To the great surprise of the family, no sounds of crying or sobbing came from the kitchen, and when Zeb's mother--a little, frail woman, who had never had her own way since she had been married to Zeke, opened the door an hour later and peeped in, she screamed out: "It's all over! I felt he would do it some day." "Do what, mother?" asked a girl of twelve. "Your father has killed Zeb. He said he would, and now he has done it, and he has gone to bury him." Then there was a scene of shrieking and weeping and sobbing. All the children joined in, and the mother was heart-broken. In the midst of it all father and son walked in, radiant and smiling. If Zeb had been really dead and made himself visible to his astonished family, they could not have been more alarmed. "Mistress Garvan, stop your blubbering. We shall have visitors this night; sha'n't we, Zeb?" "Yes, dad." "Friends of mine. Oh, it will be a great time. Mistress, I'll buy the childer new clothes, ay, that I will, and I'll have a new ox for the farm. It is good, I tell you, to have friends." Mistress Garvan wondered what had come over her stern husband. She knew he had not been drinking, for he would not allow even as much as a drop of dry cider to come into the house. "What have you been doing, Zeke?" she asked him. "Nothing; it's only a little surprise we have. Isn't it so, Zeb?" But Zeb had disappeared, and so no answer was forthcoming from him. Zeb had seen more than he had heard, and he knew of the encampment on Lake Dunmore. He had watched the men, and found out that they drilled at night. He had become suspicious, but had no means of verifying his suspicions until that conversation with Eben. When Eben had incautiously mentioned his name, Zeb remembered that he had heard a man tell his father that Allen was accompanied by a young scout whose name was Pike. Zeke was getting very fidgety. He kept looking at the tall clock, which his father had brought from England many years before, and wondered whether his plot had failed. But his face brightened when a knock at the door betokened the presence of visitors. He opened the door himself, and Ethan Allen and Remember Baker stepped in. "Welcome, most welcome! I would rather see you here than the king of England." Allen placed his finger on his lip as a hint not to speak too loudly. Zeke laughed. "I respect your caution; a day will come when your name will be shouted from the housetops." "You are too flattering, farmer." "Not so; but come to supper. My good wife knows how to tickle the palate of my friends, and you are my friends. Where's Zeb, mother?" "He went out." "He is a bad fellow; I am sure I shall never tame him. I would he were old enough to join the----" "Yes; what age is he?" "Only sixteen." "He is old enough if he has inclination----"