Amos and Jim, believing themselves in good company so long as they remained with Samuel Gray, kept close at his heels, and he was not loth to have them, for, like many another in the city of Boston on this night, he was firmly convinced that the strength of boys, as well as men, would be necessary before morning to preserve the slight semblance of freedom which was left to the Colonies.
John Gray's fears that there would be trouble in the vicinity of the rope-walk had been proven by this time to be groundless, for soldiers as well as citizens had, as if by common impulse, avoided the scene of the first serious outbreak, and at seven o'clock in the evening, when the city was more nearly in a state of repose than it had been since the alarm-bells summoned the inhabitants, Samuel Gray proposed to his brother and Amos that they go to the factory.
"I promised father I would look around there now and then, and if you boys are not counting on going home to supper, I can give you something in the way of a lunch from the store of provisions I carried there this morning."
"We are certainly not going home while there seems to be so much afoot," Amos replied.
"Then come with me, and we'll hope that the intentions of those who are abroad this night are as peaceable as ours."
It was destined, however, that they should not partake of the provisions which Jim's brother had stored for such an occasion as this.
On arriving at John Gray's place of business, a party numbering twenty or thirty, led by Attucks, with Master Piemont's assistant by his side, was seen marching toward the Custom House, shouting and hooting, as if to prove their courage by much noise.
"It is by such as them that mischief may be done," Amos said, in a low tone. "Hardy Baker cares not what statements he makes, so long as he appears to be considered a leader," and he concluded by telling Sam the story of the attack made the previous Saturday afternoon.