h; you know
what that means, Andy?"

"It means, I s'pose, that we'll go right smack at them," replied Andrew.

"Pretty exactly," said the sergeant. "But listen to me. Just at the edge
of the woods you will have to get down, and put yourself behind a tree.
I'll ride forward, as if I had a whole troop at my heels, and if I
catch them, as I expect, they will have a little fire kindled, and, as
likely as not, they'll be cooking some of your mother's fowls."

"Yes, I understand," said the boy eagerly--

"No, you don't," replied Horse Shoe, "but you will when you hear what I
am going to say. If I get at them onawares, they'll be mighty apt to
think they are surrounded, and will bellow, like fine fellows, for
quarter. And, thereupon, Andy, I'll cry out 'stand fast,' as if I was
speaking to my own men, and when you hear that, you must come up full
tilt, because it will be a signal to you that the enemy has surrendered.
Then it will be your business to run into the house and bring out the
muskets, as quick as a rat runs through a kitchen: and when you have
done that, why, all's done. But if you should hear any popping of
fire-arms--that is, more than one shot, which I may chance to let
off--do you take that for a bad sign, and get away as fast as you can
heel it. You comprehend."

"Oh! yes," replied the lad, "and I'll do what you want, and more too,
may be, Mr. Robinson."

"_Captain_ Robinson,--remember, Andy, you must call me captain, in the
hearing of these Scotsmen."

"I'll not forget that neither," answered Andrew.

By the time that these instructions were fully impressed upon the boy,
our adventurous forlorn hope, as it may fitly be called, had arrived at
the place which Horse Shoe Robinson had designated for the commencement
of active operations. They had a clear view of the old field, and it
afforded them a strong assurance that the enemy was exactly where they
wished him to be, when they discovered smoke arising from the chimney of
the hovel. Andrew was soon posted behind a tree, and Robinson only
tarried a moment to make the boy repeat the signals agreed on, in order
to ascertain that he had them correctly in his memory. Being satisfied
from this experiment that the intelligence of his young companion might
be depended upon, he galloped across the intervening space, and, in a
few seconds, abruptly reined up his steed, in the very doorway of the
hut. The party within was gathered around a fire at the further end