Page:Tomlinson--The rider of the black horse.djvu/101

Rh succeeding, too. Cornwallis was at Brimswick, and doing all he could to get our men to come down from the hills and fight him. But General Washington was too much of a fox for that. He knew his men were no match for the regulars; and if he can keep the redcoats where they are, or in New York, they won't be able to come up the river to help Burgoyne."

"Some of them have come," said Hannah.

"They have? When? Where? What did they do?" demanded Robert quickly.

"Oh, they came up as far as Peekskill and did some damage there."

"Yes, I know all about that, but they went back to New York again. They 've been trying in all sorts of ways to fool us. First they pretend they 're going to sail up the sound and attack Boston, and then they start across Jersey, or pretend to sail down the coast to Philadelphia. They have tried every way to keep Washington from going up to join the forces of General Philip Schuyler. But he has his eyes open. They have n't fooled him yet."

"I don't think they'd go very far up the Hudson."

"Why not?"

"Well, there's Fort Putnam and Fort Independence and Fort Constitution and Fort