Page:Dorothy's spy; a story of the first "fovrth of Jvly" celebration, New York, 1776.djvu/99

88 Oakman had he been concealed only by the curtains of the room.

Dorothy was almost speechless. Never before had her father spoken to her in such a tone, or made such a threat, and, kneeling beside one of the straight-backed chairs, she gave way to grief, while Sarah did her feeble best at consolation.

"He was angry because of what the men said, and didn't really mean to be cross with you."

"But he was, very cross," Dorothy sobbed, "and now I can't tell him about the old chest. They will find the Britisher there, and father is certain to be more angry with me than before. Oh, what shall we do, Sarah? How I wish that officer hadn't any children of his own, and then, perhaps, we wouldn't have been tempted to hide him!"

Sarah could do no more than mingle her tears with Dorothy's, and the two girls mourned despairingly, but heedful in their grief to avoid any demonstration lest their mothers should insist on knowing all the cause.

The representatives of the mob were walking rapidly through the house, being literally forced so to do by Master Dean, whose anger, because of what he termed an unwarranted intrusion, seemed to increase, rather than diminish, with time, and each moment the sorrowing children