It was a most daring venture we were to make, and one wherein the chances were no less than ninety and nine out of an hundred that we would be killed or captured before having well started on the enterprise, and yet the attempt must be made, however faint-hearted we might be, for, as I have already said, there was as much danger in retreating as advancing.
The only thing in our favor was that the night promised to be dark. Already were clouds hiding the setting sun, the wind was growing stronger, and it was reasonable to believe that within an hour the heavens would be covered as with a black veil.
After having succeeded in attracting the attention of the sentinels, Sergeant Corney crept back to my side, lying there at full length and in silence. I believed his anxiety as to the outcome of this mad venture was so great that he did not dare indulge in conversation, and because of such idea was I even more cast down in spirit.
I tried to count the seconds in order to have some knowledge of the passage of time; but could not fix my mind upon such a simple act.
When it seemed to me as if the night was considerably more than half-spent, I whispered tremblingly to my companion:
"Have you given over tryin' to gain the fort?"
"Why should you think so, lad?" he asked, as if in surprise. "We had best make the venture after midnight, rather than now while the enemy is astir."
So great was my fear as to what the future might have in store for us that I had failed to hear the hum of voices, until my attention was thus attracted, and then I realized that it was yet quite early in the evening, instead of well toward morning, as I had supposed.
Because he did not speak again I understood that Sergeant Corney was not inclined for conversation, and I lay there motionless and silent until it was as if twice four and twenty hours had passed, when the old man, rising to a sitting posture, whispered, cautiously:
"I reckon, lad, that the time has come for us to make a try at deliverin' the general's message. As I figger it, we had best bear off to the westward, strikin' the fort on that side nearabout where the fragment of a bush stands, than to push on for the main gate. It seems reasonable the enemy will watch that part of the works closer than any other, in order to guard against a sortie, an' if Colonel Gansevoort has been told of our signals, every sentinel will be on the alert for us."