Page:Dorothy's spy; a story of the first "fovrth of Jvly" celebration, New York, 1776.djvu/58

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THE SPY
47

away, as if those who searched for the spy were at that end of the square nearest Queen[1] street, and the girls retreated to their place of refuge once more, as Dorothy whispered:

"How terrible it would be if they should catch the soldier now! I wonder if they would hang him in the square? Father said a spy must be killed for doing such work."

"The Britishers have no right to make trouble here, now that the Declaration has been read, and I don't know that I am very sorry for the man. Why didn't he stay at Staten Island, with the rest of my lord Howe's soldiers?"

"You are sorry for him, Sarah Lamb!" Dorothy cried sharply, raising her voice slightly. "He is a human person, even if he has come here to do harm to our people!"

"If he hadn't come to-night we wouldn't have been in so much trouble. It was almost comfortable here with Scip, before the man ran into the square."

"I suppose they were chasing him, and he couldn't go anywhere else. You would run very fast, and never think you might be making trouble for two little girls, if men were close behind trying with all their might to hang you, Sarah Lamb!"

"I suppose I should," was the meek reply, and

  1. Now Pearl street.