Page:Tomlinson--The rider of the black horse.djvu/141

Rh be demanded, that they should be left with no one to protect them from the marauding bands of Tories or cowboys. Already the deeds of these outlaws were becoming so frequent that some concerted action was necessary against them, but the greater peril which now threatened the struggling colonies from the advance of John Burgoyne and the possible and expected movements of the redcoats up the lordly Hudson to join their comrades from the north, was of a nature to demand all the attention and energies of the little army of the patriots.

Robert was familiar with the action of the Congress early in the war, when it had been decided to fortify some of the places in the highlands and narrows of the Hudson, and was aware of the part which General Washington had taken in the oversight of the task. He himself had been within most of these little forts, and well knew the direction which he must follow in order to gain an entrance into Fort Montgomery, where he was hoping to find General George Clinton. The fort itself stood on a sharp precipice about a hundred feet above the waters of the river, and to the young soldier, on the occasion of his first visit, it had seemed to be