Because Archie made no response I became alarmed, and crept around the room here and there, forcing each lad to give me his name as I touched him, until the cold sweat of fear broke out on my forehead, for it seemed as if the lad had been spirited away in some uncanny fashion, or was suddenly come to his death. “Search for him everywhere!” I whispered hoarsely. “He _must_ be here, and unless some great evil has befallen him, would answer us.” Then we crept around the room, feeling with our hands every inch of the floor until we were come together in the middle of the apartment with a terror upon us so great that I at least was unable to reason intelligently. It was Jacob Breen who gave the solution to the riddle, and a wondrous sense of relief was mine at realizing that there was nothing superhuman about this absence of our comrade. “He has followed Gabriel’s example, saying to himself that if one could leave this building, two might succeed,” Jacob Breen whispered hesitatingly, as if fearing we might make sport because he entertained such an idea. “It was a brave thing for the lad to do, and now are the chances doubled that our people will get information of what has happened here, for, knowing that Gabriel counted on trying to find General Marion, Archie will set off in the hope of coming upon Captain Horry’s force,” I said, remembering that faint sound which I had heard and attributed to a mouse in the wall. I believed Jacob was right in his conjecture, and pressing close to the window, I listened once more with that painful intentness which gets upon one’s nerves, so sorely did I fear each instant lest I hear the sound of a shot that would be the death-knell of my friend. When perhaps another hour had passed, and it seemed certain a second of our party had escaped to carry the tidings, Jared Green said to me: “If two lads can leave this place without being discovered, why may not all, provided we go one at a time?” and I replied with an irritation born of nervousness: “Because two have succeeded in accomplishing what seemed to have been the impossible, there is no reason why others may successfully make the same venture.” “But a third has every chance of having equal fortune,” the lad persisted, and I said with as much of authority as it was possible to assume: “The venture must not be tried again, for the next one who went out might be captured or killed, when the lives of all would be forfeited. Gabriel left me in command, and I charge you to remain where you are.” “It will make little difference whether we are captured now, or in the morning, for surely you don’t count that we shall be able to remain here undetected until the Britishers have left?” Jacob persisted, whereat I cried irritably: