The Young Continentals at Bunker Hill Part 37

"If I have misserved the colonies," said he, "I am not fitted to be at liberty."

Within an hour he was at the quarters of General Putnam; and a few moments later found him in the presence of that bluff warrior.

"Well," inquired Putnam, who was still at breakfast, "and what is it now, Master Prentiss, that you should be so intent of face?"

Ezra, in as few words as possible, told his story. Putnam went on with his breakfast, listening and making no comment. When the tale was done he leaned back in his chair and looked at the lad with pursed lips.

"The situation was a pretty one," said he. "It was do your stern duty and send your grandsire to his death; or allow him to go free and those two rascals with him. In the same position," continued he, a twinkle in his eye, "I should have been tempted to do as you have done, and no doubt I should have done it."

"But do you not see what danger I have placed this mission of Colonel Knox in?" cried the lad.

"I must say that I do not," said Putnam, good-humoredly, as he recommenced upon his breakfast. "Ticonderoga and Crown Point are in the hands of our people and are well guarded. There are not enough British troops in Canada to make an advance upon them; and for Gage to do anything is out of the question.

"The only thing that could be done would be a secret expedition by this man Abdallah and any followers that he might have. And even that would be so difficult as to make it all but impossible. So make your mind easy, my lad. You have done no great harm."

Ezra went surprisedly from the presence of Putnam. But he was not satisfied, and at once sought Colonel Knox at Washington's headquarters.

This young soldier listened to the boy's frankly told story. When it was done, he said with a smile:

"Perhaps this will hasten our departure a trifle, but that is all. Don't worry about what you have done. Under the circ.u.mstances your action was perfectly natural. None of us is a Brutus. All of us would find it hard, I hope, to give up those nearest to us to death."

But for all that Colonel Knox thought that the advent of the spies would hasten his movements, the start was not made until the following month.

During the interim, Ezra suffered keenly. A dozen times the delay seemed more than he could endure. His imagination teemed with pictures of happenings at the two strongholds in the wilderness; in his sleep he saw parties of British take them a score of times; he witnessed the sinking of the heavy guns in the depths of the lake; he saw Abdallah's and Jason Collyer's grins of derision at his frantic, dream-heavy efforts to prevent this; and always he'd awake crying out to his friends to come to his aid.

More than once he reached the point, in his desperation, of saddling his horse with the idea of setting out alone.

"If I ride on in advance, I may be able to spoil any plan that they may have laid," he told himself.

But each time, second thought showed him how profitless such an effort would be. He must wait for Colonel Knox, if he was to be of any value.

Alone he could accomplish nothing.

His heart leaped one evening when he received word that the expedition would start early next morning. At the time the intelligence reached him he was standing within the Roxbury works, watching the cannonade of the British, which had broken out from sh.o.r.e batteries and shipping a short time before. The roar of the guns was in perfect harmony with the exultation that filled the boy's breast.

"At last," he cried to Ben Cooper, who had brought the news, "at last I'll have a chance to do something."

Ben, like the other boys, had heard nothing of Ezra's experience upon the night at "The Honest Farmer"; so now he stared in wonderment at his friend's display of feeling. But as Ezra made no explanation, the other asked no questions; however, he now and then stole a curious look at the flushed boy at his side.

"Something's wrong," Ben told himself. "I've noticed that he's acted very queerly of late. Whatever it is, it's got a deep hold on him, for I don't remember ever seeing him look just this way before."

At sunrise next morning a well-equipped troop of horse was drawn up before Colonel Knox's quarters. Beside Ezra, Nat, Ben, George and Scarlett, there were a dozen hardy young fellows whose bold faces and stalwart frames told of a willingness to face hardship and the power to endure it. They were all armed with rifle and pistol; axes hung at their saddles; heavy coats and blankets for use amid the rigors of the North country were strapped securely behind them.

When Knox at last appeared and mounted, the troop rode to Washington's quarters. Here both the commander-in-chief and General Putnam reviewed them.

After nodding his approval of both the party's appearance and equipment, Washington said:

"How long shall you be on the way?"

"I calculated some two weeks for the going, general," replied the young colonel. "But we shall be longer upon the return trip, for then we shall have the guns."

Putnam laughed at this confident answer. A flicker of a smile crossed Washington's grave face; but there was a light of satisfaction in his eyes as he said:

"That you will have them, colonel, I feel sure."

Following the example of the officers, the troop saluted; then at the word, they wheeled and went at a swinging pace through the streets of Cambridge.

The way north was rough-sometimes even trackless. But there was with the party a youth of the name of Bennet, who had been one of Allan's Green Mountain Boys, and had been with that gallant leader at the taking of the two strongholds of the North. He knew every mile of the way, was of vast service in pointing out fords, locating towns, and picking short ways through the forests and hills.

Sometimes they pa.s.sed the nights at isolated villages; at others they camped in sheltered spots and rolled themselves in their blankets upon the ground. The air grew chiller as the days went by; and as they approached the cold lake regions it grew more so. Their heavy coats and warmer clothing felt very comfortable by the time the first snow fell.

"And now," said Colonel Knox one morning to Ezra, as he surveyed the wild, snow-covered stretch before him with no little satisfaction, "is the time to collect our sledges. Horses or oxen we shall also want; and men to drive them would not be at all amiss."

The troop was that day split up into parties with orders to make a sweep of the region for sledges and teams as they advanced. They covered a good dozen miles of country in their progress and from the first luck was with them. Sledges were to be had with gratifying frequency, also teams of oxen and s.h.a.ggy, powerful looking horses. Young backwoodsmen willing to venture upon the journey as drivers were also to be found.

Faint echoes of the war had reached them in their remote villages; to see a troop of uniformed men belonging to the army of their country gave them a thrill of expectancy and filled them with a desire to go where the issue of the battle was drawn, where blows were being struck, and the far-off King defied.

Ezra Prentiss, Ben Cooper and Scarlett formed one party of sledge hunters. The section given them to cover was rough and boulder-strewn, with only here and there a dirt road or path. Houses were infrequent and clearings in the thick woods rarer still. It was a country of trappers and hunters rather than of farmers; now and then one of these hardy fellows was seen making a tour of his traps or wading in a cold stream with the fresh pelts of fur-bearing animals hanging from his belt.

Once, however, they heard the distant ring of an axe; they made their way through a thick growth of timber and came upon a log house where a young woman and child were visible. Some little distance off a young man was seen cutting down a tree. When they approached him and made their errand known, he looked surprised.

"You've been through this section before, haven't you?" he asked.

"No," replied Ezra.

The look of surprise upon the young man's face deepened.

"That's queer," he said. "Tom Hadley, who lives down the creek aways, was in Skenesboro a couple of weeks ago for provisions; and he met a man who inquired about sledges and offered to buy up all that he could get."

A shock ran through Ezra.

"Did Hadley say what kind of a man he was?" he asked.

"Yes; he was tall and well made. And Tom said he looked like some kind of a foreigner."

Ezra felt sure that it was Abdallah, but desired to make sure.

"He was a rough spoken kind of a man too, I suppose," he insinuated.

But the backwoodsman shook his head.

"No," he replied. "It was just the other way. Tom says the man was the smoothest talker and had the softest ways of any man he ever struck."

"They are ahead of us," thought Ezra in a sort of panic. "They will have secured all the sledges and horses-we will be left helpless to do anything."

But that night when the troop drew together at the point named for the camp, the boy found Colonel Knox very well pleased indeed. Five drivers had been picked up, three span of oxen and some half dozen heavy sledges.

When Ezra told him what he had heard, Colonel Knox said:

"They seem very enterprising; but we have no occasion for worry, for they seem to be meeting with little success. And even did they collect all the sledges on the route, don't forget that we could change our route. Another thing; there is plenty of timber; we could build our own sledges, if put to it."

Ezra saw the truth of this. But still he could not help a feeling of fear, for he knew that Abdallah was a man of resource and daring; and what a person of that sort would do next was never to be guessed.