cisions if important were
unanimous, even Elder Brewster, converted perhaps by Standish's Biblical
references, giving his voice for the stringent measures rendered
necessary by the growth and magnitude of the conspiracy.

Captain Standish with what force he might select was to take the
pinnace, and under cover of a trading expedition make a landing at
Weymouth, and first of all discover from the colonists themselves the
truth of their condition. If it should prove as represented he was to at
once attack whatever leaders of the conspiracy might be found, and in
especial he was to slay Wituwamat, of whom Massasoit had spoken as the
heart of the conspiracy, and to bring his head to Plymouth to be set
over the gate of the Fort as a proof and a warning to their neighbors on
the east, whom they would not now punish, but hoped rather to persuade.

"And now, Captain Standish, it were well that you should select those
whom you will have of your company, while we are all gathered together
here," said the governor when the primary question had been finally
decided.

Standish rose and looked thoughtfully from face to face.

"'T is a hard matter," said he at last with a gleam of pride in his
eye. "Here be fifty good men and true, and I need no more than half a
dozen."

"The Neponsets number forty warriors," suggested Winslow.

"Yes, but they will not be gathered together, having no knowledge of our
purpose, and if the shallop is watched from shore, as belike it will be,
a large force of armed men would bewray our intent, and runners would
gather the braves in a few hours and so bring down a great slaughter
upon the tribe," replied the captain in confident simplicity. "But if we
go no more in number than ordinary, no more than in our late voyage to
Nauset for corn, they will suspect nothing, and the matter may be well
concluded with no more than five or six examples, Wituwamat being the
principal."

"And glad am I, brother, to see a certain tenderness of human life in
your counsels," said the elder approvingly.

"Nay, elder, I am not all out a cannibal and ogre," replied the captain.
"So now I will choose me Hopkins and Howland and Billington, and Eaton
and Browne and Cooke and Soule, seven hearts of oak and arms of steel:
it is enough."

"And not one of us Fortune men, Captain?" demanded Robert Hicks, a
stalwart fellow who afterward became almost a rebel to the colony's
authority.

"Nay, Master Hicks," replied the capta