“No, Phil, it won’t. I know we can trust you, old friend, and I am proud that I told the meeting so. Not that any person doubted you, but you know these are troubled times, Phil, and the enemy is upon us; so most of us don’t know which way to turn for help.” “I know that well, sir, an’ it would ill become me to refuse to do a small favor for the frinds who have always been good to old Phil, even if my heart an’ soul wasn’t with the cause.” “You are well acquainted in Provincetown?” “Oh, fairly well, Masther Walker. Old Phil knows almost everybody on the Cape. There isn’t much money in Provincetown these times, but the good housekeepers have always a few pence for the needles an’ thread. I’ll borry a skiff from me frind John Whorf. He is fine man.” “Yes, Phil; Master Whorf is one of the Committee of Safety there. Remember me to him; he called at my shop about a month ago. He was on his way to Yarmouth and his horse wanted shoes. He told me all about the desperate state of affairs in his town.” “There’s one thing I should like to mintion, Masther Walker. The min of Raggett’s ship are the very divils to dhrink when they can get the stuff. Now that their shore lave has been stopped for some time past, they will have a ragin’ thirst an’ nothing to satisfy it. An’, by the same token, they won’t be in any good sperrits to talk much about their doin’s. You know there’s nothing to loosen a man’s tongue like a dhrop o’ the crather!” “It makes a fool of the best of us, Phil. However, I see what you mean and I agree with you that a little lubricant is essential. There isn’t very much of anything in the town at present but Uriah Nickerson has a demijohn laid by for cases of sickness and I can get a quart to help you out.” Phil smiled. “A quart isn’t much among three hundred min, Masther Walker, but it will do first rate. There’s one chap aboard that’s a great frind o’ mine. He’s the boatswain an’ he loves his gill, an’ whin he’s taken a dhrop or two he’s extra frindly. He’s sure to know what’s up an’ I’ll thry him with a taste o’ Uriah’s medicine.” “All right, Phil, I’ll have it for you in the morning. By the way, I’ll send the horse with you as far as Truro. It will be safer for you to walk after you get there.” “That’s so, Masther Walker. ’Tis like puttin’ a beggar on horseback to see old Phil the Fifer ridin’. I’m used to walkin’ in my business an’ the journey won’t bother me.” “We should like to hear from you as soon as possible, Phil.” “Thin I should start airly. I could stable the horse at Truro, an’ as I expect to be aboard the frigate tomorrow evenin’, I may be here the same night, or, at any rate, airly the next mornin’.” “That will be quick work, Phil, considering the difficulty of your task and your age?” “Surely I’m not as young an’ active as I ought be, Masther Walker, but this is work that must be done at once an’ whin it’s over, you’ll admit that old Phil is no snail whin his frinds want him to hurry.”