tantly, above the shouts and yells of the multitude, was heard the
sharp, ominous crack of a musket, then another and another, until six
reports seemed literally to cleave the air, while before him, and on
either side of him, Amos saw men fall; saw the crimson blood gushing
from gaping wounds, and then it was as if consciousness deserted him.

[Footnote F: Afterwards Washington's Secretary of War.]

CHAPTER VI.

AFTER THE MASSACRE.

Amos was brought to a consciousness of his surroundings by the
wailings of Jim, who, regardless of everything save his own sore
affliction, was kneeling by the side of his brother, trying to staunch
a sluggish flow of blood, which was issuing from Sam's forehead.

Near him lay James Caldwell and Crispus Attucks, both of whom had been
killed instantly, and a short distance away Samuel Maverick and
Patrick Carr were writhing in the agony of mortal wounds, while here
and there within the narrow space were six others who had been brought
to the ground by the leaden hail.

Amos dimly understood that the crowd had fallen back at the discharge
of the weapons, but he thought only of his friend's great grief, and
tried in vain to assuage it.

Sitting upon the snow-covered ice, Jim held the head of his dead
brother, moaning and sobbing, until Amos began to fear he also had
been wounded.

"Did any of the bullets hit you, Jim?" he asked, solicitously.

"No, no, I only wish they had! _I_ don't amount to anything. Poor
Sam!" And, in the frenzy of his grief, Jim swayed to and fro, still
holding in tender clasp the lifeless head, while above him, grim and
menacing, stood the soldiers with levelled muskets.

[Illustration]

While one might have counted twenty, the square, lately the scene of
such an uproar, was silent, save for the moans of the wounded, and
then the tramp of the soldiers rang out horribly distinct as Captain
Preston marched them away to the main guard.

The people recovered sufficiently from their terror and bewilderment
to advance, in order to succour those who were suffering, and hardly
had they done so when the sound of drums beating the call to arms was
heard, and a few moments later it was whispered from one to another
that the Twenty-ninth Regiment was forming in ranks near the Town House.

Then from far up the street came the dreadful cry, shrill and menacing:

"The soldiers are rising! To arms! To arms! Turn out with your guns!"

While the drums continued to