“That was the only way I could secure any information regarding the arrangements of the buildings within the enclosure,” said Dick.
After supper, Dick again set out. He made his way at a moderate pace, and finally reached the edge of the open ground shortly after dark. He stopped just within the edge of the forest and looked across at the fort for a few minutes. Then he began making his way toward the fort, slowly.
It was a rather dark night, and he could just make out the fort, looking like a faint shadow, and he felt certain that the sentinels could not see him.
He was at the wall of the fort in about fifteen or twenty minutes, and began making his way along it, feeling for a place where he could climb to the top, as Ben said he had done.
He had nearly reached the corner of the enclosure when he heard a commotion within the enclosure. The sound of excited voices came to him, and the clatter of weapons, and then he heard a noise above his head. He looked upward quickly, and as he did so, a human form came over the top of the wall and dropped down, striking Dick and knocking him to the ground.
CHAPTER XXII
Tom Makes a Discovery
Tom Dare did not like the idea of being a prisoner in the hands of the British, but he was in what seemed to be a pretty strongly-built building, and his chances of getting out seemed pretty slim. And even if he were to get out of the building, he would have difficulty in getting out of the enclosure.
But Tom as we know was a determined youth, and he made up his mind to do all he could to make his escape. It was not until about dark of the evening on which Dick had come to the fort, however, that Tom discovered that there was a loose board in the floor, and when he had lifted the board, he discovered that there was a considerable opening underneath the floor.
He had already had his supper and did not think that anyone would enter the room, so he crawled down through the opening, replaced the board, and worked his way along till he came to the edge of the building. Here he found that an embankment of earth had been piled up against the side of the building, and he proceeded to dig through this. It was slow work, but he persevered, and finally he managed to get a large enough hole made so that he could crawl through.
This he did, and presently stood erect beside the building. He looked around him, sizing up the situation carefully. It was already pretty dark, and Tom could not see very well, but this would be more to his advantage than to the advantage of the sentinels, for they could not see him unless they were close to him.