Fritz remained on sentinel duty an hour or so longer, and then was relieved from duty. But next morning the soldiers had quite a lot of sport jollying Fritz about his wildcat that he thought was a gang of Indians coming to surprise the camp. CHAPTER XIII Tom and the Redcoats The day after Tom Dare became a member of the company of British soldiers, he went with a party of about twenty on a trip toward the southward, where it was said the patriots were thick, nearly all being patriots in fact. Captain Kane instructed Lieutenant Wicks, who was to have charge of the party, to plunder the patriot homes and take prisoners, where the patriots showed signs of resistance or anger. “Bring them here,” he said, “and we will make them join our force and fight for the king.” “All right, Captain Kane,” was the reply. “I have heard,” went on the captain, “that General Greene is on his way to Ninety-Six, with a force of about one thousand men, and if he has as strong a force as that, then we will need all the men we can get, for we have only about six hundred.” Then the party set out, and made its way toward the south. For several miles their route was through a region where the majority of the settlers were loyalists, and these were not bothered. “There is a settlement about twenty miles from here, in among the mountains,” said the lieutenant to the soldiers nearest to him as they made their way along, “and it is made up wholly of rebels. I have been wanting to get a chance at them for a good while, and I am going straight there. We will help ourselves to any of their belongings that we care for, and will take the men prisoners and make them come back to Ninety-Six and fight for the king when General Greene puts in an appearance.” “I know where that settlement is,” said one of the soldiers. “They are strong rebels, up there.” “Yes, but we’ll make them wish they were loyal to the king before we get through with them,” said the lieutenant. Tom listened to the conversation of the lieutenant and the soldiers with interest, and he began wondering if he could not manage to in some manner get word to the settlers of their danger. “I’ll try to do so,” he decided. “If any opportunity is offered to me, I will slip away and try to get to the settlement ahead of the redcoats and warn the settlers.” The party of British soldiers did not hurry. They did not care to reach the settlement until evening, anyway, and so they made their way along at a moderate pace, and stopped an hour and a half at noon, and after they had eaten, they proceeded at the same moderate pace, and it was getting along toward evening when the lieutenant said they were within two miles of the settlement, which was in a high valley, up in among the mountains.