“The cowardly traitor!” I cried in a frenzy of rage. “He has played us false, and is bringing the bloody-backs down to take us prisoners!” I was conscious, without raising my eyes to look, that Archie gave a quick glance over his shoulder, and then, dropping the precious sack of provisions, he leaped into the skiff, pushing it off at the same moment I gathered sufficient of wit to pick up a paddle in order to shove the light craft farther out into the current. I question if either of us three lads realized that we were proving to the redcoats that our purpose was such as would not stand before the scrutiny of their officers--that we were really outlawing ourselves with but little hope of escape, when it would seem wiser if we stood boldly before them, for there was nothing in the bag nor on our persons which could give color to any story Seth Hastings might have told. However, we had begun the flight, and neither questioned the wisdom of so doing, although we knew that before sixty seconds had passed the redcoats would fire upon us. CHAPTER II THE PURSUIT As has already been said, I seized one of the paddles immediately upon jumping aboard the skiff, and when Archie Gordon shoved off the frail craft he possessed himself of the blade which lay in the bow of the boat. It is hardly necessary to say that neither of us needed urging, but began to send the light craft ahead at the fastest possible pace, and Gabriel Marion was not one whit behind us in making ready for the flight. When he would have joined his efforts to ours, however, thus making it necessary for us to work two paddles on one side with only one opposite them, I said in a tone no wise like a command, but rather as a suggestion: “You had best give all your mind to steering, Gabriel, for we shall make better speed, Archie and I, if it is not necessary for us to look to the course.” And he, mindful of others, as the dear lad ever was, whispered warningly: “Bend as low to your work as possible, for we are like to have a shower of lead when the bloody-backs shall have come up from behind the bushes.” Desperate as our strait was, and knowing full well our very lives depended upon the efforts we made at that time, I ventured to look back over my shoulder in order to learn what that traitorous Seth Hastings might be doing, and at the same time to register a vow that if God spared my life I would some day repay him in full for this piece of wanton treachery. The cur was hanging back behind the soldiers whom he had piloted, as if fearing we might make some attack and his precious skin thereby receive injury, while the redcoats were pushing on as eagerly as dogs do after a fox, unslinging their muskets as they came, and I whispered, to give greater emphasis to Gabriel’s warning: “We are like to catch it hot precious soon now, for the bloody-backs are making ready to fire.”