CHAPTER XVI.
A PERPLEXING QUESTION.
Tom Somers, who had had some experience, in a small way, in the kind of business now before him, was filled with hope when he had adopted his plan.

He was a resolute and energetic young man, and to resolve upon any thing was almost equivalent to doing it.

There were a great many difficulties in the way of success, it is true; but, nothing daunted by these, he determined to persevere.

The church in which the prisoners were confined was carefully guarded on the exterior, and the sentinels carried loaded muskets in their hands--so that the affair before him was more hazardous and trying than that of escaping from the attic chamber of Squire Pemberton's house in Pinchbrook.
If he succeeded in making his way out of the church and eluding the guard which surrounded it, even then his trials would only have commenced; for there were many miles of hostile country between him and Washington, whither he supposed the Federal army had been driven.

The captain who intended to escape at the same time gave him some information which would be of service to him in finding his way to the Potomac.