“You are right,” said Ezra, “and the story will keep until we get under way.”
The five hastened forward; the chest was dragged from its hiding-place; Nat and Revere each seized a handle and off they set, trudging manfully. They had gone but a little distance when Nat said to Ezra:
“Now for it; I’m so full of curiosity that I can wait no longer.”
“You see,” began Ezra, “George has been brought up by our grandfather, who is a Tory. All his friends have been king’s men and he has been taught to believe in British rule. As for myself, I have always been a strong Whig like my father—so strong a one,” and he colored a little, “that I never spoke of my brother, fearing that some one would learn of his way of thought.”
“I was always as strong an American as you, Ezra,” said George, smiling. “Our methods were different, that’s all.”
“Perhaps so,” answered Ezra. “But, you know, it is how we apply our beliefs that counts.” Addressing himself to the others, he went on: “When the trouble commenced, George began acting with our enemies. I pleaded with him, but he would not listen. He said I had been led away by demagogues—for such he had been taught to believe Mr. Adams and Dr. Warren. When I set out for Philadelphia I learned that he had formed the plan to take John and Samuel Adams on the road and that he was ahead of me.”
“And you left your party as it neared the city,” said Nat, understanding, “that you might overtake him.”
“Exactly,” said Ezra, eagerly.
And then he went on to account for his absence from the City Tavern at Philadelphia on the night that Ben first called to see him, in the same way. George had laughingly told him that Washington and Henry would soon be prisoners, and not daring to inform any one of the facts for fear and shame of what might befall his brother, Ezra had set about to follow him and thwart the plan alone.
Nat laughed when Ezra came to their conversation upon the pavement before the City Tavern, in Philadelphia.