ZEKE'S EXHIBITION OF STRENGTH.
"Say, hold on, friend," said Zeke, reaching out his hand and laying a
grip on the storekeeper's collar. "We don't want any men like you aboard
here. That's the way ashore."
"Who made you master of this vessel?" answered the man, thrusting Zeke's
arm aside. "The captain says the wounded men are on board this ship and
I want to see who they are. Just keep your hands to yourself."
Zeke's whole appearance changed as if by magic. The good-natured smile
gave place to a frown, and the hand which the storekeeper had thrown
aside speedily caught its grip again, and this time it was there to
stay. With the other hand he caught the man below the waist-band, and a
moment afterward he gave a puff like a tired locomotive and the
storekeeper was swung clear of the deck. Lifting his victim until he
was at arm's length above his head he walked across the deck to the
other side, and sent him headlong into the water. It was an exhibition
of strength on Zeke's part that no one had ever seen before. He leaned
over the rail until the man's face appeared at the surface and then
shook his fist at him.
"Now don't you wish you had gone back my way?" said he. "Swim around the
sloop and get somebody to help you out. You can't come aboard here."
"There," said Enoch. "Ledyard is a Tory sure enough. Zeke knew it all
the time and took this way to wash some of his meanness out of him. I
will have to go to his store to get some more powder," he added, holding
up his horn so that he could see the inside of it. "I shot most of what
I had away at the Britishers who manned this schooner. Come on, Caleb. I
think we can get ashore now."
The boys made another attempt this time and were successful. Every one
they saw on the wharf was a provincial and wanted to shake hands with
them. Of course, too, everybody wanted to know what sort of treatment
Caleb had met with at the hands of the Britishers, but the boys
answered in as few words as possible and as soon as they were out of the
crowd they broke into a run, headed for home.
"Come in and let mother thank you for rescuing me," said Caleb, as they
stopped at his gate. "She can do it better than I can."
"I did not have more to do with your rescue than a dozen other men who
were with me," replied Enoch. "Let me go home first and then I will come
back."
Caleb reluctantly let his friend go, and Enoch kept on his way toward
home. He was thinking over the incidents that had happened during the
fight and which he wanted to tell for his mother's satisfaction, when he
came opposite the house in which James Howard lived. He kept on without
giving a thought to James except to wonder how he would feel to know
that the schooner, in which he had so much confidence, had been beaten
by an unarmed sloop, when he saw the boy at the gate waiting for him.
His face was very pale, but it gave place to a flush of anger when he
noticed the smile with which Enoch greeted him. He backed away from the
gate as our hero approached, and this showed that he did not mean to let
himself get within reach of a provincial's arm.
"You think you are smart, don't you?" was the way in which he opened the
conversation.
"Well--yes; almost anybody would think himself smart under the
circumstances," said Enoch. "We whipped them in a fair fight."
"I do not believe it," returned James hotly.
"I do not ask you to take my word for it, but the wharf is not but a
little way off, and you can go down and see for yourself," said Enoch.
"We heard the firing, and we came to the conclusion that your sloop had
got sunk out of sight," said James. "But I see that the schooner brought
her back with her."
Enoch made no reply. He wanted to see how much James knew about the
fight.
"How many of the men were killed and wounded on your side?" continued
James, after a moment's pause.
"About half."
"I tell you the regulars fought, did they not? How many of them were hit
on their side?"
"About half."
"Do you mean to say that you killed as many of them as they did of you?"
asked James, who was plainly astonished to hear it.
"That is what I mean to say. We boarded their vessel and pulled down her
flag----"
"I tell you I don't believe any such stuff," shouted James, who was more
surprised the longer the story went on. "You will never get your hands
on that flag."
"Go down and see. That is all you have got to do."
"I will wager that Captain Moore laid some of you fellows out. Was that
he standing on the rail waving his hat to us?"
"No, it could not have been Captain Moore. He is dead."
"What!" James almost stammered. "Did one of you men dare to draw a
weapon on him?"
"Yes, they did. He had weapons in his own hand----"
"Of course he did. He was defending his vessel."
"And we wanted to take it and we were stronger than he was."
"If some of you don't get your necks stretched before long I shall miss
my guess," said James, walking up and down the path like a boy who had
been bereft of his senses. "You have committed piracy, every one of
you."
"And you would be the first to grab a rope and haul us up, I suppose?
Look here, James, Caleb has got back now----"
"Oh! Did you find him and turn him loose? Then he will not have to go to
New York to pay his fine?"
"Not by a long shot. I found him locked in the brig and let him out."
This news was more than James could stand. He pulled off his hat, dug
his fingers into his head and acted altogether like a boy who was almost
ready to go insane.
"And if you are wise you and Emerson Miller will stay close about the
house," said Enoch, shifting his rifle to his other shoulder. "The first
time he catches you on the street he will have his pay for that. So you
want to watch out."
Enoch walked on toward his home and James went into the house so
bewildered that he hardly knew which end he stood on. He found his
father in the dining-room, pacing up and down the floor with his hands
behind his back, but that terrible scowl that had come to his face when
he first heard that James had been whipped by a rebel, was not there.
His face was pale and his hands trembled.
"Father," whispered James, as though he hardly knew how to communicate
to him the news he had just heard, "the dog is dead. Captain Moore has
been killed and the rebels have taken the schooner."
His father fairly gasped for breath. He raised his hands above his head
as if to say that he did not want to hear any more, and then groped his
way to a lounge and sank down upon it.
"I have just seen Enoch out there and he told me all about it,"
continued James. "The firing that we heard did not hurt the sloop at
all. And the worst of it is, Caleb has been turned loose and now I have
got to stay about the house."
"Oh Lord! Oh Lord!" groaned Mr. Howard.
"Now have I got to stand that?" said James in a resolute tone. He was
always brave enough when he was in his own house and a perfect coward
when he got out of it. Perhaps his father could think of some other way
to get rid of Caleb and of Enoch, too.
"Am I, a good, loyal friend of the King, and ready to go into a fight
for him this minute, to be shut up in the house just because I say that
those men, every one of them, had ought to have their necks stretched to
pay them for what they have done?" continued James. "There must be some
way in which we can get the start of those rebels."
"I don't really see what you can do," said Mr. Howard. "The rebels are
stronger than we are, and I guess both of us will have to stay in the
house from this time on. Such a thing was never heard of before.
Thirteen little colonies getting up a rebellion in the face of the
King!"
"But there must be some way out of it?"
"Of course there is. Let the King send over an army to whip the rebels
into submission. But before that thing can happen they may work their
sweet will of us. I don't know any better way that we can do but to pack
up and go to New York."
"And leave this beautiful place to the rebels?" exclaimed James. "I tell
you I should hate to do that."
"I don't know what else we can do. We shall be among friends there, and
can say what we think without some paltry little rebel telling us that
we had better keep our mouths shut. But go away and leave me alone for a
while, James. The news you have brought to me almost drives me crazy. Do
you _know_ that Captain Moore has been killed?"
"All I know about it is what Enoch told me. He said that the captain had
weapons in his hand, but that the attacking party was too strong for
him. He was the best man that ever lived, too, and I tell you it would
give me joy to have hold of one end of a rope while the other was fast
around the necks of those people."
"Be careful that you don't say that where anybody can hear it," said his
father. "The rebels are in high feather now that they have got a
victory, and they would be right on hand for something desperate."
Mr. Howard settled himself into a comfortable position on the lounge and
James, taking this as a hint that his presence was no longer desirable,
picked up his cap and walked out on the porch.
"I wish I dared go down to the wharf," said he. "But if I do that Caleb
Young will be out, and there's no telling what he will do to me. I wish
somebody would come along and give me some news of that fight."
But James waited a long time before he got it. Enoch and Caleb were at
home and holding their mothers spellbound with the various incidents
that transpired before their sight, while James walked up and down the
porch feeling as though he did not have a friend in the world. He looked
in vain for Emerson Miller, but that worthy, who probably knew or
suspected that Caleb Young had been found and released by this time, was
not at all anxious to be seen in James's company and wisely kept his
distance.
"Well, mother, I have got back and there is not a mark on me," shouted
Enoch, as he burst open the kitchen door and sprang into the presence of
her who told him that she did not want him to get his gun into any bad
habits. "I shot away all my powder and lead, and I guess that some of
the Tories that I aimed at have something to remember me by. Why don't
you say that you are glad to see me?"
"How about Caleb?" said his mother. "Is he all right?"
"I did not ask him, but I don't think he heard a bullet while he was in
the brig."
His mother had been knitting when he came in, and the Book lay in front
of her, open, on her knee. She put the Book and her knitting away and
got up, and folded Enoch to her breast. She made no remark, but the boy
was satisfied from the strength of her embrace that she was glad to
welcome him home. Enoch then sat down and told her everything connected
with the fight, not forgetting how Zeke had ducked the storekeeper in
the harbor.
"I never saw such an exhibition of strength in my life," said he, with
enthusiasm. "He took the man this way"--here he got up and elevated his
arms straight above his head--"walked across the boat with him and
chucked him into the water. He would not let him come back aboard the
sloop either, but told him to swim around and get somebody to help him
out. I wish all the men we have were like Zeke."
Of course there were many questions to be asked and answered on both
sides--Mrs. Crosby was anxious to learn how the different men with whom
she was acquainted had behaved during the fight, and Enoch was equally
desirous to know how the Tories they had left behind them conducted
themselves while they were at sea--and it was almost dark before they
had got through talking.
"I was particularly anxious to know what the Tories would do when they
heard that firing," said Enoch. "I was afraid they would be excited and
do something that we would have to settle with them for."
"Well, they did not," said Mrs. Crosby. "James and Emerson walked up and
down in front of our house when they heard the shooting going on, and
asked us to listen to it. 'Aha!' they said. 'The rebels are getting
their fill now. After Captain Moore sinks that sloop he will have all he
can do to pick up the dead and wounded ones.' It seems to me that they
must be utterly confounded by the victory of the sloop over an armed
vessel."
"Not only that, but they utterly refused to believe it," said Enoch.