"Yes; but she said he had gone back to the fort to get help."
"That is what she thought--what I thought until just now," the boy explained, and he quickly told of his discovery.
"I don't understand it," the young Tory said in a puzzled tone. "It looks as if he had been in Bennington ever since night before last, and if that's so, I don't see why he didn't come out to our house."
Discuss the matter as the boys would, neither could explain the mystery, and finally Fred said:
"I'll overtake him and find out," and, whipping up his horse, he trotted rapidly down the road in the trail of the two scouts.
They must also have ridden fast, for it was not until the two were breaking their fast beside a wayside spring, that young Lyman came up with them.
He was clattering down a small hill when he first caught sight of them, and would have been glad to stop and reconnoiter a little, for he recognized them as the two lads he had seen at Bennington, in company with the rebels. But his horse had seen the other animals, and with a loud whinny dashed on toward them.
The young scouts heard the noise of the horse's hoofs before he came into view, and were on their feet, rifles in hand, ready for any emergency the moment he appeared. Recognizing the rider, Ira exclaimed:
"It is Fred Lyman! What can he be doing here? We must stop him and find out."
"We won't have to do that," Dan replied. "He's trying to hold up his beast. Perhaps he has been trying to overhaul us."
In another moment the young Tory drew up within a few feet of the lads, eyeing them somewhat suspiciously. They, on their part, looked sharply in return, but waited for him to speak.
"Hello! are you Ira Le Geyt?" he asked at last.
"That is what they call me," the young scout replied pleasantly, "and you are my cousin, Fred Lyman?"
The newcomer leaped to the ground and gazed at the speaker earnestly before he spoke, and then it was to use almost precisely the same words his father had a few days previous in the British camp:
"Well, you look like cousin Fred," Ira replied, "though you may have grown a little since I last saw you," (and he added under his breath, "but it is mighty little, for I saw you only yesterday").
"I have grown lots since you visited us," young Lyman declared with evident pride, "but see here, Ira, where have you been all the time since the rebels captured father?" and there was an angry tone in his voice.
