“Ober neah the blockhouse.  De sogers done tuk it to fish.”

“Ah, yes, the blockhouse!  I must look into that!  Now, we must hurry.  Skirt the edge of the water and make no noise.”

This was a needless warning to the boy, who, barefooted and scantily clad, gave Jack as much as he could do to keep up with him.  They had left the cabin a mile or more behind them to the southeastward, and were somewhere near the spot Jack had emerged from the cypress swamp, when both were brought to a halt by shifting clouds of smoke pouring out from the underwood.

“Where does that come from?” Jack asked, throwing himself flat to catch his breath.

“Dunno, sah.  Most likely de sojers sot de brush on fiah.”

When Jack was able to look again he saw far in among the trees a moving wave of light now and then, as the heavy curtain of smoke was lifted by the wind.

“Good heavens!” he ejaculated; “it was in there I left my friends.  Can we get to them?”

“No, sah; der ain’t no crick dah.”

“Then!” Jack thought, “have I sacrificed Dick and Jones in my zeal to be adventurous?  Ten minutes sooner, and we could have gone in and brought them out.  But I will find a way in, if I have to clamber over the tree-tops.”

The noise of whirring wings, the rush of startled animals, now drowned all other sounds, until, through the tumult from the copse far in front of them, they heard the clatter of swords, and then gigantic figures breaking toward them, along the edge of the pond.

“Down, down; hug the ground!” Jack cried, pushing the boy down into the reeds.  Almost as they sank, a group of troopers dashed by, talking excitedly.

“Fire at random, men; that will force them into cover!  If we can keep them in ambush till daylight, the dogs will be here, and we shall nab them,” Jack heard a voice say as the men rode past.

How could they have heard of the affair so quickly, for Jack took it for granted that it was his exploit that the troopers were afoot to balk?  Still another group passed, and they were talking of the dogs that were expected.

“You may depend upon it, they are in the swamp.  They are making off that way and hope to mislead us by firing the place.  We must keep our eyes peeled on the swamp.  The creek will stop them down yonder, and we must watch this break in the brush.  As soon as the dogs come we shall have no trouble.  They’ll run ’em down in no time.”

Jack had heard enough to warn him that it was useless to try to penetrate the swamp.  With half of his usual wit, Dick would have been en route long before this, for the fiery glow in the woods showed that the flames had been raging some time.  Unless Jones’s illness had handicapped him, Dick would be on his way, following Jack’s route as closely as the darkness would permit.  But now he must seek means to evade the dogs.  This could be done only by reaching the water and getting into it far from the point where they proposed to leave it.