"Then it must be they are out on some special duty," Pierre continued, "and I am of the mind that we shall find more amusement in watching them, than if we follow on the heels of your Tory friend who seems also to count on visiting York Town."
Whether Pierre had any suspicions of what might be afoot, I cannot say; but certain it is he pressed forward, striving to accommodate his pace with that of the soldiers, so that he might not come directly on their heels, and Saul and I, inwardly angry with ourselves for thus copying the movements of the little lad from New Orleans, kept well alongside him till we had covered a distance of mayhap a mile, when my cousin suddenly halted, saying almost angrily:
"We are showing ourselves simples in thus turning back simply because a squad of British soldiers have gone ahead!"
"Yet those same gentlemen who wear red coats are marching in the direction of the Hamilton plantation," little Frenchie said with another shrug of his shoulders and a wave of his hands, as if to intimate that there was very much more which he might say, and I, understanding somewhat of the gesture, cried out impatiently:
"Why do you say that? What have they to do on the Hamilton plantation?"
"It is that which I would learn," Pierre replied. "It is what I believe it would be better for us to see than if we wandered through the British encampment at York Town."
Until that instant I had never fancied my father's property might be in any danger from the king's men. True it is that he was known as one devoted to the cause of liberty; but thus far the war had been at such a distance from us that we had seen little of its horrors, and for the first time I began to realize there might be somewhat of mischief afoot, therefore pressed forward hotly, Pierre holding me back from time to time lest we overtake the soldiers.
The Britishers must have walked more rapidly than we fancied, for when finally we were come within view of my home, we saw riding out from the stable-yard, each man mounted and more than one with a led-horse by his side, all the company that had passed us on the road, and the animals which they rode and led were horses belonging to my father! Yea, among them Saul's mare and my own favorite colt, which I cherished as the dearest thing on earth next to my mother!
"What does it mean?" I cried, speaking with difficulty because of that seeming lump in my throat, and little Frenchie, shrugging his shoulders in a manner that set every nerve in my body aquiver, replied as if it was a matter of small moment:
"They have been to the Hamilton plantation in order to get mounts for the officers of my Lord Cornwallis's army, and from this on your colt will carry a burly Englishman bedecked with gilt lace and red cloth, instead of the lad who loves her so dearly."
CHAPTER II
SILVER HEELS
It was for a moment as if I could scarcely credit my senses. The idea that any one, even those belonging to the plantation, should bestride my own colt, my little Silver Heels, as I had named her!
She had been given to me when a baby, and no hand save mine had touched her, except when some of the negroes would rub her coat to silken glossiness in order to curry favor with me. Now she was being ridden and roughly handled by a red-faced private of Simcoe's Queen's Rangers!
When my surprise had given way to anger, which it did within a very few seconds, I would have run swiftly forward, claiming my own Silver Heels, and defying, if needs be, all that company of red-coats, for the rage in my heart was so great that I had no thought of prudence nor of my inability to cope even with a single one of those Rangers; but that Pierre, seizing me firmly by the arm, actually dragged me amid the foliage where we might be screened from view, for the men – the thieves, I should say, were by this time riding directly toward us.
"Have you lost your wits entirely?" Pierre whispered angrily, and forgetting to shrug his shoulders. "Of what avail for you to demand your Silver Heels when the king's officers would have her for their own? Do you count on being carried to the guard-house at York Town as a malcontent, or even worse, a dangerous rebel?"
"I care not where they carry me, so I take Silver Heels from yon brute that is bestride her!"
"And how will you take her?" little Frenchie whispered, this time shrugging his shoulders and waving his hands, I having so far obeyed him as to be standing by his side beneath the shelter of leaves. "Do you fancy that after Colonel Simcoe's men have seized a likely lot of horse-flesh, a lad such as you may wrest from them their spoils?"
"But Silver Heels is my own, my very own! No one, not even the king himself, has the right to take her!" I cried in my folly.
"But some one has taken her, and he is stronger than you, my friend Fitz," Pierre said, stroking the sleeve of my coat as he would the back of an angry cat. "It is no less than Colonel Simcoe of the Queen's Rangers, a trusted officer of my Lord Cornwallis, who thus gathers in mounts for his men that they may the better punish the rebels of Virginia, among whom may be counted your father, and even you, lad, since you are pleased to call yourself a Minute Boy. Will you not listen to reason?" little Frenchie continued in a coaxing tone. "Did you not see Horry Sims talking with these very men, and pointing in the direction of the Hamilton plantation? Do you not know he was telling them that a rank rebel owned the place – one whose stables were filled with the best horse-flesh in Virginia? Before those men took your Silver Heels they knew right well to what plantation she belonged, and even though you had had by your side a dozen neighbors and friends, the result would have been the same. Now what would it avail that you should pour out your unreasoning wrath? Simply to the end that they might abuse, or, perhaps, imprison?"
Even before Pierre had ceased speaking did I come to understand how useless it would be for me to make any attempt at taking poor little Silver Heels from those who had stolen her, and I crouched yet further among the foliage as the horsemen approached, for there had come into my mind on the instant a certain thought, call it plan if you will, the carrying out of which depended upon holding myself free.
Then, like a great wave upon the seashore, there flowed into my heart the memory that it was Horry Sims who had directed these men where to go – Horry Sims who had ever envied me the possession of Silver Heels, and who, most like knowing that these red-coated minions of the king were looking for horse-flesh, pointed out the Hamilton plantation, counting that I would lose my colt. He, the son of the rankest Tory in Virginia, without cause for enmity against me, had laid train for the cruelest blow that could be struck at my heart!
During all this while Saul had not spoken; but now it was, even as the horsemen were well abreast our hiding place, he turned fiercely upon me, clutching both shoulders of my coat as if I were an enemy whom he would bring face to face with himself, and whispered in hoarse anger:
"It is well you formed your company of Minute Boys just as you did, Fitz Hamilton, for now has come the time when they shall see service! Are we, simply because of being lads, to remain idle while our own horses are being stolen?"
On the instant my heart went out in sympathy to Saul, for I knew full well that he loved his mare even as I did my own colt Silver Heels, and, harking back to the thought which had come into my mind a few seconds before, I said to him stoutly, shaking my fist in the direction of that popinjay of an officer who was riding so proudly in advance of his squad of thieves:
"We will make them pay for this day's work, Saul Ogden, and while we are casting up the reckoning with those who wear red coats, there is one not far away who must also be held accountable for that which has just been done!"
"Meaning Horry Sims!" Saul cried, actually trembling in his impotent rage.
"Meaning that worse than Tory, for it was with no idea of serving the king, or aiding the king's cause, that the miserable scoundrel pointed out to those horse thieves where your mare and my colt might be found!"
"He shall have cause to regret that he saw this day's sun rise," Saul said in a low tone, his voice aquiver with anger, and then, the horsemen having passed, he stepped out into the road, turning his face toward York Town.
"Where would you go?" Pierre cried excitedly, following the lad to seize