r.

[Footnote 64: foreshadowing something serious.]

CHAPTER IX.

THE UNWELCOME VISITORS.

The house of Birch had been watched at different times by the
Americans with a view to his arrest, but never with success, the
reputed spy possessing a secret means of intelligence that invariably
defeated their schemes. Once, when a strong body of the Continental
army held the Four Corners for a whole summer, orders had been
received from Washington himself never to leave the door of Harvey
Birch unwatched. The command was rigidly obeyed, and during this long
period the peddler was unseen; the detachment was withdrawn, and the
following night Birch reentered his dwelling.

The father of Harvey had kept his dying situation a secret from the
neighborhood, in the hope that he might still have the company of his
child in his last moments. The confusion of the day, and his
increasing dread that Harvey might be too late, helped to hasten the
event he would fain arrest for a little while. As night set in his
illness increased to such a degree that the dismayed housekeeper sent
a truant boy, who had shut up himself with them during the combat, to
the Locusts in quest[65] of a companion to cheer her solitude. Caesar
alone could be spared, and, loaded with eatables and cordials by the
kind-hearted Miss Peyton, the black had been despatched on his duty.
The dying man was past the use of medicines, and his chief anxiety
seemed to centre in a meeting with his child.

[Footnote 65: search.]

The old man had closed his eyes, and his attendants believed him to be
asleep. The house contained two large rooms and many small ones. One
of the former served as kitchen and sitting-room; in the other lay the
father of Birch; of the latter one was the sanctuary of the vestal,
and the other contained the stock of provisions. A huge chimney of
stone rose in the centre, serving of itself for a partition between
the large rooms; and fireplaces of corresponding dimensions were in
each apartment. A bright flame was burning in that of the common room,
and within the very jambs of its monstrous jaws sat Caesar and Katy.
The African was impressing his caution on the housekeeper, and
commenting on the general danger of indulging an idle curiosity, when
his roving eyes suddenly became fixed, and his teeth chattered with
affright. Katy, turning her face, saw the peddler himself standing
within the door of the room.

"Is he alive?" asked