The troopers nearabout the boys were so excited and astonished, because what they had counted on as being a complete surprise proved to have been a failure, that no one heard Evan's remark, and the prisoners could have shouted for very joy when the men began speculating one with the other as to how word might have been sent to the patriots.
"It is certain they were ready to receive us," one man said as if in anger because the plan was miscarrying. "That firing is being done by men who were ready for battle as were ours. There has been a traitor in the camp."
"How might that be?" another asked fiercely. "At the last halting-place we were twenty miles from the rebel encampment, and certain it is no one could have ridden ahead of us."
"These two boy did succeed in escaping, despite the fact that Major Ferguson believed them to be safe in the chamber of the dwelling."
"Ay; but what does that prove? We overtook them on the way, and surely you cannot claim that they might have walked twenty miles from the time of escaping until they were recaptured?"
The rattle of musketry increased, and to the eager ears of the boys it seemed as if the noise of the conflict was approaching, which would indicate that the Britishers were being driven back.
"Does it appear to you as if we heard those sounds more clearly?" Nathan asked, hoping he had not been mistaken, and yet feeling almost certain the patriots could do but little more than hold their own.
"I am positive of it!" Evan cried with a ring of joy and triumph in his tone. "Now and then I can hear voices even amid the tumult, and that was impossible five minutes ago."
One of the troopers, overhearing this remark, said to his comrade gloomily:
"The rebels are getting the best of us, who counted on taking them completely by surprise."