
 
 " Why, Mr. De Lancey! " exclaimed Maud, won- 
 deringly. " You are not on the wrong side, are you? 
 Isn't this your own country ? " 
 
 De Lancey bowed low, for the enthusiastic young 
 rebel was looking her very prettiest ; but he was true 
 to his principles, for he said : 
 
THE SHARKS IN THE BAT. 23 
 
 "Yes; it is, Miss Wolcott. It is my country and 
 my king's. I belong to the king. My ancestors have 
 been the king's men since they rode behind William to 
 conquer England. Every De Lancey will be found on 
 the right side, if there is to be any trouble now." 
 
 "Oh! I hope there won't be," exclaimed Mrs. 
 Murray. " Why, Steven, it would be dreadful. I'm 
 as loyal as you are to the king. But then, his 
 ministers ' ' — 
 
 That gave Steven a chance to escape, for his face 
 brightened, and he turned to his horse, saying : 
 
 " Now, Mrs. Murray, that's politics. I'm not in 
 Parliament. I'll go." 
 
 Just as he was mounting, he could have heard 
 Maud's sharp rejoinder : 
 
 " My uncle. Governor Wolcott of Connecticut, says 
 that's the difficulty. They won't let Americans send 
 anybody to Parliament. We are governed without our 
 own consent." 
 
 De Lancey was in the saddle, with the ease and 
 grace of a perfect horseman, and he only lifted and 
 waved his hat, smiling at both the ladies, as he spurred 
 hastily away to gallop down the Bowery Lane. He 
 was on his way home, too, for his own family mansion 
 looked out upon the East River, below the broad acres 
 of the Stuyvesants. 
 
 ' ' He would make a splendid captain of cavalry, ' ' 
 muttered Mrs. Murray, as he disappeared. " The 
 
24 GTJEET TEN ETCK. 
 
 De Lanceys were Cavaliers when the Murrays were 
 Covenanters." 
 
 Perhaps, therefore, the roots of the opposition to 
 kingly rule went down deeper than the tea-tax question. 
 So far, at least, as the New York Dutch were con- 
 cerned, none of them could fairly be expected to feel 
 like the De Lanceys. Neither could Indians, nor black 
 people, nor Quakers, nor New England Puritans, such 
 as the Wolcotts. 
 
 Maud herself had darted into the house, and she 
 now came out with her hat on, exclaiming : 
 
 " Aunt Murray, please let me go over to Mrs. Ten 
 Byck's. Guert may have gotten home. He will 
 know everything." 
 
 " Go, go ! " eagerly responded Mrs. Murray. ' ' Find 
 what they did with the tea. I'm glad I've half a chest 
 in the storeroom that didn't pay duty. Come right 
 back." 
 
 Maud was already down the steps, and her hat on 
 her head wrong side foremost. 
 
 "There are other men," she said to herself, " that 
 will make as good soldiers as Steven De Lancey or any 
 of them. I wish I could fight ! I'll just see what 
 Guert has to say. ' ' 
 
 He was having quite enough to say at that very 
 moment. All his talk about the tea had long since 
 ended, and his savage-looking friends had heard his 
 account with strong expressions of approval. He had 
 
THE SHARKS IN THE BAT. 25 
 
 seemed to grow, before their very eyes, from a mere 
 boy — for whose mother they had sometimes done 
 farmwork, as appeared in the conversation — iato a 
 daring young rover, who had actually been in a board- 
 ing party and had helped capture a ship. It was a 
 kind of service which appealed to them peculiarly, and 
 they said so to each other in tongues that he did not 
 understand. As for other talk, they greatly preferred 
 Dutch, and Guert was at home in that. 
 
 His present burst of questions was prompted by the 
 fact that the Petrel had already tacked her way through 
 Buttermilk Channel. She was now below Governor's 
 Island, and Co-co, at the tiller, was pointing her sharp 
 nose right out into the broad New York Bay. 
 
 ' ' Where are we going ? ' ' again and very earnestly 
 demanded Guert. 
 
 " Yo, yo ! " laughed Co-co. " Go ober sea. Talk 
 King George 'bout tea-ship." 
 
 "No talk," said the Manhattan gloomily. " Up- 
 na-tan head heap full. Hard think. ' ' 
 
 Guert was silent, for he, too, was thinking hard ; and 
 he did not at all like the look of things. The Petrel 
 was a stanch boat, and they were prime seamen ; but 
 the breeze on the bay was fresh, and the little yacht 
 was leaning over almost gunwale under, as she drove 
 on into rougher and rougher water. 
 
 " The old pirate ! " he said to himself. " Co-co' s 
 as bad as he is. He was an Ashantee warrior. Worst 
 
26 GUEKT TEK ETCK. 
 
 kind. Regular old cannibal. Wish he'd never come 
 from Africa. Where on earth are they taking me? 
 There's no fishing now done out here. WeU, yes; 
 there is. I wasn't thinking of hluefish." 
 
 The red man and his African mate had thought of it, 
 however, for now a couple of lines, mounted with bone- 
 squid hooks, were produced, and the crew of the Petrel 
 had a good excuse to offer for being out in the Bay. 
 
 ' ' Guert take line, ' ' said Up-na-tan. ' ' No bullhead 
 here. Catch heap." 
 
 There was a very strong impression on Gruert's mind, 
 he could not say why, that fishing was not by any means 
 the real errand they were on. He felt dreadfully uneasy, 
 too, about being with them in what was really a stolen 
 boat, for the city laws concerning such things were 
 cruelly severe. It was especially ordained that no 
 black man should own such a boat as the Petrel, and 
 that no black man, slave or free, should use one with- 
 out especial permission or responsible white company. 
 
 Indians were left more at liberty, for they were very 
 few around New York ; but then, Up-na-tan was the 
 most suspicious character among them, and was liable 
 to be strictly dealt with at any time. Most good citi- 
 zens believed and declared that he ought to have been 
 taken to Gibbet Island long ago. 
 
 Guert's thoughts, as he watched his squid twinkling 
 in the wake of the boat, were suddenly interrupted by 
 the vigorous "strike" of a bluefish, and in a second 
 
THE SHARKS IN THE BAT. 27 
 
 more he was pulling in with all his strength, for he had 
 hooked a ten-pounder. 
 
 " Yo, yo ! " shouted Co-co, as the Manhattan 
 jerked his line and began to haul upon a heavier fish 
 than Guert's. 
 
 " Up-na-tan own hay. Ugh! " responded the In- 
 dian. " Own heap hluefish. Own shark." 
 
 Guert saw little meaning in that remark for a minute 
 or so ; but just as he lifted his struggling prize, and 
 triumphantly threw him down to flop on the bottom of 
 the boat, a side-glance to leeward showed him a foamy 
 flash on the crest of a wave. It was followed by a long 
 black-and-white streak and a plunging leap, and he 
 knew that he had seen the largest shark he had ever 
 yet seen. 
 
 ' ' Ugh ! ' ' said Up-na-tan ; but a look of the most 
 intense ferocity shot across the face of the Ashantee as 
 he remarked : 
 
 "Know w'ot dat mean. Shark follow slave-ship 
 aU de way. Co-co see 'em, one day. Now he ready. 
 Grlad Loo-ard Island men come. Co-co help." 
 
 "Slave-ship?" thought Guert. "There hasn't 
 been one of 'em here in a long while. New York 
 folks don't want any more wild black men. Not since 
 the bloody rising. So mother says. Three of hers 
 were hung then. Awful! But there won't any be 
 landed here. What do he and old Up-na-tan mean ? " 
 
 They seemed to mean bluefishing, but it would 
 
28 GUERT TEN ETCK. 
 
 soon be too dark for that ; and still the Petrel was 
 tacking back and forth, with very fair sport for her 
 crew, but farther and farther from Manhattan Island, 
 and frOni the home supper-table, which Guert was 
 longing for with an increasingly sharp appetite. 
 
 "Up-na-tan," he said suddenly, " look! There's 
 a two-master lying this side o' the Kill von KuU, 
 toward the reef. What on earth could make 'em 
 anchor there ? ' ' 
 
 " Ugh ! " grunted the Indian. " Heap shark." 
 
 Guert just then heard a sound of gritting teeth, and 
 turned his head ; but he turned away again, for he did 
 not feel like saying anything to a face like that with 
 which Co-co was glaring at the anchored schooner 
 toward which the Petrel was tacking. 
 
 It was a tack to windward, and the boat was now 
 pitching so that the fishing-lines were pulled in. They 
 had really taken a fine catch of bluefish, if the takers 
 could succeed in getting them to market without being 
 punished for boat-stealing. 
 
 "What a strange smell," remarked Guert, as they 
 swept nearer, and the wind came to them across the 
 schooner. ' ' I can see the sharks now. They are 
 tearing something. Floundering. ' ' 
 
 " Keep away ! " came down the wind, in a hoarse, 
 threatening voice. 
 
 Almost instantly the Petrel changed her course, and 
 sped away in another direction; but the Ashantee 
 
THE SHARKS IN THE BAT. 31 
 
 spoke fiercely, in rough gutturals, to Up-na-tan, and 
 the Indian responded as fiercely. All that Gruert could 
 understand was : 
 ■ " Co-co know aU he want." 
 
 " Shark eat heap dis time. Glad see plenty shark. 
 So, so ! Up-na-tan ! " 
 
 His temper seemed cooler than that of his black 
 firiend ; but it was all as yet a deep mystery to Guert 
 Ten Eyck. He might have understood some things 
 better, perhaps, if he could have known what was 
 taking place miles and miles behind him. 
 
 Maud Wolcott met no wayfarers as she hurried 
 along, up and across the dusty Bloomingdale Road. 
 Probably everybody who could be down in the city was 
 away from home that day. She came to a roadside 
 gate that stood invitingly open. So did the door in 
 the middle of a long, low stoop at the head of the 
 walk, and she tripped on into the house without 
 knocking ; but she exclaimed inquiringly : 
 
 "Mrs. Ten Eyck?" 
 
 " This way, dear. Come right in," responded a 
 voice from a room behind the little parlor at the left of 
 the entry. 
 
 "Mrs. Ten Eyck, has Guert gotten home? What 
 did they do with the tea ? ' ' 
 
 " Guert has not returned," replied Mrs. Ten Eyck, 
 in a very thoughtful tone. " I fear there is trouble in 
 the city. It is getting late. " 
 
32 GUEKT TEN EYCK. 
 
 " Oh ! I wish he would come," said Maud excitedly ; 
 but if Mrs. Ten Eyck were under any uncommon 
 excitement, her only expression of it was the exceed- 
 ing rapidity and industry with which she plied her tall 
 spinning-wheel, stepping back and forth with a light- 
 ness of foot and quickness of hand which may have 
 meant something more than mere skill. 
 
 In a roomy alcove at the right, behind the entry and 
 its twisting stairway, stood a large loom, and Mrs. Ten 
 Eyck glanced at it as she remarked : 
 
 "We must all spin, Maud. American women must 
 all be weavers. We must make our own cloth. I 
 don't want to wear a yard of anything that is made in 
 England." 
 
 " So mother says," said Maud. " We can all spin, 
 and we can weave, too — mother, and both of my aunts 
 and my grandmother. I can weave. The trouble is 
 about the carding, and we haven't sheep enough." 
 
 " I wish there were not so many dogs," said Mrs. 
 Ten Eyck. " They keep down the flocks. The wolves, 
 too, are awful up the river and in the Mohawk valley. 
 I suppose it's just so in New England. What be- 
 tween Indians and wild beasts and redcoats and King 
 George " — 
 
 She was interrupted by a loud knocking at the outer 
 door, and she stopped her wheel to foUow Maud's 
 hasty-going feet. She was only half-way through the 
 parlor when she heard her young friend almost shout : 
 
THE SHARKS IN THE BAT. 33 
 
 "Aleck Hamilton, what did the Liberty Boys do 
 with the tea?" 
 
 " Threw it into the harbor," replied a boyish voice, 
 as fuU of eagerness as her own. " Aaron Burr and I 
 stood on the pier " — 
 
 "Hurrah!" began Maud, but Mrs. Ten Eyck 
 stepped past her, and held out a hand to a second 
 young gentleman, who had been detained a moment 
 to hitch his pony at the gate, but who now walked in. 
 
 "I am glad to see you, Mr. Burr," she said. 
 ' ' How are your father and mother ? ' ' 
 
 Hospitality required so much of a formal welcome ; 
 but the two boys were compelled to make an effort in 
 preserving their own good manners. Perhaps they 
 were helped by the great dignity with which Mrs. Ten 
 Eyck seemed to assert her social position, in spite of 
 the evident plainness of her circumstances. Her house 
 was small and farm-like, and there was only a mod- 
 erately good farm behind it, but there was nothing 
 humble in the ways of the patriotic mistress of the 
 domain. 
 
 Aaron Burr replied gracefully as to his family, and 
 added : 
 
 ' ' I came over to get some books for father, just 
 arrived from London. I've sent them on by a carrier, 
 and came up this way on another errand, to one of his 
 friends." 
 
 ' ' But you saw them throw the tea overboai-d ? ' ' 
 
34 GUERT TEN ETCK. 
 
 burst from the lips of Mrs. Ten Byck. " Was there 
 any fighting? " 
 
 " Was Guert there ? " asked Maud. 
 
 " No ; no fighting," said Aaron. 
 
 "I saw Guert in one of the boats," said Hamilton. 
 " Aaron didn't know. There's to be a great meeting 
 caUed." 
 
 " How will they like this in Newark ? " asked Mrs. 
 Ten Eyck. 
 
 Aleck Hamilton was the shorter and slighter of the 
 two boys. He seemed only a year or so older than 
 Guert, but Aaron looked fully eighteen and mature for 
 his age. He had, too, a peculiar polish and suavity 
 of manner, considering how full his young face was of 
 courage, if not of headlong self-will. 
 
 "The Jersey men will be ready," he said; "but 
 I'm coming over again in a few weeks. Father says — 
 we all say — there must be news from Boston by that 
 time. We don't get it quickly enough. Don't know 
 what's going on." 
 
 " There'll be news from Connecticut, too," saidMaud. 
 " We won't take any of their tea. They can't land any 
 at New London. Young Mr. De Lancey says we are 
 all rebels. We ought to be put down by the redcoats." 
 
 There was a fierce flash in the eyes of Aaron Burr as 
 he responded : 
 
 "Miss Wolcott, if it comes to that, I'm a Connecti- 
 cut man. I'm coming to fight under Old Put ! " 
 
THE SHARKS IN THE BAT. 35 
 
 "Thee mustn't talk treason," exclaimed a strong 
 and sharply sarcastic voice behind them. " Thee 
 must submit thyself to thy king and to his servants, 
 and thee must swaUow his tea ; but if thee wants to 
 go and visit with that good man Israel Putnam, Rachel 
 Tarns will pay thy expenses." 
 
 "Eachel," laughed Mrs. Ten Eyck, "you are not 
 a good Quaker. What have you to do with young 
 rebels?" 
 
 " That is none of thy business, Anneke Ten Eyck," 
 replied the Quakeress grimly. ' ' What I came here for 
 was to find out about the landing of that tea. Were 
 all our men such cowards that they did not dare ' ' — 
 
 There was fun in Aleck Hamilton as well as in Maud, 
 for they burst into peals of laughter, joined by Aaron, 
 shouting : " The tea is all in the East River ! " 
 
 " God be praised ! " said Rachel earnestly. " We 
 must submit to the powers that be, but I'd shed the 
 last drop of my blood ' ' — 
 
 There she paused, and there was a swift exchange of 
 questions and answers, while the boys filled up the first 
 bare outlines of their news with ample and graphic 
 accounts of the manner in which the East River had 
 been turned into a teapot. 
 
 Long before that conversation began, there had been 
 eomething else which might have interested Guert Ten 
 Eyck if he had known it. 
 
 Very quickly after the departure of Co-co and 
 
36 GUERT TEN EYCK. 
 
 Up-na-tan, the huge, smoky, low-ceilinged kitchen of 
 Mom Van Boom's Shark's Head Tavern was worth 
 looking into. All the remarkable sailors with whom 
 the negro and the Indian had been in council were 
 there. Mom Van Boom and a colored helper were 
 busily supplying them with fried perch and bullheads, 
 and these were disappearing as fast as they came from 
 the pan. The specially noteworthy point was the per- 
 fect order maintained by these men. They were all 
 but silent, and what little they said was in the low, 
 quick tones of men upon urgent business. They fin- 
 ished their fish, paid their score, and then, in squads 
 of not more than three together, they left the tavern 
 and strolled away, up the winding shore Une. There 
 was nothing singular in that, and perhaps there was 
 not in the fact that when the great, scow-built ferry- 
 boat, at the foot of WaU Street, hoisted her clumsy 
 sail and put out toward the Brooklyn side, all of those 
 strange fellows were on board of her. 
 
 They were as quiet as so many sheep, and when the 
 boat reached the landing they went ashore, and pushed 
 right on through the little village of Brooklyn and out 
 into the open country, taking the road toward the 
 southerly end of Long Island. If any craft which they 
 belonged to were lying away down there in the Lower 
 Bay, it must have been because she had some reason 
 for not sailing in through the Narrows and up to the 
 wharves of New York. 
 
THE SHARKS IN THE BAT, 37 
 
 Gruert was not just now thinking of things behind 
 him. He was rather becoming unpleasantly curious 
 about what might be before him. 
 
 "There must be something awful going on," he 
 said to himself. "I've heard all about the slave-trade. 
 The traders steal them in Africa. Of course Co-co 
 hates them. They stole him. He'd like to kill them 
 all. Up-na-tan would like to kill anything. But what 
 ever made a slaver run into New York Harbor ? She 
 must have been running away from somebody." 
 
 That might be ; but he knew it was of no use to ask 
 questions, and so he only sat and thought as the Petrel 
 went swiftly on. He watched as well as waited, and 
 he took notice that each of his savage friends was now 
 armed as they had not been on shore. Each had taken 
 from somewhere under his clothing, and had fastened 
 in his belt, very long and dangerous-looking sheath- 
 knives and a brace of pistols. 
 
 TJp-na-tan had seemed to take his out from among 
 the ample fringes of his leggings, while Co-co had 
 reached over his shoulder and had pulled out his 
 weapons from below the nape of his neck. Guert saw 
 the Indian touch the handle of his weapon once, and 
 thought he heard him say, as he withdrew his hand : 
 
 " No ; boy aU right. No tell. Take him home 
 safe. Up-na-tan keep promise." 
 
 Co-co had also touched his knife hilt at the same 
 moment, but his muttered remark came a breath later: 
 
38 
 
 GUERT TEN ETCK. 
 
 " Chief right," he said. " Co-co take care of he 
 young frien' ; ' ' but he turned to Guert and added : 
 
 '■ No use for tell. Yo, yo ! Wait an' see. Nebber 
 want to teU, Co-co t'ink. Git he t'roat cut, suah." ' 
 
 Guert felt called upon to reply : 
 
 " Tell you what, I sha'n't tell; but I do hate any 
 kind of slaver. They ought to be all hung. ' ' 
 
 " Dat's de talk ! " exclaimed Co-co. "Heah dat, 
 Up-na-tan? He keep he mouf shut. No use tell, 
 anyhow. ' ' 
 
 So far, the most important secret troubling Guert's 
 mind was the fact that he had stolen Steven De Lan- 
 cey's yacht. He was not likely to tell about that, he 
 thought. 
 
 Now at last the Petrel was dancing along over the 
 rougher water of the Lower Bay ; but she was keeping 
 well in toward the Long Island shore. It was getting 
 very dusky, but Guert believed that he could dimly see 
 something like a pair of masts agatast the dark back- 
 ground of a patch of tall trees. 
 
 " They say it's good anchorage," he thought ; " but 
 hardly anything ever stops here. Wonder what it is." 
 
 The next thing he seemed to see was a boat full of 
 men putting out from the shore; but he was called 
 away from staring at her by a hoarse hail that startled 
 him, it was so near. 
 
 ' ' We're almost aboard that schooner, ' ' he exclaimed ; 
 but the hail was promptly replied to by Up-na-tan. 
 
THE SHARKS IN THE BAT, 39 
 
 " Halloo ! " said Gruert. " I've heard him do that 
 before. He said it was the war-whoop of the Iroquois. 
 It's an awful screech. Hark ! There's a feUow in 
 that boat that can do it. Hear Co-co ! " 
 
 The Indian war-whoop was not any more horribly 
 shri 11 and ferocious than was the yell of the Ashantee ; 
 but another shout from the schooner and another from 
 the boat seemed to be full of fierce exultation. Then 
 Gruert knew that Up-na-tan said, in Dutch : 
 
 ' ' We found her. She is lying this side of the Kill 
 von Kull. You can run right in and get her. She 
 does not carry any deck gun, and her foremast is 
 broken at the cap. She can't get away." 
 
 "We are alongside now," groaned Gruert. "I 
 won't go on board, but I'll look." 
 
 Up-na-tan and Co-co told him to stay in the Petrel, 
 but they went over the starboard side into the schooner 
 just as the boat from shore landed its passengers directly 
 opposite ; and twice as many more men, of similar pat- 
 terns, were waiting to meet them. 
 
 Rough as they looked, they were not at all noisy ; 
 and nobody paid Guert any attention as he anxiously, 
 excitedly, peered over from the half-deck of the Petrel. 
 
 " I'm not afraid," he said to himself; "but I do 
 feel queer. She's a pirate." 
 
 The crew looked like it, but that was by no means 
 all. Low as the schooner looked from the water, her 
 bulwarks were very high and strong, and they were 
 
40 GUERT TEN ETCK. 
 
 pierced with ports for the four guns ranged on each 
 side. 
 
 "I guess they are long six-pounders," said Guert 
 to himself; " and that swivel-gun amidships is a long 
 eighteen. See the pikes and cutlasses and muskets at 
 the masts ! Awful ! I've seen a pirate." 
 
 He had only a moment to look, for her crew were 
 lifting her anchor, and in a minute or so Up-na-tan 
 and Co-co were back in the Petrel. 
 
 "Off, quick!" said Up-na-tan. " Ole Portingee 
 say t'row boy overboard ! " 
 
 There was indeed a fierce, half-hushed discussion 
 among a group near the swivel-gun, and there was a 
 sudden movement just as the Petrel swung her head 
 clear and darted away. Hoarse hails followed her ; 
 but TJp-na-tan's reply may have been the whoop of 
 the Manhattans for all Guert knew. That of Co-co 
 was only a derisive " Yo, yo ! Nebber ketch dis boat. ' ' 
 
 "Can't they?" asked Guert; but there was no 
 reply except the very practical fact that the Petrel was 
 running swiftly homeward while the pirates were get- 
 ting up their anchor. They may have had good reasons 
 for not wishing to use any noisy gunpowder just then. 
 
 ' ' Pirates ? " said Guert to himself. ' ' They say the 
 West India Islands swarm with them. Getting as bad 
 as they were in Kidd's time. The British men-o'-war 
 ought to hunt them down. I s'pose they will, some 
 day." 
 
THE SHARKS IN THE BAT. 41 
 
 On went the Petrel in the deepening gloom, through 
 the Narrows, into the upper New York Bay ; and now 
 Guert felt better, but he kept a sharp lookout behind 
 them. 
 
 " There she is ! " he exclaimed at length. " There 
 comes the pirate." 
 
 In a moment more he added to himself : 
 
 "She's not chasing us. She is passing us. We 
 are both running toward the slaver. ' ' 
 
 Then he held his breath, for down the wind came 
 loud, angry shouts and yells, followed by two cannon 
 reports and a rattle of musketry shots. 
 
 " There ! " he almost gasped. "They have boarded 
 her. It's a fight." 
 
 " Dey on'y shoot a leetle. Yo, yo ! " hoarsely 
 chuckled the Ashantee. " Dey won't leab one ob 'em. 
 Kill 'em all. Dey kiU, too." 
 
 ' ' Bof kill heap , " snarled Up-na-tan fiercely. ' ' Too 
 many ole Kidd men. Shark get 'em aU some day. 
 Shark eat shark. T'row 'em overboard." 
 
 " Co-co wish he had dem Congo men to work he 
 big farm," remarked Co-co. "Now ole pirate sell 
 'em all in Cuba. Slabe-ship bes' kine ob prize for 
 Kidd men." 
 
 Guert understood that neither of his friends had 
 acted from any love of freedom for its own sake. They 
 had only been willing to act as pilot-fish, to help one 
 kind of sharks to destroy another. He was very glad 
 
42 GUERT TEN EYCK. 
 
 indeed, however, that the Petrel was so swift, and that 
 she was homeward bound. His delight was great when 
 she reached the Albany pier and was tied up. He 
 almost ran toward Whitehall Street, while Co-co and 
 Up-na-tan slipped away in the dark with their bluefish. 
 " I've seen a slaver and a pirate," he said to him- 
 s.elf; and he seemed to have forgotten about the 
 tea-ship. 
 
CHAPTBE m. 
 
 THE PRESS-GANG AND THE NOANK. 
 
 MAUD WOLCOTT did not have a very long visit 
 that day at the Ten Byck homestead. Not 
 only did Aaron Burr and Aleck Hamilton hurry away, 
 but Maud felt that it was her duty to carry all the news 
 at once to Mrs. Murray. 
 
 That patriotic lady was indeed waiting for it in a 
 fever of expectation ; and so were other people, for 
 whose comfort Rachel Tarns herself shortly marched 
 away, remarking : 
 
 " Anneke, if Guert brings thee anything of impor- 
 tance, thee can send him to my house. Thee may tell 
 him I am glad he went in his boat with those good 
 men. Our people will not now be tempted with that 
 tea." 
 
 Mrs. Ten Eyck found herself alone, but in a greater 
 anxiety and a harder waiting time than any of them ; 
 for hour after hour went by and her son did not return. 
 AU sorts of imaginations troubled her as to what might 
 
 43 
 
44 GUEET TEN ETCK. 
 
 have become of him. There had been no fighting, no 
 violence ; only a great tea-making ; but why did not 
 Guert come home ? 
 
 ' ' Can they have captured him ? He is only a boy , ' ' 
 she aU but groaned. "0, dear! Now I know how 
 mothers feel when their sons have been impressed for 
 the navy. What if they have kept him ? " 
 
 Against that idea was the fact that no British ships- 
 of-war were in the harbor, although there were several 
 cruisers off the coast, and a squadron was expected to 
 arrive shortly. 
 
 Her heart grew heavier and heavier as the long 
 hours went by ; but she was not the only person whose 
 burden was unusual. 
 
 Even Co-co and Up-na-tan had aU the bluefish they 
 could carry when they left the Petrel at the wharf and 
 stalked off to deliver their cargo at Mom Van Boom's. 
 They were very strong men, and they did not seem to 
 know anything about weariness ; but it was not so with 
 poor Guert. 
 
 He had never before, in all his life, felt so completely 
 weighed down. He had had no dinner, no supper ; he 
 had pulled in heavy fish ; he had sailed' fast and far ; 
 but all that was as nothing to the weight of the secret 
 he was carrying. He felt sure his life depended upon 
 keeping it ; but that did not tend to raise his spirits as 
 he plodded along the Bowery Lane homeward. 
 
 The people of New York were nearly all asleep, after 
 
THE PEESS-GANG AJTD THE NOANK. 45 
 
 the intense excitement of their first open rebellion 
 against their lawful king and his ministers. Some of 
 them may have been lying awake, wondering what 
 would be the end of it all ; but not many were sitting 
 at windows and watching, as was Mrs. Ten Byck ; she 
 did not try to know how late. 
 
 At last she sprang to her feet, exclaiming : 
 
 "Thank God! there he is." 
 
 She had seen somebody pause for a moment at the 
 gate ; but she did not know how Guert aU but staggered 
 as he lifted the latch, and she did not hear him say : 
 
 " The only way for me to keep it is to get mother to 
 help. She's just the right kind of woman." 
 
 There was no doubt of that, and in a moment more 
 she was hugging him, in the entry, and was asking 
 him where he had been and if he had had anything 
 to eat. 
 
 " Oh ! but ain't I glad to get home," was the sub- 
 stance of what he had to say, to begin with, but after 
 that the entire story of the cruise of the Petrel came 
 out, from beginning to end Mrs. Ten Eyck listened, 
 with many motherly comments and counsels. 
 
 ' ' Slavers ? Pirates ? ' ' she exclaimed, at last. 
 " Why, Guert, aU you've got to say is not to say 
 anything. I hope they all killed each other." 
 
 "Up-na-tan and Co-co seem to think that's what 
 they did," said Guert, but he was not nearly so hungry 
 now, for he had been eating as weU as talking. 
 
46 GUERT TEK EYCK. 
 
 ' ' Now, go to bed, ' ' said his mother. ' ' You needn't 
 get up till you want to. Oh ! how glad I am you are 
 back safe." 
 
 He was too tired to be very glad, but for all that he 
 was up and dressed only a little later than usual, next 
 morning. Perhaps it was as well, for he had hardly 
 eaten his breakfast before he heard the voice of Maud 
 Wolcott in the parlor asking : 
 
 ' ' Has Guert come home ? ' ' 
 
 He also heard another voice remarking : 
 
 " Anneke, thee lets thy son have too much liberty. 
 Thee is not strict enough in thy government. Thee 
 should make him come home at sunset." 
 
 " I'm no chicken, Rachel," said Guert, as he walked 
 into the room. 
 
 " Thee is a bad boy," said Rachel. " Thee put thy 
 good king's tea into the salt water. Thee does not 
 know how to make tea. Tell us how thee did it — 
 thee and thy wicked associates." 
 
 Guert had to tell, and he was entirely willing, if only 
 to keep off too many questipns as to what made him 
 stay away so late. 
 
 " Thee broke open the first chest, thee bad boy ! " 
 exclaimed Rachel admiringly. ' ' What if thy good 
 king had been in that box ? ' ' 
 
 "Rachel," said Mrs. Ten Eyck, "it's well he 
 wasn't, if you had been there. You would have 
 thrown him overboard." 
 
THE PRESS-GANG AND THE NOANE. 47 
 
 " Guert needn't be so proud of it," said Maud. 
 " The Boston men set the example. What are eight- 
 een chests of tea? Our Mohawks emptied hundreds 
 of them into the harbor. ' ' 
 
 " You're not a Boston girl," said Guert. " You're 
 only from Connecticut. You haven't done anything." 
 
 " It's all the same," said Maud, with some spirit. 
 "They don't dare to bring us any. We'll show 
 you!" 
 
 "Tell you what," said Guert, "it was too bad. 
 Every man was sick about it because there were so few 
 of 'em. They hunted and hunted for more chests, but 
 there weren't any." 
 
 That was the spirit of the whole town, that day, and 
 through all the days that followed. 
 
 One of the most curious features of the situation, 
 even to Guert, was the fact that nobody seemed to be 
 aware that anything like a slaver or a pirate had been 
 seen in the harbor. There were, indeed, dark rumors 
 of merchant ships that were missing, but that was no 
 rare matter, in those days. Perhaps another note- 
 worthy oddity was the strange willingness of one 
 Indian and one black man to work pretty steadily in 
 Mrs. Ten Eyck's cornfield. Not that laborers were 
 scarce, but then Co-co and Up-na-tan had not been 
 known as steady workers. 
 
 The whole community was in a continual ferment. 
 There were public as well as secret meetings of the 
 
48 GUEET TEN ETCK. 
 
 Liberty Boys, the Mohawks, and the Committee of 
 Fifty-one. There were riotous collisions between the 
 citizens and the British garrison of Fort George, but 
 the cooler heads on both sides prevented anything very 
 serious. Guert had been more than a little grieved at 
 missing some of the best of these aifairs while out 
 fishing with Co-co, but he had a compensation, for he 
 had rowed all around each of three British men-of-war 
 that were now anchored in the harbor. He did not 
 tell anybody but his mother that the Ashantee 
 remarked : 
 
 " Yo, yo ! Up-na-tan say tie 'em up to canoe- 
 load o' powder an' blow 'em sky high, some day. Dat 
 ole Indian got a heap o' bad in him. Say de king 
 stole he island. ' ' 
 
 The worst of it all was the lack of news and the 
 ragged quality of any that came. There were so many 
 mere rumors that nobody knew what to believe. Guert 
 knew that the king and parliament of England had 
 shut up the port of Boston, but he could not quite 
 understand it, even when Aleck Hamilton tried to ex- 
 plain it to him ; and he felt as indignant as did Maud 
 Wolcott herself, when he carried that news to the 
 Murray mansion. 
 
 "Do come often," said Mrs. Murray. "Come 
 every time you hear anything. Why, Guert, you 
 seem to learn more than anybody else does." 
 
 Perhaps that was because he felt a great and grow- 
 
THE PEESS-GAKG AND THE NOANK. 49 
 
 ing thirst to know what was going on. In fact, he 
 seemed to feed on it and it made him grow taller. It 
 also made him go down town more and more often, es- 
 pecially as Mrs. Ten Eyck herself, with the help of 
 Rachel Tarns, had almost daily errands to send him on. 
 
 "Thee is a good boy," said Rachel. "Thee is 
 willing to go all the way to the Battery to buy me a 
 four pennorth o' pins in Pearl Street." 
 
 So it came to pass, one morning, that the Murray 
 family carriage pulled up on the eastern side of 
 Whitehall Street, just as Maud exclaimed : 
 
 " Aunt Wolcott, there he is. There is Guert, talk- 
 ing to that other boy, over there on the Bowling Green 
 by King George's statue." 
 
 "I wish I could call him," said Mrs. Murray. 
 " There is something new stirring. I know there is." 
 
 "What is it, Mrs. Murray?" asked a taU and 
 stately gentleman, who had paused and lifted his 
 cocked hat at the side of the carriage. " Can I be of 
 any service ? ' ' 
 
 " Thank you, Mr. Livingston; we were only think- 
 ing of the news," replied Mrs. Murray. "Is there 
 any?" 
 
 " None of importance," he said, and he went on to 
 report whatever he knew ; but Maud was watching 
 Guert, although she could not hear him, for he was 
 evidently much interested about something. 
 
 " Think of the heft of him," Guert was saying to 
 
50 GUERT TEN ETCK, 
 
 the other hoy, as they hoth looked up at the statue. 
 "What do you s'pose he'd weigh, now? — all that 
 brass." 
 
 "What wud he weigh, indade? And he's not 
 bross at all. He's nothin' but lead, boss and mon, 
 painted wid bross." 
 
 "Lead's heavier'n brass, Pat Mahon," said Gruert. 
 " How did they ever set him up ? " 
 
 "Set him oop? I saw thim," responded Pat. 
 " He's holler. If he hadn't been hoUer they'd niver 
 ha' h'isted him. There's nothin' in him but wind." 
 
 There he sat, on his leaden steed, the great eques- 
 trian statue of King George m. , in the middle of the 
 Bowling Green. 
 
 " I knew it was hollow," said Guert, but no unin- 
 formed observer would have known bat what he was 
 made of bronze, or at least of cannon metal, although 
 there was a grea,t deal that was heavy about him, 
 even in the expression of his face. 
 
 Guert Ten Eyck and his friend seemed to have some 
 special reason for inspecting that statue, for Pat 
 Mahon shortly remarked ; 
 
 " He's the king, indade, but he's no call to be king 
 in owld Oireland. Me mother towld me they shtole 
 it." 
 
 "He's the King in England," responded Guert; 
 " but what's he got to do with the Ten Eycks, or 
 anybody here ? - This isn't England, it's America." ^ 
 
i-i^^S<^-: 
 
THE PRESS-GANG AND THE NOANK. 53 
 
 " Nathan ! " exclaimed a shrill woman's voice near 
 them. " Hear them ! Even the boys are full of 
 treason. Neither of them is over fifteen. Think of 
 them talking against the king ! ' ' 
 
 " One of them is Dutch, Aunt Sapphira," replied 
 Nathan, " and the other is Irish, and I'm a Yankee. 
 What have either of us to do with English kings, three 
 thousand miles away ! Guert Ten Eyck is right. 
 This is America ! What's that ? Look ! Infamous ! 
 It's a press-gang. If they haven't seized one of my 
 own neighbors ! Lyme Avery, they've no right to 
 take you. You are skipper of your own craft." 
 
 On the westerly side of the Bowling Green ran 
 Broadway, down to the grassy level of the Battery 
 parade ground. On the east ran Whitehall Street, and 
 both were lined with aristocratic residences. Guert 
 and Pat had turned, almost open-mouthed, to stare at 
 the double file of British man-o'-war's-men which had 
 halted on the Broadway sidewalk near the Green. 
 There were nearly a dozen of them, headed by a 
 sprightly midshipman and a burly, scowling boat- 
 swain, their real commander. Handcuffed and elbow- 
 fettered, two and two, between the guarding files of 
 armed sailors, were eight unlucky victims of the press- 
 gang system, and it was one of these who had been 
 spoken to by the tall, intellectual youth at whose side 
 Aunt Sapphira was standing. The captives were all, 
 apparently, seafaring men, but this one did not seem, 
 
64 
 
 GUEKT TEN EYCK. 
 
 in dress or bearing, like a common sailor. His face 
 was furiously red as he responded : 
 
 " So I told them, Nathan Hale. The Noank's at 
 her wharf in the East Eiver, and I'm her owner. Lit- 
 tle they care for our rights." 
 
 " Shut up ! " roared the boatswain, dealing him a 
 heavy blow on the mouth. " And if that lubber 
 doesn't hold his jaw, I'll take him along." 
 
 "No, you won't," sternly replied the young man. 
 ' ' I shall at once protest against your taking Skipper 
 Avery. It's contrary to law." 
 
 "He'll go aboard the Tigress and so will you," 
 piped the midshipman, in youthful imitation of the 
 boatswain's authority and brutality. 
 
 " It's of no use," said Hale to himself, in a low 
 voice. "We can do nothing. We are bound, hand 
 and foot." 
 
 " Ugh ! " exclaimed a deep, wrathful growl behind 
 him. ' ' Press wrong man ? Press Up-na-tan, one 
 time. Flog him one year. " 
 
 Guert's eyes were glancing from one face to the 
 other of those two men, in spite of his fierce indigna- 
 tion concerning the seizure of American sailors. He 
 knew how the Manhattan's face could look at times, 
 but it seemed as if, just now, it expressed all the tiger- 
 ish ferocity of all the red men. In strong contrast, as 
 if belonging to another world, was the splendid young 
 manhood of Nathan Hale. Six feet high, broad-shoul- 
 
THE PRESS-GANG AND THE NOANK. 55 
 
 dered, muscular, erect, with bright blue eyes, rosy 
 complexion, light brown curling hair, easy and grace- 
 ful carriage, his voice had rung out like a trumpet in 
 defying the boatswain. He turned, only an instant, 
 to the Manhattan, saying : 
 
 ' ' You escaped ? You got away ? ' ' 
 
 "No," replied Up-na-tan, with a lurid gleam on 
 his tattooed wrinkles. "No got away. Ship got 
 away. Ship go to bottom one day. Indian here. 
 So, so ! Up-na-tan ! Tell him send ship to bottom." 
 
 "Nathan," shouted Avery, at that moment, " go to 
 the Noank and tell my wife and sons that these wolves 
 have gotten me. Tell them to sail for home. They 
 will hear from me in some way. Tell the boys to get 
 good guns and be ready to join Old Put. Our time's 
 coming. ' ' 
 
 "I'll tell them," replied Hale. " My gun's ready 
 now. So am I. " 
 
 " Treason ! " almost screamed Aunt Sapphira. 
 
 "Treason!" echoed the middy. " Bo's'n, arrest 
 that man." 
 
 " The lubber's geared beyond our reach," growled 
 the boatswain. ' ' We don't want him. March, men ! ' ' 
 
 "0, Lord ! " groaned Skipper Avery, as he was 
 forced to move on ; and he again shouted : 
 
 " Good-by, Nathan ! See my wife. TeU her. 
 Tell the boys I'll come or I'll die trying. There'll be 
 blood for this." 
 
56 GUERT TEN ETCK. 
 
 Guert was again staring at the heroically handsome 
 face of Nathan Hale. It seemed all lit up as he 
 responded : 
 
 " Good-hy, Lyme ! There'll he hlood for all these 
 things." 
 
 " Silence, Hale," said another speaker. " Our 
 time is not yet come." 
 
 " Judge Livingston " — was aU Hale could say ; but 
 over at the carriage he had left, Maud was leaning 
 angrily out, for she understood it now, and so did Mrs. 
 Murray. 
 
 "They won't take Guert," she said, " wiU they? 
 They won't take anybody else ? It's horrible ! But 
 isn't that man splendid ! " 
 
 " Hark ! ' ' said Mrs. Murray. " Oh ! it is too bad. 
 He sent word to his family ' ' — 
 
 " Captain," just then eagerly exclaimed Guert, and 
 he spoke to Hale, " look ! The lobsters are coming." 
 
 "That's our trouble just now," said Livingston. 
 " No use to protest. Your friend wiU be on board the 
 Tigress, and she will be at sea, before we could do 
 anything." 
 
 The boatswain was saying to the Yankee skipper, 
 with a heavy blow : 
 
 "You'll desert, wUl you? A cat-o'-nine-tails'U 
 take the mutiny out o' ye ! " 
 
 Hale and Livingston looked, as Guert pointed down 
 the street. There were not many of Guert's "lob- 
 
THE PEESS-6ANG AND THE NOANK. 57 
 
 sters." Only a couple of companies of British soldiers 
 on parade, and they wore now marching out and up 
 Broadway, preceded by a fife and drum. They were 
 fine, soldierly -looking feUows, in perfect equipment and 
 capital drill ; the very men to win a battle with. 
 
 "Hale," said Livingston, "when our militia can 
 step off like that, we can hope to do something." 
 
 " I don't know," slowly responded Hale. " Brad- 
 dock went into the woods with an army of just such 
 troops. All that came out with any credit were the 
 Virginia militia and Colonel Washington. I must go 
 to the Noank. I'll sail home on her. The Avery 
 boys'U fight some day for this. So will I." 
 
 "Don't ye do it, Nathan," exclaimed Aunt Sap- 
 phira. " Don't ye ever turn traitor to your king." 
 
 " I'm for my country first," he said sternly. " I'm 
 ashamed of any American woman that is not. ' ' 
 
 " So am I ! " came in an excited voice from a car- 
 riage which had been driven quickly around the head 
 of the Green and halted near them. ' ' I'm for my 
 country, sir." 
 
 "0, Aunt Murray!" exclaimed Maud; "I'm so 
 glad you said it. I didn't dare to." 
 
 " I'm against treason," angrily replied Aunt Sap- 
 phira. " No traitor is of any kin to me. You'll be 
 hung for treason yet, Nathan Hale. So will all your 
 rebel crew. Serve you right, too ; and I'U furnish the 
 rope." 
 
58 GUERT TEN ETCK. 
 
 She was a woman with a peculiarly set and bitter 
 expression of face ; but her present lack of self-control 
 was a good expression of the heated state of feeling on 
 both sides of the controversy. People were beginning 
 to hate one another, 
 
 " Good-by, then," said her handsome young rela- 
 tive. " I'm no traitor, nor rebel ; but we Americans 
 must stand up for our rights." 
 
 " Or we shall have none at all, soon," sadly remarked 
 Livingston ; but just then Maud was loudly whispering 
 from the carriage : 
 
 ' ' That's right, Aleck. Speak to him. ' ' 
 
 Hale was turning away when he was confronted by 
 a slender, but very intelligent youth, who held out a 
 hand, hurriedly addressing him witk; "I'm Aleck 
 Hamilton. Glad to meet you. Heaid of you before. 
 No use. We can do nothing for your friend." 
 
 " Nothing," said Hale, grasping tKs proffered hand. 
 "We shall meet again. I must mak«>i haste now." 
 
 " The New York boys are ready," said Hamilton. 
 "We'll show you." 
 
 "The great trouble is a leaden king," said Hale, 
 pointing at the statue ; and then he strode away, fol- 
 lowed closely by Guert, but Pat Mahon had marched 
 up Broadway with the soldiers. 
 
 "Tyranny! oppression!" said Mrs. Murray to 
 Livingston. ' ' How long are our people to endure 
 these things? " 
 
THE PRESS-GAJSTG AND THE NOANK. 59 
 
 "I don't know," replied the gloomy-faced patriot. 
 " I can't talk now, madam. ' On the part of their 
 oppressors there was power, ' it is written. ' ' 
 
 " Bad power breaks," said Mrs. Murray. 
 
 Guert felt a hand on his arm and turned, while Up- 
 na-tan pointed at Hale. 
 
 "Ugh!" he grunted. "Look! Young chief! 
 Heap man ! Take 'calp some day. Up-na-tan like 
 him. Heap fight." 
 
 He did not follow further, and Guert felt even more 
 awed than before ; but he had an idea flashing through 
 his head, and he caught up with Hale. 
 
 " Sir, sir ! " he said eagerly, " I'll go to the Noank 
 with you. I know where she is. But there's barrels 
 o' powder at the wharf-end, beyond the Noank. Just 
 out o' the battery store, for one o' the ships." 
 
 "No use, my brave boy," said Hale. 
 
 "Yes, you could," said Guert. " 'Tisn't half 
 guarded. ' ' 
 
 "We shall need powder," muttered Hale, as he 
 strode thoughtfully onward. " How many barrels of 
 King George's powder would pay us for Lyme Avery ? ' ' 
 
 "I'll go and see what they do with him, ' ' said Guert, 
 " and then I'll come to the Noank." 
 
 Just then Mrs. Murray was saying to Maud, as the 
 carriage roUed along : 
 
 " Anyhow, we shaU know all about it when Guert 
 comes home." 
 
60 
 
 GUERT TEN ETCK. 
 
 " I'll go over to Mrs. Ten Eyck's and find out," said 
 Maud. " Gruert will know. " 
 
 Easterly from Whitehall slip, at no great distance, 
 a long wooden pier ran out into deep water, and beyond 
 it was a broad basin and another pier. At this second 
 pier lay a saucy, trim-looking schooner, of about four 
 hundred tons, with the word Noank painted on her stern. 
 
 Away out in the middle of the East River lay the 
 Tigress frigate, waiting for stores from the government 
 warehouses, and for such re-enforcements of seamen as 
 her merciless press-gangs might steal for her among 
 the merchant-shipping and along the shore. 
 
 Down to the water's edge at the Battery hurried the 
 party of man-hunters which had charge of Skipper 
 Avery. 
 
 " Take off" their irons," commanded a navy lieuten- 
 ant, who inspected the captives and who replied with a 
 sneer and a threat to the protest of the owner of the 
 Noank. " I can spare you but two men. The pressed 
 men must row. Shoot the first mutineer. It is no 
 time for nonsense." 
 
 He spoke to the coxswain in charge of a mere cockle- 
 shell of a yawl-boat, not more than large enough for 
 six men, and now to carry eleven, but he thereby put 
 an oar into the strong hands of Lyme Avery. 
 
 "I'll swamp her," growled the angry skipper to 
 himself. " See 'f I don't. I hope they can all swim, 
 lean." 
 
THE PRESS-GAJSTG AND THE NOAKE. 61 
 
 Guert was near enough on the shore to see what was 
 done, but he could not hear the skipper think. 
 
 "Guess Mr. Hale has boarded the Noank," he 
 said aloud, as he glanced up the shore. " She's 
 going. I'll watch that boat." 
 
 The Noank had indeed cast loose and something was 
 doing with her mainsail, but she was not yet headed 
 up the river toward New London. She had been aU 
 ready for a start and was only waiting the arrival of 
 her commander, when Nathan Hale stepped on board 
 with the disastrous news of his captivity. It was an 
 utterly unexpected cup of gall and wormwood for the 
 wife and the two nearly grown-up sons of the impressed 
 man, but, right in the midst of their expressions of 
 grief and indignation, Hale glanced across the basin at 
 the other wharf and exclaimed : 
 
 "The powder!" 
 
 He hardly added ten words of explanation before 
 Mrs. Avery sobbed out : 
 
 "0, boys! Yes! Get the king's powder. We 
 mustn't miss that. I hope you'll have a chance to 
 use it aU." 
 
 In a moment more, the Noank was sweeping toward 
 the other pier where, by some recklessness or other, 
 four barrels were waiting, unguarded, like so many 
 passengers. 
 
 Guert watched the overloaded yawl. There was 
 only a moderate sea running and she seemed safe 
 
62 GUERT TEN ETCK. 
 
 enough, even if some water did dash in. The Noanh 
 had barely reached the lower pier, however, when a 
 great cry rang out across the water, from away beyond 
 Whitehall slip. 
 
 "Quick, boys," said Mrs. Avery, weeping bitterly. 
 " RoU that nearest barr'l right on board." 
 
 Just as an overgrown wave lifted the press-gang 
 yawl, a stalwart oarsman on its port side had put all 
 his strength into his oar, sinking it deep, " caught a 
 crab," grasped the next man, lurched heavily over, 
 and in a moment the boat had capsized. 
 
 It was a lubberly performance, but still it was very 
 well done. 
 
 There was no mutiny nor could there be any shoot- 
 ing by a coxswain whose musket was under water. 
 
 Strong were the arms of Skipper Avery, and strong, 
 too, was the rushing tide which bore him away while 
 his late boatmates struggled around their swamped 
 yawl and shouted for help, and while Guert Ten Eyck 
 ran his best toward the Noank. 
 
 "Eope!" he shouted, as he sprang on board. 
 " He's coming this way. Rope ! " 
 
 "I understand," said Nathan Hale. " I see him." 
 
 The tide from New York Bay was not a servant of 
 King George. Neither was the long whaling line 
 thrown out, a minute later, by the old harpooneer who 
 served as mate of the Noank. 
 
 Two other Yankee seamen were lifting the mainsail 
 
THE PKESS-GANG AND THE NOANK. 63 
 
 when the skipper was pulled on board, but Mrs. Avery 
 and her sons and Guert were roHing along the last of 
 the barrels of powder. 
 
 " Lyme ! " she shouted, " it's gunpowder." 
 "Quick! In with it, wife," he sputtered. "We 
 want it all. It's pretty near time to shoot." 
 
 Gruert went on board with the barrel, the sail was 
 up, the breeze freshened mightily, and away sprang 
 the Noank like a race horse, up the Bast River, leav- 
 ing behind her no man who knew precisely what she 
 had for cargo. 
 
CHAPTER rV. 
 
 THE CRUISE OP THE NOAITK. 
 
 SKIPPER AVERY was a very wet man when his 
 wife left the powder and threw her arms around 
 him, and tried to express her gladness at his rescue 
 and her hatred of the press-gang in one breath. 
 
 Guert looked back along their course and remarked : 
 
 "I guess none of those fellows got drowned. One 
 boat went to them from the shore and another from the 
 Tigress. I wonder if that brig is coming after us. ' ' 
 
 " They can't know that the skipper is on board," 
 said the old harpooneer ; " but I ain't so sartain about 
 the powder, 'n that'd be a'most a hangin' matter." 
 
 " That's so," exclaimed Skipper Avery. "It's aU 
 marked with the king's broad-arrer brand ; but we can 
 put it overboard if they foUow us. We'd better watch 
 that brig. She's a ten-gun, though, and she can't 
 catch the Noank in a fair race." 
 
 The rescue boat from the Tigress reached the cap- 
 sized yawl first, and was itself quickly overcrowded. 
 
 64 
 
THE CRUISE OF THE NOANK. 66 
 
 "Are they all here? Count ! " said the officer in 
 command. 
 
 " One missing," replied the coxswain, in some dis- 
 may. "It's the New London skipper. He's an old 
 whaler. He capsized us. " 
 
 ' ' Did he drown ? ' ' 
 
 " Niver a dhrown," said one of the other impressed 
 men. ' ' He wint oflf wid the toide, like he was a fish. ' ' 
 
 " He had to go ashore, then," said the officer. 
 " We'U get him. We'll punish him for deserting, too. 
 After we shoot a few of 'em, they'U know better than 
 to try tricks on us." 
 
 The skipper had therefore been guilty of treason, or 
 some other capital crime, in getting away and going 
 home. 
 
 Not many minutes later, there was a tremendous 
 disturbance on the Albany pier, for a stiff-looking 
 sergeant was staring around him and stammering : 
 
 " It's aU, all r-right, levtenant. The launch from 
 the Tigress has been 'ere again. They've took away 
 the last borril o' th' powd'r." 
 
 " I'U report them ! " stormed the lieutenant. " It's 
 all out of order. They'd no right to take a pound of 
 it without giving a receipt. No naval officer seems to 
 know what his duty is." 
 
 Nevertheless, one naval officer, with a telescope in 
 his hand, on board the ten-gun brig, had seen Skipper 
 Avery's escape and the seizure of the barrels, and had 
 
66 GUEKT TEN EYCK. 
 
 deemed it his duty to overhaul that schooner. His 
 own craft had already been ordered on cruising duty, 
 and was ready for sea, so that no time was lost — not 
 even in his rapid exchange of signals with the captain 
 of the Tigress. 
 
 ' ' Catch her, ' ' he was signalled back. ' ' Sink her 
 or burn her. Impress the whole crew." 
 
 "Wife," said Skipper Avery, as the Noank shot 
 into the channel between BlackweU's Island and the 
 Long Island shore, "this is colony powder now. If 
 Old Put'U give us some guns one of these days, six- 
 pounders and a long gun, we'll turn the Noank into a 
 cruiser. She can outsail anything they've got." 
 
 " It will come to that," said Nathan Hale ; " but 
 they would call colonial cruisers pirates," 
 
 " It'U go down into the hold now, any way," replied 
 the skipper, and he turned to Guert as he added: 
 " My boy, we can't put you ashore now. You've got 
 to make the trip to New London. ' ' 
 
 Guert thought of his mother, and he almost felt queer 
 in his throat, in spite of his excitement in watching the 
 British brig ; but he responded : 
 
 " All right. I'll get home somehow." 
 
 "We'll send ye, safe and sound," said the skipper 
 cheerily. 
 
 Nevertheless, at that very moment Mrs. Ten Eyck 
 was looking with intense anxiety into the beaming 
 blackface of Co-co, while he reported : 
 
THE CKUISE OF THE NOANK. 67 
 
 " ^uert's all right, Missus. I seen him. De 
 skipper, he upsot de yawl. Swum to de schoonah. 
 Guert, he help. Dey hook de powder bar'ls. Den 
 dey sail away, an' Guert, he go to New Lon'on." 
 
 " Boy heap young chief," said Up-na-tan, standing 
 behind Co-co. 
 
 " God wHl take care of him," said his mother 
 mournfully. "It was a dreadfuUy daring thing to 
 take the powder." 
 
 There was no doubt of that, and the theft from the 
 king's army and navy would have to be prudently con- 
 cealed, lest the Noank should be confiscated and her 
 crew hanged or impressed ; but, not much later, when 
 Maud came over to learn the news, she found Eachel 
 Tarns there in a state of strange exultation. 
 
 " Thee need not fear Maud, Anneke," almost burst 
 from the stern lips of the triumphant Quakeress. 
 " Maud is a good girl. She will be glad that wicked 
 and violent men have four barrels less of gunpowder to 
 shoot with." 
 
 "Maud," exclaimed Mrs. Ten Eyck, "Guert has 
 gone away off to New London." 
 
 It all came out then, and Maud herself had a great 
 deal to teU about the press-gang and its captives, and 
 Nathan Hale. 
 
 " Didn't he look handsome ! " she said. " He was 
 splendid. So was Guert. He'U have a grand time." 
 
 " I do hope and trust they won't get him," groaned 
 
68 GUERT TEN EYCK. 
 
 Mrs. Ten Eyck. " It's the wickedest thing. Steal- 
 ing men ! It's worse than taxing tea." 
 
 " Anneke," said Rachel Tarns, "thee should not 
 speak lightly of thy good king. He needs seafaring 
 men for the ships that must protect thee from the 
 French and from the red men ; and if he wants thy 
 boy, thee must not murmur. It is treason." 
 
 " Girls can't be impressed for sailors," said Maud 
 to herself, as she hurried away te^teU Mrs. Murray the 
 news ; " but I wish King George could be. Anyhow, 
 I'm glad they got the powder." 
 
 Nevertheless, those four barrels were the worst part 
 
 of the danger now besetting Skipper Avery and the 
 
 Noank. Having on board a deserter, or even being 
 
 one, was not half so bad as out and out treason coopered 
 
 x^up in that shape. 
 
 The ten-gun brig was not at aU a slow boat, and 
 proved it as soon as her saUs were spread ; but the 
 Noank had the start of her. 
 
 " If I had a boat," said Guert, " you could put me 
 ashore." 
 
 " Haven't one to spare," said the skipper, " and it 
 won't do for us to lose a tack, or we'd run in and land 
 ye. That feller'U race us for all we're wuth." 
 
 They were going through the tossing waters of the 
 HeU Gate channel now, and it was well for the Noank 
 that the old harpooneer at her helm knew every rock of 
 that perilous passage. Guert almost forgot his mother's 
 
THE CRUISE or THE NOANK. 69 
 
 anxiety about him, as he leaned over the prow and 
 watched the foaming eddies among which the schooner 
 was dashing onward. 
 
 " That brig'll need a good pilot," remarked Nathan 
 Hale. " We shall gain on her, here." 
 
 That was the very thing that shortly vexed the soul 
 of the British commander. His pUot was doubtless a 
 good one, but he was a Rhode Island Yankee and he 
 insisted upon being exceedingly careful of the craft he 
 was steering. He picked his way along, and in and 
 out, tacking and rock-dodgiag, with the utmost fidelity, 
 while the runaway Noank spread her wide wings and 
 sped away into the Sound beyond. 
 
 " We are away out of range or she'd send a shot 
 after us," said the skipper to Hale. " K this breeze 
 holds we shall reach New London before to-morrow 
 night." 
 
 The young patriot was at that moment looking east- 
 ward, through a telescope he had brought up from the 
 cabin. 
 
 " If that sail ahead is the Merlin man-o'-war," re- 
 plied Hale, "I'm afraid we shall never get there. 
 She is due at New York." 
 
 "I didn't know that," said the skipper cahnly; 
 "but I'm safe enough. You don't know the Long 
 Island shore, and her captain'U only lose the Merlin if 
 he follows the Noank. I'U show you." 
 
 Guert heard them, and a thrill went over him. He 
 
70 GUEET TEN ETCK. 
 
 was really at sea and he was beginning to feel as if he 
 and all the rest of them were already at war with 
 King George. On sped the light-heeled schooner, and 
 further and dimmer grew the sails of the pursuing brig ; 
 but now they could see ahead of them, without any 
 glass, growing larger and larger every moment, the 
 spreading canvas of a large ship under full sail. 
 
 " The next tack'U bring us pretty nigh her, Lyme 
 Avery," said the old harpooneer. " What'U ye do? " 
 
 " Run right for her," said the skipper, " and then 
 scoot away across them Long Island shoals." 
 
 "That's the talk," said the grim sailor heartily. 
 " If she follows us she'll git herself stuck. I'd like to 
 lose one ship for King George this arternoon. ' ' 
 
 No doubt the officers of the Merlin were watching 
 the swift approach of the Yankee schooner from the 
 beginning, but now a heavily-made gentleman in uni- 
 form, on the quarter-deck, was remarking : 
 
 "Bring her to, lieutenant. Take out every man 
 except just enough to sail her home. These whalers 
 and coasters are just the men we want." 
 
 Lyme Avery knew that, and so did his wife, and 
 sons, and his crew, and the two passengers, and some 
 of them were almost holding their breaths as they 
 measured the lessening distance between them and the 
 gallant war-ship of their king. 
 
 If she had been a pirate they could not have felt 
 more deeply that she was their most dangerous enemy. 
 
THE CRUISE OF THE NOANK. 71 
 
 Not a soul on board of her dreamed but what the 
 Noank would obey the signal to come within hail which 
 had been made to her, and she was evidently coming. 
 
 " What does she mean, though, by going to leeward 
 of us?" suddenly exclaimed the captain of the Merlin. 
 " Port your helm, there ! Run out a gun ! She has 
 tacked away." 
 
 The great ship was slower in her movements than 
 was the saucy schooner which had so unexpectedly 
 dodged, but the gun was out quickly. 
 
 "Boom! " and the first shot struck the water not 
 twenty yards from the stern of the Noank. 
 
 Boom ! boom ! boom ! one after another roared out 
 the angry thunder of the Merlin, but she had been 
 only barely within range at first, and now it was but 
 chance firing. 
 
 ' ' If only a shot or so strikes us we may not suffer 
 much," said Guert, but he knew very little about 
 cannon ; and Hale responded : 
 
 ' ' It might smash a mast, or it might hit the powder 
 and blow us up." 
 
 " That's so," said Guert, a little crestfallen. 
 "Isn't she gaining on us?" 
 
 "Of course she is," remarked the skipper, behind 
 them. " It'U be touch and go. There ! somebody on 
 board of her knows the coast. That was almost a 
 broadside. How mad they are! " 
 
 It was so. The sailing-master of the Merlin was a 
 
72 GUEKT TEN EYCK. 
 
 Cape Cod man, long since impressed from a whaler, 
 and he had respectfully reported to the first lieutenant : 
 
 " Shoal water ahead, sir. That craffc'll be aground 
 before she knows it, and we can take her with boats." 
 
 "Shoaling?" almost screamed the lieutenant, but 
 he instantly added a storm of orders, in response to 
 which the good ship swung away from her supposed 
 peril, while the sailing-master, who was thanked for 
 saving her, went forward saying to himself : 
 
 ' ' Them guns was almost a-reachin' of her. But 
 it's jist as well we didn't run within a mile o' that 
 there shoal." 
 
 "Dangerous navigation," said the captain of the 
 Merlin. "We couldn't risk the ship, you know. 
 We must have scored her. Hope she'U sink ! " 
 
 The Noank was not scored, and she did not sink, 
 but Nathan Hale remarked to Skipper Avery : 
 
 ' ' It was very poor gunnery. The shot fell all 
 around us, at first, and not one came on board." 
 
 " It wasn't because they didn't mean to hit," said 
 the skipper. " They had the law on their side, too. 
 For all they knew, we're pirates. They'd a parfect 
 law jistification to blaze away." , 
 
 "And murder us all," said his wife, " you and me 
 and the boys, just for nothing? " 
 
 "It's sea law, Hanner," said the skipper; "but 
 none of her shot kin tetch now. ' ' 
 
 As for Guert, he had a strong feeling, now it was 
 
THE CRUISE OF THE NOANK. 75 
 
 over, that he would not for anything have missed being 
 cannonaded. 
 
 "I wish I could teU mother," he thought, " and 
 then I just would like to teU Aleck Hamilton and 
 Maud Wolcott. Wouldn't it make her mad ? I guess 
 it would Rachel Tarns, too." 
 
 He knew the strong-minded Quaker lady pretty 
 well. She may not at that moment have been out of 
 temper, but she was looking very vigorously into the 
 faces of a knot of finely-dressed women in a shop on 
 Beaver Street, away down town, and she was saying : 
 
 " JaneDe Lancey, thee and thy king and thy gover- 
 nor are too much for me. I am so blind that I cannot 
 see their wisdom. They drive men to take up carnal 
 weapons ' ' — 
 
 " I cannot hear such talk," began another woman, 
 even more haughtily indignant than Miss De Lancey 
 had seemed. " It ill becomes you, Rachel Tarns, con- 
 sidering how leniently you Quakers have been dealt 
 with. You are permitted to practice your religious 
 notions unmolested. Not one of you has been punished, 
 and this is your gratitude ! " 
 
 " Thy good king and his gentle governor have not 
 hanged me, nor burned me, nor put me in prison, for 
 serving God in my own way," said Rachel scornfully. 
 "I will tell thee a thing, Antoinette Tryon. At the 
 last meeting of Friends, there was a testimony concern- 
 ing thy kinsman, the Governor of this province." 
 
76 GUEET TEN ETCK. 
 
 "What was it, if you dare to tell?" angrily 
 demanded Miss Tryon. 
 
 " I do dare to tell thee," said Rachel, " and thee 
 can make the most of it. One Friend was given to 
 say and to testify that the man Tryon would be the 
 last to call himself a king's governor on this Island of 
 Manhattan." 
 
 " He ought to be hung for that, if he was not hung 
 for being a Quaker," replied Miss Tryon; and Miss 
 De Lancey added : 
 
 " Rachel Tarns ! I'm ashamed of you." 
 
 " Thee need not be," said Rachel. " Thee should 
 be glad to hear the news. But they could not hang 
 him, if they dared." 
 
 "Why couldn't they ? " demanded Miss Tryon. 
 
 " Because she is not a man, but a woman," said 
 Rachel, " and she is nearly ninety years old. She 
 also testified that the days of all the kings draw nigh 
 unto an end. Thee can tell thy kinsman, Antoinette 
 Tryon, that both Jane De Lancey and Rachel Tarns 
 honor the king. I trust she will never commit treason. 
 As for me, I am a woman of peace." 
 
 It was not precisely the expression of her face at 
 that moment, but she picked up a bundle handed her by 
 the shopman and walked away. Neither of the others 
 would have done that, but it was against the precepts 
 of the New York Quakers to own black men or women, 
 and the richest of them were therefore often compelled 
 
THE CRiriSE OF THE NOANK. 77 
 
 to help themselves. Nothing easily imaginable would 
 have induced Miss Tryon or Miss De Lancey to carry 
 that bundle, but they were both bearing a great bur- 
 den of angry loyalty, and they seemed to have sincere 
 sympathy from others who had heard Rachel teU the 
 dangerous prophecy. Things were indeed getting into 
 a bad condition when tea could be thrown overboard, 
 soldiers pelted in Broadway, and when even Quakers 
 could prophesy the downfall of all royal authority. 
 
 Guert Ten Eyck, away out on the Sound, was hav- 
 ing a curious time. It was a splendid sail. It had 
 been and stiU was fuU of excitement. The peril of it 
 was by no means over, although not a sail was in sight, 
 and the Noank was running fast before a favoring 
 breeze. Guert, however, was conscious of having yet 
 another new experience. He had had some schooling. 
 His mother was a woman of education, moreover, and 
 she had taught him many things. He had even read 
 a number of books a,nd he thought he knew a great 
 deal. Now, he hardly knew how, he had been drawn 
 to sit down by Nathan Hale, whom he knew to be a 
 college graduate and a school teacher, and to tell him 
 all he had learned, and to see how Uttle there was of 
 it, and then, as his handsome friend talked on, he be- 
 gan to feel a great, vague hunger to know mor«. 
 
 It was curious, that anything like a sea-lecture on 
 knowledge should follow so closely upon the roar of the 
 Merlin's guns, but there never could have been a time 
 
78 
 
 GUEKT TEN EYCK. 
 
 when all Guert's mind would be more completely 
 awake. Besides, he was not talking to an ordinary 
 man, and he was made to feel strongly the force of 
 Nathan Hale's last remark : 
 
 "Eead, Guert. Study. You will soon be called 
 to act. Every American boy owes it to his country to 
 be all the man there is in him. Anyhow, we are safe, 
 now. It is getting dark." 
 
 Mrs. Ten Eyck did not sleep as well as usual, that 
 night, and it may be that some of her thoughts con- 
 cerning her son were pretty nearly correct. None 
 were much out of the way that imagined him also to 
 be pretty wide awake, much of the time, for he kept 
 his watch on deck with the sailors and he had difficulty 
 in shutting his eyes when he went below. She was also 
 right in picturing to her mind a swift schooner, crack- 
 ing on all sail, and dashing almost recklessly along the 
 shortest course toward New London. She was up 
 early, next morning, and her first visitor was no other 
 than Co-co, followed closely by Up-na-tan and bringing 
 a fine string of blackfish, caught at the turn of the 
 tide. Co-co's eyes, however, did not brighten over his 
 fish half so much as they did when he assured her : 
 
 " Bes' kin' ob wind, all night. Missus Ten Eyck. 
 Blow 'em right along. King ship nebbercotch 'em." 
 
 "Boy all right," added the red man. " Know he 
 come back. Take heap 'calp, some day. Heap like 
 him, Soj so ! Up-na-tan ! '' 
 
THE CRUISE OF THE NOANK. 79 
 
 Gruert was apparently a recognized ally of those two 
 adventurers, whether or not they regarded him as a 
 promising young white pirate. They went to work 
 in Mrs. Ten Eyck's cornfield, without further orders, 
 and it was not long before she had more visitors. She 
 had to give up her spinning-wheel that morning, and 
 it was to quite a knot of listeners, in the parlor, that 
 Aleck Hamilton brought a specially interesting batch 
 of news. 
 
 Not only had Skipper Avery, of New London, es- 
 caped the press-gang, after upsetting their boat, but 
 he was almost believed, by the military and naval 
 officers and His Excellency, Grovernor Tryon, to have 
 regained his schooner, as she had instantly set sail. 
 Worst of aU was their black suspicion connecting the 
 Noank with a discovered theft of four barrels of gun- 
 powder. She was sure to be captured, however, as 
 the brig Spitfire had followed her, and the sixty-gun 
 Merlin was known to be in her way. 
 
 " Guert's on board of her," burst from the lips of 
 Maud Wolcott. "They can't catch her. I know 
 they can't." 
 
 ' ' That is what Co-co and Up-na-tan say, ' ' remarked 
 Mrs. Ten Eyck. " Skipper Avery must know the 
 Sound as well as they do." 
 
 "They ought to know," said Aleck, but Rachel 
 Tarns turned upon him with : 
 
 "Let it be a lesson to thee, Alexander. Submit 
 
80 GUEET TEN ETCK. 
 
 thyself to tliy good king. If thee ever steals any of 
 his powder thee should know beforehand what thee is 
 going to do with it. ' ' 
 
 " We are going to need all the powder we can get, 
 some day," replied Aleck. " But I hope they won't 
 catch the Noank." 
 
 "Thee had boy ! " said Rachel. "Thee has no 
 sympathy for thy king. That wicked man Lyme 
 Avery is a deserter, and thee should wish him to be 
 catched and hanged." 
 
 " They may hang me some day" — but the young 
 man, or rather boy, stopped there and turned to go, 
 with a somewhat hasty performance of ceremony. 
 
 "Thee had better go," said Eachel, "before thee 
 talks treason. Thee must not talk treason in my 
 presence, and thee must not steal, but if ever thee 
 needs to buy a few barrels of powder for thy duck- 
 shooting thee can come to me for the money. ' ' 
 
 "Rachel Tarns ! " exclaimed Mrs. Ten Eyck, but 
 after her guests were gone, she went into her back 
 room and took down from some hooks in the alcove, 
 something that may have been suggested by the men- 
 tion of duck-shooting. It was a fine, bell-muzzled 
 fowling-piece, of the largest size. It was as tall as a 
 middle-sized man. It had a flint-lock, of course, and 
 was very heavy, but it looked as if it could throw 
 large shot and a great many of them. 
 
 " Guert has not been old enough, nor strong enough, 
 
THE CRUISE OF THE NOANK. 81 
 
 yet," she said, " but they say he is a good marksman. 
 I will get the best powder. Plenty of it. I think I 
 wUl get buckshot. Perhaps I can buy a musket. ' ' 
 
 What could she want of buckshot, when the nearest 
 hunting-ground for deer was at least twenty miles 
 from the city ? 
 
 That was a grand day for a sailing party and Guert 
 made the most of it. The Noank was a fine seaboat, 
 and the old harpooneer told him of rough seas and try- 
 ing weather when she had carried him and the skipper 
 stanchly in their search for whales. She had even 
 out-sailed a pirate, among the West India Islands. 
 Guert longed to tell him of his own piratical adven- 
 ture, but he shut his mouth tight, and was true to 
 Up-na-tan. 
 
 The wind held fresh and southerly, and the few sails 
 they sighted had no danger in them, but none were 
 approached too nearly. It was just as well that not 
 too many people of any kind should afterward be able 
 to say they had seen the Noank. 
 
 The sun went down, and through the long hours of 
 the evening watch, Guert sat and talked with Nathan 
 Hale, excepting when Skipper Avery spun yams about 
 his voyages, or told of the doings of Old Put in the 
 French and Indian War. It was a great evening, but 
 Guert at last went down to his bunk, thinking of his 
 mother, and wishing he could tell her how really safe 
 he was, and how splendidly he and the Noank had 
 
82 GUEET TEN ETCK. 
 
 beaten the British cruisers. He slept better this time. 
 He did not know how long it was before he was shaken 
 up sharply, and heard a voice say : 
 
 "Come, Guert!" 
 
 " Is this New London ? " asked he, eagerly, for he 
 heard Skipper Avery, on deck, shouting : 
 
 ' ' Lower the boat. ' ' 
 
 "No," said Nathan Hale; "it's the cove beyond 
 Noank Point, east of New London. We must put the 
 powder ashore." 
 
 ' ' Powder ? ' ' exclaimed Guert, springing out, wide 
 awake. " Of course. We must hide it. What'U 
 the Noank do? " 
 
 " She'U run into New London harbor, perhaps," 
 said Hale. " But I think she is off for a cargo of Vir- 
 ginia tobacco, if she can get away. That brig may be 
 hunting along shore for her. ' ' 
 
 " They won't catch her," said Guert, as he and his 
 friend hurried on deck. " They'd never find her in 
 here, in the dark." 
 
 It was pretty dark. The one boat of the Noank had 
 been lowered, and Mrs. Avery was already in her, 
 with the two Avery boys, and the harpooneer and 
 another seaman at the oars. It was a whale-boat, and 
 was well able to carry also the two heavy barrels which 
 were quickly lowered with the help of tackle. 
 
 "No danger in them," said Guert, "so long as 
 there's no fire around." 
 
THE CRUISE OF THE NOANK. 83 
 
 " Nobody can guess when or whar that powder '11 
 be fired away," replied the old harpooneer. " Come 
 right down, my boy." 
 
 Guert obeyed, and in a moment more he was sitting 
 by Mrs. Avery. It was a short pull to a rude wooden 
 pier, at the beach, and there were men with lanterns, 
 waiting. So, he quickly discovered, was a two-horse 
 farm wagon. 
 
 "It's goin' to our farm, away over among the 
 Groton HUls," said Mrs. Avery. " This 'ere is Dea- 
 con Prentice's wagon — old Sam Prentice. He's a 
 cousin o' mine, and he's real grit. Oh ! but ain't he 
 mad about their 'pressin' Lyme." 
 
 Guert heard a deep, hoarse voice, at the wagon, 
 talking all sorts of treason against King George, and 
 adding : 
 
 " Biggest luck in the world to git so much paowder. 
 Last time I seen Old Put, he was 'most sick to think 
 on it, how leetle we hed on hand. We'U land it daown 
 inter the skipper's own cellar, and then he'd best clear 
 for the Capes and the Potomac. It won't dew for old 
 George's men to ketch him, jist naow. This 'ere'U 
 blaow over 'fore he gits hum with his terbacker." 
 
 Guert waited, impatiently, feverishly, while the 
 boat made another trip. He saw the barrels hoisted 
 into Sam Prentice's wagon, followed by Mrs. Avery. 
 The wagon started, the boat put off, with hearty 
 good-by words all around, and then Nathan Hale said : 
 
84 GUERT TEN ETCK. 
 
 " Now, Guert, you and I must foot it to New Lon- 
 don. From what Sam Prentice says, I think we shall 
 start you back to New York with an errand. How 
 would you like a long ride ? ' ' 
 
 " I can ride," almost shouted Guert. " I can ride 
 anything. I'm ready." 
 
 So they two set out together, in the early dawn, 
 and Nathan Hale said : 
 
 "I'm afraid it won't he long before we shall have 
 to use some of that powder." 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 DISPATCHES FROM BOSTON. 
 
 THE mere escape of Skipper Avery was not a matter 
 of great importance, seeing how many Yankee 
 sailors there were to be caught, but the actual taking 
 of four barrels of the king's own gunpowder marked 
 with his broad-arrow, was quite another affair. It 
 seemed to mean that somebody was going to shoot a 
 great deal and was getting ready for it. It was so 
 very important, that the British ofl&cers, of aU kinds, 
 and Governor Tryon, decided to keep it as nearly a 
 secret as possible, and hope that the schooner would be 
 captured. 
 
 There was no danger that Up-na-tan, or Co-co, or 
 Rachel Tarns, or Maud Wolcott, would bring "the 
 authorities " any information, for they were all rebels 
 together. As for Mrs. Ten Eyck, she went over to 
 spend the evening at Mrs. Murray's, after spinning 
 desperately until the last twists of carded wool that 
 she had on hand gave out. Meantime the old beU- 
 
 85 
 
86 GUEKT TEN ETCK. 
 
 muzzled gun stood in the corner and watched her spin, 
 looking aU the while as if somebody had given him a 
 new suit of oil and polish, and had put a brand-new 
 flint in his lock-mouth, ready to strike fire on the first 
 opportunity. 
 
 Co-co was restless, and left the cornfield in the 
 middle of the afternoon to go down to Mom Van 
 Boom's, remarking : 
 
 " Mebbe pore ole brack man fine out wot dem lob- 
 sters is up to. Feel right shore dey nebber cotch de 
 schoonah. ' ' 
 
 Up-na-tan seemed to be having a sulky day, not a 
 proud one. Not that he looked at aU humble when he 
 ate his supper in Mrs. Ten Eyck's kitchen. He ate 
 it in gloomy silence, when it was put before him by 
 the middle-aged Dutch woman who was serving as help 
 at the farmhouse. He hardly seemed to see her, and 
 it was just as well, for she was one of at least a dozen 
 who worked there, turn by turn, and one was as an- 
 other to the great chief, the last of the Manhattans, 
 the owner of the whole island. 
 
 Co-co was very much at home wherever he might 
 happen to be, but nobody knew exactly where Up-na- 
 tan lived. Nobody had ever cared to know, but there 
 was a vague impression that he had a wigwam among 
 the worthless masses of rocks and the woods and bushes 
 that lay toward the Bloomingdale road, in the middle 
 of Manhattan Island. It was a wild, tangled bit of 
 
DISPATCHES FROM BOSTON. 87 
 
 country, and wildcats had been killed there. Perhaps 
 it did not now contain anything much wilder-looking 
 than was Up-na-tan himself, when, a little before 
 dusk, he stood upon one of the highest knobs of granite 
 and looked out eastward, across the Harlem flats and 
 marshes, toward the Sound. He had not arrived there 
 by any road, but had come all the way from the Ten 
 Eyck place across lots. He was far enough from any 
 road, now, but he was entirely at home and could feel 
 that nobody wanted to dispute with him the ownership 
 of the spot he stood on. 
 
 " Chief heap glad," he muttered, as he looked. 
 " Colony men got powder. Kill all lobster. Up-na- 
 tan help. Go see Iroquois pretty soon." 
 
 If the next words he uttered were in jany dialect of 
 the red man, they ended with " So, so ! Up-na-tan ! " 
 and a fierce, prolonged war-whoop. That being fin- 
 ished, he turned and went down the side of the knob 
 with a springy, pantherish tread, and disappeared 
 among dense thickets and ragged masses of rock. On 
 he pushed, for a minute or so, and he was not follow- 
 ing any path. It was a shadowy, deep hollow that 
 he paused in, then, with close-growing trees overhead. 
 At his feet lay a slab of stone that seemed to lean 
 against two shoulders of the broken ledge, and to be 
 overgrown with briers. 
 
 Without a word spoken, Up-na-tan very carefully 
 lifted aside the prickly vines, but he must have been a 
 
88 GUERT TEN EYCK. 
 
 giant in strength to have raised that stone as he did. 
 That is, he tilted it back and stepped over it into a 
 great crevice, that grew wider from its entrance, ajid 
 for a dozen feet, and then was blocked by a rocky wall. 
 The break in the ledge and the fallen rocks had made 
 a kind of cave. There never is any other kind in 
 granite. Almost all the great caves are in limestone 
 or basalt. 
 
 " Up-na-tan house," he said, as he looked around. 
 " Paleface no find him. Kidd no come. So, so ! 
 Up-na-tan ! " 
 
 Anybody would have uttered some kind of exclama- 
 tion on looking around in that place, for it was a curios- 
 ity shop. There were a few weapons, swords, pistols, 
 muskets, aU wrapped up with some care. There were 
 blackened specimens of valuable silverware that only 
 needed polishing to ornament an earl's dinner table. 
 There were bags and bags that only gave a hint of 
 what might be in them, when the Manhattan lifted one 
 of them and threw it down again, as if to hear it chink. 
 Then he did so with another, and the chink was not 
 the same. There is a difference in the ringing of gold 
 and of silver. He did not open any bag. 
 
 " Captain Kidd money," he said. " He come for 
 bag some day. Find some here. Some on island. 
 Up-na-tan wait. ' ' 
 
 If he had fished all the night before, and then 
 worked all day in the cornfield, instead of spending any 
 
DISPATCHES FROM BOSTON. 89 
 
 of the treasure he was guarding, it may have made 
 him weary. At all events, he went and puUed back 
 the stone, bringing it toward him over the opening be- 
 tween the rocks, like a door or a hatch. He was then 
 securely shut in, and he lay down among the heaps of 
 strange things on the stone floor of his cave, and went 
 to sleep. No man on Manhattan Island slept in a 
 darker bedroom, that night, than did the man who 
 claimed to own it aU. 
 
 About the middle of the following forenoon, a small 
 group of men stood in front of the old tavern at the 
 foot of Main Street, in the busy, yet sleepy town of 
 New London. Several horses were hitched near them, 
 and one of them remarked : 
 
 " WaU, Paul, ye kem in from Baws'n on the clean 
 jump, ye did, but you won't hev to go on to New 
 York. Nathan's fetched up a Dutch boy that kin 
 take yer place, so's you kin go hum." 
 
 Guert's cruise in the Noank had evidently been told, 
 and now Nathan Hale said of him : 
 
 "He is clear grit, Kevere. Sam Prentice has 
 brought in your sorrel racer for him, and your mount 
 is a good one." 
 
 "I'U trust him, if you say so," replied the cele- 
 brated Boston messenger, who had been looking at 
 Guert half-doubtfuUy. "Besides, Old Put's dis- 
 patches must be carried right back to Boston. I must 
 take them to Sam Adams and Dr. Warren, myself." 
 
90 GUEET TEN ETCK. 
 
 " I'll take anything to Mr. Livingston," said Gruert, 
 delighted with the idea of going home at once, with 
 something important to carry. 
 
 "Take these papers, then, Gluert," said Severe. 
 "Put them inside; under your belt — so. There 
 — draw it tighter. Now they'll stay, no matter 
 how hard you ride. Mount! Captain Ledyard," 
 he added, "before he is off, have you anything 
 more you wish to send to Livingston or to the New 
 York Committee ? " 
 
 "No, I haven't," said a pleasant-looking man, 
 standing at the side of Nathan Hale. "It's of no use. 
 Livingston couldn't send Putnam's message to the 
 Iroquois chiefs. No messenger " — 
 
 ' ' Yes, he could, ' ' exclaimed Guert. ' ' I can get him 
 one, right away. Old Indian. Hates King George 
 worse than any white man could hate him." 
 
 " That's it," interrupted Sam Prentice. " I know 
 boys. He's one on 'em. Cutest kind. Naow, Led- 
 yard, gin him that there tokin from Old Put for the 
 redskins. ' ' 
 
 Captain Ledyard handed Guert a small parcel to 
 put in his pocket, remarking : 
 
 " That's for Livingston to send to the Iroquois. If 
 you get into danger, burn it, if you can. You have 
 aU your directions for the way, and know what houses 
 to stop at. They wiU give you fresh horses about 
 every twenty miles, if you need them, but you can ride 
 

 ^f^ 
 
 ,-SiS*'^ 
 
 
 HE WAS LIKE PAUL KEVERE, CARKYING COMMITTEE DISPATCHES. 
 
DISPATCHES FROM BOSTON. 93 
 
 that critter thirty and not tire him. It's one Paul 
 Eevere left here last trip. If he doesn't throw you ' ' — 
 
 "He can't," shouted Guert, feeling as if he were 
 all one tingle, but old Sam Prentice seemed to toss him 
 into the saddle. 
 
 His feet caught the stirrups, his hands caught the 
 reins, the splendid sorrel under him curveted, whinnied, 
 danced around a little, and then shot away up the 
 ' street, with a long, easy stride, while Guert almost 
 screamed with pride and exultation. He was riding as 
 a Colony messenger. He was like Paul Revere, carry- 
 ing Committee dispatches. He was in danger. He 
 was a rebel. He was a kind of trooper. He was 
 mounted on a racer, and he was riding home. Hurrah ! 
 
 It was yet an hour before noon of that day, when a 
 dignified woman, and a girl not altogether so dignified, 
 stood together at the cluttered counter of MacReady's 
 old bookstall, on Pearl Street, near Broadway. Be- 
 fore them, and on other counters, and on aU the shelves, 
 was a very much mixed collection of old books and 
 new, but they seemed to be examining two or three of 
 the oddest kind. One, that lay open, was illustrated 
 with copper-plate engravings that were curiosities. 
 Some looked like forts, and some were collections of 
 cannon., Some had a mathematical look. They were 
 decidedly uninteresting, but the lady said : 
 
 " Thee is right, Maud. I am glad thee found them. ' ' 
 
 " I know these are the very books, Rachel," said 
 
94 GTJERT TEN ETCK. 
 
 Maud, with a flushed face. " Aleck said so. All about 
 artillery and forts. Cavalry, too, and infantry. See, 
 there's Vaubau's name, and all the others. Plans of 
 battles." 
 
 "Roy MacReady," said Rachel, raising her voice, 
 " did thee say sixteen shillings for these wicked books 
 about killing men ? ' ' 
 
 " Sixteen for that volume. A guinea for the other. 
 Twelve shillings-six for the smaller volume. I bought 
 them all of an ofl&cer of the garrison, last year." 
 
 " Thee did right," said Rachel. " I am glad thee 
 came by them honestly. I will buy them from thee. 
 See that thee send them to my house." 
 
 There was a quiet kind of laugh near her, and a 
 friendly voice asked : 
 
 "Rachel, can you tell me what business Quakers 
 have with books about war ? ' ' 
 
 "Robert Livingston," replied Rachel, " thee is a 
 very great fool with thy questions. I am a woman of 
 peace, and I do my duty, to keep thee, or the king's 
 officers, or thy wicked Committee, or any other foolish 
 and ignorant persons, from knowing how to kiU men 
 with guns. Thee cannot borrow them, Robert, nor 
 will I lend them to thy wicked Liberty Boys, nor tp 
 thy Committee." 
 
 The courteous-mannered patriot evidently knew 
 Rachel Tarns, for he was laughing, but his curiosity 
 was aroused, for he asked : 
 
DISPATCHES FEOM BOSTON. 95 
 
 •' Miss Maud, can they be for you? Or for Mrs. 
 Murray?" 
 
 "Do let me tell, Rachel," pleaded Maud. 
 
 "Thee bad girl! It is thy fault," said Rachel. 
 " Robert, has thee been drinking thy king's tea, as is 
 thy duty?" 
 
 " Not a drop," he said. 
 
 " Ah," said Rachel. " Thee does not like tea. I 
 wiU say only a word to thee about the books. A 
 young friend of mine at the college, wishes to know 
 more about mathematics. He wiU be much instructed 
 by the contents of these volumes. He wiU also learn 
 how dreadful war is, and will incline toward peace." 
 
 "I think so. I quite agree with you," said Liv- 
 ingston, but Rachel had paid for the military books, 
 and seemed to wish to get away, for she almost 
 whispered : 
 
 " Robert, Maud and I must go. Some of thy re- 
 bellious committee-men are waiting for thee. See that 
 they talk no treason, nor thee either. Honor thy good 
 king and his wise ministers." 
 
 She swept slowly away, and Maud went with her, 
 exulting : 
 
 "0, Rachel! I'm so glad you are so rich. Now 
 Aleck Hamilton can learn about making forts, and 
 armies, and winning battles " — 
 
 " Thee must never go to war, Maud Wolcott," re- 
 plied Rachel, " but if any bad men are coming against 
 
96 GUERT TEN EYCK. 
 
 f 
 
 thee, it is right to build strong places for thee to 
 hide in." 
 
 " Yes," exclaimed Maud. " Good forts, and can- 
 non to shoot back with, and to know just how. Aleck 
 says Aaron Burr is studying all the while, and there 
 are plenty of books for him at Newark and Princeton. ' ' 
 
 " I will see to it that Alexander shall know more 
 than Aaron," said Eachel positively. "It is weU 
 for all young men to store their minds with knowledge. 
 It is weU for thee also to avoid the sin of ignorance. 
 Thee can spin and thee can weave. Can thee make a 
 tent?" 
 
 "Why, no," said Maud, as they walked along 
 Broadway. ' ' I never thought of it. ' ' 
 
 " Then thee had better think," said Rachel, " for 
 if thee will read thy Bible, thee will find it telling thee 
 ' to thy tents, Israel. ' I shall buy canvas, and I wiU 
 have tents ready for many men. ' ' 
 
 Maud was startled as she looked at the stern face of 
 the excited Quakeress, there was so much war in it, 
 and such a glow of patriotic courage. 
 
 "You're as good and as brave as you can be, 
 Rachel," she said. " I can't make a tent, but I can 
 roll cartridges. So can both my aunts, at Litchfield, 
 and they are teaching the girls." 
 
 They had a great many things to say which would 
 have sounded like treason, in the ears of a stanch 
 loyalist, like Jane De Lancey, but she was not there to 
 
DISPATCHES FROM BOSTON. 97 
 
 hear. It was entirely natural, however, that Maud 
 went over to Mrs. Ten Byck's, that evening, to teU 
 her about the books, and to keep her company, and to 
 wonder, every now and then, whether or not Gluert had 
 safely reached New London. It would have done them 
 good if they could have known, then, and all the next 
 few days, how very safely he got there, and how short 
 a visit he made. 
 
 He rode out of New London, westerly, in high spirits, 
 but with one piece of advice ringing in his ears. 
 
 "My boy," he had been told by Paul Revere, the 
 Boston messenger, ' ' one good reason why I let you go 
 is that I'm told they might stop me. They've no right 
 to. It's against all law, but they don't care much for 
 that. Now, you'd best not talk much, nor ride along 
 with anybody, but if you are followed, just let that 
 horse go. They won't catch him." 
 
 Guert hoped, in his heart, that somebody would 
 reaUy give him a good excuse for letting out the speed 
 that was in that sorrel, but for that day, at least, he 
 was to be entirely disappointed. Nothing could have 
 been more entirely peaceful than the manner in which 
 he traveled. The roads were good, at that season, 
 although they seemed to have been planned to go over 
 all the hills instead of through all the valleys. Even 
 Paul Revere 's sorrel knew that it was best to walk up 
 a hill, and then to walk do^vn on the other side, but he 
 loved to stretch out a little on anything like a level. 
 
98 GUERT TEN ETCK. 
 
 Guert had a luncheon with him, to eat half-way, while 
 the sorrel nibbled grass and looked at him as if he 
 were saying : 
 
 " You're not exactly a Boston boy, but I'U be good 
 to you. Neither of us belongs to the king, and this 
 isn't his grass, either." 
 
 Guert made no audible reply, but at that hour. 
 Skipper Avery, standing on a wharf in New London 
 Harbor, was remarking : 
 
 "AH right, Captain Ledyard. It's goin' to be 
 clear weather. We'U run the Noank in here, soon's 
 it's dark. If the cargo's ready, we can stow her in 
 two days and nights. If that brig doesn't look in, 
 we're safe. We won't come back, right away, either." 
 
 But away down at the Battery, in New York, a knot 
 of British officers, in uniform, were discussing the bad 
 conduct of that very schooner. 
 
 " Do you think you winged her, captain? " 
 
 "I almost fear we did not. I couldn't risk losing 
 the Merlin on those shoals, but the schooner seemed to 
 slip over them. ' ' 
 
 ' ' The brig may find her ' ' — 
 
 " She signaled me she would put in at New Haven, 
 and all along shore." 
 
 " That's right. She'll get her," said another offi- 
 cer wisely, but Skipper Avery's next voyage was all 
 the safer because his enemy was hunting for him every- 
 where, so carefully, and losing time. 
 
DISPATCHES FEOM BOSTON. 99 
 
 Guert mounted, and again rode on, now and then 
 exchanging friendly greetings with country people. 
 Not one of them was willing to let him go without get- 
 ting aU his news out of him, and he ahnost laughed 
 aloud several times, as he said, at parting : 
 
 " Mister, I haven't met a man yet, nor a woman, 
 that didn't agree about the right way to make tea. 
 All the Connecticut people think salt water is best 
 for it." 
 
 He felt very much as if he were among friends, but, 
 as the afternoon passed, and the sorrel took things 
 easier and easier, he found himself studying more 
 closely the farmhouse dooryards. 
 
 " Haven't seen it yet," he said, at about six o'clock. 
 " I must have passed more than one of them." 
 
 A minute later he gave a shout that startled the 
 sorrel, and exclaimed : 
 
 " There it is ! The gate's open. I'U ride right in 
 and get down." 
 
 There it was. Nothing but a coonskin nailed, head 
 downward, against the bark of a tree, and Guert broke 
 off a small branch from a bough of that tree before he 
 dismounted. A woman came hurriedly down from the 
 porch, and, as he handed her the twig, she said : 
 
 " Sech a boy, too ! Come right in. They'll keer 
 for yer boss. Ye must be right-down tired. Oh ! but 
 ain't ye welcome, though. My name's Hannah Taber. 
 Walk in." 
 
100 GUEET TEN ETCE. 
 
 She knew how to talk, but she and some other 
 women, and some men and boys, knew also how to 
 make him talk. 
 
 It was a big, hearty-voiced man who said . 
 
 " You've done first-rate. Thirty-odd mile, as the 
 crow flies, and I don't know how many by the roads. 
 You'll sleep. Prime good boss, too. You could hev 
 another in the mornin', if you needed one, but you 
 won't. That's Paul Revere's thorrerbred. I knowed 
 him when ye kem up the east road." 
 
 There was great talk, and much news-telling in that 
 farmhouse, during the evening. Gruert told all he 
 knew, but he learned a great deal. 
 
 Before he went to bed, his mind was full of the great 
 fact that all the American colonies of Great Britain 
 were beginning to consult, and were getting ready to 
 act as one people. He also knew that the British Grov- 
 ernment was anxious to know what the Colonies pro 
 posed to do, and would be very glad to get hold of a lot 
 of written dispatches such as were carried by Paul 
 Revere and that very important horseman, Guert Ten 
 Byck. He went to sleep, saying to himself : 
 
 " I don't want to ride any other horse but the sor- 
 rel. I'U take good care of him, and make him carry 
 me through." 
 
 That was a good enough idea, but when he and the 
 sorrel were led out into the front yard, next morning, 
 Paul Revere's fast horse seemed inclined to dance a 
 
DISPATCHES FEOM BOSTON. 101 
 
 little, wMle every muscle of Guert's body told him that 
 he had ridden his longest ride, the day before, and had 
 no dance in him. 
 
 As soon as he was well shaken into the saddle, the 
 soreness disappeared, and he could enjoy his ride 
 through the country, but there was only riding to do, 
 for nobody seemed to have any idea of stopping him. 
 It almost hurt his pride to be so entirely safe, but he 
 was aU the while growing impatient, and he could 
 think a great deal about his mother and her anxiety 
 over his absence. 
 
 Very early that morning, in a dense thicket of trees 
 and briers, among the ruggedest rocks of Manhattan 
 Island, a taU fellow was curiously busy arranging rub- 
 bish and tra,iling vines over a slanting stone. When 
 he finished, it all looked natural, as if it had grown 
 there, and he remarked : 
 
 "Ugh! Lobster no find Kidd money. No find 
 heap money in sand on seashore. Up-na-tan 'pend 
 him all, some day. Not now. ' ' 
 
 He went stealthily out through the underbrush, with 
 other mutterings, that told how well he understood 
 the matter. If a more than suspected old pirate like 
 himself were found spending money he could not 
 account for, the authorities, particularly the red-coated 
 "lobsters" whom he hated, would at once hunt 
 for his treasure-house, and would be very likely to 
 find it. He Qould Qontejat himself, therefore, with 
 
102 GtTEKT TEN BYCK. 
 
 merely owning it, just as he owned the island it was 
 hidden in. 
 
 That was a dull day for Mrs. Ten Eyck. So were 
 some that followed it. They would have been duller, 
 if it had not been for the manner in which her neigh- 
 bors came to see her, and to tell her the news and ask 
 if she had heard from Guert. Co-co and Up-na-tan 
 stuck by the farm faithfully, but neither of them asked 
 a question. The spinning-wheel had fresh supplies, and 
 that and the loom were as great a help as was even 
 Maud or Rachel. Aleck Hamilton came only once. 
 It was his college vacation time, but he had hardly an 
 hour to spare from some intensely interesting books 
 procured for him by Maud and the Quakeress. 
 
 "Alexander," Rachel had said to him, " thee is a 
 bad boy. Thee is not a Friend, and I do not wish 
 thee to change thy views at this time. Thy country — 
 I mean thy good and wise king — does not need any 
 more Quakers. Learn all thee can, Alexander, for 
 thee knows very little." 
 
 "I'll learn all there is in them," said young 
 Hamilton feverishly, as he thanked her for the books. 
 " I won't let Aaron Burr get ahead of me. He says 
 he knows, now, how to handle a regiment, but I don't 
 believe he knows how to handle artillery. ' ' 
 
 AU that Guert was learning, during those days, was 
 about the country along the coast of the Sound, and 
 about horseback work as a messenger. Well, yes — < 
 
DISPATCHES FROM BOSTON. 103 
 
 he learned that there were many devoted friends of 
 King George scattered among the angry New England 
 people, so that it was well for him to keep his errand 
 to himself. 
 
 Dull — dull — dull — everybody in the city of New 
 York said so, but it was largely because they were 
 all waiting for something, for all the patriots were 
 really in a kind of ferment, expecting great news from 
 England, and from the Southern Colonies and from 
 Boston. There were rumors of all sorts, and Governor 
 Tryon and his council held as many meetings as did 
 what they called the ' ' rebel ' ' Committee of Fifty-one 
 or the Liberty Boys. 
 
 It was early on the morning of the sixth of July, 
 1774, that Mrs. Ten Eyck stood in the porch of her 
 house, sadly and wearily shaking her head in reply to 
 Maud's doleful question : 
 
 " Hasn't Guert come home ? " 
 
 They were startled, just then. Past the house, with 
 a springing, panther step, went Up-na-tan, sending 
 out, as he went, a shrill, triumphant war-whoop. 
 
 Closely following him, with a strange agility for 
 even an Ashantee with so white a head, went Co-co, 
 shouting : 
 
 " Yo, yo, yo ! — oh ! Dat Guert ! Yo ! Stole a 
 hoss an' fotch him along. ' ' 
 
 Mrs. Ten Eyck and Maud were at the gate therefore, 
 wild, rejoicing, breathless, when a very proud-looking 
 
104 GUERT TEN ETCK. 
 
 young rider pulled in a beautiful sorrel steed, to sliout : 
 "Mother! Maud! I can't wait now. I'm a Boston 
 messenger. I must ride to Counsellor Livingston's. 
 This is Paul Revere 's own horse." 
 
 "0, Guert! " said his mother. "Come back as 
 soon as you can." 
 
 " Hurrah ! " was all Maud could think of, at the 
 moment, while the Manhattan and the. Ashantee uttered 
 exultant yells, as the happy messenger waved his hand 
 to them, and rode away. 
 
 Within an hour after that, it seemed as if something 
 had suddenly stirred up all the people on Manhattan 
 Island. 
 
 Men rode and ran, this way, that way, or met in 
 knots on the streets, in the shops, in the houses. The 
 Governor called his council together. The British gar- 
 rison of Fort George received strict orders to keep in 
 quarters, for fear of trouble. Loyal servants of the 
 king could hardly express their indignation, for a great 
 meeting had been called to assemble on the Common, 
 and carpenters were putting up a platform. 
 
 Guert spent most of his day at home, telling all his 
 news over and over again, but there were some things 
 he could not tell, even to his mother or her friends. 
 
 He had a long talk with Co-co and the Manhattan, 
 before dinner time. That is, he talked, and they 
 listened, but at the end of it, Co-co shook his head and 
 said : 
 
BISPATCHES FROM BOSTON 105 
 
 "Nebber do. Gruert 'tay at home. He not'ing to 
 do in de woods. Injin business ! " 
 
 " Ugh ! " said the latter. " Boy heap fool. Up- 
 na-tan go. See all Six Nation. No let Sir William 
 Johnson know. No let Thay-en-dan-e-ga hear. No 
 let Six Nation fight Colony. Ready go now ! " 
 
 "That's all I want," said Guert, and not a great 
 while afterward he went down town. 
 
 The crowd was already gathering on the Common, 
 and before six o'clock it was the greatest public meet- 
 ing yet held on Manhattan Island. Then the leading 
 citizens on the platform called for order, named a chair- 
 man and other officers, and then were read, loudly, 
 clearly, that all might hear, dispatches from the pa- 
 triot legislature of Massachusetts, advising New York 
 and the other Colonies to choose delegates to a Con- 
 tinental Congress, to be held in Philadelphia. 
 
 It was a startling piece of advice, and two or three 
 speakers who discussed it first, were disposed to handle 
 it gingerly. 
 
 " I'U speak, Aaron Burr. I will" — exclaimed 
 an eager-toned voice, near Guert, in the crowd, and 
 then there was a pushing through, and a slight, grace- 
 ful form sprang upon the platform. 
 
 " CoUegian ! coUegian ! " shouted derisive voices, as 
 the crowd heard a shrill ' ' Mr. Chairman ! ' ' and it 
 was half a minute before silence came. Pretty quickly 
 afterward, there was astonishment and then enthusiasm, 
 
106 GUERT TEN ETCK. 
 
 for the best, bravest, most eloquent argument in favor 
 of a union of the Colonies against the king and his 
 ministers, was made by a boy of seventeen. 
 
 " Isn't it great, Aaron? " exclaimed Guert. 
 
 "I'm a year older than Aleck Hamilton," said 
 Burr. "I can do as much as he can. I'm off for 
 Newark and Princeton." 
 
 "I'm only fourteen," said Guert to himself. "I 
 brought the dispatches, anyhow. I wish Up-na-tan 
 would let me go with him among the Iroquois." 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE NEWS FBOM LEXINGTON. 
 
 PAUL REVERE' S sorrel was in Mrs. Ten Eyck's 
 barn. He did not seem any the worse for his 
 journey, and Co-co undertook the task of "shining 
 him up " as if he loved him. 
 
 " Guert," said a member of the Committee, after 
 thanking him heartily, ' ' take good care of that sorrel. 
 Revere will ride him back, next time he comes. He 
 may only take him as far as New London, but he has 
 made the through trip on him, more than once." 
 
 " Oh ! that's it," said Guert. " He knew all the 
 roads, and he knew what houses to stop at. I believe 
 he knew the people, too." 
 
 Very likely he did, but Guert 's first errand, on the 
 morning of July 5, 1774, brought him and Up-na-tan 
 to the barn in the rear of the Livingston mansion, for 
 a talk with the learned and patriotic man who was to 
 be one of the New York representatives in the Con- 
 tinental Congress. He was there waiting for them, 
 
 107 
 
108 GTJEET TEK ETCK. 
 
 and he seemed to know the Manhattan pretty well 
 already. Many things had been discussed between 
 them when Guert brought him the Boston dispatches, 
 on the fourth. His idea now, as it seemed to Guert, 
 was to find out whether he could trust Up-na-tan, and 
 whether it was worth while to try him. Perhaps the 
 red man saw it as Guert did, for he said after a 
 thoughtful silence : 
 
 " Send pale face, send nigger, no good. Send 
 Manhattan. Indian talk with Indian. Stay a heap. 
 Wait. Hear. Talk. See ole friend. Know all 
 Iroquois chief. Thay-en-dan-e-ga heap bad snake. 
 Johnson heap king man — Up-na-tan hate king." 
 
 " What for? " quietly asked Livingston. 
 
 " Look ! " suddenly exclaimed the last of the Man- 
 hattans, drawing himself up proudly. " You heap 
 chief, like Up-na-tan. Navy men 'press Livingston, 
 eh? Keep him whole year 'fore he 'cape? Flog, eh? 
 Kick, eh? Make slave of Livingston ? How he feel? 
 Feelgood? Ugh! Talk no. So, so ! Up-na-tan!" 
 
 "I'm glad you got away," exclaimed Livingston. 
 " I'll trust you. You are just the man we want. 
 There isn't any danger that a flogged Indian wiU for- 
 give. That'll do, Guert. Up-na-tan, your message 
 will be ready at sunset. ' ' 
 
 " Come," said Up-na-tan, and he and his young 
 friend went off together. 
 
 There was hardly any other political or military 
 
THE NEWS FROM LEXINGTON. 109 
 
 question that promised to be of greater importance to 
 the patriots of the British province of New York, in 
 any struggle with the king, than would be the course 
 of the powerful Iroquois confederacy. If aU the tribes 
 between the Hudson and the great lakes should be 
 united as a re-enforcement of the British troops, it 
 seemed as if the colonists would have no hope at all. 
 Gruert was well aware of it, and it did him good aU 
 over to think that he was helping to keep the red- 
 skins from joining the men in red uniforms. He 
 had found, however, that it was of no use for him to 
 plead, especially with his mother, for permission to go 
 with Up-na-tan upon his secret mission. The latter, 
 indeed, had replied with little more than : 
 
 "Ugh! Heap boy!" 
 
 Just now, however, he was altogether silent, as he 
 led the way. Not one of Guert's questions would he 
 answer, as they went over fence after fence and across 
 farm after farm. He went rapidly, too, and his face 
 grew fiercely gloomy, as if his thoughts might be of 
 a pretty dark kind. Right on, into the great, rocky 
 barren where nobody lived or could get a living, but 
 where, as Guert knew, Up-na-tan was supposed to 
 sometimes set up his wigwam. Everybody knew that 
 there was no house there ; not even a hut. 
 
 At last they went up and over a high, knobby 
 ledge, and Guert still saw no wigwam. Neither did 
 he know that he had nearly reached the lair of his 
 
110 GUERT TEN ETCK. 
 
 savage friend, not even when he went down with him 
 into the briery hollow beyond. 
 
 " Guert look," said Up-na-tan, pointing at the slant- 
 ing stone. " Make heap big promise to Up-na-tan." 
 
 " I'U promise," said Gruert. " What is it — that 
 stone ? " 
 
 " Count," said the Indian. " Count summer. 
 Guert only fourteen summer. Mark on stone. Take 
 smaU stone." 
 
 He spoke slowly, and much more clearly than usual, 
 and Guert obeyed, making marks on the flat slab until 
 he said " Twenty-one." 
 
 "One week, seben," said the Indian. "Two 
 week, fourteen. Three week, twenty-one. Mebbe 
 Up-na-tan lose 'calp. Mebbe Huron take 'em. Mebbe 
 Iroquois. Lose 'calp sometime, anyhow. Mebbe lob- 
 ster shoot, hang, kill. Mean to kill heap lobster. 
 Up-na-tan dead. Guert twenty-one. Come take up 
 'tone. See what find. Keep promise ? " 
 
 Guert promised, and Up-na-tan added : 
 
 "When take up 'tone, Guert know heap. No tell 
 den. Take up 'tone now, lose hair. T'roat cut. 
 Knife come. Boy die. So, so ! Up-na-tan ! " 
 
 Guert shuddered, but he had no thought of breaking 
 faith, and was glad enough to get away from a place 
 which contained so very dangerous a mystery. At the 
 top of the ledge Up-na-tan paused, and pointed toward 
 the Ten Eyck place. 
 
THE NEWS FEOM LEXINGTON. Ill 
 
 " No come look at 'tone till three week make twenty- 
 one summer," he said, and while Guert made his way 
 homeward, the Manhattan wheeled, and strode oflf 
 through the tangled woodland. 
 
 Guert did not hurry home, but he reached it only to 
 find something that was not at all romantic. It was 
 Rachel Tarns. 
 
 ' ' Thee lazy, had hoy, ' ' she said. ' ' Did thee hear 
 Alexander speak, at the meeting ? " 
 
 "I heard him," began Guert. "Aaron Burr 
 andl" — 
 
 " Stop thee talking," said Rachel. " Thee will 
 never speak at any meeting. Thee does not know 
 anything. Why will not thee be of some use to thy 
 country — to thy king? Thee is not old enough, yet, 
 but thee can study, and thee can grow up " — 
 
 Maud had come with Rachel and she interrupted her 
 there, with : 
 
 "0, Rachel Tarns ! Guert did do something. He 
 brought the dispatches aU the way from New London, 
 and they said the horse came aU the faster because he 
 had only a boy to carry. ' ' 
 
 "I know that," said Rachel. " It was Paul Re- 
 vere 's horse, and it should be hung for treason. The 
 wicked beast ! But if Guert will study the books I 
 wiU give him, for bringing that horse safe to New 
 York, he wiU be worth more to his country, for he will 
 have a country of his own before many days. Will 
 
112 GUEKT TEN EYCK. 
 
 thee study for thy country, Guert, if I give thee the 
 books?" 
 
 " I will," said Guert heartily. 
 
 "Then I wiU tell thee," she said. "Thee may 
 come and get them at my house. Thee must know the 
 testimony concerning thy country. There wlU be no 
 king there, and thee may serve God in thine own way. 
 Then if thee is a Quaker, thee wiU not be put in prison 
 for it, nor hanged, nor burned. Neither wDl thee be 
 burned nor drowned for any other faith, nor because 
 they caU thee a witch. ' ' 
 
 " What do you mean, Eachel? " demanded Mrs. 
 Ten Eyck, in astonishment. 
 
 "What do I mean?" said Rachel. "Why does 
 any Quaker think well of liberty ? Is thee free, now ? 
 Is thy son free ? I will teU thee a thing. Has thee 
 a famUy tree — father, mother, grandfather, grand- 
 mother ? So have I, and if I follow mine back, I find 
 one road ends in fire at a stake, another at a gibbet, 
 another in the water, another in a dungeon. Every 
 one of them, man or woman, died for their free faith." 
 
 ■"Guert," exclaimed his mother, "get the books. 
 Read ! Study ! Learn all you can ! Grow up fast ! 
 I'll let you be a soldier. I'd rather you died in battle, 
 a hundred times, than not have you free." 
 
 The face of Rachel Tarns was grand to look at, as 
 she slowly, steadily, said : 
 
 " Mjr grandmother w^s burned to 9.she§. She was 
 
THE NEWS EEOM LEXINGTON. 113 
 
 a Friend, and she could not fight, but I tell thee — for 
 I was named after her — that old Eachel Tarns, the 
 Quaker witch of York, died bravely in battle. So 
 shall this land become free if its men shall prove as 
 brave as its women." 
 
 "Oh!" exclaimed Maud. "I'm glad the boys 
 are ready to fight. The girls are. " 
 
 ' ' AU the boys I know are ready to do anything, ' ' 
 said Guert, " but there isn't anything to do, yet." 
 
 That is, there was no fighting, and it was not easy 
 to guess how very much was going on. There were no 
 telegraphs, no newspapers of any account, nothing but 
 talk and letter-writing, to spread news with. Even 
 letters could not go often, and were very slow in go- 
 ing. Still, there was really a great deal done, whether 
 people knew it or not, and day after day, the country 
 was getting ready for something that was to come. 
 
 Rachel Tarns had told Guert that he must get himself 
 ready, and he was almost astonished at the way he 
 worked at books, during the remainder of that summer. 
 Then he was almost disgusted, for several times while 
 he was at home, reading in one room, while his mother 
 was spinning or weaving in the other, Maud Wolcott 
 came in to tell of exciting things which had occurred 
 down in the busy part of the city. There were riots of 
 all kinds. There were fights between the red-coated 
 lobsters and the Liberty Boys, which sounded to Guert 
 like battles, and he was not in one of them. It was 
 
114 GUERT TEN ETCK. 
 
 pretty hard to bear, but it did him good to know that 
 Aleck Hamilton was shut up with another lot of books, 
 
 "His are all about war," said Guert to Maud. 
 " He'U know about armies and guns and forts." 
 
 " He means to be a general, some day," replied 
 Maud. " So does Aaron Burr. Do you know what 
 he did?" 
 
 " He hasn't been at our house," said Guert. 
 
 "He came to Mrs. Murray's," said Maud, "and 
 told her what he wanted, and she let him have a horse, 
 and he has been through every road and street and 
 path, aU over the island, away up to Harlem and Spuy- 
 ten Duyvil Creek, and over in Westchester. He 
 made maps, too. Aleck showed me some maps that 
 he himself made ' ' — 
 
 " I see," exclaimed Guert. " If there's ever a war 
 on Manhattan Island, they'd know where to march. 
 But then Co-co and Up-na-tan know more than any 
 map. I know every corner of this island. Wish I 
 knew what has become of Up-na-tan. ' ' 
 
 " Oh ! wouldn't I," said Maud, but neither of them 
 could have imagined precisely how much they would 
 have had to know or see. 
 
 If they had been with the last of the Manhattans, 
 that summer, and on into the autumn, they might have 
 visited the great fort at Ticonderoga, on Lake Cham- 
 plain, that was once French and now was British, and 
 would soon be American. They might have gone up 
 
THE NEWS FROM LEXINGTON. 115 
 
 Lake George in a canoe, and then have visited the 
 great Johnson mansion, in the wilderness. Then they 
 might have gone up the Mohawk Valley, and on to 
 the Oneida Stone, to attend a council of that tribe. 
 They would, surely, have seen the great council of the 
 Iroquois, at the Sacred Fire of the Onondagas, the fire 
 that never went out till the Six Nations were broken. 
 Up-na-tan was there at the Succotash feast, where the 
 white dog was burned, and he went on to the Senecas 
 and to the Cayugas and southward to the Tuscaroras, 
 and everywhere he heard and saw a great deal that no 
 white messenger could have heard or seen. Besides, if 
 Guert had gone with him, as he said : 
 
 " Boy lose hundred 'calp. No go home. Iroquois 
 worse than lobster. Heap kill." 
 
 When he made that remark he was lying among 
 some bushes, near the edge of a great precipice. The 
 leaves around and above him were red and yeUow, for 
 the October days had come. The great chasm before 
 him was fuU of mist, and of a vast roar of plunging 
 sound, through which Up-na-tan stared gloomily at a 
 wonder of falling water, for his long scout among the 
 Iroquois had brought him to Niagara. 
 
 " Seneca no find him," he muttered. "Up-na-tan 
 see Great Spirit Water. Now go home. Know heap. " 
 
 Guert, too, had been almost thinking that he had 
 learned enough from his books, that day, but when he 
 put them down it was to go away from home. He 
 
116 GTJEET TEN EYCK. 
 
 went to Mrs. Murray's, and as he walked up the car- 
 riage way, he saw that the piazza contained quite a 
 group of women, older and younger. Hardly was his 
 hat off, moreover, before one of them stepped forward 
 and said to him : 
 
 " Gruert, thee bad boy, has thee heard the news? 
 Thy good king is taking away from thee all the soldiers 
 in thy fort and is sending them to Boston. ' ' 
 
 " We can get along without 'em," somewhat bluntly 
 responded Guert. 
 
 "Could thee?" said Rachel sarcastically. "But 
 what if he should take away thy good governor ? There 
 is said to be danger of even that. What would thee do 
 then, thee poor boy? " 
 
 " Get along without him," replied Guert, with an 
 emphasis which seemed to produce a sensation on the 
 piazza. 
 
 " Could thee, indeed? " came very crisply from the 
 unusually stern Quakeress. "Thee is very presumpt- 
 uous, Guert. Thee does not know what dreadful things 
 may be before thee. What if thy good king should 
 cast thee off, and have no more to do with thee and thy 
 wicked city ? What could thee do ? " 
 
 " Get along without him," said Guert, more sturdily 
 than ever ; but an angry voice behind Rachel exclaimed : 
 
 "Treason! What are we coming to ? What? Get 
 along without any king ? ' ' 
 
 " Jane," said Rachel, " thee does it all the while. 
 
THE NEWS FROM LEXINGTON. 117 
 
 Thee has never seen George, in thy life, and thee keeps 
 thy health finely. But thee is out of tea now, and 
 thee cannot buy any more." 
 
 " Guert," said Maud, leaning over the piazza rail- 
 ing, " it's true. There will hardly any soldiers be 
 left here. They are aU going to Boston." 
 
 "I guess what's left wUl stay in the fort, then," 
 said Guert. " So much the better for the Liberty 
 Beys." 
 
 " The king's troops may go," said Miss-De Lancey, 
 with a sincerity as deep as Rachel's own, " but they 
 will come again. They wiU hold this town, too, and 
 every De Lancey will be with them. ' ' 
 
 " Thee is a good woman, Jane," remarked Rachel. 
 ' ' I like to hear thee speak thy mind and bear thy 
 testimony ' ' — 
 
 " They will put down treason in Boston," said Miss 
 De Lancey, " and then they wiU come and put it down 
 here." 
 
 " Perhaps they will," said Guert, " but it'U take a 
 good many of 'em." 
 
 " Thee must not talk treason, Guert," said Rachel. 
 " Thee may wear a red coat thyself, some day." 
 
 It seemed to be a new idea to Guert, and his face 
 flushed, suddenly. It was as if an answer sprang to 
 his lips. 
 
 "Mother says I'm to be a soldier," he said, " but 
 Aleck Hamilton says we can't wear red. He thiuks 
 
118 
 
 GUERT TEN EYCK. 
 
 our uniform will be a kind of blue, to tell the troops 
 apart, in a fight." 
 
 "Go home, thee bad boy! " exclaimed Rachel, as 
 a kind of uproar began among the other women. 
 ' ' Tell thy mother 1 am coming to talk with her about 
 thee" — 
 
 "I'll go to the gate with you," said Maud, spring- 
 ing down the steps. " The New England men wore 
 blue at the siege of Louisburg ' ' — 
 
 Gruert saw that both Rachel and Mrs. Murray wanted 
 him to go, before his too free tongue should stir up any 
 more trouble, and he went. 
 
 "0, Guert ! " said Maud, "1 wish you were a 
 foot taller. Aleck, too. As tall as that splendid 
 Nathan Hale." 
 
 "I'm growing," said Guert, and then she told him 
 all the rest of the news, to carry to his mother. 
 
 New York was indeed left with a slender garrison, 
 during all that following winter. Warships came and 
 went, but the military and naval center of British opera- 
 tions in America was the port of Boston. There had 
 been no actual fighting there, as yet, but all the news 
 from Massachusetts and the other New England colonies 
 was stormy. So was much that came from the South, 
 and from Congress, and all that came from England was 
 full of threats. The worst tidings of all came every 
 now and then from the Indian frontiers, for nowhere 
 were the red men really at peace, and their dealings 
 
THE NEWS PROM LEXINGTON. 119 
 
 with some of the more exposed settlers were like an 
 awful warning of terrible things to come. 
 
 Guert kept his promise to Up-na-tan about the stone, 
 saying to himself : 
 
 " Just as likely as not he has been kiUed, but I've 
 no right to touch it tiU I'm twenty-one. He's been 
 gone an awful long time. So has Co-co." 
 
 That strange, old black man went up the Hudson in 
 a sloop, just before the river froze over, and could 
 hardly be expected back until spring ; but there were 
 not many inquiries concerning him. 
 
 It seemed as if the people of New York were becom- 
 ing very good in the spring of 1775, they aU went to 
 church so regularly. The churches were down town, 
 and on Sundays the houses up the island must have 
 been almost deserted. Nobody was willing to miss 
 hearing the preaching or anything else that there might 
 be to hear, for news was likely to come at any hour. 
 
 There was nothing unusual, therefore, in the fact 
 that, on the morning of April 22d, the Bowery Lane, 
 and the streets it led into, and Broadway were all alive, 
 just as the bells were ringing their best. 
 
 Guert and his mother had reached the corner of 
 Broadway, opposite St. Paul's, and Mrs. Murray's 
 carriage had caught up with them, just as a great 
 shouting began to rise along the Bowery. Everybody 
 else was looking, and they looked, but iu an instant 
 Guert himself shouted : 
 
120 
 
 GUEET TEN ETCK. 
 
 " Courier from Boston ! That's old Sam Prentice's 
 gray mare. I know her. She carried Paul Revere, 
 once." 
 
 It was indeed a man who rode a gray steed, wet with 
 perspiration, and who galloped with frequent pauses, 
 reining in by group after group to shout with frumpet 
 voice some news that came for all. 
 
 In a few minutes more, he was pouring out his tid- 
 ings to a swiftly-gathering throng at the Broadway 
 corner, and every time he paused for breath his gray 
 mare curveted under him joyously, and the hats of men 
 were waved in the air, and the handkerchiefs of excited 
 women. The air was full of exultant exclamations. 
 
 "Lexington! Concord! British defeated! Colonel 
 Smith ! Lord Percy ! General Gage ! The farmers 
 drove 'em to Boston ! Hurrah for the Massachusetts 
 militia ! The war's begun ! " 
 
 Through all, there suddenly came, from behind Guert, 
 a shrill, fierce, penetrating whoop, prolonged, repeated, 
 and at the end of it : 
 
 " Ugh ! Boston men kill a heap ! Whoop ! So, so ! 
 Up-na-tan! Cayuga 'calp ! " 
 
 " Yo, yo, yo ! " came in a mellower tone, triumph- 
 antly, as the ferocious-looking Manhattan drew from a 
 small bag and swung in the air, what seemed at least 
 a half-dozen of the fearful trophies of savage victory. 
 
 " Thay-en-dan-e-ga send heap fool on trail of Up- 
 na-tan. Whoop ! " 
 
THE NEWS FKOM LEXINGTON. 123 
 
 " Yo, yo ! Co-co take four;" and the Ashantee 
 waved his own trophies as proudly as did the red pirate 
 beside him. 
 
 The Boston messenger saw and shuddered, but he 
 said to Counsellor Livingston : 
 
 " That's something for me to tell when I get back. 
 We heard they were going to come out for the king. 
 
 Again he shouted his own news, while all who were 
 near the Manhattan and Co-co, crowded closer to 
 question them. 
 
 " Alexander ? " came from Mrs. Murray's carriage. 
 ' ' What is thee waiting for, now ? Thee told me thy 
 men were only waiting for the king's guns in the City 
 Hall. Now is thy time." 
 
 ' ' Hurrah ! The City Hall ! ' ' answered a kind of 
 general roar, as young Hamilton sprang away, followed 
 by a score of vigorous fellows who took an evident 
 pride in forming by fours, as they went. 
 
 " Those are some of the men he has been drilling," 
 said Maud to Mrs. Murray. " He wiU have his can- 
 non, now." 
 
 ' ' And Rachel Tarns has paid all the expense of 
 fitting out his company," replied Mrs. Murray. 
 " What a fighting Quaker she is ! " 
 
 ' ' Guert ? Guert ? The Noank is down at the 
 Albany pier ' ' — 
 
 ' ' Skipper Avery ? ' ' eagerly responded Guert, turn- 
 ing to another arrival. 
 
124 GUERT TEN ETCK. 
 
 " Why — you here? " 
 
 " Been here three days. Been down the coast. 
 But I saw those two ships with supplies for the red- 
 coats at Boston, ' ' said the skipper hurriedly. ' ' They'll 
 be setting sail if we're not quick about it. Get all 
 the men you can. We must take them before they 
 hear this Lexington news ' ' — 
 
 "So, so! Up-na-tan ! " and again the war-whoop 
 sounded, and he and Co-co did more than Gruert could, 
 or the skipper, to summon helping hands for a possible 
 sea-fight, as they all set oiF down Broadway. 
 
 " Yo, yo, yo ! " yelled the Ashantee. 
 
 " Board 'em ! Board 'em ! " 
 
 " Maud," said Mrs. Murray, " don't lean out so 
 far, you will fall." 
 
 "No, I won't," shouted Maud. "Mrs. Murray? 
 Rachel Tarns ? I heard him ! Guert is leading those 
 men to capture the two supply ships. They'U get 
 them ; I know they will. I want to see it." 
 
 "Go, go!" said Rachel. "Sarah Murray, tell 
 thy driver. Anneke Ten Eyck, come and get in. 
 Come and see thy boy help those wicked men take 
 the ships of thy king. Alexander has gone to get 
 his guns." 
 
 It was a time of wild excitement, and the fat, heavy 
 carriage horses actually trotted fast as they were urged 
 down Broadway, and out through dusty side streets, to 
 the foot of Whitehall slip. 
 
THE KEWS FROM LEXINGTON. 125 
 
 "There they go," said Maud. " Guert is in the 
 first boat. Co-co and Up-na-tan are with him." 
 
 So were as many more as one boat could safely carry, 
 and another, a whaleboat, crowded with stalwart fel- 
 lows, was just pulling away from a schooner which lay 
 at the next wharf. Out in the stream lay a handsome 
 bark, and a medium-sized, full-rigged merchantman, 
 both evidently well laden, even to their deck cargoes 
 of hay for the cavalry and artillery horses of General 
 Gage's troops, defending Boston from the rebels and 
 colonists. 
 
 There was not one British man-of-war in the harbor 
 to interfere with the fierce rush of the New York boys, 
 older and younger. There were minutes of swift row- 
 ing, and then there arose once more the war-whoop of 
 the Manhattan, as he sprang over the bulwarks of the 
 bark. It was answered from the other vessel by the 
 stentorian lungs of Skipper Avery, shouting : 
 
 " Hurrah for Lexington ! Hurrah for old Connecti- 
 cut ! Hurrah for Liberty ! " 
 
 At the Whitehall wharf stood a girl, swinging her 
 handkerchief and crying, "Hurrah! " choked as she 
 tried to say it, but Rachel Tarns, in the carriage be- 
 hind her, stood up calm and dignified, as she remarked : 
 
 "None of King George's horses will get any of that 
 hay." 
 
 There were no stores for King George's army or navy 
 left upon either of those ships. The crews had not 
 
126 GUERT TEN EYCK. 
 
 attempted any resistance, almost to the disgust of Co-co 
 and Up-na-tan, but the Noank was shortly alongside 
 to take off quite a cargo for New London. 
 
 There had been even a greater success on shore, for 
 Governor Tryon was in England, and the officer in 
 command of the fort had no force worth sending out 
 to interfere with the Liberty Boys, minute-men and 
 militia companies that were parading up and down 
 Broadway. If services went on in any of the churches, 
 after the beUs ceased ringing for the news from Lex- 
 ington, the congregations were but thin. It was late 
 in the day when Guert reached home, and when he did 
 so, his mother met him in the porch, holding out some- 
 thing. Her face was white, but she said : 
 
 " Guert, that was your father's gun. He carried it 
 in the old French War. You can have it now." 
 
CHAPTER Vn. 
 
 THE GREAT CfflEF AND UP-NA-TAN. 
 
 GUERT TEN BYCK had a great deal of thinking 
 to do concerning the fight at Lexington between 
 the Massachusetts farmers and the soldiers of King 
 Greorge. 
 
 "There's just such another fight ready to come, 
 right here," he said to Maud Wolcott. 
 
 " That's what Aunt Murray thinks," replied Maud; 
 "but in Connecticut, you know, we haven't any red- 
 coats to fight with ; not many Tories, either." 
 
 "They're the worst of it," said Gruert. "We 
 might have to shoot real good fellows, like Steve De 
 Lancey. Seems to me, I'd hate to shoot anybody 
 I know." 
 
 "Well, maybe they've as good a right to their 
 opinions as we have to ours," said Maud doubtfully. 
 "I don't see how they have, for we're right and 
 they're wrong." 
 
 " They've got the king on their side, anyhow," 
 
 127 
 
128 GUERT TEN ETCK. 
 
 said Giiert, " and all the lobsters, and all the ships 
 of war, and all the Indians — Up-na-tan says. He 
 knows all about 'em." 
 
 "I don't care," exclaimed Maud. " We're right. " 
 
 There had been news from New London, and Guert 
 knew that his friend Nathan Hale was a soldier under 
 General Putnam. 
 
 "He'll make a good one," he said to Maud ; " but 
 I wish I knew what Skipper Avery is going to do with 
 the Noank. He said she'd make a good privateer. 
 There's lots of powder for it in those four barrels, but 
 he doesn't know where to get any cannon." 
 
 "I hope he'll get some," said Maud; "but we 
 want bigger ships than that schooner is." 
 
 " We can't get any now, though," responded Guert, 
 " and the Asia and the rest of 'em in the harbor can 
 shoot right into all the lower wards. It's the meanest 
 place to live in." 
 
 That might be, but commerce seemed to be active, 
 and the merchants were making money. Some of 
 them were also said to be sending their wealth to 
 England, to put it out of harm's way. 
 
 "I don't know who'd steal it," said Guert to his 
 mother, when he told her about it ; " but the folks in 
 Boston are worse off than we are. What if we had 
 a lot of lobsters quartered at our house, and had to 
 live with 'em ! " 
 
 " If we did, I'd leave the house and the city, too," 
 
THE GEEAT CHIEF AND UP-NA-TAN. 129 
 
 said Mrs. Ten Eyck. "I don't much care to stay- 
 here if Grovernor Tryon is to come back and put us 
 down. ' ' 
 
 That was what Eoyalists like the De Lanceys were 
 waiting for, and, meantime, they would hardly speak 
 or visit with their neighbors who supported Congress. 
 Mrs. Ten Byck, on the other hand, had never before 
 had so many visitors, and perhaps it was because 
 people could talk right out, at her house, especially 
 if they were like Eachel Tarns when she said : 
 
 "Anneke, it does me so much good to come and 
 talk treason with thee." 
 
 No doubt that was why there were so many at Mrs. 
 Ten Eyck's on the morning of June 20, 1775. There 
 were no men, to be sure, for they were all down town, 
 but there were older and younger women, and not one 
 of them seemed to want to sit still. They were in the 
 house and out of the house, and some talked a great 
 deal, and some were very sober and silent. 
 
 " Guert," said Maud, " did you hear that? They 
 say some of Prescott's men at Bunker HiU were noth- 
 ing but boys. ' ' 
 
 "Don't I wish I'd been there! " replied Gruert. 
 "If we ever have a fight in New York, I'm going to 
 be in it." 
 
 Next to the great news of the battle at Boston, was 
 the tidings that the Continental Congress had chosen 
 Colonel Washington, of Virginia, to be Commander- 
 
130 GUEKT TEN ETCK. 
 
 in-chief of the American armies, and that he was com- 
 ing through New York on his way to Massachusetts. 
 
 " I'm going to see him," exclaimed Maud. "He 
 won't wear a red coat, I know." 
 
 " Thee may be sure of that," said Rachel; " but, 
 Anneke, what is that boy of thine doing out there? 
 I'll go and see. That gun is half a head taller than 
 he is." 
 
 Out she went, into the side yard, followed by a small 
 procession that seemed to be as heavily charged with 
 Bunker Hill as was Guert himself, whatever he might 
 have put into that wicked-looking old shooting-iron. 
 
 " Gruert," exclaimed Rachel, "what is thee going 
 to do ? That gun is too big for thee." 
 
 " So it is," said Guert. " I never fired it off yet. 
 Guess it would tire out me or almost anybody else to 
 carry it far. But, don't you see ? I can rest it over 
 the stone wall, just as our folks did at Lexington, and 
 I could blaze away. If it was a breastwork to shoot 
 over, I could take as good aim as any of the boys did 
 at Bunker Hill. I could hit 'em." 
 
 " Guert," said Maud, " let me try. Show me how. 
 Why, how heavy it is ! I can hardly lift it and lean 
 it over the waU." 
 
 " That's it," said Guert. " Look along the sights, 
 and point it at that chicken. He's just about as far 
 off as the redcoats were when Putnam and Prescott 
 told 'em to fire." 
 
THE GREAT CHIEF AND UP-NA-TAN. 131 
 
 " I see him," she said. " He's the reddest feath- 
 ered kind of chicken, too. He's a redcoat." 
 
 One of her eyes was shut tight, and the other was 
 glancing excitedly along the barrel, just as she had seen 
 Guert doing, and she did not know that he had cocked 
 the gun. Neither, perhaps, did he, but she added : 
 
 ' ' I could pull the trigger. I know I could. ' ' 
 
 Click — flash — bang — and there was a roaring 
 report at that moment. 
 
 " Maud ! " screamed Mrs. Ten Eyck. 
 
 "0, Maud!" gasped Guert, as he stooped and 
 picked her up. " Did it hurt you ? " 
 
 "Not a bit," said Maud, rubbing her shoulder, 
 while they crowded around her. ' ' But how it does 
 kick. Guert, did I hit anything?" 
 
 Her answer came, loud and shrill, from a few yards 
 beyond the wall ; for the red-feathered fowl was walk- 
 ing away, strutting and crowing triumphantly. 
 
 "Maud," said Eachel, "thee should not shoot at 
 the chickens that are on thy own side. There are no 
 Tories in Anneke Ten Byck's coop." 
 
 "I aimed light — I know I did; but I'm glad 
 I didn't kill Mm," said Maud, as the excited rooster 
 crowed again. 
 
 " The shot went too high because the gun kicked," 
 said Guert. ' ' I put in too much powder ' ' — 
 
 " Anneke," said Eachel suddenly, " thee has another 
 guest." 
 
132 GTJERT TEN EYCK. 
 
 "0, Guert ! " said Maud, looking, "it is Aaron 
 Burr. Don't tell him about the chickens. He'll 
 say girls can't shoot. He is always making fun of 
 them." 
 
 "Here I am, Mrs. Ten Eyck," rang out at that 
 moment, in front of the house. " I've come to see if 
 Guert can tell me where I can find a good horse. I only 
 borrowed this pony to carry me as far as Harlem." 
 
 " Aaron," came reprovingly in Rachel's voice, be- 
 fore Mrs. Ten Eyck could speak, " thee ought to be 
 at Princeton over thy books." 
 
 "So my tutor said," replied Aaron, "but at last 
 they let me get away. I'm going to join Old Put, if 
 I have to travel the rest of the way on foot. ' ' 
 
 " That would take thee too long," said Rachel. 
 
 "I wish I was going," shouted Guert, aU but 
 angrily ; but Rachel went on : 
 
 " I think Israel may need thee to do errands for 
 him. Thee could be very useful, and thee should get 
 there as soon as thee can. Thee had better go by my 
 house on thy way. If thee is a rebel, thee is most 
 likely a thief also. Thee had better steal thee a good 
 saddle and horse from my stable." 
 
 " 0, Rachel! " exclaimed Mrs. Ten Eyck, "that's 
 just what I'd like to do." 
 
 " Anneke," said Rachel, "I know now why I was 
 moved to buy that long-legged gray beast, when I had 
 no use for her. Aaron, thee may steal her. If ever 
 
THE GREAT CHIEF AJSTD UP-NA-TAN. 133 
 
 thee has to run away from thy enemies, she will out- 
 run them." 
 
 " Maud," said Mrs. Murray excitedly, " run home ! 
 I'm just as loyal as Jane De Lancey is, but you may 
 give Aaron that pair of silver-mounted holsters, and 
 the pistols are in them. They are as good as new. 
 There's a sword, too, in the closet behind my room." 
 
 " Aaron," shouted Maud, " come to Mrs. Murray's 
 as soon as you steal the horse." 
 
 " Hurrah for Bunker HiU ! " yelled Guert. 
 
 ' ' Hurrah for Liberty ! ' ' shouted back Aaron, as he 
 sprang upon his pony and dashed away. 
 
 "Thee get along, too," said Rachel to Maud. 
 " I'm glad thee can do something. By and by thee 
 wiU be putting in thy precious time in making 
 cartridges ' ' — 
 
 " That's what they are doing at home," said Maud, 
 preparing to hurry away. ' ' I wish I were there to 
 help. Aaron will see them on his way, too." 
 
 " They don't need you," said Mrs. Murray, " and 
 I do. You are all the home company I have. Be- 
 sides, I can't let you neglect your books and your 
 music. There'll be war soon enough, right here in 
 New York." 
 
 " Guert," said Rachel, " put up thy big gun and 
 go down to the Battery. Thy mother wants to know 
 if there is any more news. See if the warships of thy 
 king are coming in." 
 
lU 
 
 &IJEET TEN ETCK. 
 
 Maud was all excitement when she reached the 
 Murray place. 
 
 "Aaron's nineteen," she said. "He's short for 
 his age, but he'll want a sword and pistols if he's to 
 ride on General Putnam's errands. Aunt Murray 
 doesn't mean to give them to him herself. I s'pose 
 she thinks they'd caU it treason, and so I may give 
 them." 
 
 It seemed hardly any time at all before she had 
 been upstairs and was down again and out on the 
 piazza. Mrs. Murray's husband was a Quaker if she 
 was not, but here was her niece carrying in one hand 
 a sheathed sword and its belt, and dragging with her 
 other hand a heavy pair of holsters. She unbuckled 
 one of these, and took out a long-barreled, hand- 
 somely made horse-pistol. 
 
 " How heavy it is," she said. " I couldn't aim a 
 pistol as big as that is." 
 
 She put it back into its holster, and drew the sword 
 out of its sheath. It was not a crooked, cavalry saber, 
 but a long, straight, sharp-edged blade, with an ivory 
 hilt and gilded guard. The blue steel was not bright 
 and it did not glitter as she waved it, looking very 
 warlike. 
 
 " I wonder if those spots are rust," she said, as she 
 examined it more 'closely. " They are pretty red." 
 
 She was still studying the sword and wondering 
 whether or not it had ever killed anybody, when 
 
THE GREAT CHIEF .dND UP-NA-TiLN. 135 
 
 Aaron Burr came cantering up to the steps on Rachel's 
 gray mare. 
 
 " Miss Wolcott," he said, laughing, " Eachel said I 
 could run away fast enough. I guess I could. That's 
 just what this gray wants to do. I can hardly hold 
 her." 
 
 He could dismount and tie her, however, in spite of 
 her objections, but while he was doing so his eager 
 eyes were wandering to the array of weapons waiting 
 for him on the piazza. He was in a perfect fever of 
 delight when he sprang up the steps to take possession. 
 
 "Maud," he exclaimed, "is that the sword she 
 meant to give me ? She told me about it once. It's 
 been in battles in Europe, and it went through Brad- 
 dock's campaign. It's an old war sword." 
 
 " Then those spots may be blood," said Maud. " I 
 do hope you won't ever really have to kill anybody." 
 
 " Tes, I will," said Aaron, and there came into his 
 face a hard and pitiless look, as he took the sword in 
 his right hand and sprang its elastic blade back and 
 forth. " It's a soldier's business to kOlorbe killed. 
 Now I must be off. I'm ready to ride with Old Put. 
 There'll be hard fighting wherever he is." 
 
 His voice sounded harsh and vindictive, 'and Maud 
 almost felt that she did not like him. He did not say 
 a word while he strapped the holsters in front of his 
 saddle, buckled the sword-belt around his waist, and 
 untied the gray mare. 
 
136 UUEET TEN ETCK. 
 
 " I do like him, though," thought Maud. " He is 
 going to be a soldier. He is brave, too. And how I 
 do hope he won't be kiUed." 
 
 He sprang lightly into the saddle, but it was hard 
 to hold in the gray. She gave him barely time to 
 say: 
 
 " Thank you. Miss Wolcott. I shall see your family 
 at Litchfield. Please teU Mrs. Murray how much I 
 thank her. Oh ! how I thank Rachel Tarns. TeU 
 them they shall never be ashamed of Aaron Burr. ' ' 
 
 He was off ; and Maud looked after him very thought- 
 fully, as she said : 
 
 "I can see it in his face. If he ever has to kill 
 anybody, he won't hesitate a minute." 
 
 Guert went down town after news, as he was ordered, 
 but he would much rather have gone with Aaron after 
 the horse and weapons, and to talk about Old Put 
 and Boston camps. He was aU the more dissatisfied, 
 therefore, when a long hunt gave him nothing to take 
 home but what everybody knew before — that Greneral 
 Washington, or Mr. Washington, as all the Tories 
 called him, was expected in a few days, and so was 
 Governor Tryon, with a strong British fleet. The 
 New York Congress, as the legislature was called, 
 wanted Washington to come, but had no power to 
 prevent Tryon also from landing, under the guns of 
 a man-of-war. 
 
 "It wouldn't do to shoot him," said Guert to his 
 
THE GKEAT CHIEF AND UP-NA-TAN. 137 
 
 mother, "if he didn't do anything but come ashore 
 and go to his own house." 
 
 He did not know how severely the leading patriots 
 of New York were troubled on that very point ; and 
 one of their many talks was of some importance to 
 him, and was taking place at the western gateway of 
 the grounds of the Robert R. Livingston place. Only 
 two American patriots were there, but they both repre- 
 sented the island pretty well. 
 
 ' ' You wish to speak to General Washington when 
 he comes?" said Livingston. "Well, I think you 
 must do so. I will tell him at once, on his arrival. 
 He will be glad to get your report direct. ' ' 
 
 "So," said the Manhattan. " Want talk with 
 great chief. All Six Nation know him. Big fight, 
 long ago. Tell him heap. So, so! Up-na-tan ! " 
 
 " I will let you know," said Livingston. 
 
 " Good ! " said Up-na-tan. " Bring Co-co. Bring 
 boy Guert. Want big chief to see brack man. Want 
 him see boy." 
 
 "Just as you please," said the thoughtful states- 
 man, as Up-na-tan strode away ; and he added : " It's 
 of no use to ask him why. Best let him have his own 
 way. I suppose Washington can get more out of him 
 than I could, and he will know what to do with it, 
 too. Congress did wisely in selecting an old Indian 
 fighter for commander-in-chief. Well, I must stay 
 and see what he does in New York, and I must talk 
 
138 GUERT TEN ETCK, 
 
 with General Schuyler, and then I must go back to 
 Philadelphia/" 
 
 Guert was not a statesman, and knew very little 
 about the Continental Congress or Philadelphia ; but 
 he did know that General Schuyler was expected to 
 command the patriots of New York. 
 
 "I suppose he is my general," he said to Maud 
 that evening; "but General Washington's the man 
 I want to see. He's above Schuyler." 
 
 " He is above aU our New England generals," said 
 Maud. " I don't see why they put him over General 
 Putnam and General Ward, and aU the rest. They 
 are just as good as he is." 
 
 "I'm going to see him, somehow," said Guert. 
 "I'll get a chance." 
 
 "So will I," replied Maud, but neither of them 
 guessed how Guert's opportunity would come to him. 
 
 He had hardly any, when General Washington came 
 ashore from the Jersey ferry-boat next day, for with 
 him came a brilliant escort of military officers and im- 
 portant people, and aU the street was lined by militia, 
 presenting arms, and behind these was so dense a crowd 
 that a boy like Guert had no chance at all. 
 
 He was disgusted with the very small glimpse he 
 succeeded in getting, and he walked aU the way down 
 to the Albany pier to look at what some would have 
 called the other side of the situation. There they 
 were. One large British man-of-war and two smaller 
 
THE GREAT CHIEF AND UP-NA-TAN. 139 
 
 ones. They were splendid ships, with rows of port- 
 holes through which cannon looked out threateningly. 
 
 "They could knock the city all to pieces," said 
 Guert to himself. " Governor Tryon's on one of 
 them. They say he is coming ashore this evening. 
 Wonder if General Washington wiU take him prisoner 
 and lock him up." 
 
 Jane De Lancey and Eachel Tarns had not for 
 some time been upon speaking terms, but when their 
 carriages met that afternoon, in Bowery Lane, both 
 teams puUed up as if with one accord. 
 
 " Rachel," said Miss De Lancey, " your Mr. Wash- 
 ington won't dare to arrest Governor Tryon? " 
 
 " Thee may be contented, Jane," said Rachel. 
 ' ' George does not want thy governor. I can tell 
 thee a thing. Our George is a wiser man than thy 
 George." 
 
 "Mr. Washington is a traitor," exclaimed Miss 
 De Lancey. "He is a rebel in arms against his 
 king." 
 
 " I think thee is wrong, Jane," said Rachel calmly. 
 " I spoke with him, this day " — 
 
 "You did?" said Miss De Lancey. "What did 
 he say ? ' ' 
 
 "He said he believed God would help him do his 
 duty" — 
 
 " He had better do his duty to his king," interposed 
 Miss De Lancey. 
 
140 GUERT TEK ETCK. 
 
 " He will serve his country," went on Eachel more 
 loudly, but the De Lancey carriage was driving rapidly 
 away. 
 
 Guert had failed to get a good look at his com- 
 mander-in-chief, but he himself had been hunted for 
 and found, and now he was listening to something that 
 made him tingle. 
 
 ' ' Go with you and see General Washington ? " he 
 asked, as if he was not sure he had heard rightly. 
 "To-night? Why, you don't want me. I can't do 
 a thing." 
 
 " Ugh ! " said Up-na-tan. " No talk. Come when 
 all heap dark. Keep mouth shut tight, all while." 
 
 Guert promised, of course, but he felt, after that, as 
 if he were having some kind of fever. Even his mother 
 declared that it made her nervous when he told her, 
 and she said that he must go, but she did not believe 
 General Washington would see them. It was all fever 
 until an hour or so after dark, and then a kind of chiU 
 came to Guert. 
 
 That was when he and Up-na-tan and Co-co were 
 met, in the private entry-way of Fraunces' great tav- 
 ern, down at the corner of Broad and Dock Streets, by 
 Mr. Livingston himself, and were bidden to follow him 
 upstairs. The one question in Guert's mind had been : 
 
 "What on earth does Up-na-tan want me here 
 for?" 
 
 There was no way of guessing at what might be the 
 
THE GREAT CHIEF AND UP-KA-TAN. 141 
 
 motive of the strange old pirate for almost anything 
 he did, but now Mr. Livingston led the way, and 
 they followed him in silence. Guert felt that his heart 
 was beating very much as it did once before, when he 
 looked over the bulwark of the pirate schooner; but 
 he marched on bravely into the room where he was to 
 see the great general. It was a chamber, behind the 
 great parlor of the tavern. That was crowded with the 
 leading citizens of the province of New York, but 
 there was only one man in this room. He stood by a 
 table, and on the table Guert saw a sword, a pair of 
 epaulets and some writing materials. He saw every- 
 thing in the room, but he was looking straight at the 
 man, and he was thinking : 
 
 "What a man he is ! " 
 
 He was tall, stern, dignified, with an exceedingly 
 noble face and with eyes that seemed to read even such 
 very hard reading as were Up-na-tan and Co-co. He 
 was dressed in a handsome blue uniform, and he seemed 
 to Guert a very large, powerful man. 
 
 Up-na-tan walked straight up to him, without bow- 
 ing, and when he held out his hand to meet that of 
 Washington the old Manhattan looked as proud and 
 self-possessed as did the general. 
 
 The commander-in-chief knew aU about Indians. 
 He shook Up-na-tan's hand very gravely, and then 
 turned and shook hands with Co-co and Guert. 
 
 Guert was trying to think whether he ought to say 
 
142 GUERT TEN ETCK. 
 
 General or Tour Excellency, and so did not use any 
 title at all, but stammered out : 
 
 "Mother told me to say God bless you, sir, for 
 her." 
 
 " Thank your mother, for me, my boy," said Wash- 
 ington kindly, but just then a strange, unearthly sound 
 made Guert twist his head and look at Co-co. 
 
 Every shark-tooth in the mouth of the white-wooled 
 Ashantee seemed to be visible, so widely was he grin- 
 ning, and he was evidently keeping down, with diffi- 
 culty, a terrible, fierce laugh, such as he might have 
 laughed if he were going into battle. Guert had never 
 seen him look more ferocious, but the general did not 
 mind him at all. He was closely watching the very 
 remarkable movements of Up-na-tan. 
 
 The Manhattan had brought with him what appeared 
 to be a pretty heavy parcel, covered with a piece of 
 old calico, and now he opened it, taking out several 
 things which Washington looked at with sudden and 
 strong interest. 
 
 "They are Indian scalps," shuddered Guert. 
 
 Up-na-tan laid one of them down on the table and 
 said, with fierce emphasis : 
 
 " Mohawk ! " 
 
 Washington nodded, and a look of pain and anxiety 
 shot across his face. 
 
 Another of the awful trophies of savage warfare was 
 laid beside the first, and then another and another. 
 
' GOD BLBSS THE MOTHERS OB' AIL THE BRAVE BOYS OF AMERICA.' 
 
THE GREAT CHIEF AND UP-NA-TAN. 145 
 
 " Onondaga ! " said Up-na-tan. " Seneca ! Onei- 
 da I Cayuga! Tuscarora ! Huron!" 
 
 " All the tribes are against us? " muttered Wash- 
 ington. " This is terrible news." 
 
 "Johnson own 'em," said Up-na-tan. "Brandt 
 own 'em. All fight. Kill a heap. Up-na-tan sit down 
 by all Six Nation council-fire. Know 'em all. See 
 'em aU. Want 'em aU kiU. Say old Manhattan chief 
 no own he island." 
 
 " What's that? " inquired Washington. 
 
 " Yo, yo ! " chuckled Co-co. "So he t'ink. He 
 nebber sell Manhattan. Own dis whole island. Say 
 King George t'ief. Say he stole Up-na-tan land. 
 Want to kiU ebbery redcoat. ' ' 
 
 " Six Nation try to kill Up-na-tan," continued the 
 red man. ' ' Now he help great Colony chief. ' ' 
 
 There had been something heavy in the calico parcel, 
 and now, as it was lifted forward and put down on the 
 table, it gave a chink that startled Guert, but nothing 
 could startle Washington ; not even the opening of that 
 bag and the sight of the English guineas it contained. 
 
 ' ' Kidd money, ' ' said the Indian. ' ' Great chief 
 take and buy big gun. Buy powder. Kill a heap. 
 What great chief say ? ' ' 
 
 " Good ! " replied Washington calmly. "We will 
 buy guns and powder with it. Tell more about the 
 Iroquois, but not now. Tell General Schuyler. He is 
 to command in New York. ' ' 
 
146 GUEET TEN ETCK. 
 
 " So, SO ! Up-na-tan ! " replied the Indian. "Tell 
 him heap." 
 
 Up to that moment Mr. Livingston had silently stood 
 near the doorway, but now he said : 
 
 " Your Excellency, promise him to buy guns with aU 
 the money he can bring. There is no doubt of his hav- 
 ing been with Kidd. He could arm a ship. Guert and 
 his mother are the only white people he wiU trust." 
 
 "No more, now," said the Indian, as he turned 
 toward the door. " See great chief again, some day. 
 So, so ! Up-na-tan ! " 
 
 " I shall leave him with you and his young friend," 
 said Washington. " But it is a strange way to be 
 supplied with the one thing I needed most, at this 
 hour. At least a thousand guineas for a secret-service 
 fund. We could buy guns in France, if we had any- 
 body to send." 
 
 It cost Guert an awful effort to speak, but a thought 
 came that forced him to exclaim, eagerly : 
 
 ' ' Your Excellency, if Up-na-tan found the money. 
 Skipper Avery, of New London, would be glad to go. 
 He wants cannon to arm the Noank. If he goes to 
 Prance, may I go with him ? " 
 
 " I will leave that with General Schuyler and your 
 mother," said Washington, smiling very benevolently 
 at Guert, and he added : 
 
 " Chief, good-night." 
 
 Up-na-tan again turned and gave a parting hand- 
 
THE GREAT CHIEF AND UP-NA-TAN. 147 
 
 shake with great dignity, while the Ashantee chuckled 
 fiendishly : 
 
 " Yo, yo ! Up-na-tan dig up heap." 
 
 " Good-night, Co-co," said the general, and then 
 he shook hands with Gruert. 
 
 "Good-night, my boy," he said. " Give my re- 
 spects to your mother. God bless her, and all the 
 mothers and all the brave boys of America." 
 
 Guert could not say a word, but he walked out of 
 the tavern, homeward, feeliag as if he had been in a 
 great dream. 
 
CHAPTER Vm. 
 
 GUNS AND MEN. 
 
 GUERT'S head was almost uncomfortably full of 
 Captain Kidd, French cannon and Yankee priva- 
 teers. It was hard not to speak a word about them, 
 but Mrs. Ten Eyck herself told him that a soldier 
 ought not to teU war secrets, even to his mother. He 
 could talk with her or with Maud, however, about the 
 Iroquois, and the mischief they might do aU along the 
 frontier, and he could say anything he pleased about 
 Washington's looks. 
 
 "I'm glad he wore a blue uniform," said Maud, 
 ' ' without a bit of red in it. ' ' 
 
 Guert's league with Up-na-tan and Co-co seemed to 
 be growing closer, and he had a queer feeling that it 
 made him several years older to talk with them, espe- 
 cially about Skipper Avery and the Noank. So many 
 British ships of war were needed for duty at Boston 
 and away down South, that it was safe for almost any 
 craft to visit New York. No more "press-gang" 
 
 148 
 
GtnsrS AKD MEN. 149 
 
 work was now to be feared on shore, although there 
 were continual reports of the stoppage of American 
 vessels at sea, to have their best men taken out " for 
 the king's service." 
 
 " She'll get here, one of these days," said Guert to 
 himself. "I wonder what'U happen then? Up-na- 
 tan's waiting for her." 
 
 He did not have long to wait ; but one of the longest 
 hours Guert had ever known came to him, one day, 
 when he and his friends sat on the Albany pier and 
 watched the Noank tacking back and forth in a very 
 light wind, trying to reach her wharf. 
 
 " Glad the Asia's around in the North River," was 
 the thought in Guert' s mind; " but she might send a 
 boat and trap the skipper. They want him. ' ' 
 
 No British boat came, and the Noank was boarded by 
 three pirates who were not in xiniform, the moment she 
 touched the wharf. They only had to give a small 
 hint of their errand before the skipper took them down 
 into the cabin, and an excited man was he. 
 
 "You needn't say anything ye don't want to," he 
 said, after Guert very carefully opened his business, 
 with Co-co and Up-na-tan watching. ' ' I guess I 
 know something, myself. Everybody knows about 
 them and about Kidd, too. That is, they know and 
 they don't know. Ye couldn't find no better use for 
 that there plunder. I'm ready. I've sailed to France 
 ag'in and ag'in. Jest let me git out this cargo." 
 
150 GUERT TEN EYCK. 
 
 He did not actually dance around the cabin, though 
 he looked as if he wanted to do something of the kind ; 
 but Guert was feeling very responsible and sober. 
 
 " Skipper," he said seriously, " tell you what, 
 you've got to look out. The man-of-war boats patrol 
 all night, they say, and the Noank might be visited " — 
 
 "Ye-es," drawled the skipper savagely; "she 
 might ; you didn't see how many prime men I fetched 
 along. They'd like to 'press this crew. But if they 
 do visit the Noank they'll think Lexington and Bunker 
 Hill have got afloat, they will. ' ' 
 
 Gruert had noticed, even in his haste, that the 
 schooner had a great many more men than she needed, 
 but he had hardly thought of them as all " crew." 
 
 "They're just what you want, though," he said, 
 "if you're going to France. Are you sure you can 
 get any cannon there ? ' ' 
 
 " Gruns?" exclaimed the skipper. "Why, I tell 
 you what, them there French'd sell their last gun to 
 anybody that would shoot at England with it. Sell it 
 cheap, too. Only they wouldn't want the British to 
 know they'd sold it to us, just now." 
 
 Up-na-tan and Co-co did their part of the talking 
 mainly by agreeing to what Guert and the skipper 
 said ; but they were evidently in pretty good spirits. 
 
 The rest of that day was very long, and so were the 
 following night and all of the next day. Mrs. Ten 
 Eyck again helped Guert explain that he did not 
 
GUNS AND MEN. 151 
 
 intend to come home early, by telling him she did not 
 care how late he staid out if he could help Skipper 
 Avery do anything. After that he felt better and 
 better until a little after dark. Then a queer feeling 
 came over him, for he and Up-na-tan and Co-co were 
 in a stout little cat-boat, sailing away from the side 
 of the Noank, and she was anchored weU out from the 
 shore of Kip's Bay in the East Eiver. It was dark, 
 for the moon had not yet risen, and there was breeze 
 enough to send such a boat along rapidly. 
 
 "We're going," thought Guert. "We're really 
 going to do it." 
 
 So they were ; but it was a pokerish kind of errand 
 to go on, and it was not long before it became suddenly 
 more so. 
 
 Guert saw Up-na-tan take out a large bandana 
 handkerchief and fold it with care. 
 
 " Guert cover eyes," he said. " No see Eadd place 
 tiU he get there. Ugh!" 
 
 Guert's heart beat a little quickly, but he had 
 expected to be blindfolded, and he sat still. Then aU 
 was utter darkness, and he could hear nothing but the 
 wash of the waves, and now and then a rattle made as 
 the boat tacked this way or that. He could do noth- 
 ing but wait and think, and it seemed to him that he 
 remembered more pirate stories than he could have 
 believed he knew. 
 
 AU the tales of the buccaneers and their doings, 
 
152 GUERT TEK ETCK. 
 
 and Captain Kidd's cruises, and how much treasure 
 they all captured, and how and where they spent it 
 or hid it, ran through his thoughts until at last he 
 exclaimed, " Oh ! " for the boat ran aground. 
 
 " Yo, yo ! " laughed Co-co. " Heah we are. 
 Heah's de place. All right." 
 
 " Guert see plenty, now," said Up-na-tan. " Look 
 a heap." 
 
 Off came the handkerchief, and Gruert strained his 
 eyes around him in all directions, but there was almost 
 nothing to be seen. Nothing but rocks and a sandy 
 beach with a high bluff beyond. 
 
 "It's a kind of long, narrow cove," he said to 
 himself. "I can't guess what shore it's on. Per- 
 haps it's Long Island, but it may be somewhere else. 
 Best kind of hiding-place." 
 
 There was no doubt of that, and he knew there were 
 many such places along all the shores of the East 
 Kiver and the Sound. Co-co and Up-na-tan had 
 lighted lanterns, and they stepped ashore, and Guert 
 followed them, carrying a shovel and a hoe. There 
 were pickaxes and crowbars and other tools, but the 
 most important seemed to be a long, strong spar. 
 
 " Yo, yo ! " chuckled Co-co. " Dab's de ole rock. 
 Turn him ober. ' ' 
 
 It was so large a rock and so well settled that it 
 could not have been turned over without that long 
 wooden lever. 
 
TTP-TC A -T* 4 "W Ti » -vrT»TnTw r\ n 
 
 -R BAG TO CO-CO. 
 
GUNS AND MEN. 155 
 
 Up-na-tan and Co-co plied their spades and crow- 
 bars till they could put one end of the lever weU under. 
 After that it seemed to be easy enough ; but then, 
 they were both strong men. 
 
 Over went the rock, and again the spades were 
 plied, but it was only a few minutes before a large 
 seaman's chest was uncovered. Gluert was wild with 
 curiosity ; and he thought of aU the men who had 
 explored the coast in search of the pirate's treasure. 
 
 " But then," he said to himself, " they didn't know 
 where to dig, and there are thousands of rocks like 
 that." 
 
 That had been the difficulty. Kidd and his men had 
 a great deal of plunder and they hid it, but beyond 
 that fact the other diggers had known nothing at all. 
 Co-co and Up-na-tan did not say a word as to how 
 they knew, but off came the cover of the chest, and 
 Up-na-tan handed out bag after bag to Co-co and 
 Guert to carry to the boat. Some were as heavy as 
 Guert could carry, but Co-co carried one in each hand, 
 every trip. 
 
 " Too much heap silber," growled Up-na-tan. 
 ' ' Grold buy more gun. Skipper get all he can. Hope 
 he steal some." 
 
 Gruert himself wished for gold instead of silver, and 
 was glad to know that some of the bags were more 
 precious than others, but then they were smaller bags. 
 
 "I don't know what the price of cannon is," he 
 
156 GUEET TEN ETCK. 
 
 thought, " but I guess the skipper can arm the Noank 
 and more, too. Don't I wish I could go with him ! 
 I will, too, some day, after the Noank is turned into 
 a cruiser." 
 
 It did not seem exactly real, however, even when he 
 saw the chest shut up, the sand shoveled back, and the 
 great rock tipped back into its place. 
 
 "There," he exclaimed, "I see, now. The tide's 
 coming in. We got here at low water. At high tide 
 that rock '11 be almost covered under." 
 
 That was the very simple secret of the security of 
 the pirate's hiding-place, and the cover of the chest 
 had been water-tight. 
 
 " Oh ! " exclaimed Guert again, but the bandana 
 was put over his eyes the moment he entered the boat, 
 and he knew no more about the exact place of that 
 cove than he did before. 
 
 " There's a big, three-cornered rock at the foot of 
 the bluff," he said to himself. "It's just at high- 
 water mark. I guess I'd know that rock. I could 
 hunt for it, some day." 
 
 The motion of the boat told him that the wind was 
 stiU good, but again it seemed as if they were making 
 a dreadfully long trip, and his friends were as silent as 
 if they were a pair of mummies. 
 
 " Look ! " exclaimed Up-na-tan, at last ; and Gruert 
 jerked off his bandage. 
 
 " Why, there's the Noank, isn't it? " asked Guert. 
 
GUNS AND MEN. 157 
 
 " The moon has risen, too. What are we to do 
 next?" 
 
 " Ugh ! " replied Up-na-tan. " See skipper." 
 
 That was more than Guert could do ; but one of the 
 cabin portholes was open, and the boat was quickly 
 rocking under that small window, while Up-na-tan 
 passed through it all the bags in swift succession. It 
 was marvelous how rapidly the precious but danger- 
 ous cargo of the sail-boat went into the cabin of the 
 Noank. 
 
 Before that task was half done, Gruert was on board, 
 talking with the old " harpooneer " mate. 
 
 " We're all ready to get off," said the mate, "but 
 I jist dew wish one o' them there press-gang patrol- 
 boats 'd try their tricks on us, this trip." 
 
 " What for? " asked Guert. 
 
 "Why," said the mate, "we're so all-killin' ready 
 for 'em. Hurrah ! If that isn't one on 'em, I'm 
 mistaken. Boys, all of ye git down below. Boat 
 comin' ! " 
 
 Just then Up-na-tan and Co-co sprang upon the 
 deck, with precisely a similar warning, and a moment 
 more Skipper Avery came up from his cabin in a fiery 
 excitement. 
 
 "Guert," he said, " take that musket. Now you 
 see if we don't show 'em something. We'll teach 'em 
 how to 'press Yankees." 
 
 Swiftly over the water, in the brightening moonlight. 
 
158 GUERT TEK ETCK. 
 
 came one of the well-manned boats of a British man- 
 of-war, and the first words uttered by the officer in 
 command proved that it was more than a mere press- 
 gang, for he said : 
 
 " Right aboard, men. We'U search her first and 
 'tend to the 'pressing afterwards." 
 
 " Reckon so," growled Skipper Avery. " You can 
 s' arch her. It's wuth your while." 
 
 He had hardly needed to give an order to his men, 
 for there seemed to be a good understanding among 
 them, and only two or three were to be seen when the 
 British boat came alongside and its crew clambered to 
 the deck of the Noank. 
 
 " Got ye this time, you old rebel," shouted the 
 British lieutenant. " You didn't know the old Merlin 
 was in the harbor, did ye ? " 
 
 "What are ye goin' to do? " asked Skipper Avery 
 calmly. "You've no right to take this craft, nor 
 anything aboard of her." 
 
 " Bo's'n," roared the lieutenant, "you and your 
 squad hold the deck. I'll go below " — 
 
 Down he went, without answering the skipper, and 
 he was followed by six stalwart seamen, with drawn 
 cutlasses, leaving but four on deck. 
 
 " Bunker Hill ! " shouted Skipper Avery. 
 
 Up flew a sail that lay on the shadowy deck, for- 
 ward, and it seemed as if all the rest of the Noank' s 
 upper works had been a kind of coop, for men came 
 
GUNS AND MEN. 159 
 
 out of them, almost anywhere. There had been six 
 under the sail, and the British boatswain and his four 
 men found themselves looking by the light of several 
 lanterns into the muzzles of more than a dozen 
 muskets. 
 
 " Drop your cutlasses, boys," said the skipper. 
 " We won't hurt ye, but if you lift a hand you are 
 dead men." 
 
 " No use, boys," said the boatswain. " We're done 
 for. It's a trap." 
 
 ' ' Bunker HiU ! ' ' shouted Skipper Avery down the 
 companionway, and up sprang the astonished lieuten- 
 ant, only to almost run his nose against the muzzle of 
 Guert's musket, and to see the long knife of Up-na-tan 
 gleaming within a hand-breadth of his throat. 
 
 " Surrender ! " yelled the skipper. 
 
 " I surrender ! " gasped the lieutenant. 
 
 It was well he did, for Co-co was making a plunge 
 motion at him with a wicked-looking whaling-lance. 
 It was all over without firing a shot. Even two sea- 
 men who had been left in the ship's boat were ordered 
 on board. Every weapon, the lanterns, and all the 
 boat oars except one pair, were kept as war plunder. 
 
 " Now, boys," said Skipper Avery, " I don't want 
 to 'press any British sailor, but if any of ye are 
 'pressed Yankees, now's yer time. I don't want the 
 lieutenant, anyhow. King George can keep him." 
 
 " He won't keep me," shouted one of the sailors, 
 
160 GUERT TEN ETCK. 
 
 stepping in among the crew of the Noank. " I'm 
 from Marble'ead." 
 
 "I'm from Salem ; ' ' and another said ' ' Nantucket, ' ' 
 and another " Baltimore." 
 
 "Bully!" exclaimed Guert ; but just then the 
 boatswain himself stepped out. 
 
 "Don't ye know me, Lyme Avery?" he asked. 
 "Do ye s'pose I'd stay an hour among 'em, if I 
 could git away? " 
 
 "Vine Prentice ! " shouted the skipper. " Hev I 
 got you out o' their clutches? Won't old Sam and 
 yer mother be glad ? You'll sail with me, you wiU? " 
 
 "You'll all saU with ropes around your necks," 
 growled the lieutenant. " Don't you dare keep those 
 men ' ' — 
 
 "Keep tongue still in mouth," came from Up-na- 
 tan, just then, in a fierce, low tone. "Heap fool! 
 No talk. Get into boat 'fore have head cut off" — 
 and as if he could not restrain it any longer, out sprang 
 the war-whoop of the Manhattans. 
 
 " Get along. Lieutenant," said Skipper Avery. 
 " You won't need any rope if you cross the paths of 
 some men I know. I can keep his hand from you 
 now, if you go peaceably; don't ye wait, though." 
 
 Down into their own boat went the officer and little 
 more than half the men he had brought with him, but 
 the anchor of the Noank was already up and her crew 
 were hoisting the mainsail. 
 
GUNS AND MEN. 161 
 
 "We shall look in at New London," said the skip- 
 per, as Guert and his friends got down into their 
 cat-boat. "Then hurrah for France and the guns! 
 Good-by!" 
 
 "Whoop!" yelled the Manhattan. "Buy heap 
 big gun! Kill a heap! So, so, Up-na-tan " — and 
 another ringing war-whoop and the Ashantee battle- 
 cry drowned Guert' s shout of farewell, while the 
 schooner swung away in one direction, and the dismal 
 looking boat-load of disarmed British tars tugged 
 against the tide toward the distant Merlin with their 
 one pair of oars. 
 
 It was in the gray of the dawn that Guert reached 
 home, and even after his mother came downstairs it 
 seemed to him as if a kind of mist were floating around 
 him. He could not make it real that he had been see- 
 ing and doing the things that he remembered since 
 yesterday. He did not mean to tell too much of it, 
 and he hardly knew how much he had told until at 
 last Mrs. Ten Eyck said : 
 
 ' ' Guert ! I was thinking — pirates ! What dread- 
 ful things they must have done before all that gold 
 and silver got there ! I'm glad it's going to be used 
 in a good cause, anyhow." 
 
 " 'Tis, if the skipper can get the guns," said Guert, 
 " and he says he can." 
 
 " But, Guert," remarked his mother, " you didn't 
 know about Maud. Her folks sent for her and she's 
 
162 GUEET TEN ETCK. 
 
 gone home to Connecticut. She won't be back till 
 next winter." 
 
 Guert was out and out sorry for that. He had been 
 studying desperately just how much he could teU Maud 
 about his night's wonderful work, and now he could 
 not tell her anj^thing. If, however, he was disap- 
 pointed that morning, she was not. She was in the 
 best of spirits and very busy, for she was the center of 
 a room full of neighbors and relations who were making 
 her tell them all the news from New York. 
 
 She seemed to know it all pretty well, up to the 
 hour she left. It was a pity, too, that she could not 
 have put in the last doings of her boy neighbor, for 
 she spoke of him again and again, remarking of him : 
 
 "He goes everywhere, and a girl can't, and he 
 knows everything that's going on. I wish he were 
 here. He could tell you all about it " — and she was 
 manifestly proud of a boy who had actually boarded a 
 tea ship and a provision ship, had helped steal barrels 
 of British powder, had ridden Paul Revere's horse 
 with dispatches, and who owned a gun that had kicked 
 her over. What would they have thought of him if 
 they could have known the very things that she knew 
 no more about than they did ? 
 
 It was a little curious that it did not seem to Guert 
 as if it amounted to anything. Maud told her friends : 
 
 " He's a splendid fellow, and he's tall for his age. 
 So strong, too ; and he isn't afraid of anything." 
 
GUNS AND MEN. 163 
 
 He himself remarked to Rachel Tarns : 
 
 " I ain't worth much more'n a button, anyhow. 
 Even Aleck Hamilton won't take me into his company. 
 Says I've got to wait till I'm older." 
 
 Rachel looked at him almost sadly, for a moment, 
 before she said : 
 
 " Thee is in too much haste, Guert. Thee grows 
 fast. Let me tell thee a thing. Men get killed in 
 war. I like thy friend Nathan Hale. He gave thee 
 good advice about thy books. He is a good teacher. 
 Get thee ready to take his place. Some day it may 
 be given him to pay his life as a ransom for the liberty 
 of his country. The war before us is long, and thee 
 will be a man before it is over. ' ' 
 
 Tall and dark and grim was the patriotic Quakeress, 
 but it struck Guert then that she was handsome, as 
 she spoke, with the flush on her cheeks and the fire in 
 her eyes. She was as handsome as Nathan Hale. 
 
 He could not quite take her advice amid all the 
 excitement. It was not easy to be in the house a 
 great deal of the time, or to study books instead of 
 soldiers and war. 
 
 One of his friends was studyiQg military affairs, and 
 there was something very curious about the ways and 
 doings of Up-na-tan. He could not have been any 
 more reserved than formerly, but he certainly had be- 
 come more haughty. He did not exactly put on war- 
 paint, but he no longer wore a red calico shirt, and the 
 
164 GUEET TEN ETCK. 
 
 blue one he substituted was fairly new, and clean most 
 of the time. His leggings, too, were better fringed, 
 and the new straw hat he obtained had a blue ribbon 
 and a stamped silver ornament. He refused to do any 
 more farm work, although he would sometimes go fish- 
 ing. His especial delight seemed to be the inspection 
 of any military works that were being made for the 
 defense of Manhattan Island. They were his, and all 
 the men in them were there to defend his . property. 
 He seemed, moreover, to have almost a personal affec- 
 tion for a cannon. At least, Guert had never seen 
 him pat or caress anything else, but when he said so 
 he was answered : 
 
 " Heap gun, kiU a heap. Skipper buy some in 
 France. Bring back cannon cargo. Old chief know 
 gun. Long gun on Kidd ship. Heap shoot." 
 
 The largest cannon were at the Battery, twenty-one 
 of them ; and when, late in August, they were aU 
 removed to a safer place, in the new works on the 
 heights, in the upper part of the island, Up-na-tan 
 and Co-co went with them, aU the way. Before they 
 returned, Guert had heard the news. There had been 
 a fight with a barge-load of men from the British man- 
 of-war Asia. There had been cannonading from the 
 ship, and men had been killed and wounded on both 
 sides, but both were disposed to lay the blame on each 
 other for firing first. 
 
 " Guert boy," said the Indian, when he was asked 
 
GUNS AND MEN. 165 
 
 about it, at the Ten Byck place, " Up-na-tan great 
 chief. Shoot redcoat. No let 'em get big gun. Kill 
 one, anyhow. So, so, Up-na-tan! " 
 
 Only a few weeks later, Grovernor Tryon himself 
 gave up pretending to live in New York. He left his 
 house, on Broad Street, and took up his residence upon 
 one of the ships ; but those were now almost cut off 
 from all shore supplies. Even the most sincere Royal- 
 ists no longer dared to sell milk and vegetables to the 
 soldiers and sailors of their king. There were constant 
 rumors that the fleet intended to bombard the town, 
 and several times, when a salute was fired, women and 
 children in the lower wards ran out crying into the 
 streets, believing that the work of destruction had 
 begun. 
 
 More and more of the people moved away, especially 
 the richer people, until it was said that a third of all 
 were gone ; and the winter came very cold, very dull 
 and very gloomy, to New York. Gloomy and cold and 
 hard was that first winter of the great war. Even 
 such news as came from the half-starved army in the 
 American camps around Boston made things seem 
 gloomier. 
 
 Gruert had a pretty good reason for being often at 
 Mrs. Murray's during the second week in January, and 
 one afternoon he had just remarked : 
 
 "Mother spins and weaves till she doesn't seem to 
 want to go to bed at all. ' ' 
 
166 GUERT TEN ETCK. 
 
 " I don't know how to weave, or I would," sighed 
 Mrs. Murray. " But how I do wish Maud would 
 come. They wrote that she might be here any day, 
 now the sleighing is so good." 
 
 " Hark ! " exclaimed Guert. " Sleigh bells ? " 
 
 " Guert ! " shouted Mrs. Murray, after a quick 
 glance through a window, "there she comes. Maud 
 is here." 
 
 He was already springing toward the door, and she 
 heard him say : 
 
 " Ain't I glad? And she'll bring all the news from 
 New England." 
 
 Of course she would, and she was out of the sleigh 
 and up the piazza steps like a flash, but the first news 
 she told, after Mrs. Murray gave her a chance to tell 
 anything, belonged to New York. 
 
 " Aunt Murray ! " she said, " Guert ! what do you 
 think ? I met Stephen De Lancey and his Aunt Jane 
 driving up the Bloomingdale Road in their sleigh. He 
 said Mr. Lee and his rebels are marching in, down 
 town, and he wouldn't stay there to see them " — 
 
 " General Lee ? " shouted Guert. " Our army has 
 come ! There'll be better times now." 
 
 " Of course there will," said Maud ; " but, Guert, 
 Aaron Burr's with General Montgomery, in Canada. 
 He has distinguished himself. They captured Mon- 
 treal, and they took prisoners ' ' — 
 
 " Wish I'd been there," groaned Guert. 
 
GUNS AND MEN. 167 
 
 " You'd wish you were not, then," said Mrs. Mur- 
 ray, "fighting in such weather as this is; Canada 
 weather, too ! Now, Maud, do tell us everything. ' ' 
 
 " And then you must come over and see mother," 
 said Gruert, " and tell her " — 
 
 "Of course I will," said Maud; but even the 
 Boston news could not detain him long, for he was all 
 in a fever to see what he called " the American army." 
 
 He saw it all before night, for there were only about 
 twelve hundred men. They were pretty warmly clad, 
 but not in anything like uniform. What they needed 
 most was guns with bayonets, and cannon for any forts 
 they might build. So Guert told his mother, that 
 evening, just before she went over to Mrs. Murray's 
 for another news-talk. 
 
 " We are aU going down for a look at them to- 
 morrow," she said. " Maud, and Eachel Tarns, and 
 all of us." 
 
 " You'U ride," said Guert. " I'll be down there, 
 somewhere." 
 
 He meant to be, but he had no idea of just where 
 they were to find him , or in what company. It seemed 
 to him that he dreamed all night about the winter 
 fights at Boston and in Canada, and he woke up won- 
 dering if there were to be any in New York, now the 
 troops had come. 
 
 " I'U see them parade on the Common, anyhow," 
 he said. 
 
168 GUEET TEN ETCK. 
 
 He set out early ; but hardly had he left his own 
 gate before a voice behind him hailed him gruffly with : 
 
 " So ! go 'long ! Old chief show Guert when he get 
 there." 
 
 " Show me what? " asked Guert ; but there was no 
 answer to that question. 
 
 Sleighloads of all kinds of people went by them, for 
 almost everybody was willing to look at that parade, 
 and when they reached the Bowery Lane side of the 
 Common they found it already lined with sightseers. 
 
 " Come," said Up-na-tan ; and Guert followed him 
 across the street, to where quite a group of officers and 
 citizens were gathered. He had not heard a woman's 
 voice in one of the sleighs sayiag, " Let's go over 
 and see what it is. ' ' 
 
 " Look ! " said Up-na-tan. " Big gun. No come 
 across water. Colony men make. Heap fire. Heap 
 old beU. Up-na-tan watch 'em long time." 
 
 Guert did indeed look, with sudden interest, for 
 there, laid out in a glittering row upon the snow and 
 ice, were more than a dozen new brass cannon. 
 
 " Splendid achievement of our first American foun- 
 dry ! " exclaimed one of the gentlemen. " We are 
 making saltpeter, too, and we can furnish our own 
 gunpowder. The liberties of America are safe, if we 
 can mold our own cannon." 
 
 Forward stepped the Manhattan, and deliberately 
 paced the length of one of the brilliant weapons of war. 
 
GUNS AND MEN. 169 
 
 " Ugh! " he said. " Heap short. Melt one bell. 
 Want more bell. Want heap big gun for fort. Long 
 gun for ship. Where find bell ? " 
 
 " That's so ! " exclaimed an officer. " He has hit it. 
 We're short of brass. They're nothing but field guns." 
 
 The deep gloom on Up-na-tan's face may have had 
 jealousy in it, for he brightened exceedingly as he said : 
 
 "Long gun come. Buy 'em across big water. 
 French. Heap shoot. So, so, Up-na-tan ! " 
 
 " He has hit it again," said the officer, as the Man- 
 hattan strode proudly away. 
 
 " Gluert," said Rachel, when he walked up to her 
 sleigh, "I'm glad thee saw those guns. It is against 
 the law for thy people to mold in brass or in iron. 
 Thee may not make anything for thyself. Thee must 
 buy it of thy king's people that live on his island. 
 Thee had to learn to cast cannon before he would let 
 thee make kettles." 
 
 Guert was not listening very well. 
 
 " What we want is brass," he muttered, as she 
 ended. ' ' I must speak to Maud. ' ' 
 
 She was beckoning him, eagerly, from the Murray 
 sleigh, and the brass and cannon question had to wait. 
 
 " Guert," she said, " you know poor Mr. Avery, 
 the skipper. I've just heard of him, from a New 
 London man. He went on a voyage to France, in his 
 schooner, and on his way back a British cruiser cap- 
 tured him. They haven't heard of him since." 
 
170 GUERT TEN ETCK. 
 
 "Captured?" groaned Guert. "I'm so sorry. 
 That's awful." 
 
 ' ' Isn't it ? " she said. " What if they should im- 
 press him and all his men ? ' ' 
 
 " Did they get them aU ? " he asked. 
 
 " Nobody knows," replied Maud ; " hut they took 
 the Noank, and she's in Boston Harbor now." 
 
 Guert turned away as if he did not care to hear any 
 more ; but he was thinking : 
 
 " They will hang him. What shall I say to 
 Up-na-tan? " 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE SCOUTING PARTY. 
 
 THE more Guert thought about the bad tidings 
 concerning Skipper Avery and the Noank, the 
 less he felt like telling them to Up-na-tan and Co-co. 
 
 ' ' There are such lots of things that may have hap- 
 pened," he said to himself. " Maybe they didn't buy 
 any gans. Maybe they bought some and didn't have 
 them on board. Perhaps they sent them here on 
 another ship." 
 
 At all events, he knew that a great deal of news 
 came which turned out untrue, and he could afford to 
 wait until there was some kind of certainty. Still, he 
 he had a dream one night of seeing the Noank armed 
 with more and bigger brass cannon than a craft of her 
 size would think of carrying except as heavy freight. 
 
 The next tidings from the American army in Canada 
 was very sad, for it told of General Montgomery's 
 defeat and death at Quebec. There was, at iirst, no 
 certainty as to who else had been kiUed, and Guert 
 
 171 
 
172 GUERT TEN EYCK. 
 
 and Maud and all the rest were left in doubt as to 
 whether they were ever again to see their friends. 
 
 It was doubt, doubt, about all manner of things, 
 until one fine spring morning, when Eackel Tarns 
 came hurrying through the gate of the Ten Eyck place, 
 followed closely by Mrs. Murray and Maud. 
 
 ' ' Mother ! ' ' shouted Guert, as he darted out to 
 meet them. " Come out here, right away! Some- 
 thing's happened ! " 
 
 ' ' News ? ' ' she exclaimed, and the spinning-wheel 
 was left to whirl itself to a rest, while the cat chased a 
 ball of yarn away into the kitchen. 
 
 " Anneke," asked Rachel, " how is thee? " 
 
 "I'm well enough, ' ' replied Mrs. Ten Eyck. ' ' Tell 
 me what it is." 
 
 " Aaron wasn't killed," said Maud. 
 
 " The British have been driven out of Boston," said 
 Mrs. Murray. 
 
 " Alexander has been commissioned captain of one 
 of the New York artUlery companies," said Rachel 
 proudly. "But Aaron did not lose the gray mare. 
 He did not take her with him to Canada at aU. He 
 had to run away on foot." 
 
 " Guert," said Maud, " and they say aU the British 
 fleet and army are coming to New York, and that all 
 our army, and General Washington, are coming to keep 
 them from capturing us. There's going to be more 
 fighting here than ever there was at Boston. 
 
THE SCOUTING PARTY. 173 
 
 "Hurrah for Aleck Hamilton!" shouted Guert. 
 " I was sure he'd get it. His men are all ready, too. 
 It's real good about Aaron " — and then there was a 
 general jumble of all that was known, as yet, concern- 
 ing the triiunph at Boston and all the other movements 
 of armies, at the south as well as at the north. 
 
 Boy as he was, Alexander had indeed been given his 
 commission, but only after a sharp examination by 
 officers of experience, who discovered what good use 
 he had made of the miUtary books bought for him by 
 Rachel Tarns. Perhaps one point in his favor was 
 that his company was already in very good condition 
 for him to command. 
 
 Great was the pride of Rachel, but Guert' s first 
 exultation changed shortly into almost a moody state 
 of mind, for regiment after regiment came marching 
 into New York, and he did not belong to any of them. 
 
 It was a tremendous army, it seemed to him, and it 
 was growing larger every day, and there was no end 
 to the forts and batteries that were building. Even 
 over on the high ground, across the East River, beyond 
 the village of Brooklyn, there was already a line of 
 strong earthworks, and Guert went over to see them 
 more than once. 
 
 " K the redcoats ever come here," he thought, 
 "we shall beat them aU to pieces." 
 
 His own satisfaction, however, was as nothing to Up- 
 na-tan's approval of the manner in which the " colony 
 
174 GTTERT TEN EYCK. 
 
 men ' ' were preparing to defend his island. He seemed 
 to own it more than ever, although he sharply criti- 
 cised all the works because of their lack of ' ' heap long 
 gun." 
 
 More and more of the people moved out as the 
 soldiers marched in, and all the ordinary society affairs 
 of the city were entirely broken up. Commerce did 
 not altogether cease, for ships could come and go by 
 way of Long Island Sound. Out in that direction, 
 indeed, there was a fleet of American cruisers forming, 
 that was not at all like the British fleet in the Lower 
 Bay, bijit that promised to be of good service. It con- 
 sisted of coasting schooners, sloops, row-galleys and 
 whale boats, manned by daring fellows who were ready 
 to capture anything smaller than a man-of-war, or 
 even that, if they could catch it napping. Whenever 
 Guert got a good look into one of those craft he 
 thought of the Noank and felt badly, and half wished 
 he could be a sailor. 
 
 The weeks went by like a dream, and one day was 
 like another, there was so much excitement. Mrs. Ten 
 Eyck herself was hardly surprised when, one April 
 afternoon, the Murray carriage came to her gate, and 
 Rachel marched in to say : 
 
 " Anneke, thee must come with us. Israel Putnam 
 came yesterday, to command thy king's troops that 
 are protecting his colonists against their enemies. We 
 are going to visit his wife and daughters, and thee 
 
THE SCOUTING PARTY. 175 
 
 must go witli us. Guert, thee may get up and ride 
 with Sarah's driver." 
 
 Mrs. Ten Eyck was quickly ready, and all the way 
 down town Guert was busily explaining to Maud, rather 
 than to the older ladies, the distribution of the Ameri- 
 can forces. They seemed to be camped everjTvhere. 
 
 General Putnam's headquarters were at the old 
 Kennedy mansion, at the very lower end of Broadway, 
 and when the carriage pulled up in front of it, Maud 
 exclaimed : 
 
 " Why, the house is full of soldiers. Does Mrs. 
 Putnam really live here ? ' ' 
 
 There was indeed a garrison look about it, and a 
 strong guard party had just halted at the entrance ; 
 but Maud's answer came from Guert, as a tall, fine- 
 looking young officer who commanded them went 
 through the process of changing the headquarter' s 
 sentries. 
 
 "Nathan Hale!" exclaimed Guert. "There he 
 is, Maud. He's a captain." 
 
 " I am here, Guert," laughed the captain, as he 
 , turned and lifted his hat to the ladies. He could not 
 have heard Mrs. Murray whisper to Rachel : 
 
 ' ' How very handsome he is ! " but he added to 
 Guert : 
 
 "I'm on duty now. Come and see me as soon as 
 you can at the camp of Knowlton's regiment. I want 
 a talk." 
 
176 GUERT TEN ETCK. 
 
 "So do I,'.' shouted Guert. "I've aU sorts of 
 things to tell." 
 
 " Forward, march ! " said Hale to his men at that 
 moment, and he only bowed again to the carriage load, 
 as they moved away. 
 
 " He is splendid ! " exclaimed Maud, but they were 
 all getting down to go into the house — all excepting 
 Guert, who was not expected to call on Mrs. Putnam. 
 
 There were no other lady-callers there at that hour, 
 nor was the general's wife ready for any, apparently. 
 All the front rooms on the lower floor were full of busy 
 army officers, but a soldier very politely invited Mrs. 
 Murray and her friends to follow him. 
 
 ' ' Hear that ? ' ' said Mrs. Ten Eyck. 
 
 " It's the sound of a loom," exclaimed Mrs. Mur- 
 ray. " Somebody is weaving." 
 
 "Weaving in a fort?" whispered Maud, but on 
 they went into a large room in the rear. 
 
 There were several women in it, older and younger, 
 and the loom ceased as one of them left it to welcome 
 the visitors. 
 
 "Thee is Israel Putnam's wife?" said Eachel, 
 with great energy. " Thee is like thy good husband. 
 This is Anneke Ten Eyck, and this is Sarah Murray. 
 Thee knows Maud Wolcott. Thee can talk with them, 
 but thy loom need not waste any time. I can beat 
 thee weaving." 
 
 Perhaps she could. At all events she took Mrs. 
 
THE SCOUTING PAETT. 177 
 
 Putnam's place at the loom, and the business of mak- 
 ing linen for soldiers did not cease, nor did that of the 
 Putnam girls at their spinning-wheels. 
 
 The talk and the work went on together, with the 
 most patriotic cheerfulness, for Mrs. Putnam was all 
 smiles and good humor, and Rachel did not at all lose 
 her part of the conversation. 
 
 Out at the door Gluert found something to do that he 
 had not expected. 
 
 " Glad to see hoy," said somebody behind him sud- 
 denly. ' ' Up-na-tan want talk with old man Putnam. 
 Co-co, too." 
 
 " I can fix it," exclaimed Guert, and a word to the 
 sentry brought out the officer of the guard. 
 
 " Information? " said the officer, in reply to Guert's 
 explanation. " Saw General Washington about it 
 once, did he? Bring him and the black fellow right 
 m. 
 
 In a moment more they were all standing before 
 General Putnam, to whom Up-na-tan held out a hand 
 as frankly as if he had known him for years. 
 
 The old Indian fighter shook it as frankly, and the 
 Manhattan reported at once. 
 
 " Heap spy all over island. Up-na-tan find 'em. 
 Co-co find 'em." 
 
 " Can't help it," said the general. " Every Tory 
 is a spy. Can't shut 'em all up." 
 
 " Stop some," said Up-na-tan. " Stop boat go to 
 
178 GUEET TEN ETCK. 
 
 ship at night. Tell heap. Up-na-tan want good 
 boat. Watch 'em ! " 
 
 " Colonel," said Putnam sharply, to another officer, 
 " see that these men have a good boat to patrol with. 
 They are the best scouts we could get. The chief may 
 report to me at any time." 
 
 Out went the queer squad of scouts, and Guert was 
 suddenly aware that he and his friends had somehow 
 joined the American army and navy, and were to 
 operate against the British fleet. 
 
 "It wiU be one thing more to teU Captain Hale," 
 he thought. " I must go and see him as soon as I 
 can. We can scout aU over the bay. , Even a boy can 
 steer a boat, and my eyes are as good as Up-na-tan's 
 daytimes ; but Co-co and he can see after dark." 
 
 Mrs. Murray's party of patriotic women finished 
 their visit with Mrs. Putnam and her daughters, but 
 when they went out there was no Guert to go with 
 them. When he did get back to his own house late 
 that evening, he had a great story to tell of the visit 
 he had made at Captain Hale's quarters, with Co-co 
 and Up-na-tan, and of the very fine, swift-running 
 little boat in which the chief and his crew were to 
 watch for spies from the fleet. 
 
 " Captain Hale wants to go with us as often as he 
 can," he said. "Up-na-tan has taken the greatest 
 liking to him. Mother, you will let me go ? " 
 
 "Of course I will," exclaimed Mrs. Ten Eyck. 
 
THE SCOUTING- PAETT. 179 
 
 "I've been wanting to have you do something. 
 Wouldn't Mrs. Putnam send a hoy of hers?" 
 
 " She would ! " said Guert. " Guess I'm as good 
 an American as any Putnam is. But what on earth 
 do they all mean by saying that we are stiU under 
 King George, when we are fighting him ? " 
 
 That was a question that was greatly troubling older 
 heads than his. All the British, and a great many 
 Americans, still insisted that Mr. Washington could 
 not be a " general ' ' without a commission from the 
 king. He was only the leader of an armed mob of 
 rebel colonists, and he and all of them ought to be 
 hung for treason. 
 
 That was one of the words that Maud Wolcott was 
 trying to understand, and Rachel Tarns helped her 
 when she said : 
 
 " If thee can hear thyself talk, thee ought to know. 
 Thee talks treason aU the while. Thee is as bad a 
 rebel as George Washington." 
 
 Mrs. Ten Byck did not see very much of her son 
 during some weeks after that. He was away from 
 home at night very often, and he would not always 
 teU even Maud where he had been. He did succeed, 
 however, in making her say of him, to Mrs. Murray : 
 
 " How Guert is growing. He won't be a boy much 
 longer. I'm glad Captain Hale goes with them so 
 much." 
 
 It was only now and then that he could do so, and 
 
180 GUEET TEN ETCK. 
 
 there came one especial occasion that he had missed. 
 Only the original crew of the scout-boat were tramping 
 wearily along Broad Street when Guert remarked : 
 
 " We won't go to Putnam this time." 
 
 "Ugh!" said Up-na-tan. "No. Go see great 
 chief. Heap big talk. ' ' 
 
 Very gloomy and very haughty seemed the last of 
 the Manhattans, that morning when they reached the 
 headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief. He seemed 
 to be giving orders to the sergeant of the guard, in- 
 stead of asking for anything. 
 
 " Go ! " he said. ' ' Tell great chief Up-na-tan ! ' ' 
 
 The sergeant did go, but in a moment more a short, 
 slight young fellow, in the uniform of a lieutenant- 
 colonel stepped lightly out, exclaiming : 
 
 "Guert? You here?" 
 
 "Aaron! Colonel Burr!" responded Guert in 
 great astonishment. " We want to see the General." 
 
 "I'm on his staff," said Aaron. " I'U ask him, 
 but he hardly sees anybody." 
 
 He went and he came again, and now he was all a 
 soldier on duty, and not an acquaintance, in his man- 
 ner, as he led the way and told them to foUow. He 
 must have said something in the way of explanation, 
 however, for once more Guert and his friends were 
 alone in the room with the Commander-in-Chief. 
 
 He had a worn, stern look, and his face did not 
 relax in a smile as he slightly nodded to them, saying ; 
 
THE SCOUTING PAETT. 181 
 
 " Up-na-tan, speak." 
 
 " Up-ua-tan tell," said the red man, as dignifiedly. 
 "Two night ago, Bedloe Island. Up-na-tan, Co-co, 
 Guert. See boat come from ship. See more boat 
 come down river. See Iroquois chief land on Bedloe. 
 See Johnson chief. Not know Guy Johnson. Mebbe 
 other paleface Iroquois. See Tryon land on Bedloe. 
 Not hear talk. Too far. All talk and go away. 
 Up-na-tan follow to Lower Bay. Co-co follow no. 
 Wait on Bedloe in rocks. ' ' 
 
 He motioned explanations as he spoke, and Wash- 
 ington's face grew dark as he listened. 
 
 "Orderly! " he said, loudly, and the door opened 
 and a taU soldier in the uniform of the ' ' bodyguard ' ' 
 stepped in and stood at a salute, awaiting orders. 
 
 " Tell Colonel Burr to come here." 
 
 "Ugh!" suddenly exclaimed Up-na-tan, glaring 
 at the soldier and pointing at him fiercely. " That 
 man ! Up-na-tan see him on Bedloe. See him talk 
 Tryon. Watch him come to shore. Not know him 
 then. Know now. ' ' 
 
 Down sank the soldier into the nearest chair, like a 
 fainting man ; but Burr had heard and was entering 
 the room. 
 
 " Colonel Burr," said Washington, " put Hickey in 
 irons. Search him. This is Tryon 's plot for a Tory 
 rising, on the arrival of Howe and the fleet. On no 
 account let it be known precisely how it was discovered. 
 
182 6UEKT TEN ETCK. 
 
 Take him out. We must convict him without the 
 testimony of these men. They must not be suspected. ' ' 
 
 Up-na-tan nodded, understanding the need for keep- 
 ing his services a secret, but he spoke again : 
 
 " Great chief of Manhattans send to France for 
 gun. Send heap Kidd money. Think lose gun. Not 
 know yet. Send again, some day. Go, now. Do 
 more to-night. Not want talk." 
 
 He did not go without hearty thanks to all three of 
 them ; but Washington might well be sick at heart 
 when the plots and treachery around him had pene- 
 trated and corrupted men of his own trusted bodyguard, 
 chosen for supposed fidelity. 
 
 There had not been a great deal for Guert to say, 
 and he was glad of it, for he felt with more than a 
 little oppression what a mere boy he was in the pres- 
 ence of the greatest man in America. 
 
 "Oh! but isn't he a great man," he said to his 
 mother, when he told her about Hickey and the dis- 
 covery of the plot. 
 
 " I am so glad," she said, " that you have really 
 been able to do something." 
 
 He had no idea what he might be called upon to do 
 next ; but only two nights afterwards he was out in 
 the scout-boat, feeling that somebody else was captain 
 of it. When only Up-na-tan and Co-co were with 
 him, he was all the while aware that he was the only 
 white man on board, and that so he outranked them a 
 
THE SCOUTING PARTY. 183 
 
 little, even if he left the direction of things to the old 
 Manhattan. 
 
 This night, however, he felt peculiarly conscious of 
 the heroic presence of Nathan Hale, and that there was 
 only one commander of the expedition. 
 
 There was not much commanding to do for a while, 
 for the boat crept silently along shore, on the Brooklyn 
 side, keeping in the shadow of it as much as possible, 
 until, at last, it made a quick run out through Butter- 
 milk Channel. After that there was not much more 
 boating to be done, that night. 
 
 Just as the sun arose next morning, three men and 
 a boy were lying, very quietly, among some bushes at 
 the bottom of a bluff that looked out upon the Lower 
 Bay of New York. Several ships lay at anchor, here 
 and there, and from each there fluttered gayly out the 
 red cross flag of England, the mistress of the seas, and, 
 as yet, the mistress of all the American colonies. 
 
 " They are bully good ships," said Guert. 
 
 "So they are," muttered Captain Hale, as he 
 scanned them carefully through the telescope he had 
 brought with him. "We know all about these fel- 
 lows, but Howe's fleet must be close at hand, now." 
 
 "Ugh! " exclaimed Up-na-tan sharply. "Heap 
 more sail." 
 
 Gruert strained his eyes vainly at the misty distance ; 
 but those of the Indian could be trusted, for Hale 
 changed the direction of his glass, and said at once : 
 
184 GUERT TEN ETCK. 
 
 " That's so ; there they come. The Staten Island 
 lookout must have seen them first, but we must wait 
 and find out all we can." 
 
 "I guess there are plenty of Tories, too, all along 
 shore. 'Twouldn't do to be caught." 
 
 " We won't be caught," said Hale cheerfully. 
 
 " They might hang us for spies," suggested Guert; 
 "just as General Washington had Hickey hung, 
 yesterday. ' ' 
 
 " No, they wouldn't," replied Hale. " A scout is 
 a scout, and a spy is a spy. I'm in full uniform and 
 we are all armed. We'd be prisoners of war." 
 
 " I guess that'd be bad enough," said Guert. " I 
 can see 'em, now. There's going to be a swarm of 
 'em." 
 
 Hour after hour the four scouts lay in their covert, 
 while the splendid British fleet came sweeping into the 
 bay. Hale's telescope was busy, and every now and 
 then he pencilled, in his memorandum book, notes of 
 the kind and number of the ships. There were men- 
 of-war, of several sizes, transport ships, supply ships ; 
 and they and others closely following them were bring- 
 ing a great army to capture Manhattan Island, and to 
 take it away from Mr. Washington and his army, and 
 from the Continental Congress, and from old Up-na-tan. 
 
 The breeze was favorable, and the naval commanders 
 took advantage of it to sail right along in search of 
 safe anchorages, not too near each other. 
 
THE SCOUTING PARTY. 187 
 
 Hale continued his work of observation, with his 
 telescope and note-book, and Gruert stared dreamily at 
 the great fleet, until he was startled by a savagely 
 angry exclamation at his side. 
 
 "Ugh! Ugh!" growled Up-na-tan. "Look! 
 Noank ! Lose all heap gun ! ' ' 
 
 Captain Hale already knew the story of the New 
 London skipper, and he aimed his glass in the direction 
 pointed out. "It is a fact," he said; "there she 
 comes. What a pity it is about Lyme Avery ! " 
 
 Anchors had gone down rapidly, and there were now 
 many boats goiag to and fro among the ships. Quite 
 a number of boats seemed also to propose trips toward 
 the shores of Staten Island and Long Island. Each of 
 these latter was fuU of soldiers as well as seamen. 
 They were so many scouting parties sent out to find 
 out what might be upon the nearest land ; but Guert 
 was hardly noticing them, for he was saying to himself : 
 
 "Maybe that's the Noank. 1 can hardly be sure, 
 among so many. It's too bad." 
 
 He had hardly cared for one tall and stately war- 
 ship, lying nearer than the rest, but a boat sent out 
 from her had headed straight toward a kind of break 
 in the bluflf shore, not far from the covert of the four 
 watchers. Hale's glass was pointed at that boat for 
 several minutes, but he made no remark untU after 
 she touched the beach. An officer and some soldiers 
 and seamen stepped out of her and marched up through 
 
188 GUERT TEN ETCK. 
 
 the gap, leaving her in charge of a midshipman and a 
 brace of sailors. Then Captain Hale put down his 
 glass with a long breath, as he hoarsely whispered : 
 
 " Lyme Avery ! He is one of the men down there 
 by the boat." 
 
 ' ' 'Kipper ! ' ' said the Manhattan. ' ' Ugh ! Look ! ' ' 
 
 " Yo, yo ! " gurgled Co-co. " Dah he is." 
 
 "Now's our chance," said Hale. "We must get 
 him away from them. The redcoats are out of sight 
 over the bluff. ' ' 
 
 He put his fingers to his lips and blew a long, 
 peculiar whistle, but Guert did not know that it was 
 one of the signal calls of the Connecticut "minute 
 men." He felt very much, however, as if somebody 
 had set him on fire and that he was burning very well. 
 The next moment he was creeping along on aU-fours 
 behind Nathan Hale, with Co-co and Up-na-tan just 
 ahead. 
 
 " They are better bushfighters than we are, Guert," 
 said Hale. "See there?" 
 
 Guert saw one of the two men at the boat lay down 
 his musket to tighten his belt. In an instant he saw 
 the other hurl his own musket into the water, snatch 
 up the first man's gun and turn and point it at the 
 disarmed seaman and midshipman. It was also as if 
 a pair of human panthers went bounding across the 
 few yards between the bushes and the boat. 
 
 "Don't hurt 'em," Guert heard Skipper Avery 
 
THE SCOUTING PAKTT, 189 
 
 say, as he and Hale darted forward. " Tie 'em up 
 and gag 'em." 
 
 "No speak," growled Up-na-tan, and the long, 
 gleaming knife in his hand and another in Co-co's 
 explained his terrible meaning. 
 
 Before the boy officer could fairly know what was 
 happening, he was sitting on a rock with his hands 
 tied behind him and a handkerchief over his mouth. 
 
 " Yiz nadn't toie me very toight," said the sailor. 
 " Oim from Kerry. "Id go wid yiz ave it wasn't 
 yiz was all to be baten. I'd be ownly took again and 
 they'd hong me for desartin'. Get along wid yiz." 
 
 That was just what they did, the four American 
 scouts, taking the skipper with them, after Co-co had 
 knocked a hole in the bottom of the boat with a stone. 
 
 " Yo, yo ! " he laughed fiercely. " They nebber 
 foliar Co-co 'long shoah." 
 
 That meant something, for the first race of the 
 fugitives was along the beach for some distance before 
 they struck out into some woods. 
 
 Their daring feat was discovered within five minutes, 
 however, and they were then followed by a force strong 
 enough to have made their position perilous if it had 
 not been for so good a start, and for their knowledge 
 of the ground. 
 
 "The main thing is to keep out of sight," said 
 Hale. " Their muskets would reach us. Down, 
 Guert ! There they are ! " 
 
190 GUEET TEN EYCK. 
 
 Down they went, in a dense thicket of sumach 
 bushes, and it seemed to Guert that he hardly breathed 
 while a British officer and half a dozen soldiers, with 
 four seamen, marched rapidly past them, within a 
 stone's throw. He and his friends were weU armed, 
 but they would have been hopelessly outnumbered. 
 
 " Ugh ! " muttered Up-na-tan. " Old Van Brunt 
 barn. Lobster think we go there. Come ! " 
 
 He seemed to glide away through the bushes and 
 underbrush, and the others imitated him as well as they 
 could, while their pursuers wasted time in a somewhat 
 cautious inspection of the old barn. 
 
 "We are aU right now," said Skipper Avery at 
 last. "I'm glad Co-co didn't knife that poor middy. 
 He is the son of an earl, and he may be an admiral 
 someday. I've had an awfiil time." 
 
 It was almost the first thing he had said, for he 
 had been evidently under strong excitement. He was 
 looking in pretty good health, but there was an expres- 
 sion in his frank, honest face, which Guert had never 
 seen there before. 
 
 " Did they say you were a deserter? " asked Hale. 
 
 "No; they didn't," said the skipper, "for I'd 
 never been on any ship's list. I'd only got away from 
 a press-gang. But they'd have hung the other boys. 
 Vine Prentice and four of 'em took the cutter and 
 went. I hope they got into Havre all right, but I 
 don't know. They're hard on deserters, just now, and 
 
THE SCOUTING PARTY. 191 
 
 the way they treat 'pressed Yankees ! Well, I won't 
 say any more about it. They'd no lawful right to 
 seize the Noank, anyhow. They just took her, law or 
 no law." 
 
 ' ' Where heap gun ? ' ' inquired Up-na-tan, with 
 almost mournful earnestness. "Gone?" 
 
 The skipper turned and pointed toward the Lower 
 Bay and said : 
 
 " They turned me into the Saragossa and they made 
 a supply hoat of the Noank. There she is, out there, 
 packed with provisions for their army. We bought 
 the guns, but the French wouldn't let us mount any 
 of 'em in a French harbor. So we stowed them down 
 in the hold, under the ballast. There they are now, 
 with a cargo of salt beef and flour on top of 'em." 
 
 "Ugh!" said Up-na-tan. " Grood. Know where 
 gun. Get Noank, some day." 
 
 " I believe we must try and do that very thing," 
 exclaimed Hale. 
 
 " Guess we wiU," said Guert. " What our army 
 wants most is guns." 
 
 ' ' What I want most is the Noank with guns on 
 her," growled Skipper Avery. " If I can make a 
 privateer of her, I'U. teach 'em what it means to keep 
 a New London whaler in irons a month, and then flog 
 him for calling himself a free man. That isn't the 
 worst of it. I don't want our New London folks to 
 know what's become of some of our boys." 
 
192 GUEET TEN EYCK. 
 
 " I don't want to know," said Hale sadly. " This 
 war is getting more bitter every day. We shall he as 
 savage as Up-na-tan before it's over, I'm afraid." 
 
 They were going right along, as they talked, and 
 their peril was about over, for their pursuers had found 
 the barn empty, and were holding a council of war as 
 to which way they had better march next. 
 
 ' ' Yer honor, ' ' remarked the Kerryman to the offi- 
 cer, " wan of 'em's a red skin, an' ye'll not find 'em. 
 They've tuk to the wuds. You'd all be skelped." 
 
 " The woods may be full of Indians, for aU we 
 know," said the officer thoughtfully. "I've no right 
 to lead my men into an ambuscade. I mustn't forget 
 how they murdered us at Lexington. Back to the 
 boat, men ! March ! ' ' 
 
 He was only prudent in remembering the bad things 
 which had happened to British soldiers among woods 
 and thickets and stone farm walls ; but the party he 
 was following had not planned any ambuscade. They 
 were now only working their way along the shore to 
 the swampy little inlet where their own boat lay. It 
 was no longer unsafe to talk, and there were many 
 things to be said. 
 
 Every now and then some exclamation from Up-na- 
 tan and a fierce glitter in his eyes was followed by 
 references to the Noank and to the treasure of cannon 
 in her hold, and Co-co laughed back, as exultingly as 
 if there were no doubt whatever of recapturing them. 
 
THE SCOUTING PARTY. 193 
 
 They were running through the Buttermilk Channel, 
 homeward, when Hale remarked to the skipper : 
 
 " Lyme Avery, General Howe has brought too many 
 men. I'm afraid Washington can't hold New York." 
 
 " Of course he can't ; but he can hold all the up- 
 country," responded the skipper courageously. " It's 
 goin' to be a long fight, and I tell ye what — the lib- 
 erties of America won't never be safe ontil we are able 
 to meet our enemies on the sea. We've got to have a 
 navy ! " 
 
 "Ugh!" said Up-na-tan. "Get Noank. Get 
 aU big gun, Kill a heap." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE LOST BATTLE. 
 
 THE week following the arrival of the British fleet 
 and army was a terribly excited time for the 
 people of the city of New York. They knew that 
 thirty-seven men-of-war had been counted, with four 
 hundred transport ships, and that these were said to 
 carry thirty-five thousand soldiers, British and Hes- 
 sians. Day after day the ferryboats and all the roads 
 leading away from the city were full of men and women 
 on foot, and of wagons loaded with household goods, 
 and army men said there was less danger of a famine 
 now that three quarters of the citizens had left Man- 
 hattan Island. 
 
 If only a quarter of them remained, however, it 
 looked as if they must all have gathered in Lower 
 Broadway, on the afternoon of the ninth of July, 1776. 
 
 If it was a mob, it was made up of the best people 
 as well as the worst. It contained as many women as 
 men, and more boys than either ; but there were not 
 
 194 
 
THE LOST BATTLE. 195 
 
 many soldiers in it, for General Washington was trjdng 
 to enforce discipline, and a mob was no place for 
 soldiers. 
 
 During two whole days there had been great news 
 in the city. The Continental Congress at Philadel- 
 phia, had adopted the Declaration of Independence, 
 on the Fourth of July, and as yet nobody knew what 
 the province of New York was goiag to do about it. 
 Even Washington had said nothing, for he was not 
 the New York legislature, and had no power to speak 
 for it. 
 
 The exciting question in the minds of the mob 
 seemed to be : 
 
 " If we are free why don't we say so ? Isn't New 
 York going to declare its independence ? What are 
 we going to do ? " 
 
 It was a perfectly free public meeting, without any 
 chairman. Anybody could speak, and so almost every- 
 body seemed to be saying something. It had gath- 
 ered there, probably, because the Common was now 
 occupied by camps, and the Bowling Green was about 
 the best open space left. 
 
 Right in the middle of the Green stood the great 
 leaden statue of King George the Third, on horseback, 
 as silent as ever, and in front of it stood Guert Ten 
 Eyck, looking up and thinking : 
 
 " He isn't king any more in America ! " 
 
 Perhaps a great many others were thinking or were 
 
196 GUEET TEN EYCK. 
 
 saying something of that kind; but, suddenly, an 
 excited and tremulous, hut very clear and courageous 
 girlish voice called out to him : 
 
 " Guert, if we are reaUy free, why don't they pull 
 down the king ? ' ' 
 
 He turned for one quick glance at Maud, leaning 
 forward and pointing, and he heard a taU woman at 
 her side say : 
 
 " Thee is right, Maud. Thy country has no more 
 use for kings." 
 
 " Hurrah ! " shouted Guert. " Down with him ! " 
 
 A hundred voices echoed, ' ' Pull him down ! ' ' and a 
 hundred pairs of strong arms were ready to do the work. 
 Ladders, ropes, pulleys, came quickly. There was wild 
 cheering, eager tugging at ropes and prying with levers, 
 and then over rolled the statue, horse and man. 
 
 "Cut him up!" shouted somebody, and sharp 
 axes fell rapidly upon the soft metal, but Rachel very 
 bitterly remarked : 
 
 " Thee can destroy him more easily because he is 
 hollow." 
 
 " And what'U we do with him now? " loudly de- 
 manded one of the axe men. 
 
 " Send all the lead to the buUet factory at my 
 uncle's house in Litchfield," shouted Maud, and the 
 answer came : 
 
 " That's what we'll do, right away. Load it on a 
 wagon and send it. ' ' 
 
THE LOST BATTLE. 197 
 
 So it was done, but no one was there who could say 
 beforehand that the Litchfield women would mold over 
 forty thousand bullets out of the leaden king and his 
 horse, or that a tally would be kept of the battle work 
 done with those bullets, until over four hundred of 
 them were known to have found a fatal mark. 
 
 "Maud," said Rachel, at last, "we have seen 
 them puU down the king. We will go home. How 
 does thee feel, now thee has no king? " 
 
 "Pretty well, thank you," said Maud. " I don't 
 believe we ever had one. What's the use of a king, 
 anyhow ? ' ' 
 
 It was more than a week afterwards that the gilded 
 " king's arms " were taken out of the Council Cham- 
 ber, in the City Hall, and were publicly burned on 
 Wall Street, while the Declaration of Independence 
 was ofi&cially proclaimed. 
 
 All the while, however, Washington knew that the 
 Declaration would act as a strong stimulus upon the 
 British commanders, and he was doing all he could to 
 be ready for them. He had enough to do, and so had 
 Guert's scout-boat, and the reason why this so often 
 contained four instead of three was because of Nathan 
 Hale's skill with a pencil and paper. He could make 
 maps and pictures which reported the doings of the 
 enemy in a way that could be understood at head- 
 quarters. 
 
 "I'm trying to learn how," said Guert to Maud, 
 
198 GUERT TEN EYCK. 
 
 one day, " but you can't tell what my pictures stand 
 for. You can read his, though. He knows pretty 
 much everything." 
 
 "And he's the handsomest man in our army," 
 replied Maud. "And he's always so pleasant to 
 everybody. ' ' 
 
 He was a man whom everybody liked, at all events, 
 and Guert saw nothing to wonder at in the increasing 
 devotion manifested for him by Co-co and tJp-na-tan. 
 Their faces would brighten when they looked into his 
 for the kindly greeting he always gave them, and in 
 the boat they watched for his orders as if he had been 
 a superior being. So he was, beyond doubt, and 
 Guert found himself now and then thinking : 
 
 " Don't I wish I could be a man like Nathan Hale? 
 General Washington and all 6f them trust him. He'U 
 be a general himself, some day. Guess I wouldn't 
 make much of a general. ' ' 
 
 As yet he was nothing but a boy in a boat ; but on 
 the twenty-second of August he was a pretty proud 
 boy, for he and his squad brought in the first news 
 that the British army was landing at several places on 
 the shore of Long Island, and that so the long-expected 
 struggle was at hand. Other scouts came hurrying in 
 with the same report, and somehow it seemed to wake 
 up the people and make them more cheerful. There 
 had been a suspense that had depressed them, and novv 
 it would soon be over. 
 
THE LOST BATTLE. 199 
 
 "There'll be an awful fight," said Gruert to his 
 crew; " but the British can't get over the Brooklyn 
 forts." 
 
 " Heap gun," said Up-na-tan. 
 
 "To, yo ! " chuckled Co-co. "Wish dah was 
 moah. Kin 'em aU." 
 
 Their confidence was so complete in the strength of 
 the works on the Brooklyn heights that Guert was 
 utterly astonished when he remarked to Captain Hale : 
 
 " They can't take 'em," and when Hale replied : 
 
 ' ' If the redcoats beat us in the field and break 
 through within sight of those works, I'm afraid we 
 will have to get out of them." 
 
 Guert went away over to Brooklyn, after that, for 
 another look at the works. They did indeed seem 
 strong. There were so many cannon, too, and some 
 of them were large, and there were thousands of brave 
 men. What chance would an enemy have ? Why, he 
 felt as if he himself could rest a bell-muzzled ducking- 
 gun across one of those ramparts and kill any number 
 of redcoats, just as the boys did at Bunker HiU. He 
 could not at all understand what Hale meant ; but 
 he was soon to know more about war, and so was 
 Up-na-tan. 
 
 The old chief seemed to be' all the while in a high 
 state of war spirits. He openly exulted as day after 
 day went by, since the redcoats landed on Long Island, 
 without their doing anything more. He did not really 
 
200 GUEET TEN EYCK. 
 
 care how much land they might capture, over there, 
 so long as the more precious island that he owned was 
 protected. 
 
 Just about sunrise of the twenty-seventh of August, 
 however, he and Co-co and Guert came in from a 
 night excursion down the harbor and went at once to 
 Washington's quarters. 
 
 "We must see Colonel Burr," said] Gruert hastily, 
 to the officer on duty. 
 
 " You can't," was the reply. " He has been trans- 
 ferred to Greneral Putnam's staff." 
 
 ' ' Ugh ! ' ' sharply exclaimed Up-na-tan. ' ' No care 
 for Burr. No time for go to see Hale. You go, now ! 
 Tell great chief, me here, Up-na-tan. King ship come 
 up from Lower Bay. Big ship heap move. All come 
 shoot Manhattan Island. Tell now ! No wait for 
 Burr." 
 
 "No, indeed ! " almost shouted the officer. " Gen- 
 eral Washington must know at once." 
 
 Away he went and he quickly came again, but 
 Guert was not present when Up-na-tan gave the rest 
 of his report to the general. He only knew how 
 important it was considered when Washington came 
 out and sprang upon his horse and galloped away to 
 the Brooklyn ferry. He heard him say to an officer 
 he left behind : 
 
 "See Putnam at once! If Sullivan should be 
 defeated " — 
 
THE LOST BATTLE. 
 
 201 
 
 That was all; but Up-na-tan's face had lost its 
 angry cloud, and he said to Guert, as if speaking of 
 having a good time : 
 
 " Come ! Go to fort. See big fight. Great chief 
 gone to see. Kiug ship no come tiU tide turns. 
 Ugh ! " 
 
 He only half-suppressed a war-whoop, and he and 
 Co-co and Guert hurried to their own boat, and pulled 
 over to the Brooklyn side. 
 
 " Great gun," said TJp-na-tan, as they rowed along. 
 " No fort gun. Hark ! Way over. Ugh !" 
 
 Boom, boom, boom, came the increasing sound of 
 heavy artillery, and a chiUy feeling crept over Guert as 
 he understood that it was coming nearer. 
 
 Up the bank they clambered, leaving their boat 
 concealed, and they hurried on toward the works on 
 the heights, but Washington was there before them. 
 They saw him, shortly after they reached the ramparts, 
 whose strength they had so strongly believed in. He 
 stood, bareheaded, on the highest point he could reach, 
 and he watched through a telescope the long lines of 
 smoke that were steadily pressing nearer from the 
 eastward. 
 
 "It's the battle," groaned Guert. "They are 
 driving our men ! We are being beaten ! ' ' 
 
 "Heap gun here," said Up-na-tan, hugging with 
 one long arm a huge iron thirty-two pounder by which 
 he had taken his position. " KiU heap lobster," 
 
202 GUERT TEN ETCK. 
 
 Nothing could shake his confidence in large cannon ; 
 but Guert could see that Washington was learning 
 terrible news through his telescope. Moreover, one 
 after another, officers and men whose faces told how 
 sick at heart they were, came riding breathlessly in 
 with reports for the Commander-in-Chief. 
 
 There had been something like a surprise made by 
 the British army, in spite of aU the precautions he 
 had taken, and Sullivan's force had been outflanked. 
 They were terribly outnumbered, too, and it made 
 little difference that they were fighting so bravely. 
 Nearer and nearer drifted the broken battle, and now 
 Guert himself could see it plainly. 
 
 " I couldn't be of any use," he gasped. " All the 
 men there are trying to get away." 
 
 So they were, and fighting for it rather than run- 
 ning, for Guert heard General Washington exclaim, 
 as he watched them from the rampart : 
 
 "Great God! what brave fellows I must lose this 
 day!" 
 
 Nearer, nearer, and many had already reached the 
 forts, and more were being helped to do so in a way 
 that Washington was watching closely. 
 
 Guert saw that all was not confusion in that retreat 
 of beaten men. He saw that red-uniformed pursuers 
 recoiled from the persistent work of one battery of field 
 artillery and the brave men who rallied with it to 
 protect the American rear. 
 
THE LOST BATTLE. 203 
 
 Cool, steady, in the face of almost certain death or 
 capture, under the command, it seemed, of the shortest, 
 slightest man among them ; and Guert saw the gen- 
 eral's face flush with admiration. 
 
 " General Greene spoke to me about him," he said, 
 hut Guert exclaimed : 
 
 " Why, that's Aleck Hamilton ! I hope he'll get in 
 safe. Nathan Hale is with him ! Here they come ! " 
 
 So they did, and Alexander Hamilton's after career 
 was changed for him by the manner in which he 
 brought in the American rear after the battle of Long 
 Island. There was not a great deal to bring in, for 
 over three thousand men had been lost, including pris- 
 oners. It was true that the British had also suffered 
 heavy losses, and that the reinforcements Washington 
 had sent for were coming over the East River from 
 New York rapidly ; but the general was thinking also 
 of Up-na-tan's news about the British fleet. What if 
 the ships-of-war should get in between him and Man- 
 hattan Island ? Then he would be caught in a kind of 
 trap, and would have to surrender. 
 
 Guert had seen a battle. That is, he had seen the 
 end of one and the defeat of the best soldiers of 
 America by the best soldiers of England. He knew 
 that only superior numbers had gained the day, but it 
 was a very bitter thing to think of. 
 
 "I'll stay and help defend the fort, anyhow," he 
 said to himself. "I can do something." 
 
204 GUEET TEN ETCK. 
 
 Up-na-tan did not say anything, but he evidently 
 had determined to remain as near as possible to those 
 large cannon which were to prevent the British from 
 getting across the East River to capture his island. 
 
 As for Co-co, he shortly disappeared and they did 
 not see him again until late in the evening. Then he 
 came striding along with a good-sized basket on one 
 arm, and when he opened it they knew that he had 
 visited both the Ten Eyck place and Mrs. Murray's. 
 There were cooked rations for more than a squad of 
 three, and Co-co reported gleefully : 
 
 " Yo, yo ! Guert ort to see de women. Dey was 
 mad aU ober. All say to fight lobster. ' ' 
 
 "Ugh!" said Up-na-tan. "Eat a heap. Squaw 
 know. Ugh! Good!" 
 
 He might well say so, for there were a great many 
 of the defenders of those works who did not get plenty 
 to eat, in the dismay and confusion of the night after 
 the lost battle. 
 
 When the next day came there were more American 
 reinforcements, but it could be seen from the ramparts 
 that the British were steadily closing in. There were 
 further reports, too, of the movement of the men-of- 
 war in the bay. Noon came and went, and Guert 
 and his friends had hardly finished their luncheon 
 when the heavier artillery of the enemy began to 
 boom, boom, and one shot skipped over the earthwork 
 very near them. 
 
THE LOST BATTLE. 205 
 
 " They are coming ! " exclaimed Gruert, but some- 
 thing else was also coming. 
 
 Perhaps the clouds of powder-smoke had prevented 
 him from noticing any other clouds ; but the sky had 
 been getting dark and heavy, and now there suddenly 
 poured down sheets and torrents of warm, drenching 
 rain. There was louder thunder than that of the artil- 
 lery on either. side; but it was the rain and not the 
 thunder that stopped the work of the British and 
 American guns. 
 
 " One of the biggest rains I ever saw," Guert re- 
 marked, as he stood up in it and could see nothing a 
 rod away. 
 
 ' ' I think the British attack has been drowned out, ' ' 
 said a voice behind him that he knew. " But this 
 will be Washington's opportunity. Hamilton, we 
 can't move these heavy guns through the mud," 
 
 "We shall have to leave some of them," was re- 
 plied mournfully. " This is awful, Captain Hale. We 
 haven't a gun to spare." 
 
 " The boats and sloops are gathering fast," said 
 Hale. "It'll be touch and go; but I hope we can 
 save the army." 
 
 "Save the army?" exclaimed Guert. "Why, 
 are we going to give up these forts ? ' ' 
 
 " That's what we must do," said Hale. " But we 
 must get away before those feUows out there know we 
 are going." 
 
206 GUEKT TEN EYCK. 
 
 " The last man over will take the greatest risk," 
 remarked HamUton. 
 
 Guert's heart was rising to his throat with grief, 
 but he said : 
 
 " I won't go till the last man does." 
 
 " That's just what I want your squad to do," said 
 Hale. " Stay right here and watch. I'll see that 
 your boat is left where you can find it." 
 
 "Ugh!" grunted Up-na-tan. "Chief stay by 
 gun." 
 
 Guert could not quite do that, for he made more 
 than one hurried excursion back and forth, in the 
 pouring rain, to find out what was going on. He saw 
 a great deal, too, as he came and went, for aU sorts of 
 craft were gathering in the East River to ferry the 
 army, and regiment after regiment was marched down, 
 as evening came on, and was gloomily boated over. 
 Horses went, and cannon, and wagon-loads of aU kinds 
 of stores, as well as men ; and part of the works began 
 to wear a disarmed and deserted look. Hours went 
 by, and the rain ceased ; but it was followed by 
 a dense blue fog, through which nobody could tell 
 whether or not the British were coming. 
 
 Not for one moment did Up-na-tan desert his " long 
 thirty- two," and when men came along with spikes 
 and hammers, to " spike " the guns to be left behind, 
 he managed to save his favorite untouched. 
 
 " Ugh ! " he said. " Shoot a heap, by and by." 
 
THE LOST BATTLE. 207 
 
 Guert and Co-co had nothing to do but to stand or 
 walk around, and to peer through the dense darkness., 
 and to listen. It grew dreadfully silent as well as 
 dark, after awhile, for the army had gone. 
 
 " It must be about time for us to go too," thought 
 Guert. " We are not of any earthly use here." 
 
 He did not know that, and he did not know that it 
 was now midnight. 
 
 " Dark as a pocket," he was saying, when he heard 
 a slight clicking sound, near him. 
 
 " Up-na-tan is lighting his pipe? He'd smoke at 
 any time," he thought ; but just then a long, shrill, 
 defiant war-whoop rang out through the black night, 
 andj^a second later, it was followed by the roaring 
 report of Up-na-tan's big gun. 
 
 " Ugh ! " said the red man. " Up-na-tan go now. 
 Hope kin. Come!" 
 
 Away over in the British lines an officer remarked : 
 
 " Do you hear that? The rebels are on the alert. 
 If we had tried a right attack, they would have been 
 ready for us. We will wait until to-morrow." 
 
 Guert was a very tired and heavy-hearted boy when 
 he plodded on through the mud with Up-na-tan and 
 Co-co. All the works seemed empty ; but they soon 
 found that all the army was not safe in New York. 
 There was a great deal yet to do, and all that was left 
 would be at the mercy of a sudden attack. 
 
 The boats were very busy, and Guert went over and 
 
208 GBURT TEN ETCK. 
 
 back in one of them. When he left the Brooklyn side, 
 he could hardly see, through the fog, the length of the 
 boat ; but when its prow touched the New York shore 
 he stepped out, exclaiming : 
 
 "Fog? No; it's aU clear on this side. It's the 
 brightest moonlight I ever saw. It doesn't do the 
 British any good, though. It's shining for our army." 
 
 Back he went. Only a little later he stood on the 
 Brooklyn beach, near the ferry stairs, and heard a man 
 say: "Come, General. This is the last boat. The 
 army is safe." 
 
 " That's Washington," thought Gruert, as he looked 
 at the tall, erect form standing silently on the ferry- 
 stairs, but at that moment he saw Up-na-tan step 
 forward. 
 
 " Ugh ! " said the Manhattan, almost as if giving 
 an order. " Go ! No stay, be caught. Up-na-tan 
 stay. King men find him. Keep him one day. Come 
 to great chief. See what redcoat do. Keep Httle 
 boat. So, so, Up-na-tan! " 
 
 Washington held out a hand almost impulsively, as 
 he replied : 
 
 " Stay, my brave fellow. It wiU be a great service. 
 Can you get away to-morrow ? ' ' 
 
 " No teU," said Up-na-tan. " S'pose any Iroquois 
 see him, lose 'calp." 
 
 " There are none of them here, I think," said the 
 General. ' ' I will go now. ' ' 
 
THE LOST BATTLE. 209 
 
 He stepped into the ferryboat and was rowed away, 
 but not before Up-na-tan bad taken Guert's and 
 Co-co's muskets from them and handed them to the 
 boatmen. 
 
 "No good," he said. "No shoot now. Guert 
 Dutch boy. Talk Dutch. B'long to old king. No 
 rebel. Up-na-tan Mohawk. Co-co b'long to Lancey. 
 Come ! " 
 
 The small boat left with them was pulled ashore, 
 and as they once more climbed the steep bank, Guert 
 began to understand the idea of TJp-na-tan, and knew 
 that they three were spies. 
 
 He had a great deal to think of during several dark 
 hours. Even after the sun arose, there was fog on the 
 Brookljru shore. He did not know that under cover of 
 it, the British ships were slowly feeling their way up 
 the harbor, but he felt as if he and his squad were left 
 alone to face the whole British army under Sir William 
 Howe. 
 
 It was stiU very early that morning, when Eachel 
 Tarns stood grimly in the doorway of the Ten Eyck 
 farmhouse, demanding : 
 
 "Has Guert come home, Anneke ? " 
 
 "Guert?" exclaimed his mother. "0, Rachel! 
 Guert is in the army. He is with Washington. ' ' 
 
 " Thee is a brave, good woman," said Rachel earn- 
 estly. "I have no sons to give him. It is just as 
 well. They would be Quakers. What the country 
 
210 GUERT TEN EYCK. 
 
 wants, just now, is not men of peace. I hope Guert 
 will not fall into the hands of the enemy." 
 
 Nevertheless, that was just what he had done, before 
 seven o'clock, and he and his friends were standing 
 among a group of British ofl&cers, answering surprised 
 and angry questions. 
 
 "Rebel get away in dark," reported TJp-na-tan, 
 telling pretty minutely how Washington had managed 
 his retreat, and adding, "Rebel take all boat, all 
 'cooner, all sloop. Take boat from poor ole Indian. 
 'Teal him, too. Make him work all night." 
 
 " Make poor ole niggah work," said Co-co dolefully. 
 ' ' 'Teal him. 'Teal Dutch boy. Make him work ' '— 
 
 " What a looking lot of crows they are, too," said 
 one of the officers. " They may have staid behind to 
 steal what they could to pay for their work." 
 
 Guert had already replied to them and to his friends, 
 in good Dutch, and aU the mud on his soaked clothing 
 helped the story of Up-na-tan. 
 
 " Anyhow," remarked the officer who had questioned 
 them, "they have told us what we wanted to know. 
 Mr. Washington has done one of the greatest things 
 on record, and we have missed capturing the rebel 
 army." 
 
 " General Cornwallis, shall we shoot these fellows? " 
 asked a red-faced major. " We can't let them go." 
 
 "Yes, we can," replied Cornwallis. "They are 
 not worth shooting. Besides, they have been the best 
 
THE LOST BATTLE. 213 
 
 kind of spies for us, and they can't do us any harm. 
 They can't even get away without a boat." 
 
 Guert heard him, as he and his friends walked 
 away, and a minute or so later he said something in 
 Dutch to Co-co. The Ashantee spoke at once to 
 Up-na-tan in Spanish and was answered, after a swift 
 glance around for listeners : 
 
 "Ugh ! Good ! Heap swim when dark come. See 
 aU can now. Hear a heap. Count ship. Tell great 
 chief what king men do. Ugh ! " 
 
 Guert understood that to be precisely what Washing- 
 ton wished them to do, but he had a dolefuUy hard 
 time that day. Before it ended he found himself 
 talking very good English, in reply to some of the 
 soldiers who continually questioned him concerning the 
 escape of Washington's army. He found, too, that 
 his Dutch was an altogether different tongue from the 
 German talked by the Hessian troops who had come 
 over to aid in putting down the rebel subjects of the 
 English king. 
 
 Up-na-tan felt very sure that there had been no 
 Iroquois among the passengers of the fleet. He strolled 
 listlessly about like a feUow who had nothing in the 
 world to do, and who cared less than nothing for sol- 
 diers and war. Co-co went with him, limping dread- 
 fully as to his left leg, and there was no danger that a 
 white-headed, worthless old black man, crippled with 
 rheumatism, would be pressed into any part of the 
 
214 UUERT TEN ETCK. 
 
 British army or navy. There might have been some 
 question about Guert's security from permanent duties, 
 if it had not been a time when everybody was thinking 
 about something else. At all events, the long hours 
 wore away and the three spies were entirely safe 
 when the sun went down. The last light found them 
 on the beach of the Bast River, looking across the 
 narrowest part of its long, wide channel, through 
 which the tide was then pouring. One after another 
 several ships of war had gone by, to take up positions 
 where their guns commanded the eastern shore of 
 Manhattan Island. 
 
 "There goes the old Asia,'^ said Gruert. "She 
 has watched New York ever so long." 
 
 ' ' Ugh ! ' ' exclaimed Up-na-tan excitedly. ' ' Look ! 
 Noank. Heap gun ! " 
 
 "That's so!" eagerly responded Guert. "And 
 Skipper Avery's in the city. I saw him, day before 
 yesterday. ' ' 
 
 " Catch her, dis time," said Co-co. " Dey's goin' 
 to Kip's Bay. Find 'em dah, suah ! " 
 
 He seemed to have no idea but what the Noank was 
 going up the East River for American rather than 
 British purposes, but his feelings were not stirred up 
 as were those of Up-na-tan. The old pirate looked 
 more like one than ever as he glared after the Asia 
 and the squad of smaller craft she was guarding, and 
 he muttered fierce words in more tongues than one. 
 
THE LOST BATTLE. 215 
 
 He could be patient, however, for he was an Indian, 
 and they all waited for the darkness. 
 
 There were sentries stationed aU along the shore ; 
 but the three scouts had no trouble in evadiug them, 
 for every redcoat was watchiug the New York side of 
 the water and not his own. 
 
 "Now!" hissed Up-na- tan. " Guert foUow. Let 
 tide carry him." 
 
 In an instant they were in the water, as silently as 
 so many eels, and the tide swept them on as it had 
 swept the ships, only that the three spies were also 
 swimming vigorously across its current. It was not 
 at all a difficult feat for three good swimmers, used to 
 salt water. 
 
 There would have been little more to speak of than 
 a good bath, if it had not been for the vigUant night- 
 watch on the deck of the Merlin, as she lay at anchor. 
 
 They were keeping a keen lookout, and they did not 
 fail to notice something or other suspicious on the 
 water, borne rapidly past the ship. They hailed it, 
 of course, but there was no answer. They hailed 
 again, and then Guert heard a quick command : 
 
 "Fire!" 
 
 It was followed by a rattle of musketry, and the 
 balls hissed near him, as they struck the water. There 
 was no answering shot. Nothing but the mocking war- 
 whoop of Up-na-tan, and before a boat could be low- 
 ered and sent in pursuit of them, the three escaped 
 
216 GUERT TEN EYCK. 
 
 spies had gained the shore and were pushing on toward 
 the tangled swamp below Bowery Lane. 
 
 " Guert hit ? " asked Up-na-tan. 
 
 "No," began Guert; but the old Indian at once 
 pushed up his left shirt sleeve, for he wore no coat, 
 and for the first time he was aware that one of the 
 bullets had grazed his left arm. 
 
 "Ugh! Good!" exclaimed Up-na-tan. "Now 
 Guert soldier ! Brave ! ' ' 
 
 " Yo, yo ! " laughed Co-co. " Leetle blood come. 
 Jus' nufF to show pretty girl. Yo ! " 
 
 And the fact was that Guert had never before felt 
 such a thrill of pride as he did over the scratch on his 
 arm that testified to the peril through which he had 
 swam the East River. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 CDTTINQ OUT THE THOASK, 
 
 •• OO thee has been wounded in battle," said Rachel 
 k^ Tarns, as she looked down into Guert's face 
 the next morning. 
 
 "No, I wasn't," said Guert cheerfully. "I was 
 wounded in the water. It won't amount to anything." 
 
 His mother sat by her loom, but she was not weav- 
 ing. She had turned to look at Guert, and her eyes 
 agreed with Rachel, whose next remark was : 
 
 ' ' Thee looks pretty well, with thy arm in a sling. 
 Thy foolish mother is even proud of thee." 
 
 He did not look badly, now that the mud was 
 washed from his face and hands, and he was dressed 
 in a new suit of homespun. 
 
 His arm was not troubling him, but he had an idea 
 that the sling it rested in was something like epaulets. 
 He had had a long sleep after reaching home, and now 
 he felt like having another, but it did not seem exactly 
 the time to be in bed. 
 
 217 
 
218 GUEET TEN ETCK. 
 
 It seemed less so an hour later when he was telling 
 Maud Wolcott and Mrs. Murray all he knew or had 
 seen of General Washington's wonderful retreat from 
 Long Island. They came over to hear about it as soon 
 as Rachel told them of Guert's return. 
 
 " Guert," said Maud, at last, "have we got to 
 give up New York? " 
 
 " Captain Hale said so, when we reported to him 
 last night," said Guert. " They are too strong for us. 
 Some of our men are sick, too, and some are going 
 home." 
 
 " I'm going home as soon as I can," replied Maud; 
 " but there isn't any chance to get away, just now," 
 
 "And mother," said Guert, "means to go away 
 np the Hudson to live at Mr. Van Wart's. She won't 
 stay in New York if our army leaves it." 
 
 " I can't get away," said Mrs. Murray. "Perhaps 
 I'd better stay. I can't do anything anywhere else, 
 but I wish I could go to France — or to China. It's 
 terrible ! " 
 
 "Guert!" suddenly exclaimed Maud. "There's 
 Up-na-tan at the gate." 
 
 He was there with his inseparable black ally, and 
 not many minutes later, they and Guert were on their 
 way to the lower part of the city. It was indeed 
 feeling pretty low that day, for a great deal of it was 
 within cannon shot of British men-of-war. It was 
 busy, too, for the streets were full of wagons. Some 
 
CUTTIKG OUT THE NOANK. 219 
 
 of these were carrying away people and household 
 goods, and some were loaded with army stores of all 
 kinds that were going to places of greater safety, 
 away up the island, or even heyond it. There were 
 not wagons enough, however, and too many of them 
 carried sick spldiers. It was a very blue time. 
 
 Guert saw it all ; but he and his friends were on a 
 hunt, and it was only after many inquiries that they 
 found that Knowlton's regiment, to which Captain 
 Hale belonged, was away up the Bast River, on the 
 shore of Kip's Bay, and that they must trudge back 
 again. 
 
 "Anyhow," said Gruert, "that's where Skipper 
 Avery will be, with the other New London men." 
 
 " Find him ! " exclaimed Up-na-tan. " Go and get 
 Noank. Want gun. Make Kidd ship." 
 
 Very plain was his understanding that there was 
 little or no difference between one kind of man-of-war 
 and another. Captain Kidd had been a great chief on 
 the sea, and as good a war captain as he cared to sail 
 under. He now thought weU of Skipper Avery, and 
 Co-co remarked : 
 
 "I see de Noank. Seen her all ober. Mighty 
 'trong 'cooner. Catch any boat I ebber seen. Run 
 away, too." 
 
 They were old seamen, and they knew what they 
 were saying. The staunchly built New London whal- 
 ing schooner had been planned for rough seas, and was 
 
220 GUEET TEN EYCK. 
 
 fit to carry guns. She was just the vessel to be turned 
 into a privateer ; that is, into the kind of cruiser that 
 the British were calling " Yankee pirates." 
 
 Guert could hear aU they had to say, and he under- 
 stood a great deal of it, but his spirits were away down. 
 Up-na-tan might be even more cheerful, because all 
 the American army was now guarding his own island 
 for him, and Co-co could laugh at any time ; but 
 everybody they met wore a gloomy face, and it was of 
 no use for the sun to shine so brightly. It was some- 
 thing like a surprise, therefore, when they at last 
 reached Knowlton's camp and Captain Hale came out 
 to meet them, for his face was as brave and confident 
 as if there had been no defeat, or as if he were looking 
 forward only to victory. 
 
 "Hurrah for you, Guert! " he said, and so said 
 Skipper Avery, just behind him. "It was a plucky 
 thing for you to do." 
 
 " 'Twasn't much," replied Guert. "I've swum 
 further than that. I can move my arm pretty well, 
 too." 
 
 " That'll heal right over," said the skipper ; " but, 
 I tell ye what, I know just where the Asia is, and the 
 Noank. They're anchored not more'n two hundred 
 yards apart. I'm goin' to git her back, though, sure 
 as guns ! ' ' 
 
 " So, so ! " exclaimed the Manhattan. ' ' Get Noank. 
 Get heap big gun. When go ? " 
 
CUTTING OUT THE NOANK. 221 
 
 "I'm picking up the right sort of men," said the 
 skipper; "hut what we want is a couple of whale- 
 boats. Soon's I can git them, we'll pitch right in." 
 
 They talked and they planned, and all the while 
 Guert found himself watching the bright face of the 
 captain. It seemed to do him good. 
 
 " Up-na-tan is brave," he thought ; " so is Co-co. 
 They're not afraid of anything. But they're not as 
 brave as Nathan Hale. I wonder if Aleck Hamilton's 
 as brave as he is. General Washington is. I don't 
 believe I am." 
 
 He felt a great deal less so when he went away, but 
 his spirits went down again, during several days that 
 followed. Everybody knew that there were negotia- 
 tions going on between Congress and Washington and 
 the British commanders, and there were dark rumors 
 that the Americans were going to give it aU up, 
 because they had been beaten so badly. 
 
 "I guess they won't," said Guert to his mother. 
 " They won't if Washington's as brave as Nathan 
 Hale is." 
 
 "Of course they won't," said his mother. "Let 
 me fix up your arm before you go out. You don't 
 need the sling any more." 
 
 He was willing to give up his ornament, for that 
 night at least, considering what might be before him, 
 and he was not marked as a wounded man when he 
 went out. He told his mother : 
 
222 GUERT TEN EYCK. 
 
 " We are going out in the boat and the captain is 
 going with us. So is the skipper." 
 
 "I'm glad of that," she said, "They won't do 
 anything foolish or too risky." 
 
 Perhaps they did not, but when Gruert joined them, 
 after a long evening walk, they and a score of other 
 men were gathered at the head of one of the narrow 
 inlets among the rushes of the Harlem swamps. They 
 were all armed to the teeth, for every man wore a 
 cutlass as well as belt pistols, and they looked like 
 buccaneers, for none of them were in uniform except- 
 ing Captain Hale. For aU that, they were carefully 
 picked New England seamen, of the toughest, hardiest 
 kind, and they were now taking their places in a pair 
 of long, graceful-looking whale-boats. 
 
 "It's going to be a pretty dark night," said Guert. 
 " They can't see us." 
 
 "Just what we want," said Hale. "We're aU 
 right, if the Noank is anchored by a hempen cable. 
 See that Indian ! A good deal depends on him." 
 
 Guert had already been watching the movements of 
 Up-na-tan. The old pirate wore no cutlass, but he 
 seemed to think of making a razor out of his long- 
 knife, by the way he stropped it on his leggings and 
 tried its edge again and again. 
 
 Out through the dark and winding inlet slipped the 
 two whale-boats, and when they were in open water, 
 and the crews took to the oars, aU was as silent as 
 
CUTTING OUT THE NOANK. 223 
 
 ever, for the rowlocks were muffled and the blades 
 were dipped as if splashing might be dangerous. It 
 was indeed dark. It was just the night for two such 
 boats to glide along like ghosts over the quiet water. 
 
 " We shall get there just as the tide begins to run 
 well," remarked Hale, " and then it'U be quick work, 
 live or die." 
 
 " We've passed more than one boat," said Gruert; 
 " not of our side, I guess." 
 
 " Navy patrol boats," replied Hale. " They must 
 have mistaken us for some of the same sort. ' ' 
 
 " We're strong enough to capter any patrol boat," 
 growled Skipper Avery, " but I'm right down glad we 
 didn't hev to dew it." 
 
 "Ugh!" exclaimed Up-na- tan. "Hale wait for 
 old chief. So ! " 
 
 Guert heard no signal, but both of the whale-boats 
 were instantly stiU. He was looking at the head of 
 Up-na-tan, for that was all of him that could be seen 
 above the waves into which he had slipped, over the 
 side of the boat. 
 
 "The Noank lies out yonder," said Hale. "I 
 didn't think we were so near." 
 
 Near or far, it was a trial of any one's nerves to sit 
 there and wait, in the midst of unknown danger. 
 
 "I guess I'm not brave enough to stand it long," 
 thought Guert. "I want to be doing something. 
 Wish I knew what Up-na-tan is doing." 
 
224 GUEET TEN ETCK. 
 
 At first he was only swimming, with a strong, steady 
 stroke, but it carried him rapidly along, and in a few 
 minutes a great black mass of shadow began to show 
 a little ahead of him. 
 
 "Ugh!" he grunted. ^' Asia. No want big ship. 
 WheveNoank? Ugh!" 
 
 Again he swam fast, and the tide aided him, and in 
 a little while he had no need to swim, for he could hold 
 by one hand to a thick rope. It was the cable that 
 held the Noank at her anchor, and Up-na-tan was 
 cutting at it with his very sharp knife. 
 
 It was the last thing that anybody on board the 
 schooner could have been expecting, for the Americans 
 had no navy, and their defeated army on the shore had 
 no means of harming the fleet or any vessels under its 
 powerful protection. It looked very much, however, 
 if a seaman had been studying the deck and spars of 
 the Noank, as if she were only waiting for orders to 
 raise her sails and go to some other anchorage. 
 
 Saw, saw, cut, cut, worked the knife at the cable; 
 but it made no noise, and the water that gurgled 
 around the hull of the Noank was enough to drown the 
 low, hard breathing of the last of the Manhattans. 
 
 The vessel made just a little lurch when the last 
 hempen strand was suddenly severed. Then she was 
 swept away by the rushing tide, and the watchers on 
 her deck heard a shrill whistle in her wake, and what 
 seemed an answer, out in the darkness near them. 
 
CUTTING OUT THE NOANK. 225 
 
 They were few in number. Not by any means all 
 of them were armed. They were utterly taken by 
 surprise, moreover, and just as a tall figure, brandish- 
 ing a long knife, clamberedj over the stern and rushed 
 toward the wheel as if he intended to steer her, the 
 hushed plash of muffled oars came quickly on both 
 sides of her, grappling irons were thrown on board, 
 and these were followed by a rush of stalwart men. 
 
 ' ' Silence, for your lives ! ' ' was the hoarse command 
 of the first voice they heard, and it was followed by : 
 
 " If any man fires a shot, cut him down and throw 
 him overboard ! " 
 
 They were hopelessly outnumbered, and the only 
 regular naval officer on board was asleep in his ham- 
 mock below. Not one of them was willing to be 
 killed, just for the privilege of firing a gun, and so 
 they quietly surrendered, while Captain Hale's men 
 swiftly hoisted the saUs of the schooner. In a few 
 minutes more she was speeding away through the 
 shadows, while a British naval officer on the deck of 
 the Merlin was remarking : 
 
 "Moved? has she? All right. I knew she was 
 going to, but she got her orders quicker than I thought 
 she would." 
 
 Captain Hale and his men had therefore captured 
 the Noank with little more noise than would have 
 naturally been made by a bungling crew in heaving 
 her anchor and getting her under sail. The anchor 
 
226 GUEKT TEN EYCK. 
 
 had been left behind, however, and her very full cargo 
 of provisions was to be delivered to the American army 
 messes. They were all in need of just such supplies, 
 for the Continentals were made low spirited by lack of 
 food as well as by their defeat in battle. 
 
 No other men on board of the Noank, or anywhere 
 else, were more anxious to get her rations out of 
 her than were Skipper Avery, Up-na-tan, Guert and 
 Co-co. 
 
 They had the hearty sympathy of Hale, and were 
 promised that as soon as the mouth of the Bronx 
 River could be reached the cargo should be out in a 
 twinkling. 
 
 "Ugh! " replied Up-na-tan, with eyes that glit- 
 tered triumphantly. " Get up heap gun ! Make Kidd 
 ship ! Go heap fight ! So, so, Up-na-tan ! " 
 
 " I won't go home till I see every gun there is down 
 there," said Guert, as he peered down the open hatch- 
 way into the hold. " I want to know what the skipper 
 bought with that money." 
 
 " Ship guns, mostly," said Hale, standing by him ; 
 " one field battery. Our men can arm and fit out the 
 Noank right here, and then she had better put to sea 
 at once, or some of these British men-of-war may find 
 her." 
 
 There was danger of that, although there was a kind 
 of truce between the armies, while the Admiral Lord 
 Howe tried his best to convince General Washington 
 
CUTTING OUT THE NOANK. 227 
 
 and Congress that they had better give it up. The 
 General had his hands full, but Gruert would have had 
 very little to do if it had not been for the hold of the 
 Noank. 
 
 What a treasure chamber that deep hole was, and 
 what wonders of war came up, after they got out the 
 provisions and began to stir the baUast. Guert found 
 that he and his friends took only a small amount of 
 interest in any cannon that were to go ashore ; but 
 Up-na-tan danced a war-dance of joyful whooping 
 when a long, brass eighteen-pounder was hoisted on 
 deck, followed by all the fixings for mounting it as a 
 swivel, to swing around and shoot in any direction. 
 Then there came up first-class brass " sixes," to serve 
 as broadside guns, three on a side, making the Noank 
 a pretty weU-armed privateer, and her authority for 
 that kind of cruising had already been given her, so 
 that her skipper was now a kind of sea captain. 
 
 ' ' Ugh ! ' ' remarked Up-na-tan. ' ' Plenty powder. 
 Heap shot. Heap musket, pistol, cutlass, pike, knife, 
 tomahawk. Kill a heap ! " 
 
 It was indeed a most piratical looking lot of weapons, 
 and it told what good use the skipper had made of the 
 money. 
 
 "Prizes?" exclaimed Captain Avery. "Why, 
 Hale, we shall scoop in any number of 'em. I know 
 where to go." 
 
 They were not ready for sailing, yet, however, and 
 
228 GUEET TEN ETCK. 
 
 Captain Hale sent Guert home, telling him that he 
 would soon have work for the squad of scouts. That 
 seemed to suit Up-na-tan and Co-co, too, and they 
 also went ashore. 
 
 Nobody knew exactly how the truce ended ; but on 
 the morning of the fifteenth of September, the families 
 living near the fork of the Bowery Lane and the Bloom- 
 ingdale Road were startled by the roar of heavy guns. 
 Quite a number of the women, at least, seemed to be 
 taken with a sudden impulse that carried them hur- 
 riedly to Mrs. Ten Eyck's. 
 
 " It sounds as if it were over at Kip's Bay," said 
 Mrs. Murray to Maud. 
 
 " Guert'U. know what it is," replied Maud. 
 
 " I do so hope he's at home. We didn't get a bit 
 of news, all day yesterday." 
 
 They did not get any now, for each new arrival had 
 to be told : 
 
 " Guert is down town. He says our army is to 
 leave New York. Captain Hale told him." 
 
 "The British are coming!" exclaimed Maud. 
 ' ' How I wish I could go and see something ! If I 
 had a horse, to ride ! " 
 
 " I sent mine to Westchester, with a load, two days 
 ago," said Mrs. Murray. " You couldn't ride them, 
 anyhow. ' ' 
 
 "I can fix thee," said Rachel Tarns. "I told 
 Israel Putnam's wife that her husband might have my 
 
CUTTING OUT THE NOANK. 229 
 
 horses to pull his cannon away ; but thee can go and 
 get the pony Aaron Burr left in my stable, when he 
 stole my gray mare. It is good enough for thee, and 
 nobody will steal it from thee." 
 
 "Good enough?" said Maud. "I guess it is. 
 I'll get it. If I see anything to tell, I'll come right 
 back." 
 
 She easily saddled the pony, but she was not to come 
 right back. She set out at once at the pony's best 
 gaUop, exclaiming to herself, aloud : 
 
 ' ' Hear the cannons ! What an awful roar they 
 make. I don't care. I want to see a battle. If 
 there's one there, I'U see how it looks." 
 
 She had a pretty sharp ride to make before she 
 reached the high ground that sloped down toward the 
 bay. It was indeed worth seeing, then. Out upon 
 the water was a long liae of British war-ships, their 
 taU masts standing up through the clouds of smoke 
 which arose from their repeated broadsides, aimed at 
 the American earthworks along the shore. Nearing 
 the shore were scores and scores of boats, ftdl of red- 
 coated soldiers, and already what seemed to Maud an 
 army of these had landed and formed on the beach, 
 and were marching gallantly forward. 
 
 There was no answering cannonade from the Ameri- 
 cans, except for a short time, at the first. Then it 
 was shown how defeat and sickness and hunger could 
 take the courage out of brave men ; for some of the 
 
230 GTJEET TEN EYCK. 
 
 best soldiers in the Continental Army gave up and 
 began to retreat, without orders and without trying to 
 stop the advance of the enemy. 
 
 "What," said Maud, "don't our men mean to 
 fight them ? I would, if I were a man. But the Brit- 
 ish are marching splendidly! There, the ships have 
 stopped firing. Oh! there's General Washington." 
 
 Her pony had carried her forward and, in her excite- 
 ment, she did not know that she was in danger, nor 
 did she pay any attention to the buzz of British bullets 
 over her head. She was a girl soldier, fuU of the fire 
 of battle, and now she saw that the General was boil- 
 ing over with fight and with anger at his retreating 
 men. She could hear that he was storming at them, 
 urging them to turn and face the enemy, but she could 
 not get the exact words he was saying. She saw him 
 even draw a pistol and snap it at his own men ; but 
 fortunately it was empty, and did not hurt anybody. 
 The British advance was very near, but Maud's pony 
 took another canter, and just then she saw the General, 
 after swinging his hat, hoarsely shouting to his men, 
 dash it angrily on the ground. The enemy were clos- 
 ing up fast, the American ranks were breaking. 
 
 " They will kiU him!" screamed Maud. "Or 
 they wiU take him prisoner. There ! " 
 
 She shouted again, she knew not what, for a mounted 
 officer caught the bridle of Washington's horse and 
 forcibly led him away, whether he would or no. 
 
CUTTING OUT THE NOAKK. 231 
 
 " His hat ! " exclaimed Maud, for she saw a man 
 picking it up. 
 
 Several companies of the Continentals had not 
 broken, but were retreating in good order, exchanging 
 volleys with the advancing British, and the commander 
 of one of these was near Maud when she wheeled her 
 pony. 
 
 "Captain Hale," she exclaimed, "let me carry 
 him that hat ! " 
 
 He had seen her before, for he said : 
 
 " Miss Wolcott, ride to the fort at Richmond HiD, 
 and tell about this disgrace. Knowlton's men never 
 broke before. TeU them to retreat. Our flank is 
 turned." 
 
 Maud was not soldier enough to know what that 
 meant, but she replied : 
 
 ' ' I will ; I'll ride and tell them. This is too bad. ' ' 
 
 Just then a soldier handed her the gold-laced cocked 
 hat of the Commander-in-Chief, and she did not have 
 to whip her pony. He must have had some war-spirit 
 in him, from the way in which he dashed forward 
 toward the spot where Washington had again halted, 
 striving to raUy a regiment. 
 
 He was still furiously excited, but he had recovered 
 his dignity. She thought he looked splendid, sitting 
 on his large black horse, bareheaded, white-faced, with 
 quivering lips that were generally so firm, and appeal- 
 ing hoarsely to his men to stand for their liberties. 
 
232 GUERT TEN ETCK. 
 
 She could not utter a word, as she leaned forward in 
 her saddle and delivered her prize. 
 
 Neither did he respond, as he took it and put it on, 
 except hy a low bow of perfect courtesy, and : 
 
 " Thank you, my dear young lady." 
 
 Away sprang Maud's pony, for her whip fell sharply. 
 She knew that she was crying, right out aloud, and 
 she had a message for the men in Eichmond Hill fort. 
 
 "I'll let them know at the house, first," she 
 thought. ' ' Then I'll do all I can. " 
 
 She hardly knew what she told them when she 
 reached the front of Mrs. Murray's piazza. It was 
 full of women. Even Jane De Lancey was there, and 
 several other Tory neighbors, and their faces were 
 bright enough when Maud said ; 
 
 " The British generals are coming right down this 
 way. I saw some of them. They want to catch our 
 army." 
 
 She did not see a queer, sharp look in the face of 
 Mrs. Murray, turned toward Rachel Tarns. 
 
 " Eachel," she said, " my husband is a Friend, if I 
 am not, and I am a woman given to hospitality." 
 
 "Thee is wise, also," said Rachel. "Jane De 
 Lancey, is thee a loyal woman ? If thee is, thee will 
 get thee ready to entertain the servants of thy king 
 when they arrive. The day is warm and they wUI be 
 in need of the best we can do for them." 
 
 "We'll give them the best luncheon," exclaimed 
 
CUTTING OUT THE NOAKK, 233 
 
 Mrs, Murray ; and Miss De Lancey and several of her 
 friends joined her with the greatest zeal, as she hur- 
 ried her preparations. 
 
 The zeal was nearly galloped out of Maud's pony 
 when she reached the works on Richmond HiU, It was 
 well that she got there, however, with her news from 
 Kip's Bay, for if there had been too little courage among 
 the Americans there, those here were showing too much. 
 
 " Maud ! " shouted a voice she knew, as her per- 
 spiring pony cantered near the outer line of breast- 
 works. " I just came up from the city with Colonel 
 Burr. He wants the troops here to retreat, but Ham- 
 ilton and the rest say the fort must be defended. " 
 
 "Nathan Hale says they'll all be taken prisoners! " 
 shouted Maud. " We were beaten at Kip's Bay. I 
 was there and saw our men run. It was too bad." 
 
 ' ' Did you see the fight ? ' ' came back from Guert, 
 but she finished her errand. 
 
 "The British are coming," she said. "They are 
 almost at our house. You've got to be quick about it. ' ' 
 
 " That will do, Putnam," exclaimed a deep voice 
 beyond Guert. ' ' Form two columns. They may strike 
 us as we go." 
 
 "If anything under heaven could delay their advance 
 one hour," responded General Putnam, " we'd save 
 every man." 
 
 "Maud," said Guert, "hurry home. Get out of 
 the way of the army. ' ' 
 
234 GUEET TEN EYCK. 
 
 " Your mother's at our house, and lots of them," 
 said Maud, but she wheeled her pony homeward with 
 a sudden idea that she had a new errand, for she heard 
 Aaron Burr saying to Guert : 
 
 "Ten Eyck, you and I know all the cross-roads. 
 You guide Silliman's column and I'll guide Putnam's. 
 Lead them through the lanes this side of Mrs. Murray's. 
 If Howe's men would only halt one hour ! " 
 
 "Home, home! " said Maud to herself. " I want 
 to see Aunt Murray. ' ' 
 
 Rachel Tarns had not heard an3rthing, but she stood 
 on the Murray piazza and said, in a very low voice : 
 
 " Anneke, thee must not talk treason. Thee must 
 help Sarah and me keep those men from going forward 
 too fast in this hot sun. ' ' 
 
 Miss De Lancey and the other Tory ladies present did 
 not hear her, for they were intently watching Stephen 
 De Lancey as he very gracefully and proudly delivered 
 to a brilliant group of horsemen an invitation to come 
 into the Murray mansion for rest and refreshment. 
 
 The response was hearty indeed, for one of the 
 horsemen remarked instantly : 
 
 " Howe, it's just the thing; " and was responded 
 to vdth : 
 
 " Certainly. Cornwallis, we had better halt the 
 troops, too. They have had a hard push in this heat. 
 If they are to have any fighting to-day, they wiU do it 
 aU the better after a rest." 
 
CUTTING OUT THE NOANK. 235 
 
 So the British troops were halted, and when, shortly 
 afterwards, Maud rode in at the gate, she could glance 
 up the road and see the long lines of dusty veterans 
 gladly stacking their arms for a breathing spell. 
 
 " How many there are of them," she said, as she 
 hurried on and dismounted and went into the house. 
 
 The drawing-room and the dining-room were brilliant 
 with epaulets and uniforms. 
 
 " I won't go in with my riding habit on," thought 
 Maud. " I must see Aunt Murray right away, 
 though." 
 
 There was no need to send for her, and Maud's 
 breathless errand concerning the retreating Continen- 
 tals ended with : 
 
 "Aunt Sarah, General Putnam said they could get 
 away if the British would only halt an hour. ' ' 
 
 " Maud," whispered Mrs. Murray, " don't you see 
 the generals in there? Howe, Clinton, Cornwallis, and 
 the colonels and staff officers ? We are cooking, and 
 we've sent to the De Lancey place for things, and 
 they're all glad to wait till we are ready." 
 
 "0, Aunt ! " exclaimed Maud, as she turned away, 
 almost laughing ; but Mrs. Murray's finger was on 
 her lip. 
 
 It had seemed hard for brave men to give up, with- 
 out a blow, works that looked so strong as did those 
 on Richmond Hill ; but they were unfinished, they 
 were but partly armed and they were not provisioned. 
 
236 GUERT TEN ETCK. 
 
 So there was no use in trying to hold them, and the 
 retreat began. It was Alexander Hamilton's duty to 
 care for the artillery, or he might have been a good 
 guide among the country roads and lanes of Manhattan 
 Island. As it was, the two American columns, num- 
 bering over three thousand men, with wagons and 
 cannon, were led by Aaron Burr and Guert Ten Eyck 
 through winding and narrow ways toward the Hudson 
 River side of the island. It was a safe and unmolested 
 march, but it passed within half a mile of the Murray 
 mansion and the British generals. 
 
 They found it cooler and pleasanter in there than it 
 would have been on the dusty roads in the hot sun, 
 and all the ladies were doing their parts splendidly. 
 All was welcome and hospitality, and Eachel and 
 Maud and Mrs. Murray talked no more treason than 
 did Jane De Lancey herseK. 
 
 Not one hour, but nearly two went by, and then Maud 
 heard something out in the haU which made her turn to 
 the agreeable young officer she was talking with and say : 
 "I must excuse myself for a minute, Captain Andre." 
 In a few seconds more she was asking : 
 " What is it, Guert? Where are our men ? " 
 "They are safe," whispered Guert. "We went 
 by so near that I could see the house. Did you keep 
 those officers here, all this time ? " 
 
 " Aunt Murray did it," replied Maud triumphantly. 
 "She and Eachel." 
 
CUTTING OUT THE NOANK. 237 
 
 "Tell her she can let them go, then, just as soon 
 as she pleases," said he. "Why, Maud, keeping 
 those generals has stopped their whole advance. She 
 has saved half an army ! " 
 
 "And they haven't guessed it," replied Maud, with 
 a strong tendency to clap her hands and hurrah, but at 
 that very moment a dusty aide-de-camp was respect- 
 fully reporting something to General Sir William Howe 
 that made the British commander's pleasant face turn 
 fiery red. 
 
 " Marched right past us? " he exclaimed. " And 
 we have missed them ? " 
 
 "William," remarked Rachel Tarns benevolently, 
 ' ' thee need not worry thyself. Thee can follow Israel 
 Putnam or George Washington some other time. Thee 
 and thy soldiers have rested well, and thee needed rest. 
 The day is very warm. ' ' 
 
 He looked as if it had suddenly grown warmer, but 
 he was as polite as ever, even after he discovered that 
 his fine luncheon had lost him an important victory. 
 
 " Maud," said Guert, out in the hall, " tell mother 
 I'm off, but I may get back to the house to-morrow." 
 
CHAPTER Xn. 
 
 THE HERO. 
 
 •• TF we are whipped for good," thought Gruert, "I 
 -L suppose they can set up King George again on 
 the Bowling Green. The statue is melted up, though, 
 and they'd have to run another." 
 
 He was feeling pretty badly, and at least one point of 
 resemblance was coming out between him and Up-na- 
 tan. Guert, like the old Indian, had a strong sense 
 that Manhattan belonged to him. His family had 
 always lived there. He was born there. It was his 
 island and he loved it. 
 
 Both of them seemed to be losing their property, 
 however, for the king's troops now held all of it except- 
 ing the long, narrow neck of land on its northwestern 
 corner, between the Hudson, the Harlem and Spuyten 
 Duyvil Creek. Here the ' ' rebels ' ' were still strongly 
 fortified, but the greater part of Washington's army 
 was above the Harlem, in Westchester county. 
 
 Up-na-tan was a man who did not teU exactly how 
 
 238 
 
THE HERO. 239 
 
 he felt. He seemed to find great consolation just now, 
 in frequent visits to the Noank, and in seeing how the 
 workmen progressed in turning her into a " heap Kidd 
 ship." Guert went with him several times, but his 
 heart was with the army rather than the navy. He 
 preferred to remain at the camp of Knowlton's regi- 
 ment, on Fort Washington heights, now and then 
 wondering when he should get a chance to let his 
 mother know where he was. 
 
 Only a few days went by before a chance came, and 
 Nathan Hale brought it. He seemed in more than 
 commonly good spirits one morning, when he said : 
 
 " Now, Guert, I want you and your squad. We've 
 got to make a long scout, inside the British lines. 
 General Washington wants to know exactly what they 
 are doing." 
 
 "I'm ready," replied Guert, " and you can count 
 on Up-na-tan and Co-co. It's just what they'd like." 
 
 "They are born and bred spies," almost laughed 
 Hale. "You can go home and I will tell you how 
 to help me. They can go anj^where and nobody wiU 
 suspect them." 
 
 " They can hide among Up-na-tan's rocks," said 
 Guert. " I must see mother, anyhow." 
 
 The very next night, a little punt, with four men in 
 it, crept out of a swamp on the north shore of the 
 Harlem and slipped across into another swamp on the 
 south side. Then the four men slowly clambered up 
 
240 GUEBT TEN ETCK. 
 
 the bluff, by a rugged path that one of them seemed 
 to know. After that, they kept away from all paths 
 and made their way among the roughest, rockiest, 
 most difficult ground to be had. They went slowly, 
 watchfully, and in silence, untU at last one of them 
 said: 
 
 " Here we are, Captain Hale. Not more'n a mUe 
 from our house." 
 
 " I must go the rest of the way alone," said Hale. 
 ' ' Meet me at noon at the Freshwater Pond. I shall 
 make two copies of every drawing or report ; one for 
 you, one for me, so that if one of them is captured the 
 other may get to General Washington. Of course, if 
 I am captured, I shall be shot or hung. So would 
 you." 
 
 " I understand that," said Gruert. " I could die as 
 well as you could." 
 
 " Ugh ! " said Fp-na-tan. " S'pose king man kiU 
 Guert? KiU Hale ? Up-na-tan kiU heap lobster." 
 
 Hale strode away into the Bloomingdale Koad, leav- 
 ing them to their own devices. 
 
 "I'm going home," said Guert. " Will you meet 
 me at the pond? " 
 
 " No go home," said Up-na-tan, shaking his head. 
 " Heap lobster at house. Shut Guert up. Ask where 
 he been." 
 
 "Guess I'd better look out," said Guert, very 
 gloomily. " We'U find out before I go there." 
 
THE HEKO. 241 
 
 Up-na-tan nodded, but turned and pointed back 
 among the rocky ridges north of them. 
 
 " Guert 'member stone?" he said. "AH there. 
 Up-na-tan no kill yet. Guert [no turn over stone till 
 he twenty-one ? ' ' 
 
 "I'll keep my word," said Guert. "I may be 
 killed myself." 
 
 "Ugh! No," replied Up-na-tan, as positively as 
 if he knew. " Guert no lose 'calp. Fight a heap. 
 Kill king man." 
 
 He did not look much like a prophet, nor did Co-co, 
 who seemed to agree with him about Guert's fature, 
 but Guert himself was aware of a strong idea that he 
 would get out of that scrape, somehow. 
 
 They were not to keep together, for safety's sake, 
 and Guert was all alone when, at sunrise, he stood in 
 the barn back of his own house, and looked through a 
 crack to see what was going on. 
 
 There were horses in the barn, and his mother's 
 cows were in the yard in front of it. Military saddles 
 and bridles hung from the pegs on the wall, and a lot 
 of muskets,' carbines and sabers were stacked in one 
 corner. 
 
 Guert stared at these, after staring a long while at 
 the house. 
 
 "The redcoats have got us," he groaned. " But I 
 mustn't stay here. What on earth had I better do 
 next?" 
 
242 GUEET TEN ETCK, 
 
 He turned to the crack again. 
 
 ' ' Halloo ! " he exclaimed. ' ' There's mother. She's 
 come out to milk the cows." 
 
 She was looking well, but there was a grieved and 
 even vindictive expression on her face as she sat down 
 on her milking stool by one of the cows. She had 
 hardly begun before she sprang up again, with a cry 
 of delight, for a voice asked her in Dutch : " Mother ! 
 I'm here. Is it safe for me to come out to you? " 
 
 " 0, Gruert ! Come," she said. " The officers they 
 quartered on us won't be back for hours. They're 
 away on duty. Come ! Slip right into the house." 
 
 She could not even hug him until he was safely 
 inside, but then he found out how anxious she had 
 been about him. He told the greater part of his own 
 story while he was eating the best breakfast he had 
 had in two weeks. 
 
 " If Captain Hale finds anything," he said, at last, 
 " one of us three can get back through the lines 
 with it." 
 
 She did not discourage him. Nothing but a quiver 
 in her lip told how weU she understood the danger he 
 was in. 
 
 " Go, now," she said. "You'd be safer at Mrs. 
 Murray's. What a hero Nathan Hale is ! I do hope 
 he won't be caught." 
 
 "He won't unless some one sees him that knows 
 him," said Guert ; " some Tory." 
 
THE HERO. 243 
 
 "Everybody knows you," she said; "but then 
 you're not really a soldier." 
 
 "No," replied Guert ; "I tell you what, it's worth 
 something to be only a boy, just now ; but I don't 
 want to answer any questions." 
 
 So he walked quietly away down the road, toward 
 the business part of the island which the British had 
 taken from him and Up-na-tan. 
 
 The greater part of General Howe's army was still 
 over on Long Island. Some of it was on Staten 
 Island. The British troops in New York were nearly 
 aU away up above the town, posted in front of the 
 American lines. The city part of Manhattan Island, 
 therefore, was only very strongly garrisoned, and Guert 
 was surprised to see that there was even an appearance 
 of business. He walked hither and thither and no one 
 molested him, but he saw a great deal, and at last he 
 remarked : 
 
 "I guess there won't be much going to meeting on 
 Sundays. About aH the churches have been turned 
 into prisons to keep our soldiers in. They're packed 
 and jammed full, too. They must be awful places to 
 be cooped up in, with the weather as hot as this is." 
 
 He could only faintly guess how very awful those 
 prisons must be, and, as noon drew near and passed, 
 and for some time afterwards, he loitered along the 
 shore of the Freshwater Pond. 
 
 ' ' I used to fish there when I was a boy, ' ' he said 
 
244 GUERT TEN ETCK. 
 
 to himself. " I'm pretty near sixteen, now. I s'pose 
 I shall never fish there again." j 
 
 He was feeling very old and very blue, but he saw 
 another man coming along and he waited for him. 
 He was a tall, strong-looking young man, very shab- 
 bily dressed. Anybody would have known at once, 
 that he was a kind of country schoolmaster, from 
 somewhere in New England. There was nobody else 
 within hearing when he stopped and spoke to Guert. 
 
 "I've seen everything there is any need of seeing 
 about New York," he said. "It's been sharp work, 
 but I've done it. Those are your report papers, and 
 they will tell General Washington a great deal." 
 
 " I'n see that he gets them," said Guert, as he put 
 a thin packet away in behind his waist, so that his 
 belt held it. 
 
 " Don't try it until I give you more of another 
 kind," said Hale. "I'm going over to scout the 
 camps and works on Long Island. There's a sloop 
 to sail for New London to-morrow morning, and the 
 skipper's one of our men. I can go on her, if they 
 don't catch me, and be put ashore on the coast above 
 the Harlem. You'd better meet me at Murray's 
 wharf just before she sails. I'U hand you some- 
 thing and you'll know what to do with it. I must 
 go, now." 
 
 " I shall sleep down there in the swamp to-night," 
 said Guert. " I can find a camp among the bushes." 
 
THE HEEO. 245 
 
 Away walked the shabby schoolmaster on his dan- 
 gerous errand, and Guert looked after him, thinking : 
 
 " Have I seen all I could see ? I'U go down along 
 the wharves to the Battery, and know aU I can about 
 the ships and what people are doing." 
 
 There were a great many loiterers, and the British 
 commanders saw no reason for keeping a close watch 
 on them. Over among their Long Island camps they 
 were even more secure and careless, for there was no 
 danger there from anything Mr. Washington's ragged 
 rebels could do. 
 
 The swamp, south of the Bowery Lane and east of 
 Broadway, was a pretty dry place, for a long drought 
 had followed the rainstorm which had helped Wash- 
 ington to escape, after the battle of Long Island. The 
 grass and bushes looked withered. In fact, Guert 
 had hardly ever seen his city itself look so dry and 
 parched. 
 
 ' ' Dry as tinder, ' ' he said to himself, as he lay down 
 among some comfortable soft grass and was ready to 
 go to sleep. "I told them where to find me." 
 
 Perhaps it was as weU that he had done so, for he 
 had been very tired and he slumbered soundly until he 
 was awakened by a shake, and heard : 
 
 "Ugh ! Guert come. Sun up. Get out of swamp. 
 Time to go." 
 
 "I'm ready," said Guert, standing and stretching 
 himself. " HaUoo, Co-co ! " 
 
246 GUEET TEN BTCK. 
 
 " Yo, yo ! " chuckled the Ashantee. " Walk right 
 along, now. Hab some breakfuss ? " 
 
 He was glad enough that they had brought him 
 something to eat from their own night hiding-place at 
 Mom Van Boom's ; but he had to take his breakfast 
 as they hurried along on their way toward Murray's 
 wharf, up the Bast River. 
 
 When they drew nearer, they could see that there 
 were guards posted on the wharf and that people who 
 came or went were closely looked at. Some of them 
 were spoken to, and some were even ordered away. 
 
 ' ' Ugh ! ' ' said Up-na-tan. ' ' 'Top here. Chief come. 
 Look!" 
 
 Guert looked, trying not to seem to look, for the 
 shabby schoolmaster was very near them. He walked 
 unconcernedly nearer, staring at the wharf and at the 
 sloop that waited there. Then, as he passed the group 
 of three, he almost jostled Guert, and walked on with 
 only the words, low spoken : 
 
 " It's all there. Hide it quick ! I'm in danger. 
 Don't speak! " 
 
 Guert's fingers closed upon something thin and light 
 that he slipped into his bosom, while Up-na-tan and 
 Co-co gazed after the schoolmaster with faces fuU of 
 admiration. 
 
 "Heap chief!" muttered the Manhattan. "Fool 
 aU lobster. Heap brave ' ' — 
 
 Just then the expression of his face suddenly changed. 
 
THE HEKO. 247 
 
 Hale had reached a group of people of aU sorts, outside 
 of the guard-line at the wharf, and, as he did so, a 
 shrill, woman's voice exclaimed : 
 
 ' ' If that there isn't my cousin, Nathan Hale ! He's 
 a captain in the rebel army. Don't you remember, 
 Nathan, I told you you'd be took for treason, some 
 day ? They can jest lock ye up." 
 
 " You have kept your threat. Aunt Sapphira," 
 exclaimed Hale. 
 
 "Arrest him! " shouted the officer of the guard. 
 "He's a Yankee spy. There's a rope waiting for 
 him." 
 
 "Why, they wouldn't hang him? " said the woman 
 who had betrayed him. " I thought they'd only 
 shut him up." 
 
 " Hang him ? " said the officer. " If he isn't hung 
 or shot before sunset, he wiU be to-morrow. ' ' 
 
 " Then his blood is on my head ! " all but screamed 
 the woman, and she seemed to stagger as she walked 
 away. 
 
 " Stop her! " commanded the officer. 
 
 ' ' You don't need her," calmly remarked his prisoner. 
 " I am Captain Nathan Hale, of Knowlton's Connecti- 
 cut regiment. I'm a prisoner of war." 
 
 Guert could hear no more, for Co-co was puUing 
 him away, and they were following Up-na-tan. 
 
 " They look like two tigers," was the next thought 
 in Guert's mind, but they were silent until they had 
 
248 GUEET TEN ETCK. 
 
 hurried him along for some distance. Then Up-na-tan 
 turned his ferocious face and said : 
 
 " Guert got paper? Great chief want 'em. Hurt 
 king men. Go ! Take 'em ! Tell chief Hale die " — 
 
 "Dey'll hang 'im, suah ! " said Co-co. "Nehber 
 see him again. Gone dead ! " 
 
 Guert shuddered all over, but he replied : 
 
 "I'm afraid they will. Wish that woman was dead. 
 I've got all the papers. They'll get to General Wash- 
 ington right away. What'U you do? " 
 
 " Ugh ! " hissed rather than growled the red man. 
 " Wait. See what do ! Make 'em think Indian own 
 island. Go! So, so, Up-na-tan! " 
 
 There was no misunderstanding his meaning. He 
 and Co-co gave up Captain Hale as beyond hope and 
 were already only thinking of revenge. 
 
 For one moment Guert stood still, after they left 
 him. He shuddered] from head to foot with the awful 
 thought that his bright, heroic friend had actually 
 given away his life. 
 
 "And I can't do one thing," he thought. " Yes, 
 I can ! I can get these papers to General Washington. 
 I can obey Captain Hale." 
 
 It was strange to find how clear his mind became in 
 an instant, and with what a courageous feeling he set 
 out to do his duty, just as Hale would have done. He 
 noticed that a very strong south wind was blowing. 
 It was almost a gale, and it made it cooler for him to 
 
THE HERO. 249 
 
 walk as fast as he did on his way to Mrs. Murray's 
 house. He was just saying to himself : 
 
 " I'U go and tell Rachel, too," when he saw the 
 tall, dignified form of the Quakeress going up the 
 Murray carriage-way, and in three minutes more he 
 was with her and Mrs. Murray and Maud in the little 
 reading-room at the right of the haU. ^ 
 
 They heard him with white faces, as he told of the 
 spy-work and the capture of Nathan Hale, but when 
 he exclaimed : "I can't get through the lines in time ! 
 They would stop me. How can I tell General Wash- 
 ington? " he was interrupted by Maud Walcott, and it 
 flashed across his mind, while she spoke, " How brave 
 she looks ! " 
 
 "Aunt Wolcott," said Maud, "may I take the 
 pony ? I can carry the papers to Washington. You 
 can send my trunk to Litchfield without me. Give 
 them to me, Guert." 
 
 ' ' Thee can, ' ' said Rachel. ' ' I believe thee can 
 do what a man could not do. Sarah, thee must let 
 her go." 
 
 "What would her mother have said, if she were 
 alive?" hesitated Mrs. Murray. 
 
 " She'd be just like Aunt Wolcott or Uncle Oliver," 
 replied Maud. " They'd let me go, in a minute " — 
 and without another word she was off after the pony. 
 
 ' ' They may be looking out for spies to-day. Thee 
 win hide thee at my house," said Rachel to Guert. 
 
250 GUEBT TEN ETCK. 
 
 ' ' Thee will know by to-morrow, what they are going 
 to do with thy brave friend. ' ' 
 
 Guert was glad enough to remain in the city. Still, 
 it seemed hard to surrender his precious papers to a 
 mere girl and see her take his place as a spy. She 
 came back leading the pony, and Eachel and Mrs. 
 Murray helped her hide the dangerous dispatches and 
 to mount. While they did so, Guert became aware of 
 something more and more peculiar in the smell of the 
 wind from the south. It did not seem warmer, exactly, 
 but he said : 
 
 " It smells like something burning." 
 
 He could hardly speak to Maud when she cantered 
 away, and they all stood looking after her. Mrs, 
 Murray was crying, but Eachel was not when Guert 
 exclaimed : 
 
 " There's a big fire in the city. I can see the 
 smoke. I wish I could go and see what it is." 
 
 "Thee had better not," said Rachel. "Go and 
 hide thyself at my house. Thee is a spy." 
 
 The lower wards of New Tork were not a pleasant 
 place to be ia, at that hour. The greater part of the 
 houses, of aU kinds, had been deserted by their former 
 residents, and were now used as quarters for British 
 soldiers and for army storage purposes. They were, 
 therefore, of great use and value to the king's troops. 
 
 AU the remaining people, however, and aU the sol- 
 diers, were now driven out into the streets, and there 
 
THE HEEO. 251 
 
 were scenes everywhere, of terrible confiision and riot, 
 for the soldiers were furious and laid upon the people, 
 or upon Washington and Ms spies, the blame of a 
 great disaster which had suddenly fallen. 
 
 Away down near Whitehall — somebody said it was 
 near old Mom Van Boom's Shark' s-Head tavern, that 
 the Hessians had taken away from her that morning — 
 a fire broke out, to be blown into quick fierceness by 
 the southern gale. 
 
 Co-co and Up-na-tan were out on the beach near 
 Hunt's shipyard when the flames burst through the 
 roof of the barn behind Mom Van Boom's, and when 
 they saw it they had no need to give any alarm, for 
 anybody else could see. 
 
 "Ugh!" said the Indian. "Heap fire! Burn 
 town. Bum lobster. Burn king gun, powder, tent, 
 wagon, barrel. So, so, Up-na-tan! " 
 
 Co-co could hardly express the delight with which 
 he looked at that blaze and saw how swiftly it spread 
 among the dry, wooden" buildings, but it was not many 
 minutes before he uttered a wild yeU of exultation that 
 was followed by a whoop from Up-na-tan. 
 
 " Yo, yo ! Heap o' powder went den," said Co-co. 
 " Dah was barr'ls ob it." 
 
 Nobody knew how many barrels of powder and boxes 
 of cartridges made up the explosion at Gaunt's ware- 
 house, and the fire swept on with a great roar that 
 sounded like a howl of triumph. 
 
252 GUERT TEN ETCK. 
 
 All over the island, even along the perpetual skir- 
 mish line between the two armies, men were thinking 
 of that fire and were watching the dense clouds of 
 eddying smoke. Nobody was prepared to pay much 
 attention to a very well-dressed young lady who went 
 cantering along as if she were out for exercise. 
 
 It was true that she went by the most unfrequented 
 ways, and that she went rapidly, but some sentry or 
 picket might have halted her, if it had not been for 
 the fire. 
 
 "Redcoats! " she said, again and again. "I've 
 seen nothing but red, so far. ' ' 
 
 There were woods on either side of a lane she at last 
 rode into, but there seemed to be fields beyond it and 
 then higher, broken ground. 
 
 ' ' I know I'm near the lines, ' ' thought Maud. ' ' Now 
 for a run. 0, pony ! if you'll only run." 
 
 Down came her whip, as she dashed out at the end 
 of the lane, just when a voice among the trees shouted : 
 ' Halt ! Stop that woman ! " 
 ' Hurrah ! ' ' replied Maud excitedly, and the pony 
 sprang away, while the air was suddenly full of the 
 rattle of musketry. 
 
 Probably no soldier was actually shooting at Maud, 
 but if any meant to frighten her into halting they 
 failed badly. 
 
 "Paster, faster! " she cried again. " Those men 
 are in buff and blue." 
 
 
THE HEEO. 253 
 
 The rattle ceased, and in a minute more the pony 
 halted of his own accord, panting, hut seeming satis- 
 fied, among a group of tail riflemen. from whom a 
 bronzed young fellow stepped politely forward and 
 said : 
 
 " Lieutenant Monroe, of Colonel Mercer's Virginia 
 Regiment ' ' — 
 
 "Dispatches for General Washington from Nathan 
 Hale, ' ' responded Maud breathlessly. ' ' Quick ! They 
 have captured him and they will hang him" — her 
 voice failed her there, and she hardly knew what 
 answer Lieutenant Monroe made, as he took the dis- 
 patches. She only knew that he led the pony along 
 and that very shortly she found herself under the 
 care of Mrs. Israel Putnam and felt safe, and that 
 Nathan Hale's costly dispatches had gone to General 
 Washington. 
 
 She had done her duty, and she was very glad of it. 
 The ladies and the officers praised her, too, but they 
 aU seemed to feel dreadfully about the news she brought 
 of Hale's capture. The worst of it was that they could 
 do nothing to help him. 
 
 It would have been a great relief to Guert's feelings 
 if there had been anything more for him, to do that 
 day. As it was, he could only wait and think and 
 watch the clouds of smoke, and wonder if Up-na-tan 
 or Co-co had been caught, for he had not any doubt 
 whatever about the kindling of that fire. 
 
254 GUERT TEN ETCK. 
 
 Others came and went, to and from the city, and 
 before night it was known by everybody that the lower 
 wards were in ashes up to Trinity Church. That, 
 too, was gone, and all the buildings west of it, to the 
 North River shore. 
 
 There had been a terrible time of violence, also, and 
 dark stories were told, but it seemed to Guert that the 
 darkest was brought to him, in Rachel Tams's bam, at 
 about sunset. 
 
 "To-morrow?" he said. "Hale is to be hung 
 to-morrow morning? " 
 
 "Suah!" said Co-co. "Ole Beekman orchard. 
 Co-co be dah." 
 
 " So will I," groaned Guert. 
 
 " Den Up-na-tan say he Kidd man again. Go to 
 Noank." 
 
 Co-co did not stay to talk, but Guert carried the 
 news to the house. Nobody there felt like talking, 
 and, when night came, Guert did not feel like sleeping. 
 He knew there had been a military trial, and that Hale 
 had been condemned as a spy, according to the laws 
 of war. He felt sure, too, although he had not been 
 there, how bravely his hero had behaved before his 
 military judges. He could not help thinking of him, 
 however, alone, shut up, during the long hours of that 
 last night, with such a morning to come. 
 
 When it came, it found Guert already on his way 
 toward the Beekman place. He knew that it was the 
 
THE HEEO. 255 
 
 headquarters of General Howe, and that it would be 
 strongly guarded, but he thought : 
 
 "I'd risk anything to see him again. I'U try and 
 teU. him the papers went to Washington. If Maud 
 had been stopped we'd have heard of it. I know she 
 got through the lines." 
 
 Mrs. Murray already knew it, through a British 
 officer who reported Maud's dash across the skirmish 
 hne; and she and Eachel and Mrs. Ten Eyck were 
 feeling better that morning, except when they thought 
 about Captain Hale. 
 
 " That's the orchard," said Guert, as he walked re- 
 luctantly near it. ' ' There are guards enough, but they 
 are letting everybody come. They won't stop me." 
 
 Of course not, for the British commander intended 
 this punishment of a Yankee spy to serve as a salutary 
 warning, and it was therefore to be public. The Beek- 
 man orchard was large and old and had not been very 
 carefully kept. Near the road stood a tail, withered 
 stem that sent out on one side a skeleton arm at a height 
 of many feet from the ground. Under it was some- 
 thing made by carpenters and over the dead limb 
 dangled a rope. It was around this tree that the 
 provost-marshal's guard was posted, and there were 
 both iafantry and cavalry in the orchard, but any kind 
 of people were permitted to throng the road and be 
 impressed with the lesson of what would be the fate 
 of spies. 
 
256 GUEKT TEN ETCE. 
 
 "As near as I can," thought Guert. " There they 
 come ! " 
 
 " Ugh ! " sounded behind him. " See brave ! " 
 
 "Dah's de capt'n," hissed another voice, but Guert 
 did not turn his head. 
 
 He was looking at an erect, fearless, firm-stepping 
 form, that marched on toward the tree, between files 
 of soldiers, preceded by a drummer beating time and 
 followed by several officers. 
 
 They halted, and a pair of bright blue eyes met 
 those of Guert inquiringly. Guert felt a keen sense 
 of reward as he saw Hale's face flush with an expres- 
 sion of relief. 
 
 "He understands me! He knows that the papers 
 got to General Washington," thought Guert. " Must 
 he die, now? " 
 
 There was no haste in the way the work was doing, 
 but there had been no pause, no hesitation, and at 
 that moment a man was lifting the noosed end of the 
 rope toward the prisoner, and another was folding a 
 handkerchief. 
 
 " They have tied his hands behind him," almost 
 sobbed Guert, but at that moment, out rang the voice 
 of the doomed man. It was clear and steady and 
 trumpet-like : 
 
 " I only regret that I have but one life to lose for 
 my country." 
 
 Guert' s very heart thrilled as he heard, and then it 
 
THE HEEO. 257 
 
 almost ceased beating and he turned away his head. 
 He did not look again. He was pushing his way 
 through the crowd when he heard a loud tap of the 
 drum, and then a groaning cry of many voices aU 
 around him. Among them all he could distinguish 
 one that sounded like a smothered war-whoop and- 
 another that was tigerish. "It is aU over now," he 
 thought. "I will go home." 
 
 The vapor clouds from the smouldering ruins of the 
 city came drifting around Guert, as he hurried along. 
 He felt as if he were walking through the deepest kind 
 of cloud until he stood in the Tarns sitting-room with 
 half a dozen women around him, and told them the 
 story of the death of Nathan Hale. 
 
 "Up-na-tan and Co-co," he said, "have gone to 
 join Skipper Avery, in the Noank." 
 
 " Thee must serve thy country, Guert," began 
 Kachel, but Mrs. Ten Eyck interrupted her with : 
 
 "Tes; you'U have to go, now, Guert. I have 
 decided to stay where I am. Rachel and Sarah think 
 we can do something for the prisoners. I'm so glad 
 Maud wUl be sent home to Litchfield. Poor Captain 
 Hale!" 
 
 "He did not feel so, mother," exclaimed Guert. 
 " If you'd seen his face ! " 
 
 " Guert," said Rachel Tarns, "thy brave friend is 
 not dead. I will tell thee a thing. Thee is going to 
 have a country to live for, and so long as the country 
 
258 aUERT TEN ETCK. 
 
 lives it will count Nathan Hale the best soldier in its 
 army. Do thee now go thy way, Guert, and stand in 
 his place." 
 
 "Mother!" shouted Gruert. "I'm old enough. 
 I'm going now. I'm a soldier in General Wash- 
 ington's army — with Nathan Hale." 
 
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