But few words were necessary to enlist him in this scheme. Although a full year younger than Gabriel and I, he was possessed with the same fever to exact reprisals from the foe as were we, and without waiting until all our half-formed plans should have been detailed, he announced his purpose of joining us, declaring that he was not only ready to set out immediately, but happened to know where we might find a skiff which would be suited to our purpose. While we were talking with him, Seth Hastings, a lad of seventeen years or thereabouts, came up, and I would have held my peace while he lingered near by, because of ever having distrusted the lad. His shifty eyes, which refused to look squarely upon one; his love of telling a lie when the truth would have served him better; the fact that he would betray one playmate, if opportunity arose, to another in the hope of provoking some small quarrel--all these things combined to make me suspicious of the lad even when he spoke most fairly, and I would almost as soon have gone to the red-coated soldiers with the plan as to have confided it to Seth Hastings. But Gabriel Marion, who could never see aught of evil in any person save those who wore the king’s livery, welcomed him heartily as he came up, and without waiting to learn if Archie and I were of the mind to enlist this possible recruit, at once acquainted him with the plan, urging that he enroll himself with us as Minute Boys of South Carolina. It may have been that I was overly suspicious, for perhaps at that moment Seth had no idea of playing the traitor to those whom he called comrades; but I fancied there was in his eyes a gleam of--I know not what to call it, yet the look which was in those shifty orbs disquieted me, and I would have given much had it been possible to recall Gabriel’s incautious words. They had been spoken, however; Seth Hastings was in possession of our secret, which, if known to the British commander or any of his staff, would have consigned us instantly to the reeking, filthy prison-ships where so many brave hearts were languishing nigh unto death. He knew all our plan, and it was too late to draw back. While Gabriel argued with him as to why he should join us, I cast about in my mind as to how we might hold him true--how it would be possible to prevent him from betraying us before we had set off on the journey, and therefore it was that by the time Seth had agreed to make one of what we hoped would soon be a company of Minute Boys, I proposed that we start immediately, not waiting for more recruits lest opportunity for leaving the city be lost. “But we have neither arms nor provisions,” Archie Gordon objected, and it must be remembered that immediately after the surrender of Charleston squads of red-coated soldiers had marched up this street and down that searching every house for weapons and ammunition, seizing upon everything of such nature as could be found.