crush them out.” He turned to the girl once more. “Come, child,” he said. And as he started off he continued over his shoulder, to Nat, “Good-evening, sir.”

They had gone barely a dozen yards when Nat, who stood looking after them, saw the girl leave old Stephen’s side and dart back toward him.

“I do not know who you are,” she said, “but you have an honest face.”

“Thank you,” replied the youth, smiling.

[37]“My grandfather is a very old man,” she continued in a breathless, hurried sort of way, for old Comegies had begun to call rather angrily to her, “and like most very old men, he—he says a great many things that perhaps he should not say.”

[37]

Nat bowed silently, in the shadows.

“I am glad you understand me,” continued the girl, who perceived this despite the thickening darkness. She drew closer to him and lowered her voice. “If you are not what he has taken you to be, I beg of you to be generous and hold none of it to his injury. Remember, he is, as I have said, an old man.”

“If it will ease your mind, mistress,” said Nat gravely, “I promise to forget him in the matter entirely.”

“Thank you,” said the girl, gratefully. “Thank you. You are kind.”

And with that she darted away toward old Stephen, who was holding up the lantern and calling to her in his high-pitched, quavering voice.

[38]

CHAPTER IV SHOWS HOW STARTLING NEWS WAS NAT’S REWARD AT CHEW HOUSE

Nat Brewster continued to watch the lantern and the two whose way it lighted, until the flame grew faint and flickering; finally a bend in the road hid it altogether.

Nat Brewster

“So that is old Stephen Comegies,” he said. “Well, I never thought I’d be pleased to see a Tory, but I’m glad to meet this one; for I think he’s clinched my belief that there is some sort of a plot on foot against Congress.”

Through the trees he saw the winking windows of Cliveden, and he regarded them soberly.

“Some people 

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