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CHAPTER XXXV.
"One freeman more, America, to thee!"
Byron.
The meeting in the forest had completely changed Evelyn's position. A band of fifty individuals, to many of whom he was bound by former ties of service, and with whom he was linked by the strong bond of mutual belief and opinion, now looked up to him as their leader. He felt the responsibility in which he was so suddenly involved, but he did not shrink from it. A channel was now opened for the efforts which it had hitherto seemed so fruitless to make, and for the energy which, during months past, had wasted itself in dreams of the impossible. The wild savannah and the dense forest rose vividly before his imagination. The one would soon grow golden with its summer harvest, and the other soon ring with the axe, the first sound of coming civilisation. There might be danger, there would certainly be difficulties; but what danger has not human
