CHAPTER XIII

TURNING THE TABLES

And now have I come to that part of my story which sounds like a fable even to myself, although I had in it an active part.

You can well fancy that we lads hidden in the cellar of that ruined house, kept our ears wide open for any word or sound which might come from the lobster-backs, and during mayhap five minutes after the conversation ended, as I have already set down, we heard a movement as if one or more of the men had risen to their feet and were lounging away, evidently striving to make the time seemingly pass more quickly.

Then a moment later came a similar noise, and we heard Skinny Baker ask in a querulous tone:

“What’s up now? Where are you fellows going?”

“It may be that is none of your concern,” one of the men replied sharply from a distance. “If so be we are forced to spend a certain number of hours lounging around here waiting for our people to come up, then do we propose to act our pleasure in the matter.”

“But I am not to be left alone with the prisoner!” Skinny cried as if in alarm, and one of the men replied with a laugh:

“Are you so brave a lad as to be afraid of a fellow whose hands are tied, and who, therefore, could not do you harm even though he be so inclined, as I fancy he is? Surely you have enough of courage to stand guard over a helpless prisoner who is hardly as large as yourself.”

“It isn’t that I am afraid of him,” Skinny said in that whining tone of his which always aggravated me; “but how do I know if some of the rebels may not come this way while you are gone?”

“It would be a reasonably active rebel who could get ’twixt us and our force on either side. You are penned in here by his majesty’s troops, my young coward, and no harm can come to you, although I am free to confess it would not break my heart if you did see a little grief just now, for I like not the road on which you are traveling.”

Then all was silent, and Jeremy Hapgood gripped me by the hand until it seemed almost as if his fingers would break through the flesh, while he looked meaningly toward the opening that had formerly been the window of the cellar, whereupon I understood full well that which was in the lad’s mind.

The lobster-backs had left Skinny alone with young Chris, and now was come the moment, at a time we least expected it, when there was a possibility of aiding our comrade.

The only thing which might prevent us would be that the Britishers had not gone out of sight, and as to that I determined to learn without loss of time; for if peradventure we were to make an attempt at turning the tables, then must our movements be quick--there were but few seconds in which to figure how this plan or another might work. It would be largely a matter of chance.

And I intended on the instant to make that chance come my way if possible.

When I rose cautiously to my feet the eyes of my comrades were upon me. They understood exactly that which was in my mind as I had divined what Jeremy was thinking about, and even in the gloom I could see each fellow nerving himself for a struggle, while I crept slowly forward until it was possible, without too much risk of exposing myself, to have a fairly good view of the outside.

Much to my surprise, and greatly to my delight, not a lobster-back was in sight.

Because of being unable to see young Chris and Skinny, I counted that they were sitting, most like, with their backs against the ruins just at the right of the window, where they would be screened from view; but as to their exact position I gave little heed.

The only question in my mind was as to whether the Britishers had gone so far away that we might make a bold dash to aid our friend.

We were in the village of Germantown, and this cottage which had been considerably more than half-burned by the enemy, stood amid, mayhap, half a dozen others that were in much the same condition.

I fancied, in order to explain to myself where the lobster-backs had gone, that they were simply bent on seeing what their army had done in the way of destruction.

Now we had entered the cellar through this same window out of which I was peering, and, so far as I knew, there was no other way by which we could leave the place.

It would mean failure and probable capture if we attempted to crawl through the aperture in plain sight of Skinny Baker, for while I was not afraid of that Tory cur when he was alone, I knew that instead of standing up to give us battle, he would run off screaming to summon the Britishers.

Our only hope of making this venture a success, was to creep up on him, but how that could be done I failed for the instant to see.

It was Jeremy Hapgood who solved the question, for while I stood there gazing out, thinking, rather than striving to see anything in particular, he clutched me by the coat-sleeve, and, turning, I saw that all my comrades had gathered close around me, whereupon I moved away from the window half a dozen paces, motioning them to follow.

When we were so far away that there was little danger Skinny might overhear what we said, I put into words that which was in my mind.

Without waiting to make reply, Jeremy began running around the walls of the cellar like a dog who is on the scent of game, and before one could have counted twenty he halted suddenly, motioning with his hand for us to come up.

When we stood by his side the matter was as clear as a pikestaff, for there before us was an aperture where the walls had crumbled away, most like under the heat, through which we might have crawled in couples.

This was at the rear of the building, so that if we came into the open we would be to the right of Skinny, and screened from his view by the ruins of the building.

You may well suppose that we did not linger after finding this opening.

Jeremy would have pressed forward to be the first out, and in so doing have been exposed to the greatest danger, for we could not say but that the lobster-backs might be within a few paces from where we emerged. I pulled him back roughly.

As captain of the Minute Boys, it was not only my right, but my duty, to take upon myself the greater share of the danger, and when he would have quarrelled with me because of preventing him from sacrificing his liberty, perhaps, if not his life, I heeded neither the words nor the looks; but pushed out through the opening as rapidly as possible, coming to a stop when my body was half in and half out of the cellar to have a look around, for I was not minded to go too blindly into what might prove to be a trap.

There was more of surprise than of pleasure in my mind when I noted the fortunate fact that not a living being was in sight. The day had well-nigh come to a close. Already the sun was sinking behind the distant hills, and I could not believe the Britishers who were guarding Skinny, would remain absent very long, for there could be no pleasure in poking around the ruins of a half-burned village in the darkness.

Therefore it was I crept outside as rapidly as possible, and when Jeremy’s head and shoulders appeared in the aperture, I urged him along by pulling at his coat collar until I brought him out sprawling like a crab, Timothy’s head appearing at the very instant Jeremy’s feet were in the open air.

In less time than it has taken me to tell it, we four lads were out of the cellar, standing behind the ruins for a single instant before making the rush.

Then it was that I said to my comrades:

“Timothy and I will go around to the left until we have come to that corner nearest where young Chris is lying. The other two shall stand ready to leap out at the same moment we do, and if all of us move swiftly, then have I the idea that we may prevent Skinny Baker from making any outcry whatsoever.”

Without waiting to learn what the other lads might think of this plan, I clutched Timothy by the arm, forcing him to follow me while I went at the swiftest pace possible with due heed to avoid making a noise, and when we were come to that corner of the ruins where it was possible to get a glimpse of Skinny, I saw Jeremy’s head protruding from around the charred timbers at the other end.

Thus far we had seen nothing whatsoever of the lobster-backs, and even though they had been close at hand, verily do I believe we would have made an attempt at a rescue just then, so thoroughly wrought up and excited were we by the possibility of aiding our comrade.

On the instant I saw that Jeremy was ready, I leaped forward, and fortune favoured me insomuch that Skinny was sitting near the window on my side of the building, so close to where I was standing that with one bound I was upon the fellow, jamming my hand over his mouth while I strove to ward off the blows which the Tory cur was trying to deal me full in the face.

Now it may seem odd; but at that moment I had more of a friendly feeling in my heart for Skinny Baker than ever before, because, for the first time in his life, did I see him show some signs of manliness. Therefore when he struggled with me I was glad to learn he had a drop or two of blood in his body which was not cowardly.

There was little time, however, for Skinny to show any resistance. In a twinkling Jeremy was upon him, and while I held the fellow’s mouth so that he could make no outcry, my comrade pulled the coat from his back, tying it around the Tory’s mouth and head in such a fashion that verily I was afraid he might be stifled, therefore would have loosened the rough bandage, but Jeremy whispered hoarsely:

“Do not be too tender hearted, Richard Salter. It is in my mind that no great harm would be done if this Tory did stifle, although I haven’t the heart to kill him in cold blood.”

While Jeremy and I were engaged in fettering the prisoner, Tim and Sam were not idle. They had cut the bonds that bound young Chris’s hands, and were hustling the lad back to the place from which we had come, gaining the shelter of the corner of the building just as Jeremy and I completed our task.

Up to this moment there had been no thought in my mind as to what we should do if peradventure we succeeded in rescuing young Chris.

Now, however, the matter came to me as one of greatest importance, and even while we were dragging Skinny back on the path our comrades had traversed, did I very nearly come to a halt in trying to decide this vital question.

The Britishers, as we knew, were in front of us, or, in other words, at Philadelphia in great force. Because of what the lobster-backs said when they lounged away leaving Skinny alone, we had reason to believe a certain portion of that force which counted on taking General Lafayette prisoner, was at the time in our rear, bound for the city, and either course we might take was likely to lead us directly into the arms of those who served the king.

It was fortunate that Jeremy had no doubt in his mind as to exactly what should be done. He continued on, dragging Skinny behind him, while I, still clutching the Tory cur by one arm, naturally followed until we were come to the place from which we had emerged, and there found Tim and Sam, having forced Chris to go ahead, already creeping under cover.

It was no more than natural we should follow, and therefore, without any deliberation or intent on my part, was our plan for the immediate future settled upon.

We were forced to shove Skinny through like a log of wood, Jeremy going ahead to pull him by the shoulders while I pushed at the fellow’s feet, and when he dropped with a thud to the floor of the cellar, I followed, asking in my mind whether we were not much the same as voluntarily entering a trap by thus hiding in a place from which it would be a simple matter for the lobster-backs to take us, if so be they knew where we were hidden.

However, as I said to myself in order to still the doubts which were rising in my mind, there was no other course just then to be pursued. Go in whatsoever direction we might from that village of Germantown, and there was every reason to believe we would come upon the enemy, after which there could be no hope of escape, therefore even though we were captured within the next ten minutes, was this our only place of refuge.

A quarter-hour had not passed from the time Jeremy called to my attention the fact that the lobster-backs were leaving Skinny and his prisoner alone, when we were all in the cellar again, and after clasping young Chris heartily by the hand to show how rejoiced I was that we had thus far succeeded--although he must have known it without the telling,--I set about striving to make Skinny Baker more comfortable, or, in other words, to render it less liable for him to be stifled.

In this work Timothy aided me by tearing off one of the Tory cur’s coat-sleeves and tying it around the end of a stick, thereby making a fairly good gag, which we took care to place between the fellow’s jaws in such a manner that he could not work it loose.

Then, propping him up against the wall of the cellar where he would be hidden from view of any who might be curious enough to look inside, we Minute Boys gathered in one corner of the hiding place to indulge in not a little crowing because we had succeeded so well in turning the tables.

As a matter of course, we were eager to learn how young Chris had been made a prisoner, and the story was soon told.

He had not been so fortunate as the rest of us in finding a horse; but was forced to make his way from Philadelphia toward Barren Hill on foot, and that the lad travelled swiftly we knew from the fact that he arrived within four or five miles of General Lafayette’s position an hour after sunrise.

Believing himself to be far in advance of the Britishers, he ceased to exercise that caution which he should have maintained, and gave little or no heed to what might be going on about him, when suddenly he came upon a full regiment of red-coats, which had halted, probably awaiting orders.

Even then he might have succeeded in persuading those who questioned him, for as a matter of course he was seized immediately, that he lived nearabout and had simply ventured there out of curiosity; but it so chanced that that miserable cur of a Skinny Baker was with the regiment, and on getting a glimpse of young Chris, immediately cried out that he was a lad whom General Howe had long been seeking to make prisoner.

Now why Skinny should have been with a regiment of soldiers, for he was not a favourite either with the Britishers or the Tories, and certainly not with rebels, I failed to understand, save that he must have come from curiosity alone.

I dare venture to say that all the Tories in Philadelphia understood at about the time our people gave them the famous scare, or immediately afterwards, that a move against the American army was about to be made, and, as we know, Skinny was abroad that night, therefore it would have been a simple matter for him to have tailed on behind the first moving regiment he chanced upon.

At all events, how he happened to be there was of little consequence. That he was there resulted in young Chris’s being made prisoner and thus held throughout all the day, forced to march here and there while Skinny kept close at his side, jeering now and then, and again threatening as to what should be done when they got back to Philadelphia.

“If I could have smashed his face with my fist, it wouldn’t have seemed quite so bad,” young Chris said, interrupting himself in the story; “but my arms had been tied behind my back, as you found me, and therefore I could do no more than bite my tongue, promising myself at some later day, if so be I lived, that Skinny Baker would repent the moment when he delivered me over to the lobster-backs.”

[Illustration: IN A TWINKLING JEREMY WAS UPON HIM.]

“I dare say you didn’t bite your tongue so badly but that you could give him as good as he sent,” Jeremy interrupted grimly, and young Chris replied, as if regretting having been so cautious:

“I thought it best not to make overly much talk, for there was no telling what the lobster-backs might do by way of punishment, therefore I let the Tory villain continue as he would.”

Well, it seems, as I have already said, that young Chris, with Skinny guarding him by way of amusement, was marched here and there at the tail of the regiment, until about four o’clock in the afternoon, when suddenly a messenger came up to the commanding officer, whereupon a guard of four men was detailed to take the prisoner back as far as Germantown, there to await the coming of the troops.

That was young Chris’s story, and, as I had feared earlier in the day, his capture was brought about through his own carelessness, for verily a lad who would press on blindly at a time when he had every reason to believe the enemy might be close about him, was much the same as wickedly foolish.

However, the mistake had been corrected in some slight degree. Young Chris was free, so far as being able to move around the cellar was concerned, and Skinny had changed places with him; but now were we all in the gravest danger, for within five or ten minutes--say half an hour at the longest, the lobster-backs would return.

Failing to find their prisoner, it was only reasonable to suppose they would make careful search, whereupon our hiding place must be discovered. We were free as are rats in a trap; that is to say, we could crawl about at will, but were painfully confined as to the scope of our movements.

“We are bound to be taken as soon as the guard comes back,” young Chris said as he brought his story to a close, and added while glancing toward the prisoner, “If I want to pay the debt I owe Skinny Baker, it’s time to set about it.”

“What do you count on doing?” I asked in alarm.

“Giving that Tory cur such a lesson that he won’t be able to forget it in short order, and unless I begin the work now, am I likely to be interrupted before it is finished.”

“But surely, young Chris, you don’t count on striking a helpless prisoner?” I cried, catching him by the arm, and he answered me fiercely, thus showing that in telling the story he had not given us all the details:

“I shall be doing no differently from what he has done a dozen times this day. I am minded that he shall know full well what it means to be pummeled when a fellow can’t help himself!”

As a matter of fact, I had no right to interfere between young Chris and the Tory villain. The lad had suffered through Skinner Baker during the day, and I could not wonder that he was burning to make reprisals, yet although I hated that little sneak quite as much as did he, it would have pained me severely to see him set upon while he could not raise a hand in his own defence.

Fortunately, however, I was not called upon to interfere between young Chris and the prisoner, for at that moment Jeremy, who had seemingly been plunged in a brown study during all the time of the story-telling, whispered hoarsely to me as he laid a restraining hand on Chris’s shoulder:

“Why should we sit here waiting for the lobster-backs to come and take us in custody, as they surely will, for this cellar is bound to be the first place searched when they find that the prisoner is missing.”

“And what may we do?” I asked with a laugh which had in it nothing of mirth. “If so be you can point out the direction in which we stand one single chance out of a hundred of escaping the enemy, then am I ready to strive for that one possibility,” I replied sharply, for it seemed to me at the moment as if Jeremy was talking veriest nonsense.

Then the lad motioned toward the charred timbers above our heads, which lay as they had fallen when the building was burned, and even then I failed to understand what he strove to convey, until he said impatiently:

“Among those burned timbers are hiding places for a dozen lads like us, and of a verity we are needing a refuge, therefore why should we sit here listening to stories which can be told at any time, when we have the opportunity to put ourselves out of the way so snugly?”

Even then I doubted as to whether we might conceal ourselves there, or, if once hidden among the timbers, the lobster-backs could not bring us out.

However, there was a chance, if so be we were able to crawl among the ruins, and straightway all us lads set about making search for some means of getting to the top of the cellar, where the timbers were lodged like jackstraws just thrown on a table ready for the player.

Within five minutes I saw that Jeremy’s scheme was possible of execution. That we could hide ourselves there seemed certain; but whether it might be done in such fashion that the lobster-backs could not find us, was another matter which would be settled later.

However, as to this last there was no good reason for anxiety. He who crosses a bridge before he comes to it is indeed foolish.

Our first task was to find an aperture amid the ruins into which we could thrust Skinny Baker, and you can well fancy that we lost no time in making the search.

When we had climbed up on the cellar wall where we could have a view of that mass of half-burned timbers, I saw that fifty boys might have concealed themselves from view, and whispered to Jeremy and Chris to pass me the prisoner, which they speedily did, handling him with as little care as if he had been a log of wood.

As a matter of course he could make no protest, owing to the gag which forced his jaws wide apart; but there was a look of terror in his eyes which I could see even in the darkness, and I understood that the cowardly cur believed he was come very near to his death.

After we had hidden the prisoner young Chris gave himself no concern regarding anything save keeping near Skinny Baker, and I heard him whisper in the coward’s ear as he laid himself down alongside the lad:

“Here am I counting to stay, Skinny, and if so be your friends, the lobster-backs, are like to take me prisoner, I intend to choke the life out of your worthless body before I am carried away again.”

Of course Skinny could make no reply; but it was a simple matter to fancy the expression of terror which came over the scoundrel’s face, for he must have known, as did I, by young Chris’s tone, that he would keep his threat to the letter.

We were all hidden amid the timbers before there came from the outside any token that the Britishers had returned, and then it was my heart much the same as leaped into my mouth, when I heard one of the lobster-backs cry sharply:

“Where are the lads?”

“Where you left them, of course,” another voice replied from a distance, and the first speaker said in a tone very like that of alarm:

“But they are not here! It must be that some of the rebel force are nearabout, else how could they have got away, for certain it is that the Tory lad would hold on to the boy he was so eager to see hanged, unless separated from him by force.”

Then was come the time, so I said to myself, when we would be dragged out from our hiding place, for there was no question whatsoever in my mind but that the soldiers would immediately search the cellar, since it was the only spot nearabout where we might have taken refuge.

It was all very well for the lobster-backs, while they were safe in Philadelphia and in such large force that there was little danger our people could do aught of harm against them, to cry out that our army was nothing more than rag-tag and bobtail which might be wiped out of existence whenever they were so disposed; but the fact remained that every Britisher, and I’ll not except General Howe himself, had a wholesome dread and fear of these same rebels.

And it was this same fear to which we owed our escape, for when the first soldier suggested that some of the rebel army must be in the vicinity, his comrades were greatly alarmed, as could be told by the sound of their voices when they came together near the building to discuss the matter.

We could not hear their words; but had good reason for believing they were more disturbed in mind regarding what might happen to themselves, than because of the loss of the prisoner.

When mayhap five minutes had passed the cold chill of fear ran up and down my spine, for then I understood from the noise that one of the lobster-backs was crawling in through the cellar window, and there was no doubt in my mind but that they had decided to make a search of the ruins with the expectation of finding us.

That they would come upon us was almost absolutely certain, if any decent kind of a search was made, and I said to myself that before the sun had risen again, would I have a taste of what we rebels were called upon to suffer when in the hands of that villainous jailor, Cunningham.

Jeremy, who was lying two feet or more away from me, reached out his hand to touch me on the shoulder as if by way of sympathy, and I believe there was in his mind much the same as had come to mine.

We could hear the second soldier entering; then the third and the fourth, and I waited, holding my hand over my heart lest its loud beating should give token of our whereabouts, for them to begin their work; but to my surprise and utter amazement, instead of making any search whatsoever of the cellar, they were seemingly content with crouching on the floor where we lads had been hidden while they were on the outside.

One, two, three minutes passed, and yet they remained motionless, conversing in whispers. Then, suddenly, it was only with the greatest difficulty I could prevent myself from laughing aloud, for now it was I understood that these brave soldiers of the uniform of the king were hiding, fearing lest that rag-tag and bobtail of an army was near enough to do them harm.

There was seemingly no longer in their minds any thought of the prisoner whom they ought to have guarded, or of the approaching force that should have been warned if indeed the Americans were nearabouts; but only the desire to save their own skins.

Now indeed were they playing much the same part that we rebels had been forced to play, and I shook Jeremy by the shoulder again and again, striving to make him understand how much of mirth there was in my heart because the lobster-backs were so completely fooled.

It did not seem possible they could remain there many moments in hiding without coming to understand somewhat of the truth, and yet never a move was made by them as the moments passed.

At first they talked in whispers, as if fearing some of that rag-tag and bobtail might be lurking close around outside, and then, when nothing came to harm their precious bodies, they were less guarded in speech, while we lay there shaking with mirth to hear them discussing the chances of being able to rejoin their regiment.

As the time passed, however, these valiant soldiers of the king came to have some little regard for the safety of their fellows, and began speculating as to how it might be possible to give warning that the Americans were close about in the vicinity of Germantown.

One man faintly suggested that some other rather than himself, go out to meet the regiment which it was known would soon come into the village; but no fellow among them was disposed to take upon himself such a dangerous task.

Then came that suggestion which drove from my mind all thought of merriment, and sent the blood cold through every vein.

“We might set these half-burned buildings on fire, and our people, seeing the flames, would know that the rebels were somewhere nearabout, or at least be cautious in their advance.”

“And what about ourselves?” one of the men asked, whereupon he who had made this suggestion which was like, if carried out, to bring to a speedy end the Minute Boys of Philadelphia, replied:

“We can doubtless find many such a hiding place as this, for ruins are plenty nearabout. At all events, the light of the flames will give the alarm, and our forces must of a certainty come up from Philadelphia to learn the meaning of the fire.”

They discussed the matter from every point, but dwelling chiefly upon their own safety, until having fully decided to build a fire under the charred timbers, go out through the cellar window, and trust to fortune for keeping clear of the American force which their imaginations had conjured up.

Then I strove as never before, to decide whether we should take the chances of a hand-to-hand struggle with four men who were armed, while we had not even a club in the way of a weapon, or remain there amid the timbers to be burned like mice in the grass.