It must be said of Jethro that although scared almost out of his senses, he was resolved to do his duty so far as it lay within him to do it. Even in his panic, he saw an advantage over the other sentinels. A wagon guarded by two persons must be twice as well protected as one under the care of a single person. Alden was so watchful that he could be counted on to detect any approach of danger. Jethro was in the position of a man who had a reliable support in an enterprise involving great peril.