r.

"You've had a brisk and brave fight, Sentry," cried Captain Ruggles
warmly. "I heard your first shot, and rushed here as fast as I could
come."

In reality, long as the time had seemed, hardly more than a full minute
had passed. Captain Ruggles, with a pair of white-striped trousers drawn
on over his pajamas, and slippers on his feet, presented a picture of
speed.

Hal bent beside his old enemy of the home town to see where Tip had been
hit.

Captain Ruggles, changing his revolver to his left hand, drew a match
and struck it.

Tip's first apparent wound was a graze at the top of his right shoulder.
A dark, red stain appeared there. Another bullet had grazed his right
wrist.

The third wound apparent was at the right side of the chest.

"It'll need a rain-maker (Army surgeon) to tell whether that bullet
touched the scoundrel's right lung," declared Captain Ruggles.

At that instant a woman's voice sounded from one of the windows of the
house behind them:

"Corporal of the guard, you'll find Captain Ruggles and the sentry
somewhere back of the garden."

Then came the sounds of running feet. Corporal Sanders was coming with
the guard.

That incident showed the young soldier, more clearly than anything else
could have done, how brief the duel between Tip and himself had been.

For Hal knew that, when the alarm is sounded, accompanied by the sound
of a shot, the corporal and the guard come on the dead run.

"Right here, Corporal of the guard!" shouted Captain Ruggles, standing
up. "Send one man back immediately for hospital men and a stretcher."

"Hospital men and a stretcher, Davidson," called the corporal, and one
soldier detached himself from the running squad, wheeling and racing
back.

Then the corporal of the guard dashed up at the head of his men, giving
Captain Ruggles the rifle salute by bringing his left hand smartly
against the barrel of his piece.

Barely behind the guard came Lieutenant Hayes, of A Company, who was
officer of the day.

"The sentry has caught one of the burglars, Hayes," called Captain
Ruggles, as the lieutenant came up on the run.

"Glad of it, sir. It's about time."

Then, turning to Hal, Lieutenant Hayes continued:

"You're sentry on number three, Private Overton?"

"Yes, sir."

"Make your report in as few words as you can."

This Hal did, telling about the two men whom he saw sneaking away with
bundles, and also about the third man who had joined in firing