e to command
the farther side of the valley away to his right and in a direction
where he hoped to find the land clear, he started again.

"Why, they are everywhere!" said the lad half-aloud and with a faint
groan of dismay; for there, higher up the opposite side, were a couple
of sentries who seemed to be looking straight down upon him. "Why, they
must have seen me!" he muttered; and for quite an hour now he lay
without stirring, half in the expectation of seeing the low bushes in
motion and a little party of the blue-coated enemy coming across to
secure fresh prisoners.

But the time wore on, with the chill of the night dying out in the warm
sunshine now beginning to search Pen's side of the valley with the
bright shafts of light, which suggested to him the necessity for
covering his well-kept rifle with the leafy twigs he was able to gather
cautiously so as not to betray his presence.

He was in the act of doing this when, turning his head slightly, a flash
of light began to play right into his eyes, and he stopped short once
more to try and make out whether this had been seen by either of the
enemy on duty, for he now awoke to the fact that poor Punch's bugle was
lying quite exposed.

The fact was so startling that, instead of trying to reach its cord and
draw the glistening instrument towards him, he lay perfectly still
again, sweeping the sides of the valley as far as he could in search of
danger, but searching in vain, till the thought occurred to him that he
might achieve the object he had in view by cautiously taking out his
knife and cutting twig after twig so that they might fall across the
curving polished copper.

This he contrived to do, and then lay still once more, breathing freely
in the full hope that if he gave up further attempt at movement he might
escape detection.

"Besides," he said to himself, with a bitter smile playing upon his
lips, "if they do make us out they may not trouble, for they will think
we are dead."

He lay still then, waiting for Punch to awaken so that he could warn him
to lie perfectly quiet.

The hours glided by, with the sun rising higher and setting the watcher
thinking, in spite of his misery, weariness, and the pangs of hunger
that attacked him, of what a wonderfully beautiful contrast there was
between the night and the day. With nothing else that he could do, he
recalled the horrors of the past hours, the alternating chills of cold
and despair, and the howli