elieve you were taken into custody, Hiram! Job
Lord was so certain the pass would not avail you, that it was almost the
same as if I had seen you in the clutches of the lobster backs. You were
cruel to leave us at such a time, simply to show that you could roam
about the city at will, when the slightest mistake would have caused our
chances for escaping with Silas to fall to the ground."

"Is it in your mind, lad, that I went out simply on a whim? That I am so
light-headed as to take chances in this Tory town for the purpose of
showing that it could be done?" he asked in a tone that was really one
of reproof.

"Why else then did you go?" I cried, now grown angry, having recovered
from my timorousness.

"There came into my mind the idea that it would be a brave act to carry
Job Lord and Seth Jepson back to Cambridge, and so I said to you lads;
but no one believed it might be done. Then I had what has turned out to
be a lucky thought, and said to myself if perchance it would be possible
to get possession of a skiff we could, without much trouble or danger,
take those two curs with us as proof that, aside from releasing Silas,
our coming here had not been without good results."

"But even though you found a boat, Hiram, how might we take passage in
her, hampered by Job Lord and Seth Jepson?" I cried petulantly, for it
excited my anger yet more to have him thus speak of what seemed an
impossibility, from whatever point you viewed it.

"That was the question in my own mind, lad, when the matter first came
to me; but before coming back I settled it."

"Settled it?" I repeated dumbly.

"Aye, and what's more, every arrangement is made. Who, think you, I have
been hob-nobbing with this last half hour?"

"It would be of much the same piece with what you've already done, had
you been so venturesome as to go even to the guard-house near Hill's
wharf," I said angrily, and his laugh was as hearty and full of joy as
if we were already come among our friends, having accomplished all that
had been in our minds.

"You are a great guesser, Luke Wright. It is to the guard-house I have
been, and if by this time those lobster backs do not believe that I am
as simple minded and jolly a Tory as ever set foot in Boston town, then
have I made the mistake of my life."

"You at the guard-house?" I cried, not able even now to understand that
which I myself had guessed at.

"Aye, and it was to have a quiet chat with the officer on duty