Whether or not the leaders held any distrust of Vesey cannot be known; but his little scheme for befriending Monteith Sterry was nipped in the bud by his being retained at the front of the building, where, as has been shown, he acted as the bearer of messages between Inman and Capt. Asbury.
There were men closely watching the building from the moment darkness closed over the scene. Had Sterry attempted to steal along the side of the house and then dodge away, he would have been detected and halted at once. On the contrary, he moved with his usual gait in a diagonal direction toward the stables. His object was to learn the likeliest method of leaving the place.
He had perhaps walked fifty feet, when some one advanced from the gloom and called, in an undertone:
"Halloo, who is that?"
"It's I, Smith; who are you?"
The name, of course, was a venture, but it was not uncommon, as the reader knows, and more likely to be right than any other. The best of it was, it seemed to satisfy the other, who, without announcing his own, asked:
"What are you doing?"
"I've been looking around to see what I could learn."
"Anything new?"
"No, not as far as I can discover; they seem to have a light burning in there, but are waiting for us."