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"Yes, life would be short; but if I can serve my country I will dareanything."
"Spoken like a brave man."
"I am ready. I will take Eben Pike with me, and Remember Baker."
"But you will want an interpreter."
"Yes, one who can talk with the Indians as well as the French."
"You do not mean to enlist the Indians?"
"Yes; I will attract to our side every man, and I would every animal,if that were possible."
"What do you think of Old Buckskin?"
"Do you know him?"
"Yes, and he is with us."
"Just the man. Old Buckskin knows every inch of the ground from hereto Quebec. I am glad he is ready to go with me."
The man called Old Buckskin was an eccentric trapper. No one knew hisreal name, and it is within the realm of probability that he hadforgotten it himself.
Allen had met him frequently in the Green Mountains, and knew that hewas an excellent guide, a fearless man and a good hunter.
The next day the little party started from St. Valentin and workednorthward in the direction of St. John.
The people of Pte. la Mull received Allen with great acclaim, for theywere French and had suffered much from the constant interference of theEnglish with their customs and the exercise of their religion. Butthey warned him against the people of Sabrevous, for they were so muchopposed to the New Yorkers that they could not believe anyone whohailed from that colony, or any colony south of the St. Lawrence, couldbe friendly to them.
That was enough for Ethan Allen.
His mission was not to convert those who were friendly, but to gatherin those who were ranked among his enemies.
Turning eastward, he started for Sabrevous, and with greater enthusiasmthan he had felt up to that time.
Allen and his party were dressed ostensibly as merchants, and heprofessed to be in search of rare skins, to fill an order.
To give color to this assertion, Old Buckskin had brought with him askin of the rarest color and kind, and Allen declared he should neverrest until he had matched it.
No one knew better than Allen, unless it was Old Buckskin, that itwould be the most difficult thing to find that shade of natural wool,and so the ruse was successful.
Early one morning, for the march was slow, a man approached the partyand stopped Allen.
In French he asked if he was the merchant in search of a peculiar skin.
Allen answered in the affirmative.
"I can take you to the place where you can get as many as you want."
"I will reward you."
"Follow me."
"Where to?"
"Follow me and you shall have the skins at your own price."
"Remember that you have said at my own price."
