I couldn’t have been more uncomfortable; I knew I was turkey-red and, as people say, I’d have been glad to drop through the floor—except that if I had, I couldn’t have seen the proud, sweet look that Ellen gave me then. She did a strange thing—a thing that would have touched any man’s heart and made him feel ashamed that he wasn’t more deserving; for she burst out and spoke in praise of me to General Arnold. She said many things, all nonsense, but she said them beautifully; and she held herself with a high spirit as she spoke, so that in my pride in her and my own embarrassment, I think I could have cried if I had been alone with her.

“Dear me! Dear me!” Arnold said, when she seemed to have finished. “Captain Nason, have you ever remarked any of these attributes in Captain Peter Merrill? Nay, have you ever seen one single thing to warrant the young lady’s enthusiasm?”

Nason shook his head soberly. “Captain Peter Merrill’s a fairly good soldier, but the lady puzzles me, General. I admit she puzzles me.”

“Puzzles you!” Arnold said. “Why no: delirium’s a simple matter. The young lady’s been through a great deal; but with rest and quiet she’ll be herself again some day.”

Still with a stern expression on his face he took up his pen and began to write; and I thanked God that Cap Huff had not been present during this interview.

Arnold frowned as he wrote, and when he had finished he folded the paper, motioned for the desk to be taken away, closed his eyes and lay back on his pillow, pain upon his forehead. He seemed to have forgotten the paper that he held loosely between his fingers on the coverlet.

“Nason,” he said, “you and my other scouts have been waiting for orders from me, I know. Well, I have no command, but they’ll let you go on my recommendation. Get south: get south and report to General Washington.”

He opened his eyes. “Every man in this army that can walk ought to be on his way to join General Washington by tomorrow night. Yes, tomorrow night; but Gates, that humpbacked old dressmaker, won’t stir a regiment out of here for a month! The greatest day in Gates’s life will be when he sees Washington treated as Schuyler was—thrown out neck and crop and replaced by Horatio Gates, Esquire, Midwife-in-Chief!”

He made a hissing sound; then said, “There. That’s all. I haven’t an army to send to General Washington, though I can send him my scouts. Tell him I sent you, and be off with you. That’s all.”

Nason spoke hesitantly. “General, you haven’t said—but am I to understand that Nathaniel Merrill’s to go with us?”