"But my son Tom has been in there. I reckon a Yankee could crawl inter as
small a hole as anybody."

The sergeant thought this was funny; and he honored the remark with a
hearty laugh, in which Somers was disposed to join, though he regretted
for the first time in his life that he was unable to "crawl out at the
little end of the horn." He was encouraged by the skepticism of the
soldier, and was satisfied, that, if he attempted to demonstrate the
proposition experimentally, he would be fully convinced of its
difficulty, if not of its impossibility.

"Go and bring another lamp and a pole," said the sergeant.

One of the party went up the stairs, and Somers gave himself up for lost.
The extra lamp would certainly expose him, to say nothing of the pole;
and it seemed to be folly to remain there, and be punched with a stick,
like a woodchuck in his hole. Besides, there is something in tumbling
down gracefully, when one must inevitably tumble; and he was disposed to
surrender gracefully, as the coon did when he learned that Colonel
Crockett was about to fire and bring him down. There was no hope; and it
is bad generalship, as well as inhuman and useless, to fight a battle
which is lost before the first shot is fired.

We have before intimated that Captain Somers, besides being a brave and
enterprising young man, was a philosopher. He had that happy
self-possession which enables one to bear the ills of life, as well as
the courage and address to triumph over them. He had done everything
which ingenuity, skill, and impudence could accomplish to save himself
from the hands of the rebel soldiers; from a rebel prison, if not from a
rebel halter. He had failed; and, though it gave him a bitter pang to
yield his last hope, he believed that nothing better could be done than
to surrender with good grace.

"How are you, sergeant?" shouted he, when he had fully resolved upon his
next step.

"Hallo!" replied the sergeant, laughing heartily at the hail from the
bowels of the earth. "How are you, Yank?"

"In a tight place, sergeant; and I've concluded to back out," replied
Somers.

"Good! That's what all the Yankees will have to do before they grow much
older. Back out, Yank!"

Somers commenced the operation, which was an exceedingly unpleasant
necessity to a person of his progressive temperament. It was a slow
maneuver; but the sergeant waited patiently till it was accomplished, by
which time the extra lamp and the pole had