y were manly looking, resolute men,
and well armed. By the time they had reached Doncaster's, within
sixteen miles of Williamsburg, their number was increased to one
hundred and fifty.

"Dunmore will wish he hadn't when he's seen 'em," remarked Angus.

Dunmore was frightened before he saw them and sent Corbin, the
receiver general, to meet them and make terms with them, which he did,
paying three hundred and thirty pounds for the powder, surely all it
was worth.

"I've concluded, Angus," said Rodney, "from what I can see and hear,
that Mr. Henry hasn't cared so much about the powder as he does for an
excuse to rouse the country, get the men together and encourage them
by backing Lord Dunmore down," all of which indicated that the lad had
become a shrewd observer.

After the powder was paid for, Patrick Henry, who was a delegate to
the Colonial Congress, set out for Philadelphia. Lord Dunmore,
however, had been badly frightened, and he issued a proclamation
against him, and declared that if the people didn't behave he would
offer freedom to the negroes and burn the town; he also had cannon
placed around his house, proceedings which, it is easy to understand,
made the citizens very angry.

The boys returned to Charlottesville and Angus immediately joined a
company of volunteers, declaring if there was to be a war he was
going.

By this time they had heard the news of the battle of Lexington,
brought all the way from Boston by mounted messengers riding by
relays.

"That means war," Rodney remarked to his mother. How he wanted to go,
to do as Angus had done and join the volunteers! But he hadn't the
heart to propose it after seeing the look which came into his mother's
face. It sometimes happens, however, that war comes to those who do
not go to war, and so it happened to Rodney Allison.

CHAPTER XXI

VIRGINIANS LEARNING TO SHOOT BRITISH TROOPS

Rodney's duties took him to Philadelphia during the Continental
Congress. There he saw Washington, a delegate from Virginia and clad
in his uniform, for he knew war must come, and that warlike dress
proclaimed his belief more loudly than his voice. There also were the
Adamses, from Massachusetts, Samuel and John, the latter a wise,
shrewd organizer determined to have all the colonies, especially the
southern, committed to the revolution he saw approaching. In this
effort he used his influence, not for John Hancock of Massachusetts,
who coveted the place of com