Crack! went the pistol, and a howl of pain, rage and surprise commingled went up on the night air. "Oh--ow!--ouch! I'm shot!" cried one of the voices. "There are other rebels at hand, comrade! Perhaps we're surrounded!" This gave Tom an idea, and he at once acted upon it. If he could make the redcoats think there were a number of patriot soldiers around, they might be put to flight, and then he could look for Dick, and learn whether he were injured. "Come on, boys!" he yelled loudly. "Charge the scoundrelly redcoats! Kill them! At them, I say!" And then, drawing his other pistol, he fired another shot. He had no way of knowing whether this bullet hit either of the redcoats, but he had evidence that it was effective in one way, for he heard the British soldiers going tearing down the slope, through the underbrush at a great rate. They had undoubtedly been seized with a panic and taken to their heels. Tom waited till he could no longer hear any sounds of the fleeing redcoats, and then he called out: "Dick! Oh, Dick!" Chapter IX The Brothers Together Almost at once came the reply: "Tom! Oh, Tom, is that you?" "Yes, Dick. I'll be right with you." He hastened in the direction from which Dick's voice sounded, and a few minutes later was at his side. "What in the world brought you here, Tom?" queried Dick. "I was never so surprised in my life as when I heard your voice." "I'll tell you why I come, Dick. After you left your quarters in New York, I got to thinking, and I remembered what I had told mother-that I would go to war with you and fight side by side with you, you know, and I thought of how I had let you go away on a dangerous spying expedition alone, and I decided to follow you. I went and asked permission of General Washington to come over here, and he gave it." "He was willing for you to come, then, was he?" "Yes. He held back a little at first, but when I told him about having promised mother I would stick by you, he then said I might come." "Well, it has been all right, so far. You got here just in time to frighten those redcoats away, but I don't believe that two can do spy-work successfully." "We don't need to both actually do the spy-work, Dick. You can do that, and I'll stay back and wait and watch, and then if anything should happen to you, I would perhaps be able to render you some assistance." "True. Well, now that you are here, you may as well stay with me. We'll go on down in the neighborhood of the British encampment together, and then you can hunt at hiding-place and I will go ahead and see what I can do in the way of spying." "Very well, Dick. That will suit me." "Come, then." "You were not hit by the bullet from the redcoat's musket, Dick?" somewhat anxiously.