Page:Dorothy's spy; a story of the first "fovrth of Jvly" celebration, New York, 1776.djvu/121

108 Dorothy said gravely. "Can you get away from the city, sir?"

"Unless those who chased me are in the immediate vicinity. A boat should be waiting for me at a certain point on the river; the time set for its arrival was midnight," Lieutenant Oakman replied carelessly, so overwhelmed by the supposed fact that Masters Dean and Lamb would agree to his escape as to give little heed to anything else.

"Will you follow us, sir, and please do not make any noise?" Dorothy whispered as she took him by the hand, and Scip, eager to be out of such a promising place for ghosts as was the attic, urged the little company on so rapidly that there was danger all would fall headlong down the steep stairs.

At a rear window on the next floor, in the room where she usually slept, Dorothy halted, and the old darkey raised the sash as he gave the spy one end of the clothes-line.

"Take hol' ob dat, sah, an' I'se gwine fur ter let yo' down han' ober han'."

"What is below?"

"De shed, sah; but it ain't more'n six feet high. Des slide down de roof."

Lieutenant Oakman threw one leg over the window-sill, and then stopped to say a parting word: