The Rangers; or, The Tory's Daughter: A Tale Illustrative of the Revolutionary History of Vermont and the Northern Campaign of 1777Thompson, Daniel P. (Daniel Pierce)
History
The Rangers; or, The Tory's Daughter: A Tale Illustrative of the Revolutionary History of Vermont and the Northern Campaign of 1777
Thompson, Daniel P. (Daniel Pierce)
Vermont -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Fiction
“An honest one--only to get my gun up there, which the squire didn't
have put out for me, when he dismissed me with his high-heeled shoes,
to-day, and which I darsent name then, fear he'd have that thrown
down, like my 'tother duds, and break it--only that--and if you'll say
nothing, and let me whip in, and up to get it, I'll lay it up against
you, as a great oblige, to be paid for, by a good turn to you some time,
miss.”
“If that is all, go--and I may wish to speak with you when you come
back.”
So saying, she gently let down the sash, and, withdrawing a little from
her window, stood awaiting the result; when she soon heard the other,
with the light and stealthy movements of a cat, enter the house, and
ascend into the garret, through a small side-door, opening from the
passage we have named. Scarcely a minute had elapsed before she again
heard his footsteps stealing back by her door to the window, through
which he had so noiselessly entered; when, once more raising the sash of
her own, she found him already standing on the top of the ladder where
she last saw him, he having effected his ingress and egress with such
celerity, that but for the light fusil he now held in his hand, she
would have believed herself mistaken in supposing he had entered at all.
“Well, miss, I am waiting for your say so,” he said, in a low tone,
peering warily around him.
“Have you been to the Court House to-night?” hesitatingly asked the
other.
“Well, now,” replied Bart, hesitating in his turn, “without more token
for knowing what you're up to, I'll say, may be so and may be no so.”
“You need not fear me, Bart,” replied Sabrey, conjecturing the cause
of his hesitation; “I am no enemy of those who have suffered there
to-night. But do you know Mr. Woodburn?
“Harry, who got you out of that river scrape? Yes, lived in his town
last summer.”
“He is among the wounded and prisoners in jail, it is said?”
“Dreadful true, miss.”
“Could you get this small letter to him to-night?” she timidly asked.
“Yes, through the grate; glad to do it, glad of it, twice over,” replied
Bart, reaching out, and grasping the proffered billet.
“Why, why do you say that?” asked Sabrey, with an air of mingled doubt
and curiosity.
“Cause, in the first place, you'll now keep my secret of being here; and
nextly, glad to find there's one among the court folks that feels decent
about this bloody business. But I must be off. Yes, I'll get it to him,”
said Bart, beginning to descend.
“Say, Barty. Is there any hope that Mr. Woodburn will survive his
wounds?”
“Survive? Live, do you mean? O, yes; though the lunge which that--But no
matter. It was well meant for the heart, and the fellow wan't at all to
blame that it didn't reach it, instead of the inner part of the arm.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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