"God bless us aud preserve us, Bill! but this is awful hard; and what are we to do—where shall we run—how?—"
"Run nowhere, but listen to what I tell you. You can't help it now, but you may make something out of it. If Proctor must hear the truth, he may as well hear it from you."
"From me!—bless me, Bill, my boy—from me?"
"Yes, from you. Set off by daypeep to the fort, and see Proctor yourself. Tell him of your loyalty, and how you love the king; and you can cry a little all the time, if it comes easy to you. I don't want you to strain much about it. Tell him that you have an unworthy son, that's not of your way of thinking. Say he's been misguided by the rebels, and how they've inveigled him, till he's turned rebel himself; and how he's now out with Marion's men, in Major Singleton's squad. When you've done this, you can cry again, and do any thing to throw dust in his eyes. Say it's all owing to your loyalty that you expose your own flesh and blood, and mind you don't take any money for telling."
"Bless me, my dear boy, but this is awful to think on."
"It must be thought on, though, and the sooner the better. Coming from you, it will help you; coming from that skunk. Goggle, and you silent, and they pack you off to the Charleston provost, or maybe draw you over the swinging bough. Tell Proctor our force is thirty; that we lay at Slick pond last night, and that we push for Black river by daypeep, to join with the Swamp Fox. This, you see, will be a truer story than Goggle can tell, for if he sends Proctor after us to Slick pond, he'll have a journey to take back."
"Bless me, what's to become of us all, Bill, I don't see. I am all over in a fever now, ever since you tell'd me your story."
"Shake it off and be comfortable, as you can be. Thinking about it never cured the shaking ague yet, and never will. You must try."
"And I will try—I will, boy; but bless me. Bill, wouldn't it be better for us all to take to the swamp—eh?"
"No—stay where you are; there's no need for you to go out, and you can do good where you are. Besides, there's Bell, you know."
