dstill, and we are doing nothing."

"I don't know but you are right, Lieutenant Lyon; at any rate, I obey
your orders," replied Butters, mollified by the compliment to his men
and himself, to say nothing of the praise of Kentucky horses.

"Your men have ceased firing," added Deck, who did not believe in any
stay of a successful action.

"The men have come to the end of the line, and I have not started a new
round," Butters explained.

"Then start it by bringing down the first horse at the head of the
column," continued the Riverlawn lieutenant. "Tell the next man to
bring down the soldier as the horse drops. Do you know the location of
the horse's brain?"

"I ought to; I'm a hoss-doctor to home, and I've had to shoot 'em afore
now when they got a broken leg, or were too sick to get well. You'll
see whether I know where the brains is," replied Butters, as he raised
his rifle and fired. "Fire at the man!" he called to the first number
in the line as the animal dropped, splashing his former rider with
water, which seemed to blind him; for he was stooping forward, more
effectually to conceal his head behind the animal.

Number one discharged his piece, and almost instantly the trooper
followed the horse. Butters went to the second rifleman, and ordered
him to shoot the next horse, telling him the part at which he was to
aim. He proceeded along the whole length of the line, instructing the
even numbers to shoot the horse, and the odd the man. Not a man failed
to hit his mark, and there was soon a gap in the column. Every officer
had fallen, and a panic seized the privates as the death-line marched
up the stream. They were brave men; but the horses and men seemed to
fall as though they had been prostrated by bolts from heaven, and the
men could not see their executioners.

Without any orders, unless the sergeants gave them, the men leaped out
of the stream, and ran with all the speed the nature of the ground
would permit. The deserted horses remained in the brook, and not
another one of them was shot. Not only those who had been more nearly
exposed to the deadly fire of the sharpshooters, but those who were far
in the rear of them, fled from the field. Of course they had leaped out
of the water on the farther side of the stream, and were running to the
north, or in the direction of the road from Jamestown to Harrison, and
were liable to fall in with the outskirts of General Thomas's camp.

Deck witnessed the utter ro