IN CAMP "Count noses, Andy, and be quick about it," said Phil hastily. "My own squad are all here, Phil. Look to your own Musket Boys. If the tally's right, we'd better take leg bail, for the mischief is done, and--here come the Tories!" It was a new scene, that occupied by Phil, Andy and others, the time nightfall, the spot opposite Boston, near Cambridge. Some twenty boys bubbling over with animation and excitement surrounded Phil and Andy. Each ran his eye over the two groups of which the crowd was composed. "All here," sang out Phil. "Run for it fellows!" Down the bank of the Charles river Phil and Andy started on a keen run, their laughing, gossiping comrades following them. They left behind them a large yawl and several men, rushing towards it. Out in the stream there bobbed up some bulky bales and parcels, floating swiftly with the current. "Didn't even see us," said Andy triumphantly, slowing down his gait. "Trick number two--inside of a week. Those fellows will think it wise to leave a guard on their plunder, the next time." "We don't want to try it too often," advised Phil. "They may set a trap for us." The occasion was a raid on the enemy at close quarters. Affairs had changed for Phil and Andy and their friends during a month's rapid and exciting flight. They were now real soldiers, for the continental army was an actual fact, and they were members of it. After the defeat at Concord, Gen. Gage's troops had ventured on no more forays into the surrounding country. The raiders were taught a lasting lesson, and had met with a terrible experience in their retreat to Boston where every inch of the way was disputed. Utterly routed, harassed at every town and hedgerow by patriot skirmishers, a forlorn, defeated remnant of the original invading force, they had skulked back into Boston, "very small potatoes," indeed! They had shut the loyalists out of Boston. Now the loyalists retaliated by shutting the redcoats and Tories into Boston. In fact, the city was beleaguered. There were points open to the British for an occasional brief foray into the country across the Charles river, but they did not dare to go far, for the country, fully aroused by the Concord incident, had sprung to arms instantly. The result was the formation of the continental army all over the land, and the New England forces, forming a well-disciplined camp at Cambridge, virtually held the Boston redcoats passive. Everybody in the colonies was enlisting. Andy had selected nearly a dozen of the older boys of the Concord marching club, and had signed the military roster. The party, including himself, Phil and Ralph, had gone to Cambridge. They were accepted as volunteers a day or two afterwards. Many members of the Musket Boys of Boston managed to cross the river undiscovered in the dark, and Phil found himself a juvenile leader with his dear old chums under his official wing, ready to battle for him and the cause of liberty.