"You know the Valley well, and your people are there. It is the place for
you just now. Here is your commission as major. But you are still attached
to my staff. I lend you merely to the Tryon County committee. You will go
with Dayton as far as you like--either to Caughnawaga or some near
place--perhaps your old home would suit you best. Please yourself. You
need not assist in the arrests at Johnstown; that might be painful to you.
But after Dayton's return with his prisoners you will be my representative
in that district. You have four days in which to make ready. I see the
prospect pleases you. Good! To-morrow we will discuss it further."

When I got outside I fairly leaped for joy.




Chapter XXVI.

I See Daisy and the Old Home Once More.



I rode beside Colonel Elias Dayton one forenoon some ten days later, up
the Valley road, my pulses beating fast at the growing familiarity of the
scene before us. We had crossed the Chuctenunda Creek, and were within
sight of the gray walls of Guy Park. Beyond rose the hills behind which
lay Fort Johnson. I was on the very threshold of my boyhood's
playfield--within a short hour's walk of my boyhood's home.

The air was full of sounds. Birds sang with merry discordance all through
the thicket to our right, flitting among the pale green tangle of spring's