alling to one another, and he also heard the
excited voices of people in the ravine. The civilians had been aroused
by the shots so close by and he thought the confusion would help him. He
stood in the deep shadow, his breath gradually growing easier, and then
he started down the ravine, coming to a little path that led along
the side of the slope. He noticed a dark opening, and as the voices of
pursuers were now coming nearer, he popped into it, trusting to blind
luck.

Dick had thought it was a mere wash-out or deep recess, but at the third
step his foot struck upon a carpet and he saw ahead a dim light. He
paused, amazed, and then he remembered that he had heard about the
civilians digging caves for shelter from the shells and bombs. Evidently
some forethoughtful man had prepared his cave early.

Uncertain what to do he did nothing, pressing his back against the earth
and listening. No sound came, and the dim light still flickering ahead
reassured him.

The opening through which he had come was large, and admitted plenty
of fresh air. As he stood four or five feet from the entrance he saw
several soldiers hurrying along the path, and he knew they were hunting
for him. He realized then his fortune in finding this improvised
cave-house. After the soldiers passed he walked gently toward the light.
Apparently the regular occupants were gone away for the time, and he
might find a hiding place there until it was safe to go out.

The passage was narrow, but the carpet was still under his feet, and
further in, the sides and roof of the earthen walls had been covered
with planks. The light grew brighter and he was quite sure that a room
of some size was just ahead. His curiosity became so great that it
smothered all apprehension, and he stepped boldly into the room, where
the lamp burned on a table.

He would have stepped back as quickly, but a pair of great burning eyes
caught his and held them. A bed was standing against the board wall of
the cave, and in this bed lay an old man with a huge bald head, immense
white eyebrows and eyes of extraordinary intensity.

Once more did Colonel Charles Woodville and Richard Mason stare into the
eyes of each other, and for a long time neither spoke.

"I managed to escape from Jackson with my little family," said the
colonel at length, "and I thought that in this, so to say, sylvan
retreat I might drop all undesirable acquaintances that I made there."

The whole scene was grotes