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"Then Simon Halpen compassed his death I am sure of it!" cried the boy. "You well know how he hated father. Halpen would never forget the beech-sealing he got last fall. He threatened to be terribly revenged on us; and Bryce and I heard him threaten father, too, when he fought him upon the crick bank and father tossed the Yorker into the middle of the stream." Bolderwood chuckled.
"Why you no at Hardings?" he demanded finally. "I'm bound that a-way now," said the white man. "Hunting?" grunted Crow Wing. "Been up to Old Ti. Bought some land up there." Crow Wing seemed about to pass on. But over his shoulder he said: "You go to Hardings' farm. They want you mebbe." "What for?" The Indian shrugged his shoulders and walked on. But Bolderwood strode after him.
Now at an order from Halpen the Indians stolidly paddled down the river again and were quickly out of sight around the nearest bend in the stream. Bolderwood went back and found the surveyor prone upon the ground and weeping like a woman. "Get up, you great ca'f!" cried the ranger. "Nobody'll kill you for your part in this matter though you desarve little mercy.... Was that Simon Halpen?"
You jump too quick," said Bolderwood, turning his face away. "That's never well. Allus look b'fore ye leap, Nuck. My 'pinion be that your father struck his head on a stone in falling " "Where is there a stone here?" demanded the boy, with a speaking gesture of his disengaged hand. "I saw that deep wound in father's skull. I never believed a buck did that."
And this is the boy I saw trailing through the bushes, is it?" and he seized Enoch and turned his face upward that he might the better view his features. "Why, holloa, my little man! I've seen you before surely?" "It is poor Jonas Harding's eldest lad, neighbor Allen," Bolderwood said. "He's the head of the family now, and bein' sech, had to come along to fight the Yorkers."
By and by Bolderwood and his men marched down from the ridge and 'Siah was congratulated upon his happy thought in bringing about the confusion of the Yorkers. "You've a long head on those narrow shoulders of yours, neighbor," declared Ethan Allen, striking the old ranger heartily on the back. "That little wile finished them.
Harding went to the fire and hung the pot over the glowing coals to heat again the stewed venison which she had saved for Enoch's supper. "Tell us about it, Enoch, my son," she said. "Did the Yorkers come as friend Bolderwood said they would in such numbers?"
"Did mother say I could go, 'Siah?" cried the youngster, with undoubted satisfaction in his voice. "You're the best man that I know to get her to say 'yes'!" Bolderwood looked up from his work with much gravity. "This ain't no funnin' we're goin' on, Nuck. It's serious business. You kin shoot straight, an' that's why I begged for ye.
But before the horn was blown for dinner there were two arrivals on the scene, one joyfully welcomed by all and the other rather unexpected but not less welcome to many of the boys. 'Siah Bolderwood entered the clearing from a forest-path at almost the same instant that a lithe young figure appeared from the direction of the creek. Enoch ran to his old friend and hugged him in his delight.
They were hidden in little coves near by, which could be reached by the scouts without attracting attention from the fort, to be brought after dark to the landing from which Ethan Allen expected to embark his troops. There were but two craft moored opposite the camp which Bolderwood and his companions had occupied for more than a week.
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