WITH WASHINGTON AT VALLEY FORGE
By W. Bert Foster
CHAPTER VII
A Friend on the Enemy’s Side
SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS
The story opens in the year of 1777, during one of the most critical periods of the Revolution. Hadley Morris, our hero, is in the employ of Jonas Benson, the host of the Three Oaks, a well-known inn on the road between Philadelphia and New York. Like most of his neighbors, Hadley is an ardent sympathizer with the patriot cause. When, therefore, a dispatch bearer is captured on the way to Philadelphia, he gives Hadley the all-important packet to be forwarded to General Washington. The boy immediately escapes with it, and, after many perilous experiences, finally makes his way across the river to the Pennsylvania side. On the road, Hadley, failing to give the countersign, is stopped by a foraging party of Americans; but by his honest bearing he wins the attention of John Cadwalader, a personal friend of Washington, just then journeying to the American headquarters. Under his protection, our hero speedily arrives at his destination, and there, in an interview with General Washington himself, he tells his story and delivers the dispatches, which, because of the impending crisis, are received eagerly by the head of the patriot cause.
THE collie rattled his chain at the corner of the sheep pen, and from a low growl changed his welcome to a bark of delight and frisked about Hadley’s legs as the boy stopped to pat him. The house door across the paved yard opened and the innkeeper’s voice cried: “Be still, Bose! Who’s out there?”
Hadley went nearer and laughed. “What’s the matter, Master Benson?” he asked. “Are the dragoons still about the place?”
At once the innkeeper plunged down the steps, and, reaching the boy, seized him tightly in his arms. “Had! Had!” he cried, “why did you come back to the Three Oaks? We thought you’d join the army for sure this time.”
“Is the colonel still here?” asked Hadley, in haste, and drawing back from the inn.
“Yes, he’s here,” grunted Jonas, “but he can’t do anything to you. The dragoons are no longer at the Mills. Malcolm’s troop started for York this morning. There’s something going to happen ’fore long, for the British are stirring, and they say Lord Howe has sailed with his fleet.”
“I know,” said the boy, with some pride. “There’s going to be a big battle, or something. Those papers I ran away with told all about Lord Howe’s plans, and now our generals will be able to meet him.”
“Who told you?” Jonas asked, open-mouthed in astonishment.
“I heard General Washington himself say so,” declared the boy, and then, having entered the wide inn kitchen, and, finding it empty, he had to sit down and relate the particulars of his ride to Germantown, and his brief interview with the Commander-in-Chief of the American forces.
“I’ve heard of that Colonel Cadwalader,” Jonas said, drawing a long breath, “and you were certainly lucky to make such a powerful friend, Hadley. Why didn’t you join the army? You’d make a good soldier, and perhaps get to be a captain, or something. Men rise quick from the ranks now-a-days.”
“You know very well why I cannot enlist,” Hadley replied, gravely. “If Uncle Ephraim should tell me I could go, I might feel as though I would not be breaking my word by enlisting. But unless he says so, I don’t see how I can do it, much as I would like.”
The innkeeper shook his head. “Ah, boy, there’s plenty of time yet for you, after all, it’s likely. The struggle is bound to be a long one. The king is sending over more troops, they say, and there’s a big force marching from Canada. We’ll never give up till we’re free; but most of us may be dead before freedom comes.”
Mistress Benson came in a minute later, and her delight at seeing Hadley safe and sound again was sincere, although, as Jonas had admitted to the boy’s private ear, she was none too sympathetic with the patriot cause. She set before the boy a bountiful repast and made him eat his fill. Then he retired to his usual couch in the loft of the great barn and slept undisturbed until morning.
He was currying down Black Molly in the open door of the stable before breakfast when Colonel Knowles chanced to stroll into the inn yard. The Englishman stopped and stared at the stableboy with a lowering brow. Hadley kept at work, whistling cheerfully, but a little amused at the colonel’s evident surprise, and not at all sure what the outcome of the meeting might be.
“Well, young man!” exclaimed the guest; “you certainly are a youth of mettle to dare come back here after what occurred the other day. Do you know who I am?”
“You are a guest of Master Benson’s, sir,” Hadley said, quietly.
“I am an officer in His Majesty’s army, sir.”
“But you are in the enemy’s country just now, Colonel Knowles,” the boy said, softly. “The dragoons are no longer within call, and although there are some Tories in the neighborhood, there are more men who hold to the cause of the Colonies. I think I am safer to come back here than you are to remain.”
“Humph!” grunted the colonel; but the words evidently impressed him. After a moment of sullen silence he said: “They tell me your name is Morris; is that so?”
“It is, sir.”
“Do you know a person named Ephraim Morris living in this part of the country?”
“That is my uncle’s name,” declared the boy, and his interest grew, for he remembered his conversation two days before with Mistress Lillian.
“How old a man is he?” demanded Colonel Knowles, with some eagerness.
“Rising sixty, sir. He is a farmer and lives not more than four miles from here.”
“Well,” said the Englishman, turning finally on his heel, “you’re a worthy nephew of such an uncle, I don’t doubt.”
“I’m afraid Uncle Ephraim would not agree with you,” Hadley called after the gentleman. “He is a Tory.”
But Colonel Knowles paid no further attention to him, and the boy went on with his work. But his mind ran continually on the interest the colonel and his daughter evidently had in old Ephraim Morris. Mistress Lillian herself appeared after breakfast, and while Hadley was clearing up the entrance to the inn yard. Jonas Benson prided himself on having everything about the inn as neatly kept as did his wife inside the house.
“Hadley Morris!” the colonel’s daughter exclaimed, leaning over the railing of the inn porch and looking at the youth with sparkling eyes. “Has my father seen you? Mistress Benson told me you had come back and that she was afraid father would be angry when he saw you. Aren’t you afraid?”
“I’ve seen the colonel,” Hadley replied, smiling up at her. He remembered the anxiety in her countenance when he had last seen her looking from the inn window as he ran with the dispatches to escape the dragoons, and he was not so much afraid of her as he had been earlier in their acquaintance. “He wasn’t very pleasant, but the dragoons aren’t in the neighborhood now and I guess he won’t try to do anything to me. You see, m’am, most of the farmers are on my side.”
“You are a terrible rebel!” declared the girl, but she still smiled down upon him. “Did you carry those dispatches ’way to—to that Mr. Washington whom your people call ‘general’?”
“I went all the way with them and saw General Washington himself,” declared the boy, proudly. “He is a mighty fine gentleman, and the place where he stops was full of officers. All the American army are not ragamuffins,” and his eyes twinkled as he thus reminded her of her criticism of the American soldiery on a previous occasion. “Some of the colonists know how to fight as well as hired soldiers.”
“And some of them know how to run,” Lillian cried.
“True. Would you have had me stand here and face that whole mob of dragoons—to say nothing of your father?”
“Oh, I didn’t mean you. I think you were very smart to get away on that horse with the dispatches. And I’ll tell you what father said about it,” she added, lowering her voice and glancing about her. “He said that ‘if the rebel youth can fight so well and are such strategists, it is no wonder that my Lord Howe and the other generals have so little luck in bringing the uprising to a swift close.’ Now, aren’t you proud?”
Hadley flushed as she spoke. “I thought he was very angry with me this morning.”
“Well, I think he is angry enough; but he seemed to admire your ability to beat the dragoons and get across the river as you did. I heard him and the officer in command of the troopers talking about it, and they both wondered how you escaped them on the road to the ferry. Father said he had almost caught you—he could tell by the sound of your horse’s feet—when the sound suddenly stopped and you disappeared as though the earth had opened and swallowed you. How did you do it?”
“You are an enemy,” the boy returned, with amusement. “I couldn’t tell you that, you know. Anything else—”
“Tell me what sort of a man that uncle of yours, Ephraim Morris, is?” she broke in, suddenly. “I spoke to father about him and he said he must be the man he has come here to see.”
“Uncle Ephraim is an old man. He came from England years ago. He isn’t liked very well. He’s a king’s man, you know—a Tory.”
“Oh! that’s something in his favor,” she declared.
“So I thought you’d say,” he replied, shouldering his rake and broom and preparing to return to the stableyard. “I didn’t want you to have too bad an opinion of Uncle Ephraim.”
“If he is the person my father is looking for I have a very bad opinion of him, indeed, and his being for the king will make little difference one way or another.”
Her words disturbed Hadley when he thought them over. Mistress Lillian had seemed well disposed towards him personally, but she was also bitter against his uncle, and Hadley believed Uncle Ephraim should have warning of the colonel’s visit. So, immediately after his duties at the Three Oaks were performed, Hadley set out to his uncle’s house.
The Morris pastures were the nearest to the Three Oaks Inn, and crossing the road where he had so fortunately escaped the dragoons by the aid of Lafe Holdness, Hadley struck into the open plain on which his uncle’s cattle grazed.
The big pasture was dotted with clumps of trees, and while yet Hadley was some distance from the farmhouse and its neighboring buildings, he saw a band of young stock stampeding wildly from the vicinity of a grove of dwarfed oaks not far away. The cattle, heads down and tails in the air, plunged across the plain at a mad pace, and Hadley was positive that they were not running without cause. The drove passed him like a whirlwind, and in their wake came a loudly-yelping cur and a person whom he very well knew, urging the dog on.
“Hold on there! what are you about?” cried Hadley, running forward. “What are you chasing the cattle for? That brute of yours will kill some of the stock.”
It was Lon Alwood, and it was quite evident by Lon’s expression of countenance that Hadley was the last person he had expected to meet just then. “Wh—why, I thought you had gone to join the army!” he gasped.
“I’m right here to tell you to stop chasing my uncle’s cattle,” returned Hadley, in disgust.
“Oh, you are, hey?” cried the other boy, with bravado. Then, to the cur who had halted like his master at the appearance of Hadley: “Sic ’em, boy—sic ’em!”
Hadley grabbed a clod, and as the dog started after the fleeing steers he hurled the lump of earth with considerable force and it bounded resoundingly from the canine’s ribs. The brute gave a yelp and took refuge behind its master, its interest for the moment lost in the inoffensive cattle. There it crouched and growled at Hadley, while Lon fairly danced up and down in his rage.
“What you need, Had Morris, is a sound thrashing, and I’m going to give it to you right now!” declared the young Tory.
“I wouldn’t try any thrashing, if I were you, Lon. You know you tried it once, a long time ago, and I haven’t forgotten how to wrestle since then.”
Hadley tried to pass on as he spoke, but young Alwood sprang before him and barred his way. “You’re going to get thrashed right here and now, Had Morris!” declared he, resentfully. “You haven’t got any gun or pistol to help you out, and I’m not afraid of you. So look out for yourself!”
Hadley saw no way of avoiding the struggle unless he took to his heels, and he could not bring himself to do that. So he met his antagonist’s charge to the best of his ability, and in a moment they were locked together in a close, but far from loving, embrace, while the dog ran around and around them, barking its approval of its master’s conduct.
CHAPTER VIII
UNCLE EPHRAIM DISPLAYS GREAT INTEREST
THE boys had scarcely gripped each other when Lon realized that he was now no better able to cope with his rival in a wrestling bout than he was at their last encounter, months previous. The stableboy of the Three Oaks Inn had been in perfect training every day of his active life. Lon was lazy, and had to be fairly driven to work by his father. He would much rather roam the woods with a gun and dog, or go fishing, than do those tasks which fell to the share of the other lads of the neighborhood, and leaping and running, and frolicking with his friends in their off-hours, had not hardened his muscles as Hadley’s toil hardened his.
The latter obtained a good hold on his enemy and, with a sudden squeeze, almost drove the breath out of Lon’s lungs. The Tory youth gasped as he felt this sudden strength. “Oh! oh!” he groaned. And then, kicking frantically and endeavoring to beat his antagonist in the face with his fists, cried aloud to the excited dog: “Sic ’im, sir! Go at ’im!”
The mongrel, as cruel as its master, plunged into the fray and grabbed at Hadley’s leg. Fortunately, the stableboy wore high riding boots, and instead of seizing the calf of his leg, the brute sunk its teeth in the leather. The attack, however, brought Hadley to the ground, with the dog chewing at the bootleg and snarling, and Lon Alwood on top. But the under boy still hugged his human antagonist tightly to him, and for the moment his brute enemy did little harm.
All the time Lon was encouraging the dog in his attack, but Hadley would not strike him. “Call off the beast and fight fair, Alwood!” he said. “Call him off and try it over again. This is no fair game.”
Lon’s only answer was a more desperate attempt to get his arms free and so strike his enemy with more precision. But the unequal contest was exhausting Hadley’s strength, and he knew he could not keep his advantage for long. So, putting forth all his remaining energy, he suddenly rolled Lon over and came uppermost himself. The dog yelped loudly and let go the boot, for Hadley had managed to give him a well-placed kick at the same moment, and while the brute was recovering from this the boy broke away from Lon and sprang to his feet.
The dog seeing its master on the ground, growled savagely and leaped for Hadley again—this time for his throat. But the boy was ready for the attack, and the toe of his riding boot caught the animal under the jaw and sent it backward with terrific force. Lon had secured his footing, too, and seeing his canine friend so badly treated, came at Hadley with redoubled fury. The latter caught him at arms’ length and before Lon could secure any hold, threw him forcibly to the ground.
The dog happened to be in the way and his master fell flat upon him and with sufficient force to break the animal’s spine. The dog’s almost humanlike cry of agony shocked Hadley, and his anger was gone in an instant. “Oh, the poor creature!” he cried, and as Lon got up, bleeding at the nose and much bruised, Hadley knelt down beside the beast to see how badly it was hurt. But with a few spasmodic jerks of its limbs the dog lay still; its master’s fall had killed it.
Alwood, however, little interested in the death of the faithful creature, was searching about the pasture, and suddenly finding a smooth cobble, hurled it with all his might at the kneeling boy. Fortunately, Hadley turned in time to see the action and dodge the stone. He leaped up, and Lon turned tail and ran to escape merited punishment for this cowardly act.
“That fellow hasn’t a spark of honor,” thought the victor of this rather sanguinary encounter. “He can’t fight fair. I’m sorry I killed his dog; but I don’t believe Lon thought of the poor brute at all. He was just mad at me and cared nothing about it. I’ll have to watch out for Lon Alwood, for he’ll seek to injure me without giving fair warning, I know.”
His encounter with the Tory youth had detained him, until now it was growing dusk along the edges of the wood which bordered the pasture. He hurried on and soon arrived at the outbuildings and barns belonging to his uncle. The cattle had come up to the barnyard and the cows were being milked by the hired hands, while Ephraim overlooked the feeding. If the old gentleman deprived himself of everything but the bare necessities of life, he was careful that his stock was well fed.
The men were mostly lads from neighboring farms, who went home at night, working for their monthly wage for Master Morris because there was not enough to do to keep them busy at home. They cordially greeted the miser’s nephew, for though they were nearly all from Tory families, Hadley was popular with them. Ephraim Morris, however, had but a cold welcome for the stableboy.
“Well,” he said, in an unpleasant voice, “what have you got to say for yourself, Hadley?”
“About what, uncle?” demanded the boy.
“Oh, I’ve heard all about it. I let you work for that innkeeper and this is what it comes to, hey? I thought so—I thought so! Hanging around a place like that would spoil anybody’s morals. I’m surprised at you, Hadley—and your mother was a good woman. And for you, who were born a British subject on English soil yourself, to help these crazy colonists along—”
“But I believe they are right, uncle, just as you believe the king and the king’s men are right.”
“Pah! pah!” exclaimed the old man, savagely. “What does a boy like you know of such matters? You have hung about that Jonas Benson, and his inn, which is a hotbed of rebellion, so long that you talk like a lawyer. It is ruining you, and I won’t have a nephew of mine—”
“But Master Benson pays you my wages regularly, doesn’t he?” demanded Hadley, before the old man could say anything rash.
“Hem—well, I can say he does,” admitted Uncle Ephraim, and subsided for a moment. Soon, however, he started on a new tack. “Who is this English officer who is a guest at the inn, nephew?” he asked. “It is said that he is a great man from York way. And to think that you should oppose a gentleman and an officer of His Majesty’s army!”
“I don’t know how great a man he is,” Hadley returned. “He calls himself Colonel Creston Knowles—”
The old man started and leaned forward so that his wrinkled face came within the candlelight. Wonder, and an expression which seemed like fear, slowly grew upon his countenance. “Who did you say he was?” he demanded, his lean fingers clutching the edge of the table.
“Colonel Creston Knowles, uncle. His daughter, Mistress Lillian, is with him. They have come into Jersey to find a family by our name, I understand. Both of them have asked me about you, sir.” While he said this, Hadley scrutinized Uncle Ephraim closely. The old man was much disturbed, for he sat silent for several minutes and his face showed plainly that he was the man Colonel Knowles was so anxious to see. “Who is Colonel Knowles?” the boy asked, at length. “What does he want to see you for? Is he—is he related to us in any way?”
“No, no!” snarled the miser. “He’s nothing to either you or me. I—I don’t know him—I don’t know him, I tell you! Now, go to bed, and don’t disturb me with your questions.”
Hadley cleared up the untidy kitchen as best he could, and then lit a tallow dip at the single candle on the table, and obeyed his uncle’s behest by mounting the stairs to the loft over the room. He went to bed at once, for he was tired enough, but he could not sleep for thinking of his uncle’s strange manner and words. There was some mysterious connection between Colonel Knowles and the Morrises; but Uncle Ephraim did not intend to admit it.
Hadley fell into a doze at last, but only for a short time. The squeak of a door below aroused him, and after listening a moment and fancying all sort of noises, as one will in the night when the house is still, he crept out of bed, slipped on his outer clothes again, and tiptoed to the head of the stairs to see if his uncle had himself gone to bed. There was a faint light below, and the boy was confident that the candle must be burning, for Uncle Ephraim would never leave a fire on the hearth at this time of the year.
Carefully going down several steps in perfect silence, he managed to get a view of the whole kitchen, including the fireplace, and what was his astonishment to see Ephraim Morris standing upon a chair before an old brick oven built high in the chimney, and which Hadley never remembered seeing opened before. It was open now, however, and the old gentleman had his head and shoulders thrust inside, as though reaching for something concealed at the extreme back of the oven.
CHAPTER IX
A MIDNIGHT BURYING
TO play the rôle of eavesdropper, or “Peeping Tom,” was not exactly as Hadley Morris would have wished. He hated a sneak; but his curiosity regarding his uncle’s manœuvres was for the time too strong for his ideas of what was really honorable, and instead of retreating up the stairs to the loft again, he remained where he was and watched the old gentleman with wide-open eyes.
Like most substantially built houses of that day, the Morris homestead had a great stone and brick fireplace built into the end wall. To the right of the fireplace was one of those ovens in which the pioneer housewives did all their baking. The oven was like a safe built into the side of the chimney, and had a smooth clay floor. Uncle Ephraim had always kept the oven door fastened with an old-fashioned brass padlock.
The padlock now lay on the floor, and as Hadley continued to peer into the wide kitchen from around the corner of the door-frame, he saw Master Morris draw back from the mouth of the oven, holding a bag in each hand. The bags were not large, but by the way his uncle carried them the boy knew they were heavy, and when the old man stepped down from the chair and laid them on the table, the listener heard a faint chink as though of metal. “It’s gold!” whispered the boy to himself, and his eyes opened even more widely at the thought.
Then for the first time Hadley saw that Master Morris wore his waistcoat and coat, as though he were ready to go out of doors. He put on his hat at once, stuck the half-burned candle in a lantern, and with the latter swung over his arm and one of the heavy bags in each hand, he left the house.
Hadley hesitated only a moment; then, curiosity still spurring him, he ran lightly down the remaining steps into the kitchen and followed his uncle out of doors without stopping for his own hat. The night was mild and not at all dark, but the boy might have found some difficulty in following the old man had it not been for the flickering lantern which swung from his arm. This dancing will-o’-the-wisp led the boy down behind the barns and cribs and directly into the orchard where the branches of the gnarled old apple trees met and, with their fruit and foliage, shut out most of the star-light.
Hadley crept near, cautiously, when he saw that Uncle Ephraim had halted and set the light upon the ground. Soon he discovered that the old man had been here before since he went to bed, for there was a shovel and a heap of earth in plain view. He watched his uncle and saw him drop the two bags into what appeared to be a rather deep hole, then place a flat stone on top of them, and afterward fill in the hole with the soil and stamp it all down with care. There was considerable soil left then, and the old man carried this away, shovelful by shovelful, and threw it into a ditch at the far edge of the orchard. Afterward he replaced the sod which he had earlier removed, patting it all down evenly with the flat of his shovel. The burying was completed, and marking the spot well for future reference, Hadley ran back to the house and climbed to the loft, and was nicely in bed again before the old man returned to the kitchen.
But the strangeness of the whole matter kept the boy awake long after he was sure his uncle had sought his own couch. He was unable to compose his mind to sleep, and was glad when at length the cocks crew to announce the gray light in the east. He rose and went back to the Three Oaks without again seeing Uncle Ephraim, and tried to forget the incident of the night in his work about the inn. But when he saw Colonel Creston Knowles ride off with William toward the Morris farm soon after breakfast, Hadley wished he had remained longer with his uncle, and so been present at the interview which was about to take place between the old man and the British officer.
Lillian avoided him that day, seemingly, and Hadley went about his duties with much trouble at his heart. It was after noon when Colonel Knowles and his henchman returned, and a glance at the officer’s face told Hadley that the gentleman was in a towering rage. Evidently his visit had afforded him little satisfaction.
Soon, however, something occurred which succeeded in driving this mystery into the background of the boy’s mind. News from Philadelphia had been scarce since his return from the Pennsylvania side of the river; but after supper that evening a man rode up to the inn on a fagged-out horse, and told them that the army under Washington was on the move, and was marching toward Philadelphia, as it was believed Lord Howe’s fleet would land troops to attack the city, where Congress was then in session. The man obtained a fresh mount and rode on into the east, having secret business in that direction.
That night, while Jonas Benson and Hadley sat together in the chimney place of the inn kitchen, talking over the possibilities of the battle which must occur before long, the heralding squeak of Lafe Holdness’ wagon axles reached their ears, the outer door being ajar.
“Run and open the gate for him, Had!” exclaimed Benson. “Mistress, put down something to eat for a hungry man, and I warrant you Lafe will do justice to it.”
His wife grumblingly expressed herself that a cold supper was good enough for a man like Lafe Holdness; but she, nevertheless, obeyed her husband’s request.
“Stan’ round ther, you!” From the yard the teamster’s voice could be heard addressing the horses. “Ef ye want suthin’ ter eat, why don’t ye stan’ still so’t I kin unbuckle this strap? Hello, Had Morris! is that air yeou? I didn’t ’spect to see yeou ag’in this side o’ the river till the war was over,” and the Yankee chuckled mightily and dug the boy good-naturedly in the ribs.
“We heard to-night the army was on the move, Lafe,” Jonas said, coming to the porch, and speaking low.
Lafe dropped for the moment his bantering tone and spoke seriously. “There’s going to be something done purty soon, friends—somethin’ big! There’s sure to be a battle. Howe’s fleet is comin’ up Chesapeake Bay and General Washington will meet the troops he lands somewhere south of Philadelphia; but we ain’t got much more’n ten thousand men all told.”
“How many sailed from York?” queried the innkeeper.
“Nobody knows!” returned Lafe, ruefully. “Them dispatches Had took over ter Germantown didn’t give the exact figgers. But I’m out this way sendin’ in all the scatterin’ men that hev’ got guns. There won’t much happen hereabout until the two armies meet. And, speakin’ about Had,” added Lafe, suddenly, “I’m wantin’ ter use him, Jonas.”
“Well,” remarked the innkeeper, with twinkling eyes, “he’s a pretty valuable boy to me. I have to pay his uncle for him, too.”
“You’d oughter be called Judas Benson!” declared the Yankee. “You’re a great feller ter haggle over the price of a ’prentice boy. I’m goin’ ter send him to the army—it’s at Philadelphia now.”
“And that means I’ll likely lose a good horse as well as the boy,” grumbled Jonas.
“Don’t you think I’ve got anything to say about it myself?” demanded Hadley of the Yankee.
“Not much. I’ve got orders for you,” he declared, nodding his head. “See here.” He drew a battered wallet from his pocket, and in the light of the innkeeper’s lantern selected a slip of paper from one of the compartments. This he displayed before the wondering eyes of both Jonas and Hadley. On the paper was written, in a rather cramped and formal hand:
“Send back the boy from the Three Oaks Inn with any message.
“Cadwalader.”
“Why!” exclaimed the round-eyed innkeeper, “that’s the man who saved you from the soldiers, Had--Colonel Cadwalader.”
“I reckon ye’ must ha’ got purty thick with Master Cadwalader, Had,” said Lafe, tearing the paper into small pieces. “Let me tell yeou he is in the General’s confidence as much as old Knox, or Colonel Pickering. I got suthin’ important for yeou to take to headquarters, an’ if yeou’ve had your supper yeou’d better saddle a hoss an’ git away with it purty soon. The quicker ye start the sooner ye’ll ketch the army, for it’s on the move.”
While he was speaking, Jonas Benson was already leading Black Molly out of her stall, showing at once that his objections to the boy’s departure had been but momentary. “He’s had his supper, and he can git out right now!” he declared.
But Hadley waited long enough to go into the loft and put on the best suit of homespun which he possessed, and encased his legs in long riding boots with a pair of tiny spurs screwed into the heels. There were no papers to take this time, for Lafe Holdness whispered the message he had to send into the boy’s attentive ear. “An’ now good luck to ye!” exclaimed the scout as the youth mounted into the saddle and Jonas opened the stable door. “Nobody can take nothin’ from ye this time, but mebbe it’s just as well if yeou dodge all armed men of airy complection till ye pass Germantown.”
Black Molly trotted quietly down the inn yard toward the gate. Just as she was going through this and her rider was about to give her the rein, he was startled by a soft “S-s-st!” beside him. He turned his head quickly and drew Molly down to a walk. A shadowy figure stood at the end of the porch. In an instant Hadley recognized Lillian Knowles, with a light shawl flung over her head and shoulders, and her hand outstretched to him.
A FIGURE STOOD AT THE END OF THE PORCH
“Hadley Morris!” she whispered, “if you are carrying anything—anything you don’t want other folks to see—look out! There are others beside me who know you are riding toward the ferry to-night.” And then, before he could reply or express his astonishment at her warning, she disappeared within the shadow of the porch. He heard the door close softly behind her, and, after a moment’s hesitation, he started Molly on again and turned her head toward the distant ferry, wondering if he ought to take the girl’s words seriously and turn back for reinforcements.
[TO BE CONTINUED]