little Frenchie and I were alone. Standing within the shelter of
the foliage at the foot of the dead cottonwood, and placing my hands on
his shoulders, for just then I literally ached to come into close touch
with a friend, I said, striving to hold my voice steady:

"It may be, Pierre, that Saul and I had no right to drag you into this
mad scheme of ours, for even since Uncle 'Rasmus has set off does it
come to me that it is reckless for us to risk our lives in the hope of
getting back the horses. I have little faith that we shall be able to
accomplish anything as Minute Boys, therefore we must set it down in all
honesty to ourselves that we are pressing forward simply to recover
that which has been stolen, and we have no right to lead you into
danger."

"Do not think I am boasting, Fitz Hamilton," and Pierre shrugged his
shoulders in a way that caused me to laugh despite the heaviness of my
heart; "but yet there comes in upon me the thought that mayhap it is I,
the French lad from New Orleans, who is dragging you and Saul, rather
than that you are dragging him."

CHAPTER IV

THE TOWN OF YORK

I had not counted that it would be possible for us to indulge in slumber
after Uncle 'Rasmus had carried off the blankets; but yet before he was
well on his way toward the village both of us were wrapped in sleep as
profound as even when our bed was softer.

Neither the thought of poor Silver Heels in the hands of a brutal
British officer, nor the possibility that we might come to grief when,
on the morrow, we ventured into the town of York, prevented me from
gaining all the rest a lad needs, as may be judged by the fact that not
until the sun was an hour high in the heavens, and Saul was shaking me
into consciousness, did I have knowledge of my surroundings.

Then it was, with a feeling of shame, that I started to my feet, none
the worse for having been stretched out so long on the bare ground; but
deep down in my heart was a painful sense of having shown myself a
child, by thus indulging in repose when others stood ready to aid in the
task which should have been all my own.

"Have you lads given over going into the village this morning, that you
sleep so late and so soundly?" Saul asked with a note of scorn in his
tones, and I replied quickly, as if making apology for having been such
a laggard:

"Even though we had risen as early as did you, it would not have been
wise for us to go forward, yet I am free to