he
rear of me was Josiah Coburn, one of Jim Freeman's party.

Now it must be understood that we could see nothing; the darkness was
so intense that one could almost feel it, and yet we proposed to
blunder in upon enemies who would probably shoot without warning in
the direction of the slightest suspicious noise.

It was not a cheerful adventure, and I hold myself well excused for
being frightened, so that I followed the leader's orders implicitly to
the best of my ability.

Just at this point, when we were trembling with suppressed excitement,
and, as in my case, fear, Darius remembered that he had not unlocked
the outer door in order that Jim might hide within the building, and
we were forced to stand at the foot of the stairs while he groped his
way back to remedy the neglect.

It seemed to me that we remained there hardly daring to breathe, a
full half-hour, although I suppose now that it was no more than five
minutes, and then our leader was returned.

Pushing his way to the head of the line once more, we began the ascent
of the stairs, each fellow stepping cautiously; but despite all our
efforts each board sent forth loud protesting creaks as we bore our
weight upon it, and the only wonder was that the Britishers did not
awaken sooner.

The noise we made in ascending the stairs seemed to me loud enough to
alarm the inmates of the house near at hand, and, therefore, I was
neither startled nor surprised when some person at one end of the
second floor, cried out:

"Who is there? What's the row?"

"Can't you give your shipmates the same show for a watch below that
you've got?" Darius asked with a regular deep-sea note in his voice,
and this it was that gave us a slight advantage, since the men did not
open fire.

"How did you get here?" the same voice asked, and again the old man
answered as if speaking to shipmates:

"The bloomin' swab that piloted you here, gave us the course. Where
are you?"

"Over here," and the voice came from the westerly end of the building,
thus showing that we must walk the entire length of the mill before
coming upon our adversaries. "What ship are you from?"

My heart stood still as this question was asked, for I knew only too
well that Darius was wholly ignorant as to what British vessels had
entered the bay; but the old sailor never hesitated, as he replied:

"What other than the flag-ship, you lubber?"

"No, I'll be burned if you are!" the man cried loudly, and I heard