“If I could but make my own explanation,” he said, “it would greatly lighten your labor.”
“To do that you must needs go into Boston,” he said. “Would you venture that?”
“I have been there before,” answered the boy. “And why not again? And I think this gentleman,” nodding smilingly at Scarlett, “would also make the venture if it could be accomplished.”
“As well as not,” said the soldier of fortune, carelessly. “One place is much like another to me.”
There was triumph in Pennington’s face as he arose.
“Excellent!” he cried. “Both of you shall cross the river to-night. I have the means at hand. And I will present you to those,” here the high-pitched, disagreeable laugh rang out, “who will be delighted to welcome you.”
IN WHICH EZRA FARES INTO THE CITY OF THE ENEMY, AND HEARS THE VOICE OF AN ACQUAINTANCE
It was very evident to Ezra Prentiss that the purpose of Pennington was to entrap him. Once safe in Boston, so the spy’s thoughts ran, he and his friends could put upon the boy whatever pressure it pleased them; there the latter would not be so indefinite in his statements as he was at the “Indian’s Head.”
“If you have a way of crossing, it must be a most secret one,” said Gilbert Scarlett, who, like the others, was preparing to depart. “Only this morning I made the rounds, or as much of them as I was permitted to make, and I found the shore very well guarded.”
“They make a great display of activity and alertness,” said Pennington, with disdain. “But the river is open for any one who cares to cross it.”
Here Pennington stepped into the kitchen and exchanged a few rapid words with the innkeeper. Scarlett pursed his lips and regarded Ezra with attention.
“It would seem to me that under proper conditions, he would prove a very thorough-going gentleman,” remarked he, with a nod toward the door.
Scarlett continued to look at him; and there was speculation in his eyes. At length he spoke again.
“You baffle me sometimes. By your looks you should be a plain dealer, if one is to place an atom of trust in the reading of faces. And yet I find you writhing about like an eel upon a brick pavement.”
“What I have said,” returned Ezra, “is the truth.”
“Ay, what you have said!” The other laughed and slapped his chest. “It’s what you have not said that takes me by the horns. And,” with a jerk of the thumb over his shoulder, “our acquaintance there is bothered by it too.” The speaker studied Ezra for a moment. “Has it occurred to you that you may have fallen in with his desires very neatly in offering to cross the river?”