I had hardly more than ceased speaking before Sam was off at full speed, and, grumbling not a little, Abe went into the small cabin as if to indulge in a fit of the sulks. To prevent anything of the kind I followed, copying my comrade’s movements by throwing myself into the bunk opposite the one of which he had taken possession. It may be well to say that we had outfitted the Swiftsure in such a manner as would allow us to take long cruises in her, and not only had fair arrangements for sleeping; but there was in the small cabin a tiny stove whereon we could make into chowder or a fry, the fish we caught. More than once had we lived aboard four days without inconvenience, and much to our comfort and pleasure. At first I tried to talk with my companion about what we had seen and heard; but he was in such a humor that I soon gave it up as a bad job, and lay stretched out at full length speculating upon the possibility of serving the Cause as Minute Boys, when there came a heavy blow which caused the sloop to rock to and fro, thus telling that some person had jumped on board from the dock. Believing our visitor to be Jethro Dyker, I did not so much as raise my head until a second shock was felt, and I heard a strange voice ask: “Do you know who owns this craft?” It was Luther Stedman who replied, and you may fancy that I pricked up my ears at once, when he said: “She belongs to a scoundrelly lot of Whigs who live near my home. They are down on Bowling Green getting what comfort is possible out of the discovery of the plot, an’ are not likely to come this way until we are well off.” “The Whigs will surely make trouble for you, if it is known you had a hand in this matter, and it will be in their power to do so until the king’s troops take possession of New York.” “They haven’t many days left for their traitorous work, an’ we must take the chances in order to help our friends. It is certain some one who had been trusted with all the secrets, has turned informer, an’ no one can say how soon more arrests will follow.” “Will your father be on the lookout for us?” “If he finds our man at the place agreed upon. It may be, however, that the mischief has already been done, an’ Master Campbell is a prisoner with the others, in which case we can leave this sloop at the rendezvous an’ go our way.” Here was a fine state of affairs, and he would have been a dummy who could not understand from what had already been said, the whole situation. I believed this “Master Campbell” of whom they spoke, was a ship-owner whose office was near to Peck Slip. I had often heard him spoken of as a sneaking Tory who was willing to do the Cause whatsoever of harm he might, and would not begrudge his dollars if they might aid in riveting upon us the king’s chains more firmly.