“Ay, so they will, an’ how much better off would Sam be if we were in the hands of the enemy? The whole amount of the story, as I look at it, is that we must put him out of our reckonin’ entirely, an’ a right good job it will be so far as he’s concerned. Allow that he got into New York safe, which ain’t any sure thing, there’s big chances agin his gettin’ back to Long Island, an’ even if he succeeds, it may be a week before he shows up. This ’ere business, Ephraim Lyttle, is war, an’ however fast comrades we may be with a fellow, his safety must not stand in the way of our duty.” He would have been a simple who did not realize the force of Abel Grant’s reasoning, and without spending very much time in thought I understood that, so far as our movements were concerned, it must be as if Sam had never had an existence. We were bound to get back among our friends, if possible, and to do other than had been suggested was, to my mind, the same as voluntarily going aboard one of the British ships as prisoners. “It will be a big thing,” I said half to myself, “if we show up at home with a prisoner, an’ as soon as the fog lifts I’m allowin’ we had better make an attempt.” “We are making it now, lad,” Abel said with another grin; but this time it did not irritate me, and Abraham laughed aloud in glee because I had not understood that we were already on the voyage before my opinion was asked. “I’m headin’ her by guesswork along the line of the island, an’ that’s as nigh as any man could come to it in this smother, however good a navigator he might be. It’s a case of trustin’ to luck, with the only chance agin us that we may make more to the eastward than is needed.” A grand scheme it was, this of Abel Grant’s, and I pictured to myself the credit which we would gain, if, after having been captured by the frigate, we showed our heels, and in addition brought away the man who had been set as guard over us. Well, we had our time of crowing then, even though the fact had not been accomplished, and so enjoyed ourselves with such counting of our chickens before they were hatched, that all thought of any immediate danger from the Britishers faded from my mind. Abel Grant counted it as positive that none of the enemy’s ships would be moving while the fog was so dense; therefore our chances of coming upon one while it was hove to, or at anchor, was mighty slim, and such a mishap it should be possible for us to avoid. If the wind held favorable the cruise would not be an exceeding long one, and, so far as I could make out, the greatest risk we ran was in failing to arrive in time to be of service, for surely after such a force had assembled in the lower bay there could be no question but that the Britishers intended to give speedy battle.