The only rift of sunshine in all the gloom was the fact that unless Sam came to grief while traveling across Long Island, we would have sent at least one report to General Putnam before thus making a dire failure of the whole venture. Well, we made sail finally, and, acting under the direction of the officer, followed close in the wake of his boat. The wind was light, being no more than the night breath which comes in over the sea at early morning, and the oarsmen were obliged to row very leisurely otherwise they would speedily have run us out of sight. The new day was just breaking when we came up with the outermost armed vessel in the fleet, and were ordered to make the sloop fast astern, a hawser having been passed to us for that purpose. “You will stay where you are until further orders,” the officer said in a pompous tone as he went up the rope-ladder hanging over the ship’s side. “The sentry has instructions to shoot without stopping to ask questions, if you make the slightest move toward sneaking off.” “We may as well stay here as under the lee of the island, so long’s we’ve lost the tide,” Abel Grant said in a despondent tone, and to us lads he added, “Come inter the cuddy, boys, an’ we’ll finish our snooze.” The marine had already seated himself in the stern-sheets, where he remained stiff as a poker, his musket held across one arm that it might be brought into use without loss of time, but otherwise looking very comfortable. “I reckon, neighbor, it won’t do any good to ask you to come down an’ jine us in our snooze, an’ by the same token neither you nor that Britisher with the gold lace are likely to say anythin’ agin our takin’ what comfort we may?” “So that you obey orders by layin’ here quietly, there is no reason why you should not do whatever you please,” the man said gruffly, and yet not without a certain tone of friendliness. “It strikes me that we can’t do anythin’ else than obey orders so long as we’re made fast to your ship,” Abel Grant replied with a laugh as if he viewed the situation in the light of a joke, and then he pulled the hatch over, thus shutting us out from view of those on the ship, as well as the marine. When this had been done, we three came close together, as far forward as possible, and Abel said in a whisper: “I’m allowin’, lads, that this ’ere is the end of our cruise. If we hadn’t been sich fools as to take all these stores aboard, then there might be some chance of carryin’ out the game of bein’ honest fishermen, providin’ Luther Stedman don’t show up. But as it is, once one of them Britishers comes below, he’ll see that we’re outfitted for a longer voyage than a day’s fishin’.” “Isn’t there somethin’ we can do to give ’em the slip?” Abe asked hopefully.