It only needed that one a trifle more curious than the others should take it into his head to explore the swamp, and our capture was inevitable. Therefore it can well be understood that our hearts were in our throats as we watched keenly every movement of the enemy, and that the mosquitoes sucked their fill of our blood, for so tensely were our nerves strung that the stings of the insects passed unheeded. I will not undertake to say how much of the day was spent before we lads were startled and angered by seeing Luther Stedman strutting to and fro amid the idle marines and soldiers. We had given no heed to anything save the possibility of Seth Hartley’s capture, and it might have been noon, or no more than nine o’clock in the morning, when Abraham gripped my arm with a force that almost caused a cry of pain, as he pointed up shore a short distance, where were two waiting boats and their crews of sailors. During a dozen seconds or more I gazed stupidly in the direction indicated, seeing nothing more than had been passing before my eyes since the moment Seth disappeared amid the foliage, and then it was as if the blood in my veins suddenly began to boil, for there stood Luther Stedman, the Tory cur who had not dared to seek revenge in a manly fashion, but had cajoled the enemy into acting as his cat’s-paw. The miserable whelp was swaggering to and fro as if in command of all the forces, and I knew he was trying to persuade those who were willing to spend the time listening to him, that he was the most important thing on the island. [Illustration: “THE MISERABLE WHELP WAS SWAGGERING TO AND FRO.”] “He has come here to crow over Abel!” Sam whispered, while Abraham’s clutch on my arm was tightened, and I pictured to myself our comrade ironed and helpless in the hold of the Good Hope, forced to listen to the gibes and taunts of that cowardly Tory. Now it was that for the moment we forgot Seth Hartley--no longer strained our ears fearing to hear that which would tell us he had been taken prisoner by his old shipmates. All our thoughts as well as our eyes, were centered on that cur whom I hoped some day to have by the throat where we two were secure from interference. “I’ll kill that whelp soon!” Abraham whispered hoarsely, and I could not restrain myself from replying: “He belongs to me, an’ you’re not to lay hands on him until I have worked my will!” It was Sam who saw a gleam of the comical in our thus wrangling as to who should pay the score we owed Luther, and he whispered as a smile overspread his face: “I’m of opinion that you fellows had better get your necks out of the halter which is well nigh around them, before you squabble over the question of servin’ Luther out. It strikes me that he has the upper hands just now, an’ is in a position to say whether he or you may be allowed to make reprisals.”