It was easy enough while we lay at anchor within an hundred feet of the shore, to say that we would sail down past the British fleet in the night; but to do it was quite another matter, and this we understood more clearly the longer we speculated upon it. Seth Hartley had spoken as if believing we could make the venture more readily because the enemy’s vessels had come up near to Governor’s Island; but as I pondered over the matter it seemed to me that the danger was increased thereby. We would most likely find the war vessels in a cluster close by the town, and if peradventure we were able to pass them, then would lie in our path all the transports and store-ships, any one of which must have on board two or three guns at the very least, the smallest of which would be sufficient to sink us offhand. It did not seem to me possible we could make the passage, because the enemy would be on the alert, and our sloop was not so small but that she would attract sufficient attention to result in her being overhauled. It was not probable the Britishers would allow any craft to sail through their fleet without knowing exactly where she was bound and what her purpose, therefore would we be stopped, so I figured, even if they failed of recognizing us as the sloop which had escaped from the frigate, and this last seemed more than possible. Luther Stedman and his friend had given information concerning us when their desire for revenge was slighter than after we had taken one of them a prisoner for the second time. Luther had then spent considerable time and labor to bring us to grief, and how much more earnestly would he have worked to accomplish it again. As I figured it, he had taken especial pains to spread information concerning us throughout all the fleet, and the proof that he would strain every effort was shown in his attack upon us while we lay off the ferry stairs. Then again, suppose we should succeed in what seemed well nigh like the impossible, and get into the lower bay, what could that effect? Abel Grant had landed near our homes on the Wallabout, and if captured, as appeared to be the fact, it must have been in that vicinity, therefore to get any trace of him we would be forced to go entirely across the island, taking all the chances of running upon the Tories, who by this time must be swarming there like angry bees. The longer I thought of Seth Hartley’s plan the more impossible of execution did it appear to be, and I looked around upon my comrades to learn if their courage remained unshaken. I fancied it was possible to see an expression of growing distrust on Abraham’s face while he was apparently studying the situation, and I asked with a laugh which had in it more of nervousness than mirth: “Well, Abe, what say you to runnin’ the gauntlet of the fleet in the Swiftsure, an’ afterward, if so be the little craft remains afloat, go up across the island, which by this time must be literally crowded with Tories and red-coats?”