g still as it were
with terror, for I made certain I had blundered upon a British scouting
party, and one can well fancy the relief of mind which was mine when
there came out from amid the foliage a man in the uniform of our own
Virginia riflemen, who was followed by two others, and I knew I had been
stopped by a friend to the Cause.

By this time, it is needless for me to say, the new day had come, and
they could see me as clearly as I could them, therefore I counted on
being given a friendly welcome, instead of which he who acted as
commander of the squad, and I counted he was a corporal at the very
least, asked as if in anger:

"Where are you from in such haste, and where going?"

"From York Town, and with a message to General Lafayette."

"You from York Town?" he cried with a coarse laugh. "You from York Town
wanting to see the marquis?"

"Ay, that I am," was my angry reply. "Why should I not come from York,
and why should a boy of Virginia not carry a message to a general who is
serving in the American army?"

"There is no reason why he should not, providing it was being done
honestly; but there are Virginians who would go from Cornwallis to
Lafayette on anything rather than honest business. If you are acting as
messenger, who in the town of York would send you?"

For an instant the name of Morgan trembled on my lips, and then I
realized in what danger I might put the spy by thus proclaiming that he
had enlisted in the British army, while the man, seeing me hesitate,
laid his hand heavily upon my shoulder, as he said in what sounded very
like a tone of triumph:

"If you were bent on honest business there is no reason why you should
delay in saying who sent you. It looks to me much more as though you
were one of the Tory spawn that infest Virginia, and were counting on
learning what you might concerning our people."

Now indeed was my anger aroused, and I ministered to the suspicions of
this zealous patriot by giving way to it. Instead of speaking him
fairly, as Pierre Laurens would have done had he been in my place, I
must needs fly into a temper, asking if he saw on my face anything
betokening a Tory leaning; if he could not recognize an honest lad when
he saw him, and all that sort of foolish talk which only made the matter
worse, whereas if I had explained on the instant who I was, then would
he have had no doubt.

The result of my folly was that not only the man who acted as spokesman,
but both his