“Take it easy, lads; we are free from that squad at least, and if it so be the king has not in South Carolina men who can shoot with truer aim, then are we likely to live to a ripe old age, so far as danger from leaden missiles is concerned.” It was high time the race had come to an end, for I was so nearly spent with the frantic efforts that it is a question whether I could have swung the paddle a dozen times more, even though knowing that my life depended upon the effort, and Archie Gordon was in no better physical condition than I, seeing which, Gabriel came amidships with his steering paddle, continuing to force the light craft ahead as he said cheerily: “Lie back and take it easy, lads, for I can well do considerably more than stem this current,” and he made his words good, paddling with rare skill; it is no easy matter to keep a craft in the true direction with but one blade, for the best of boatmen will send her yawing from side to side however much they may struggle to prevent it. Archie and I sat in the bottom of the skiff limp as rags, now the excitement was over, breathing like broken-winded horses, but with a hymn of thanksgiving in our hearts that we had escaped from those who would have sent us to that which was worse than death itself--the prison-ships; and when it was possible for me to speak so that the words could be understood by those who heard, I said, as if believing myself the son of a prophet: “Who shall say now that we lads may not be able to work benefit to the Cause, if at the very outset of our attempt we have been able to thwart the plan of a traitor while we ourselves were the same as unarmed and caught in a trap? Surely after arriving where we may be put on the footing of soldiers, it will be possible for us to do men’s work.” Well was it for me that we mortals are denied the privilege of looking into the future, for if I had known that one of us three lads was to meet a treacherous death before we were well started in our work as “Minute Boys,” then might I have turned my back in dismay upon the task, and the aid which we were enabled to give the Cause would have been lacking at the very time when it was of greatest avail. However, it is not for me to look forward while setting down these poor accounts of what we lads of South Carolina did, and although the grief is as fresh in my heart now as on that terrible day, I must strive to repress it in order that that which I am trying to tell shall run on in proper sequence of events. “We had best not crow too soon or too loudly,” Archie Gordon said grimly. “Although we may travel from here to Snow’s Island without further difficulty, and then be able to accomplish all we propose to do, there will be no good reason for congratulations until we have served out that cowardly traitor, who, without provocation, would have compassed our death.”