t to decide what to do. Through the swamp he ran with a lightness
and ability of which in calmer moments he would have been scarcely
capable. The exigency of the occasion inspired him. Such leaps he took
over miry places! so safely and swiftly be ran the length of an old mossy
log! so nimbly he avoided the undergrowth! and so suddenly he arrived at
last at the tree the rebel was descending!

For he was a rebel indeed. Frank knew that by his gray uniform and short
jacket. He had been perched in the thick top of a tall pine to pick off
our men during the skirmish. It was he who had taken the bark from the
tree near Captain Edney's head. It was he who had basely thought to
assassinate those who were carrying away the wounded. And now, the
advancing troops having passed him, he was taking advantage of the
solitary situation to slip down the trunk and make his escape through the
woods.

Unfortunately for him, he could not go up and down trees like a squirrel.
He proceeded _hugging_ his way so slowly and laboriously that Frank
reached the spot when he was still within a dozen feet of the ground.
Hearing a noise, and looking down over his arm, and seeing Frank, he
would have jumped the remainder of the distance. But Frank was prepared
for that.

"Stop, or I'll fire!"

Shrill and menacing rang the boy's determined tones through the soul of
the treed rebel. He saw the gun pointed up at him; so he stopped.

"What's wanting?" said he, gruffly.

"I want you to throw down that rifle as quick as ever you can!" cried
Frank.

"What do you want of my rifle?"

"I've a curiosity to see what sort of a piece you use to shoot at men
carrying off the wounded."

And the "grayback" (as the boys termed the rebels) could hear the ominous
click of the gun lock in Frank's hands.

"Was it you I fired at?"

"Yes, it was; and I'm bound to put lead into you now, if you don't do as
I tell you pretty quick!"

"I can't throw my gun down; I can't get it off," remonstrated the man.

"You never will come down from that tree alive, unless you do!" said
Frank.

"Well, take the d----d thing then!" growled the man. And unclasping one
arm from the tree, while he held on with the other and his two legs, he
slipped the belt over his head, and dropped the gun to the ground. "If it
had been good for any thing, I reckon you wouldn't be here now, bothering
me!" he added, significantly.

"No doubt!" said Frank. "You are brave fellows, to shoot out of