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THE LIBERTY BOYS
N.
AND THE TRAITOR.
“They will go in pursuit of you.”
“Perhaps; but I shall be out of their reach.”
“Possibly.”
“Oh, yes; I would go.straight to the British array at
New Brunswick, and there I would be safe.” /
“Yes, you would be safe, if you succeeded in getting
there without being overtaken and captured.”
“I could do that easily enough.”
“Well, I think you are very foolish, if you do anything
of the kind. You are not in much danger here. Indeed,
the worst is already over. Dick Slater came to you and
accused you, and went away satisfied that he had made a
mistake, and that you were innocent. There is no ) need
of your going now.’
“That may be, but I shall not rest easy I here a minute,
if I remain, and I would be haunted by a constant fear that
I would be found out-and seized and hanged.”
“Bah! there is no danger. Don’t be an old woman.”
“T can’t help feeling the way I do. I tell you, that fel-
low, Dick Slater, is a dangerous | one, and it will be difficult
to fool him.”
. “You have already done it; you sent him away satisfied
that he had made a mistake in accusing you.”
“Yes; but he may come back again with more questions,
and next time I may not get rid of him so easily.”
“I don’t think there is any danger of that; he will be
looking for the fellow who threw him over the precipice,
and it is I who will be in danger. If I can risk remain-
ing, you certainly may do so.” S
“J don’t know about that. I.feel confident that he is
suspicious that I know something about the traitor, even
though I was not the man who tried to kill him.”
“Oh, your fears have got the better of your judg-
ment.” .
“Possibly.
from now on.’
“Well, don’t run away. That will leave me in the lurch,
for I cannot secure information without your assistance.”
“T can’t help that. I am not going to risk my ‘life i in
order to remain. here and secure information for you, to
sell to the British.”
Ralston looked at his confederate for a few. moments,
in a searching manner.
“Are you really going to cut stick?” he asked presently.
“Yes;.and you had better do the same.”
Ralston shook his head.
‘No; at least not right away,” he said.. “I am not
going to leave until I have studied out the best way for
the British to approach this point, with the purpose of
capturing the patriots.”
“Great Guns, Ralston; do you really mean to place
drawings of Morristown Heights, its intrenchments, pro-
\ tections, and. .;weak points in, the hands. of the British?”
exclaimed Hardy. , a coe
“That.is just what Tam going to ‘do, Hardy” Po
“But isn’t that, going too.far altogether?” in a. tone of
Any Ww ay, I shall not rest, easy here a minute
protest. “I have not ecrupled to deliver up information
about the small companies that were going out in search
of foraging parties of the British, but this thing of deliver-
ing the entire patriot army into the hands of the British
is going too far, I think.”
“J don’t think so. I am for going the whole hog.
is only in degree.”
“Well, that is too big a thing for me to haye anything
to do with, Ralston. You will have to go it wholly alone.”
“Allright. I can do that.”
“As for me, J am going to get away from here just as
quickly as possible.”
“Are you going away to-night?”
“Possibly.”
“You will go straight to the British at New Brunswick,
I suppose?”
- “Yes; there is no place else for me to go.”
“How will you manage? It is too far to walk.” j
“JT shall take a horse.” :
“Oh, no,” he said.
from here.”
“Ah, I know where; down at the home of that girl. you,
have been visiting and making. love to for the past three
months, eh?” ».
’ “Ves, ? oe
“How are you coming on with. the girl, Hardy? Have Co
you made an impression 1
“I don’t think so,” in a growling voice.
and since then she has not had any use for me,”
“What is the name of the Liberty Boy who cut you out t
with the girl?”
‘Martin Cole.”
“I think I know him. So the charming Miss Ethel
Dover prefers his company to’ that of yourself, eh?”
“Yes,” bitterly.
“Then I don’t suppose you intend stopping to ask io
the loan of the horse?”
“No; I am going to help myself” ”
“Ifyou can’t have the girl, you can at least take one
of her horses, eh?”
, “Yes; she has a horse that i is quite a rb, and Iam going .
to take that one.”
“For spite, eh?”
“Yes, 39
“Well, I can’t say that I blame you. T would feel that
way about it myself.”
The two talked earnestly for an hour or more, and then
Ralston shook hands with Hardy, and” bade him good-by.
“Tell the British at New Brunswick that I will be along
What ,
is the difference? The principle is the same; ; the difference
“One of the horses belonging to the patriot troopers?” :
Hardy shook his head.- i.
“I am not going to run the tisk of»
being captured. I shall get a horse at a farmhouse not far
“T was: doing
well till she got sight of one’of those blasted Liberty Boys, |
in a week or so with: some valuable information for
them,” he said..
SAM: right; TL do so.” .
Then Ralston took his departure, and went to his quar-
~