He had been at Albany several days when he returned alone from the flats to the town late one evening.  At a dark turn in the road he heard a report, and a bullet whistled very near him.  It was followed quickly by a second report, but not by the whistling of any bullet.  He had a pair of pistols in his belt, and, taking out one and cocking it, he searched the woods, though he found nothing.  He concluded then that it was a random bullet fired by some returning hunter, and that the second shot was doubtless of the same character.  But the first hunter had been uncommonly careless and he hastened his steps from a locality which had been so dangerous, even accidentally.

Inured, however, as he was to risks, the incident soon passed entirely out of his mind.  Yet an hour or two later the lad, Peter, sat in a back room with Mynheer Jacobus Huysman, and told him with relish of the occurrence at the dark turn of the road.

“I was fifty or sixty yards behind in the shadow of the trees,” he said.  “I could see Master Lennox very well, though he could not see me.  The figure of a man appeared in the woods near me and aimed a pistol at Master Lennox.  I could not see his face well, but I knew it was the man on the boat who was talking to Mynheer Van Zoon.  I uttered a cry which did not reach Master Lennox, but which did reach the man with the pistol.  It disturbed his aim, and his bullet flew wide.  Then I fired at him, but if I touched him at all it was but lightly.  He made off through the woods and I followed, but his speed was so great I could not overtake him.”

“You haf done well, Peter.  Doubtless you haf saved the life of young Master Lennox, which was the task set for you to do.  But it iss not enough.  You may haf to save it a second und yet a third time.”

The pale blue eyes of Peter glistened.  Obviously he liked his present task much better than the doing of chores.

“You can trust me, Mynheer Huysman,” he said importantly.  “I will guard him, and I will do more.  Is there anybody you want killed?”

“No, no, you young savage!  You are to shoot only in self-defense, or in defense of young Lennox whom you are to protect.  Bear that in mind.”

“Very well, Mynheer.  Your orders are law to me.”

Peter went out of the room and slid away in the darkness.  Mynheer Jacobus Huysman watched his departure and sighed.  He was a good man, averse to violence and bloodshed, and he murmured: 

“The world iss in a fever.  The nations fight among themselves und even the lads talk lightly of taking life.”

Peter reported to him again the next night, when Robert was safely in bed.