He had nearly reached the corner of the enclosure when he heard a commotion within the enclosure. The sound of excited voices came to him, and the clatter of weapons, and then he heard a noise above his head. He looked upward quickly, and as he did so, a human form came over the top of the wall and dropped down, striking Dick and knocking him to the ground. CHAPTER XXII Tom Makes a Discovery Tom Dare did not like the idea of being a prisoner in the hands of the British, but he was in what seemed to be a pretty strongly-built building, and his chances of getting out seemed pretty slim. And even if he were to get out of the building, he would have difficulty in getting out of the enclosure. But Tom as we know was a determined youth, and he made up his mind to do all he could to make his escape. It was not until about dark of the evening on which Dick had come to the fort, however, that Tom discovered that there was a loose board in the floor, and when he had lifted the board, he discovered that there was a considerable opening underneath the floor. He had already had his supper and did not think that anyone would enter the room, so he crawled down through the opening, replaced the board, and worked his way along till he came to the edge of the building. Here he found that an embankment of earth had been piled up against the side of the building, and he proceeded to dig through this. It was slow work, but he persevered, and finally he managed to get a large enough hole made so that he could crawl through. This he did, and presently stood erect beside the building. He looked around him, sizing up the situation carefully. It was already pretty dark, and Tom could not see very well, but this would be more to his advantage than to the advantage of the sentinels, for they could not see him unless they were close to him. Tom slipped away from the building, and presently reached the wall, and located a set of steps that the soldiers used in climbing to the platform on the inside of the wall. He climbed these steps, and reached the platform, and at that moment he heard footsteps advancing, and the form of the sentinel loomed up indistinctly. Tom realized that he was about to be discovered. What should he do? He did not like the idea of being recaptured, and discovery and capture seemed unavoidable and indeed imminent. He stood there, hesitating, only a few moments, and then suddenly he heard an exclamation from the sentinel, who asked: “Who is there?” There was no time to lose, if he were to escape. Tom realized this, and did the first thing that occurred to him, which was to climb to the top of the wall and leap to the ground. He dropped down outside the enclosure, but instead of striking the ground, he struck something which he realized was a human form. And with the realization came the belief that the person in question was a British soldier.