n the entrance and began to work quietly by the dim firelight.
The searchers passed by. All sorts of schemes for rescue entered his
head. Suddenly he thought of a small group of prisoners he had seen
pass by about dark. He had talked with one of them, a major. A guard
said they were on their way to General Denby's camp. He would save
him! Putting on his hat, he opened the front door and slipped out. A
sentinel tramping up and down on the porch accosted him surlily to know
where he was going.

"Won't you come in and get warm?" said Bob, hospitably.

"Can't. Wish I could. It's cold enough out here. Cold as th' State
of Maine. I wish I was in old York right now by a good stove."

"I wish you were, too," said Bob, with sincerity.

"I'd give a mite to see that old white steeple again, and the moonlight
on the snow stretching down toward the mill-pond; and hear the tide
ripping in."

"What do you do with your prisoners when you catch them?" inquired Bob.

"Send some on to prison--and hang some."

"I mean when you first catch them."

"Oh, they stay in camp. We don't treat 'em bad, without they be spies.
There's a batch at camp now, got in this evening--sort o'
Christmas-gift." The soldier laughed as he stamped his feet to keep
warm.

"Where's your camp?" Bob asked.

"About a mile from here, right on the road, or rather right on the hill
at the edge o' the pines 'yond the crick."

The boy left him, and sauntered in and out among the other men who were
building a fire in the yard. Presently he moved on to the edge of the
lawn beyond them. No one took further notice of him. In a second he
had slipped through the gate, and was flying across the field. He knew
every foot of the ground as well as a hare, for he had been hunting and
setting traps over it since he was as big as little Charlie. He had to
make a detour at the creek to avoid the picket at the bridge, and the
dense briers in the bottom were very bad and painful. However, he
worked his way through, though his face and hands were severely
scratched. Into the creek he plunged. "Outch!" He had stepped into a
hole up to his waist, and the water was as cold as ice. However, he
was soon through, and at the top of the hill he could see the glow of
the camp-fires lighting up the sky.

He crept up cautiously, and saw the dark forms of the sentinels pacing
backward and forward wrapped in their overcoats, now lit up by the
fire, then growing blac