“We haven’t abandoned him; but to tell why we have come without him would be too long a story until after you have made explanations,” Sam replied, and from his tone one would have said that because of this unexpected meeting with Abraham all his anxieties had been rolled away. “My yarn is quickly spun. I went to Peter Snyder’s hut only to find it deserted. I reckon some of these miserable Tories hereabout have denounced the harmless old man as a Whig whom it would be dangerous to leave at liberty, an’ he has been carried off to prison, as was Abel Grant,” Abraham said bitterly. “Therefore it was I came here, thinkin’ to make a try at runnin’ the sloop alone, for I couldn’t hope to reach New York by way of the ferry.” “An’ have you got that whelp with you?” I cried, now having my wits about me. “Ay, that I have. Do you forget that I promised he should not give me the slip save at the expense of his life?” and Abe pushed the hatch open yet further that we might have a view of the cuddy interior. Looking down, I could see Luther Stedman, securely lashed in one of the bunks, and with the gag yet in his mouth, whereupon I asked, believing Abraham had shown himself unnecessarily cruel: “Have you kept his jaws open in that fashion all this while?” “Not a bit of it, for I’m not minded he shall go out of this world too quickly,” Abe replied with a laugh. “On hearin’ you plungin’ through the bushes, I naturally believed an enemy was near at hand, an’ therefore took good care that it should not be within his power to give an alarm. Now tell me why you are here, an’ if Abel Grant’s rescue has been abandoned?” “Come ashore,” Seth Hartley said, motioning with his thumb toward the cuddy that Abe might know we could not safely tell our story where Luther Stedman would hear it. In a twinkling the four of us were ashore again, so far from the sloop that there would be no danger the Tory could play the eavesdropper, and then I recounted in the fewest possible words all that has been set down here. It would be expressing it but feebly to say that Abraham was overjoyed. He was literally aquiver with excitement, and appeared to believe our comrade was already as good as at liberty, giving no heed whatsoever to the many chances that our plans might go awry at the cost of one or more lives. “I thought fortune was playin’ me a scurvy trick when I found old Peter’s hut deserted; but now do I see that it was a piece of good luck, else would you three have all the credit of stealin’ a prisoner from the enemy!” he cried exultantly, and I did not have it in my heart to show him how slender was the thread on which we had hung our hopes; but Seth Hartley said gravely: “It yet remains to be seen if we can get the sloop out of the creek without bein’ discovered by the enemy, an’ as the first step toward makin’ the attempt, I am goin’ to do a little spyin’ on my own account.” “What would you do?” I asked in surprise when he turned as if to leave us.