“So you’ve come to understand that we’ve got you fast, eh?” Luther continued after waiting an instant without receiving any reply. “Don’t forget that I’ve got friends aboard the fleet, an’ they’ll give me every opportunity of lookin’ in to see that you’re stayin’ where you belong. If you two Whigs don’t have a hot time from this out, it won’t be fault of mine!” We remained silent, and evidently despairing of arousing us to wrath he wheeled about, returning to his former post of duty. Then, in a twinkling, Sam was lying on his face in front of me once more. Nervous and excited as I was, it seemed as if the Tory cur had occupied a full half-hour of our precious time, though I now question if he stood over us more than two or three minutes, and I went to work with my teeth in a fever of energy. Then, when it seemed to me as if the work was well nigh done, I heard the sound of footsteps in the distance, and immediately afterward heard Luther shouting Ezra’s name. “It’s too late now!” Sam cried despairingly, and I set my teeth hard, grinding them together in desperation at the same instant that he exerted all his strength to give one mighty tug. Then it was that I was near to crying aloud in triumph and exultation, for the partially severed rope was broken asunder, and at almost the same instant Sam was at work on the bonds which held my arms behind me. “Have you found the boat?” we heard Luther cry, and from a distance came the reply: “Ay, but you’ll have to help launch her, for the tide is down, an’ she’s high up on the beach. We can take your Whigs there, an’ let ’em enjoy seein’ us makin’ ready to carry them where they belong.” My arms were free by this time, and I whispered excitedly: “Can you see anythin’ that will serve as a weapon?” “We’re not needin’ any,” was the grim reply. “I’m so eager to get even with those scoundrelly Tories for what they’ve made me suffer, that I can handle twice my weight, in anythin’ like a fair fight,” and Sam crept toward the fringe of bushes, in order, as I understood, to be ready to receive Luther when next he came. And he had not long to wait. I crouched low that the cur might not suspect anything and remain at a distance until Ezra came up, and by so doing showed more wisdom than at any time since having called myself the leader of the Minute Boys, for Luther, eager to set us in motion, came running through the screen of foliage as he shouted: “You’re to move lively, now, you miserable Whigs, an’ if either of you tries to hang back in the harness, he’ll get a dose that won’t quickly be forgotten.” Luther set us in motion all right; but we were not the ones who got the dose just then. When the Tory came through the bushes, Sam, who was bending low behind the screen, caught him by the legs, and the fellow went headlong to the ground, I clapping my hand with no gentle force over his mouth even as he fell.