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Updated: June 25, 2025
Look at that!" he shouted, with excitement. "I just will shoot him!" And then his old musket spoke. There was a yell from without. Enoch thought Simon Halpen himself had been shot, but the Yorker only ran around the end of the cabin to where one of his men stood howling like a wolf, and holding on to his swinging arm.
But if he is ever in my power he shall suffer! What a villain the man is to follow our family and seek to murder and injure us! Oh, I hope this war which Colonel Allen says is surely beginning, will give us folks of the Grants our freedom from New York as well as from England. I fear men like Halpen more than I do the soldiers of the King."
The bitterness which filled his heart against Simon Halpen overbore any other emotion. He raised his rifle threateningly and cried aloud: "Halt there halt I say! What d'ye want on our land?" The three retainers of Halpen, as well as the surveyor and his 'prentice, halted instantly, but Simon strode on, his eyes blazing and his great nose growing ruddier as his rage increased.
Know ye that I bear authority from the loyal governor of his Majesty's Colony of New York, to turn you off this land, which is mine and has been mine for these six years." "And I have told you that you cannot come here and drive us off, for we shall fight ye!" declared Enoch, his anger rising. "And what be more, Master Halpen, though ye might succeed in driving us off, ye could not hold this land.
And Simon Halpen was not a weakling. He may have betrayed some emotion when accused by Enoch; it was a small part only of what he felt. He saw now, as plainly as he saw the lengthening shadows about him, that punishment for his crimes was near. These stern woodsmen, whose plan for attacking Ticonderoga he had discovered, were in no mood to trifle with him.
But everything was sadly smoked. And the house would have to be torn down and rebuilt with new timber throughout. It was a sad spectacle indeed for Enoch and Bryce to look upon. "I wish I had shot them all!" cried the latter in a rage. But Enoch said nothing. He would not whisper how his anger had made him aim to kill Simon Halpen. Now, in cool blood, he was glad that the bullet had not sped true.
"Courage courage!" cried the scout, heartily. "You are not goin' down yet, Nuck Harding! Where's the other?" "Gone gone!" gasped Enoch, horrified by the death of Simon Halpen. "Who was it?" "The spy." "Ah! I thought so. Well, we can't help the poor wretch now. Can you aid yourself at all? Brace up, man!"
Having at length been assured beyond peradventure that his suspicions were true, a desire for vengeance upon Simon Halpen sprang to life in Enoch's heart. He forgot the momentous matter which had filled his mind before the appearance of Crow Wing the evening before.
Four of them, including Halpen, were armed with guns. The surveyor and his assistant carried their tools only, and walked in the rear of the more warlike quartette. Their leader, his lean, black face clouded by a threatening scowl, strode across the home lot and approached the cabin door.
But chance nay, Providence, for the man's sins had deserved death willed otherwise. Simon Halpen could not swim. In falling into the lake he even lost his grip upon the paddle. So, when he rose to the surface, he had nothing to cling to, but struggled wildly and cried out in fear. "Help! I am choking! I will drown!" His voice rose to a screech.
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