downed; but you need
fear no visitors before sunset."

"We'll keep our ears open for them just the same, seeing's how it don't
stand to reason we can put overly much faith in your words," Hiram
cried, and added to me, "Have your knife ready, lad, and don't hesitate
to use it at the first show of a disturbance. He may speak you fairly
now; but once there was a decent chance of taking your life without
losing his, you'd be in the next world in a twinkling."

"All of which is true," Master Lord replied quietly, and I could not but
give him credit for such show of courage under the circumstances. "If I
held you at the same disadvantage, would you hesitate to strike on the
first opportunity?"

"Faith, no," Hiram replied laughingly. "And now you are talking like a
decent man, although far from being one. Once we get you in Cambridge,
where there's no fear your friends may come, I shall breathe freely; but
until then I'm watching every move you make."

"Surely you are not so foolish as to think you can take me to
Cambridge?" the man cried quickly, and Hiram asked as he continued his
task of cooking:

"Why not? We've got your pass, and I'm allowing that you and Seth Jepson
can be counted as among our friends during such time as we are under the
eyes of the lobster backs."

"That pass does not allow of your taking two prisoners out," Master Lord
said with a snarl which was much like that of an angry cat's.

"Why not? If you were leading a party of friends, and had just made
selection of one of the prisoners taken at Breed's hill, how would you
account for him?"

Master Lord refused to answer, and I asked myself if Hiram could be so
venturesome as to think it possible we might carry these two Tories out
of the town. If so, then our wondrous fortune must have turned his head,
for verily none but a madman would, after having gotten out of such a
tangle as we had been in, take yet more desperate chances.

Now for the first time did Seth Jepson come out from the fever of terror
which had assailed him since I thrust him into the tunnel, and began to
plead most earnestly, like the coward that he was, for us to show him
what he called mercy. Having heard our conversation with Master Lord,
and understanding that we were in fair position to work our will, he
realized, perhaps better than ever before, how wholly he was in our
power.

Had the lad shown the slightest token of courage I might have had some
sympathy for him, for