Arnold swung himself out of the saddle and stood looking down at us, his bridle over his arm. Far off we heard a bugle call and excited shouts. A few of the Canadians came out into the road to wave at the advancing troops; then dodged back again into the shelter of houses.

“You’re all here, are you?” Arnold asked. He looked at the blazing barracks: at the smoldering ruins of Hazen’s house; cocked an eye at the sky: then turned back toward the approaching British.

“They’ve thrown out their light infantry,” he said to Wilkinson. “If there’s anything else to be done, I don’t know what it is—only this.”

He unbuckled his saddle girth and hauled the saddle off his black horse. As he passed the saddle to Cap Huff, he lifted a holster flap and took out a handsome silver-mounted pistol. He stripped the bridle and bit from the horse’s head, tossed them to Cap, stroked the horse’s nose, put the muzzle of the pistol close above its eye, and pulled the trigger. The poor beast went down with a thump, kicked once and never stirred again.

Wilkinson cleared his throat and did nothing.

“Come, Captain,” Arnold said impatiently. “There’s no time to lose!”

Wilkinson stared at him. The muscles over his jaws throbbed uncertainly.

Arnold laughed. “If you don’t feel up to it, Captain Wilkinson, we’ll have it done for you. It’s got to be done! Whatever the British get of ours, whether it’s horses or land, they’ve got to fight for! Put a bullet in her brain and come ahead!”

Wilkinson stripped his mare, then, and shot her. When it came to getting into the bateau, he made a great show of formality, standing to one side so that Arnold could precede him. He was the fussiest young man I ever saw, and so eager to help officers above him in rank that he was always under foot.

“Oh for God’s sake, Captain!” Arnold cried. “Stop nursing me and get in!”

Wilkinson climbed in, and I thought I saw Cap Huff rock the boat intentionally. At all events, Wilkinson fell among our feet, and while he was picking himself up, I certainly saw Cap Huff slip something out of a pocket in Wilkinson’s saddlebags—something that disappeared in the recesses of Cap’s own garments.

Then Arnold gave a heave at the stern of the bateau and vaulted into it as it slid out into the stream. “Pull!” he ordered. “Those light infantrymen aren’t as slow as they might be!”