There was a haggard, despairing look in the British officer’s face as he, at length, laid down his sword. Tom called Cole from his post, and the giant negro mounted guard over him. In a few moments Tom discovered that the three redcoats had ridden up to the schoolhouse just as the children were about leaving it for the day. The boy whom they were about to hang, young as he was, was the schoolmaster; the girl and the two younger children were his sister and brothers, who had clung to him in his danger, even after all the others had scattered, terror-stricken, to their homes about the countryside. “Richmond,” said the young schoolmaster, “is about three miles away, straight ahead. Keep to the road; you can’t help but strike it.” Cole bound the prisoner upon his horse, which was found tied behind the schoolhouse; the young girl and her brother thanked them with tears in their eyes; and then they mounted and rode away in the direction indicated. It was quite dark when they, at length, sighted the lights of the town from a rise in the ground; they skirted a clump of woods and entered a lane which was lined with trees upon each side and was very dark. However, as it seemed to lead directly to Richmond, they pushed ahead without any hesitation. They had ridden well into the lane, when a volley of shots rang out; Cole clutched at his arm, and the prisoner’s horse fell kicking in its death agonies. Cole took his rein in his teeth and, following Tom’s example, drew his pistol as he set spurs to his horse. With great leaps Sultan and Dando bounded forward and as they sped down the dark lane they heard their late prisoner’s voice crying after them, triumphantly, “When you reach De Lafayette, tell him how you caught me, and how I slipped through your fingers!” Within an hour after escaping this ambush Tom was in the camp of Marquis de Lafayette, and was explaining his mission to that brave gentleman himself. “It is almost a miracle that you have escaped capture,” said he, speaking with a slight French accent. “Your ride from North Carolina must have been filled with many perils.” “Yes, general,” answered the youth; “but the strangest of all happened on the road just below the town.” “Ah! and what was that?” In a very few words Tom told him of his capture of the British brigadier, the ambush, and the prisoner’s cry when he found himself safe with his friends once more. The general’s keen eyes flashed. “What was he like--your prisoner?” he demanded. “Describe him!” and Tom began to tell what he could remember. But almost at the first word General de Lafayette came to his feet with a spring, and his clinched fist struck the table a blow that made it dance.