"That my Lord Cornwallis will do his prettiest to pull the teeth of one or the other of the trap-jaws before he trusts himself within them."
Jennifer was silent for an ambling minute or two. Then he said: "'Twill be our teeth he'll try to pull, then. The Broad is nearer than the Pedee; and ours is the weaker of the two jaws."
"Right you are," said I. "And now we know what we have to discover."
"Anan?" he queried.
"We must learn by hook or crook who is to be sent against Dan Morgan, and when."
"That should be easy—if the use of it afterward be not choked out of us at a rope's end."
"We can divide the rope's-end chance of failure by two. We may work together as the opportunity offers, but once within the lines we must pass as strangers to each other, or at most as chance acquaintances of the road."
"Good," said he; and then his jaw dropped. "But what if one of us be taken? Never ask me to stand by stranger-wise and see you hanged, Jack!"
"I shall both ask it and promise to do the same by you. Your hand on it before we go a step farther, if you please."
"'Tis out of all reason," he demurred.