Legislature of the Province of Massachusetts had done their full duty
your force would have been three or four times as strong."

"What? What? No stranger could know as much as you know! Come farther
into the light, boy! The voice is nearly the same as I remember it, but
the face has changed. You're older, graver, and there's a new look! But
the eyes are like his! On my soul I believe it's Robert Lennox! Aye, I
know 'tis Robert! Come, lad, and shake hands with me! I would go to you
but this wretched wound holds me in my chair! Aye, boy, yours is the
grasp of a strong and honest hand, and when I look into your eyes I know
'tis you, Robert, your very self. Sit you down and tell me how you have
risen from the grave, and why you've come to comfort an old man with
this most sudden and welcome news!"

The moisture rose in Robert's eyes. Truly he had friends, and not least
among them was this thin, shrewd Bostonian. He drew a chair close to the
colonel and spun the wonderful tale of his kidnapping, the sea fight,
the wreck, the island and his rescue by the _Hawk_. Colonel Strong
listened intently and seldom interrupted, but when Robert had finished
he said:

"'Tis clear, lad, that your belief in the good spirits was well placed.
We lose nothing by borrowing a little from the Iroquois beliefs. Their
good spirits are our angels. 'Tis all the same in the essence, only the
names are different. 'Tis clear, too, that they were watching over you.
And now this house is your home so long as you stay in Boston. We're
full of the great war, as you'll soon learn. Mr. Pitt has sent over a
new commander and a mighty attempt will be made on Quebec, though if the
King and Parliament of Britain did their full duty, the expedition would
be three times as large, and, if the Legislature and Governor of