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one and the last I saw of Pete, he was working off that way. Suppose, Captain, that we row along so as to stand off the shore in that direction, to be ready to take him in, should he give the word?"

In pursuance of this prudent suggestion, the boat was immediately headed round to the north, and rowed noiselessly along the shore in the direction supposed to be taken by their missing companion. They had made but little progress, however, before they were startled by the sudden flash and sharp report of a pistol, in a thicket near the shore, about a furlong ahead. "There goes trouble for poor Jones, I fear, the dastard has attempted his life!” cried Warrington, in the varying tones of fear for the result, and indignation for the attempt; "but if help be of any further use to him, he shall have it. So, men, pull for it! pull for the spot with every nerve you have got, or the Yorkers will be there before us."

In an instant the canoe, almost leaping from its element at every stroke of the excited and strong-armed oarsmen, was surging through the waters, with bird-like velocity, towards the place. As Warrington had predicted, the enemy on shore, on hearing the report of the pistol, immediately started for this new scene of action. And, quickly perceiving their opponents on the lake making rapidly for the spot, they redoubled their speed, and rushed on as fast as the obstacles of the woods, and the wet clothes and benumbed limbs of those who had been ducked, would permit, to arrive in time to assist, or rescue, as the case might require, their absent guide, whom they readily concluded to be an actor in the fracas, and revenge themselves, if possible, on the whole band of their foes, for the sad discomfiture just experienced. The race between the two contending parties was a close one. The Green Mountain Boys, however, were again in fortune. Their boat came whirling up to the shore, adjoining the scene of action, while the foremost of the enemy was yet fifty yards distant.

"You may kick till all is blue," muttered Jones, whose tall form at that instant came peering from the thicket, while with irregular motions he made toward the boat, bearing bolt upright in his arms before him his grappled foe, who was struggling with terrible violence, and kicking desperately against every tree within reach of his feet, with the hope of retarding the progress of his captor till succor arrived; "you may kick, and be hanged! but you have jest got to go, my sweet lad, and into a little better company, too, than you hoped for, I guess. No help for it

SO

there!

in with you now make yourself comfortable, friend,” concluded the woodsman, pitching his captive headlong into the boat, and leaping in himself, just in time to escape the pursuers, now close at his heels.

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Escaped again, by the pains of tophet!" exclaimed the enraged Munroe from the bank, as the boat, previously headed round, shot out into the lake beyond the reach of the twice baffled Yorkers; "fire! fire! upon the damned rascals!"

The command was scarcely uttered, before Jones, having as quick as thought again grappled his captive, and faced round toward the shore, was holding the deprecating victim before him in the stern, so as to cover the range of the expected volley.

"Let drive, there!" exclaimed Pete, with the utmost nonchalance, "you need n't feel any delicacy, gentlemen, for I'll agree to take all the bullets you'll send through this beautiful target I'm holding for you."

"Don't fire! for God's sake don't let 'em fire, Munroe!" screamed the struggling and terrified prisoner.

"You need not be much alarmed, I think, fellow," said Warrington; "the sheriff's pistols must be rather too wet to be very dangerous, and as to the arms of the rest, which were all discharged at the catamount, we shall have but little to fear from them by the time they can be loaded.”

I mistrusted as much, myself," observed Jones, releasing the prisoner; "but I thought I would scare the fellow a little, for his scurvy treatment to me."

"The pistol we heard, then, was meant, as we suspected, for you?" asked the leader.

"O, yes, replied the other, carelessly; "to be sure he showed the best good will in the world to make a hole in me; but I should n't have laid that up much, seeing he missed his aim, which is a sort of punishment of itself, you know, if he had n't afterwards offered me money to let him go, and keep his name and all close why, I never was so insulted in my life!"

"His name? who is it? what is his name?" eagerly asked several of the company.

66

Mayhap you from down south never heard of him, and do n't know him, but I did, the moment I saw his face as he passed the fellow bringing the torch-light, His name is Sherwood, living down in New Haven, and he is jest one of the smoothest fellows that ever wore two faces in a day, asking his pardon."

"Sherwood — Sherwood," said Warrington, musingly; “aha! I now remember to have heard of his having been at Benning.

ton, and also of his having made some suspicious visits to Albany. But we will examine his merits more particularly, when we reach the opposite shore."

"See how wishful those fellows are looking after us!” observed Jones, pointing back to the shore, now about fifty rods distant, where the Yorkers, having procured a light, were still standing in a dark group, evidently trying to trace the course of the receding boat; "I swan! if I was only bloody minded enough, how I would like to take a shot into that flock of York buzzards!

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"Hold up a little, oarsmen," said the leader; "and we will give them a kinder compliment than that, before entirely parting. So good night, Mr. Munroe," he continued, rising in the boat, and raising his loud clear voice to a pitch, which, in the dead stillness of night, might have been distinctly audible to a far greater distance; "good night! my old friend-I hope for the pleasure of many such meetings and partings before we diepleasant dreams and a good night to you

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"Good night, sir sheriff," added Selden, in the same strain of mock courtesy ; 66 we humbly trust you will duly appreciate our late reception of yourself and fellows, in imitation of the much lauded oriental custom of regaling friends with the luxury of the cool bath, which, together with the honor done you of being carried, like other immortal heroes, on the shoulders of men, will make out an entertainment, we flatter ourselves, not wholly unworthy of our guests-good night! "

"Hallo there, sheriff!" cried Jones, determined to have a parting shot as well as the rest; "hallo, sheriff, wont you jest be kind enough to tell us by way of information, before we go, what kind of a return you calculate to make on that warrant you told us about. We should like grandly to see it when you have got it fixed. That 'tother poor bothered sheriff's non comeatibus in swampo, I guess, would be a fool to it."

CHAPTER III.

"Ah, me! what perils do environ
The man that meddles with cold iron
What plaguy mischiefs and mishaps
Do dog him still with afterclaps."

SHERWOOD, the person we introduced in the last chapter, and left a prisoner in the hands of the Green Mountain Boys, a fair candidate for the honors of the Beech-seal, or some other of the novel and ingenious modes of punishment, which the settlers were accustomed to inflict on their foes with equal promptitude, whether they were foreign or domestic, was a resident of New Haven, in the vicinity of the lower falls of Otter Creek, then embraced within the limits of that town, but now forming the site of Vergennes, the only incorporated city of Vermont. He had here located himself, ostensively to become a permanent settler to share the fortunes and identify himself with the interests of the New Hampshire grantees; while, in fact, he was a secret agent of a company of New York land-jobbers, in their pay, and himself engaged, at the same time, in speculating in the patents issued by the governor of the last named province. Through the influence of his father, a man of reputed wealth, living near Albany, he had been taken into the employment of this company.

And they, soon finding him a person well fitted for their purposes, induced him, by opening to his avaricious mind the prospect of making a fortune out of the poor settlers of the New Hampshire Grants, in addition to the stated salary to be allowed him, to take a secret agency, and locate himself in some part of the settlement where he would most effectually subserve their interests. In pursuance of this object it had been agreed that he should first proceed to New Hampshire, and, taking out a patent. from that source, should enter Vermont known only as a grantee of that province, in order that he might thus be effectually secured from the hostility of the settlers, and enabled to maintain with them a free and unsuspected intercourse, which, at the present juncture, could alone insure him any success or safety. This had been accordingly done something more than a year previous

to the events of our tale. A single lot of land had been purchased and located by him near the Otter, in the manner agreed on by the company. And so speciously had this wily agent conducted, beginning and carrying on improvements just sufficient to save appearances, while mainly pursuing the objects of his residence in the settlement, that till now he had passed wholly unsuspected of being in the York interest, except in the slight question that had been raised concerning his true character, on account of his having been recognized by some settlers from the south part of the Grants, as before intimated, while on one of his secret journeys to Albany. With these remarks, which will apprize the reader with all that may at present be necessary to be known respecting the previous character and employment of this personage, we will return to the thread of our narrative.

Brightly rose the waning moon over the eastern mountains, which cast their broad, wood-fringed shadows far into the lake, while a flood of silvery light, falling on the sleeping waters and towering forest beyond, was gradually unfolding the bold and magnificent outlines of this wilderness landscape, as our victorious band of Green Mountain Boys merrily sped their way to the western shore.

"What a glorious spectacle!" exclaimed Selden, looking abroad over the scene, as the boat emerged from the dark gloomy line of the mountain shadows into the bright and cheerful tract of illumined waters, that now met them on their course.

"Splendid! splendid, indeed!" responded Warrington, with equal enthusiasm ; such scenes, one would think, were enough to enamour the whole world of a sylvan life.”

"And yet,” observed Selden, "those city smoked exquisites, who claim all the taste and refinement of the country, are horrified at the thought of the life we here lead in the Green Mountains."

"I don't think the creturs are so much to be blamed for that," said Pete Jones "for bringing them here I calculate would be putting them pretty nearly in the plight of frogs that are dug from the bottom of a well—always sure to shiver and die the minute they are brought to the pure air."

"If all this be so," rejoined Warrington, significantly glancing at the dress and comparatively delicate appearance of the prisoner; "I hope that such of this class, as are connected with a certain city to the west of us, will be less inclined to favor our settlement with their presence hereafter. Let them stick to their mode of life and its luxuries, and we will to our mountains. But I am reminded,

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