"It would have pleased you better had we made the attempt to get into the fort?"
"Ay, ten times over, for then instead of roaming these woods, taking a fool's chances of bein' shot down, we might be comfortable and in safety."
"An' remained there so long as pleased Colonel Gansevoort, for once inside that fort we placed ourselves under his command."
"Well, and why not?" I asked, in surprise.
"Because it does not please me to linger when there is other work to be done."
"But there was no real need of undertakin' this task," I said, with irritation.
"Yet it gave us an excuse to which he would listen for leavin', when, had we told the truth, I question if he had not tried to stop us."
"Well, what is the truth?" I cried, sharply.
"Is there nothin' in your mind that we are bound to do, now the message has been delivered?"
"Do you mean to aid Jacob?" I asked, as a sudden light began to dawn on me.
"Ay, lad, all of that. Neither you nor I would have let him gone alone in the hopeless task of rescuin' his father, had it not been that duty demanded of us to keep our faces turned toward yonder fort. Now we have done that which General Herkimer required, we can set out to fulfil our duty toward the lad, an' this goin' back on the road to Oriskany is but little more than we would be forced to do in order to gain the spot where we parted with him, for I'm countin' that he was then near by the place where his father is held prisoner."
I could have hugged the old man, but that he might have fancied I had lost my senses.
When we parted with Jacob there was no thought in my mind that Sergeant Corney had the slightest idea of joining in what was a most desperate venture, and I even fancied he felt a certain sense of relief in having such a good excuse for not sticking his nose into the Indian encampment. But now I understood that all the while he held firm to the determination to do whatsoever he might toward aiding Peter Sitz, and I began to feel real affection for the noble old man.
Whether we might be able to find Jacob or not, and the chances were that he had already been made prisoner, we could say to ourselves that the poor lad was not deserted by us in his hour of need, and, if the worst happened, it would be no slight satisfaction to us in after years.
