t a fellow may cross the lines
without bringing down a shower of bullets upon him, each of us three
will set out at full speed, regardless of the danger, for our own
friends may fire upon us ignorant of our intentions. We must get word to
the American forces before the last of my Lord Cornwallis's army has
passed out of Gloucester."

"But how shall we know when the Britishers have been drawn from the
fortifications?"

"By watching them, lad!" Pierre cried eagerly. "By watching them! Do you
count that from this moment on we shall do anything save watch them? I
would almost be willing to let Abel Hunt go free so we might be
unhampered, for while the red-coats are getting ready to retreat they
will give little heed to any information such as he can give them. But
it may be well to hold him until night-fall, and then the three of us,
each going in a different direction, must keep sharp watch over all that
is being done, ready to make a break for our lines at the first moment
we are certain the enemy has fled."

The lad's tone, equally with his words, was well calculated to stir the
blood, and as I saw in the future a possibility that Silver Heels might
yet be reclaimed by me, I ceased to mourn her as being lost forever, but
gave all my thoughts to the triumph which awaited our people.

We were talking loudly, having ceased to be cautious in speech because
the roar of the guns drowned all other sounds, and were giving noisy
voice to our joy when Uncle 'Rasmus suddenly cried from his seat at the
window, where he had stood watch, so to speak, all the dreary time we
had been in the besieged village:

"Hol' on dar, chillun; hol' on dar! Here comes a crowd ob red-coats!"

"Coming for us?" Saul cried nervously, and I am ashamed to say that the
suggestion caused my knees to tremble, even though had I stopped to
reflect upon the matter I would have understood that at such a time as
this, when he was in sore straits, my Lord Cornwallis would not trouble
himself about three boys and an old negro who were where they could not
do him harm however much they so desired.

As a matter of course we crowded to the window near where Uncle 'Rasmus
sat, and there saw a group of nine men, powder-stained and evidently
wearied from work in the trenches, halt within less than twenty yards of
the cabin door where they threw themselves down upon the ground,
evidently for no other purpose than to gain a needed rest.

"It is nothing," Pierre sa