whereof the haunts of the outlyers were not concealed from him, and he was employed to procure information from the English settlements, and depended on, generally, as a confederate.  Quecheco was not without affection; in proof whereof, he had withstood the bribe at first offered for the capture of Sir Christopher, but his feeble virtue finally succumbed.  There was one temptation which he was unable to withstand.  He had frequently been a witness of the effectiveness of the gun in the hands of the Knight, and, with a hunter’s love, conceived a longing to possess one.  This was no easy matter to be accomplished, furnishing guns to Indians being strictly prohibited, and such weapons taken away whenever found in their possession.  Quecheco now thought he saw an opportunity of gratifying a desire that had become a mania, and determined that a gun should be the price of his friend’s liberty.

With this view, at one of his visits to Plymouth, or Accomack, he sought Governor Bradford, with whom he was acquainted, and proposed to deliver the Knight into his hands, in consideration of the coveted gun and a certain quantity of powder and ball.  Much as was desired the capture of Sir Christopher, Bradford hesitated, but finally promised the bribe, stipulating for the life of the Knight, considering that the rule might bear infringement in a single instance, for the sake of the object to be attained; and from that moment Quecheco begun his work of treachery.

In consequence of the activity of the search, the fugitives had been obliged not only often to change their hiding-place, but sometimes to remove to a considerable distance from Boston.  One of their favorite resorts was near Plymouth, both because they were less likely to be suspected to lurk in a vicinity where the Knight had no acquaintances, and also on account of a greater abundance of game.  Here the two white men often remained without Towanquattick, who, less liable to discovery, hovered around the spot where was the sister of his Sagamore.

Such being the state of things, Quecheco selected the neighborhood of Plymouth (on account of the absence of Towanquattick, betwixt whom and himself a feeling of mutual dislike existed, caused in his jealous mind by the favor which the Knight had lately shown the Pequot, and which he esteemed a derogation of his rights) as the theatre of his plot, and here we find Sir Christopher at this moment.

“Our larder is exhausted, Philip,” said the Knight one morning, “and must be replenished.  Shall we try our fortune together?”

“I am always ready,” answered Philip.  “It is two days since I stretched my legs, and, by my halidome, I shall forget how to use them, without more practice.”

“Methinks,” replied the Knight, smiling, “it is less than a week since I saw legs much resembling thine moving with marvellous celerity.”

“When this copper-hide here showed us Venn’s band, within a hundred yards of the old wigwam, right under Winthrop’s nose, in the swamp.  Aye, it was high time to be moving; but it was unkind of Venn to burn our quarters, seeing that I had been a sergeant in his company.