n
should be given up to Albany, and your secretary added that he hoped to
hear that the rebel was hanged quickly."

"It is false!"

"Eben speaks the truth!" hotly retorted Allen. "I would rather believe
him than anyone I know. He is a child of nature and knows not how to
be false. I am here to tell you, Gov. Wentworth, that we of the
mountains are ready to give our lives in defense of the colony, but we
will not sell our freedom!"

Wentworth knew not what to make of such men.

He admired their boldness.

He was afraid to lose their services, for he saw that troubles were
brewing that would need the aid of men like Allen.

"I will see you again on the morrow. In the meantime you will all stay
at my expense at the inn."

"No, sir. We ask no favors, neither do we accept any. We men of the
mountains are independent."

"As you please. This young spy will remain with me."

"Eben Pike goes with us. He is of the mountains, also."

"But I must know more of his methods of spying."

"Ask him what you please; but he must be free. If he is imprisoned I
will call upon the men of Concord to aid the men of the mountains to
release him."

"You are bold, Sir Ethan."

"I am a free man, and I allow no one who serves me to be injured
without calling the offender to account."

"But if he hath broken the laws?"

"Then let him be tried and punished."

"That is all we intend doing."

"What charge is there against him?"

"That we shall have to determine."

"Until then he will stay with us. I will be personally responsible for
him."

Nothing more was said, and Allen and his Mountain Boys walked out of
the governor's presence, taking Eben with them.

"Talbot, I would rather have that man as a friend than an enemy," said
Wentworth when he was alone with the attorney-general.

"It will be better policy to please Ethan Allen and his mountaineers
than Gov. Tryon of York."

"I am thinking you are right."

"If we do not placate Allen he will make terms with New York."

"But would Tryon agree to terms?"

"The Yorkers would make Allen deputy-governor, and Allen could take all
the land west of the Connecticut over with him."

"What would you have me do?"

"Send for Allen; make him a deputy in the mountain district; give him
more power than any other man in the district, and then tell Gov. Tryon
to capture Allen if he can."

"Your advice may be good; I will think over it and will decide before I
see these m