They shook hands, and then Ben asked: “What became of you after we got separated, Dick? I hunted around quite a good deal for you, and signalled, but you did not answer.”
“Likely if you were near me when you uttered any of the signals, it was while I was insensible, and I did not hear you, of course.” Then Dick explained that he had fallen into a pit that had been dug as a trap to capture wild animals, and that he had fallen so hard as to knock him senseless. And then he told of there being a panther in the pit, and Ben uttered an exclamation.
“Phew!” he murmured, “that wasn’t very pleasant, was it?”
“No, indeed,” said Dick. “But I managed to climb up a limb that I found there, and make my escape, and then I headed toward Ninety-Six.”
Then he told Ben the same story that he had told General Greene, and Ben was glad to know that Tom was alive and probably well, though a prisoner in Fort Ninety-Six. Full particulars he gave too, of the kindly hunter to whom they owed their life and opportunity to escape from the savages.
“We’ll have Tom out of there before very long,” said Ben, reverting to the problem at hand.
“General Greene said for me to reconnoiter,” said Dick, “and I guess that I will take a look at the fort to-day, and then visit it to-night.”
“There isn’t much that you can learn,” said Ben. “I found out the strength of the stockade-walls, and that is about all there is to learn, from the outside. If you could get within the walls, you could secure definite information regarding its strength, but you can’t do that.”
“I suppose not,” said Dick.
A little while after luncheon, Dick left the encampment and made his way in the direction of Fort Ninety-Six. He reached the edge of the timber, presently, and stopped and gazed across at the fort. He could not venture out into the open ground without being seen by the sentinels, of course, and so he did not advance farther.