t with characteristic
optimism--not shared by Harkness, and but partially approved by O'Neil.
Details were solemnly discussed, questions of proper heeling, of silver
and steel gaffs, of comb and wattle cutting, of the texture of feather
and hackle, and of the "walks" at Flatbush and Horrock's method of
feeding in the dark.

Tiring of the subject, Harkness, spoke of the political outlook and
took a gloomy view, paying his Excellency a compliment by referring to
him as "no fox, but a full-grown wolf, with an appetite for a continent
and perhaps for a hemisphere."

"Pooh!" said Sir Peter, lazily sucking at his pipe, "Sir Henry has him
holed. We'll dig him out before snow flies."

"What folly, Sir Peter!" remonstrated Harkness, leaning forward so that
the candle-light blazed on his gold and scarlet coat. "Look back five
years, Sir Peter, then survey the damnable situation now! Do you
realize that to-day England governs but one city in America?"

"Wait," observed Sir Peter serenely, expelling a cloud of smoke so that
it wreathed his handsome head in a triple halo.

"Wait? Faith, if there's anything else to do but wait I'll take that
job!" exclaimed O'Neil ruefully.

"Why don't you take it, then?" retorted Sir Peter. "It's no secret, I
fancy--that plan of Walter Butler's--is it?" he added, seeing that we
knew nothing of any plan.

"Sir Henry makes no secret of it," he continued; "it's talked over and
disparaged openly at mess and at headquarters. I can see no
indiscretion in mentioning it here."

It was at such moments that I felt a loathing for myself, and such
strong self-disgust must surely have prevailed in the end to make me
false to duty if, as I have said, I had not an absolute faith that his
Excellency required no man to tarnish his honor for the motherland's
salvation.

"What's afoot?" inquired Harkness curiously.

"Why, you remember how the rebel General Sullivan went through the Six
Nations, devastating the Iroquois country, laying waste, burning,
destroying their orchards and crops--which, after all, accomplished the
complete destruction of our own granary in the North?"

"'Twas a dhirty thrick!" muttered O'Neil. "Sure, 'tis the poor naked
haythen will pay that score wan day, or I'm a Hessian!"

"They'll pay it soon if Walter Butler has his way," said Sir Peter.
"Sir John Johnson and the Butlers and Colonel Ross are gathering in the
North. Haldimand's plan is to strike at the rebels' food supply--th