s's wuss'n a battle," he remarked to the boys around him. "I'd
ruther take you out on the skirmish-line than through them trains agin."

However, he had come to get some comprehension of the lay of the ground
and the movements of the trains by this time, and by careful watching
succeeded in gathering in his boys, one after another, until he had them
all but little Pete Skidmore. The opinion grew among them that Pete had
unwisely tried to keep up with the bigger boys, who had jumped across
the track in front of a locomotive, and had been caught and crushed
beneath the wheels. He had been seen up to a certain time, and then
those who were last with him had been so busy getting out of the way
that they had forgotten to look for him. Si calmed Shorty down enough to
get him to forget the trainmen for awhile and take charge of the squad
while he went to look for Pete. He had become so bewildered that he
could not tell the direction whence they had come, or where the tragedy
was likely to have happened. The farther he went in attempting to
penetrate the maze of moving trains, the more hopeless the quest seemed.
Finally he went over to the engineer of a locomotive that was standing
still and inquired if he had heard of any accident to a boy soldier
during the day.

"Seems to me that I did hear some o' the boys talkin' about No. 47 or 63
havin' run over a boy, or something," answered the engineer carelessly,
without removing his pipe from his mouth. "I didn't pay no attention to
it. Them things happen every day. Sometimes it's my engine, sometimes
it's some other man's. But I hain't run over nobody for nigh a month
now."

"Confound it," said Si savagely; "you talk about runnin' over men as if
it was part o' your business."

"No," said the engineer languidly, as he reached up for his bell-rope.
"'Tain't, so to speak, part o' our regler business. But the yard's
awfully crowded, old Sherman's makin' it do five times the work it was
calculated for, trains has got to be run on the dot, and men must
keep off the track if they don't want to git hurt. Stand clear, there,
yourself, for I'm goin' to start."

Si returned dejectedly to the place where he had left his squad. The
expression of his face told the news before he had spoken a word. It was
now getting dark, and he and Shorty decided that it was the best
thing to go into bivouac where they were and wait till morning before
attempting to penetrate the maze beyond in search of t