“They do say some callings run in the blood, Captain Dick,” he allowed. “My father was the High Sheriff of Loudoun County before the war took him off--as his gaffer was before him. But that’s neither here nor there: wait and you shall say for yourself whether this man I speak of does not need a little wholesome killing.” “Go on,” said I. “The present moment is ours, and that is all the luckiest soul alive can lay claim to. None the less, if any special danger is threatening--” “It is either past the threatening point, or else it will not reach it while I’m telling you,” said the sergeant, with a return of his stolid indifference. “If that cursed guard officer had given me but the thinnest shaving of time: five minutes more was all I asked.” “Oh, get on with your story!” I cut in impatiently. “I’m coming to it, Captain Dick; rein your nag down and go easy on the spur: then you’ll get all the speed with all the bottom. But, as I was saying: after I had found the only boat that was to be had on all this waste of river front, and had put the owner of it well choked and gagged and bound into the cellar of his own house, with half the bricks of his Dutch oven piled on the trap-door to keep him safe--” “You said nothing of all this,” I interrupted, “but no matter--let’s have the nib of it.” “There you go again, Captain, tripping me up just as I’m taking the gallop. Where was I?--oh, yes; piling the good half of the Dutch oven on the trap-door to make all safe. Well, that done, I must needs go back a ways to buy the silence of the carrot-headed Irish grog-ladler who had put me in the way of finding the hidden boat. After I had let him rob me to the tune of three guineas where he had offered for two, I thought it might be well to take a round along the shore to that Dutch schnapps house where I had been meeting Mr. Baldwin, Major Lee’s letter carrier from the camp at Tappan.” “A good thought,” I broke in. “I had forgotten that we may still have a line of communication open in that direction.” “It was a lucky thought,” Champe went on. “When I found the Mynheer, I was told that Mr. Baldwin had been seeking me since daybreak, and while I was talking to the Dutchman, in Mr. Baldwin pops again, to give me a letter fresh from Major Lee.” “Let me see it,” said I, holding out my hand; but the sergeant only laughed at me. “Do you think I should have got through that fort guard-room yonder with the letter in my pocket, Captain Dick? No, no; I took no such risks, I promise you. The paper was well chewed and swallowed before it ever saw outdoor daylight. But I can tell you well enough what it said. We’re outflanked, foot, horse, and dragoons. There was a spy in the camp at Tappan the night you got your marching orders from Mr. Hamilton. You’ll know what that spells out for us?” “I can guess; let’s have the worst of it.”