“There is no day or hour without its danger for a soldier,” I told her evasively, and not to delay the chief matter—which was the getting of her and my cousin safely a-sea before my coup de grace—or Benedict Arnold’s—should fall—I asked if we might have privacy absolute for a few moments while I should instruct her what she was to do.
At this, she led me into the little room that I was coming to know as the chamber of mingled bliss and torment, and carefully closed the door.
“Cousin Ju is sleeping,” she said. “I persuaded her, expecting that our night’s rest would be sadly broken. It will be, I know, Dick; I can read that in your face, too.”
I laughed, and said I must have a face like a large-print book; whereat she came to me and took the face in question between her soft palms, and for the moment I forgot everything save the loving, tender eyes that were gazing into mine, and the sweet lips with the tiny Cupid’s-bow curve at the corners of the sensitive mouth, and the perfect oval of their setting, and the masses of lustrous hair to frame the oval—but this would not do!
“Yes; your rest is likely to be disturbed,” I told her, and thereupon gave her an outline of the plan for the evasion of the order making a potential troopship of the Nancy Jane.
Her eyes were shining when I explained how Major Simcoe’s troop had been got out of the way.
“How like your cool daring that was, Dick! No one else would have thought of trying to move a whole regiment to get a score of men delayed in their embarking,” she commented.
“I would have undertaken to move Sir Henry’s army in the mass to serve you, dear,” I replied. Then I rehearsed the simple details again, so there might be no misunderstanding. “You are to make yourselves ready and stay here quietly until Captain Sprigg comes for you, no matter how late that may be. He will take you by the quieter streets to the river, and his boat will be in waiting. Once on board the schooner, you must obey the captain in everything. He may have to fight his way out of the harbor; I hope he may not, but it is possible. If he does—”
“If he does, I shall not forget that I am a Leigh, and that my lover is the handsomest, bravest soldier that ever drew sword,” she said, making me blush again. Then she passed suddenly to my affair. “But you have been talking altogether of us and our safety, Dick, and I am much more concerned for yours. I know now that you are a true man and no traitor, and the knowledge makes me shiver and cringe for every passing moment: you’ll be taken—and—I shall not be here. Oh, Dick! when will it be over? How long must you stay here under the shadow of that dreadful thing on Gallows Hill?”
“It will be over—to-night,” I prophesied, comforting her as I could.