than a quarter of a mile away, Horry Sims, who lived
on the old Livingston plantation, three miles above my home, and he
appeared to be talking earnestly with a mounted officer who was in
command of mayhap a dozen men.

Now Horry Sims was a lad who might fairly have been called a friend of
mine, because we had had no angry words together such as could not
readily be wiped out; but since two or three years neither Saul nor I
chummed very much with the lad. It was believed, and with good cause,
that his father yet remained loyal to the king, and was not only ready
to make a display of love for his majesty; but appeared so willing to
show disloyalty to his neighbors that it almost amounted to eagerness.

Uncle 'Rasmus declared again and again that Master Sims had had a hand
in whatsoever of mischief had been done in Virginia, and perhaps Saul
and I might have believed the old negro had he not set down so much of
evil to the account of Horry's father that it was impossible one man
could have compassed it all.

Certain it is, however, we had come to look upon Master Sims as a rank
Tory, and, fancying his son might hold the views of his father, we two
lads, meaning Saul and me, had kept away from him, not in the way of
enmity, but rather to avoid the lad, although we treated him fairly when
he came where we were.

After all we believed we knew, it should not have seemed strange to us
that Horry Sims was talking in an apparently friendly fashion with this
officer in his majesty's service, yet we were surprised, for now was
come the time, if he felt so disposed, when it was possible for him to
do much of harm to his neighbors, and on the instant I stepped aside
from the highway that I might be screened by the bushes, beckoning my
companions to do the same.

We had thus hidden ourselves from view of those who were ahead of us, as
I believed, before they came to know that we were in the vicinity, and
Saul, thinking that now was the time when we might do Minute-Boy duty,
whispered to me:

"Shall we creep among the shrubbery until we are come where it is
possible to hear the conversation of those beyond?"

Before I could make reply, little Frenchie, shrugging his shoulders,
whispered:

"How far think you, it would be possible to go without being overheard
by some of those who wear red coats? If it was night, or if yonder men
were deaf, then might you do it."

"It is certain they would hear you before you were where it co