“You are a terrible rebel!” declared the girl, but she still smiled down upon him. “Did you carry those dispatches ’way to—to that Mr. Washington whom your people call ‘general’?”
“I went all the way with them and saw General Washington himself,” declared the boy, proudly. “He is a mighty fine gentleman, and the place where he stops was full of officers. All the American army are not ragamuffins,” and his eyes twinkled as he thus reminded her of her criticism of the American soldiery on a previous occasion. “Some of the colonists know how to fight as well as hired soldiers.”
“And some of them know how to run,” Lillian cried.
“True. Would you have had me stand here and face that whole mob of dragoons—to say nothing of your father?”
“Oh, I didn’t mean you. I think you were very smart to get away on that horse with the dispatches. And I’ll tell you what father said about it,” she added, lowering her voice and glancing about her. “He said that ‘if the rebel youth can fight so well and are such strategists, it is no wonder that my Lord Howe and the other generals have so little luck in bringing the uprising to a swift close.’ Now, aren’t you proud?”
Hadley flushed as she spoke. “I thought he was very angry with me this morning.”
“Well, I think he is angry enough; but he seemed to admire your ability to beat the dragoons and get across the river as you did. I heard him and the officer in command of the troopers talking about it, and they both wondered how you escaped them on the road to the ferry. Father said he had almost caught you—he could tell by the sound of your horse’s feet—when the sound suddenly stopped and you disappeared as though the earth had opened and swallowed you. How did you do it?”
“You are an enemy,” the boy returned, with amusement. “I couldn’t tell you that, you know. Anything else—”
“Tell me what sort of a man that uncle of yours, Ephraim Morris, is?” she broke in, suddenly. “I spoke to father about him and he said he must be the man he has come here to see.”
“Uncle Ephraim is an old man. He came from England years ago. He isn’t liked very well. He’s a king’s man, you know—a Tory.”