"To carry the message with which the Jerseyman entrusted us." "But that is impossible now Hunt had found us out." "Why do you say that? How is it that the meeting with such as Abel Hunt can prevent us from doing the work of Minute Boys when it lays at our hand?" "But how will you leave this town of York? When we go to ask permission to take a boat for the purpose of fishing, you can depend upon it he will be near at hand, and if he has not already done so, will then reveal all he knows concerning me." "Suppose we don't give him that opportunity?" Pierre said thoughtfully. "Suppose we neglect to ask permission from any one to go out to get fish enough to prevent ourselves from starving?" "How then will you go? Surely you are not so venturesome as to take to the water on a course to the right of Gloucester Point, when by so doing we must pass the king's vessels? The _Charon_ is anchored directly on the course we would need to pursue in order to carry out the instructions which have been given." "And she would still be there if we waited until daylight, and then asked permission from some of these swaggering officers of the king who have no love for any one save themselves." I was mystified by Pierre's words, although surely by this time I should have come to understand that his odd speech betokened the perfecting of a plan, and I remained silent as if believing he would make sport of me, until two or three minutes had elapsed when Abel Hunt could no longer be seen in the gloom. Then it was that little Frenchie suddenly stood upright, and, pointing to a skiff hauled up on the shore not more than thirty feet from where he lay, asked sharply: "Have you the courage, Fitz Hamilton, to embark with me in yonder craft, and go down to the Gloucester shore where we may remain hidden amid the foliage until it is sufficiently light for us to make out whether any one comes looking for a messenger from the Jerseyman?" "Meaning to brave the Britishers?" I cried in something very like alarm. "Meaning to carry the message which it is necessary should be delivered, and without heed whatsoever to these gentry who wear red coats." "I have the courage, Pierre," I said, after a time of hesitation; "but have we the right to desert Uncle 'Rasmus while he must for his own sake hold Horry Sims a prisoner, and when he has nothing whatsoever to eat or drink in the cabin? Surely it would be deserting him for us to take boat now and leave the village, if peradventure we can do so, for there are an hundred chances against our being able to return, and only one in our favor. It is the same as abandoning Uncle 'Rasmus." "And if it were abandoning him, and Saul, and every one whom we know, yet would I say it was our duty to go because the Jerseyman, expecting his message to be delivered, will give no further heed to sending it into the American lines."