"H'm! Hughson got away and so will I," boastfully.
"I shall see to it that you do not," shortly.
Having finished the examination of the stone house, Dick took Pike to the general's headquarters and turned him over, the man being put under guard at once and some men sent to watch the place. Hughson had escaped through the negligence of a fresh recruit, who had not understood the importance of his prisoner, and had supposed him to be simply a man who had been locked up for insubordination and was sorry for it, Hughson carrying the thing through cleverly.
"The man will be more careful the next time, having been so close to punishment," thought Dick, "and knowing that we are in earnest and will show him no mercy."
Dick went one way and Bob another, both in disguise, for the very sight of a Continental uniform would frighten the man now and put him on his guard. Dick made his way along the wharves on both rivers, keeping a lookout for the man, but without success, seeing many suspicious characters, but none whom he knew to be spies. Having settled the business, he went to the camp, where he found the girls and Sarah Watrous being entertained by the Liberty Boys.
After dinner the girls returned alone, Dick being busy looking for signs of the enemy along shore, and going around the city in disguise searching for the spy, who he believed would try to learn more about the disposition of the troops on the island, the forts, the amount of supplies, the roads and other matters of importance. It was getting on toward evening, and Dick was over on the East River side of the city, when he saw a boy of about fourteen being abused by an evil-looking man.
"What are you striking that boy for?" he asked, stepping up and putting the boy behind him.
"I got a right to abuse him, he's mine!" snarled the other. "The ungrateful hound won't do things for his own dad."
"Is this man your father?" Dick asked.
"Yes, he is, but I don't want to give him the money I earn to buy drink with, for then he abuses mother and the little children and—"