Chapter 23 - Page 2

obvious course for any man to take who felt anxious
to escape; but the sounds of high conviviality, bursting from the
cheerful apartment, among which the cockswain thought he distinguished
the name of Griffith, determined Tom to advance and reconnoitre the
scene more closely. The reader will anticipate that when he paused in
the shadow, the doubting old seaman stood once more near the threshold
which he had so lately crossed, when conducted to the room of
Borroughcliffe. The seat of that gentleman was now occupied by Dillon,
and Colonel Howard had resumed his wonted station at the foot of the
table. The noise was chiefly made by the latter, who had evidently been
enjoying a more minute relation of the means by which his kinsman had
entrapped his unwary enemy.

"A noble ruse!" cried the veteran, as Tom assumed his post, in ambush;
"a most noble and ingenious ruse, and such a one as would have baffled
Caesar! He must have been a cunning dog, that Caesar; but I do think,
Kit, you would have been too much for him; hang me, if I don't think you
would have puzzled Wolfe himself, had you held Quebec, instead of
Montcalm! Ah, boy, we want you in the colonies, with the ermine over
your shoulders; such men as you, cousin Christopher, are sadly, sadly
wanted there to defend his majesty's rights."

"Indeed, dear sir, your partiality gives me credit for qualities I do
not possess," said Dillon, dropping his eyes, perhaps with a feeling of
conscious unworthiness, but with an air of much humility; "the little
justifiable artifice----"

"Ay! there lies the beauty of the transaction," interrupted the colonel,
shoving the bottle from him, with the free, open air of a man who never
harbored disguise; "you told no lie; no mean deception, that any dog,
however base and unworthy, might invent; but you practised a neat, a
military, a--a--yes, a classical deception on your enemy; a classical
deception, that is the very term for it! such a deception as Pompey, or
Mark Antony, or--or--you know those old fellows' names, better than I
do, Kit; but name the cleverest fellow that ever lived in Greece or
Rome, and I shall say he is a dunce compared to you. 'Twas a real
Spartan trick, both simple and honest."

It was extremely fortunate for Dillon, that the animation of his aged
kinsman kept his head and body in such constant motion, during this
apostrophe, as to intercept the aim that the cockswain was deliberately
taking at his head with one of Borroughcliffe's pistols; and perhaps the
sense of shame which induced him to sink his face on his hands was
another means of saving his life, by giving the indignant old seaman
time for reflection.

"But you have