"Have no fear for me, lad. I know what I'm about, and take my word for it that I'm not running into the least little bit of danger. Listen for two raps on the shutter when I come back, which will be within an hour." He was gone even as he spoke, and all I could do toward repairing what I believed to be serious mischief, was to lock and bar the door after him, saying to myself that if he failed to come back as he had promised, and aught suspicious was heard, I would insist that Archie and Harvey join me in flight, for then would Master Lord's house be the one place in Boston town where lurked the greatest danger for us. "Where is Hiram?" Archie asked when I descended the ladder alone. "Gone out of doors," was my sulky reply. "Out of doors!" both lads cried as with one voice. "In the daytime?" "Aye, that he has, and verily it seems as if good fortune has turned his head." "If he depends upon that pass in my name as a safeguard while he wanders the streets, I'll answer for it the tables will be turned before you have time to choose among the prisoners at the Bridewell," Job Lord said vindictively, and his words were not needed to make my heart heavy, for already had I come to believe that after all the good work he had done, our imprisonment, perhaps our death, could be laid directly at his door. CHAPTER XVII HIRAM'S VENTURE The other lads were equally disturbed in mind regarding what seemed to be a foolish venturing forth on the part of Hiram. After matters had come about so mysteriously in our favor when we had given up all hope of being able to succeed in the undertaking, it seemed much like flying in the face of Providence to take any risks that were not absolutely necessary. We would be bound to incur so much of danger in order to make an attempt at releasing Silas, that to put all this on the hazard, simply to satisfy what I believed only a whim, was to my mind little less than criminal folly. You can fancy we were not heartened after Job Lord had spoken so decidedly regarding the certainty that Hiram would speedily come to grief, because the pass he believed to be of so much value could avail nothing when he was come upon by the patrol. I fancied it was possible to see on that double-faced villain's countenance joy because of what was being done, and there could be no question but that he firmly believed Hiram had, as people say, overturned his dish of porridge. It may be simply because I was in such a wretched frame of mind that I imagined it; but for the time it was to me a fact that Seth had regained a goodly portion of his courage on seeing Master Lord so well pleased, and even found his tongue once more, saying vindictively, even as had the man who hoped to have betrayed us, that we were about come to the end of our rope, when he would have his turn.