"But I have news I must tell. Gen. Montgomery is on his way to Ticonderoga to join Arnold in his invasion of Canada. He will be here to-morrow." The speech was long for him, and his flushed cheek and quivering voice told how the message had shaken his frame. Late that night he woke from a good sleep, and seeing Allen by his bed, he put out one hand. "I am so glad to see you, colonel. I feel all right now. I thought I should die without seeing you." "Where have you been?" "I cannot tell you all, but when I left here I fell into the hands of a tory, and he knew me. He called me a spy, and wanted to hang me, but before he could get a rope a new idea came to him. He called some more tories together and they laughed at his suggestion. He wanted to cover me with tar and then set light to it." "His name? I will serve him that way." "The tar was poured all over me, and my clothes were saturated with it. But when he went for a light to set me on fire, his little boy, a sweet little fellow, ran from the house and called 'fire,' and just then a flame did break out through the windows. The tory thought more of his house than he did of me, so I ran away as fast as I could." Eben rested after telling that adventure, and it was more than an hour before he could resume his narrative. "I ran as fast as I ever did in my life, and, as bad luck would have it, I fell into the hands of some English soldiers. They did not know me, and thought I was some ignorant country lad, so I fared pretty well, and only stayed with them two days. When they broke camp they insisted that I should go with them, and as I had told them I was going in the very direction they intended going, I could not help myself." "You were in hard luck." "Yes, but that was not the last of my adventures, for I was recognized by another tory, who had been birched by some of our men for his treachery. He claimed me as his prisoner, and to get me had to swear that I was his apprentice, who had run away." "And of course the soldiers gave you to him?" "Yes, and a nice time I had of it. The farmer stripped me and then gave me fifty strokes with a strong cane----" "The villain!" "But that was not the worst. He threw me naked into a cellar and kept me without food until I began to lose my senses, and then he gave me these old clothes and some food. I managed after a long time to escape, and for a week I wandered about the woods, living on what I could pick up, until I managed to reach here. I dare not go to a house, for the tories were searching for me, and I was afraid to even jump into the river for fear that I might be seen and have no chance of escape." "Poor fellow. So you failed in obtaining the information for which you set out." "Failed? No, I got it, and though it is a trifle late, I find it is in time."