CHAPTER XXI.
A Night Interview.
A few days passed and Master Raymond was back again; with a pleasant word and smile for all he met, as he rode through the village.

Mistress Ann Putnam herself met him on the street and he pulled up his horse at the side-path as she stopped, and greeted her.
"So you have been to Boston ?" she said.
"Yes, I thought I would take a little turn and hear what was going on up there." "Who did you see--any of our people ?" "Oh, yes--the Nortons and the Mathers and the Higginsons and the Sewalls--I don't know all.
"Good day; remember me to my kind brother Joseph and his wife," said she, and Raymond rode on.
"What did that crafty creature wish to find out by stopping me ?" he thought to himself.
"He did not mention Captain Alden.

Yes, he went to consult him," thought Mistress Putnam.
Master Joseph Putnam was so anxious to meet his friend, that he was standing at the turning in the lane that led up to his house.
"Well, what did the Captain say ?" "He was astounded.

Then he gave utterance to some emphatic expressions about hell-fire and damnation which he had probably heard in church." "I know no more appropriate occasion to use them," commented young Master Joseph drily.

"If it were not for certain portions of the psalms and the prophets, I could hardly get through the time comfortably nowadays." "If we can get her safely to Boston, he will see that a fast vessel is ready to take us to New York; and he will further see that his own vessel--the Colony's rather, which he commands--never catches us." "That looks well.