The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-02-18
PART T..

PART I.
Captain, the Honorable William Bur- |
ton, could not fail to hear the voices |
from below, and being within the enc !
my's country, although he had General |
Washington's safe conduct in his !
pocket. he naturally listened at the |
opening in the floor. This was Knot
hole in the boarding; for the Inn OF
Congress"-it had been, before the war,
"The Kings Arms''-was a very loose !
RECONSTRUCTED ramshacke affair, and
the flooring of the room above was the
ceiling of the one below. AS 1t nap
pened, Captain Burton had stopped at
the tavern to brush up a bit, as three
miles farther on was the Wilton manor,
where he expected to meet young Wo-
man to whom he had just proposed by
letter, and who had accepted him. Now,
as he bent on his knees, the captain OF
Hussars discovered that he was lodged
above the taproom. A half dozen men
We're there, and in their interest in the
subject in hand, they had forgotten to
speak low. They, in fact, did not know
that the person they were discussing
was directly above them. What the
captain heard was this
"There's been a reward offered, amt
there. Tom?'
"If there hasn't been, there will be-
"But this captain has both Sir
Henrys and the generals pass, Detch-
ard?"
THAT proves nothing" said the fellow
addressed as Detchard. "We'll just have
him. and his purse. Mind ye, it's bound
to be well filled. What we will do, Will
be to take off his fine clothes and leave
him say, yours, Tom"
- .1,s,, l.,r1--
ing up at Briggs, who, as the we'll
trained officers servant should. pro-
ceeded to stand as straight and stiff as
ramrod, with no expression at all on his
face.
The captain, by putting his eye close
to the knothole, could see quite distinct
ly into the room.
The half dozen men in the room were
rough fellows, of the class of cowboys
who infested the borderland between
the British and American armies.
"If he swears out a case against us,
how is he to prove it? The evidence
will be against him, eh?" went on the
first speaker. "IIe who has a pass to
pay a visit on a lady is found disguised
without a pass about him, don't ye
see? So it will stand to reason, won't
it? that he's here just as Andre was,
don't it?'
"Andre?"
The major was Burton's good friend.
He did not know that Andre was in
that vicinity for not knowing a word
of the purchase of General Arnold, he
was not aware that great treason had
been discovered and that Major Andre
nd been taken disguised as a spy within
the American lines. with most seriously
compromising papers on his person.
Just the case of another spy, that's
all, so our captain won't be believed
under OATH" said the man who an
swered TO the name or Detchard.
At the moment door slammed, and
the fat, red-faced landlord entered. He
made the seventh in the room, and his
first words made it plain that he, too,
was in the plot. For Dretcharu was
saying:
"There's two Of 'em, and We're seven"
1--WE can manage 'em. And then,
since he's a Britisher, it's only an act
of war-thats all it be. We need money.
fellers. There's a precious little circu-
latin as it's; and he'll have gold-sov-
ereigns."
'Yes, you bet he will. We're poor
men. We owe it TO ourselves" went on
Dretcharl. But at this juncture the
landlord said, in a penetrating Whis-
per:
"Shet up, ye fools! He's upstairs
and might hear"
Captain Burton rose from his peek
hole and whistled.
Briggs still stood immovable, the
shaving mug in one hand. But his mas
ter looked at Briggs without seeing him
He was thinking of what he had heard
John Andre had been taken disguised
in the American lines, and there We're
compromising papers on the majors