"There are some who think so."
"Many of the friends of Congress in this county," the man proceeded,
"wish the horse was led by some other officer. For my part, if I could
only be covered by a troop now and then, I could do many an important
piece of service to the cause, to which this capture of the peddler
would be a trifle."
"Indeed! such as what?"
"For the matter of that, it could be made as profitable to the officer
as it would be to us who did it," said the Skinner, with a look of the
most significant meaning.
"But how?" asked Lawton, a little impatiently, and quickening his step
to get out of the hearing of the rest of the party.
"Why, near the royal lines, even under the very guns of the heights,
might be good picking if we had a force to guard us from De Lancey's
[Footnote: The partisan corps called Cowboys in the parlance of the
country, was commanded by Colonel De Lancey. This gentleman, for such he
was by birth and education, rendered himself very odious to the
Americans by his fancied cruelty, though there is no evidence of his
being guilty of any acts unusual in this species of warfare. Colonel De
Lancey belonged to a family of the highest consequence in the American
colonies, his uncle having died in the administration of the government
of that of New York.
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