The Minute Boys of Boston. Otis James

beach, lulled me to drowsiness. Even while saying to myself that I must remain awake and on guard, I fell asleep, being conscious of nothing more until, without apparent cause, I opened my eyes to find that the sun was in the western sky and Hiram sitting with his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands, regarding me fixedly.

      "What's the matter?" I cried incautiously loud as I rose to a sitting posture.

      "The matter is that we are tied here all these hours instead of being in Cambridge where, mayhap, there is plenty for us to do."

      "How long have you been awake?"

      "Nigh about three days, as it seems to me, though I reckon it can't be more than a couple of hours."

      "Have you seen or heard anything of the Britishers?"

      "As much as you may see now by looking out from among the bushes. No one has come our way, and if they had I believe I'd eaten them, for since yesterday morning no bite of food has passed my lips."

      It would have been better for me if he had refrained from speaking of food, because the mere words made me hungry, and on the instant I realized, or fancied I did, that my mouth was parched with thirst. The knowledge that I could minister to neither one desire nor the other, until we were come to Cambridge, only served to make them all the more intense.

      It would be worse than childish to complain when no good could come from uttering peevish words, and I strove to put from my mind all that I desired, by speaking of Archie, idly wondering where he might be.

      "Unless he is snug at home, I'm allowing the Britishers have got him penned up in such shape that neither you nor I can do much toward aiding him," Hiram said emphatically, and then to my distress of mind he set about telling of an acquaintance of his who had had the ill fortune to displease some of General Gage's following, thereby bringing himself to a sojourn in Boston prison.

      After that we talked of this thing and of another, it makes little difference what, I meanwhile watching the sun until my eyes ran water, coming to believe now and then it was standing still in the heavens, so slowly did it move.

      Finally, however, the night came, as all nights will while we remain in this world, whether they be for our good or for our evil. The shadows had hardly more than begun to gather when Hiram, shaking himself as does a dog, said in a business-like tone:

      "I'm allowing, lad, that we can't start any too soon. The guard-boats will be out as thick as flies around a molasses jug within the next half hour, and even though there's a chance of being seen, by skirting along the shore of this island we have reason to believe it'll be possible to keep out of sight. According to my way of thinking the risk will be less now, than if we waited for the lobster backs to begin their night's work."

      As Hiram suggested so we did, working rapidly in launching the skiff, and when she was waterborne we pulled as fellows will who believe death is pursuing them, meanwhile realizing keenly that once chase should be made we could not hope to escape.

      Fortune favored us this time, however scurvy a trick she had played the night before, and we gained Morton's point on the Charlestown shore without apparently having been seen by friend or foe.

      Night had so nearly shut in now that we were hidden by the gloom, and had every reason to believe we were come out from amid our enemies without other harm than suffering with hunger and thirst.

      If Archie had been with me, I could have cried aloud with joy as we aimed a straight course for the Penny ferry.

      There is no need that I go into details of that tramp from the Medford river to Cambridge, nor for me to set down all which was said between us. It is enough if I write that we were come in the early morning to where were gathered those brave hearts who counted on making a great army which was to be raised against the king, and in defence of the colonies.

      Already had the place begun to look like a military encampment, except that instead of glistening white canvas tents such as the king's men had, our people were housed as best they might be in shelters of brush, tents formed of blankets, and even many with nothing 'twixt their illy-clad bodies and God's sky.

      Hiram, who appeared to be thoroughly familiar with this poor imitation of an encampment, passed rapidly along until we were come to a building in front of which stood a man without a uniform, but with a musket over his shoulder, who was acting as sentinel.

      There were no military salutes exchanged between my companion and this man on duty; but they greeted each other as old friends, the sentinel saying in a querulous tone as if he was well acquainted with the mission on which Hiram had been sent:

      "I had come to think you counted on staying with the blooming Britishers, instead of coming back here to do your share of playing at soldiering."

      "I hope I may never run the same risk among the lobster backs again. It was too tight a squeeze to suit me," Hiram replied grimly, and added, "Are the gentlemen in?"

      "They were when I came on duty, and I reckon none of 'em have slipped away since."

      "Then we'll go in," and without further ceremony Hiram entered the building as if it was his own home, I following close at his heels as a matter of course, never dreaming that we were to meet an officer, owing to the lack of military show. I began to believe I had simply been brought there to speak with one of the citizens.

      I came speedily to know, however, that we were at the headquarters of the Committee of Safety, that body of men which stood at the head of what you might call the "rebellion", and they all unguarded except for that farmer-sentinel at the door, who was seemingly ready to admit any that might desire to enter.

      Telling me to await his return in a room which looked not unlike one that might have been fitted up for a merchant's use, Hiram disappeared, his heavy footsteps betokening that he had ascended to the floor above, and ten minutes later a cry of joy burst from my lips when none other than Doctor Warren himself entered the room.

      "So it was you who sent for me, sir?" I asked, and he replied:

      "Remembering what you said about raising a company of Minute Boys, and believing you would do so, I fancied it might pleasure you to know that there was come so soon an opportunity to aid the Cause. I counted on seeing two, however," he added as if in disappointment.

      In the fewest possible words I told him of our misadventure the night previous, and asked if he believed it might be possible for us boys to do aught toward effecting the poor lad's release.

      "I question if an equal number of men could do anything," the doctor replied, speaking as if he was sorrowful because of not being able to hold out hope. "His father is known as a Son of Liberty, and it will most like be charged against him that he was attempting to carry information to us rebels here in Cambridge, therefore he will be guarded more closely than if he had been guilty of some grievous crime."

      I strove unsuccessfully to choke back the sob which finally escaped my lips, and then, thinking that if I was to have any opportunity to serve the Cause it ill became me to play the part of a baby, asked with as much firmness as I could muster:

      "What work have you for us Minute Boys to do, sir?"

      "The Committee of Safety believes that you lads can be of great service in bringing to us news from the town, and it was to discuss with you how best one of your company might make his way to us here, when you had learned that which it would advantage us to know."

      "I do not believe it would be possible to lay out any one route by which we would be able come at all times." I made bold to reply. "On certain nights we might perchance set off from Fox hill, and come across without difficulty. Again we could, perhaps, make Barton's point our place of departure. In fact it would depend upon where the red-coats had been stationed, and what they were about."

      "Yes, yes, lad, I understand that full well. What we had in mind was to settle how you might hide skiffs at these various places in order to take sudden advantage of any favorable opportunity. Your father is in camp; have speech with him, and come back to me here an hour later."

      If Hiram Griffin had been standing near the door listening to our conversation he could not have entered the room at a better moment, for the doctor had but just spoken those words which were the same as token of