Poor Tom! He knew it would be hopeless to expostulate. He felt that he was doomed to become an inmate of one of the prison-ships, and as he thought it would be useless he said not a word, but accompanied the soldiers without making any show of resistance. "Take him past the other encampments and let him see the whole army," called General Percy after them. "When one has as much curiosity as he seems to be possessed of, it should be satisfied." This was sarcasm and intended to hurt Tom's feelings and humiliate him, but instead it only aroused a feeling of resentment in his breast, and almost before he realized what he was saying, he exclaimed aloud: "I'd like to kick him!" "Who, the general?" queried one of the soldiers. "Yes," said Tom, boldly. "You'd better not let him hear you say anything like that, sonny!" "Say, comrades," remarked another, maliciously, "let's go back and tell the general what he said." "No, let's not," said another. "The general would whip out his sword and cut the boy's head off. Come on; it will be punishment sufficient to be incarcerated in the old prison-ship, even if he is a spy." "I guess you're right about that, comrade." "If it was me," spoke up another, "I believe I'd rather have my head cut off and be done with it, than to be imprisoned in that old hulk." "I guess you're about right," agreed the first speaker. "I certainly would hate to have to change places with you, my boy." Tom decided that the prison-ship must be a terrible place, and he was destined to soon find that such was really the case. They passed the main encampment of the British, as they went to the beach, and the patriot youth thought that the British would be hard to defeat, with such a strong army. "There must be fifteen or twenty thousand soldiers there" was his estimate. Soon the little party was at the beach, and getting into the old row-boat, the soldiers rowed out to the hulk furthest north, and assisted Tom to the deck. Here they found a British soldier on guard. "What have you got there, comrades?" this soldier asked, looking at Tom in surprise. "Another prisoner, Hawkins. He is only a boy, but the general is of the opinion that he is a rebel spy, so down he goes into the hold with the rest of the rebels." "All right; down with him. But I wouldn't think the rebels would send out such a young one to do spy-work." "Well, the general thinks he's a spy, and that settles it." "It certainly does so far as I am concerned. Down with him." The hatch was opened, and Tom was assisted down the ladder to the bottom of the hold, and then leaving him there, with his hands still tied together behind his back, the soldiers mounted the ladder and put the hatch in place, leaving Tom in complete darkness. As he realized his situation, a shudder went over the youth's form. "I don't like this!" he murmured. Chapter XII Dick Does Wonderful Work