Squire Stavers was not without his doubts concerning the time Dicky would return. A boy trusted with a horse is extremely liable to overstay his time; but before twelve o’clock Dicky turned up. The Squire looked sharply at Blackberry, but, although the old horse had had a pretty good morning’s work, he seemed to realize that he was bent upon a patriotic errand and was as lively as a colt.
Dicky did not fail to do ample justice to his own coolness and composure when nabbed by the redcoats, and his prompt surrendering of the letter. The Squire chuckled when Dicky described how the young lieutenant puzzled over it and handed Dicky out two shillings with great readiness, saying,—
“And as you are such a good hand in the transaction of business, I will employ you again.”
Dicky ran home as fast as his legs could carry him with his four shillings clutched in his hands, and, throwing three of them in his mother’s lap, held up the fourth, bawling,—
“I’m going to give Mr. Bell and me a treat with this, mammy, because I’m a very bright boy, I am,—the Squire said so,—and a reliable one, too. There’s a show in town of dancing bears and monkeys, and Mr. Bell and me are going sure.”
When Jack came in that night Dicky recounted all of his adventures, even to the seeing the officer behind him in the glass, which he had not mentioned to Squire Stavers. The widow was immensely proud of Dicky’s shrewdness and courage, and Jack Bell was perfectly delighted, especially that Dicky had proved a match for old Blackberry.
“You’re doin’ a sight better sarvice for your country than if you was a powder boy ’board ship,” he remarked; “and it’s a deal more riskier to handle a horse than it is to handle gunpowder, and I’m a-thinkin’ sumpin’ will happen soon;” with which sententious remark Bell retired to the loft to sleep, while Dicky tumbled into his flock bed—a very tired but a very happy boy—and dreamed all night about dancing bears.
Three more trips did Dicky make to Tiverton, and each time, under the cover of a transaction in beef cattle, carried important news. He was rather puzzled, though, to know what the news was, as Squire Stavers did not tell him the contents of any letters but the first. Neither the Squire nor Mr. Barton ever mentioned General Prescott’s name before him. Dicky rashly concluded that the scheme to capture the British general had been abandoned.