"Oh," Tommy gasped out, as, breathless from the struggle he had just gone through, he stared at his captor, "it is you, is it? Hal said he was sure it was Dodds, but I am jolly glad that you are not Dodds. He is conceited. I should not have liked to have been taken prisoner by him."
"Oh, you wouldn't, wouldn't you?" said the boy with a twinkle in his eyes. "But who told you that I—that Dodds, I mean—was conceited? Young Danvers, I suppose?"
"No; Hal didn't. He likes Dodds. But we others don't think very much of him."
The boy laughed.
"Dodds is a great friend of mine," he said. "I shall tell him what you have said. But never mind that now. Tell me what I am to do. Can you be exchanged or ransomed, or are you allowed to escape if you can?"
"I don't think they will ransom me," Tommy said reflectively. But he was far too wary to tell the enemy why. "And I mayn't try to escape until one of them has touched me; and till I am rescued the fort can't be taken."
"That's good news," said the boy. "I shan't let you be taken in a hurry. How will they try to rescue you?"
Tommy shook his head. He knew better than to allow himself to be drawn into giving any information, and the boy laughed at his caution, and climbing on to one of the two empty orange boxes, which were the only seats that the fort contained, he kept a good lookout.
Tommy climbed on to the other, and standing on tiptoe was just able to peer over the edge of the fort.
The open space that surrounded it was deserted, and although Tommy searched the bushes with anxious eyes he could not see any signs of his fellow-besiegers. He knew that Hal must be exceedingly angry with him, and that if the attack on the fort could have been carried on while he was a prisoner, he would have been left there as a punishment.