Part 21 (2/2)

apologized he.

A nightcapped head, lighted up by a sputtering candle, appeared at one of the upper windows of the inn.

”What now?” demanded a rough voice. ”Plague take you, neighbors, to go battering at an honorable man's door.”

”Come down and draw your bolts,” said the sergeant of grenadiers.

”Not I, indeed,” answered the man in the nightcap, and with a promptness that caused both Ezra and Scarlett to laugh. ”I obey the law, gentlemen; no man in the town of Boston minds it better. And the law says that all places of public entertainment must out with their lights and up with their shutters at sundown.”

”If you don't want your door in splinters, you'll come down and open it,” said the sergeant. ”I bring you two persons whom you are to harbor, at command of General Gage.”

”That,” replied the nightcapped one, in an altered tone, ”sets a different face upon the matter. Why did you not say so at once? I will be down instantly.”

The candle vanished; a little later, after a great deal of clatter and clinking of bars and chains, the door opened; the man in the nightcap was shown to be a squat, broad-shouldered personage with gold rings in his ears and the aspect of a seafarer.

”Now, open your ears,” spoke the British sergeant, briefly. ”And give heed to what I'm going to tell you.”

”Ay, ay,” replied the host of the ”Jolly Rover.”

”These two are to lodge here and pay for their own entertainment. You are to report at headquarters at once if they are absent for more than a half day at a time.”

The landlord regarded the newcomers with no great favor.

”I'll see to it,” he growled.

”Mind that you do. And, when I am gone, out with the lights and on with the bolts at once.”

So saying the British sergeant turned and stepped out into s.h.i.+p Street once more. The door closed behind him; the bars and chains went up, and again the man with the rings in his ears looked at his guests.

”I will not say that I am pleased to have you,” he told them with great frankness, ”for the custom of such as you brings little but trouble to an inn. I'll have soldiers about the place constantly; and, if you are gentlemen of any consequence, spies will be as thick as flies in August.”

”We are sorry to give you any trouble,” said Ezra. ”But we were directed to come here and could not well refuse.”

The man grinned.

”I suppose not,” said he. ”Well, if it be any comfort for you to know it, you are not the only gentlemen in Boston who are in the black books of the King's officers. The town is full of suspected men. General Gage is a governor who acts mighty quickly in such matters, even if he won't,” here the grin grew broader, ”do the same in weightier things.”

The flickering candle lit up the place but dimly; the ceiling was low, the walls were paneled; in furnis.h.i.+ng and equipment the room resembled the cabin of a s.h.i.+p.

Scarlett, who had been observing the landlord, here remarked:

”You are a man who has followed the sea in your day.”

The other nodded.

”For a full forty year,” he said. ”Man and boy I've spliced, knotted, hauled and reefed in every kind of craft that's sailed from here to the Horn, and from there to the China Seas.”

”A tarry, healthy profession,” commented Scarlett. ”I have known many s.h.i.+pmen in my day, and they have been mostly sound fellows and honest.”

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