“Yes, but Laurens had charge of them and he could have held up a score of boys if he had known how to handle them.”
“But you knew he did not know and the other boys did.”
“Yes, but I thought he ought to have known.”
He saw the rising of an indignant flush in Adelaide’s face and added quickly, “besides I intended to go back and see that no harm was done, Miss Adelaide.”
“Why did you not go?” inquired Adelaide shortly.
“Your father claimed my services. First to help store away the surplus stock I had brought with me. That done, we gave chase to some boys that were making up the river with his boat. We headed them off. They got into a panic, lost one oar and broke another, then went down over the falls and were drowned. You heard about it did you not?”
“Yes, but not much.”
“Well, there wasn’t much said about it. They were of no account anyway. They were a squad of tough boys that came up from the prolific French settlement, to work their little game and see how much they could get out of ‘old Schwarmer,’ as they called him. Of course the parents wouldn’t say anything on account of the stealing of the boat, and probably they had about fifteen other children and were glad to be rid of them. I shouldn’t have remembered it had it not been for one little circumstance.”
“What was that?” asked Adelaide breathlessly.
“They were the boys I sent to Laurens Cornwallis for a division of fireworks.”