t has pumped enough out of my veins to irrigate my
face with a beautiful scarlet flow."

"The mill hands may never have pulled trigger before," said Harry,
"but it looks as if they were learning how fast enough. Down, Tom!"

Again the smoke and fire burst from the forest, and the bullets whined
in hundreds over their heads. Two heavier crashes showed that the
cannon were also coming into play, and one shell striking within the
fort, exploded, wounding a half dozen men.

"I suppose that everything happens for the best," said Langdon, "but
having got into the fort, it looks as if we couldn't get out again.
With the help of the earthwork I can hide from the bullets, but how are
you to dodge a shell which can come in a curve over the highest kind of
a wall, drop right in the middle of the crowd, burst, and send pieces
in a hundred directions?"

"You can't," said St. Clair, who appeared suddenly.

He was covered with dirt and his fine new uniform was torn.

"What has happened to you?" asked Harry.

"I've just had practical proof that it's hard to dodge a bursting shell,"
replied St. Clair calmly. "I'm in luck that no part of the shell itself
hit me, but it sent the dirt flying against me so hard that it stung,
and I think that some pieces of gravel have played havoc with my coat
and trousers."

"Hark! there go our cannon!" exclaimed Harry. "We'll drive them out of
those woods."

"None too soon for me," said St. Clair, looking ruefully at his torn
uniform. "I'd take it as a politeness on their part if they used
bullets only and not shells."

They had not yet come down to the stern discipline of war, but their
talk was stopped speedily by the senior officers, who put them to work
arranging the young recruits along the earthworks, whence they could
reply with comparative safety to the fire from the wood. But Harry
noted that the raking fire of their own cannon had been effective.
The Northern troops had retreated to a more distant point in the forest,
where they were beyond the range of rifles, but it seemed that they had
no intention of going any further, as from time to time a shell from
their cannon still curved and fell in the fort or near it. The Southern
guns, including those that had been captured, replied, but, of necessity,
shot and shell were sent at random into the forest which now hid the
whole Northern force.

"It seems to me," said St. Clair to Harry, "that while we have taken the
fort we have