"I don't know," said de Peyster. "No, I think I have a better plan.
Suppose we answer the letter of these fellows. I have had no intention
of treating Ware badly. I expected to exchange him or use him profitably
as a hostage, but I'll tell his friends that we are going to subject him
to severe punishment, and then we'll draw them into our net, too."

"I've heard from Girty and Wyatt that they do wonderful things," said
Holderness. "Suppose they should rescue Ware after all?"

De Peyster laughed incredulously.

"Take him away from us!" he said. "Why, he's as safely caged here as if
he were in a stone prison in England. Just to show him what I think of
their threat I'll let him read this letter."

He approached Henry, who was still sitting by the fire and handed him
the sheet of paper.

"A letter from some friends of yours; the four most delightful humorists
that these woods can furnish, I take it."

Henry thrilled with delight when he read the paper, but he did not
permit his face to show his joy. Like de Peyster he read it over twice,
and then he handed it back to the Colonel.

"Well," said de Peyster, "what do you think of it?"

"It speaks for itself," replied Henry. "They mean exactly what they
say."

De Peyster chose to adopt a light, ironical tone.

"Do you mean to tell me, my good fellow," he asked, "that four beggarly
rebels, hiding for their lives in the wilderness, can punish me for
anything that I may do to you?"

"I do not merely tell you so, I know it."

"Very well; it is a game, a play and we shall see what comes of it. I am
going to send an answer to their letter, but I shall not tell you the
nature of that answer, or what comes of it."

"I've no doubt that I'll learn in time," said Henry quietly.

The boy's calmness annoyed de Peyster, and he left him abruptly,
followed by Holderness. While his temper was still warm, he wrote a
letter to the four stating that Henry Ware would be delivered to the
savages for them to do with as they chose,--the implication being
torture and death--and that unless the four gave Detroit a very wide
berth they would soon be treated in the same way. Then he called the
miserable Doran before him, and told him, when he took the late watch
again the next night, to hook the letter on the twig of a tree near
where he had been attacked before, and then watch and see what would
occur. Doran promised strictly to obey, and, since he was not called
upon to fight the terri