from the north are expected,” he continued, “and they are going there.” He stood for a moment in silence; then suddenly he threw back his head and laughed. “I’m from the north, just as I told the old man,” he said, “and,” clutching the oaken cudgel firmly, “I’m going to Chew House, also as I told him.”

[39]He clambered over the fence at the opposite side of the road and started across the fields once more. The dense growth of trees between him and the mansion loomed blackly before his face. There was a breeze stirring and the boughs set up a warning whispering.

[39]

“There is no doubt of it,” said Nat, and he laughed at the conceit; “the trees are on the side of the colonies. This morning they told Ben of coming war; and now they are doing their best to make me keep my distance.”

However this might be, the young mountaineer did not heed the warning, but went steadily on. When once among the trees his pace became slower; but finally he struck a broad road, where the dim sheen of the sky was visible through the branches.

“This evidently leads up to the house,” muttered the lad. “It has the well-kept feel of a private way.”

In this he was correct. It was not more than a few minutes when the lights of the house came into view; the broad windows were like great yellow eyes and winked genially out upon a wide lawn where flitting, shadowy people came and went.

[40]“Men,” said Nat, to himself, “and quite a number of them.”

[40]

Cautiously he drew nearer; at length he came to a low stone wall at the edge of the road, and taking his place behind this, he set himself to learn what was going forward.

“Ben said there were Tory meetings held here,” he continued. “And I shouldn’t wonder if this were one of them. And, perhaps,” his grip tightening upon the club which he still retained, “a very important one, considering what Stephen Comegies hinted at.”

After a little his eyes grew accustomed to the wide beams of light with the shadows thickening at their edges; then he began to make out the figures upon the lawn as those of men pacing backward and forward in twos and threes.

“And very impatiently, I should say,” Nat told himself shrewdly, as he watched the men. “They act like persons delayed in something which they are 

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