point midway between the defile and the
highway.

Those Confederates who had gone down into the cut were now trying to
gain the heights where the fighting was going on. But Deck was ready for
them, and sent Major Belthorpe to the edge of the defile with two
companies of the second battalion and Artie Lyon's company of the first.
They fired directly down upon the heads of the Confederates, and in less
than five minutes had the enemy retreating in the wildest confusion.

Deck had swung his three companies around, so that they had their backs
to the defile. He could hear the sharpshooters pushing the enemy through
the woods toward him. Presently the Confederates appeared, and the whole
company which had occupied this ground originally was surrounded. Ten
men were killed and an equal number wounded, and then the officer in
command, a lieutenant, held up his sword, hilt first, to which was tied
a white handkerchief; and the battle in that vicinity came to an end.

As soon as the company, or what was left of it, surrendered, Deck sent a
battalion and a half after those who were fleeing. But the Confederates
were filled with terror, thinking the reenforcements had surely come,
with sharpshooters in advance, and they continued to retreat at the full
speed of their horses. They were pursued for half a mile, and then the
chase was given up.

An examination proved that the Riverlawns had lost eight men in killed
and wounded, and the Confederates had lost nearly twice that number.
Fifteen of the enemy had been captured, including an officer who said he
had once practised as a surgeon. To his care were consigned all the
wounded Confederates, who were, later on, carried to a farmhouse a
quarter of a mile away. The wounded of the Riverlawns were turned over
to Doctor Farnwright, the regular surgeon of the regiment, and the dead
were buried with proper ceremonies at the spot where they had fallen.

"You did the trick, Major!" cried Tom Belthorpe, after it was all over.
"It was one of the neatest moves I ever saw!"

"It saved our goose from being cooked," laughed Deck. He felt that he
could afford to be light-hearted now.

"That's so,--I was too hasty in what I said," answered Kate Belthorpe's
brother. "But what horse is that you are riding?"

"One taken from the enemy, Tom."

"And where is Ceph?"

"Gone."

"Dead?"

"No, somebody stole him while I was up in a tree looking over the
situation."

"That's too bad. I know yo