lad! Read this!" Hiram cried as soon as he could free his
mouth from my hand, and at the same time he laid upon the desk, where
the flickering light of the tallow dip might fall upon it, the paper
which had caused him so much of excitement.

During a full minute I stood gazing at the document, not daring to
believe the evidence of my own eyes, and saying to myself over and over
again that it must be impossible such an order could have come into our
hands.

This is what I read, and you may see whether a lad in my situation would
not have doubted even the written words:

"The bearer, Job Lord, is hereby authorized to take from the Bridewell
any one of the prisoners captured at Charlestown, which he may select.
The officer on duty will follow the bearer's instructions in every
particular, and retain this order as receipt for the prisoner."

It was signed by the governor's aide-de-camp as secretary, and bore the
king's seal. In other words, it was a direct command from General Gage
to the officer at the Bridewell to deliver over any one of the prisoners
taken at Breed's hill which Job Lord might point out, and, what is more,
was dated the very day before we made a prisoner of this double-dyed
villain!

"If we had a key to all the plots in that scoundrel's head, then would
you find that this permit to take away a prisoner is part and parcel of
some scheme concerning us," Hiram said emphatically, and I was quite of
the same mind, being convinced thereto because the document had been so
lately written.

In some way, and I hoped it might be made clear before many days had
passed, the delivery of a prisoner to Job Lord was, together with the
holding of us, a trap for more important ends; but what those ends
might be my mind failed totally in the grasping.

Hiram, like me, no longer had any interest in Master Lord's belongings.
We had found sufficient to brand him the vilest of traitors, and, what
was more to our purpose, had obtained at the very moment when we
despaired of being able to aid our comrade in any way, that which would
effect his release, unless it so chanced that the worthy Master Lord was
particularly well known at the Bridewell. This last thought came into my
mind, darkening all hope, at the moment Hiram turned to go into the
cellar that he might acquaint the other lads with our good fortune, and,
clutching him nervously by the arm, I reminded him of the disagreeable
fact that whosoever presented himself