It would be almost certain death to yield, and the position of affairs could not be rendered worse by resistance.
“We must never be taken!” I said half to myself, and for an instant it was as if I had in my arms the strength of a dozen men.
Wresting, by a sudden movement, the musket from the hands of the man who would have made me his prisoner, I struck out right and left, and in an instant we three lads were fighting desperately, as will even rats when they find themselves cornered.
CHAPTER VII.
IN HIDING.
It is impossible for me to describe of my own knowledge all that took place during five minutes or more after I grappled with the Britisher.
There had been no thought in my mind, when I leaped upon the enemy, of gaining a victory; I was conscious only of the fact that if we were taken prisoners again our lives would pay the forfeit, because it must be apparent to all that we were spies, else why had we ventured there the second time; and I acted upon the impulse of the moment.
Had my companions been told in advance of what I proposed to do, they could not have followed my example more promptly.
It seemed as if almost at the very second that I seized the redcoat’s musket, they made an attack, each upon the man nearest him, and so unexpected was the onslaught that the Britishers gave no outcry.
I remember that during what seemed to me like many moments I struck out, or parried blows, giving no heed to the weapon I had first seized, and that we fought desperately in silence until my opponent suddenly fell when I was some distance from him.
Then I realized dimly that he had been stricken down from behind, and an instant later Alec whispered hoarsely, as he grasped me by the hand:—