Having gradually increased the size of his fuel and consequently the blaze, until he judged it hot enough, Dick drew his hunting knife, cut two pieces of bacon from his precious store, and laid them in the pan on the coals. The dough he now rolled into flat round cakes and placed in the pan with the bacon to fry. Carefully turning the cakes and bacon from time to time with the flat of his knife, he prepared a meal fit for a king, but destined to be eaten by an enemy of all kings.
Dick fretted and fumed all that afternoon, and toward dusk ventured out from his retreat and rode slowly back in the direction of the British camps, whose exact whereabouts he had to determine. At the top of a slight rise he saw in the distance the glow of the soldiers' camp-fire, and making his horse fast to a tree, some distance from the road, he proceeded carefully on foot toward the sentinel lines and the British encampment.
Half way up to the camp he dropped flat on the ground and waited for the nearest outpost to come to the end of his stretch, exchange a word with his neighbor, and turn back. Then Dick crawled between the two while their backs were turned, and was safely inside the lines. But where was Fritz? And how badly was he wounded? Could he have been killed?
Dick, after considerable reconnoitering, located a stout log house in front of which a sentry strolling was talking to his nearby companions around a fire. Dick was near enough to hear plainly all that was said.
"The old Dutchman snores," laughed the sentinel.
"Hurray," thought Dick, "that means Fritz and then he can't be very seriously wounded."
Dick crept up behind the hut, which was built of stout logs, and discovered with joy that there was a small barred window. Through this he lightly threw a small stone to attract the prisoner's attention.
"Get oud," yelled Fritz, who was surprised from his sleep by the missle.
"Wait till I come in," said his guard, from the other side of the house. "Quit your Dutch dreams and prepare to go on to the next world, cause you're due to take that trip tomorrow, sure."