a hunted Indian. Jack followed closely. Soon they were
sinking to their knees in a mossy tamarack swamp, but a few minutes of
hard travel brought them to the shore of a pond.

"Wait here till I git the canoe," Solomon whispered.

The latter crept into a thicket and soon Jack could hear him cautiously
shoving his canoe into the water. A little later the young man sat in
the middle of the shell of birch bark while Solomon knelt in its stern
with his paddle. Silently he pushed through the lilied margin of the
pond into clear water. The moon was hidden behind the woods. The
still surface of the pond was now a glossy, dark plane between two
starry deeps--one above, the other beneath. In the shadow of the
forest, near the far shore, Solomon stopped and lifted his voice in the
long, weird cry of the great bush owl. This he repeated three times,
when there came an answer out of the woods.

"That's a warnin' fer ol' Joe Thrasher," Solomon whispered. "He'll go
out an' wake up the folks on his road an' start 'em movin'."

They landed and Solomon hid his canoe in a thicket.

"Now we kin skitter right long, but I tell ye we got purty clus to 'em
back thar."

"How did you know it?"

"Got a whiff o' smoke. They was strung out from the pond landing over
'crost the trail. They didn't cover the swamp. Must 'a' had a fire
for tea early in the evenin'. Wherever they's an Englishman, thar's
got to be tea."

Before midnight they reached Remsen's barn and about two o'clock
entered the camp on lathering horses. As they dismounted, looking back
from the heights of Brooklyn toward the southeast, they could see a
great light from many fires, the flames of which were leaping into the
sky.

"Guess the farmers have set their wheat stacks afire," said Solomon.
"They're all scairt an' started fer town."

General Washington was with his forces some miles north of the other
shore of the river. A messenger was sent for him. Next day the
Commander-in-Chief found his Long Island brigades in a condition of
disorder and panic. Squads and companies, eager for a fight, were
prowling through the bush in the south like hunters after game. A
number of the new Connecticut boys had deserted. Some of them had been
captured and brought back. In speaking of the matter, Washington said:

"We must be tolerant. These lads are timid. They have been dragged
from the tender scenes of domestic life. They are unused to the
restraints of wa