ke our guns along?" suggested Monty, holding on to
his with grim fearfulness.

"No. Stack 'em; stack 'em, I tell you," said Si impatiently. "And be
quick about it. They'll all git ahead o' you. Don't you see the rest
stackin' arms?"

The boys obeyed as if dazed, and started to follow little Pete's lead
toward the clump of willows.

The boy, full of the old nick, found an Orderly's horse nipping the
grass close by the path to the spring and, boy like, jumped on its back.
The clatter of the canteens frightened the horse, and he broke into a
dead run.

[Illustration: LITTLE PETE'S HORSE BOLTS. 168]

"Do ye s'pose the fight's really over?" whispered Pete to Alf Russell,
who was just behind him. "Don't you think the rebels just let go to get
a fresh hold?"

"Seems so to me," answered Alf. "Seems to me there was just millions
of 'em, and we only got away with a little passel, in spite of all
that shootin'. Why, when we come out on the ridge the valley down there
seemed fuller of 'em than it was at first."

"We oughtn't to get too far away from our guns," said Monty Scruggs.
"Them woods right over there may be full o' rebels watching to jump us
when we get far enough away."

"I don't like the looks of that hill to the left," said Gid Mackall,
nervously. "An awful lot o' them went behind it, and I didn't see any
come out."

"There, them bushes over there are shaking--they're coming out again,"
said Harry Joslyn, turning to run back for his gun.

"No, not there," nervously interjected Humphrey's, turning with him;
"ain't there something stirring down there by the crick?"

"No, no," said Sandy Baker, desperately. "It's just that blame fool
Pete. Come on! Come on! We've got to. We were ordered to. Le's make a
rush for it, like the men in the Indian stories done when they was sent
for water."

They acted on the suggestion with such vim that when Pete's horse
tripped at the edge of the little run, and sent Pete over its head with
a splash into the mud and water, the rest tumbled and piled on top of
him.

The men on the hill, who had noticed it, set up a yell of laughter,
which scared the boys worse than ever, for they thought it meant the
rebels were on them again.

"Now, what new conniption's struck them dumbed little colts?" said Si,
irritably, as he strode down to them, pulled them out, and set them on
their feet, with a shaking and some strong words.

"Is the rebels coming again?" gasped Pete, rubbing the mu