echoing hoof. She wished the men
would speak; their silence re-enforced the strange aspect. They might
have been two dead men.

The girl felt impelled to look at the corner of the interior where were
the cow stalls. There was no light there save the appearance of peculiar
gray haze which marked the track of the dimming rays of the lantern. All
else was sombre shadow. At last she saw something move there. It might
have been as small as a rat, or it might have been a part of something
as large as a man. At any rate, it proclaimed that something in that
spot was alive. At one time she saw it plainly and at other times it
vanished, because her fixture of gaze caused her occasionally to greatly
tangle and blur those peculiar shadows and faint lights. At last,
however, she perceived a human head. It was monstrously dishevelled and
wild. It moved slowly forward until its glance could fall upon the
prisoner and then upon the sentry. The wandering rays caused the eyes to
glitter like silver. The girl's heart pounded so that she put her hand
over it.

The sentry and the prisoner remained immovably waxen, and over in the
gloom the head thrust from the floor watched them with its silver eyes.

Finally, the prisoner slipped from the feed box, and, raising his arms,
yawned at great length. "Oh, well," he remarked, "you boys will get a
good licking if you fool around here much longer. That's some
satisfaction, anyhow, even if you did bag me. You'll get a good
walloping." He reflected for a moment, and decided: "I'm sort of willing
to be captured if you fellows only get a d----d good licking for being
so smart."

The sentry looked up and smiled a superior smile. "Licking, hey? Nixey!"
He winked exasperatingly at the prisoner. "You fellows are not fast
enough, my boy. Why didn't you lick us at ----? and at ----? and at
----?" He named some of the great battles.

To this the captive officer blurted in angry astonishment, "Why, we
did!"

The sentry winked again in profound irony. "Yes--I know you did. Of
course. You whipped us, didn't you? Fine kind of whipping that was! Why,
we----"

He suddenly ceased, smitten mute by a sound that broke the stillness of
the night. It was the sharp crack of a distant shot that made wild
echoes among the hills. It was instantly followed by the hoarse cry of a
human voice, a far-away yell of warning, singing of surprise, peril,
fear of death. A moment later there was a distant, fierce spattering o