He got up, therefore, from his seat on a log and went to the boat and sat down in the stern sheets to think.
He had no fear of danger for himself, or rather, he was prepared to encounter, without flinching, any danger into which his duty might lead him; but I have not succeeded very well in making my readers acquainted with Sam Hardwicke's character, if they do not know that he was a thoroughly conscientious boy, and from the beginning of this expedition until now, he had never once forgotten that his authority, as its commander, involved with it a heavy responsibility.
"These boys," he frequently said to himself, "are subject to my command.

They must go where I lead them, and have no chance to use their own judgments.

I decide where they shall go and what they shall do, and I am responsible for the consequences to them." Feeling his responsibility thus deeply, he was troubled now lest any mistake of his should lead them into unnecessary danger.

He carefully weighed every circumstance which could possibly affect his decision, and his judgment was that his duty required him to remain yet a day or two in the neighborhood of Pensacola, and that it would only tend to awaken suspicion if he should remove his camp to any other point on the shores of the bay.

He must stay where he was, and risk the consequences.