It was the same as if he had told us to enter the building, and we did so, he leading the way to one of the upper rooms, where, by looking above the tops of the trees, we could have full view of the highway for half a mile or more in either direction. We had hardly more than stationed ourselves at the one window in this room, which was used for storing comparatively useless odds and ends, when the horseman whose coming had been announced rode into view. A red-coated trooper, who came on at a leisurely pace as if there was no reason for making a cautious advance, pulled his horse in at the private entrance of the plantation as if thoroughly familiar with the place. Advancing to the steps where we lads had so lately been standing, he dismounted, allowing his steed to graze wheresoever he would, and threw himself at full length upon the veranda as if awaiting the arrival of comrades. “Now is the chance to take a prisoner,” Jacob Breen whispered excitedly. “It would be the simplest thing in the world to go down and capture him.” “And by so doing take the chances of giving an alarm to whosoever may be following,” Gabriel replied. “It is our business to learn as much as possible, rather than carry back an unimportant prisoner.” “But suppose there are twenty-five or fifty following him; what then?” Jacob asked, and on the instant there flashed into my mind the thought that we had willingly entered a trap which had not been baited. Having ascended to the top of the house, we would be held prisoners beyond a peradventure if any considerable force came up, and then all the commander’s plans would fail if that which we knew could not be imparted to Captain Horry or General Marion. I was about to give words to these thoughts when I saw by the expression which suddenly came over Gabriel’s face that he also realized the folly of which we had been culpable. “We must find a way out by the rear of the house without his knowing of our having been here,” he said a moment later, and at the same instant Archie Gordon whispered excitedly, as he pointed out of the window: “See! Yonder must be the advance of the entire force which has been sent against us!” Then it was we could see coming up the road squads of horsemen, riding without military formation, and in considerable numbers, the foremost of whom turned in at the road leading to the house. There was no time to be lost indeed, even if we yet had an opportunity of escaping, and immediately Gabriel led the way out of the room to the only hallway by which one could descend to the lower floor. He stopped suddenly on the first stair, however, for the man who had been lounging on the veranda entered the building, as he shouted to those riding up the path: “Here are good quarters, save that there are none to welcome us!”