Within the time it would take a tongue-tied man to count ten, we had hustled Horry Sims from the southerly corner of Master Bemis's shop around to the rear, where was the shed of which I had told little Frenchie, and again did fortune favor us, for no horses were stabled there, and the rude structure was so nearly filled with rubbish of all kinds that it would have been impossible to have sheltered even a mule beneath the crazy roof. We entered with our prisoner, Pierre leading the way grasping Horry by the coat-collar, while I brought up the rear with my arm around the Tory's neck so that I might keep a hand clapped over his mouth. "Shut the door, and, if it be possible, bar it so that no one may come without giving due warning," little Frenchie said to Saul, and my cousin obeyed as meekly as a well whipped cur obeys his master. There was a crazy affair made of puncheon planks which had served as door, but it hung loosely on its hinges, and I question whether it had been used for many a year; but Saul was by this time so intent on doing whatsoever he might to repair the mischief wrought while his temper had the best of him, that it was as if he had the strength of two men. While Pierre was looking about him trying to plan something in his mind, my cousin had the barrier closed and fastened with four or five short lengths of logs. It was not done so securely but that one from the outside might force an entrance, yet it would require a minute or two to effect such purpose, and this was what I fancy little Frenchie counted on when he gave the command. "Over yonder," he said, pointing toward the end of the shed where were several casks and some old boxes, "is the place to which we must take him." "How long do you count on keeping him there?" I could not refrain from asking, and Pierre replied promptly, thus showing that he had a plan thoroughly mapped out in his mind: "Only until night, when we must get him to old Mary's cabin where he can be held prisoner." I was astounded, to use a mild term, by the idea that we were to hold this Tory a prisoner for any length of time. Here we were, shut up within the British lines, in danger at any moment of being haled before some high mightiness of an officer to answer to the charge of being rebels, or of being in the town with evil intent, and we took it upon ourselves to capture a lad who stood to a certain degree in the favor of our enemies! It was to my mind at that instant, and is even now, as reckless a bit of business as can well be conceived. Why we did not take to our heels at the first moment when Saul gave way to his anger, leaving Uncle 'Rasmus to his fate, and shake the dust of the town of York from our feet, I cannot understand. Yet I am wrong in saying this last, for it was Pierre Laurens who held us where we belonged, and who proved that if there were Minute Boys in York Town, he stood above them head and shoulders as their commander.