"Hallo, down there, what's the matter?" called some one at the head of
the stairs.
"The blame rebels tried to get out and upset the lantern," answered
Dick, in a gruff voice.
"Huh! where are they now?"
"They're all right. We locked the door again."
"H'm! we better come down and help you. We gotter take them away."
"All right, come on, an' fetch another light."
Then the boys began to move steadily toward the stairs, finally finding
them.
"Come on, Bob," whispered Dick. "Don't waste any ceremony on them, but
tumble them downstairs as soon as they come. They won't get the others
out in a hurry, for I have the key."
The boys went rapidly upstairs, but, just as a light appeared at the
top, the men in the room below began to shout:
"Hallo! Bill, Toby, look out for them rebels; they've shut us up in the
storeroom!"
"Hurry, Bob!" hissed Dick.
The two boys dashed up to the top of the steps and came upon two men
carrying lanterns. In an instant each seized one of the Tories and sent
him rolling down the stairs uttering startled yells. Then they hurried
forward in the dark to the front of the stone house, opened the door and
ran out. At the same moment they heard shouts from the house, and then
shots were fired, the bullets passing over their heads. They returned
the shots, and heard a yell, and a sudden slamming of a door, and then a
cry from up the bank:
"Hallo! Dick, Bob, are you there?"
"Yes, Mark, coming right along!" shouted Dick, and then he and Bob
hurried up the steep bank, presently seeing lanterns and a number of the
Liberty Boys.
"We had some little trouble in finding the place," declared Mark, when
Dick and Bob joined him and the rest, there being fully a score of them.
"The young ladies had no idea where the wretches had gone, but we picked
up the trail at length and then had less difficulty in following it.
Where were you?"
"In the stone house--a regular nest of thieves," Dick answered. "I must
have a look at the place later."
There was no further sound from below, and the boys went on to the top,
where they found several of the Liberty Boys and the two girls.
Dick and Bob now jumped into the saddle and resumed their interrupted
ride, going with the girls to the house in Maiden Lane. The friends of
Alice and Edith were very charming girls, and the boys spent an hour or
two very pleasantly, telling the story of their adventures in the
afternoon and evening, and talking of the situation in in the city. The
boys at length left the house to return to the camp, Alice and Edith
expressing considerable anxiety, however, lest they be way-laid by the
men who had already made an unsuccessful attempt to keep them prisoners.
In a short time they were back in camp, the occasional tramp of a sentry
or the sudden flaring up of a fire from a puff of night air being the
only things to show that there was any one there. The Liberty Boys were
always vigilant, for one never knew when an enemy might be about, and
Dick had taught them to be on the lookout at all times, whether they
expected a foe or not. After breakfast Dick took a party of about a
dozen of the boys in addition to Bob, and set out for the stone house on
the river. Reaching the lane, the boys dismounted, the descent being
rather too steep for the horses, and Dick, Bob and seven or eight others
went down. The door toward the road was closed and there was no sign of
life about the place. Dick and Bob went down to the shore where there
was a little wharf, and here they found a door on the lower story, this
being closed, however, as were the windows, and no one stirring either
in or about the house.
"The place looks like an ordinary storehouse," remarked Dick, "and I
suppose that the people about here think it is such. I shall have to get
permission from the general to examine it, for it is a nest of thieves
whatever else it may be."
"That is plain enough!" muttered Bob.
Taking Bob, and leaving the boys to watch the place, Dick set out for
Putnam's headquarters to report concerning the place and ask what should
be done. Some of the boys remained on the bank above, and some on the
wharf and near the lower door. They found a passage under the wharf, and
then another dug through the earth, and leading to a door evidently in
the stone house under the bank and back of the wharf.
"These fellows are regular smugglers as well as thieves!" exclaimed
Harry. "This is an important discovery. They use this place to take in
stolen goods when they are afraid to take them in any other, I guess."
"See if the door is locked," suggested Sam.
Then he and Harry tried it, and found that it was not fastened, but
opened readily when they lifted the latch.
"Hallo! Who is there?" cried a gruff voice, as they advanced.
"Here's one of the rascals! Catch him!" cried Harry.