The Minute Boys of Boston Part 6

"Think you we should go back and try to find the lad?" I asked helplessly, and he cried as if in anger:

"To what end? Have you an idea that two might take him by force from such a gang as made him prisoner?"

"We could at least go to prison with him, and not have it said we deserted a comrade."

"Lad," Hiram began, laying his hand impressively on my arm, "before this 'ere squabble with the king has come to an end there will be many a good lad clapped into prison, and many another sent into the next world by means of British bullets. If we of the colonies count on gaining our freedom we must not let the life or liberty of one person stand in our way, however dear to our hearts that one may be."

"Then you believe we should leave the poor lad to his fate?" I asked.

"Ay, what else can be done? I came for two lads, and if so be it is possible I will carry back at least one with me. In case that can't be accomplished, I'll do my best to save my own skin in order to make report. Where's your skiff?"

"Just yonder," and I pointed to a dark ma.s.s twenty feet or more away.

"'Tis time we were setting off, for no one can say how much more of danger we may strike before crossing the water."

Hiram was making of what seemed to me a most exciting adventure, nothing more than business, and his matter-of-fact way of looking at the situation did more toward bringing me to my senses than any line of argument he could have used.

I ran to the skiff, and when we had dragged her down the sh.o.r.e until she was waterborne, both of us stopped as with one accord to listen lest an enemy might have been creeping up on us.

Nothing came to our ears save the splash of oars in the distance nearby where the king's ships were at anchor, and a distant hum as of people moving about in the town a long way off.

"I reckon this is as good a time as we'll find for making the start,"

Hiram said as he clambered into the skiff. "I don't count myself as much of a sailor, and therefore you will have to take a hand in this until we have landed somewhere near to Willis creek, which is our best course on the road to Cambridge."

"Why not go by Cambridge river?" I asked, eager to save myself a long tramp on land.

"If you are willing to take the risk, I'm agreed; but it strikes me that if the guard-boats are very thick hereabouts we'll have a better show of getting off scot free by going up the creek, than if we sailed entirely around the town, as we must in order to gain the river."

There was some good sense in what he said, which I understood even before he ceased speaking, and I made reply while pushing the skiff out from amid the rotten timbers:

"It would seem as if you were sailor enough to understand what dangers lie in our course, and perhaps I had best give over the command to you, for verily I showed myself a simple by thinking it possible to go by the river."

"I have been around Cambridge a few days, an' seein's how there was a chance my mother's son might get himself into a sc.r.a.pe while these 'ere Britishers are so careless with their guns, I made it my business to pick up a pretty good idee of the situation," Hiram said with a chuckle of mirth at his own precautions. "I figured quite a spell ago that if a man wanted to get across to the other sh.o.r.e, he'd best make the water part of the journey as short as might be."

By this time we were well out from beneath the wharf. I had taken up the oars, since there was not wind enough to fill the sail, and was counting on stretching across from Hudson's point to Charlestown, when Hiram whispered softly:

"Turn about lad; head exactly opposite to where you count on going, for yonder, coming this way if I'm not mistaken, is a craft of some kind."

Fortunately I acted on his suggestion without delaying to ask the reason for such a move, and it was well that I did, since we were no sooner headed toward Noddle island than I could make out, even in the gloom, a boat filled with men which seemingly had come from the direction of the water mill.

It is needless to say that I put every ounce of strength on the oars; but in the other craft there were no less than four men pulling vigorously, and our chances of escaping un.o.bserved would have been slight indeed had not Hiram lent his aid.

Seizing the second pair of oars he swung himself around on the after thwart, and although he made no claim to being a sailor, I never saw one who worked to better advantage. It seemed as if he had the strength of a dozen men in his arms, and the skiff shot forward into the gloom as if hardly touching the water, until we were come so near the sh.o.r.e of Noddle island as to be in the denser shadows, where we could afford to wait until learning what course our pursuers might be taking.

I was not able to distinguish objects clearly because of the gloom, yet I fancied it was possible to make out that a certain number of the eight or ten men occupying the oncoming boat were armed--they surely had the bearing of soldiers, and I said to myself, that suspecting Hiram and I might take to the water, they were come in search of us.

The same thought was evidently in my companion's mind, for he turned his head to whisper ever so softly:

"I'm thinking we had best make a landing near here, where we can haul the skiff out of the water, for yonder crew will make a close search if I am not mistaken."

There was a chance that by circling the sh.o.r.e of Noddle island until we were come off Morton's point, it might be possible to give these fellows the slip; but then we would be a long distance from our destination, in addition to running the risk of being captured, and it seemed to me I was warranted in acting upon Hiram's suggestion.

We worked the oars softly, as can well be imagined, and having come to the land went waist-deep into the water lest the grounding of the skiff's bow upon the sand might be heard.

It was no great task to lift the small craft so that she could be carried without sc.r.a.ping against the rocks, and we lugged her into a clump of bushes which grew near the water's edge, where so well was she hidden that she could not have been seen even in the daylight, after which we set ourselves to listen in order to gain some idea of what those in the other boat might be doing.

Before half an hour had pa.s.sed there was no longer any doubt in my mind but that they were in search of us, having a pretty good idea, from the direction of our flight, that we were bent on gaining the water-front, and also, most like, that we could not pa.s.s Hudson's point without being seen by them.

The boat was pulled to and fro between the island and the ship-yard as if they were standing guard, and when she had set across, mayhap, three or four times, Hiram asked of me in a whisper:

"Think you your comrade might have told them what we would try to do?"

"Of course not!" I replied with somewhat of anger in my tone that he should suspect Archie of any such vileness. "The lad is true to his friends, and would never betray them no matter how much silence might cost him."

"Then it looks as if some one had got an amazingly good idee of what we would do, and from what part of the town we'd set off," Hiram said thoughtfully. "Those fellows couldn't have set about their work better if we'd told them in advance that we'd leave the ship-yard and try to go to Cambridge."

Like a flash came into my mind the thought that Seth Jepson might have succeeded in doing us this mischief, if mischief had really been done; but I dismissed it on the instant, saying to myself that surely the lad could not have known what we were likely to do, even were it probable he had had opportunity of speaking to those we had stumbled against.

"It is neither more nor less than blind chance," I said in reply to my companion's words. "Because we headed for the ship-yard they supposed we had a boat nearby, and because our people were gathering at Cambridge they would naturally say it was our purpose to go there."

"Whichever way you put it, it's going to be mighty tough on us, for unless those fellows get tired of pulling that heavy boat 'twixt now and sunrise, we are like to be held here until to-morrow night."

CHAPTER IV

THE PRISONER

Whether it was that those who were the same as holding us prisoners on the island had an inkling we were somewhere in the vicinity, or if it was by pure chance that they happened to patrol that particular part of the harbor just then, I am unable to say; but certain it was that they remained continually on the move throughout the entire night, never going so far away that we had half an opportunity of slipping out un.o.bserved, and now and then coming so near that it was possible for us to hear their conversation.

As the moments pa.s.sed and it became almost certain we must remain in hiding during the coming day, I fell into a perfect fever of impatience.

Now blaming myself most bitterly for having attempted to warn Silas of what we were to do, and again saying that I was showing myself a coward by thus leaving Archie to his fate, although what I might have done just then in his behalf I could not have said.

As a matter of course we had brought with us neither food nor water, thinking the voyage to Cambridge would be accomplished in a few hours at the most, and therefore it was that Hiram and I faced hunger and thirst, knowing that both must be endured by us before the sun had set again.

"It's a case of bearing whatever comes, and looking pleasant," my companion said when the grey light of a new day appeared in the eastern sky. "I allow that the hours will seem precious long before we dare poke our noses out of this clump of bushes again, but what can't be cured must be endured, and seein's how we haven't had any sleep, I'm proposing to bottle up as much as I may while those blooming lobster backs hold us here like rats in a trap."

Having said this Hiram looked about for a level place in which to stretch out at full length; but failing to find it he curled himself up as if trying to hug the twigs, and almost immediately appeared to fall into profound slumber.

I was so uncomfortable in mind that it would not be possible for me to settle down to sleep however much I might need repose. We were not so well hidden from view but what in the broad glare of day any who chanced to pa.s.s near at hand might see us, and although unarmed and therefore unable to make any defence, it seemed absolutely necessary one of us should remain on watch.

When the day had fully dawned it was possible for me to see the guard-boats which had been on duty all night, pulling here and there like spiders which have been disappointed in their prey; but until about an hour after sunrise there were no small boats 'twixt Noddle island and the town. However, a dozen or more could be seen going from one to another of the king's ships, for the _Lively_, the _Somerset_ and the _Falcon_ were anch.o.r.ed off the sh.o.r.e, stretching from the South to the North battery.

At one time I was on the point of awakening Hiram and proposing that he and I make the venture of rowing up the coast of the island till opposite Morton's point, and from there to the Penny ferry; but I stayed my hand even while it was outstretched to seize his arm, realizing that I was not warranted in taking the chance for two very good and sufficient reasons. The first, that it was necessary I obey the summons to present myself at Cambridge, and again, that I must preserve my liberty if I would do anything toward aiding the dear lad whom I doubted not was lodged in the prison on Queen street.

How it might be possible for me to succor him had not come to my mind, yet I believed that with all our company of Minute Boys to aid, something might be done even while he was held by the king's men, who would rather shoot him down than allow a rebel to escape from their clutches.