“They’re going to stay there and watch the path, and keep the patriot settlers from leaving the swamp,” determined Miller. “Doubtless the settlers have not very much in the way of food supplies with them on the island, and the redcoats figure on starving them out.”
“Yah, dot is der vay uf id, I bet you,” said Fritz.
Miller was silent and thoughtful a few minutes, and then said: “I wonder if there is another path leading to the swamp?”
“Uf der vos, der patriot seddlers could leave der island,” said the Dutch soldier.
“There might be a path reaching almost to the island,” said Miller. “The path might not be seen from the island, and yet might be reached by making a bridge of a fallen tree, and if that were the case, the settlers could escape.”
“Ve mighd loog for der path, alretty,” said Fritz. “Ve haf nothing else to do.”
“All right, that is what we will do, Fritz. Come.”
They moved slowly and cautiously away, and presently reached the edge of the swamp at a point about a half of a mile from the encampment of the British soldiers. The intervening trees and bushes made it impossible for the redcoats to see them.
They then started along the edge of the shore of the swamp, and kept a sharp lookout for any sign of a solid path. They went slowly, so as to be sure and not by any possibility overlook what they were in search of.
On they went, keeping their eyes on the shoreline, and they had gone perhaps a mile further, when they suddenly came to a point where there was a path leading into the swamp.