All this shows how poor an apology I was for a soldier, since, with more knowledge, I would have insisted that he give an account of himself, lest I be admitting one who would work us harm. A single glance at the stranger was sufficient to show, however suspicious I may have been of his intentions, that we had nothing to fear from him. A lad hardly as old as myself, I should say, and what with long running and terror he was so nearly used up as to be unable to stand erect, but sank to the ground, as if his legs refused longer to perform their office, immediately the gate of the stockade was closed behind him. I waited while one might have counted twenty, perhaps, for him to gain his breath, and then asked for explanations. His name was Daniel Hinchman, so he said, and he lived on the slope of the hills two miles or more to the westward of Wintermoot’s Fort. He and his sister Esther were alone in their home about an hour before sunset, when five or six Indians, whom he believed to be of the Mohawk tribe, were seen skulking about the dwelling. Yielding to his sister’s entreaties, instead of making any attempt at defending the home, he set out with her, thinking to gain the stockades at Pittstown, although there was no idea in his mind as to how it might be possible for him to cross the river. Not twenty minutes before coming within sight of our stockade, so he said, the savages suddenly burst upon him, seizing his sister, and one of them would have cut him down with a hatchet, but that he leaped aside just as the weapon was descending. Then, and I never came to know exactly how, he succeeded in outstripping them, although twice during the flight did he have good proof that the painted fiends were close behind him. That was the story, as he told it little by little, now choking with emotion as he thought of his sister’s fate, and again giving way to passion because he had not uselessly sacrificed his own life in the attempt to save her from captivity. “You will go with me in search of her, will you not?” he cried, springing to his feet, as if expecting that on the instant we would send out force sufficient to do as he wished, and half a dozen of the more impetuous ones sprang toward him as if ready to join in a pursuit which would have been as reckless as it was useless. Then, for the first time, did I find it difficult to hold myself as should the captain of a company; but it was not to be expected that these lads, who called themselves Minute Boys, could, on hearing such a story as had just been told, realize all the conditions and possibilities. Even to this day I am unable to say why it was that suddenly the true situation presented itself to me, and in reply to their clamors that the gate be opened at once, I made reply: