"I fail to see any reason why you should in every case act as messenger 'twixt here and Cambridge. Send some other of your company. It is true we lost the boat in which you and I came, because of having left her where any blundering lobster back might stumble upon the craft; but you said this morning that it would be possible for us to get two small skiffs at any time." Then he asked abruptly, "How high from the street is the window of the room where your comrade is held prisoner?"
"Not more than five or six feet," I replied, failing to understand; but, making no explanation, he rose quickly to his feet, clapping his hat on his head as he said:
"I'm off for a stroll. There are many things in this town I haven't seen as yet, and it would be a pity if I was suddenly called to Cambridge without having learned all that may be come at."
He went out before I could stop him, and but for the fact that Silas came in immediately afterward, I might have followed to learn what Hiram was about.
As a matter of course, my comrade was all afire with the possibility that we might soon have speech with Archie, and would have explained exactly how Harvey counted on bringing the matter about, had I not told him Hiram's opinion as to what should be done in the way of sending information to the American encampment.
Much to my surprise he pressed eagerly for permission to go as messenger, saying that above all else he desired to see the encampment so he might compare our troops with those under the command of General Gage, and, knowing he could make the journey as well or even better than I, there was no reason in my mind why he should not undertake the venture.
I must set down here the fact that from the time of our first meeting as Minute Boys, which is the same as saying during the past four and twenty hours, more than one of us had kept constant watch over Seth Jepson without seeing aught to blame in him. It was possible, as a matter of course, that he might have had speech with Amos Nelson; but we could not believe he had told the Tory cur all I had so foolishly divulged else, as Silas and I reasoned, we would have been brought before General Gage on some such serious charge as that of treason, unless perchance he could make of our movements a more serious offence.
Therefore it was that after we had decided Silas should go to the encampment with the information already gathered, I cautioned him against letting Seth have any suspicions of his intention, and he replied confidently:
"Leave the matter to me, Luke. I'll guarantee to get away without any one's seeing me, and what is more, come back with a whole skin. I'm not such a simple as to give myself away to Seth, or any other lad, and therefore it is I propose that at such time as best suits me, and in whatsoever manner I please, to set off for the American camp 'twixt now and midnight, keeping secret even from my mother how and when I count on going."
It surprised me somewhat that he should be willing to go away at the very time when we believed it possible to hold some communication with Archie; but, as I afterward learned, he had little faith we could get speech with the lad, and was not without fear that one or more of us might be taken into custody for loitering around the prison. To his credit I must say, however, that the desire to see the encampment was so great as to shut out all else from his mind.