"Sure Oi've none to spare at all, Liftinant," roared Patsy, "but if ye had said Cookyspiller now, ye'd have hit it to a tay. Sure he do be nadin' it had."
As the boys were getting ready to leave, Tom came into camp and said:
"So you are leaving, are you, Captain? You have not seen him, have you?"
"You will not see him again, Tom," Dick replied. "He was killed a few days ago while in the commission of a crime in the city."
"Did you see it, Captain?"
"Yes, Tom. You and your mother are now free."
Tom asked no questions, but presently said:
"I would like to join the Liberty Boys. Mother is doing very well, the little children are being cared for, and there is a good man up at Tarrytown who has lost his wife and needs some one to take care of his children. Mother can do it, and I think—"
"She will marry him in time, Tom? Yes, it will be good for both of them. She likes him?"
"Yes, and so do all of us. Is it wrong for me to think that we are better off now that he has been taken away?"