e precaution to keep all the company out of sight
except these two, who appeared to be standing watch.

At that time, when the Britishers were suspicious of the "rebels," and
General Gage eager to find some cause of complaint whereby he might put
in prison those who loved the colony, even a gathering of sixteen lads
would not have escaped rigid scrutiny by those who misruled in Boston,
and the most imprudent thing we could have done, would have been to come
together in the open air where any who passed might see us.

"They are under the wharf?" I said questioningly to Hiram, and he
replied curtly:

"Ay, your friend Silas told me they were to meet there," and then it
seemed as if he was on the point of saying something more; but if such
had been his intention he checked himself right suddenly, walking
silently by my side until we were come to that point on the shore from
whence we could look under the wharf.

Silas stepped out as I came into view, and said in a whisper:

"I have kept the lads out of sight lest some meddling lobster back
should report a dangerous gathering. Every fellow is present, and eager
to hear what you learned at Cambridge."

"Have you not told them?" I asked in surprise.

"I was not certain how far you cared to make public what had been said
at the encampment, and therefore held my peace regardless of their
questions, promising that you would tell them the story in due time."

As I look back now to that moment when was first assembled the company
of which I had been chosen captain, it seems passing strange I should
have made a blunder which was near akin to a crime, before having been
with them five minutes. After the advice, repeated so many times by my
father and Doctor Warren, that I be prudent, it seems as if I showed
myself the thickest-headed lad in all the colony, else would I have
begun the business by keeping a closer tongue.

Even while I was greeting the lads they cried out impatiently to know
what I had heard and seen in Cambridge, and I, like a simple, must needs
repeat parrot fashion all the instructions which had been given me, when
common prudence would have dictated that I set the boys about gathering
information, without making known that we were much the same as detailed
as spies.

In my folly I even went so far as to lay plans how and when we might
best leave the town to make report, and even gave a list of those to
whom we should apply for skiffs.

While my tongue