“And the man who did not look like a sailor was left on the ship.  It may mean nothing, or it may mean anything, but my mind tells me it hath an unpleasant significance.  Now, I wish I knew this man who is lying hid in the Dirkhoeven.  Perhaps it would be better, Jacobus, to instruct Peter to follow the lad, Lennox, and give the alarm if any threat or menace appears.”

“I think it is the wiser course, Benjamin, and I will even instruct Peter in such manner.”

He spoke a few sentences to Peter, who listened with eagerness, apparently delighted with the task set for him.  When Mynheer Huysman had finished the lad slipped out at a back door, and was gone like a shadow.

“An admirable youth for our purpose,” said Mynheer Jacobus Huysman.  “He likes not work, but if he is to watch or follow anyone he hangs on like a hound.  In Albany he will become the second self of young Lennox, whose first self will not know that he has a second self.”

They returned to the portico.  Robert glanced curiously at them, but not one of the three offered any explanation.  He knew, however, that their guarded talk with Peter had to do with himself, and he felt a great emotion of gratitude.  If he was surrounded by dangers he was also surrounded by powerful friends.  If chance had put him on the outskirts of the world it had also given him comrades who were an armor of steel about him.

Tayoga and he occupied their old bedroom at Mynheer Jacobus Huysman’s that night, and once when Robert glanced out of the window he caught a glimpse of a dark figure lurking in the shrubbery.  It was a man who did not look like a sailor, but as he did not know of the conversation in the inner room the shadow attracted little attention from him.  It disappeared in an instant, and he thought no more about it.

Robert and his comrades were back in the camp next day, and now they saw Colonel Johnson at his best, a man of wonderful understanding and tact.  He was soon able to break through the reserve of the New England citizen officers who were not wont to give their confidence in a hurry, and around great bowls of lemon punch they talked of the campaign.  The Mohawks, as of old, told him all their grievances, which he remedied when just, and persuaded them into forgetting when unjust.

Robert, Tayoga and Willet, in their capacity of scouts and skirmishers, could go about practically as they pleased.  Colonel Johnson trusted them absolutely and they talked of striking out into the wilderness on a new expedition to see what lay ahead of the army.  Adrian Van Zoon, they learned definitely, had started for New York on the Dirkhoeven, and Robert felt relief.  Yet the lank lad, Peter, still followed him, and, as had been predicted truly, was his second self, although his first self did not know it.