As I look back now to that moment when was first assembled the company of which I had been chosen captain, it seems passing strange I should have made a blunder which was near akin to a crime, before having been with them five minutes. After the advice, repeated so many times by my father and Doctor Warren, that I be prudent, it seems as if I showed myself the thickest-headed lad in all the colony, else would I have begun the business by keeping a closer tongue.
Even while I was greeting the lads they cried out impatiently to know what I had heard and seen in Cambridge, and I, like a simple, must needs repeat parrot fashion all the instructions which had been given me, when common prudence would have dictated that I set the boys about gathering information, without making known that we were much the same as detailed as spies.
In my folly I even went so far as to lay plans how and when we might best leave the town to make report, and even gave a list of those to whom we should apply for skiffs.
While my tongue ran loose I fancied Hiram moved uneasily about, as if he would say something to me privately; but I, puffed up with pride because of taking upon myself for the first time command of the Minute Boys, gave no heed to him until I had stripped myself bare of information, so that if, peradventure, there was a traitor among us he could go direct to General Gage with a story of all that we proposed to do.
Having finished the recital I asked if there were any who could give information concerning Archie which had not already been made public, and one of the lads spoke up promptly, saying:
"He is not so badly treated in prison, when you remember his father's standing among the Sons of Liberty, for instead of occupying a cell, he is locked in one of the small rooms near the end of the building."
"Who told you that?" I asked, wondering how so much of information could have been come at by our lads, and he answered, pointing with his finger:
"It was Seth Jepson told me."
Wheeling about suddenly to face the lad whom I had suspected when it was first proposed he be allowed to join the Minute Boys, I fancied there was a look of uneasiness, almost of fear, upon his face, as if he had just realized the danger of having imparted too much information. Then, like a flash, there came upon me a great wave of self-reproach because I had spoken so freely concerning our plans. If Seth Jepson was inclined to be a traitor, verily he had it now in his power to do us gravest injury.
"How did you learn so much regarding Archie?" I asked sharply. "Have you been allowed to visit the prison?"