the overseer with a muttered oath. "I thought as
much when we found that he was not with the drunken scoundrels whom we
took before they reached the Point. And we had better have killed him
than all the rest put together, for he is the devil incarnate."

"Let us get on!" Sir Charles cried impatiently. "We waste time when
every moment is precious."

The Colonel, who had been speaking to the Surveyor-General, came over to
him. All the jovial life and fire was gone from his face, his eyes were
haggard and bloodshot, he stooped like an old man, but the voice with
which he spoke was steady and authoritative as ever.

"Ay," he said. "We must on at once, but not all of us. Richard Verney
must not forget the danger of the state, in the danger of his child, nor
let his private quarrel take precedence. I had hoped when we left the
Manor at dawn to have been up with the villains ere now, but it was not
to be. This will be a long chase and a stern one, and how it will end
God only knows. We go into a wilderness from which we may never return.
Behind us in the settlement is turmoil and danger, a conspiracy to be
put down, the Chickahominies to be subdued, the strong hand needed
everywhere. Every man should be at his post, and Richard Verney,
Lieutenant of his shire, and Colonel of the trainbands, is many leagues
from the danger which threatens the colony, and with his face to the
west. He must on, but Major Carrington must go back to do his duty to
the King, and Anthony Nash must not desert his flock. And you, Woodson,
I send back to the Manor to do what you can to repair the havoc there,
and to protect Mistress Lettice. My kinsman will go on with me; is it
not so, Charles?"

"Assuredly, sir," said the baronet quietly.

"I'd a sight rather go with your Honor," growled the overseer, "but I'll
do my best both by the plantation and by Mistress Lettice, and I look
for your Honor and Mistress Patricia back in no time at all. We are to
take the small boat, I reckon?"

"Yes, with four men to row you. We will press a boat and a crew from the
next Pamunkey village. Pick out your men, and let us be gone."

"Humph! There's one that I reckon had best go back with us. Does your
Honor know that you've got with you the head of all this d--d
Oliverian business, the man that Trail swore was their general--that
they all obeyed as though he were Oliver himself?"

"No! How came he here?" cried the master, staring at Landless, who stood
at some