idea that you and your mother are up here,
Tom, and it is not likely that he will trouble you any more."

"Well, I hope he won't, Captain, but you can't tell, as I said."

"No, but we will do all we can to keep him away. His reputation is not
good, and if he appears in camp we will warn him that if he does not
keep away he will be arrested."

"That may have some effect, though if he thought that arresting just
meant being put in jail he wouldn't care, because he's been there before
lots of times."

"We will make him understand just what it means, Tom," said Dick, "and I
think he will keep away, but then, he has not appeared at all yet."

"No, that's so, and I was making out as if he had or was going to," with
a smile. "Well, perhaps he won't."

The boy's look and tone seemed to indicate that he was afraid the man
would come, however, and Dick said no more about it. Tom went back to
Dick's house, and the Liberty Boys did not see him again for two or
three days. Meantime the commander-in-chief, whose confidence Dick
enjoyed, sent for the boy and said:

"There is an important mission which I wish to entrust to some one,
Captain, and I know of no better, person than yourself to do it. Get
ready at once to go down to the city and obtain certain information.
Procure a disguise and a horse, and then come to me, and I will furnish
you with money for your expenses and a pass, which will enable you to
get through the lines."

"Very good, your excellency," Dick replied, and in half an hour he was
ready to start.

Bob, Mark, or any of the Liberty Boys, in fact, would have been glad to
go with him, but the general thought it was best to go alone, and so he
took no one with him. The pass had been taken from a spy whom the
patriots had captured and enabled Dick to get through the lines in
safety. Reaching the city, he set about getting the information
required, and secured it the first day he was there. That night there
was an alarm of fire in the lower part of the city, and Dick dressed
himself and went out with many others to ascertain its extent and see
what he could do to help put it down.

It had started in a low groggery on Whitehall wharf and was of
considerable extent, spreading as far as Beaver street, and then
shifting to the west, and going as far as the river and nearly to
Partition street, Trinity church being destroyed on the way. It had
started by accident, but many of the British declared that it had been