[Illustration] “Mais j’y suis, et, mes bons camarades, par tous les dieux, j’y reste!” CHARLES K. JOHNSTON. [Illustration] MR. ARNOLD [Illustration] MR. ARNOLD A ROMANCE OF THE REVOLUTION _By_ FRANCIS LYNDE _Author of_ THE GRAFTERS, THE MASTER OF APPLEBY, THE QUICKENING, ETC. _Frontispiece by_ JOHN WOLCOTT ADAMS INDIANAPOLIS THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY PUBLISHERS COPYRIGHT, 1923 BY THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY _Printed in the United States of America_ PRESS OF BRAUNWORTH & CO. BOOK MANUFACTURERS BROOKLYN, N. Y. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I HOW WE DRANK A TOAST 1 II A VOICE IN THE NIGHT 13 III IN WHICH I SHED MY RANK 32 IV HOW MY RANK WAS REGAINED 50 V A KISS AND A MAN’S LIFE 73 VI DARK NIGHT 85 VII AND AN UNBLEST DAWN 93 VIII A WALK UP GALLOWS HILL 104 IX IN WHICH I PAY A DUTY CALL 114 X IN WHICH A WALL HAS EARS 131 XI OUT OF THE NETTLE, DANGER 146 XII HOW THE HOOK WAS BAITED 163 XIII HOW A FISH WAS HOOKED AND LOST 176 XIV A CASK OF BITTERS 192 XV IN THE FOG 205 XVI THE CUP OF TANTALUS 209 XVII MASKED BATTERIES 221 XVIII IN WHICH THE WIND KEEPS REVELS 239 XIX MINE HONOR’S HONOR 256 XX TRAITORS ALL 277 XXI THE DRUMHEAD COURT 296 XXII IN THE POWDER-ROOM 307 XXIII OPEN FIELD AND RUNNING FLOOD 329 MR. ARNOLD MR. ARNOLD I HOW WE DRANK A TOAST IF THERE were nothing else to recall the day and date, December 14, 1780, I should still be able to name it because it chanced to be my twenty-second birthday, and Jack Pettus, of the Virginia Hundreds, and I were breaking a bottle of wine in honor of it in the bar of old Dirck van Ditteraick’s pot-house tavern at Nyack. The afternoon was cold and gray and dismal. The wine was prodigiously bad; and the tavern bar, lighted by a couple of guttering candles in wall sconces, was a reeking kennel. I was hand-blistered from my long pull down the river from Teller’s Point; and Jack, who had ridden the four miles from General Washington’s headquarters at Tappan to keep the mild birthday wassail with me, was in a mood bitter enough to kill whatever joy the anniversary might be supposed to hold for both or either of us.