We discussed the situation in all its bearings as the Swiftsure plowed her way through the fog, and over a sea that, save for the long swell, was comparatively smooth, and then it occurred to Abraham that it was high time we had breakfast. “You an’ I will have to be cooks, Eph, now that Sam’s gone, for the admiral can’t be spared from the helm, so let’s get about the job.” We went below to overhaul the stores once more, and there, as a matter of course, saw our prisoner, who must have suffered not a little because of the inability to change his position ever so little, owing to the ropes with which he was completely swaddled. “I could not help hearin’ what you said, lads, but don’t fancy any harm’s done because I played the part of listener. You’ll do the trick all right, I’m thinkin’, an’ although it ain’t in any ways pleasant for me, I can’t help lookin’ at it as a neat turn. Do you count on my stayin’ here trussed up like a chicken ready for the roastin’, all the while?” I had not before thought of that part of the plan. We might be a full week in making the voyage, and surely the lobster-back, unless he turned rusty, would be suffering more than was needed. “I am wonderin’ whether my comrades would be willin’ to allow you the freedom of the ship, if you take a solemn oath not to try to get away,” I said as much for the marine’s benefit as for Abe’s, for I wanted to see how he took the suggestion. “Well, I’m countin’ myself a prisoner of war, so you can’t make anythin’ more out of me, an’ as such, fair treatment is my due. Now since there’s no way for me to better my position, why shouldn’t I do as many a better a man has before me, and surrender, lock, stock an’ barrel.” “What do you say, Abe?” I asked of my comrade, who was apparently still deeply intent on overhauling the stores. “We surely can’t keep him trussed up as he is all the while we are runnin’ ’round Long Island, an’ with his word for it, seein’ that we are three to one in case he tries to make trouble, I believe in actin’ half-way decent. Ask Abel what he thinks about it?” “I have been hearin’ all that tongue-waggin’,” the man at the helm cried in a jovial tone, “an’ reckon you can do no better than cast the lobster-back loose, after he has given his solemn word to behave himself ’cordin’ to our ideas.” “I solemnly swear to raise no hand in my own behalf in case you are overhauled by the British forces, and to make no attempt whatsoever at escaping until after you shall have delivered me into the hands of your people,” the man said gravely, and in a tone which convinced me he firmly intended to keep his word; but Abe, not being quite satisfied with the form of the parole, added: “To boil it down, you mean that you’ll swear to stick by us as if you was a comrade until we strike New York, an’ have parted at headquarters, or wheresoever we may be ordered to leave you?”