"Then leave most of your men here and come on," Ned replied.
This plan was agreed upon, and would have been carried out at once had not something not on the program of the night intervened. Captain Martin had detailed two men to sit with the wounded and stationed the others in a circle about the house when a shot was fired off to the east.
"I didn't think they would have the nerve to attack the house openly before we got away," Captain Martin remarked.
All listened intently, but there was no more shooting.
"That sounded to me more like a signal than anything else," Ned observed. "I wonder if they are out in force?"
"I think I'd better call the men in," Captain Martin remarked.
The words were hardly out of his mouth when a skulking form appeared in the dim light which now fell from the stars. The fellow was creeping from the house outward.
"A spy!" Jack whispered. "Shoot, some one. I haven't my gun with me.
Shoot!"
The skulking man appeared to hear the words, though they were spoken in a very low tone, for he sprang to his feet and dashed away at full speed. In a second he was lost to view in the thicket.
"Say, but that chap is some runner!" Jimmie cried. "He went so fast I never thought to wing him!"