"I am not acquainted with the country between here and the captured strongholds," said Gilbert Scarlett, delightedly, for the idea seemed to appeal powerfully to his imagination, "but the project is one of exceptional quality. I congratulate you, sir."

"Thank you," said Knox. "I am obliged to you. I have mentioned it to others-General Ward, for example, and he fancied it impracticable."

"I have all respect for General Ward," answered Scarlett, "but you'll pardon me if I say that he's too conservative. You'd gain a friend to your plan at once if you spoke to General Putnam or Stark, or one of their kind. A man must have a spice of daring to grasp opportunities."

After that night the boys saw a great deal of Henry Knox. Indeed, also, he gradually came to be a man of importance in the camp. For his services at Bunker Hill he was made a colonel; and a practical, enterprising officer he proved to be.

The days went on, and Washington labored with the force newly under his command. Powder continued to be a scarce article in the camp. At no time was there above nine rounds to a man, and with this slender supply, the general had to maintain a constantly extending line of posts-posts always exposed to the concentrated a.s.saults of well-ordered veterans.

But he clung grimly to the task; little by little his ideas began to be seen, order gradually arose out of confusion; his brigadiers grasped his intentions readily, and so things began to shape themselves as he wanted them.

More than twenty thousand able men were desired to carry out Washington's designs. There were only seventeen thousand enrolled; and of these less than fifteen thousand were fit for service. Recruiting was carried on throughout New England. Eloquent speakers harangued village crowds, and their highly colored words drew the young men constantly to the camp at Cambridge.

The environs of Boston at this time presented an animated sight.

Fortifications were everywhere; men labored for the cause of liberty with mattock and spade; they drilled ceaselessly; whole towns, so it seemed, were given up to the military; white tents were pitched in orderly lines in the fields. Only a century before the two princ.i.p.al pa.s.ses into Boston-Charlestown Neck and Boston Neck-had been fortified to save the town from the Indians and so preserve American civilization.

Now the hills that commanded these same pa.s.ses were peopled with the descendants of those who had formerly defended them and they were arrayed in the pride of war; their hands were raised against the oppressive government that should have fostered them, but which, instead, sought to crush them out.

While Washington was bringing order to his army and strengthening his position, he was also constantly seeking to confine the operations of the enemy and cut off their supply of provisions. Attacks were carefully guarded against; parties in whale boats were afloat each night to watch the waters; the American pickets grew as keen as night-birds, so accustomed were they to search the darkness.

Sudden a.s.saults, made by parties on both sides, marked the summer, and the fighting on the islands continued. British transports arrived from time to time, filled with additional troops; now and then the King's batteries opened fire upon an American work which they fancied was being pushed too far; on the sea, the Yankee privateers were increasing in numbers and in power; scarcely a week pa.s.sed that the city did not receive news of some daring deed of theirs.

Then finally the long expected party of Southern riflemen arrived. These had enlisted at the first echo of the war and they had marched from four to seven hundred miles in their anxiety to face their country's enemies.

They were bronzed, hardy looking men, dressed in hunting-shirts and c.o.o.nskin caps. They carried rifles, the length of which caused the boys to open their eyes.

"They look like marksmen," said Ezra Prentiss. "I have heard that the backwoodsmen in their colony are very expert with the rifle."

As though to prove this, a party of the Southerners pa.s.sed in review before the commanders shortly after they reached the camp. While advancing quickly, and at a distance of two hundred and fifty yards, they fired at a target seven inches in diameter. And each bullet found the mark!

Washington at once ordered these riflemen stationed at the outposts.

Here they made themselves terrible to the British, and day by day this terror increased. Whatever they fired at they hit; and soon the King's outposts dreaded to move except under cover. Rumors of the remarkable shooting of these men reached even so far as England; and one of them, who was made prisoner, was taken there. The newspapers described him with great minuteness; and the British public swarmed to see him and the motto "Liberty or Death" which he wore upon the breast of his hunting-shirt in common with his fellows.

Several times Washington tried to force the hand of Gage, as in his occupation of Ploughed Hill. But the British refused to accept the challenge. They bombarded the position, to be sure, and kept it up for the greater part of two weeks, but finally the firing ceased. During this summer, also, the celebrated Liberty Tree in Boston was attacked by the furious Tories and ruthlessly cut down.

October had arrived and the coming frost was felt in the night air. And as the chill grew deeper, the public room of "The Honest Farmer" grew more and more a place of resort for citizens and officers. One night the four boys had gathered there in company with Gilbert Scarlett. They sat before a slow fire of green wood, which served very well to take the discomfort out of the air, and were talking together upon topics of the time and listening to the sayings of those about them.

It seemed that "The Honest Farmer," besides being a very pleasant inn, was a great place for grumblers. And just now some citizens, gathered about an oaken table, saw fit to criticize General Washington for what they called his inaction.

"What can he mean?" demanded one. "If the British will not come out to him, he should go in to them. This state of affairs, at the present rate, will continue on forever."

"He was sent here to drive them out. Let him show that he is competent by at least attempting to do so," grumbled another.

Thus they went on; each had his say in the matter and each said it churlishly and discontentedly.

"To be a military commander," spoke Gilbert Scarlett to the boys, his booted legs stretched out to the fire, "is not to lie upon a bed of roses. Here we have a party of gentlemen who will speak their minds upon a subject upon which they have no information. They would have General Washington charge upon a strong position without powder enough to wake General Gage from his sleep. Apparently they possess rare enterprise, but their discretion is small, indeed."

While he spoke Colonel Knox entered the room; after greeting some friends he made his way directly to where the boys were sitting. He was dressed in the blue uniform faced with white which had grown so familiar in those early days of the war; his face was bronzed through exposure to the weather, and his eyes were bright and full of a newly kindled eagerness.

He shook hands with the lads; that he was a colonel and they but enlisted men made no difference in that democratic time. And after he had greeted Scarlett, who made room for him at the fire, the young colonel sat down.

"Have you noticed a tinge of frost in the air?" asked he, as he rubbed his hands briskly. "It will be a hard, cold winter, I think, when it is once upon us. It is always so when there is so early a beginning."

"It was midsummer when we saw you here last," said Ezra. "You remember the night that you told us about the guns at Crown Point and Ticonderoga."

The boy's words were followed by a curious interruption. A mug, partly filled, shattered upon the brick paved floor near by; they turned surprised and saw a man, apparently advanced in years, bent over a table, his back turned to them. The hand that had held the mug hung at his side, trembling as though with palsy; his whole att.i.tude was as of one stricken with some sudden shock.

Two others sat with the man; they wore the dress of seafarers, and while one was of commanding proportions, the other was small. The heads of both were bent toward the old man; and the boys could see little of them except that they were dark and wore their sailcloth hats pulled low over their foreheads.

After a glance the other lads gave their attention once more to Colonel Knox. But Ezra continued to watch narrowly the actions of the three. As the boys had come along in the dusk toward "The Honest Farmer" he had noticed some figures that seemed to cling to their shadows. He had, also, a dim sort of consciousness that these same figures had entered the inn after them. And now something whispered to him that these were the same-that the men had a purpose in being where they were-that their selection of seats so near to his friends and himself was no accident.

"And," he told himself in a puzzled sort of way, "they seem familiar. I somehow feel that I have met with them before."

He examined the strangers narrowly; in a few moments the old man recovered and seemed to be talking guardedly to his companions; and the boy, more than once, caught a ferret-like look from the smaller of the two seamen that impressed him queerly. More and more he felt that these were persons whom he had known before.

But while he was watching the strangers, he was also listening to the remarks of his friends as they spoke to Colonel Knox. Some little time pa.s.sed; then the colonel said, addressing them all:

"I came here to-night in the hope of seeing you. It just happens that there is something toward that makes me require the help of a few young spirits who will not hesitate at a little risk."

"We feel flattered," said Nat Brewster, with a smile, "that you should think of us."

Ben Cooper bent forward.

"It has something to do with the big guns at Ticonderoga," said he.

Colonel Knox laughed.

"You are a clever guesser, Master Cooper," said he.

"It was no guess," replied Ben. "I've known all along that you'd not give up that idea of yours. I knew that if you'd get permission, you'd be off to the captured forts at once and try to carry it out."

Ezra, watching the three strangers, fancied them rigid with attention, but at the same time making a show of keeping up a conversation of their own. Once he was about calling his friends' attention to this, but the fear that it might, after all, be but imagination upon his part, deterred him.

"You are right," said the young colonel. "The notion was a pet of mine because I thought it practical and likely to succeed. But I've had great difficulty in convincing others. When they thought of the vast wilderness to be crossed, the lakes and streams, they scouted the plan.

It could not be done, they said; those great cannon could never be dragged so tremendous a distance through such a country.

"But at length I got the ear of the commander-in-chief. I flattered myself that he thought me no fool; for he has a way of looking at one that tells its own story.

"'Heavy ordnance is badly needed,' he said, 'and this would be welcome, indeed, if we could but secure it!' Then he fixed me with one of his looks and asked: 'How would you go about getting it here?'

"'I would start in the early fall,' I said. 'On the way I would collect sledges. By the time I reached Ticonderoga, transacted my business and was ready to return, the lakes would be frozen over. I could load the guns upon the sledges and so cross the ice. And so it will be through the wilderness. Lack of roads will not affect me; the snow will be there and the traveling will be as smooth as it can well be.'

"He seemed much struck with this idea and took it under consideration.

And now he has given his consent."

"And you are going!" cried George Prentiss, eagerly.

"As soon as I can collect the small party that is to accompany me."

"And that's why you sought us out!" exclaimed Nat, his face glowing in the firelight. "Good! Shall we go, lads?" turning to the others.