Cap glared at us, breathing heavily; and for a time nobody spoke. Tom Bickford broke the silence. “We been a little nervous, Cap’n Peter, on account of the rumors we been hearing about General Arnold. We hear General Gates wants to drive him out. We wouldn’t feel any too good if we had to fight the British under anyone but General Arnold.”

“Nonsense!” I said. “We stopped at his headquarters on the way down, and if there’d been any danger of Arnold leaving, Varick would have said so. You ought to see the way the militia’s piling in! There’s thousands of ’em on the road, all headed this way!”

“Yes, we heard so,” Tom said. “That’s another thing we’re worried about. If the militia ever starts to run, and Arnold isn’t here to stop ’em, they’ll get in a panic and run forever. They’ll carry everything with ’em—scouts and Continentals and everybody.”

“Everybody but Konrad,” Cap said bitterly. “That thick-headed Hessian, he’d sit right here waiting for me to come and lead him away by the hand!”

Hard on Cap’s words I heard the roar of a heavy gun, straight out in front of us. “What’s that?” Doc asked.

“That’s their sunset gun,” Cap said. “They ain’t a mile from us, hardly. If they’re that close, how do you s’pose I’ll have time to get back here and look out for Konrad in case anything happens?”

It was still light when Nason came down the path carrying a slab of beef which Cap snatched from him. “Raw!” he said contemptuously. “Fresh and raw! That kind of meat’s not only tasteless: it’s weakening! You’d think you was eating jelly-fish! Why don’t you get salt pork, Stevie? There ain’t nothing so tasty or nourishing as salt pork.” He gave the meat to Konrad, who took it to the fire before the lean-to.

Nason seemed glad to see us, though like most of our Arundel people, he was not one to make a display of emotion. I could tell he was glad because he came up close and looked at us. “I saw Varick and heard you’d got back,” he said. “Did you get to Arundel on your travels?”

When I said I hadn’t, he said soberly, “I hope we’ll be back there before very long.”

“You hope we will!” Cap shouted. “What the hell’s that mean! Has anything happened?”

“Nothing to worry over,” Nason said.

“My God!” Cap bawled. “Something has happened! Something’s happened to Arnold! I knew damned well something was going to happen when I saw that little stink-wit Wilkinson in camp! What happened to Arnold? I suppose Gates promoted eighteen or twenty corporals over his head!”

“No,” Nason said. “Gates just took Morgan’s regiment of riflemen away from Arnold’s division, without any explanation.”