CHAPTER X—To the Rescue
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!”