“We shouldn’t have let him go,” Kristen said. “Not without knowing what he was going to do.”
Brad and Rebecca looked up from where they sat. The three young people had retreated into the woods as a group of farmers had come along the road on their way back into the city. And not long after Jacob had left them, a couple of officers on horseback had gone past. Luckily the military men had been too busy talking and joking among themselves to look into the trees and see anyone huddled there.
“We couldn’t really stop him,” the colonial girl said in response to Kristen.
“Besides, if anybody can take care of himself around here, it’s Jacob,” Brad added.
Kristen sighed. “I hope you’re right. It’s getting darker by the minute as the sun goes behind the trees.”
And Jacob had been gone for quite a while.
They lapsed into silence again, but came alert a few minutes later at the sound of a whistle.
“Here he comes,” Rebecca said, peering down the road where the tavern boy should soon appear.
Brad whistled in return and he and the two girls came out of the woods back onto the road.
Rebecca gasped and ran over toward Jacob. “My word! What did they do to you?"
Brad looked dismayed at the appearance of the other boy. “Oh, man, they got a hold of you, didn’t they?”
“What? No, I only went to—” Jacob looked down and laughed as comprehension flooded his features. “No, no, the soldiers didn’t do this. I did it to myself.” He began to brush dirt off his pants and shirt, and straightened his neck-cloth, which had been askew. Finally he used his hands to comb through his disheveled hair and rubbed more dirt off his face.
“You did this to yourself?” Kristen repeated. “What did you do, roll all the way there?”
Brad smiled. “Maybe he climbed a tree and catapulted himself. Hey, now there’s an idea.”
“What, turn Rebecca into a human cannonball?”
“No, what I was thinking—”
“Stop!” Jacob cut in. “Brad, I think I know what you’re thinking, about the tree, and, as crazy as it sounds, why don’t we leave that for later, maybe as a fallback plan. But let me tell you what I did and what I think should happen next.
“First, I did make myself dirty and disheveled-looking, trying to look the part I was going to play. I kept to the woods, staying out of sight and going a little ways down that other road, the one that crosses Germantown Road and leads into the city, and then approached it from that direction. And I used this as my prop.” He reached into his leather bag and brought out a small flask.