uch shape that neither you nor I can do much toward aiding[Pg 75] 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[Pg 76] hidden by the gloom, and had every reason to believe we were come out fro