ra. I never knew it to be true; but now
they say that Walter Butler has assigned Thendara as his gathering
place, or so it is reported in a letter to Sir Henry, which Sir Henry
read to me. Have _you_ no knowledge of it, Carus?"

"None at all. I remember hearing the name in childhood. Perhaps better
woodsmen than I know where this Thendara lies, but I do not."

"It must lie somewhere betwixt us and Canada," said Harkness vaguely.
"Does not Sir Henry know?"

"He said he did not," replied Sir Peter, "and he sent out a scout for
information. No information has arrived. Is it an Iroquois word,
Carus?"

"I think it is of Lenape origin," I said--"perhaps modified by the
Mohawk tongue. I know it is not pure Oneida."

Harkness glanced at me curiously. "You'd make a rare scout," he said,
"with your knowledge of the barbarians."

"The wonder is," observed Sir Peter, "that he is not a scout on the
other side. If my home had been burned by the McDonalds and the
Butlers, I'm damned if I should forget which side did it!"

"If I took service with the rebels," said I, "it would not be because
of personal loss. Nor would that same private misfortune deter me from
serving King George. The men who burned my home represent no great
cause. When I have leisure I can satisfy personal quarrels."

"Lord!" laughed Sir Peter, "to hear you bewail your lack of leisure one
might think you are now occupied with one cause or t'other. Pray, my
dear Carus, when do you expect to find time to call out these enemies
of yours?"

"You wouldn't have me deprive the King of Walter Butler's services,
would you?" I asked so gravely that everybody laughed, and we rose in
good humor to join the ladies in the drawing-rooms.

Sir Peter's house on Wall Street had been English built, yet bore
certain traces of the old Dutch influence, for it had a stoop leading
to the front door, and the roof was Dutch, save for the cupola; a fine
wide house, the facade a little scorched from the conflagration of '78
which had ruined Trinity Church and the Lutheran, and many fine
buildings and homes.

The house was divided by a wide hallway, on either side of which were
drawing-rooms, and in the rear of these was a dining-room giving on a
conservatory which overlooked the gardens. The ground floor served as a
servant's hall, with a door at the area and another in the rear leading
out through the garden-drive to the stables.

The floor above the drawing-rooms had been divi