Acting in accordance with Hiram's instructions, we lads pressed closely around Job Lord for the double purpose of hiding him from view as much as possible while at the same time we forced him to a rapid pace, and in silence, save for the heavy breathing of the prisoner caused by the gag, and the sound of our footsteps, we advanced unchallenged to where the skiff was found.
But for the fact that I believed death lurked very closely in our rear, I could have found something comical in the fact that we were being aided in our flight by one of the king's men, who believed he was having a finger in the pie to be baked for the "rebels," and even though I trembled with fear and anxiety, it was impossible to check a smile when I saw the thick-headed Britisher waiting patiently by the water's edge for us to come up.
In order that we might get away the more quickly, he had the skiff afloat, holding her by the painter, and as we approached Hiram thrust Job Lord on board in advance, following so closely as to screen him from view. If the lobster back had previously had any suspicions, he might have noted something strange in the manner of our clustering around the prisoner even after we had taken our places in the boat; but the dull fellow believed he was aiding in what would work injury to those whom he had come across the ocean to kill, and gave heed to nothing save his own part in the enterprise.
As I think of the matter now, it seems almost like a fairy tale, this story of being aided to escape by one of the king's men, with a squad of soldiers at the guard-house nearby ready to lend a hand in case we needed it; but such was the case, and had it not been so I believe of a verity we had never gone out of Boston town alive, for if the tables had been turned, Master Lord and his friends would have seen to it that we were hanged on one pretext or another.
Whatever the dangers we had encountered, or however narrow the escape, we were free at last, for even though one of the guard-boats overhauled us, the pass signed by General Gage himself would have been enough to insure safe conduct, and when the skiff had been pulled by Harvey and Silas so far from the shore that we could see behind us nothing save the lights that twinkled here and there, it was with difficulty I repressed a shout of triumph.
As it was I could not hold my peace; but, leaning toward Hiram as he sat by Master Lord's side in the stern-sheets, said gleefully:
"We have come out from among the Britishers without a scratch, and in addition to releasing one of our own who was in prison, are taking to Cambridge a spy who might have worked the Cause fatal harm, therefore who shall say that the Minute Boys, if so be you still count yourself one, have not shown themselves able to do the work of men?"
"I sure do count myself one of the Minute Boys, lad, and shall do so till our little muss with the king has come to an end, leaving us colonists on the top of the heap. But say, Luke Wright, this last trick over which we have the right to do a good bit of crowing, has been a close shave. Unless everything had worked according to our desires, we would have been undone, and I'm thinking the shadow of the gallows was dark over us in that hour when I set off for the Bridewell."
"Tell me what happened there?"
"It isn't much of a story, for the plan worked as if it had been greased, though I'm free to confess that I had but little hope of pulling through when I left you. My heart was thumping fit to burst when I called for the officer on duty, holding my head high as if General Gage had been my brother. The lieutenant who gave me a hearing was by no means the dullard you might have expected him to be, and eyed me in a way that wasn't comforting. Of course I had to explain that Master Lord wasn't quite in condition to venture out, and that I was helping him in setting a trap for the rebels. While you might have counted twenty I felt certain he was minded to send to headquarters to learn if the order was all right, and I made bold to urge that a delay of half an hour would set all our plans awry, which you'll agree was nothing more than solemn truth."