"Then you had better eat it soon," Dick commented, "for if we get a chance we won't stay around for breakfast. The rest of the troop are all going down to the water now, and if we have any opportunity at all this morning it is apt to come now." As Dick had said, the balance of the troop, by far the largest part, were leaving for a dip in the ocean, while the breakfast preparations and prisoners were left in charge of the first little company who had gone in when the boys did. "Let's wander over by the beach and watch the crowd," suggested Dick. "All right. Dot's as good as anyding, only I would like to hurry those cooks again yet," replied Fritz. "Dot cooking of bacons is bad for my appetite, already. If they don't make it done soon already I would eat it unraw." "You're mighty particular about your food, seeing you're a prisoner," laughed Dick. "In this war it is no fair to torture prisoners," answered Fritz with spirit. "Und dat's what those Redgoats is doing me to." "Look at that out there!" exclaimed Dick Dare, pointing as he spoke to a little dark spot bobbing on the waves in the distance. The boys had reached the edge of the trees by now, and were forbidden by the soldiers to go any further. Fritz shaded his eyes with both hands and squinted in the direction indicated by Dick. "Looks like a log," said Fritz. "Not to me," replied Dick. "Seems to me that there are people in a small boat. Wonder what they can possibly be doing out there at this time of the morning?" "Dot's right. It's peobles!" exclaimed Fritz. "Und they are goming this way." The boys watched the approach of the boat with great interest, and when the party on board stood up to disembark, Dick Dare gave a sudden start. "That's funny, but it can't be them," he muttered. "Fritz, do you see anything familiar about the figures in the boat?" he questioned in an eager whisper. Before Fritz could study the landing party more closely, the two boys were ordered back to the camp fires, and try as they might to get another view of the beach, and the new arrivals, they were unable to move far enough away from their guards to do so. "That's bad luck," grumbled Dick. "I had an idea that Tim and Tom were in that boat. But just when we might have been able to make them out, off we are hustled, and I don't know now whether it was them or not." "If it was, they will be here plenty soon enough," said Fritz. "And then when we are all together once, who will get to Vincennes in dime already?" "That would be bad," said Dick, seriously. "If this one group of soldiers should round up both parties of us, I'm afraid the general's message will never get through, and we'll all swing for our past adventures in this awful war. But come, don't let's worry about things that we are only guessing at. That may not be Tom and Tim, and really, I don't see how it could be."