rmy composed in
large measure of honest folk, and officered by four hundred men who,
bold and experienced, and strong in righteous wrath, should in
themselves be sufficient to utterly deject the adversary. We will make
of that force, motley as it is, a second New Model, as well disciplined
and as irresistible as the first; and who should be its general but the
son of that Warham Landless whom Cromwell loved, and whose old regiment
is well represented here? Then will we fight in honest daylight with
those who come against us--and conquer. And we will not stain our
victory. Your nightmare vision of midnight butchery is naught. There
will be no such thing."

Through the quiet of the evening came to them the clear, sweet, and
distant winding of a horn.

"'Tis the call to quarters," said Godwyn. "You must go, lad."

Landless rose. "I will come to-morrow night if I can. Till then,
farewell,--father." He ended with a smile on his dark, stern face that
turned it into a boy's again.

"May the Lord bless thee, my son," said the other in his gravely tender
voice. "May he cause His face to shine upon thee, and bring thee out of
all thy troubles."

As Landless turned to leave the hut the mender of nets had a sudden
thought. "Come hither," he said, "and let me show you my treasure house.
Should aught happen to me, it were well that you should know of it."

He took up the precious flask from the table, and followed by Landless,
limped across the hut to the fireplace. The logs above it appeared as
solid, gnarled and stained by time as any of the others constituting the
walls of the hut, but upon the pressure of Godwyn's finger upon some
secret spring, a section of the wood fell outwards like the lid of a
box, disclosing a hollow within.

From this hollow came the dull gleam of gold, and by the side of the
little heap of coin lay several folded papers and a pair of handsomely
mounted pistols.

Godwyn touched the papers. "The names or the signs of the Oliverians are
here," he said, "together with those of the leaders of the indented
servants concerned with us. It is our solemn League and Covenant--and
our death warrant if discovered. The gold I had with me, hidden upon my
person, when I was brought to Virginia. The pistols were the gift of a
friend. Both may be useful some day."

"Hide them! Quick!" said Landless in a low voice, and wheeled to face a
man who stood in the doorway, blinking into the semi-darkness of the
room.