Page 164 (1/2)

Tryon’s jaw ed, and his limbs trembled, but he kept his teh his nose, in and out, before he spoke

"Mr Fraser I will tell you soe"

Jaht His eyes were cold, dark and unblinking

"I am made Governor of the colony of New York," Tryon said "The letter of appointment arrived more than a month past I shall leave by July to take up the new appointlanced from Jamie to me, and back "So you see I had no personal stake in this; no need to glorify my exploits, as you put it" His throat moved as he sed, but fear had been replaced now by a coldness equal to Jamie’s own

"I have done what I have done as a matter of duty I would not leave this colony in a state of disorder and rebellion, for htfully have done so"

He took a deep breath, and stepped back, forcing his hands to relax from the fists into which they had been clenched

"You have experience of war, Mr Fraser, and of duty And if you are an honest man, you will know that mistakes are made--and made often--in both realht on, and they stood in silence, looking at each other

My attention was jerked away from this confrontation quite suddenly, by the distant sound of a baby crying I turned, head up, just as Brianna eitated skirts

"Jem," she said "That’s Jemmy!"

It was, too A disturbance of voices at the far side of the ca itself into the round, flounced shape of Phoebe Sherston, looking frightened but detere baskets, and a wo bundle in her ar a terrible racket

Briannanorth, and the racket ceased as Je up in red tufts and feet churning in paroxysms of joyous relief Mother and child disappeared promptly into the shadows under the trees, and a certain a disjointedly to a gathering crowd of interested onlookers that she had just beco reports of the battle, so terrible, and she fearedbut Mr Rutherford’s slave had coht perhapsand soand the child would not give over shriekingso

Jamie and the Governor, shaken out of their nose to nose confrontation, had also retired to the shadows; I could see the close together The elerave;-tête, though; I could see Ja

"brought food," Phoebe Sherston was telling me, her round face pink with excited self-importance "Fresh bread, and butter, and some blackberry jam and cold chicken and"

"Food!" I said, abruptly reave her a quick, bright s her open-mouthed in front of the tent

Abel MacLennan here I had left hi patiently under the stars He brushed asideof beer

"Is there anything--?" I began, then broke off What else could I possibly do for hih Fowles," he said, tidily tucking the parcel beneath the wagon’s seat "They said he was taken prisoner Would--would your husband maybe speak for him, d’ye think? As he did for me?"

"I expect he would I’ll ask hih from the ca of frogs and crickets, and the rushing of the creek

"Mr MacLennan," I said, o? After you’ve taken Joe Hobson back, Ihead, quite unself-consciously, though the gesture was not one of puzzle already settled in his o anywhere There are the women there, aye? And the weans They’ve no h prisoner I shall stay"