CHAPTER VIII. THE AMBUSH.
Dick Dare and Fritz journeyed for several days without anything happening to impede their progress, and they had made up most of the time that had been lost in their earlier escapades. They took no chances at night and slept out in the open rather than risk capture or trouble in a farm house.
Their midday meals they had bought from farmers, and had eaten them standing by their horses, not caring to experience another loss of those faithful animals.
The boys' spirits rose with their long freedom from trouble, and although they still kept a sharp outlook for signs of the enemy, they didn't find anything to disturb them.
If it had not been for Dick's persistent efforts to hurry, Fritz would have considered the whole affair as an outing for pleasure only, but as it was, their hard traveling and short rests kept him always on the go, and he never felt that he had had quite enough sleep. Dick was tireless and seemed only to think of the haste they were in, and pushed ahead for Vincennes relentlessly. Their long immunity from trouble had lulled Dick into too great a sense of safety, and it was while eating their supper one evening by the roadside that the boys were startled by a bugle call in the woods which lay back of them.
They jumped to their feet, seized the bridles, and climbing hastily into their saddles, started full tilt up the road. Almost instantly a party Redcoats stepped out and halted their progress in that direction. Wheeling hastily, the boys covered about a hundred yards back, fearing that at any moment a volley would follow them, but not a gun was fired, and just as they began to feel new hope, another group of soldiers appeared before them, blocking their way completely.
Dick turned desperately toward the fences at the roadside, but the road was lined with Redcoated, grinning troopers.
"An ambush!" cried Dick.
"Trapped good and proper this time, young feller," observed a corporal, smiling with satisfaction. "Guess you two have kept away from us long enough. Come along and see the major."
The boys were surrounded, and both Fritz and Dick saw that escape was out of the question at present, so both decided to take things coolly and make the best of a bad situation.