"What have you been doing there?" "Keeping my mouth shut and my ears open." "And what have you heard?" "Much that you ought to know, and I will tell you if you are not cross with me." "I am never cross with you, Eben." "Then you are to be sent for to Concord, and will be sent as a prisoner to Albany. Gov. Tryon says he will hang you as soon as you reach that city." "How learned you this?" "Nay, should I tell you I might never learn anything more." "When am I to be sent for?" "The messenger is on his way. If you do as we would like you would not go." "Why?" "Because the governor will purchase peace for himself by having you hanged." "Hush! there is some one even now at the door." "Welcome, most worthy Talbot!" exclaimed Allen, when Assistant District Attorney Talbot entered. "What brings you so far from Concord?" "A message to you, Ethan Allen." "To me?" "Yes, from the governor." "A message from Gov. Wentworth is always welcome." "It may not be so in this case. I will explain. An application has been made for your extradition by the governor of New York." "Indeed! And what have I done?" "You are charged with killing a king's officer and robbing him of certain documents which bore the seal of the Colony of New York." "Of both of which crimes I am innocent." "And so the governor thinks, but he has commanded me to explain that it is necessary that you return with me to Concord, there to satisfy the court of your innocence." Ethan looked at Eben, and the youth made a sign to convey that the information he had given was correct and that treachery was intended. "And if I decline to go?" "You will not decline." "I may." "You must not." "I may do so; what then?" "Then I shall order you into arrest." "And take me by force to Concord, and from thence to Albany?" "If the governor so orders." "Then go straight back to the governor and tell him that, with all due respect to him and his authority, I will not go until I am ready, and that if you attempt to arrest me I shall resist by force. I am a free man, and by the grant signed by the governor I am free from arrest unless the local tribunal so orders, and you cannot get any justice in all the Green Mountains to order me into arrest. So go back and learn that Ethan Allen can take care of himself." "But that is treason." "Call it what you like. I shall defend myself when the time comes, and will never submit to tyranny, even from the governor of New Hampshire, nor the king himself." "But I must do as I am bade." "Try to do so, you mean. Let me tell you that Ethan Allen is in the right, and the governor is in the wrong, and I defy you and all the power at your back." CHAPTER VI. BEFORE THE GOVERNOR. Mr. Talbot knew not what to do. Had he lived in the days of the electric telegraph he would have used the wire to obtain instructions. But in those days only a horse was at his disposal, and that was a slow means of travel.