"But it seems selfish for us to have slept while you remained awake."
"Now you'se frettin' 'bout nuffin, chile, when dere's plenty ob real trubble to take up your min'."
"What has happened?" I asked anxiously, thinking for the instant that the old negro had seen tokens of impending danger.
"Dere's sumfin goin' on in dis yere town, honey, as is pas' my understandin'. Dese yere sogers has been workin' all night, an' dey're still at it, as ef de ole man from down below was arter 'em."
"I don't see that we need fret very much if the Britishers have grown frightened," I said with a laugh, and Uncle 'Rasmus replied:
"It looks to me, honey, as if dey counted dere was gwine to be a battle 'roun' here mighty soon, an' ef anyting ob dat kine does happen, I'se askin' mysef how we'se comin' out ob it. We'se a good deal like Brer Rabbit, when de fox an' de wil' cat was fightin' to see which one would hab him for breakfas'. Whicheber way it turned he was boun' to be eat up, an' it kind'er looks to me as ef we'd be in de same fix ef our folks an' de Britishers got to shootin' off dere guns while we was in dis yere cabin."
I stood silent and motionless gazing at the old man with my mouth wide open like a simple, as this possibility of a new danger came upon me. As a matter of course I had believed there would be a battle between the two armies; but that we might be held in the cabin exposed to shot and bombs from both friend and foe, was something to cause the blood to run cold in one's veins.
It was well for me that just at the instant came a change in the situation, else might I have given proof of the timorousness which was in my heart. I was yet looking stupidly at Uncle 'Rasmus when the door suddenly opened. As I turned to see who was the intruder an exclamation of joy and relief burst from my lips, for it was none other than Morgan, and I made sure that now was come the moment when we would have some information concerning Saul.
"Yes, I have been working all night in the trenches as if my greatest desire in life was to hold the Americans in check," he said as he sank down on the floor like one on the verge of exhaustion, when he saw that I was taking note of the stains of toil upon him.
"What about Saul?" I cried, forgetting that we had had no opportunity of warning this friendly spy that our comrade had disappeared.