THE AMBUSH.
Dick Dare and Fritz journeyed for several days without anything
happening to impede their progress, and they had made up most of the
time that had been lost in their earlier escapades. They took no
chances at night and slept out in the open rather than risk capture or
trouble in a farm house.
Their midday meals they had bought from farmers, and had eaten them
standing by their horses, not caring to experience another loss of
those faithful animals.
The boys' spirits rose with their long freedom from trouble, and
although they still kept a sharp outlook for signs of the enemy, they
didn't find anything to disturb them.
If it had not been for Dick's persistent efforts to hurry, Fritz would
have considered the whole affair as an outing for pleasure only, but
as it was, their hard traveling and short rests kept him always on
the go, and he never felt that he had had quite enough sleep. Dick was
tireless and seemed only to think of the haste they were in, and pushed
ahead for Vincennes relentlessly. Their long immunity from trouble had
lulled Dick into too great a sense of safety, and it was while eating
their supper one evening by the roadside that the boys were startled by
a bugle call in the woods which lay back of them.
They jumped to their feet, seized the bridles, and climbing hastily
into their saddles, started full tilt up the road. Almost instantly a
party Redcoats stepped out and halted their progress in that direction.
Wheeling hastily, the boys covered about a hundred yards back, fearing
that at any moment a volley would follow them, but not a gun was fired,
and just as they began to feel new hope, another group of soldiers
appeared before them, blocking their way completely.
Dick turned desperately toward the fences at the roadside, but the road
was lined with Redcoated, grinning troopers.
"An ambush!" cried Dick.
"Trapped good and proper this time, young feller," observed a corporal,
smiling with satisfaction. "Guess you two have kept away from us long
enough. Come along and see the major."
The boys were surrounded, and both Fritz and Dick saw that escape was
out of the question at present, so both decided to take things coolly
and make the best of a bad situation.
The major, accompanied by his brother officers, stood in the road as
the captives were led up, and showed his satisfaction at their capture.
Dick and Fritz were both startled to see the young southerner with the
group, and he in particular seemed immensely pleased to get the boys
again.
"You two have led us a pretty chase, and should be working in a better
cause," said the major.
"But they are on the wrong side of the fence this time," said the young
fellow Dick had rolled into the ditch the first day out. "And that Dare
boy has been almost hanged so many times that the general will take
great pleasure in finishing the job this time, I'm sure."
"It seems that we are your prisoners," said Dick, turning to the
officer. "I trust you will save us the indignity of being insulted by
that young boor at your side."
"Seems to be some little feeling, eh?" chuckled the officer. "All
right, my young bantam, you and your friend can join the men, I guess,
and we will see that your company is selected most carefully."
"Dot's imbossible, in this troop," said Fritz to Dick, but no one else
heard him.
The two Patriots were placed on horseback, and with their wrists tied
together, and a rope passed to two troopers the company passed on up
the road.
They turned out from the main road soon and pitched camp on a wooded
slope leading down to the sea, where the sound of the breakers soon
lulled the tired Redcoats to sleep.
The boys were placed near a large fire, and were securely guarded.
Dick and Fritz were both tired out, and after seeing that there was no
immediate hope of escape or help, both rolled over and joined their
captors in slumberland.
Early the next morning the camp was astir, and the boys saw the men
prepare for a dip into the surf.
"It would be dandy to have a little plunge in those breakers," said
Dick. "How about you, Fritz?"
"Yah, I suppose it would, but I bet it's cold," replied the German,
rubbing his eyes.
"Can we go along with you men?" asked Dick.
"I'll see about it," answered one, walking toward the officers' tents.
He returned in a moment with a favorable reply, and in a jiffy the boys
were racing down the sands with the first group of men.
After an invigorating plunge in the cold waves, the boys dressed
and returned to the camp. All there were astir by now, and the two
prisoners were conducted to the centre of the encampment and left in
charge of two soldiers. Various groups were assembled about their
respective fires, and all were eagerly hastening the preparation of
their morning meal. From each group certain ones were despatched into
the surrounding forest to gather a liberal supply of firewood, while
others measured out portions of coffee, flour and bacon.
The cooks fussed importantly over the fires, ordering the men about
in tones they would not dare to use when away from their important
positions. At meal times the cooks of a camp are always the autocrats.
Dick and Fritz sniffed the air hungrily and thanked fortune that at
least they would not be starved to death.
"There doesn't seem to be any hope of escape just now, does there?"
said Dick.
Fritz wrinkled up his nose and gazed thoughtfully about him.
"For myself, I don't care about escapes till after we eat somedings,"
he returned.
"Then you had better eat it soon," Dick commented, "for if we get a
chance we won't stay around for breakfast. The rest of the troop are
all going down to the water now, and if we have any opportunity at all
this morning it is apt to come now."
As Dick had said, the balance of the troop, by far the largest part,
were leaving for a dip in the ocean, while the breakfast preparations
and prisoners were left in charge of the first little company who had
gone in when the boys did.
"Let's wander over by the beach and watch the crowd," suggested Dick.
"All right. Dot's as good as anyding, only I would like to hurry those
cooks again yet," replied Fritz. "Dot cooking of bacons is bad for my
appetite, already. If they don't make it done soon already I would eat
it unraw."
"You're mighty particular about your food, seeing you're a prisoner,"
laughed Dick.
"In this war it is no fair to torture prisoners," answered Fritz with
spirit. "Und dat's what those Redgoats is doing me to."
"Look at that out there!" exclaimed Dick Dare, pointing as he spoke
to a little dark spot bobbing on the waves in the distance. The boys
had reached the edge of the trees by now, and were forbidden by the
soldiers to go any further.
Fritz shaded his eyes with both hands and squinted in the direction
indicated by Dick.
"Looks like a log," said Fritz.
"Not to me," replied Dick. "Seems to me that there are people in a
small boat. Wonder what they can possibly be doing out there at this
time of the morning?"
"Dot's right. It's peobles!" exclaimed Fritz. "Und they are goming this
way."
The boys watched the approach of the boat with great interest, and when
the party on board stood up to disembark, Dick Dare gave a sudden start.
"That's funny, but it can't be them," he muttered.
"Fritz, do you see anything familiar about the figures in the boat?"
he questioned in an eager whisper.
Before Fritz could study the landing party more closely, the two boys
were ordered back to the camp fires, and try as they might to get
another view of the beach, and the new arrivals, they were unable to
move far enough away from their guards to do so.
"That's bad luck," grumbled Dick. "I had an idea that Tim and Tom were
in that boat. But just when we might have been able to make them out,
off we are hustled, and I don't know now whether it was them or not."
"If it was, they will be here plenty soon enough," said Fritz. "And
then when we are all together once, who will get to Vincennes in dime
already?"
"That would be bad," said Dick, seriously. "If this one group of
soldiers should round up both parties of us, I'm afraid the general's
message will never get through, and we'll all swing for our past
adventures in this awful war. But come, don't let's worry about things
that we are only guessing at. That may not be Tom and Tim, and really,
I don't see how it could be."
For about fifteen minutes nothing new happened, and Fritz and Dick
began to hope that Dick had been mistaken in his surmise that Tom and
Tim were coming ashore.
Then of a sudden they heard a great crashing in the woods where the
horses were tethered, and shouts of, "I'm aboard, mate," and "Shake 'em
out, captain," came plainly to their ears through the trees.
The soldiers about the fires grabbed up their guns and dashed into the
woods toward the horses, and the boys could see for one brief instant
two galloping forms go thundering off through the woods toward the
road. The muskets cracked and the troopers shouted dire threats at the
two men, but although the chase soon drew out of sight, Dick didn't
think that either of the men had been hit, and at the rate they were
going he was quite sure that they would not be overtaken.
The excitement of the moment had left Dick without thought for his
own situation, and it was Fritz who realized that for a moment they
were alone. He heard the officers returning to camp from the beach,
and grabbing Dick by the arm, he scurried off in a direction half way
between that taken by the pursuing soldiers and returning officers.
"Nefer mind the breakfast," Fritz cried, abandoning his greatest need
in the excitement. "Let us out get."
"Good boy," exclaimed Dick. "You have your wits with you to-day, for
sure."
They had no time to talk further, however. The returning soldiers would
soon be hard on their trail, and without horses, they had but a slim
chance of making good their escape. The confusion, and the two parties,
however, helped them more than they had hoped. They reached the road,
crossed it and entered the woods on the other side without being seen.
Dick and Fritz ran on until they felt that if they did not rest soon
their heads would burst. Stumbling along, keeping the sun over their
right shoulders they finally came out upon a great body of water. It
was the Chesapeake, and both of them dropped flat on their stomachs and
bathed their tired heads in the cold salt water.
"This is all right, if we can only get a canoe now," said Dick,
standing up and feeling greatly refreshed.
"It don't look so very fine to me," replied Fritz. "We are here
together, yet with nothing to eat, nothing to shoot with und nothing to
go somewheres with----"
"Nothing to be hung with either. You better remember that and be
happy," said Dick. "We were comfortable in the British camp, maybe, but
we had a noose waiting for us sooner or later, you know."
"Und ve'll keep it vaiting already," responded Fritz, very much cheered
by this viewpoint.