“Tell us what you know,” I cried impatiently. “Don’t stand there mouthing your words as if they were sweet to the taste.” “It may be that in our eagerness to pay off scores with Seth Hastings I have jumped at conclusions and overleaped the mark; but of that you shall decide,” Jacob said hurriedly. “When we were come to the plantation and had described to Master Davis how easily we sent the Tories flying, he declared we deserved a rich reward for bringing such tidings. He gave it by telling us that at daybreak this very morning the smith, Master Reuben Rowe, had come to him declaring that a party of boys had the same as accused him of being in league with enemies to the Cause. Now it seems that Master Rowe had no intention of proving he was a patriot, but wanted rather to make it plain he was holding neutral, as he ever claimed to do. He told Master Davis that hearing the noise of firing during the night from the direction of the old negro’s shack, he set off to learn what might have been done; he was coming up the trail when we appeared, and stepped aside in the thicket lest we do him injury. Shortly after he came within sight, while he himself was hidden by the foliage, of five men and a boy, all armed and making their way cautiously toward the highway. These he followed until they struck across the country, avoiding the Davis plantation, going in the direction of Tarcote, and it was his belief that, having learned of Colonel Tyne’s encampment at that place, they were counting on joining him.” “Therefore you see,” Jared interrupted, thinking it was proper he should bear his full share of the conversation, “that the lad we are so eager to lay hand on may be near about. Certain it is he was in the negro’s shack when we rode up so foolishly, and it is equally true the villain must go somewhere to find the king’s friends, for by this time he does not dare make himself known to any who serve the Cause. Jacob and I have almost come to believe that even at this moment Seth Hastings and his four Tory companions may be travelling this way all ignorant of the fact that our people are in possession of the encampment. A rich joke would it be if the scoundrel walked in here believing he might find those who would give him shelter and food because of his treason.” I was aflame on the instant. I could see nothing untrue or strained in this story of Master Rowe’s that he was anxious to prove he had not given aid to the Tories, because, once suspected of so doing, Master Davis would have made reprisals beyond question. Therefore it was I believed his story implicitly. Perhaps because I wanted to believe such a thing, it seemed to me positive Tarcote was Seth Hastings’s destination, and unless he ran across some of those whom we had driven out of the encampment, then was there good chance he might come on all ignorant of what had taken place, until getting a glimpse of us who were in possession.