"Well, there is nothing we can do to prevent him if he be so disposed,"

little Frenchie replied indifferently, and I exclaimed in surprise:

"One would suppose that it concerned you very little, whereas I'm not so certain but that the end of it may be a halter for both of us."

"It really does concern me very little," Pierre said decidedly. "I can do nothing to prevent it, and cannot afford to spend my time looking for danger in the future, because we have that task to do which must be performed even though a dozen like Abel Hunt were standing ready to accuse us of being spies."

"What do you mean by that?" I cried. "What business have we on hand so urgent?"

"To carry the message with which the Jerseyman entrusted us."

"But that is impossible now Hunt had found us out."

"Why do you say that? How is it that the meeting with such as Abel Hunt can prevent us from doing the work of Minute Boys when it lays at our hand?"

"But how will you leave this town of York? When we go to ask permission to take a boat for the purpose of fishing, you can depend upon it he will be near at hand, and if he has not already done so, will then reveal all he knows concerning me."

"Suppose we don't give him that opportunity?" Pierre said thoughtfully.

"Suppose we neglect to ask permission from any one to go out to get fish enough to prevent ourselves from starving?"

"How then will you go? Surely you are not so venturesome as to take to the water on a course to the right of Gloucester Point, when by so doing we must pa.s.s the king's vessels? The _Charon_ is anch.o.r.ed directly on the course we would need to pursue in order to carry out the instructions which have been given."

"And she would still be there if we waited until daylight, and then asked permission from some of these swaggering officers of the king who have no love for any one save themselves."

I was mystified by Pierre's words, although surely by this time I should have come to understand that his odd speech betokened the perfecting of a plan, and I remained silent as if believing he would make sport of me, until two or three minutes had elapsed when Abel Hunt could no longer be seen in the gloom.

Then it was that little Frenchie suddenly stood upright, and, pointing to a skiff hauled up on the sh.o.r.e not more than thirty feet from where he lay, asked sharply:

"Have you the courage, Fitz Hamilton, to embark with me in yonder craft, and go down to the Gloucester sh.o.r.e where we may remain hidden amid the foliage until it is sufficiently light for us to make out whether any one comes looking for a messenger from the Jerseyman?"

"Meaning to brave the Britishers?" I cried in something very like alarm.

"Meaning to carry the message which it is necessary should be delivered, and without heed whatsoever to these gentry who wear red coats."

"I have the courage, Pierre," I said, after a time of hesitation; "but have we the right to desert Uncle 'Rasmus while he must for his own sake hold Horry Sims a prisoner, and when he has nothing whatsoever to eat or drink in the cabin? Surely it would be deserting him for us to take boat now and leave the village, if peradventure we can do so, for there are an hundred chances against our being able to return, and only one in our favor. It is the same as abandoning Uncle 'Rasmus."

"And if it were abandoning him, and Saul, and every one whom we know, yet would I say it was our duty to go because the Jerseyman, expecting his message to be delivered, will give no further heed to sending it into the American lines."

Although Pierre's words had fired me, and it was possible at any time for the lad to arouse all my enthusiasm and all my bravery when he spoke as he had a moment previous, I understood that it was a most dangerous venture which he proposed, such as might be tried twenty times over without success.

Mark you, in order to gain the Gloucester sh.o.r.e at the point near where the Jerseyman claimed we would find someone awaiting us, we must sail in our skiff, without a pa.s.s from my Lord Cornwallis, within hailing distance of the _Charon_, or of the _Guadaloupe_, both of which vessels lay where their guns could be brought to bear either on York or Gloucester, and it did not seem to me within the range of possibilities that we could pa.s.s either craft without being discovered by the sentries who would undoubtedly order us to come alongside.

Even though we were minded to be so reckless as to take the chances of disobeying an order, it could avail us nothing, for pursuit would be given immediately, and how might we hope to escape from a vessel of war's boat, manned most like by a dozen men, we being only two lads not overly well skilled in rowing.

I was turning all this over in my mind, and becoming more and more convinced each instant that it was the wildest scheme Pierre had ever proposed, when he turned upon me sharply and asked with a note of anger in his tone:

"Are you afraid to make the venture?"

"There is no lad, no, nor no man either, who shall say I am afraid to do this or that!" I cried hotly. "I dare do what any other lad may."

"Then come with me, and before daybreak we will be hidden on the Gloucester sh.o.r.e."

"Before the day breaks you will be a prisoner on board either the _Guadaloupe_ or the _Charon_, unless one of the smaller vessels chances to make the capture," I said, "and yet, knowing that such must be the case, I am minded to follow, so you may have fair opportunity of proving that this will turn out even more to our disadvantage than did your plan of getting sight of Saul Ogden to hearten him, and, instead, come across Abel Hunt."

"It is not well Fitz, that you should harp upon a single failure,"

Pierre said softly, and on the instant I regretted having spoken. "There was not in my mind any hope we might be able to aid the lad; but I thought by chance he would see us if we pa.s.sed his prison, and know we had not forgotten him. If I had asked you to go out for a stroll because I was weary with remaining in the cabin so long, you would have followed quite as readily, and then should we have come upon Abel Hunt even as we did."

"Forgive me, Pierre, forgive me," I cried remorsefully. "Lead the way, and I will go with you readily, even though I claim it is a most desperate venture, but promise faithfully not to throw it in your teeth however sore the failure may be."

The little French lad was not inclined to waste words after I had promised to accompany him; but set off at a rapid pace toward where the skiff was lying, and I followed, having vividly in mind the fact that we were leaving Uncle 'Rasmus to what might be a most cruel fate, at the same time believing we had deserted Saul entirely, for there was not in my mind any hope whatsoever we could succeed in re-entering the town of York now that the Britishers were keeping such sharp watch.

Even though fortune should favor us in the most remarkable degree, we surely would not be tempted to come back to this fortified village during the hours of daylight, therefore were we shutting ourselves out until full four and twenty hours pa.s.sed, during which time how much of disaster might have come upon those whom we had the same as abandoned?

It was much the same as folly for me to hark back in my mind to all the dangers which might come upon us, for I had agreed to follow the lad wheresoever he might lead, and for me to dwell upon the probable danger could serve no other end than that of making me timorous, therefore it was I strove earnestly to put from my mind everything save the old thought that I would do all within my power to help him carry out his purpose.

The lad had not set out toward the boat until the sentry, who had been pacing to and fro near us, turned to go to the other end of his beat, and when we were come to the craft there were none within sight so far as I could make out.

She was a light skiff, perhaps one of the smallest that could have been found on the sh.o.r.e, and had friends been making arrangements for us to do this very work they could not have laid the tools more conveniently at hand, for there were two pairs of oars in the craft, and it only needed we should shove her ten or twelve paces before she was water borne.

I followed Pierre over the gunwale, kicking at the bank as I did so with sufficient force to send her rocking like an egg-sh.e.l.l out into the current.

The night was not so dark but that we could see the black tracery of the English ships as they lay at anchor guarding both encampments, and unless the sentries on board these vessels of the king were asleep or blind they could not fail of seeing us, however wide a detour we might make.

I fully expected to hear one of the sentinels on the sh.o.r.e ordering us to come back and show a permit for being aboard at such an hour; but no one hailed, and we set the skiff's bow on a direct course to that part of the Gloucester sh.o.r.e which we hoped to gain, giving no heed to his majesty's vessels in the way.

"We cannot hope to pa.s.s them without being discovered," I said in a low tone as I settled back at the oars, putting into them every ounce of strength I could summon.

"It may be they will let us go on after we have explained our purpose, or so much of it as we may be pleased to give," Pierre said hopefully; "but even if they turn us back, we shall be no worse off than before, and will have the satisfaction of knowing that we strove to our utmost to do as the Jerseyman desired."

"We shall be no worse off unless we are sent to share Saul's imprisonment in the guard-house."

Then I bent my back yet more vigorously at the oars, if that could be possible, the labor serving in some slight degree to prevent me from dwelling upon the disagreeable possibilities.

Our course brought us within mayhap an hundred yards of the _Charon's_ stern, and before we were on a line with her came that hail which I had feared to hear:

"Cease rowing!"

"Do as they bid, Fitz; it is our only hope," Pierre whispered, and I obeyed him.

"Come alongside and show your pa.s.s," the voice demanded, and I could hear the foot-falls of the sentry as he came from amidships aft and leaned over the rail that he might see us more clearly.

"We have no pa.s.s, sir," Pierre said meekly. "We have been sent over to Gloucester with a message from one officer to another, on what I count may be private business."

"Come alongside and show the message," the same voice demanded.

Then did I believe that little Frenchie was at the end of his rope; but instead of showing any confusion or fear he replied cheerily:

"It is no more than word of mouth that the major of Colonel Tarleton's legion come into York for a supper."

The sentry, or whoever it might be that had hailed us, hung in the wind a moment as if undecided whether to give further orders, and then said grudgingly, not being minded, as I fancied, to disgruntle any officers of my Lord Cornwallis's command: