The Hero of Ticonderoga Part 51

It was the captain's voice, and he knew well, for he had ordered every detail.

"They are here, captain."

"Let them stand up."

Allen rose with difficulty, and staggered as he tried to stand at "attention."

"Drunk, eh? Here, sergeant, see to it that this rebel does not have a drop of anything to drink for twenty-four hours."

"Except water, captain?"

"I said not a drop of anything. He is drunk."

"Please, sir, he has had nothing to----"

"Silence! Do you want to be ordered to the hold?"

The sergeant was silent, though his whole nature rebelled against such treatment.

The captain looked at Allen for a minute, then he asked:

"You were at Ticonderoga?"

"And I treated the prisoners with justice," answered Allen.

The only reply was a vigorous kick from the officer's well-shod foot.

Allen bit his lips, but did not resent the affront.

He knew that it was done to provoke him so that his persecutors might have an excuse for inflicting some terrible punishment on him.

"See to it that these rebels do not sit down until I give permission."

It was the parting order of the captain, and the sergeant blushed with shame as he heard the command.

When the officer left the deck Allen sat down.

"You must not do that, sir," said the sergeant, kindly; "you heard my orders."

"I know, but I shall die unless----"

"Lie down, sir; I shall not stop you doing that. The orders were that you must not sit."

Once more the two prisoners were lying down on their backs; the irons prevented their reposing on their sides.

By daylight the prisoners were nearly dead with thirst, but not a drop of water was allowed them.

The captain made his round of inspection at seven o'clock, and Allen asked if they were to be allowed to have anything to eat or drink.

"No. You will get a rope round your necks soon, and it won't matter whether you are hungry or not."

"But, sir, you have no right----"

"Stay, there! You are a rebel and have forfeited all right to be considered in the matter."

Eben listened to the insulting words, and he was in such a position that he was able to drag his iron bar right across the captain's path.

As the officer stepped back he tripped over the iron and fell sprawling on the deck.

"Beg your pardon, captain, but I am not accustomed to move about with a bar of iron on my leg, so couldn't tell where it was going to land."

Eben spoke so seriously that even the captain thought it might have been an accident; so, after cursing the young Vermonter, he left the place.

Then Eben laughed heartily.

"Forfeited all right, have we? Well, I have found one way of humbling an Englishman."

"Eben, you ought not to have done it."

"Ought not? Why, I only regretted that we were not near enough to the side so that he would have fallen into the water."

"Hus.h.!.+"

"You are not to have anything to drink, nor anything to eat, but hang me if I'm going to see you starve, so here, stow this into your mouth and suck like mad."

The kind-hearted sergeant pushed a piece of hard boiled beef into Allen's mouth.

Allen was too good a hunter not to know that the beef was prepared in such a way that, though tasteless, it nourished, and by sucking on it the saliva was promoted and thirst quenched.

After Eben had been served in the same way the sergeant laughed.

"I didn't give you aught to drink, nor aught to eat, but you'll get there all the same, and I ain't broken the rule."

"If ever I get the chance to remember your kindness, my memory will serve me."

"That's all right. I expect you'll get hanged, but blow me if I could see a dog starve, and you're a trump anyway, though you be a rebel."

CHAPTER XXIX.

ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND.

Three days after his capture, Ethan Allen heard an extraordinary noise on the upper deck, and he knew that the _Gaspee_ was about to sail.

But its destination he did not know.

After the first day the prisoners were allowed to have one meal a day, for, as Prescott told Allen, he did not want to cheat the gallows.