Tim Euston finds a dead body, and while he and his friend Dan are suspecting each other of murder and treason, they stumble upon two renegade redcoats who draw them into a plot to “seize” highly valuable munitions off of a British Army base.

It was May of 1777, the beginning of the third year of the American War for Independence, on territory controlled by the British. In the back of a general store, Tim (age 17) had just found the body, when the proprietor burst in, accusing him of murder. 

Tim got away, went to a judge, and claimed the dead man was a rebel spy. Tim said he got a good look at the murderer and that the victim’s last words were “Sam Baker”, the name of a notorious rebel spy. Tim got himself off the hook, but he had just volunteered to assist the enemy, an odd position for a boy who was already spying for George Washington.

Tim and Dan had been about to cross over to New Jersey to join the Continental Army and make it into an elite unit before the war was over. But then, Dan showed Tim a pair of pistols he had somehow acquired on the day of the murder. And why should Dan trust Tim, now that he has volunteered to serve a tory judge? They were still wondering, when they met up with the renegade redcoats.