"I found out that Peter Bram, at Farmington, who is a brother of Jasper Bram, was making a regular business of going around secretly and forming little parties of Tories to help in the general scheme," proceeded Burt. "I left Boston to sort of look up Peter Bram on my own account, too. He was away from town, so I came on here to Concord, hoping to find what I wanted from Jasper Bram. Well, I discovered that he had been driving around the country--or had sent that precious son of his, Gregory, visiting stores and buying up powder and shot. That sent me on the trail of doing some good work for my country. Jasper Bram knows me, yes, indeed he does," continued Burt, with a serious shake of the head. "He can hold me, too, if he catches me. He nearly caught me snooping around his house. He did catch me, for a fact, to-day, as you know." "What has he got against you--what power has he over you?" inquired Phil, somewhat puzzled. "Why, he knows that I am a bound boy--a runaway apprentice from his brother, Peter Bram." "Oh, is that so?" "And he sent Greg lickety-switch to town to get a constable to take me in charge. That would mean going back into the old slave life with that cruel brother of his." "What about the powder, though--get to that!" urged the impatient Andy. "Simply this," replied Burt quickly: "Jasper Bram gathered up four kegs of it, and had it stored in the cellar of the stone shed--a ready-made arsenal for the Britishers, if they ever got so far as Concord in their raids. Even if they never used it at all, it was so much out of the way of us 'rebels,' you see." "I don't wonder he was scared into fits when you set fire to the shed," observed Phil, "but weren't you afraid, too, of being 'blown into a thousand pieces?'" "Not at all," replied Burt calmly. "Jasper Bram didn't know it, but there wasn't an ounce of powder in that cellar." "Eh, how was that?" inquired Andy, with a stare of perplexity. "I had removed it." "You--you!" stammered Andy. "Had taken it away. It took me parts of three nights to do it, without disturbing the Brams or leaving any trace of my secret midnight operation. Yes, that gunpowder is all safe out of the clutches of Jasper Bram, although he little dreams it. And I tested the powder, too, as you saw on the hilltop." "Good! hooray! say, Burt Noble, you're a hero!" shouted the vociferous Andy, slapping the lad enthusiastically on the shoulder. "Phil, this is action, real and brisk. My! I wish I could do a thing like that! Burt Noble, you're smart--yes, you're just grand!" "I hope it all comes out right," said Burt. "There's a lot to do yet. I think I have told you all I ought to." "But the powder?" asked Andy. "What became of that?" For answer Burt Noble drew a sealed envelope from his pocket. It was getting quite dusk. He went to the end of a bench, lit a candle, and came back to the boys.