Well, well, my lad, you
are comfortably seated, I will confess, and that is something better
than dancing upon nothing; but you are not to the west of the Harlem
River yet, and I'll try your wind before you tell Sir Henry what you
have seen."
"Shall I fire and frighten the peddler?" asked one of the men, drawing
his pistol from the holster.
"Aye, startle the birds from their perch--let us see how they can use
the wing." The man fired the pistol, and Mason continued--"'Fore George,
I believe the scoundrels laugh at us. But homeward, or we shall have
them rolling stones upon our heads, and the royal gazettes teeming with
an account of a rebel regiment routed by two loyalists. They have told
bigger lies than that, before now."
The dragoons moved sullenly after their officer, who rode towards their
quarters, musing on the course it behooved him to pursue in the present
dilemma. It was twilight when Mason's party reached the dwelling, before
the door of which were collected a great number of the officers and men,
busily employed in giving and listening to the most exaggerated
accounts of the escape of the spy. The mortified dragoons gave their
ungrateful tidings with the sullen air of disappointed men; and most of
the officers gathered round Mason, to consult of the steps that ought to
be taken.
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