“And it may succeed,” he said. “It is a thing so unsuspected that it may succeed!”
As he watched he saw the group scatter. Horses were heard trampling and jingling their equipment; then came the noise of men mounting and calling to each other triumphantly. Finally the entire party rode down the path and into the public road; some of them bore lanterns to light their way, and in the dancing rays Nat saw eager, laughing faces, and also the glint of steel. In the midst of them rode a boyish figure; it was the bearer of the news, but Nat could not see his face, as it was turned away, the boy being engaged in earnest talk with Dimisdale, who rode beside him.
“Keep to the roads on the outskirts,” ordered Royce, who seemed to command the cavalcade. “We might attract attention if we rode through the city; and we can reach the lower ferry just as well.”
CHAPTER V
HOW NAT BREWSTER MET THE PORCUPINE
Bewildered, and a trifle frightened by the nature of the proceedings, Nat Brewster stood by the low wall and listened to the hoof beats as they died away in a muffled rumble. But when the silence of the August night closed in upon him—when he noted the many lights of Chew House being extinguished one by one, and heard the doors and windows closing sharply, he suddenly came out of his trance, and his naturally alert brain began to work once more.
“Something must be done,” he said, aloud. “And so it seems to have been left for me to do, I suppose I must do it.”
Almost in an instant a plan of action was drawn up.
“I must reach the lower ferry at the foot of Gray’s Road before the Tories,” he told himself, still speaking aloud. “But to do it I must have a swift horse and one that can stand a long run without breaking down.”
That there was none such in the stable at Coopers’ he well knew; and instantly his mind went to that of the Chews’.
“They are wealthy people and ride to the hounds in season,” reasoned Nat, calling to mind some gossip of Ben’s. “And so, naturally, they have some good mounts in their barn.”