Uncle Enos?"

"Maybe 'Tis safer with you, Anne," replied the captain. "It may be that
some British boat will overhaul us, and question us. I'm doing an errand,
Anne, for your father. If this boat is taken and I am made a prisoner, you
are to say that you want to go to Newburyport. That and no more. Mayhap
they'll set you ashore there. Then make your way to Squire Coffin's house
as best you may. Give him the packet. Tell him the story, and he'll find a
way to reach your father. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Uncle Enos," said Anne very soberly.

"Repeat what I have told you, that I may be sure," said Captain Enos, and
Anne obeyed.

"But I do not want to be set ashore in a strange place," she said soberly.
"How should I get back to Province Town?"

"You will be taken care of, never fear," responded Captain Enos, "and
you'll be doing a good service to the cause of liberty, Anne, if you carry
the papers safely. Your Aunt Martha will indeed be proud of you. Remember
what I have told you. But I hope to slip in behind Plum Island and make a
landing without being seen. The wind is favoring us. You have had a fine
visit, Anne?"

"Yes, indeed!" agreed the little girl, "and I have a present for Aunt
Martha," she said, as the sloop ran out among the islands. "See, my father
gave me this for her," and she held up a gold coin. "Will she not be
pleased?"

"But she will be better pleased to have you safe home again," said Captain
Enos. "What do you think Amanda Cary will say when she hears of your
voyage to Boston and of all the fine things you have seen there? 'Tis not
many of the children in Province Town have ever taken such a journey."

"She will think it a better voyage than the one we took to House Point
Island," answered Anne. "I have something for Amanda, too. Rose Freeman
gave me a package of barley sugar, and I said to myself I would take it
home to Amanda."

Captain Enos kept a watchful eye for suspicious looking craft. But his
course lay well inshore, and he was apparently not noticed by any of the
vessels. Before noon he was cruising along the Ipswich shore, and made his
landing at Newburyport without having been spoken.

"The worst part of the business is before us," he said to Anne, as he made
the boat fast. "If I leave the boat here, I may come back and find no
trace of her, but leave her I must, or Squire Coffin will wait in vain for
the papers."

"But I can carry them," said Anne. "Tell me where to go, and I'