Pierre followed him into this snug hiding place, and I stood helplessly by, awaiting some word from little Frenchie, ready to obey whatever commands he might give, while Saul, shamefaced because of his indiscretion, came up to my side.
"It is like this," Pierre said as if he had asked a question. "So long as we can hold this Tory sneak secretly, so long are we at liberty to remain in York Town to compass the business which brought us here; but on the instant he gives us the slip, we may count on coming before a military court charged with being rebels, if not with being spies."
"How long do you think he can remain in this shed without being discovered?" Saul asked stupidly, and then it was that Pierre explained his plan, so far as he had formed it.
"One of us, and you should be that one inasmuch as it was through you that all this trouble came about," he said, looking at Saul, "must remain here until midnight, or thereabouts, on the alert all the while lest he give an alarm, while Fitz and I move about the village as we were intending when we left old Mary's cabin. When night has come, and if we find it possible, this Tory must be carried across the town and stowed safely in that loft above the room in which Uncle 'Rasmus is living. There, one or the other of us must act as jailor all the while, until—I cannot guess when our duties may be ended. If, perchance, the American forces give Lord Cornwallis battle, and are victorious, then may we come out of the snarl with whole skins; but if so be the British are the conquerors, we can look to have the tables turned on us, when Horry Sims will get all the revenge he may desire."
A pretty pickle we were in because of what Saul had done! The most we could hope for would be to hold Horry day after day in that loft of old Mary's cabin, with but one show of getting out of the box, which would be such a victory by the Americans that they might take possession of the town of York.
It was a slim chance, though I doubted not that General Lafayette's army, if reinforced as it should be, would whip the Britishers; but again and again the so-called rebels had been worsted by the king's soldiers, and why might they not get a drubbing here? It was well within the range of possibilities that the British army would be reinforced by vessels sent down from New York, in which case we stood to suffer.
Even though the Britishers allowed us to go here or there at will, we were held as close prisoners, because of having Horry Sims in custody, as though they put us under a strong guard. If at that moment when we stood by the casks in the shed speculating upon the situation, I had known that the town of York was to be besieged and shelled by our people, I would not have reckoned that my life was worth the turn of a hand.
Fortunate indeed was it for us that we could not look into the future. Fortunate we had no inkling of all that was to take place between the rivers of York and James within the next few days, else had our courage failed us entirely. As it was, however, I had great faith Pierre would pull through his scheme successfully, and trusted that the future would show us some way out of this snarl into which we had been so suddenly plunged.
"Come in here, and stretch yourself out beside this lad, with your hand closing on his throat so that at the lightest sign of his counting on giving an alarm you can choke him to death," Pierre said to Saul, who was crouching that he might look into the cask, and my cousin did meekly as he was bidden, for by this time he had come fully to understand that he alone was responsible for all this trouble which had come upon us.
Not until Saul was within the cask, and had taken position close by the side of the prisoner, did little Frenchie venture to come out. Then, halting and leaning over so his voice would carry to the prisoner and his jailor without being heard by any who might be in the vicinity of the shed, he said, still speaking in a tone of command which, had I been less excited and anxious, would have sounded comical from one so small: