“There is no good reason why you add to your folly, if folly it was, for such mischief as Seth may be willing to do has already been brought about. Yet, Rufus, I cannot agree with you that the lad would do such a thing. Why should he betray us who never did him any wrong? Why should he be willing to deliver into prison-ships boys like us, when it cannot benefit him one jot? It is no crime that, because of some weakness, he is unable to look a fellow squarely in the face. There are many of us who have mannerisms disagreeable to others, and yet we would feel aggrieved if they were set down, as you account Seth’s, like actual crimes.” I began to grow ashamed of myself under Gabriel’s quiet and convincing reasoning, and just then Archie Gordon joined us, bearing on his shoulder a well-filled sack which told how successful he had been in his search for provisions. “Huzza for Archie!” I cried, forgetting for the moment all that which had caused me uneasiness of mind. “How does it chance that you were allowed to come through the streets with such a burden?” “It is neither more nor less than good fortune, William Rufus,” the lad replied laughingly, and then, as if it was necessary I prove myself a simple in every possible way on that day, I took offence at the name he had put upon me, spending many a precious moment trying to convince him it might be dangerous sport to thus jest at what I had almost come to believe was my misfortune. In this senseless manner I must have spent ten minutes or more, heeding not the fact that it was Archie who had brought us the provisions of which we stood sorely in need. No one can say how long my foolish tongue might have argued on the subject, had not Gabriel Marion, cool-headed lad that he was, insisted we could settle all disputes while paddling up the river, but Archie cried, as I ran toward the skiff with the intention of leaping in: “We have yet to wait for Seth! It may be he is having better fortune than either of us, and we will set out on our journey as well equipped as if having spent a week in preparation.” “There he comes now,” Gabriel said, pointing up Reid Street, and as he spoke he stepped aboard the skiff in readiness to push off. I was so deeply occupied with the offence committed by Archie in calling me William Rufus, that I did not follow with my eyes the direction indicated by Gabriel’s outstretched finger, but leaped aboard the craft, having no more than cleared the gunwale when Archie cried in an accent of terror: “He is coming; but pursued by four redcoats!” Then it was that all the fear which had possessed me a short time previous returned with greater force, for instead of believing the boy was chased by the soldiers, I understood as clearly as if he himself had shouted to apprise us of the fact, that his delay had been caused solely in order he might give information of that which we would do.