"Leave me here; I can hide beneath the brush which forms your bed, and you may be certain I shan't be such a fool as to venture out."
It was a good idea, and after he had burrowed beneath the pine branches until no trace of him could be seen, I went to seek my mother.
CHAPTER IX.
TRYON'S DEMONSTRATION.
Although we, meaning Sidney and I, had saved a man's life, it was but a trifling incident to the majority, so intense was the interest in the outcome of the trial to be held on the morrow.
The welfare of the colony, and, perhaps, the lives of hundreds of our people depended upon what would be done next day in the Hillsborough court-house, and with such a great stake at hazard, the citizens might well be excused for giving but little heed to the fact that a tax-collector had been very near death.
Those who paid any particular attention to the events which I have just set down, viewed the entire proceeding as but the first move in the game betwixt rulers and those who are ruled, and if any disquietude was felt, it arose from the fact that the more superstitious took Sandy Wells' escape from death as a token that our oppressors would win the legal battle, or contrive some way by which it might be turned into a farce.
When I rejoined my parents I found them looking decidedly uncomfortable in mind, and it was possible to guess the reason for their anxiety when mother said to me in a low tone as she clasped my hand lovingly:
"My son, in case it should not be prudent to return home at once, I feel confident you will conduct yourself as if my eyes were upon you all the time."
"Then father thinks Tryon will get the best of us to-morrow?" I cried, looking up quickly.
"It is possible that, despite all our show of force, the king's party may outwit us, or force the judges to decide in Tryon's favor," my father replied thoughtfully.