"Can't you understand that this old negro is paving a way for you and Fitz to get at your horses?"
"I may be a thick-head; but I surely can't see how taking up his quarters in old Mary's cabin, where we've got to carry food to him every day or two, is helping us along very fast," Saul cried angrily, and little Frenchie, throwing back his shoulders, laughed heartily, finding something so comical in Saul's words that it was a full minute before he could make reply.
Then he said, his voice all atremble with mirth:
"Don't you see that Uncle 'Rasmus is making a reasonable excuse for you to go into the town of York every day, if so be you're minded? Can't you understand that once he's in old Mary's cabin there's good reason why we should spend the night with him now and then? Suppose we carried Uncle 'Rasmus food three days running, it would become necessary to explain that the old man had been intending to come out to the plantation; but since we had lost our horses we were forced to feed him as best we might, because he was too feeble to walk home. Can't you also see," Pierre continued eagerly, "why the old man wants to get there in the night? He counts on sneaking through the lines, instead of meekly lying down on the ground, as he has said, and intends, if so be it is possible, to get into old Mary's cabin without making known to the Britishers that he has just come into the village; but rather counts on letting it be understood that he has been there ever since they entered the town."
"It's amazin' how some ob dese yere chillun can pick up an idee what oder folks am tryin' to hide," Uncle 'Rasmus said as he patted little Frenchie on the head, and then hobbled toward his cabin as if he was so feeble that only with the greatest exertion could he drag one foot after another.
Surely I was thick-headed on that afternoon, for even after Pierre had made full explanation of Uncle 'Rasmus's intended movements, it was a good five minutes before the whole scheme came plain in my mind, and then I realized that this old negro of ours was about to do more toward regaining possession of Silver Heels, if indeed she ever did come into my possession again, than all of us lads with our noisy talk.
He would take up his abode in the town of York, sneaking through the lines, if so be it was possible, to the end that the British might not know he had just come in from the outside, and once there the way was open for all three of us lads to wander at least so far through the town as old Mary's cottage. It would be strange indeed, after the red-coats were accustomed to seeing us come and go, for there could be no question but that we would get permission to minister to the poor old negro, if we could not venture further and further inside the lines until, should fortune favor us, we might be able to go whithersoever we desired.
At all events, with Uncle 'Rasmus dwelling in the town—with Uncle 'Rasmus ill and needing our attention, we would be enabled to spend our time in York without arousing even the suspicions of that miserable snake whom people call Horry Sims.
Of course, so far as the little scoundrel was concerned, he might well wonder how it chanced that Uncle 'Rasmus had gone into the town of York, for whenever any of the lads had come around the Hamilton plantation they had been accustomed to seeing the old negro sitting in his favorite place in the stable-yard; but I could see now as the scheme came home to me, that it would be possible, in case Horry Sims made inquiries, to let it be understood that Uncle 'Rasmus had gone there some days before my Lord Cornwallis's army entered the town, being stricken so ill he could not be safely moved.
In fact, I saw nothing but brightness in the future, and all through this old negro whom I had seen sitting in the stable-yard chewing straw day after day until he had come to seem much like one of the dogs or the horses, having no mind of his own; but implicitly obeying the will of his master.