Virginia, and become a trader and Burgess. I could send for Joyce
Whitbread, and marry her here as well as in Banbury."

Landless laughed. "So you ran away?"

"Yes; some four years ago, just after I came to man's estate." (He was
about nineteen.) "Stowed myself away on board the Mary Hart at Plymouth.
Made the Virginny voyage for my health, and on landing was sold by the
captain for my passage money. Time's out in three years, but I may begin
to make my fortune before then, for--" He stopped speaking to give
Landless a sidelong glance from out his blue eyes, and then went on.

"A voice speaks through the land, from the Potomac to the James, and
from the falls of the Far West to the great bay. What says the voice?"

Landless answered, "The voice saith, 'Comfort ye, my people, for the
hour of deliverance is at hand.'"

"It's all right!" cried the boy gleefully. "I thought you was one of us.
We are all in the fun together!"

"We are in for a desperate enterprise that may hang every man of us,"
said Landless sternly. "I do not see the 'fun,' and I think you talk
something loudly for a conspirator."

The boy was nothing abashed. "There's none to hear us," he said. "I can
be as mum as t' other Dick's cat when there are ears around. As for fun,
Losh! what better fun than fighting!"

"You seem to have a pretty good time as it is."

"Lord, yes! Life's jolly enough, but you see there's mighty little
variety in it."

"I have found variety enough," said Landless.

"Oh, you've been here only a few weeks. Wait until you've spent years,
and have gone through your experience of to-day half a dozen times, and
you will find it tame enough."

"I shall not wait to see."

"Then a man gets tired of working for another man, and hankers for the
time when he can set up for himself, especially if there's a pretty girl
waiting for him." A tremendous sigh. "And then there's the fun of the
rising. Losh! a man must break loose now and then!"

"For all of which good reasons you have become a conspirator?"

"Ay, it doesn't pay to run away. You are hunted to death in the first
place, and well nigh whipped to death if you are caught, as you always
are. And then they double your time. This promises better."

"If it succeeds."

"Oh, it will succeed! Why shouldn't it with old Godwyn, who is more
cunning than a red fox or a Nansemond medicine-man, at its head?
Besides, if it fails, hanging is the worst that can happen, and we will
have