The story opens in the year 1777, during one of the most critical periods of the Revolution. Hadley Morris, our hero, is in the employ of Jonas Benson, the host of the Three Oaks, a well known inn on the road between Philadelphia and New York. Like most of his neighbors, Hadley is an ardent sympathizer with the American cause. When, therefore, the bearer of dispatches, having been captured on his way to Philadelphia, gives Hadley the all-important packet to be forwarded to General Washington, the boy immediately makes his escape with it, in spite of the risk to his own life from the pursuing horsemen. In the darkness the fleeing boy meets a friendly teamster, Lafe Holdness, in reality a patriot spy and friend of Washington. At his suggestion the boy and his horse take safety in the low, covered wagon just as the closely pursuing horsemen come dashing up the road.
THE covered wagon went creaking on until the officer, wheeling his big steed directly across the road, halted the astonished team of draught horses perforce.
“Who be yeou, Mister, an’ what d’ye want?” drawled the teamster, rising in his seat and throwing the light of his lantern directly into the colonel’s eyes, so that by no possibility he might see into the back of the wagon. “There seems to be a slather o’ folks ridin’ this road ter-night.”
“See you, sirrah!” exclaimed the colonel, riding close up to the driver and scanning his smoothly-shaven, humorous face closely. “Has a boy on horseback just passed you?”
“Wa-al, now, I couldn’t tell whether it was a boy ’r th’ old Nick himself,” declared Holdness, with apparent sincerity; “but suthin’ went by me as slick as er streak o’ greased lightnin’.”
“Sure he passed you?” repeated the British officer.
“Honest Injun!” returned Holdness, with perfect truth. “I didn’t ketch much of a sight of him; but he went past. What’s goin’ on, anyway, sir?”
But Colonel Knowles, having considered that he had found out all that was possible from the countryman, paid no attention to his question, but turned to the dragoons who now thundered up. “He’s still ahead of us, men!” he cried. “We must overtake him before he reaches the ferry—”
“Indeed, we must, Colonel,” interposed the sergeant in command of the dragoons. “There will be a force of the enemy at the ferry, it’s likely, and we must not be drawn into any skirmish. Those were my orders, sir, before I started.”