"May God have you in His keeping," the colonel said, fervently, and without waiting to hear more the old soldier set off, this time leaving it for me to bring up the rear.
Now it was I came to understand that the rain was beginning to fall; the wind came in spiteful gusts, betokening a storm, and I could have hugged myself with glee at the thought that the elements were favoring us in the attempt which, at the outset, had seemed doomed to failure.
Before we had traversed half the distance from the fort to the thicket on the westerly side, the rain was falling heavily, and the wind whistling at such a rate as to have drowned any ordinary noise we might make in forcing our way through the foliage.
Never had a storm, which promised much bodily discomfort, been so warmly welcomed by me; never had one been more sadly needed by those who fought against the king and his savage followers for the cause of American liberty.
It is well known that Indians, like cats, are averse to exposing their bodies to rain, and when we set out on the return I had but little fear, believing that every one of Thayendanega's followers would be hugging his lodge closely, while the Tories would find it difficult to discern us from any great distance as we lay prone upon the ground.
Lest I spend too many words in the telling of it, let me say, in short, that we gained the thicket without causing an alarm, and, what was really strange, made our way through it in a westerly direction for fully a mile without meeting any living being.
Then it was that Sergeant Corney came to a halt, and, taking the corn bread from his pocket, began to munch it greedily as he said to me, speaking indistinctly because of the fulness of his mouth:
"I reckon, lad, we've passed the Britishers' lines, an' can begin to circle southward from this point."
While we were creeping away from the fort, beginning the second journey before having had time to rest from the first, I had said to myself again and again that it was the act of madmen for us to make any attempt at gaining General Herkimer's forces. In the first place there was no real necessity for such dangerous labor, because the signal could have been given by Colonel Gansevoort at a reasonably early hour next morning, and thus our commander would have known that the message was delivered. We were risking our lives foolishly, and when the old soldier spoke of making a circle from that point, in a tone which told that he was very well contented with himself and what he had done, I lost my temper, and replied, sharply:
"Ay, we have got through the lines safely because of the storm, which was a lucky chance in our favor, and one we could not have foreseen when you were so foolish as to propose that we go back to-night."