didn't have
no souls--'cause they scalped their enemies."

"Be still there, you youngsters!" growled 'Siah, coming down the line.
"If you want to be men, l'arn to keep yer tongues quiet. Voices carry
far on a day like this. What'd they say down ter the house, Nuck, 'bout
the signal?"

"When they want help, or want us to sail into 'em, they're goin' to
raise a red flag through the chimbley," replied the boy.

"Wal, I'm hopin' they won't fight," said the ranger, squinting along the
road below the ridge.

"Oh, I wanter see a fight--zuckers, I do!" exclaimed Lot.

"Be still, you bloodthirsty young savage!" commanded 'Siah. "You wanter
shoot down men of your own color, do ye? Beech-sealin' an' duckin' is
all right; but it's an awful thing to draw bead on another white man, as
ye'll l'arn some day."

"But you fought the Frenchmen with the Injins," declared Lot.

"Huh! Them's only half-bred. Frenchmen ain't no more'n savages," said
'Siah, gloomily.

An hour passed--a long, long time to the excited boys. Then, far down
the winding road quite a piece of which they could observe from the
summit of the wooded ridge, was seen the sudden glint of sunlight on
metal. "They're coming!" the message went round and the settlers in
ambush crouched more closely behind their screens and even the hearts of
old Indian fighters beat faster at the nearing prospect of an
engagement. James Breckenridge, Ethan Allen, and several others advanced
slowly from the direction of the house to the bridge across which the
Yorkers must pass. Sheriff Ten Eyck spurred forward with his personal
staff to meet them. With him came the infamous John Munro who, as a
justice of the peace under commission from New York, was such a thorn in
the flesh of the settlers. The sheriff was a very pompous Dutchman who
believed without question in the validity of New York's jurisdiction
over the Grants, and who, despite his bombastic manner, was personally
no coward.

"Master Breckenridge," he said to the man whom he had come to evict from
his home, "we have heard that you and your neighbors are armed to oppose
the authority vested in me by His Most Gracious Majesty's colony of New
York. If there be blood shed this day, it will be upon your head, for I
here command you to leave this neighborhood and give over the possession
of this land to its rightful owners."

[Illustration: "I COMMAND YOU TO LEAVE THIS NEIGHBORHOOD"]

"I cannot do that, Master Sheriff," said B