"That first, and the others afterwards," persisted the shiftless
one.
"It may be so," admitted Henry.
"I feel the same way you do," said Shif'less Sol. "You see,
we've knowed Braxton Wyatt a long time, an' it seems strange that
one who started out a boy with you an' Paul could turn so black.
An' think uv all the cruel things that he's done an' helped to
do. I ain't hidin' my feelin's. I'm jest itchin' to git at
him."
"Yes," said Henry, "I'd like for our band to have it out with
his."
Henry and Shif'less Sol, and in fact all of the five, slept that
night, because Henry wished to be strong and vigorous for the
following night, in view of an enterprise that he had in mind.
The rosy Dutchman, Heemskerk, was in command of the guard, and he
revolved continually about the camp with amazing ease, and with a
footstep so light that it made no sound whatever. Now and then
he came back in the thicket and looked down at the faces of the
sleeping five from Kentucky. "Goot boys," he murmured to
himself. "Brave boys, to stay here and help. May they go
through all our battles and take no harm. The goot and great God
often watches over the brave."
Mynheer Cornelius Heemskerk, native of Holland, but devoted to
the new nation of which he had made himself a part, was a devout
man, despite a life of danger and hardship.
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