The Hero of Ticonderoga Part 37

He crawled across to Ethan and gently shook him.

"Colonel, we are betrayed."

Allen was about to jump, when Eben whispered:

"Lie still or you will be seen; the loft door is open. I can wake the others, and would it not be well to let them come right up into the loft before we strike?"

"Eben, you ought to be a general. Wake the others and caution them to lie still."

The boy crawled round the loft and quickly did his work.

When Ethan knew that all were awake he spoke in a loud whisper to them:

"Eben has suggested a plan of campaign and I shall adopt it. We must all pretend to be asleep. Let the English enter the loft, and, when the opportunity arises, let the English be on the ground and the patriots above them."

Every man lay perfectly still, and it really seemed as though Eben had been mistaken, for the time was so long before any attempt was made to enter the loft.

Eben knew all that was transpiring. He saw a man's head rise above the floor and look around, and then he heard the man descend the ladder.

It was fully five minutes after he had reached the ground before he again ascended.

The man crawled along the floor and lay perfectly still.

Another, then another, ascended the ladder, until a dozen soldiers in uniform were in the loft.

Eben was not the only one who had watched their movements, for each of the Mountain Boys had one eye sufficiently open to see them.

A rustling of the hay was the signal given by the sergeant for the English to rise.

Each man rose to his feet and stood over the apparently sleeping colonials.

But no sooner had the enemy taken its position than the mountaineers put out their hands suddenly and grasped the soldiers by the legs.

In an instant every soldier was on his back, thrown to the floor with a violence which he did not relish.

And over each man stood one of the mountaineers, ready to blow out the soldier's brains did he attempt to move.

"Get up!" commanded Allen.

Each man rose, looking very sheepish.

"Hand over your guns and other weapons."

The soldiers obeyed. Not because they desired to do so, but at each man's head was a pistol, and in each pistol was a bullet which meant a nameless grave for the man who received it.

The captured men were made to descend the ladder, but no chance of escape was given them, for at the foot of the ladder stood some of the Mountain Boys, ready to fire if necessary.

There was a coil of rope in the barn, and this Allen utilized in securing the prisoners in a novel fashion. He ordered the men to be tied in couples, the right leg of one to the left leg of his mate, after the fashion of a three-legged race. Then the couples were united by a rope which wound round their arms and pa.s.sed from one couple to another, to prevent the party separating.

Warner roused the farmer, and that man was so indignant that he proposed shooting each of the prisoners.

"No, no," said Allen, "they only obeyed orders. I shall let them go this time, if they will tell me the name of the informer."

The English soldiers were loyal and refused to purchase their release on such terms.

After an early breakfast Allen was ready to resume his journey, and he ordered the prisoners to march before him.

When the farm had been left behind a distance of a mile, he told the prisoners they were free to go where they liked, but as a precaution against being followed, he did not unfasten them, knowing that it might be hours before they succeeded in getting loose.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS.

The old hall in Philadelphia, where the city fathers met, was filled with a notable gathering, representing eleven colonies.

Those men const.i.tuted the Second Continental Congress.

The first had been held in October, 1765, and a resolution was adopted declaring that the American colonists, as Englishmen, would not and could not consent to be taxed but by their own representatives. This resolution was called forth through the pa.s.sage of the "Stamp Act."

The Second Congress a.s.sembled in Philadelphia in September, 1774, and pledged the colonies to support Ma.s.sachusetts in her conflict with the English ministry, and after pet.i.tioning the king and the English people, adjourned to meet, as it happened, on the very day that Ethan Allen captured Ticonderoga.

The members of that Congress were all loyal to England. The time for independence had not come.

But what a galaxy of men!

There were such giants among men as Benjamin Franklin, Patrick Henry, Samuel and John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson and George Washington.

But among all those men there was not one whose ambition led him to place self above country.

John Adams told the Congress that the time had come when the English people must learn that it would be better to die fighting for liberty than to live in perpetual slavery.

Not a man wanted war.

Washington had been a soldier with Braddock, and had won distinction, but he was for peace. Jefferson demanded liberty, but he deprecated war.

Sam Adams startled the members by saying that if England persisted in a policy of coercion it would be necessary to fight, yet even Adams believed in peace.

John Adams made a strong speech, in which he asked why a tyrant ever exercised tyranny, and he answered the question by saying it was because the people were unable to resist.

"Let us be strong enough to enforce our demands," said he, "and the king or his ministers will fall back and concede all we ask."

He waited to see the effect of his words.

There was silence.

"Yes, brothers, it is only the strong that obtain justice. The weak pet.i.tion and are spurned, the strong ask and they are listened to with attention, and their demands granted.