egan to shiver with the cold.

"Where are you goin' to take us?" asked Bolder, presently.

"To a safe place, my man," answered Life. "Better not ask any more
questions."

"We are booked for a Northern prison, I reckon," said Peters, gloomily.
"If those prisons are as bad as I've been told they are, I'd rather be
shot than taken to one."

"All right; we'll shoot you if you say so," rejoined the Kentuckian; and
then the Confederates relapsed once more into silence.

"There seems to be a bend here--" began Deck, a moment later. "The fog
is so thick I can't see if we are turning to the left or the right. If
we--"

He got no further, for a shock told him that the raft had grounded. A
cry of consternation escaped his lips. They were on the Confederate side
of the swollen stream.

CHAPTER XI

THE ENCOUNTER AT THE RAILROAD TRESTLE

"Here's a pretty mess, Life!"

"We'd better get off just as quick as we can," answered the captain of
the seventh company. "For all we know to the contrary there may be two
or three thousand rebels around this shore."

"Pole her off!" cried Deck to the Confederates, and ran to assist.
Bolder began to do as directed, but Peters, without looking back, leaped
for the ground beyond, and ran for it as rapidly as his long legs would
carry him. Life was about to fire on him, when the major checked him.

"Don't do it, Life; it may bring the enemy around our ears."

"Right you are, Deck," answered the Kentuckian. "But don't you dare to
go," and he shook his weapon threateningly at Bolder.

"I ain't goin'," was the sullen response, and the Confederate began to
use his pole, although straining his eyes in the hope that Peters or
Lieutenant Blackrook would appear with aid for him.

But nobody came, and in a few minutes more the raft was again in
midstream. Deck now kept her headed for the other shore, and before long
they drifted up into a meadow which was overflown for several acres.
Here they ground so hard it was impossible to budge the unwieldy craft;
and the voyage came to a termination.

Before leaving the raft, Deck bound Bolder's hands behind him. Looking
across the meadow they discovered a farmhouse not over a hundred yards
away, and hurried in that direction.

"Major Lyon, where have you been?" the cry came from Major Tom
Belthorpe. "You look as if you had been lost in the fog."

"We were--a short time," answered Deck. He looked around and saw that
Tom had a dozen soldier