Part 24 (1/2)
Once in the street, Ezra made all haste to the ”Jolly Rover.”
”Something must be done at once,” he muttered. ”I'll have to contrive to leave Boston within twenty-four hours, or I'm done for.”
The first persons he saw at the inn were Scarlett and the landlord in close converse in a far corner of the long room. Scarlett beckoned him at once, and the boy approached them.
”Sit down,” said the soldier of fortune, ”and as there are two of our shadows keeping us under observation, I would suggest that you do not allow anything that we might say to make you change countenance.”
”You have news then?” questioned Ezra.
”Most urgent news for you at least,” said Gilbert Scarlett.
He pulled up his soft leather boots and twirled one point of his moustache.
”At first,” said he, ”like the others here I was not at all sure as to which side you favored in this struggle. But since becoming more intimate with you, I have discovered at least enough,” laughing, ”to make up my mind.”
”A son of James Prentiss could not be for anything else than liberty,”
said the ex-first mate of the ”Champion,” stoutly.
”Thank you, Mr. Stacey,” said Ezra, quietly.
”Well,” said the adventurer, ”let's to our news. It has transpired,” he proceeded to Ezra, ”that General Gage will at last make a move. A large body of troops will cross the river with entrenching tools within the next three nights.”
”But you don't know exactly when or where?”
”No,” replied the innkeeper as the other hesitated. ”I had the news from a source that can't be wrong; but it went no farther than to say that the movement would be carried out within three nights.”
Ezra sat for a moment regarding his friends.
”There are two reasons, then,” he said at length, ”why I should leave Boston at once.”
The others said nothing, but waited for what was to come.
”I must warn General Ward,” continued the boy. ”That is the first and most important. The second is that I must keep myself out of a dungeon.”
”Your visit to your grandfather, then, has not been without result,”
hazarded the soldier of fortune shrewdly.
”No,” said Ezra. ”On the contrary, what I heard there was sharp and definite enough.” Then he turned to the innkeeper. ”Mr. Stacey, I will trouble you to-night for one of your suits of slops and any other thing that may be useful in hiding my ident.i.ty. If you can also direct me to a place where a boat is to be had, I shall be much in your debt.”
”No son of your father's can speak of being in my debt,” said the old sailor. He pondered a moment while the others watched him. Then he proceeded: ”A disguise is simple enough. But a boat is a different matter. However, I think I can do it.” Then he laid a hand upon Ezra's arm. ”You are running a great risk in making such a venture.”
”I would be running one equally great if I did not take it,” replied the boy.
”The waters all about the city are fairly choked with armed craft,” said Scarlett. ”How can we pa.s.s them and get fairly away?”
”We?” said Ezra.