our last meal was ended, and said to me in a
business-like tone as he ate hurriedly:

"It is close to sunset, lad, and I count on setting forth about my work
without delay, for it strikes me we had better leave here as near to
nine of the clock as may be. While I am gone you three shall fill your
stomachs, and it won't be a bad idea to share the food with the
prisoners, for they have a reasonably long journey before them."

Although I had been waiting impatiently for this time to come, his words
sent a chill through my heart, and it was as if I had not been prepared
to hear them. The knowledge that we were come to the very moment of
making as desperate a venture as I dare say had ever been made in
Boston, frightened me, and my breath came thick and fast as I asked,
much as though I would delay the fateful moment:

"Would it not be better that you wait until night has fully come?"

"When I have work on hand that isn't as pleasant as it might be, it's a
whim of mine to set about it without delay, and, besides, I'd rather
take my chances at the Bridewell before nine of the clock than
afterward."

"It makes little difference what time you set out, for you'll spend the
remainder of the night, whether you go late or early, in prison," Master
Lord growled, and Hiram made answer with a laugh:

"I shall be back within an hour, my two-faced friend, and my coming will
be the signal for your setting out to visit in Cambridge those over
whose eyes you have pulled the wool this many a day."

"I shall believe in going to Cambridge when I get there, and not
before," Job Lord said surlily; but I could detect a tone of anxiety
such as he had never shown before, which was not to be wondered at, for
Hiram acted and spoke like a man who knows beyond a peradventure that
matters will go exactly as he has arranged.

I followed Griffin up the ladder when, his hurried repast at an end, he
ascended to the room above, and there, while he unbarred the door I
asked tremulously:

"What shall we do in case Master Lord's Tory friends come while you are
gone?"

"Pay no attention to them, lad; that is the only course. If you
remember, Lord said there was no danger of any one's coming until after
sunset, which was much the same as telling us that then he expected
visitors, therefore it is I am pushing matters forward sooner than would
otherwise be the case. Of course there's a chance they may make trouble
for us; but if I am not delayed at the