with them would be sure to lose him and his
friends these profits. I am one concerned in these speculations, and it
would be a grievous wrong to me were the war prosecuted."

Robert knew something of the savage outrages in Virginia. He had learned
of them while on shipboard, and he had some difficulty in restraining
his rising indignation, so it was with considerable warmth that
he answered:

"Do you think your gains of more value than the human lives sacrificed
on the frontier?"

"Such talk is treason," cried Price. "It sounds not unlike Bacon,
Cheeseman, Lawrence and Drummond. Have you seen them since your return?"

"I have not, nor did I ever hear of the man Bacon before."

"Have a care! You would do well to avoid Drummond, Cheeseman and
Lawrence."

"Why?"

"They are suspected of republicanism. Have naught to do with them."

Some people are so constituted that to refuse them a thing increases
their desire for it. Robert would no doubt have gone to hunt up his
former friends and rescuers even had not his stepfather forbidden his
doing so, but now that Price prohibited his having anything to do with
them, he was doubly determined to meet them and learn what they had to
say about the threatened trouble.

His mother and sister were waiting in the room below with anxiously
beating hearts to know the result of the conference. Sighs of relief
escaped both, when they were assured that the meeting had been peaceful.

"Hold your peace, my son," plead the mother, "and do naught to bring
more distress upon your poor mother."

Robert realized that a great crisis was coming which would try his soul.
He had never broken his word with his mother, and for fear that his
conscience might conflict with any promise, he resolved to make none, so
he evaded her, by saying:

"Mother, there is no need for apprehension. We are in no danger."

"But your stepfather and you?"

"We have had no new quarrel."

He was about to excuse himself and take a stroll about Jamestown, when
he saw a short, stout little fellow, resembling an apple dumpling
mounted on two legs, entering the door. Though years had passed since he
had seen that form, he knew him at sight. Giles Peram, the traitor and
informer, had grown plumper, and his round face seemed more silly. His
little eyes had sunk deeper into his fat cheeks, and his lips were
puckered as if to whistle. He was attired as a cavalier, with a scarlet
laced coat, a waistcoat of yellow velve