and ears before. He glanced down at the
coat. Oddly enough the bullet had torn its way through the stout
homespun directly over his heart!

He glanced keenly now from side to side and saw that the enemy who made
the treacherous attack had come from the trail he had followed that
afternoon, and had returned in the same direction. He followed the
footsteps which led away from the brush clump. In doing this he was
quickly assured that the man who had shot at him was a white man. An
Indian walks with his toes pointed inward; this individual, even as he
ran, pointed his toes out. He was certain, therefore, that his enemy was
no wandering redskin.

"It was Halpen--I am sure of it!" muttered the youth, striking into the
trail at last and continuing the journey upon which the darkness had
overtaken him. "He believes that he has killed me. I only hope he will
not be undeceived. But if he is ever in my power he shall suffer! What a
villain the man is to follow our family and seek to murder and injure
us! Oh, I hope this war which Colonel Allen says is surely beginning,
will give us folks of the Grants our freedom from New York as well as
from England. I fear men like Halpen more than I do the soldiers of the
King."

Although he had not slept, Enoch was rested in body and he traveled
quite rapidly. Before dawn he had aroused two settlers from their
slumbers, delivered Colonel Allen's message, and gone on his way. He
observed no signs of his enemy of the night and was confident that the
man had not continued on this trail, and was not, therefore, ahead of
him. But he determined not to sleep in the forest during the remainder
of his journey. He spent the day in alarming the farmers, circling
around into the mountains before night and stopping at last with a
distant pioneer who, with his two grown sons, promised to go back with
him to the rendezvous of Allen's army at Castleton in the morning.

Enoch's mind was burdened with the mystery of Halpen's presence in the
Grants at this time, however. Surely the Yorker could not be upon
private business. He must have a mission from either the land
speculators, the New York authorities, or from those even higher. The
plans of the Colonials to attack Old Ti and seize the munitions of war
stored there, might have been whispered in the ears of the British
commander, De la Place. Perhaps he had sent this man, who knew the
territory so well, to spy upon the Green Mountain Boys and their
frie