elming rush of
repulsion surging up within me. My every nerve, every fiber quivered
for freedom to strike that blow denied me for four miserable years. Had
I not earned the right to face my enemies in the open? Had I not earned
the right to strike? Had I not waited--God! had I not waited?

Appalled, almost unmanned, I bowed my head still lower as the quick
tears of rage wet my lashes. They dried, unshed.

"Is there no chance for me?" I asked--"no chance for one honest blow?"

His kind eyes alone answered; and, like a school-boy, I sat there
rubbing my face, teeth clenched, to choke back the rebellious cry
swelling my hot throat.

"Give me an Oneida, then," I muttered. "I'll go."

"You are a good lad, Carus," he said gently. "I know how you feel."

I could not answer.

"You know," he said, "how many are called, how few chosen. You know
that in these times a man must sink self and stand ready for any
sacrifice, even the supreme and best."

He laid his hand on my shoulder: "Carus, I felt as you do now when his
Excellency asked me to leave the line and the five splendid New York
regiments just consolidated and given me to lead. But I obeyed; I gave
up legitimate ambition; I renounced hope of that advancement all
officers rightly desire; I left my New York regiments to come here to
take command of a few farmers and forest-runners. God and his
Excellency know best!"

I nodded, unable to speak.

"There is glory and preferment to be had in Virginia," he said; "there
are stars to be won at Yorktown, Carus. But those stars will never
glitter on this faded uniform of mine. So be it. Let us do our best,
lad. It's all one in the end."

I nodded.

"And so," he continued pleasantly, "I send you to Thendara. None knows
you for a partizan in this war. For four years you have been lost to
sight; and if any Iroquois has heard of your living in New York, he
must believe you to be a King's man. Your one danger is in answering
the Iroquois summons as an ensign of a nation marked for punishment.
How great that danger may be, you can judge better than I."

I thought for a while. The Canienga who had summoned me by belt could
not prove I was a partizan of the riflemen who escorted me. I might
have been absolutely non-partizan, traveling under escort of either
side that promised protection from those ghostly rovers who scalped
first and asked questions afterward.

The danger I ran as clan-ensign of a nation marked for punishmen