It was when we were come so near the end of our journey, that we saw ahead of us, less than a quarter of a mile away, Horry Sims, who lived on the old Livingston plantation, three miles above my home, and he appeared to be talking earnestly with a mounted officer who was in command of mayhap a dozen men.
Now Horry Sims was a lad who might fairly have been called a friend of mine, because we had had no angry words together such as could not readily be wiped out; but since two or three years neither Saul nor I chummed very much with the lad. It was believed, and with good cause, that his father yet remained loyal to the king, and was not only ready to make a display of love for his majesty; but appeared so willing to show disloyalty to his neighbors that it almost amounted to eagerness.
Uncle 'Rasmus declared again and again that Master Sims had had a hand in whatsoever of mischief had been done in Virginia, and perhaps Saul and I might have believed the old negro had he not set down so much of evil to the account of Horry's father that it was impossible one man could have compassed it all.
Certain it is, however, we had come to look upon Master Sims as a rank Tory, and, fancying his son might hold the views of his father, we two lads, meaning Saul and me, had kept away from him, not in the way of enmity, but rather to avoid the lad, although we treated him fairly when he came where we were.
After all we believed we knew, it should not have seemed strange to us that Horry Sims was talking in an apparently friendly fashion with this officer in his majesty's service, yet we were surprised, for now was come the time, if he felt so disposed, when it was possible for him to do much of harm to his neighbors, and on the instant I stepped aside from the highway that I might be screened by the bushes, beckoning my companions to do the same.
We had thus hidden ourselves from view of those who were ahead of us, as I believed, before they came to know that we were in the vicinity, and Saul, thinking that now was the time when we might do Minute-Boy duty, whispered to me:
"Shall we creep among the shrubbery until we are come where it is possible to hear the conversation of those beyond?"
Before I could make reply, little Frenchie, shrugging his shoulders, whispered:
"How far think you, it would be possible to go without being overheard by some of those who wear red coats? If it was night, or if yonder men were deaf, then might you do it."
"It is certain they would hear you before you were where it could be possible to distinguish a word of the conversation," I said in reply to Saul's suggestion, and he was seemingly satisfied that such would be the case, for instead of making any attempt at an argument, he crept more closely to my side, pulling Pierre with him until we three, in order to hold in view that group of red, in the midst of which was Horry Sims, were forced to part the foliage with our hands that we might peer between the leaves.