"Where did you find that child? I had her double locked up in the brick
room."

"Are you sure of it?" asked the man who kept so tight a grasp on Anne's
arm that the mark of his fingers showed for several days after.

"Of course I'm sure; locked two of them up there before the
thunder-storm, and have their father tied up in the kitchen. Tory spies
they are."

At the sound of the hated words Anne exclaimed: "Indeed we are not Tory
spies. We are not either of those things. Mr. Freeman is a patriot, and
his son is with Washington. How dare you say we are Tories and treat us
so!" and the little girl quite forgot her fear, and, as the hold on her
arm loosened, she took a step away from the man and said: "We were going
to Boston, and going to stop at Suet to see Captain Sears, and that
man," and she pointed at Bill Mains, "shut us up because Rose and I
peeked under a blanket at some guns."

As Anne stopped speaking the men looked at one another in surprise. At
last the bareheaded man began to laugh, and the others joined in; all
but Bill Mains, who looked somewhat ashamed.

"You've been a bit too cautious, I reckon, Bill," said the man who had
found Anne. "Mr. Freeman of Boston is known as a loyal man. Did he not
tell you who he was?"

"I gave him no chance after I found this little maid looking at the guns
I had covered with blankets," confessed Mains. "I told him I'd gag him
if he said one word, and I reckon he thought he had fallen into the
hands of a rank Tory. Who are you, little maid?" and he turned kindly
toward Anne.

"I am John Nelson's daughter, who is at sea on the 'Yankee Hero,' and I
live with Uncle Enos and Aunt Martha Stoddard in Province Town, but now
I am going with Rose Freeman for a visit in Boston," explained Anne, who
could hardly realize that these men were now kindly disposed toward her,
and that Bill Mains was sadly ashamed to have so ill treated his
unexpected guests. "You must let Rose right out of that dark room," she
added hastily.

"I should say so. You shall open the door yourself, little maid,"
answered Mains. "You boys go on to the kitchen and get Mr. Freeman's
pardon for me if you can," and he turned and led Anne toward the room
where Rose was locked in.

When Rose saw Anne standing in the doorway she exclaimed: "Oh, Anne, has
he brought you back!" in such an unhappy voice that Bill Mains felt very
uncomfortable.

"It's all right, Rose. You are to come right out where your fath