CHAPTER XXII
Tom Makes a Discovery
Tom Dare did not like the idea of being a prisoner in the hands of theBritish, but he was in what seemed to be a pretty strongly-builtbuilding, and his chances of getting out seemed pretty slim. And even ifhe were to get out of the building, he would have difficulty in gettingout of the enclosure.
But Tom as we know was a determined youth, and he made up his mind to doall he could to make his escape. It was not until about dark of theevening on which Dick had come to the fort, however, that Tom discoveredthat there was a loose board in the floor, and when he had lifted theboard, he discovered that there was a considerable opening underneaththe floor.
He had already had his supper and did not think that anyone would enterthe room, so he crawled down through the opening, replaced the board,and worked his way along till he came to the edge of the building. Herehe found that an embankment of earth had been piled up against the sideof the building, and he proceeded to dig through this. It was slow work,but he persevered, and finally he managed to get a large enough holemade so that he could crawl through.
This he did, and presently stood erect beside the building. He lookedaround him, sizing up the situation carefully. It was already prettydark, and Tom could not see very well, but this would be more to hisadvantage than to the advantage of the sentinels, for they could not seehim unless they were close to him.
Tom slipped away from the building, and presently reached the wall, andlocated a set of steps that the soldiers used in climbing to theplatform on the inside of the wall. He climbed these steps, and reachedthe platform, and at that moment he heard footsteps advancing, and theform of the sentinel loomed up indistinctly.
Tom realized that he was about to be discovered. What should he do? Hedid not like the idea of being recaptured, and discovery and captureseemed unavoidable and indeed imminent.
He stood there, hesitating, only a few moments, and then suddenly heheard an exclamation from the sentinel, who asked: "Who is there?"
There was no time to lose, if he were to escape. Tom realized this, anddid the first thing that occurred to him, which was to climb to the topof the wall and leap to the ground.
He dropped down outside the enclosure, but instead of striking theground, he struck something which he realized was a human form. And withthe realization came the belief that the person in question was aBritish soldier.
With this belief in his mind, he leaped to his feet and started to runaway as fast as possible, while from above came the command: "Halt!Stop, or I'll fire!"
Then to his hearing came the words, "Is that you, Tom?" It was the voiceof his brother Dick, and Tom replied joyously:
"Yes, Dick."
Crack! It was a musket-shot. The sentinel, hearing the voices, andthinking, perhaps, that an attack was about to be made, fired, as muchto give the alarm as with the expectation of hitting the person that hadescaped from the enclosure.
The bullet did not hit Tom, who had stopped, and as soon as he wasjoined by Dick, they hastened onward, and were quickly at a point ofsafety and out of range. There they paused and stood listening.
There was considerable noise and excitement at the fort. Lights showedin the upper room of the fort, and presently the gate opened and it wasevident that some soldiers had come forth, with the intention ofpursuing the fugitive.
"I guess we had better go in the direction of the patriot encampment,Tom," decided Dick. "Those redcoats will be here in a few minutes, andit will be best for us to be somewhere else."
They made their way through the forest, and told their stories as theywent. By the time they had finished relating their remarkableexperiences they were at the encampment, and Tom accompanied Dick to theheadquarters tent, for he had a better knowledge regarding the interiorof the fort than Dick. He had been in all the rooms when he was supposedto be a member of the British force, and the information he gave aboutthe building was received with pleasure by General Greene.
Then, having given all the information in their possession, Dick andTom, went to their quarters, where Tom was given a cordial greeting byhis comrades.
Next morning General Greene called a council of war. When the officerswere all in the tent, the general told them that he had made up his mindto begin the attack that morning, if the idea met with the approval ofthe officers.
There was not much discussion, for the members of the staff were alleager to advance on Fort Ninety-Six and attack the fort. As soon as ithad been decided as to the details, the soldiers broke camp and advancedslowly, dragging the field-pieces with them.
When they reached the edge of the wood, they halted and planted thefield-pieces for effective use and began firing on the fort.
The little six-pound balls did not make much impression on the heavylogs, however, and it seemed doubtful if they would damage thestockade-walls very much.
This firing was kept up pretty steadily, but did not have much effect,and it was decided to wait till nightfall, and try to set fire to thefort.
Slowly the hours rolled away, and when evening came, the soldiers begangathering dry wood, with the intention of carrying it and placing itagainst the wall, and then when it was set on fire, there would be a bigblaze, by the light of which redcoats could be shot if they attempted toput out the fire.
Luckily it was a dark night, and the soldiers were enabled to carry thewood and pile it against the walls without being seen, though they hadto exercise great care to avoid discovery.
Among those who were most active in this work were Dick and Tom Dare andBen Foster, and they were eager to see the fire started, for they hopedit would result in the capture of the fort.
Slowly the work went on, and at last a sufficient amount of wood hadbeen piled against the wall, and now the next move was to set fire tothe wood.
This would be a very dangerous undertaking, as the moment the fire wasstarted, the person or persons starting it would be revealed by thelight of the flames, and would be in danger of being shot before theycould get out of range.
General Greene did not like to name anyone for this dangerous work, andso he called for volunteers. A dozen of the soldiers, Dick and Tom Dareand Ben Foster among them, stepped forward at once, and offered theirservices.
"I expected that there would be plenty who would be willing to riskgetting shot in order to render a service to the patriot Cause," saidthe general. "But, how shall I choose from among you?"
"By lot," suggested a soldier. And this was done, and the result wasthat Dick Dare and Tim Murphy were the ones who were to venture up tothe wall of the fort and set the fire.
"Sure an' we are the byes phwat can do thot work, all roight, Dick,"said Tim.
"We will do the best we can to make a success of setting the wood onfire," replied Dick.
They provided themselves with flint and steel and tinder, and then setout in the direction of the fort.
Slowly they made their way to the point where the wood was piled againstthe wall, and, reaching there, they crouched down, got out their flintand steel and tinder, and got ready to start the fire.
Suddenly these sparks caught in the tinder.]
Slowly and carefully they began striking the flint with the steel, andwith each blow they expected to hear a commotion from the sentinels onthe platform along the wall.
Click, click, click. With each click little sparks flew from the flint,and suddenly these sparks caught in the tinder, which blazed upwardquickly, revealing the two brave patriots who were thus risking theirlives for the good of the patriot Cause.
The light from the tinder was seen by the sentinels above, and the nextmoment there was a great outcry, and the sentinels, looking over andcatching sight of the two patriots, who were now running away from thefort as fast as possible, opened fire, and several musket-shots werefired at the fugitives.
Luckily, however, none of the shots were effective, the bullets goingwide of the mark, and Dick and Tim ke
pt on running and were soon in thetimber and among their comrades.
Then the patriots watched the growing fire eagerly, and the soldiersthat had been instructed to shoot the redcoats if they tried toextinguish the fire, waited eagerly for the attempt to be made, theirmuskets held in readiness for instant use.
Then suddenly the gate of the fort was thrown open and out rushed alarge number of British soldiers, bringing water with which to put outthe fire.
And as they appeared, the patriot soldiers opened fire, and a rain ofbullets was poured in among the British.
Crash! roar! Loudly the volleys rang out, and yells of pain and ragewent up from the lips of the redcoats struck by the bullets.
And then to the rattle of the musketry was added the boom-boom of thefield-pieces.