| I | THE PROJECT |
| II | THE ESCAPE |
| III | IN BOSTON |
| IV | ON THE PASCATAQUA |
| V | STEPHEN KIDDER |
| VI | SEWATIS |
"I fear you are undertaking too much, Neal. When a fellow lacks twoyears of his majority—"
"You forget that I have been my own master more than a year. Fathergave me my time before he died, and that in the presence of GovernorWentworth himself."
"Why before him rather than 'Squire White?"
"I don't know. My good friend Andrew McCleary attended to the businessfor me, and to-day I may make contracts as legally as two years hence."
"Even with that advantage I do not see how it will be possible for youto build a grist-mill; or, if you should succeed in getting so far withthe project, how you can procure the machinery. It is such anundertaking as Andrew McCleary himself would not venture."
"Yet he has promised me every assistance in his power."
"And how much may that be? He has no friends at court who can—"
"Neither does he wish for one there, Stephen Kidder. He is a man whohas the welfare of the colonists too much at heart to seek for friendsnear the throne."
"It is there he will need them if he hopes to benefit New Hampshire."
"Perhaps not. The time is coming when it behooves each of us to observewell the law regarding our arms."
"You mean the statute which declares that 'every male from sixteen tosixty must have ready for use one musket and bayonet, a knapsack,cartridge-box, one pound of powder, twenty bullets and twelve flints?'"
"There is none other that I know of."
"Then I shall not be a law-breaker, for I am provided in due form. Butwhat has that to do with your mill? I think you will find it difficultto buy the stamped paper necessary for the lawful making of yourcontracts unless you dispose of your outfit for war or hunting, whichis the best to be found in Portsmouth."
"That I shall never do, even if I fail in getting the mill. Do youknow, Stephen, that I was admitted to t