"It seems that the Minute Boys have nothing to do," I said bitterly to Hiram Griffin when he and I came together at my home on the evening after the Tory company had paraded on the Common. "It is from Cambridge that the important news is being sent, and we who are shut up here have no word of news to tell."
"It strikes me, lad, that you have already got quite a budget of information which our people in Cambridge should hear. Mayhap it is already known in the encampment that no one can leave Boston town without a permit, and it's also possible they know of the arming of the Tories; but you who were assigned to the duty of gathering news should not set yourselves down idly and say that it has already been made public."
"Meaning that we should go our way carrying stale information at the risk of being arrested, and repeating what no one cares to hear?"
"Ay, lad, that is exactly what I mean. You were not asked to seek this or that; but to carry to Cambridge information of what was going on in town. It is for General Ward to say whether that which you bring him is of importance or no."
"But it seems that we have other work on hand which should come first," I said, having kept back a bit of news which I knew would startle him. "Harvey Pearson succeeded this afternoon in seeing Archie—"
"How did he get into the prison?"
"There's no such good word as that. What I mean is that he attracted his attention from the outside, and by dint of gestures, with a word here and there, made him understand that at midnight, after the guard has been changed, he will attempt to have speech with him."
Hiram looked at me in surprise, as if not crediting all I told him, and then, much as if dismissing the matter from his mind, he said:
"If I were the captain of the Minute Boys of Boston, I should strive to send a messenger to Cambridge this night. I myself have picked up such bits of news as I believe General Ward would be pleased to hear."
"But how can I go, when there is a chance of having word with Archie to-night?"