same as come to your death
already, therefore it was useless to raise a finger in your behalf while
there were so many hundred people near at hand needin' assistance."

"Who then did you expect would come to our aid?" I asked, and Jacob
replied, with what sounded very like a chuckle of satisfaction:

"Who else, save the Minute Boys of the Mohawk Valley?"

But for the rawhide ropes which held me so cruelly immovable, I would have
leaped to my feet in astonishment; as it was, I involuntarily gave so
violent a start as to cause myself considerable pain, and then asked, in
great heat:

"Why do you play upon our hopes, so lately raised, by declaring that the
company of lads is here?"

"Not a bit of play about it, Noel," Jacob replied, in so cheery a tone
that my heart became wondrously light. "Four an' twenty of our company,
with John Sammons still acting as captain, are within an hundred yards of
this lodge, an', what is more, we count on takin' you away with us before
another day shall dawn."

Then it was as if Jacob believed he had satisfied our curiosity so much as
was necessary at such a time, for without delay he moved from one to the
other, deftly cutting the rawhide which held us motionless, and three
minutes had not elapsed from the time he first showed himself inside the
lodge until our limbs were freed.

We were no longer bound, but yet remained helpless. I could move neither
hand nor foot, struggle as I might. It was as if my limbs were dead while
my body yet remained alive; but Jacob, who had in his wild plan considered
just such a probability, set about chafing my arms and legs until the
feeling began to return.

He performed the same office for Sergeant Corney, I aiding in the task
before it was finished; but a good ten minutes elapsed before we had
command of our limbs, and then it was that even Master Sitz began to
believe it might be possible for us to escape from the encampment.

While he worked over us, Jacob, understanding that we were being literally
overwhelmed with curiosity regarding his movements during the long
absence, explained that he was but a short distance from the cave when we
were made prisoners, and at first almost gave way to despair because of
what seemed to him the hardest stroke which an ill fortune could deliver.

During that night he kept us in view, until learning that we would not be
put to death immediately, and then the lad searched in his mind for some
plan which migh