us for the snow."

"Ay, or the pair of you couldn't have taken me!" said Peyton, with hot
scorn and defiant gameness.

Colden, with the piece of sword, motioned Williams to go from the
room.

"Leave the door ajar a little," he added, "so you can hear if I
call."

Peyton uttered a short laugh of derision at this piece of prudence.
The steward and Sam withdrew to the hall, where Sam remained, while
Williams went in search of Elizabeth for further orders. As soon as
she had assured herself, by watching and listening, that Peyton was
safe in the parlor, she had stolen quietly down-stairs to the
dining-room, where she had met her aunt, with whom the steward now
found her sitting. She told him to get the duck-gun, make sure it was
loaded and primed, and to wait with Sam on the settle in the hall. She
then requested her aunt to remain in the dining-room, silently
returned to the hall, and took station by the door leading from the
parlor,--the door which Williams, at Colden's command, had left
slightly ajar. Her original plan, she felt, might have to be altered
by reason of Colden's having obtruded his hand into the game, a
possibility she had not, in roughly sketching that plan, taken into
account. It was in order to have the guidance of circumstance, that
she now put herself in the way of hearing, unseen, what might pass
between the two men. Meanwhile, through the snow-storm, Colden's two
soldiers, who had indeed tarried at the tavern for the heating up of
their interiors, were blasphemously urging their sleepy horses towards
the manor-house.

In the parlor, the two enemies were facing each other, Peyton on his
chair, his tied wrists behind him, Colden standing at some distance
from him, holding the broken sword. As soon as they were alone, Peyton
uttered another one-syllabled laugh, and said:

"The hospitality of this house beats my recollection. One is always
coming back to it."

"You'll not come back the next time you leave it!" said Major Colden,
his eyes glittering with gratified rancor.

"And when shall that time be?" asked Peyton, airily.

"As soon as two of my men arrive, whom I outrode on my way hither
to-night. They attended me out of New York. I shall be generous and
give them over to you, to attend you _into_ New York."

"Thanks for the escort!"

"'Tis the only kind you rebels ever have, when you enter New York,"
sneered the major.

"We shall enter it with an escort of our own choosing some day!