"May I ask, colonel," said the one who had not yet spoken, "how soon those boats will be ready?"
"Major Jackson reports that they will be finished by to-morrow night, and it will take all of one day to run them down the creek to the river."
"Then by Thursday evening," said the one who had first spoken, "we may be ready to make the attempt."
"Yes, if the night is favorable."
"But, colonel, all these gun-boats are supplied with hot water, and that, you know, is the worst kind of an enemy to fight. Men will run from that who wouldn't flinch before cold steel."
"Oh, we must take the Yanks by surprise, of course. The boats will hold fifty men each, and we must drop down the river so that we will land one on each side of the vessel. If the night is dark—and we shall not make the attempt unless it is—we can get within pistol-shot of her before we are discovered, and by the time their men get fairly out of bed she's ours. Hark! what noise was that?"
The rebels listened for a moment, and one of them replied:
"I didn't hear any thing."
"Well, I did," returned the colonel, "and it sounded very much like some one shouting for help. I'm certain I heard it."
Archie, who lay in his concealment, trembling like a leaf, was also confident that he had heard something that sounded like a call for assistance. What if it was Frank in danger, and shouting to the cutter's crew for help? The thought to Archie was a terrible one, and he forgot the dangers of his own situation, and thought only of his cousin. But if Frank was in trouble, why did he not give the signal to the cutter's crew? Archie waited and listened for it, but did not hear it given.