Tom slipped away from the building, and presently reached the wall, and located a set of steps that the soldiers used in climbing to the platform on the inside of the wall. He climbed these steps, and reached the platform, and at that moment he heard footsteps advancing, and the form of the sentinel loomed up indistinctly.
Tom realized that he was about to be discovered. What should he do? He did not like the idea of being recaptured, and discovery and capture seemed unavoidable and indeed imminent.
He stood there, hesitating, only a few moments, and then suddenly he heard an exclamation from the sentinel, who asked: “Who is there?”
There was no time to lose, if he were to escape. Tom realized this, and did the first thing that occurred to him, which was to climb to the top of the wall and leap to the ground.
He dropped down outside the enclosure, but instead of striking the ground, he struck something which he realized was a human form. And with the realization came the belief that the person in question was a British soldier.
With this belief in his mind, he leaped to his feet and started to run away as fast as possible, while from above came the command: “Halt! Stop, or I’ll fire!”
Then to his hearing came the words, “Is that you, Tom?” It was the voice of his brother Dick, and Tom replied joyously:
“Yes, Dick.”
Crack! It was a musket-shot. The sentinel, hearing the voices, and thinking, perhaps, that an attack was about to be made, fired, as much to give the alarm as with the expectation of hitting the person that had escaped from the enclosure.
The bullet did not hit Tom, who had stopped, and as soon as he was joined by Dick, they hastened onward, and were quickly at a point of safety and out of range. There they paused and stood listening.