But for all that Colonel Knox thought that the advent of the spies would hasten his movements, the start was not made until the following month. During the interim, Ezra suffered keenly. A dozen times the delay seemed more than he could endure. His imagination teemed with pictures of happenings at the two strongholds in the wilderness; in his sleep he saw parties of British take them a score of times; he witnessed the sinking of the heavy guns in the depths of the lake; he saw Abdallah’s and Jason Collyer’s grins of derision at his frantic, dream-heavy efforts to prevent this; and always he’d awake crying out to his friends to come to his aid.
More than once he reached the point, in his desperation, of saddling his horse with the idea of setting out alone.
“If I ride on in advance, I may be able to spoil any plan that they may have laid,” he told himself.
But each time, second thought showed him how profitless such an effort would be. He must wait for Colonel Knox, if he was to be of any value. Alone he could accomplish nothing.
His heart leaped one evening when he received word that the expedition would start early next morning. At the time the intelligence reached him he was standing within the Roxbury works, watching the cannonade of the British, which had broken out from shore batteries and shipping a short time before. The roar of the guns was in perfect harmony with the exultation that filled the boy’s breast.
“At last,” he cried to Ben Cooper, who had brought the news, “at last I’ll have a chance to do something.”
Ben, like the other boys, had heard nothing of Ezra’s experience upon the night at “The Honest Farmer”; so now he stared in wonderment at his friend’s display of feeling. But as Ezra made no explanation, the other asked no questions; however, he now and then stole a curious look at the flushed boy at his side.
“Something’s wrong,” Ben told himself. “I’ve noticed that he’s acted very queerly of late. Whatever it is, it’s got a deep hold on him, for I don’t remember ever seeing him look just this way before.”
At sunrise next morning a well-equipped troop of horse was drawn up before Colonel Knox’s quarters. Beside Ezra, Nat, Ben, George and Scarlett, there were a dozen hardy young fellows whose bold faces and stalwart frames told of a willingness to face hardship and the power to endure it. They were all armed with rifle and pistol; axes hung at their saddles; heavy coats and blankets for use amid the rigors of the North country were strapped securely behind them.