Kitabı oku: «The Minute Boys of Boston», sayfa 18
CHAPTER XVIII
TURNING THE TRICK
Archie glanced up at me with a look of fear on his face, as he whispered in a tremulous voice:
"Don't take any chances!" and, softly making his way to the center of the room, he took from the floor Harvey's coat, which had been thrown there when we were minded to gag Seth Jepson. This he gave to me nervously, and, holding the knife between my teeth, I rolled one end of it into a wad such as would fit snugly into the mouth of that man who had counted on delivering us over to the Britishers.
Master Lord opened his jaws without waiting to be bidden, for he must have seen on my face a determination to put an end to his career of treachery at the lightest token of making an outcry.
While I was doing this, Harvey, understanding the need of securing both the prisoners beyond any possibility they could do us a mischief by raising their voices, tore off the sleeve of his shirt, and Archie speedily thrust it into Seth Jepson's mouth.
When this had been done there seemed little chance either of the captives could do more than give utterance to moans; but, lest they might succeed in loosening their bonds, I whispered to Harvey:
"You must stay here and keep sharp watch over them, while Archie and I go to the room above."
"To what end?" he asked in surprise, and I replied hurriedly:
"Hiram may return at any moment, and we must be ready to open the door for him."
Just then the summons was repeated more sharply than before, and I dared not linger to explain to Harvey what had been agreed upon between Hiram and myself, therefore, motioning for Archie to follow, I went up the ladder with all possible speed, yet at the same time taking extra good care, as may be supposed, not to make so much of noise as could be heard by those on the outside.
Once on the floor above I halted to whisper in Archie's ear that which was to be done in case Hiram returned before these unwelcome visitors had departed, and meanwhile we could hear voices on the outside, as if those who awaited the opening of the door were discussing among themselves the cause of Master Lord's delay in giving them entrance.
Involuntarily Archie looked around hurriedly for something which would serve him as a weapon in case we should be obliged to give battle, and, thus reminded that we would be at a disadvantage unless having other than our bare fists with which to strike a blow, I followed his example.
Nothing fitting met my gaze save a three-legged stool which had been thrown in one corner, the top shattered, and this I seized hastily, finding it possible to pull out one of the legs without making any noise worth mentioning.
Archie armed himself with a second leg, and I laid the third up where it might be come at conveniently in case, by any mischance, one of us should need a spare weapon.
Verily it seemed as if a kind Providence was watching over us, for no sooner were we thus prepared to meet Job Lord's Tory friends, if perchance it became necessary to give them entrance, when we heard loud voices, as if other visitors had come up, and Archie took me by the hand to hearten himself as well as me, for now did it seem certain a conflict was near at hand.
One can the better understand what a long head was Hiram Griffin's, when I set it down that before leaving the house he had lighted a tallow dip, leaving it in one corner of the room where the feeble rays of light could not be seen through the crevices of the shutter, and but for his forethought in this regard we would have been in darkness, which is the same as saying we must find ourselves at a great disadvantage in event of a fight with Master Lord's friends.
Archie and I stood within three paces of the door, still clasping each other by the hand and striving to hear what was being said on the outside to the end that we might have some inkling of how many had come, when two loud, deliberate knocks on the shutter told that Hiram Griffin was returned.
My heart literally ceased beating for the instant, and it seemed as if I was in danger of suffocation, so great was my excitement and anxiety. Hiram had come back from the Bridewell; but had he brought with him Silas Brownrigg?
Whether he had or no, it was necessary we open the door without delay, and at the same time stand ready for a rough and tumble fight, because there was no question but that those who first demanded admittance were still there, while it was also positive Hiram had decided upon carrying into execution the plan agreed upon before he set out.
Motioning Archie to take station on one side of the door where he might be ready to strike a blow at the first opportunity, I whispered in a tremulous voice:
"Be careful not to miss your aim, and put sufficient of strength into the blow to bring down your man. Hiram will send the Tories in first, as a matter of course."
Then, with all the blood in my body seemingly surging into my head, I opened the door, and on the instant heard Hiram say in an exceedingly friendly tone:
"Enter, good sirs. Master Lord will return within a short time to conclude the business concerning which you squabbled the other night."
These words were spoken, no doubt, to warn Archie and me that there could be no question as to the character of those to whom they were addressed, and I raised the leg of the stool high above my head, understanding full well that if we failed of overcoming them at the onset, our race in Boston town had come to a speedy end.
Unfortunately it so chanced that both Archie and I struck at the man who was in the lead, and the fellow had no more than got well across the threshold when he pitched headlong, as an ox falls under the axe of the butcher.
Even as this was done I could see that the second man attempted to leap backward, a cry of fear escaping his lips, and my heart grew cold, for it needed not any one should tell me that if he succeeded in giving us the slip the lobster backs would soon learn what kind of a trick we had striven to play.
I might have understood, however, that Hiram Griffin stood in readiness to guard against any such danger, and even as the fear came into my heart he had leaped upon the shoulders of the fellow who strove to turn back, the weight of his body sending both himself and his captive into the room.
A fourth figure leaped nimbly in and aided me in closing the door, therefore I understood that the game at the Bridewell had been played without an error, for it could be none other than Silas Brownrigg who followed Hiram so closely.
There was no time for greetings or rejoicing; but I did delay sufficiently long to ask in a low tone:
"Were there only two?"
"No more," Silas cried quickly as he leaped to aid Hiram, who was struggling with the fellow he had thrust into the room, and verily the Tory was putting up a stout fight.
"Gag him!" Hiram cried even while the two were rolling here and there so rapidly that it was with difficulty we could, in that faint light, distinguish friend from foe, and Archie sacrificed a sleeve of his shirt, rolling it into a wad as he stood ready to thrust it into the Tory's mouth at the first opportunity.
The fellow whom Archie and I had stricken down was sprawled out on the floor upon his face, like one dead, and I knew we had nothing to fear from him for some time to come, even if the life yet remained in his body, therefore I took a hand in the battle Hiram was waging so desperately.
With us three lads to lend a hand, the struggle was soon brought to an end, and when we had bound and gagged the stranger so securely that he could not have made the slightest sound had his life depended on it, I turned to Silas, crushing his hands in mine as I cried, giving no heed to the possibility that there might be more enemies on the outside:
"We have got you, lad, from out the lion's jaws! How was it done?"
"I am yet bewildered," Silas replied as if in a maze. "Hiram had with him a lobster back, who walked with us to the corner of the lane, and therefore we had no opportunity for conversation."
"You can do your tongue wagging when we are clear of this blooming town," Hiram cried sharply. "Stories will keep; but there's no telling how soon the wind may shift against us, for we are sailing mightily close-hauled. What about this lover of the king's?" and he stooped over the man whose head had received Archie's blow as well as mine.
There was little need to spend much time in the examination. It was certain he yet breathed; but more than that could not be said, and Hiram cried as he rose to his feet:
"Now then, lads, move lively, for we must be under way within the next five minutes, or take the chances of stopping here longer than will be pleasant."
"Are any of the lobster backs suspicious?" I asked in a fever of fear, and he replied in a grim tone:
"The lieutenant at the Bridewell failed to understand why Job Lord did not come in person for the prisoner, and save that he feared to set awry some plan of General Gage's, he would have held me there till word could be sent to headquarters. There's no telling how soon he may get word to those who will come to find out if everything is as it should be."
Even while speaking Hiram was descending the ladder, at the foot of which Harvey stood white-faced, with staring eyes, for he had no means of knowing how the battle was going, and I could understand full well in what a turmoil must have been his mind.
"It's all right, lad," Hiram said reassuringly as he laid his hand on Harvey's shoulder. "Pull yourself together, for we must make a quick flitting. Best carry Seth up stairs, so he may have company while we are gone."
"I thought it was agreed he would go with us," I cried hotly, not of the mind to lose one of our prisoners even though we yet stood in so much of danger.
"We can't take the chances of two, as matters stand now, and Job Lord is the more valuable to our friends in Cambridge," Hiram said, speaking hurriedly as he began to cast off the bonds from the man's feet. "The lobster back who went with me to the Bridewell knows I was given but one, and he is to aid us in embarking, therefore to have two would cause a suspicion to enter even his thick head."
Hiram had Master Lord in shape for walking by this time; but the fellow flatly refused to rise from the bed, declaring that his limbs were so cramped he had no control over them.
"It will be well that you get them into shape in short order, for we count on taking you with us, or leaving you here dead, and there is little time in which to make a choice," Hiram said in a tone which gave proof that his were no idle words. "Carry the boy up the ladder, and leave him on the floor," he added to me, and this Harvey and I did with all speed, while Archie and Silas stood by to lend our leader a hand if so be he might need it.
I had no opportunity of hearing whether Master Lord made further protest against doing as he had been commanded; but it seemed to me that Harvey and I had no sooner laid Seth Jepson by the side of the Tory who had been so severely injured, than Hiram appeared at the top of the ladder with the double-faced scoundrel by his side.
"Do you know where the ship-yard that is owned by a man named Edes may be located?" Hiram asked immediately he had come up into the room, and we lads soon gave him to understand that the place was familiar to us.
"Then lead the way, stepping out lively, for I am not minded to linger here many minutes," he said sharply, turning to seize Master Lord by the collar.
"But what about these fellows?" I asked, pointing to Seth and the two men. "Are they to be left helpless and gagged?"
"There is no other way out of it, and I dare venture to say they would not have any heart-ache to leave us in even a worse plight."
"But the wretches will starve to death!" I cried in horror, and Hiram replied grimly:
"I would leave them to such a fate rather than miss taking Job Lord to those whom he has deceived so long; but there is little danger, though I won't say but they'll be mighty uncomfortable for a time. 'Twixt now and morning one or more of this scoundrel's friends will come to concoct yet further harm to the Cause, and, if we leave the door unlocked, they'll be released sooner than is deserved."
Archie would have lingered to make Seth a bit more comfortable by loosening the gag ever so little; but Hiram literally drove him toward the door as he cried in an angry tone, which I dare say was assumed to cover his nervousness:
"Look after yourself, lad, and give over being soft-hearted about such curs. We've got no easy job before us, and are needing every moment of time." Then to Master Lord he added, "If you are minded to make any noise as we walk through the streets, remember what I have threatened to do, and understand that it's my belief I'd be doing a good deed to put you out of the world!"
It seemed to me there was little need for such caution. The traitor was yet gagged, and strive as he might could not have done other than moan ever so softly.
We left the house which had been our prison, in haste, as if already the pursuers were at our heels, and when we stepped into the open air I recalled that which Hiram had said regarding the lobster back who was to aid us in embarking, therefore whispered to our leader as we went at a swift pace in the direction of the ship-yard:
"Is there not danger the Britisher who went with you to the Bridewell will come to understand that you have made a change of prisoners?"
"That is one of the chances we are taking, lad. I strove to keep him from having a fair look at Silas, and hope the effort was successful. If not, it will be a case of fighting another battle with all the odds against us, for the guard-house is so near at hand that we could not make much of a disturbance without being overheard by those on duty. Push forward, and do not try to find fresh cause for fear, since we have all of danger before us that I care to think about."
Acting in accordance with Hiram's instructions, we lads pressed closely around Job Lord for the double purpose of hiding him from view as much as possible while at the same time we forced him to a rapid pace, and in silence, save for the heavy breathing of the prisoner caused by the gag, and the sound of our footsteps, we advanced unchallenged to where the skiff was found.
But for the fact that I believed death lurked very closely in our rear, I could have found something comical in the fact that we were being aided in our flight by one of the king's men, who believed he was having a finger in the pie to be baked for the "rebels," and even though I trembled with fear and anxiety, it was impossible to check a smile when I saw the thick-headed Britisher waiting patiently by the water's edge for us to come up.
In order that we might get away the more quickly, he had the skiff afloat, holding her by the painter, and as we approached Hiram thrust Job Lord on board in advance, following so closely as to screen him from view. If the lobster back had previously had any suspicions, he might have noted something strange in the manner of our clustering around the prisoner even after we had taken our places in the boat; but the dull fellow believed he was aiding in what would work injury to those whom he had come across the ocean to kill, and gave heed to nothing save his own part in the enterprise.
As I think of the matter now, it seems almost like a fairy tale, this story of being aided to escape by one of the king's men, with a squad of soldiers at the guard-house nearby ready to lend a hand in case we needed it; but such was the case, and had it not been so I believe of a verity we had never gone out of Boston town alive, for if the tables had been turned, Master Lord and his friends would have seen to it that we were hanged on one pretext or another.
Whatever the dangers we had encountered, or however narrow the escape, we were free at last, for even though one of the guard-boats overhauled us, the pass signed by General Gage himself would have been enough to insure safe conduct, and when the skiff had been pulled by Harvey and Silas so far from the shore that we could see behind us nothing save the lights that twinkled here and there, it was with difficulty I repressed a shout of triumph.
As it was I could not hold my peace; but, leaning toward Hiram as he sat by Master Lord's side in the stern-sheets, said gleefully:
"We have come out from among the Britishers without a scratch, and in addition to releasing one of our own who was in prison, are taking to Cambridge a spy who might have worked the Cause fatal harm, therefore who shall say that the Minute Boys, if so be you still count yourself one, have not shown themselves able to do the work of men?"
"I sure do count myself one of the Minute Boys, lad, and shall do so till our little muss with the king has come to an end, leaving us colonists on the top of the heap. But say, Luke Wright, this last trick over which we have the right to do a good bit of crowing, has been a close shave. Unless everything had worked according to our desires, we would have been undone, and I'm thinking the shadow of the gallows was dark over us in that hour when I set off for the Bridewell."
"Tell me what happened there?"
"It isn't much of a story, for the plan worked as if it had been greased, though I'm free to confess that I had but little hope of pulling through when I left you. My heart was thumping fit to burst when I called for the officer on duty, holding my head high as if General Gage had been my brother. The lieutenant who gave me a hearing was by no means the dullard you might have expected him to be, and eyed me in a way that wasn't comforting. Of course I had to explain that Master Lord wasn't quite in condition to venture out, and that I was helping him in setting a trap for the rebels. While you might have counted twenty I felt certain he was minded to send to headquarters to learn if the order was all right, and I made bold to urge that a delay of half an hour would set all our plans awry, which you'll agree was nothing more than solemn truth."
"Then he allowed you to take Silas?" I asked eagerly.
"Yes, after considerable humming and hawing; but I'm of the belief that if the lobster back hadn't been with me it would have been a different matter. The lieutenant couldn't fail of being impressed by the fact that I had come with one of his own kidney as escort, and from this out I shall have a kindly feeling for a red coat, even though I fail to love the one that wears it."
"And now we'll give the officer at the battery the surprise of his life, when we show him Job Lord as prisoner after he sent us to him with such recommendations as to his loyalty," I cried with a laugh, whereupon Hiram replied gravely:
"If I have my way, we'll give the battery a wide berth, lad, and for two reasons. The first is that I'm not minded to be delayed on the journey to Cambridge, and who can say that the lieutenant wouldn't insist on taking charge of our prisoner, which would be depriving us of the credit we deserve. The second reason is more serious. Because the officer at the battery vouched so strongly for Job Lord, it is barely possible that he may be as great a traitor as our captive, and I'll give him no chance to set his partner free."
"Of course you'll have your way, so far as leading us lads is concerned," I said quickly. "Surely you have earned the right an hundred times over, even though we were disposed to contest it, which we are not. How do you count on getting to Cambridge?"
"We'll pull up the creek as far as is possible to take the skiff, giving our battery as wide a berth as we give those fortifications manned by the Britishers, and, once forced to abandon the craft, set off on the highway, stopping for nothing this side of Cambridge, for the sooner Job Lord's treachery is made known to our people there, the more easy in mind I'll be concerning his being held securely."
And now because of the fact that within the past hour it has been whispered around the encampment that we of the American army are about to strike another blow against the Britishers, and preparations are being made for the march, I must bring this poor yarn of mine to a speedy close lest I find myself unable to finish it.
As Hiram had said so we did, and before another day was come we were in the American encampment, telling to General Ward all we had learned.
There is little need to say that Job Lord was cared for securely, and Hiram believes that after this movement which seems to be on foot, has been made, the double-faced villain will be hanged for his crimes, more especially since it is now known how much of harm he succeeded in working to the Cause while professing to be devoted to it.
Our people have learned to a certainty that this same Master Lord had been paid regularly by General Gage for his services as traitor; but we can only guess as to why he wanted to hold us prisoners in his house, and at the same time get possession of Silas, for it seems positive the lad was the prisoner whom he counted on taking when he presented the order which Hiram used to such good effect.
My father believes it was Job Lord's aim to hold us lads as a bait to entice some of our prominent people into making a try at succoring us, and thus succeed in delivering to General Gage one or more of the American officers. Hiram declares that if we had made thorough search of the villain's house, it is likely we might have found that which would give us a clue to the whole plot as he had schemed it.
I am of the mind that we remained in the building on Cow lane quite as long as was safe, and it makes little difference what he counted on doing, since we blocked his game and at the same time brought him to grief.
Archie is confident that the day must come when, by getting hold of Seth Jepson once more, as all of us lads believe will be our good fortune, we shall be able to learn no little of Master Lord's villainy which as yet is a secret between himself and his Tory cronies. It is certain that if we ever get the treacherous little traitor in our hands again, he can be made to turn himself inside out, because of being so cowardly that in order to save himself from punishment he will not hesitate to betray his friends.
When we have discovered what Job Lord would have done with us had his career not been cut so short, then shall we most likely learn the cause of what was much the same as a fight between himself and his visitors when we were prisoners in the cellar; but I have very little curiosity regarding this last matter, now that we have come to be members of the army, holding as honorable a position as if we were men grown.
Yes, after the venture into Boston town, and the taking of Job Lord as prisoner, it was allowed that we had the right to be regularly enrolled, and to-day, when we are making ready to give the king another slap in the face, there is no company of soldiers in the encampment who are seemingly held in higher esteem by our commanders, than the Minute Boys of Boston.
