Produced by David Edwards, Josephine Paolucci and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive.) THE MINUTE BOYS OF BOSTON AMERICAN HISTORY STORIES FOR BOYS THE MINUTE BOY SERIES By Edward Stratemeyer and James Otis The Minute Boys of Lexington The Minute Boys of Bunker Hill The Minute Boys of the Green Mountains The Minute Boys of the Mohawk Valley The Minute Boys of the Wyoming Valley THE MEXICAN WAR SERIES By Capt. Ralph Bonehill For the Liberty of Texas With Taylor on the Rio Grande Under Scott in Mexico DANA ESTES & COMPANY Publishers Estes Press, Summer St., Boston [Illustration: "AND WE DID CHECK THEM!"] The Minute Boys of Boston BY JAMES OTIS Author of "The Minute Boys of Long Island," "The Minute Boys of Wyoming Valley," "Boys of '98," "Teddy and Carrots," "Boys of Fort Schuyler," "Under the Liberty Tree," etc., etc. _Illustrated by_ L. J. BRIDGMAN [Illustration] BOSTON DANA ESTES & COMPANY PUBLISHERS _Copyright, 1910_ BY DANA ESTES & COMPANY _All rights reserved_ THE MINUTE BOYS OF BOSTON _Electrotyped and Printed by_ _THE COLONIAL PRESS_ _C. H. Simonds & Co., Boston, U.S.A._ CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. WHY WE WERE ENROLLED 11 II. RAISING A COMPANY 29 III. THE WAR BEGUN 48 IV. THE PRISONER 71 V. SUSPICIOUS INFORMATION 89 VI. A CLOUDY NIGHT 104 VII. THE SUMMONS 126 VIII. HOG ISLAND 144 IX. ON SPECIAL DUTY 163 X. ON BREED'S HILL 183 XI. THE RETREAT 203 XII. IN BOSTON TOWN 222 XIII. GRAVE DOUBTS 242 XIV. THE SECRET PASSAGE 261 XV. AN AWKWARD CAPTURE 279 XVI. IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS 298 XVII. HIRAM'S VENTURE 316 XVIII. TURNING THE TRICK 334 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE "AND WE DID CHECK THEM!" (p. 195) _Frontispiece_ "I COULD HAVE TOSSED MY HAT ABOARD THEIR CRAFT" 27 "I LEAPED THE FENCE" 61 THE ENCAMPMENT AT CAMBRIDGE 83 "THE SECOND FLASH OF LIGHTNING SHOWED ME THIS SCENE" 117 "'WHO SHALL SAY NOW THAT WE HAVEN'T THE RIGHT TO CALL OURSELVES MINUTE BOYS?'" 157 "MASTER LORD HELD UP THE UNSCREENED LANTERN" 229 "'WOULD YOU DO MURDER?'" 282 THE MINUTE BOYS OF BOSTON CHAPTER I WHY WE WERE ENROLLED