Boston (Mass.) -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Juvenile fiction
All the while Glen had been tramping with long strides in the direction
of the main part of Cambridge. Only once did he pause, and then it was
to fill his pipe. At last he turned into a lane at the right of the
road and approached a small house that overlooked the river. By that
time dawn was well on the way.
Don observed two or three soldiers at the side of the house; they were
cooking bacon over a small fire. “Hi, there!” shouted one. “I see you
found your boy.”
“Yes, I found him,” replied Glen. “Where’s Dave Hollis?”
“He hasn’t come in yet.”
Glen carried Don into the house, spoke a few words to a woman who was
preparing the morning meal and then, at her bidding, climbed the stairs.
By the time the rays of the sun were slanting down on the river Don was
asleep deep within the feathery softness of a huge four-posted bed. The
woman down-stairs had given him a delicious breakfast, and after he had
eaten it the old trapper had rubbed his injured ankle with some potent,
vile-smelling ointment that he said would cure anything from rheumatism
to nose-bleed.
Near the middle of the afternoon Don awoke and a little to his
astonishment saw his Uncle David sitting beside Glen at one side of the
bed. “Uncle Dave!” he cried.
In a moment David Hollis had clasped his nephew’s hands in his own.
“You’ve had a hard time, Donald, my boy,” he said. “How do you feel?”
“All right, except for my ankle; I gave it a bad twist when I fell.”
“Yes; Glen has told me. I hope you’ll be able to walk soon.” David
Hollis looked at his nephew anxiously.
“In two or three days maybe,” said the trapper.
Don groaned. “Not until then?” he asked. “Meanwhile Aunt Martha is all
alone.”
“Yes, and she needs you, Donald.” David Hollis was plainly worried.
“The worst of it is,” he continued, “that the King’s soldiers have
fortified the Neck and are mighty watchful. There’s no way of getting
in or out.”
“You’re wrong there,” said Glen. “The back harbor’s dry at low water,
you know.”
David Hollis looked doubtful. “It’d be too great a risk to try and
cross that way,” he said. “If anything should happen, I’d never forgive
myself.”
“Now, listen here,” said Glen; “I promised the boy I’d get him back,
and, by thunder, I’m a man of my word. A dark night, a little fog, and
nothing’s easier.”
Don’s uncle said nothing for several minutes. At last he grasped the
old trapper’s hand. “Glen,” he said, “I’ve never yet known you to fail
in an undertaking. May you succeed in this. I see no other way.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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