"Then I will make arrangements for your mother and the children to go up there at once and you can follow shortly. The enemy will eventually get possession of the city, and you will be better off out of it than in it.
"I will get ready as soon as you say, Captain," shortly.
"Then I think you had better not delay, for I believe that it is a matter of a few days only, perhaps not more than one, when the enemy will be in possession."
The boy then went away, and in half an hour Alice and Edith came to the camp, and Dick told them about Tom and his mother.
"I think you had better return shortly, Alice," he added, "and take the boy's mother and the little children with you. Tom will very soon establish himself when he gets there and will be much better off than in New York."
The girls were ready to go very shortly, for the evidences of the enemy's preparations to seize the city were more and more visible. One or two ships had gone up the East River the previous night, and the ships were all much nearer to the city than they had been the day before. After Alice and Edith had gone, Dick and Bob went down to the lower end of the city to investigate, and found one or two ships at Governor's Island, just opposite, the people in the lower sections being in a state of considerable anxiety.
"That looks as if there might be something going on in a short time," muttered Bob.
"I think so myself, and I am glad that I suggested to the girls that they had better leave. The British are getting ready to invade the city, and we don't know how soon they may attack us on all sides."
"Then we will all have to get out or else be obliged to run the blockade."
"Exactly, and we must learn all we can of Howe's moves."