“We must get some idea as to where the English ships are lyin’, an’ that can only be done in the daylight. I count on followin’ down the creek until it be possible to get a view of the fleet.” “Let me go with you?” I said, for even as he announced his purpose my mind was filled with forebodings lest he come to grief at the very moment when his services were most needed. “There is no good reason why two should go, since one may the better get through unseen if, peradventure, there be enemies close at hand; besides, it is necessary you should rest after the long tramp.” “I am no more weary than you, an’ know the lay of the land better,” I replied, but yet the possibility of stretching myself out at full length in one of the bunks was most enticing. “Stay where you are,” Seth replied curtly, and then he hurried away as if afraid to prolong the conversation lest I finally carry my point. I watched the brave fellow until he was lost to view amid the foliage, and then said to Abraham: “If we are careful not to speak of our plans regardin’ Abel Grant so that the Tory may hear, I see no reason why we should not go aboard, for we can do Seth no good by remainin’ here on the shore. I’m hankerin’ after some of the sloop’s stores, to say nothin’ of gettin’ the chance to lie down on a dry bed.” Abe made reply by leading the way over the Swiftsure’s rail, and when we were on the deck heading for the cuddy, Sam checked us by asking: “How has the Tory behaved? Did he make any show of tryin’ to give you the slip?” “He was too wise for that, an’ must have been dull had he failed to understand that I would carry out the threat I made before settin’ off from Gravesend. Besides, he’s too nearly a cur to dare make a move in his own behalf when the odds are against him. A more thoroughly frightened scoundrel I have never seen. He has obeyed every order given, an’ been as meek as any lamb. Wait a bit till I take the gag out of his mouth, for I haven’t got the stomach to keep him in agony longer than is necessary.” “Is your heart growin’ soft toward him?” Sam asked scornfully, and Abe replied with a laugh: “Not a bit of it. I’m as eager as ever to see him punished for what has been done; but while he’s in such a funk of fright, it seems much like whippin’ a rabbit, to bear down very hard on him,” and as he spoke the lad went into the cuddy, where we could hear him say to the prisoner: “Remember that at the lightest squeak from you I shall carry out the threat made when you an’ I were here alone!” Then we could hear Luther reply indistinctly, as if it was difficult to speak after his jaws had been stiffened by the gag: “You know very well that I’ll do just what you tell me! You won’t let the other fellows handle me roughly, for I’m tryin’ not to give you any trouble?”