"I'se done bin tol', chillun, dat dere's six or seben big French ships layin' in Lynn Haven bay, whar dey've come to stop de Britishers from runnin' away 'fore Gin'ral Washington gets a chance to trounce 'em right smart."
"You've been told that, Uncle 'Rasmus?" I cried in amazement. "Have you been toddling around this town after pretending that you were so crippled with aches and pains that you couldn't move out of your chair?"
"Sure I hasn', honey, sure I hasn'. Yer Uncle 'Rasmus ain' no sich fool as dat; but de still trout wha' lays under de shadder ob de rock catches a good many more flies what drif down de stream, dan does de fish what am leapin' an' plungin' to beat de band. Say, wha' you tink when I done tole you Gin'ral Lafayette wid all his army is layin' at Williamsburg des waitin' fo' a chance to jump down on de back ob Gin'ral Cornwallis?"
Pierre and I looked at each other questioningly, as if asking whether the old negro had suddenly taken leave of his senses, for it seemed impossible he could have gathered information which was of the greatest importance to us, while we who had been moving around through the encampment had failed to hear anything of the kind.
"Have you been dreaming, Uncle 'Rasmus?" little Frenchie asked with a smile. "Surely you couldn't have picked up all that news while being denned in here."
"I did fo' a fac', honey, an' s'posen yer Uncle 'Rasmus kin tell you dat Gin'ral Washington is a hustlin' fo' to get all his sogers down dis yere way so's to make de Britishers don' gib him de slip? I'se 'lowin', chillun, dat now's de time when de king's men hab done got dereselves in a mighty small box."
"If you didn't dream it, how did you come to learn all these things?" I asked impatiently, and the old negro replied as he pattered to and fro in front of the fire, adding to the already plentiful supply of provisions before us:
"Don' you 'member Marse Peyton's ole Joe, honey? Course you do, kase you've seen him on de plantation more times dan I'se got hairs on dis yere gray head. Well, ole Joe is right in dis yere town, waddlin' back an' forth, makin' out as ef he was waitin' on some ob de British ossifers. Marse Peyton done sent him down here so's he could keep his ears open, an' he's come dis berry day from Williamsburg, where he sneaked off so's to tell Gin'ral Lafayette wha' he done foun' out."
Again Pierre and I looked at each other in amazement, and I must also add with no little of disappointment. We had been flattering ourselves that it might be possible for us to play the spy upon the Britishers, and thereby earn much of credit for our small company of Minute Boys, never for the moment dreaming that there might be others in the village who were playing the same part; but surely not allowing that an old negro, a slave, might be employed in the same work.
"It begins to look as if we were not needed very much in this town of York," Pierre said after a brief time of silence, and I could well understand by the tone of his voice how disappointed he was because thus suddenly had we been shown that the American army could well dispense with our services, since others were engaged in the work we would have taken up.