During the merest fraction of time I gave myself up to fear, and then, my mind clearing and common sense returning, I crept softly out, still keeping within the shadow of the timbers, until I could see against the sky the form of him who was coming toward the hiding place.
One glance was sufficient to show that it was Hiram Griffin, and even then when my mind was in such a whirl, I said to myself that he must be a keen lad who could find his way thus deftly across a strange town.
Standing up that he might see me and know in what direction to advance, I held out both hands, welcoming him when he was come near, as we welcome those who have literally escaped from the jaws of death.
"I'm thinking that we best not do much in the way of tongue wagging while standing here in the open," he said, speaking with difficulty because of his heavy breathing, and straightway I led him under the timbers where I had been hiding, asking meanwhile how he had succeeded in getting away from the red coats.
"It was only a case of using my legs," he cried grimly. "When a fellow knows that he is being chased by bullets he is able to move right fast. If you had skipped that last visit, thinking more of duty to those who sent me than to your comrades in the company of Minute Boys, we had gotten off without turning a hair."
"Ay, it is my fault and mine only that Archie has been made prisoner," I cried bitterly, and Hiram asked in surprise, for until this moment he believed the lad to be with me:
"Has he been taken?"
"It must be so, since he has not come up. He most like ran into the very arms of the watch before realizing the danger," I replied.
"Well, here's a pretty kettle of fish," and Hiram spoke much as if the capture of Archie would be fatal to all the plans of those who had sent him.
"Think you we should go back and try to find the lad?" I asked helplessly, and he cried as if in anger: