In a few words Hadley told of the injury to the dispatch bearer at the Three Oaks Inn, and how he had escaped with the papers and crossed the river.
“Well done!” cried Cadwalader, evidently enjoying the story. “Ye did well. And now these fellows have taken your packet, eh?” He turned a frowning visage upon the corporal. “How is this?” he demanded.
“We know nothing about the lad, your honor,” said the corporal.
“Return to him the papers and let him go with me in the carriage. His horse looks fagged and had best be left in the care of some loyal farmer nearby.”
“But how do we know you?” began the corporal, desperately.
At this Bumbler left Hadley’s side and plucked at the petty officer’s sleeve. “Don’t be a fool, Corporal!” he whispered, hoarsely. “It’s Colonel Cadwalader true enough. I’ve seen him in Philadelphia many a time.”
At this assurance the other grudgingly gave up the papers to their rightful possessor again, and Hadley turned a beaming face upon Colonel Cadwalader. “You get right into the carriage, boy, and let my man here lead your mare. We will find a safe place for her ere long, and you can pick her up on your way home—if you return by this road. But a well-set-up youngster like you should be in the army. We’ll need all such we can get shortly, I make no doubt.”
Hadley had no fitting reply to this, but, urged by the gentleman, entered the coach, and the horses started again, leaving the chagrined corporal and his men standing beside the road.
The boy had never heard of John Cadwalader, or the Silk Stocking Regiment, of which he was originally the commander; but the gentleman was prominent in Philadelphia before the war broke out, and was one of Washington’s closest and most staunch friends throughout the struggle for independence.
John Cadwalader, son of Thomas Cadwalader, a prominent physician of the Quaker City, was thirty-three years of age when the War for Independence began. At the time of the Lexington massacre he was in command of a volunteer company in Philadelphia organized among the young men of the élite, or silk-stocking class. But, despite the rather sneering cognomen applied to it, the authorities found the Silk Stocking Regiment well drilled and disciplined, and every member of it was a welcome addition to the State troops.