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Show jFSk7? the W Richard IRVING kSTS BACHELLERj love the young lady, frut I eooldat go and keep my principle." "Why not, ilr?" "Because we are all of a mind with our Mr. Patrick Henry. We put liberty lib-erty above happiness and even above life. So I must stay and help fight her battles, and when I say it I am grinding my own heart under my heel. Don't think harshly of me. I cannot help It. The feeling Is bred in my bones." His lordship smiled politely and bowed as the three men withdrew. Franklin took the hand of the young man and pressed it silently as they were leaving the small house in which Howe had established himself. Jack, who had been taking notes of the fruitless talk of these great men, was sorely disappointed. He could see no prospect now of peace. "My hopes are burned to the ground," he said to Doctor Franklin. I,. .. - . CHAPT -R XVI Continued. 10 "The mar ms u great heart In him, tin every n'fu.l man must," he wrote to his father. "I am beginning to love him. I cun see that these thousands In the army are going to he hound to him by an affection like that of a son for a father. With mtn like Washington Wash-ington and Franklin to lead us, how can we fail?" The next night Sir Henry Clinton got around the Americans and turned their left flank. Smallwood's command com-mand and that of Colonel Jack Irons were almost destroyed, twenty-two hundred having been killed or taken. Jack hud his left urm shot through and escaped only by the swift and effective ef-fective use of his pistols and hanger, and by good luck, his horse having been "only slightly cut In the withers." The American line gave way. Its un-aoasonod un-aoasonod troops lied Into Brooklyn. There was the end of the Island. They could go no farther without swimming. With a British fleet In the harbor under un-der Admiral Lord Howe, the situation was desperate. Sir Henry had only to follow and pen them In and unlimber his guns. The surrender of more than half of Washington's army would have to follow. At headquarters, the most discerning minds saw that only a miracle mir-acle could prevent It. The miracle arrived. Next day a fog thicker than the darkness of a clouded night enveloped the Island and lay upon the face of the waters. Calm- "In the room they argued with a depth of feeling which astonished me, as to whether the one window should he open or closed. Mr. Adams had closed It. " 'I'lease do not close the window,' said Franklin. 'We shall suffocate.' " 'Sir, I am an Invalid and afraid of the night air,' said Adams rather testily. " 'The air of tnls room will be much worse for you than that out-of-doors,' Franklin retorted. He was then between be-tween the covers. T beg of you to open the window and get into bed and If I do not prove my case to your satisfaction, sat-isfaction, I will consent to its being closed.' "I lay down on a straw-filled mattress mat-tress outside their door. I heard Mr. Adams open the window and get into bed. Then Doctor Franklin began to expound his theory of colds. He declared de-clared that cold air never gave any one a cold; that respiration destroyed a gallon of air a minute and that all the air In the room would be consumed con-sumed in an hour. He went on and on and long before he had finished his argument, Mr. Adams was snoring, convinced rather by the length than the cogency of the reasoning. Soon the two great men, whose famn may be said to fill the earth, were auleep In the same bed in that little box of a room and snoring In a way that suggested sug-gested loud contention. I had to laugh as I listened. Mr. Adams would seem to have been defeated, for, by aad by. "It Is a time of sacrifice," the good ) man answered. "You have the in- I vincible spirit that looks into the future fu-ture and gives all ' it has. You are America." "I have been thinking too much of myself," Jack answered. "Now I am ready to lay down my life In this great cause of ours." "Hoy, 1 like you," said Mr. Adams. "I have arranged to have you safely conveyed to New York. There an orderly or-derly will meet and conduct you to our headquarters." "Thank you, sir," Jack replied. Turning to Doctor Franklin, he added: "One remark of yours to Lord Howe Impressed me. You said that nature was our friend and ally. It put me In mind ol' the fog that helped us out of Brooklyn and of a little adventure of mine." Then he told the story of the spider's Web. "I repeat that all nature is with us," said Franklin. "It was a sense of injustice in-justice In human nature that sent us across the great barrier of the sea into conditions where only the strong could survive. Here we have raised up a sturdy people with 3,000 miles of water between them and tyranny. Armies cannot cross it and succeed long in a hostile land. They are too far from home. The expense of transporting trans-porting and maintaining them will bleed our enemies until they are spent. The British king is powerful, but now he has picked a quarrel with Almighty God, and it will go hard with hirn." ly, quickly Washington got ready to move his troops. That night, under the friendly cover of the fog, they were quietly taken across the East river, with a regiment of Marblehead sea dogs, under Colonel Glover, manning the boats. Fortunately, the British army had halted, waiting for clear weather. For nearly two weeks Jack was nursing nurs-ing his wound In Washington's army hospital, which consisted of a cabin, a tent, a number of cow stables and an old shed on the heights of Harlem. Jack had lain in a stable. Toward the end of his confinement, John 'Adams came to see him. "Were you badly hurt?" the great man asked. "Scratched a little, but I'll be back in the service tomorrow," Jack replied. "You do not look like yourself quite. I think that I will ask the commander In chief to let you go with me to Philadelphia. Phila-delphia. I have some business there and later Franklin and I are going to Staten Island to confer with Admiral Lord Howe. We are a pair of snappish snap-pish old dogs and need a young man like you to look after us. You would only have to keep out of our quarrels, attend to our luggage and make some notes in the conference." So It happened that Jack went to Philadelphia with Mr. Adams and, after two days at the house of Doctor Franklin, set out with the two great men for the conference on Staten Is land. He went In high hope that he was to witness the last scene of the war. In Amboy he sent a letter to his father, which said : "Mr. Adams is a bluut, outspoken man. If tilings do not go to his liking, lik-ing, he Is quick to tell you. Doctor Franklin Is humorous and polite, but firm as a God-placed mountain. You may put your shoulder against the mountain and push and think it is moving, but It isn't. He is established, lie has found his proper bearings and Is done with moving. These two great men differ in little matters. They had a curious quarrel the other evening. We had reached New Brunswick on our way north. The taverns were crowded. I ran from one to another trying to find entertainment for my distinguished friends. At last I found a small chamber with one bed In It and a single window. The bed nearly filled the room. No better accommodation accommo-dation was to be had. I had left them sitting on a bench In a little grove near I heard him muttering as he walkwd the floor." Howe's barge met the party at Amboy Am-boy and conveyed them to the landing near his headquarters. It was, however, how-ever, a fruitless journey. Howe wished to negotiate on the old ground now abandoned forever. The people of America had spoken for independence a new, Irrevocable fact not to be put aside by ambassadors. The colonies were lost. The concessions which the wise Franklin had so urgently recommended recom-mended to the government of England, Howe seemed now Inclined to offer, but they could not be entertained. "Then my government can only maintain Its dignity by fighting," said Howe. "That is a mistaken notion," Franklin Frank-lin answered. "It will be much more dignified for your government to ac-knowledgs ac-knowledgs its error than to persist in it." "We shall fight," nmve declared. "And you will have more fighting to do than you anticipate," said Franklin. "Nature is our friend and ally. The Lord has prepared our defenses. They are the sea, the mountains, the forest and the character of our people. Consider Con-sider what you have accomplished. At an expense of eight million pounds you have killed about eight hundred Yankees. Yan-kees. They have cost you ten thousand thou-sand pounds a head. Meanwihle, at least a hundred thousand children have been born in America. There are the factors in your problem. How much time and money will be required for the job of killing all of us?" The British admiral ignored the query. "My powers are limited," said he, "but I am authorized to grant pardons and in every way to exercise the king's paternal solicitude." "Such an offer shows that your proud nation has no flattering opinion of us," Franklin answered. "We, who are the injured parties, have not the baseness to entertain it. You will forgive for-give me for reminding you that the king's paternal solicitude has been rather trying. It has burned our defenseless de-fenseless towns in midwinter; it has incited the savages to massacre our farmers in the back country; it has driven us to a declaration of independence. inde-pendence. Britain and America are now distinct states. Peace can be considered only on that basis. You wish to prevent our trade from passing pass-ing Into foreign channels. Let me remind re-mind you, also, that the profit of no CHAPTER XVII How Solomon Shifted the Skeer. In the spring news came of a great force of British which was being organized or-ganized in Canada for a descent upon New York through Lake Champlain. Frontier settlers in Try on county were being massacred by Indians. Generals Herkimer and Schuyler had written to Washington, asking for the services of the famous scout, Solomon Solo-mon Binkus. in that region. "He knows the Indian as no other man knows! him and can speak his language lan-guage and he also knows the bush," j Schuyler had written. "If there Is any place on earth where his help is needed just now, it is here." "Got to Heave ye, my son," Solomon said to Jack one evening soon after that. "How so ?" the young man asked. "Goin' hum to fight Injuns. The Great Father has ordered It. I'll like it better. Gittin' lazy here. Summer's comln' an' I'm a born bush man. I'm kind o' oneasy like a deer in a door-yard. door-yard. I ain't had to run fer my life since we got here. My hoofs are com-plainin'. com-plainin'. I ain't shot a gun in a month." A look of sorrow spread over the face of Solomon. "I'm tired of this place," said Jack. "The British are scared of us and we're scared of the British. There's nothing going on. I'd love t9 go back to the big bush with you." "I'll tell the Great Father that you're a born bush man. Mebbe he'll let ye go. They'll need us both. Ruin, Injuns an' the devil have j'ined hands. The Long house will be the center o' hell an' its line fences'll take in the hull big bush. That day Jack's name was included in the order. "I'm sorry that it is not yet possible to pay you or any of the men who have served me so faithfully," said Washington. Wash-ington. "If you need money I shall be glad to lend you s sum to help you through this journey." "I ain't fightin' fer pay," Solomon answered. "I'll hoe an' dig, an' cook, an' guide fer money. But I won't fight no more fer money partly 'cause 1 don't need it partly 'cause I'm fight-In' fight-In' fer myself. I got a little left in my britches pocket, but if I hadn't, my ol' Marier wouldn't let me go hungry." hun-gry." (TO BE CONTINUED.) the large hotel, with the luggage near them. When I returned they were having hav-ing a hot argument over the origin of northeast storms, the doctor asserting that he had learned by experiment that they began in the southwest and proceeded pro-ceeded In a northeasterly direction. I had to wait ten minutes for a chance to speak to them. Mr. Adams was hot faced, the doctor calm and smiling. I lmrarted the news. "'God of Israel!' Mr. Adams exclaimed. ex-claimed. "Is it not enough that I have to agree with you? Must I also sleep with you?' " 'Sir, : hope that you must not, but if you r'list, I beg that you will sleep more gently than you talk,' said Franklin. Frank-lin. "I went with them to their quarters carrying the luggage. On the way Mr. Adams complained that he had picked up a Ilea somewhere. "The flea, sir, Is a small SD'mal, but a big ..net,' said Franklin. 'You alarm me. "rwo large men ani a flea will b aot to crowi onr uuarters.' trade can ever be equal to the expense ex-pense of holding it with fleets and armies." "On such a basis I am not empowered empow-ered to treat with you," Howe answered. an-swered. "We shall immediately move against your army." The conference ended. The ambassadors ambas-sadors and their secretary shook hands with the British admiral. "Mr. Irons, I 1iave heard much of you," suit the latter as he held Jack's hand. "You are deeply attached to a young lady whom I admire and whose father is my friend. I offer you a chance to leave this trounted land and go to London and marry anil lead a peaceable, Christian life. You may-keep may-keep your principles, if you wish, as I have no use for them. You will dud sympathizers in England." "Lord Howe, your kindness touches me," the young man answered. "What you propos-e is a great temptation. It Is like Calypso's offer of immortal happiness to Ulysses. I love England. 7 love ei(re. ttntl more fhan eiiner. I |