But I did not stop. My heart gave a leap into my throat at the thought that I might be captured, and I dug my heels into my horse's sides. He sprang forward; but as he did so I shot a look backward over my shoulder. Instantly, in the clearer light of the highway, I recognised the figure. Any lingering doubt was dispelled the next moment by a voice that brought me almost to a stand. This cry was still in my ears when a man vaulted into the saddle behind me. It was Duncan Hale, with a noosed rope about his neck.

'On, Roger, on,' he shouted, 'or they'll catch us. I knew the horse as you came by, and broke and ran. They were to hang me in five minutes.'

I urged the horse madly forward, at the same time glancing backward.

The men had reached the highway and were coming. I felt my small farm horse sway and lose his pace under the double weight. I knew all was over for Duncan if they came up with us. I pushed the reins into his hands.

'They won't hang me,' I said. 'You go on.' Then I slid from the saddle; and the next moment I was standing in the middle of the road facing Duncan's pursuers with both my hands held high in the air.

Chapter IV

Prison Experiences

I was soon surrounded by a group of about a dozen panting, angry men.

They made no attempts to conceal their rage. I was seized by several of them at once, violently shaken, and was asked so many questions all at once that, for a time, I was afforded a pretext for not answering any of them.

Finally quiet was restored. When the last man of the party had come up, they formed a ring about me on the road. Every moment the shadows of night were deepening, but I could clearly see that the fire of revenge burned hot in every face. Nor did I wonder at this. Duncan's escape had been so unexpected. They were as lions cheated of their prey. Almost at the moment when their savage pa.s.sion for sport of the cruellest kind conceivable was to be gratified, their intended victim had suddenly slipped through their fingers. The thought of what I had been able to do filled me with a kind of fearlessness that prevented me from shrinking, as the circle of angry men narrowed about me, I felt I was at their mercy; I might be in great danger; I had been the means of thwarting them; but a thrill of pride went through me at the thought that I had been able to save the life of my dead father's dearest friend.

The leader of the party was a tall, rough, awkward-looking man of perhaps forty-five. I heard one of the men call him 'Colonel.' He stepped into the ring and brought a huge pistol to the level of my forehead.

'What's yer name?' he roared.

'Roger Davis,' I said.

'Where 're ye from?

'Cambridge.'

'Who sent ye out here?'

'I came out this morning, of my own accord, to hear the truth about what took place at Lexington the day before yesterday. I was not sent by any one.'

'The truth boy, or----' He showed the mouth of the pistol so near to my face that I could have blown my breath into the muzzle--'the truth, boy, or I'll blow----'

'I am not accustomed to speaking lies,' I broke in suddenly, with some spirit and much warmth. 'I belong to no party, and I would have you understand that you may yet have to answer for obstructing the King's highway. I bid you stand out of my path, that I may proceed on my journey.'

A great chorus of scornful laughter greeted my words. But I was spared further questions at any rate. The circle opened on one side--the side next to Lexington--and I was ordered to march. As I stepped out of the group, I heard the click of several pistols being made ready for action.

We had not gone far, when I learned from the conversation which I could not but hear, that the men behind me held sharply differing views as to what should be done.

'We were instructed by the committee to hang him,' I heard one say; 'and this we did not do. We let him escape. I for one am opposed to going back to Lexington. The committee have had their eye on Hale for some months; and they considered that Providence had put him into their hands this morning. They will be, I a.s.sure you, in no pleasant mood, when they hear he is again at large, having obtained much valuable information. And to think that there wasn't a single pistol ready when he started.'

'Perhaps the committee will turn on us--have us arrested,' put in another. 'An' hanged for neglectin' to fulfil orders,' said a third, whom I had not before heard speaking. The strife and difference grew, until many high, hot words were being spoken.

'Twasn't my fault that he escaped,' said one. 'Twas,' roared another.

'You was nearest to him.'

Then the lie was pa.s.sed; and a moment later nothing but the violent intervention of 'the Colonel' could have prevented both blows and shots.

Finally a halt was decided upon. It was agreed that I was to be kept a prisoner: that two of the party were to convey me to the village and hand me over to the proper authorities, while 'the Colonel' boldly declared that he, in order to simplify matters, would inform the committee that the spy Hale had been hanged according to instructions.

As I afterwards plodded on through the darkness with the tramp, tramp, of my two guards sounding in my ears behind me, I wondered that twelve men who had been reared in the King's Province of Ma.s.sachusetts could have consented to such a lying proposal without protest.

After a journey that seemed doubly long owing to my hunger and weariness, we came to the village, and I was immediately handed over to an official. Though it was very dark, he put a heavy bandage over my eyes; then, with the men who had brought me following, I was led by a very rough path through a field, and across a brook. But I said nothing. It was not a time for words.

Finally we came to a stand. I could hear the sound as of heavy timbers being removed and thrown down. Then there was the noise of the sliding back of a door. In a few moments I was led into what seemed to be the mouth of a cave. The air was damp, and I detected at once a close, unpleasant odour.

It was not long before my eyes were unbandaged and I was permitted to look about. The place seemed to have been dug out of solid rock; water dripped from one side of the roof; there was no floor but the natural rock. In one corner, supported on four stones, lay an old door. I looked a moment at this, and then turned to the faces of three men who stood about me. They were each eyeing me keenly. One of the faces I felt sure I had seen--but where? The single lantern carried by the jailer threw only a faint and imperfect light on the faces and on everything about me; still I suddenly became certain that one of the two men who stood before me was the man who had sprung into the room of our house in pursuit of Duncan Hale. He looked at me very critically.

Then on a signal from him the jailer lifted the lantern and held it close, so that a better light fell upon my face. The next moment all the men suddenly withdrew. I heard the heavy timbers being thrown against the closed door; a few words that sounded like oaths fell on my ears, and then there was the tramp, tramp, of the men's feet as they receded from the place. This sound gradually shaded into silence, and I was left alone, the first prisoner of the great war.

For a time,--for a great, long time,--I stood immovable, where the men had left me, in the centre of my dungeon, for a dungeon it really seemed. What was to become of me? Had they put me here to starve? I was hungry up to the point of faintness, for since early morning I had been riding or walking almost continuously, and had eaten food but once. The feeling of exhaustion growing upon me, I moved toward the place where I remembered having seen the door resting on the four stones. I found this and sat down.

All was dark about me. There was no sound but the occasional drip, drip of the water from the rock above. The damp, cold air of the place chilled me to the bone. It was certainly a strange place into which I had been forced. Had it been a prison, I would have been content. But the name 'prison' was much too dignified for my place of confinement.

I had visited a prison once with my father; I was familiar with the quarters in which animals were housed; but I had never seen anything like this. From my surroundings my mind finally wandered to other things. I thought of Duncan Hale. Had he really escaped? If so, my case might not yet be utterly hopeless, for I knew that Duncan, having free access to Lord Percy, would at once make known my capture. But had Duncan reached the British lines? Might he not have been recaptured?

Then there were my mother and my helpless sisters. Would they know of my being carried off? It was difficult to think they would, unless Duncan had galloped directly home to tell them; and this I was quite sure he would not risk doing. My mother was probably anxiously waiting for my coming every moment. As matters looked at present, she must wait long.

From this my mind pa.s.sed to thinking upon consequences that might follow from my having been recognised by the man who had brought me to this place. If he knew me; if it were revealed that Duncan and my father had both been doing much, for many months past, towards securing information regarding the smuggling expeditions of many of the so-called 'patriot' merchants; if it were learned that my brother was in the King's service;--indeed, I felt that if any or all of these facts became known, the chances of my being set at liberty would be small.

During my experience on the road I had heard, in connection with the case of Duncan Hale, much said of 'the committee.' I wondered what this was. Were there not courts of justice in the land? By what authority had any committee the right to p.r.o.nounce sentence of death on any man? Was the country not still the King's, and was it not still under the King's laws? But in spite of the hotness of my indignation, the dripping of the water by my side, and the frightful dampness and cold of the place, with no covering over me, and with no pillow but my arm, I finally slept upon the hard door.

When I awoke, I was surprised to find that, owing to a rain having set in, the entire floor of the place was flooded almost to the edge of my board bed, and that almost every part of the roof of my strange prison dripped cold, muddy water. Light enough crept in about the door to reveal to me the fact that I was in neither a dungeon nor cave, but in an old mine. In spite of the cold and dampness of the place, I felt refreshed by my sleep. I sat up, and almost at the same time I heard a sound as of the removal of the heavy timbers about the door. This was soon opened, and through it was pushed a large, dirty-looking wooden bowl, and the door closed the next moment. I heard the timbers being replaced, and then, as on the preceding night, the sound of the footsteps died away in the distance.

Hunger mastered my feelings of resentment, and I drew the bowl toward me. Floating in a kind of slate-coloured liquid, which may have been intended for soup, I found two large b.a.l.l.s or dumplings of offensive beef rolled in dark and mouldy flour; but with the appet.i.te of a bear, I ate and drank almost the entire contents of the bowl.

The day pa.s.sed; then another and another. I had read many stories of captures and imprisonments, but in none of them could I find a parallel for my own unhappy situation. With unvarying regularity at morning and evening the same foul-smelling, unwashed bowl, filled with food that varied only in degrees of offensiveness, was handed in to me. The life and the food and the home of many beasts would have been a relief and a joy to me. And what was my crime? I was a mere boy. I had never spoken word nor lifted hand on either side. True, I had saved the life of a man from the hands of a mob; and was I to drag out my life in a dark, dripping, unhealthy cave for that?

It was well on in the third week of my bitter experience, just as I had found it almost impossible to hope for deliverance, that, one afternoon, I heard the sound of loud voices approaching. As the door was being opened, I heard the voice of a man protesting loudly. He was saying--

'I tell you again, I am on no side. I am an honest farmer, and wish to go back to my farm from which you dragged me. I am neither Whig nor Tory; I will not fight on the side of either King or people. I must work my farm, and support my wife and children.'

As he spoke the last words, he was rudely pushed into the mine, where his feet splashed some of the muddy water upon my face. A moment later, and without a word from those outside, the door was closed, and the timbers were replaced against it.

Chapter V

The Trial and Escape

I did not speak. For a time the man evidently considered himself alone. It was several minutes before--his eyes having become adjusted to the partial darkness--he discovered me. His jaw dropped, his hands went up, and I noticed some of the warm colour slip out of his face.

He drew sharply back, and gazed at me in undisguised amazement for some moments. A little later the look of wonder shaded into one of sympathy.

'How long have you been here?' he said.

'Almost three weeks,' I told him.