They had been sitting there perhaps ten or fifteen minutes, watching the
torch carried by the leader of the British force bobbing about in the
swamp, when they suddenly heard voices right near them. The next moment
they saw several dark forms making their way through the timber. The two
listened to the conversation of the strangers, and learned that they
were Tories, on their way to the home of a patriot, one John Santon,
who, it seemed, had taken into his home a patriot school-teacher, after
the latter had been given a coat of tar and feathers.
The Tories were going to take the teacher out, give him a whipping, and
then give him twenty-four hours to get out of that part of the country.
The Tories were walking at a slow pace, and so the two patriots gained
the above information before the party was out of hearing.
“Sure, an’ what do ye say to followin’ thim rascals an’ thryin’ to spoil
their game, Fritz?” asked Tim.
“I think dot is der thing to do, Tim,” was the reply. “Der retgoads vill
not be back here for a long while, und ve can’t do anything to dena when
dey do come, for dere are too many uf dem.”
“Roight ye are, an’ mebby we can help the fellow what thim rapscallions
are talkin’ av takin’ out an’ whippin’.”
“Mebby so, Tim. Ve vill try id, uf you say so.”
“Well, Oi do say so. Let’s follow thim, me bye.”
So they rose, promptly set out on the trail of the Tories, and were soon
close enough to them to hear their conversation. As it was pretty dark,
there was not much danger of their being discovered.
When the Tories reached the Santon home, and knocked on the door, Tim
and Fritz were close at hand. They listened to the conversation between
Santon and the Tories, and when the school-teacher was captured and the
Tories started away, with him in their midst, Tim and Fritz moved away
through the woods, keeping the party under observation. When they came
upon the cabin in the gully, they guessed that this might be the spot
the Tories were aiming for. So they stationed themselves behind trees
near the end of the cabin, awaiting the approach of the party.
The two patriots watched the Tories, who had lighted a torch, so as to
see how to do the work they intended doing. When they saw the ruffians
tie their prisoner to a tree, after stripping him to the waist, and one
on either side with a heavy switch in his hand, get ready to administer
a whipping, Tim and Fritz decided that they would not stand there and be
witnesses to such an affair. There were only five of the ruffians, and
as the two had each two pistols, they believed they could drive the
Tories away.
Tim whispered instructions to Fritz, both drew their pistols, and just
as the two ruffians with the switches were about to strike, the patriots
fired their pistols.
Both the bullets took effect. The patriots had not tried to kill, but
they wanted to wound the Tories, and succeeded. They had aimed at the
two who were holding the switches, and at the sound of the reports the
two ruffians uttered exclamations of pain and amazement. Dropping the
switches, they staggered away from their intended victim.
“Foire ag’in, comrades, an’ thin charge the spalpanes!” cried Tim at
this instant, and firing the other two pistols, they succeeded in
wounding Sprowl, whose howl of pain was loud and prolonged. Then the
ruffians all hastened away, the two that were not injured running
swiftly ahead, while the others traveled as fast as they could.
“Afther thim!” yelled Tim, loudly, to add to the fright of the fleeing
Tories, but in a low voice to Fritz he said: “Don’t follow thim. We’ve
got thim running, an’ so let thim go. We’ll set this poor chap free.”
He stepped to the spot and cut the rope binding Miller to the tree. The
teacher was grateful to his new found friends and thanked the two
heartily. “You have done me a great kindness,” he said, “and I
appreciate it, I assure you. Those ruffians would have given me a
terrible beating had you not intervened.”
“They looked capable av doin’ thot, sir,” said Tim.
“Yah, dey vos mean-loogin’ fellers, und dot is so,” said Fritz.
“Yes, those same scoundrels gave me a coat of tar and feathers this
afternoon,” continued Miller. “But they were not satisfied with that, it
seems, but wanted to give me a beating.”
“Well, we gave thim a little somethin’ to remimber this affair by, Oi’m
thinkin’,” chuckled Tim.
“I’m glad you did. And, now, who are you, if I may ask, and where are
you from? I don’t think you live in this part of the country.”
“We are soldiers,” said Fritz. “Ve belong mit der army.”
“I didn’t know there was a patriot army in this part of the country,”
said Miller.
“We just got here,” explained Tim. “There is a rigimint, an’ it is
encamped about twinty miles from here.”
“Ve haf come down here to fighd Arnold,” said Fritz.
“That is good. He has been causing the patriots a lot of trouble since
he came down into Virginia.”
“Thot is what we have understood,” said Tim, “An’ we have seen some av
their work, already.”
“How is that?” with an air of interest.
“Well, ye know there is a patriot sittlemint a couple av moiles from
here, av coorse.”
“Yes. What about it?”
“Why, a party av about twenty ridcoats wint there, this avenin’,
intendin’ to rob the sittlers an’ burn the houses, but whin they got
there, the sittlers were all gone, an’ had taken their household goods
wid thim.”
“Ah, they must have been warned of the approach of the redcoats. I am
glad of that.”
“Yis, an’ they wint into a swamp thot is about a moile or so from the
sittlemint.”
“Ah, they will likely be safe there.”
“Ve ain’d so sure abouid dot,” said Fritz. “Der retgoads haf followed
der settlers into der swamp.”
“You don’t say so!” exclaimed Miller. “That is bad.”
“Yis, so it is,” agreed Tim. “Fritz an’ mesilf were goin’ to stay at the
place where the path inters the swamp, an’ wait till the ridcoats came
out, an’ learn what success they had, but thot party av Tories came
past, an’ we heard thim talkin’ about givin’ a rebel school-teacher a
whippin’, an’ so, thinkin’ we could mebby do more good by followin’
thim, we did so.”
“And I’m glad you did. But, supposing we go to the point where the path
enters the swamp? The redcoats are likely not back out of the swamp yet,
and--”
At this moment the sound of musket-shots came to their hearing, and Tim
exclaimed “They’re foightin’, now!”