"And what the devil, sir, has Tryon County to do with heathen gods!" he bawled. "You shall see--when the wheels pass," I said, gloomily. He folded his fat hands over his stomach and smoked in obstinate silence. I, too, was silent; again a faint disgust for this man seized me. How noble and unselfish now appeared the conduct of those poor tenants of his who had abandoned their little farms to answer Schuyler's call!--trudging northward with wives and babes, trusting to God for bread to fall like manna in this wilderness to save the frail lives of their loved ones, while they faced the trained troops of Great Britain, and perhaps the Iroquois. And here he sat, the patroon, sucking his pipe, nursing his stomach; too cautious, too thrifty to stand like a man, even for the honor of his own roof-tree! Lord! how mean, how sordid did he look to me, sulking there, his mottled double-chin crowded out upon his stock, his bow-legs wide to cradle the huge belly, his small eyes obstinately a-squint and partly shut, which lent a gross shrewdness to the expanse of fat, almost baleful, like the eye of a squid in its shapeless, jellied body! "What are your plans?" he said, abruptly. I told him that, through Sir George, I had placed my poor services at the State's disposal. "You mean the rebel State's disposal?" "Yes, sir." "Then you are ready to enlist?" "Quite ready, Sir Lupus." "Only awaiting summons from Clinton and Schuyler?" he sneered. "That is all, sir." "And what about your properties in Florida?" "I can do nothing there. If they confiscate them in my absence, they might do worse were I to go back and defy them. I believe my life is worth something to our cause, and it would be only to waste it foolishly if I returned to fight for a few indigo-vats and canefields." "While you can remain here and fight for other people's hen-coops, eh?" "No, sir; only to take up the common quarrel and stand for that liberty which we inherited from those who now seek to dispossess us." "Quite an orator!" he observed, grimly. "The Ormonds were formerly more ready with their swords than with their tongues." "I trust I shall not fail to sustain their traditions," I said, controlling my anger with a desperate effort. He burst out into a hollow laugh. "There you go, red as a turkey-cock and madder than a singed tree-cat! George, can't you let me plague you in comfort! Dammy, it's undutiful! For pity's sake! let me sneer--let me gibe and jeer if it eases me." I glared at him, half inclined to laugh. "Curse it!" he said, wrathfully, "I'm serious. You don't know how serious I am. It's no laughing matter, George. I must do something to ease me!" He burst out into a roar, swearing in volleys.