"It was nearabout midnight when we came into this place," Hiram replied to Harvey's question, as if still working out a problem in his mind. "We spent much time with Master Lord; let us say until daybreak. Then we slept, and the chances are it must have been near to another night fall when we were awakened by a racket overhead. I'm allowing it was the next night after our arrival, perhaps late in the evening, when our double-faced host brought us the provisions, and that we most-like have spent one entire night eating and working on the tunnel. Therefore to my mind it is some time in the second day after our arrival. Surely it cannot be very late in the night, else would Master Lord have returned."
All this seemed good reasoning, and yet now that we had seemingly settled the matter, of what did it avail us? What mattered whether the sun was shining, or the earth shrouded in darkness, so that we dared not venture out in either case?
Hiram speedily settled this matter, as in fact he did every one we discussed, by asking:
"What say you to my making our first venture through the secret passage after that scoundrel who professes to be working in our interests, visits us the next time?"
"Meaning that you would go out whether it was night or day?" Archie asked.
"Surely not, lad; but I am allowing we can so far trust him as to take for granted what he tells us as to the time. Now if I am guessing rightly, he will come back in the evening, and there is no good reason why he should not say what is o'clock when we put the question. It ought to be possible for us to learn whether he goes to bed, or ventures out again, and if it so chances that he turns in, I will try the secret passage."
"When you made the holes in the floor for the purpose of hearing what might be going on in the room above, did you realize that they would serve to let him know what we are doing?" Harvey asked, and Hiram's reply was a cheery one:
"Aye, that I did, lad; but I'm not minded he shall get any advantage because of them, since it won't be a great exertion to plug the holes with rags."
It was evident that Hiram had given more thought to the situation, and to the possibility of turning it to our advantage, than had any of us. From that moment I was well content to do as he suggested, save in one particular, and that was as to which of us should make the first venture, therefore I demanded to know why he claimed the right.
"Because in the first place, so far as the lobster backs know, I haven't been mixed up in the doings of the Minute Boys as have the rest of you."