It was information which would sadden every friend of the Cause, and I asked myself who among our acquaintances could be trusted when such as Master Dyker had proved false. We were yet silent and thoughtful, sadly turning over in our minds that which Abraham had said, when Seth Hartley returned, and I fancied there was an expression of satisfaction on his face. “I believe we can get out of here, when the time comes, with but little trouble,” he said as he came over the rail. “The English fleet have gone further up the harbor, an’ I question if we shall run across a single ship between here an’ where the Good Hope is anchored.” “Then why shouldn’t we begin to warp out of the creek at once?” Sam asked eagerly. “It might make the biggest kind of a difference in case we could start at sunset, an’ if we don’t begin to move the sloop now, we won’t be on our course till near to midnight.” I looked for Abe to make reply, believing he would take sides with Sam in the matter; but much to my surprise he said, before it was possible for any one else to speak: “We can’t afford to take any chances, an’ there’s no knowin’ who might see us if we worked down to the mouth of the creek. With so much at stake we must exercise every caution, an’, as I look at the matter, we’d best stay where we are until night has come.” “In that you are right,” Seth Hartley added emphatically. “We shall have no trouble in workin’ down between midnight an’ daylight, however light the wind. Perhaps it may be well if we don’t succeed in gettin’ there to-night, since the venture is not to be made until another day has passed.” “You fellows who have been travelin’ so far had best turn in an’ get what rest you can so’s to be ready for a long spell of wakefulness,” Abraham interrupted. “I’ve been spendin’ the greater portion of my time in slumber, an’ will stand watch.” This proposition was much to my liking, for I understood that by getting into the best possible bodily condition we would be the same as making preparations for the task before us, and I went below without further parley. In order that we might get all the comfort to be had on the sloop, Abraham dragged his prisoner out on the floor, that one of us might have the use of his berth, and within half an hour we who had just come up from Gravesend were sleeping soundly, and, perhaps, noisily. When Abe awakened us it yet lacked half an hour or more of sunset; but he had already prepared a supper that seemed, after our short commons of flinty biscuit, like a real feast, and explained that he believed we ought to have time to eat leisurely so we might put a substantial lining to our stomachs.