Then Marched the BraveComstock, Harriet T. (Harriet Theresa)
General
Then Marched the Brave
Comstock, Harriet T. (Harriet Theresa)
Hale, Nathan, 1755-1776 -- Juvenile literature; Long Island, Battle of, New York, N.Y., 1776 -- Juvenile fiction
Andy pressed close to the broken glass, and chirruped distinctly. The
master started and raised his eyes. Was he dreaming! Again Andy
ventured. Then a smile flitted across the master's face.
"Andy!" he breathed.
"Here, close to you!"
Slowly, without a suspicious start, the man turned in the boy's
direction; and the two brave comrades smiled at each other over the gulf
of pain and grief.
"I will try to sleep!" This aloud, to regale the ear of any possible
listener other than Andy. With difficulty the master stretched, as best
he could, his fettered limbs upon the floor, taking heed to lie as close
to Andy as possible.
Silence. Then the man tossed and talked aloud in troubled fashion.
Andy, meantime, with a daring that might risk all, put his hand in the
broken pane and drew the bits of paper of the torn letters to him.
"Tell Washington," moaned the voice of the master in a half sleepy
whisper, "I regret nothing. Am proud to die and to have given _all_."
"I have the letters!" breathed Andy. "If I live Washington shall have
them and know all."
"Thank God!" came from the man upon the floor. "You are a true friend,
Andy McNeal."
"Good-by," groaned Andy. "Some one is coming!" The cold perspiration
covered the boy's body, for steps were drawing near.
"There could hardly be any one outside," said a loud, rough voice.
"Still we must take no chances. The poor devil has reason to toss in his
sleep and talk. I doubt if he were doing anything else."
The need was desperate. Andy crawled like a snake through the grasses.
Escape seemed impossible. He passed the two searchers in the friendly
gloom, and breathed freer. This was a lucky move, for the two men
examined thoroughly the spot where Andy had been. They discovered the
broken glass, and one remarked that the weeds had been crushed.
"Some animal has been prowling about, there are no footprints," said the
other.
Andy's Indian training was serving him well. In a few minutes the two
passed on. "We'll walk around the place. Daybreak is near. The dangerous
spy's time is short."
Andy made the most of that time. Stealing cautiously in and out of the
shrubbery, he worked his way out of sight of the greenhouse. The chill
of the morning made him shiver. How many hours he had passed without
food or drink he did not consider; but his heart seemed dead within
him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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