ghouse.

The officers, the while, were closing the barrack gates.

"To the main guard! Let us clean out that viper's nest," shouted one;
and the apprentices moved towards King Street.

The bell was ringing. Robert walked back to the pump, and past it to
the meetinghouse. Citizens were coming with fire-buckets. He could see
by the clock above him that it was ten minutes past nine. Mr. Knox,
the bookseller, came, out of breath with running.

"It is not a fire, but there is trouble with the soldiers," said
Robert.

Together they walked down King Street, and saw the sentinel at the
Custom House loading his gun. Robert learned that a boy had hurled a
snowball at him.

"Stand back, or I'll shoot," said the soldier to those gathering round
him.

"If you fire, you'll die for it," said Mr. Knox.

"I don't care if I do," the sentinel replied with an oath.

"You daren't fire," shouted a boy.

The redcoat raised his gun, and pulled the trigger. The lock clicked,
but the powder did not flash.

"Spit in the pan!" said another boy, chaffing him.

"Guard! Guard!" shouted the sentinel, calling the main guard.

Captain Preston, with a file of men, came from the guardhouse upon the
run, in response to the call. The meetinghouse bell was still ringing,
and other bells began to clang. The soldiers, nine in number, formed
in front of the Custom House with their bayonets fixed, and brought
their guns to a level as if to fire. Robert thought there were thirty
or more young men and boys in the street. Among them was a burly negro
leaning on a stick, and looking at the soldiers. The others called him
Crisp.

"Are your guns loaded?" asked a man of Captain Preston, commanding the
soldiers.

"Yes."

"Are they going to fire?"

"They can't without my orders."

"For God's sake, captain, take your men back again, for if you fire
your life must answer for it," said Mr. Knox, seizing the captain by
the coat.

"I know what I'm about," Captain Preston replied.

The bayonets of the soldiers almost touched the breasts of Crispus
Attucks and Samuel Gray. The negro was still leaning upon his cudgel,
and Gray stood proudly before them with folded arms, a free citizen,
in the dignity of his manhood protesting against the system of
government instituted by King George and his ministry.

"You don't dare to fire," he said.

Why should they fire? The jeering apprentices before them had no guns,
only sticks and clubs; they were not fift