“Surrender, you rebel!” cried the sergeant. “We arrest you, Dick Dare, in the name of the king!” CHAPTER XVI—The Bottle of Cider The girls uttered cries of fear and ran into the other room. The young men stood their ground, but made no move to interfere. Doubtless they sympathized with the three youths--with the exception of Ralph Hicks--but did not feel like trying to fight ten British soldiers, for the sake of the three almost strangers. Dick Dare realized that it would be foolish to try to resist or attempt an escape. The redcoats were within arm’s-length of them, armed with pistols, and to try to get away would be to get bullets in their bodies before they were out of the room. So he said: “We surrender. Don’t shoot,” and the sergeant nodded and said: “That’s sensible. Turn your backs to us and place your hands behind you.” The patriot youths obeyed, and the redcoats quickly bound their wrists with cord that was brought to them by Mr. Hart, the man of the house, at their command. It was easy to see that he did not like this, but the redcoats were strong enough so that they could do as they wished, and protest would avail nothing. The three prisoners were placed in the kitchen, in one corner, and the sergeant confronted them, saying: “So you rebels are down here from the North with an army, are you?” “Yes,” replied Dick, quietly. “What do you think you are going to do?” “We are going to make it warm for Arnold and his troops,” said Dick. The sergeant smiled sarcastically. “I don’t think _you_ will have much to do with it,” he said. “You are going with us to our camp, when we leave here, and to-morrow we will rejoin the main army, and Arnold will likely string you up to a tree, as I have heard him speak of you as being a rebel spy.” “You haven’t got us to this encampment yet,” said Dick, calmly. “Bah. How came you to be here to-night?” “That is our business.” “You won’t answer, eh?” “No.” “All right. It don’t make any difference, anyway. We’ve got you, now, so you can’t do whatever you had the intention of doing. I judge that likely you were searching for Arnold’s encampment.” “Oh, possibly.” “Well, you won’t have to search any longer. We’ll see that you get there, to-morrow--and that you stay a while, my fine young rebel.” “Thanks,” said Dick, sarcastically. Then the sergeant placed a redcoat on guard, to see that the prisoners made no attempt to escape, after which he returned to the front room, and the dancing was started up again, and went on with seeming merriment. But the fact was, that the young people were not enjoying themselves as much as had been the case before the advent of the redcoats.