4
Soon after that the daring spirit of the youth led him into a greatadventure. It was on the night of January fifth that Jack penetratedthe British lines in a snow-storm and got close to an outpost in astrip of forest. There a camp-fire was burning. He came close. Hisgarments had been whitened by the storm. The air was thick with snow,his feet were muffled in a foot of it. He sat by a stump scarcelytwenty feet from the fire, seeing those in its light, but quiteinvisible. There he could distinctly hear the talk of the Britishers.It related to a proposed evacuation of the city by Howe.
"I'm weary of starving to death in this God-forsaken place," said oneof them. "You can't keep an army without meat or vegetables. I'veeaten fish till I'm getting scales on me."
"Colonel Riffington says that the army will leave here within afortnight," another observed.
It was important information which had come to the ear of the youngscout. The talk was that of well bred Englishmen who were probablyofficers.
"We ought not to speak of those matters aloud," one of them remarked."Some damned Yankee may be listening like the one we captured."
"He was Amherst's old scout," said another. "He swore a blue streakwhen we shoved him into jail. They don't like to be treated likerebels. They want to be prisoners of war."
"I don't know why they shouldn't," another answered. "If this isn't awar, I never saw one. There are twenty thousand men under arms acrossthe river and they've got us nailed in here tighter than a drum. Theyused to say in London that the rebellion was a teapot tempest and thata thousand grenadiers could march to the Alleghanies in a week andsubdue the country on the way. You are aware of how far we havemarched from the sea. It's just about to where we are now. We've goneabout five miles in eight months. How many hundreds of years will passbefore we reach the Alleghanies? But old Gage will tell you that itisn't a war."
A young man came along with his rifle on his shoulder.
"Hello, Bill!" said one of the men. "Going out on post?"
"I am, God help me," the youth answered. "It's what I'd call a hell ofa night."
The sentinel passed close by Jack on his way to his post. The lattercrept away and followed, gradually closing in upon his quarry. Whenthey were well away from the fire, Jack came close and called, "Bill."
The sentinel stopped and faced about.
"You've forgotten something," said Jack, in a genial tone.
"What is it?"
"Your caution," Jack answered, with his pistol against the breast ofhis enemy. "I shall have to kill you if you call or fail to obey me.Give me the rifle and go on ahead. When I say gee go to the right, hawto the left."
So the capture was made, and on the way out Jack picked up the sentinelwho stood waiting to be relieved and took both men into camp.
From documents on the person of one of these young Britishers, itappeared that General Clarke was in command of a brigade behind thelines which Jack had been watching and robbing.
When Jack delivered his report the Chief called him a brave lad andsaid:
"It is valuable information you have brought to me. Do not speak ofit. Let me warn you. Captain, that from now on they will try to trapyou. Perhaps, even, you may look for daring enterprises on that partof their line."
The General was right. The young scout ran into a most daring andsuccessful British enterprise on the twentieth of January. The snowhad been swept away in a warm rain and the ground had frozen bare, orit would not have been possible. Jack had got to a strip of woods in alonely bit of country near the British lines and was climbing a talltree to take observations when he saw a movement on the ground beneathhim. He stopped and quickly discovered that the tree was surrounded byBritish soldiers. One of them, who stood with a raised rifle, calledto him:
"Irons, I will trouble you to drop your pistols and come down at once."
Jack saw that he had run into an ambush. He dropped his pistols andcame down. He had disregarded the warning of the General. He shouldhave been looking out for an ambush. A squad of five men stood abouthim with rifles in hand. Among them was Lionel Clarke, his rightsleeve empty.
"We've got you at last--you damned rebel!" said Clarke.
"I suppose you need some one to swear at," Jack answered.
"And to shoot at," Clarke suggested.
"I thought that you would not care for another match with me," theyoung scout remarked as they began to move away.
"Hereafter you will be treated like a rebel and not like a gentleman,"Clarke answered.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that you will be standing, blindfolded against a wall."
"That kind of a threat doesn't scare me," Jack answered. "We have toomany of your men in our hands."