pounding on the door beneath. I was at my mother's house, fortunately, and
the messenger had thus found me out promptly.

Tulp had also been aroused, and saddled my horse while I dressed, in
response to the summons. I was wanted at Johnstown by Sheriff Frey, on
some matter which would not wait for the morrow. This much I gathered
from the messenger, as we rode together in the starlight, but he could
tell me little more, save that an emissary from the Tories in Canada had
been captured near the Sacondaga, and it was needful that I should see
him. I wondered somewhat at this as a reason for routing me out of my
sleep, but cantered silently along, too drowsy to be querulous.

Daylight broke before we crossed the river, and the sunrise gun sounded as
we rode up into the court-house square at Johnstown. Soldiers were already
to be seen moving about outside the block-houses at the corners of the
palisade which, since Sir John's flight, had been built around the jail.
Our coming seemed to be expected, for one of the soldiers told us to wait
while he went inside, and after a few minutes John Frey came out, rubbing
his eyes. As I dismounted, he briefly explained matters to me.

It seemed that a Tory spy had made his way in from the woods, had
delivered letters both at Cairncross and at the Cedars, and had then
started to return, but by the vigilance of one of the Vrooman boys had
been headed off and taken.

"He is as close as the bark on a beech-tree," concluded the sheriff. "We
could get nothing out of him. Even when I told him he would be hanged this
morning after breakfast, he did not change color. He only said that if
this was the case he would like first to see you; it seems he knows you,
and has some information for you--probably about Philip Cross's wife.