"Was that a cannon, or was it thunder?" inquired Tom quickly.
"Thunder. We may hear the cannon before long, though."
"Why don't we start on, then? The sooner we gain the army the better. We don't want to be caught in here between them." Tom spoke anxiously, and his fear was as apparent in the expression upon his face as in his words.
"We've got to give our horses a bit of a rest. Mine has been going hard all night, and yours won't be able to go far in such heat as this. We'll have to be careful of their strength, or we shall be worse off than we are now."
"Have you been out all night? What have you been doing?"
"Finding out what Clinton is up to. When I was talking with Nathan I knew all the time more about it than he did."
"Did you find out?" said Tom eagerly. "What are the redcoats doing now?"
"Pretty much the same thing they've been doing right along. They're making a change in the direction they're going, unless I'm greatly mistaken. And then, too, they've done something else which doesn't promise very well."
"What's that?"
"They've drawn all their stronger forces into the rear guard and sent on the Hessians with the baggage train in front, for one thing."