straightway I led him under the
timbers where I had been hiding, asking meanwhile how he had succeeded
in getting away from the red coats.

"It was only a case of using my legs," he cried grimly. "When a fellow
knows that he is being chased by bullets he is able to move right fast.
If you had skipped that last visit, thinking more of duty to those who
sent me than to your comrades in the company of Minute Boys, we had
gotten off without turning a hair."

"Ay, it is my fault and mine only that Archie has been made prisoner," I
cried bitterly, and Hiram asked in surprise, for until this moment he
believed the lad to be with me:

"Has he been taken?"

"It must be so, since he has not come up. He most like ran into the
very arms of the watch before realizing the danger," I replied.

"Well, here's a pretty kettle of fish," and Hiram spoke much as if the
capture of Archie would be fatal to all the plans of those who had sent
him.

"Think you we should go back and try to find the lad?" I asked
helplessly, and he cried as if in anger:

"To what end? Have you an idea that two might take him by force from
such a gang as made him prisoner?"

"We could at least go to prison with him, and not have it said we
deserted a comrade."

"Lad," Hiram began, laying his hand impressively on my arm, "before this
'ere squabble with the king has come to an end there will be many a good
lad clapped into prison, and many another sent into the next world by
means of British bullets. If we of the colonies count on gaining our
freedom we must not let the life or liberty of one person stand in our
way, however dear to our hearts that one may be."

"Then you believe we should leave the poor lad to his fate?" I asked.

"Ay, what else can be done? I came for two lads, and if so be it is
possible I will carry back at least one with me. In case that can't be
accomplished, I'll do my best to save my own skin in order to make
report. Where's your skiff?"

"Just yonder," and I pointed to a dark mass twenty feet or more away.

"'Tis time we were setting off, for no one can say how much more of
danger we may strike before crossing the water."

Hiram was making of what seemed to me a most exciting adventure, nothing
more than business, and his matter-of-fact way of looking at the
situation did more toward bringing me to my senses than any line of
argument he could have used.

I ran to the skiff, and when we had dragged her down the shore until