s indeed
he had good reason to be. All us lads, even though we were not
experienced in warfare, knew that during the time of siege it would be
next to impossible for any person to make his way into the American camp
from the village, because the outer works would be heavily manned night
and day, and every red-coated soldier be on the alert to prevent
information being carried to the so-called rebels.

In the meantime we must hide in the besieged town, holding our prisoner
with us; but now that the British army was drawn more closely together,
and we as a matter of course more nearly surrounded by the soldiers, did
it seem a matter of impossibility we could remain undiscovered any very
great length of time.

In addition to this danger, which it seemed to me was so great as to
overshadow all else, was the fact that while we were in hiding we must
contrive in some way to supply ourselves with food, and how might that
be done save at the expense of revealing the fact that old Mary's cabin
had other occupants than the decrepit negro and a lad who had come to
care for him?

Before the siege was begun it needed but little proof to convince the
king's officers that whosoever was charged with being a spy was guilty;
and now that the village was invested, with the Americans pressing hotly
for every advantage, the lightest whisper would be sufficient to bring
one who had spoken or moved indiscreetly, to the gallows.

As I brooded over these things it seemed to me as if we were already
within the shadow of the valley of death, with no way of escape save
over the dark river into the Beyond.

Certain it is that even Morgan shared in the forebodings which I have
here set down, otherwise he would not have taken the chances of
remaining hidden in the cabin until midnight and propose then to venture
his life as the price of being discovered while striving to creep
through the lines.

He himself had said that this was the last opportunity, poor though it
might prove, to get word to our people, and he must also have realized
all the dangers that would menace us when another day was come and the
king's soldiers settled themselves down to the task of holding their
enemy in check.

That which made the situation seem to me more painful, more intolerable,
was the fact that there was no longer any possibility we could be of
service to the Cause by thus remaining in York; yet we were bound to
stay for the very good reason that there was