Champe saw the force of this, as I was sure he would; and if his teeth were chattering when we set about breaking into the house, why so were mine for that matter, and I protest it was from the raw chill of the morning and not from fear. Our breaking and entering was easily accomplished. A window in a rear room gave to the cautious prying of Champe’s saber point; and from that room, which, as I knew, was used for stores, to the lower corridor, or entrance hall, we came by forcing the lock of the communicating door. I half expected to find an aide or an orderly sleeping in this lower hall, if, indeed, there should not be a sentry, awake and on guard. But there was neither nor none of these. The hall was deserted and silent; and when we drew the curtains of the side-lights at the front, there was no sentry outside, save the one whose footfalls we could faintly hear as he marched back and forth before Sir Henry Clinton’s quarters. Here again, then, fortune appeared to be favoring us most astoundingly. It was almost unbelievable that the man we meant to seize and carry off was sleeping quietly, and wholly at our mercy, in the room above. But, unless his guard was in the room with him, there was none in the house; of this we made sure as a condition precedent to our creeping silently up the stairs. Before the closed door of the office-bedroom I gave the sergeant final whispered instructions; this after we had softly tried the door and found, to our greater astonishment, that it was unlocked. “When we are in, you will follow me, Sergeant; I know the placing of the furniture and where the bed stands. The word is silence, absolute; once awakened, Arnold will fight--no man more desperately. But you know this as well as I. At the bedside you will fall upon him and bind him, trusting to me to keep him quiet with the rapier point. Do your work quickly and thoroughly, and use this door-key in your knotted handkerchief for a gag. Are you ready?” “Ready and waiting, Captain Dick,” was the muttered reply; and we swung the door slowly on its hinges. Though there were ample windows in both ends of it, the long room was dark. But now our eyes had become somewhat accustomed to these inner glooms, and we could make out the dim shapes of the furnishings nearest to us; the writing-table, the chairs, the clumsy, cushioned settle drawn out before the cold hearth. Groping our way by slow inchings along the opposite wall, we finally came to the alcove holding the bed, a high, canopied contrivance of the older fashion, with heavy curtains to shut it in. I could have sworn I heard the traitor’s gentle breathing when I laid a cautious hand on the curtains to draw them aside. “Now!” I whispered; and as the curtains parted, Champe sprang like a tiger through the opening and I felt quickly for the man’s face on the pillows to guide the rapier’s point for the silencing.