The Hero of Ticonderoga Part 8

"How learned you this?"

"Nay, should I tell you I might never learn anything more."

"When am I to be sent for?"

"The messenger is on his way. If you do as we would like you would not go."

"Why?"

"Because the governor will purchase peace for himself by having you hanged."

"Hus.h.!.+ there is some one even now at the door."

"Welcome, most worthy Talbot!" exclaimed Allen, when a.s.sistant District Attorney Talbot entered. "What brings you so far from Concord?"

"A message to you, Ethan Allen."

"To me?"

"Yes, from the governor."

"A message from Gov. Wentworth is always welcome."

"It may not be so in this case. I will explain. An application has been made for your extradition by the governor of New York."

"Indeed! And what have I done?"

"You are charged with killing a king's officer and robbing him of certain doc.u.ments which bore the seal of the Colony of New York."

"Of both of which crimes I am innocent."

"And so the governor thinks, but he has commanded me to explain that it is necessary that you return with me to Concord, there to satisfy the court of your innocence."

Ethan looked at Eben, and the youth made a sign to convey that the information he had given was correct and that treachery was intended.

"And if I decline to go?"

"You will not decline."

"I may."

"You must not."

"I may do so; what then?"

"Then I shall order you into arrest."

"And take me by force to Concord, and from thence to Albany?"

"If the governor so orders."

"Then go straight back to the governor and tell him that, with all due respect to him and his authority, I will not go until I am ready, and that if you attempt to arrest me I shall resist by force. I am a free man, and by the grant signed by the governor I am free from arrest unless the local tribunal so orders, and you cannot get any justice in all the Green Mountains to order me into arrest. So go back and learn that Ethan Allen can take care of himself."

"But that is treason."

"Call it what you like. I shall defend myself when the time comes, and will never submit to tyranny, even from the governor of New Hamps.h.i.+re, nor the king himself."

"But I must do as I am bade."

"Try to do so, you mean. Let me tell you that Ethan Allen is in the right, and the governor is in the wrong, and I defy you and all the power at your back."

CHAPTER VI.

BEFORE THE GOVERNOR.

Mr. Talbot knew not what to do.

Had he lived in the days of the electric telegraph he would have used the wire to obtain instructions. But in those days only a horse was at his disposal, and that was a slow means of travel.

He knew that he must act as he thought best.

If he offended the governor he might be removed from his position and disgraced.

If he offended the mountaineers they might make terms with New York, and New Hamps.h.i.+re might lose all the debatable land.

There was a degree of st.u.r.dy independence shown by the mountaineers which, while commendable, was slightly awkward at times.

It is in the mountains that freemen are born, and, as Ethan Allen often told the people of the valleys, the men of the hills were a race of free men, who could never be enslaved.

Talbot thought over the difficulty and resolved to try diplomacy.

"You hold your farm under a grant from Gov. Wentworth?"

"I do?"

"You owe allegiance to him?"

"Certainly."

"You ought to obey his commands."

"Stay! I am a freeborn man. I willingly give service where service is needed, I willingly obey laws which are for the good of all, but I never yet agreed to obey any one man, whether he be governor or even king."

"And yet you have no right to the farm, save such as you received from the governor."

"You mistake the position. The original grant was for a tract of mountain land. That land is now mine because I have improved it, made it of value, and all I owe to the governor is the value of the unreclaimed lands.