theatres, though
of course I had read about them at home, he seemed at a loss what
to talk about, and his face looked so blank and pasty I wished old
Doctor Atterbury could have been there to prescribe for his
liver.

"I turned the conversation to horses by telling him I thought
those in the Old Dominion were much superior to those in England
and then went on to tell him about the time I got on Moleskin's
back against orders and how he ran away with me when he heard the
baying of Squire Dupont's hounds. The little lord declared with a
smirk that I must have looked like an aboriginal Indian princess.
I asked him why not rather like an original one, and he stared and
fingered his little sword; a sword on such as he makes me wonder
how black Tom would look in the beadle's wig. But here am I
running on about lords and ladies when I hate the sound of their
names and am wishing I were back in Virginia where the sunshine
isn't strained through fog and the logs burning in the big
fireplaces, are fragrant and cheerful.

"I suppose Naomi is a big girl and so you won't feel the need of
nieces to write long letters about nothing. Is Rodney talking war?
Poor papa, he was worrying, when I left him in New York, about the
talk being made against our rightful sovereign. Well, I now will
write him a long, cheerful letter, so thank you for being an aunt
to me once more.

"Your ob't and affectionate niece,
"ELIZABETH DANESFORD."

Did she but know it, her father stood in need of cheerful letters, for
the bitterness of the rising war spirit was daily making feuds between
former friends, and all who talked loyalty to the king and condemned
Henry, Jefferson and Washington soon discovered they were champions of
an unpopular cause.

CHAPTER VIII

THE CHIEF WHO DEMANDED THE TRUTH

Four days of intense excitement, without proper food or sleep,
subjected to peril of life, would test the hardiest person. Rodney
Allison felt like breaking down and weeping hysterically. To add to
his discomfort he believed the hut to be alive with vermin, not an
uncommon condition in any Indian's wigwam, and this one looked
filthy.

His unpleasant reflections were interrupted by the return of the
little boy, Louis, who cried, "Ahneota, he say you come right away."

"The redskin who threw me in here said he would kill me if I left