United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Juvenile fiction
There was little need to spend much time in the examination. It was
certain he yet breathed; but more than that could not be said, and Hiram
cried as he rose to his feet:
"Now then, lads, move lively, for we must be under way within the next
five minutes, or take the chances of stopping here longer than will be
pleasant."
"Are any of the lobster backs suspicious?" I asked in a fever of fear,
and he replied in a grim tone:
"The lieutenant at the Bridewell failed to understand why Job Lord did
not come in person for the prisoner, and save that he feared to set awry
some plan of General Gage's, he would have held me there till word could
be sent to headquarters. There's no telling how soon he may get word to
those who will come to find out if everything is as it should be."
Even while speaking Hiram was descending the ladder, at the foot of
which Harvey stood white-faced, with staring eyes, for he had no means
of knowing how the battle was going, and I could understand full well in
what a turmoil must have been his mind.
"It's all right, lad," Hiram said reassuringly as he laid his hand on
Harvey's shoulder. "Pull yourself together, for we must make a quick
flitting. Best carry Seth up stairs, so he may have company while we are
gone."
"I thought it was agreed he would go with us," I cried hotly, not of the
mind to lose one of our prisoners even though we yet stood in so much of
danger.
"We can't take the chances of two, as matters stand now, and Job Lord is
the more valuable to our friends in Cambridge," Hiram said, speaking
hurriedly as he began to cast off the bonds from the man's feet. "The
lobster back who went with me to the Bridewell knows I was given but
one, and he is to aid us in embarking, therefore to have two would cause
a suspicion to enter even his thick head."
Hiram had Master Lord in shape for walking by this time; but the fellow
flatly refused to rise from the bed, declaring that his limbs were so
cramped he had no control over them.
"It will be well that you get them into shape in short order, for we
count on taking you with us, or leaving you here dead, and there is
little time in which to make a choice," Hiram said in a tone which gave
proof that his were no idle words. "Carry the boy up the ladder, and
leave him on the floor," he added to me, and this Harvey and I did with
all speed, while Archie and Silas stood by to lend our leader a hand if
so be he might need it.
I had no opportunity of hearing whether Master Lord made further protest
against doing as he had been commanded; but it seemed to me that Harvey
and I had no sooner laid Seth Jepson by the side of the Tory who had
been so severely injured, than Hiram appeared at the top of the ladder
with the double-faced scoundrel by his side.
"Do you know where the ship-yard that is owned by a man named Edes may
be located?" Hiram asked immediately he had come up into the room, and
we lads soon gave him to understand that the place was familiar to us.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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