ce a yard! 'The ground to the right is all water, and
about seven feet deep,' I reported joyfully, having ascertained the
fact. 'Then go fifty yards ahead, as far to the right as you can get,
and keep out of sight,' were our new orders. I thought we would keep out
of sight well enough! We were going up hill--up the hill on which Fort
Runyon now stands. Here is a shanty. What if it should be full of the
enemy, and we but four poor frightened men, with our battalion hidden by
the turn in the road. Mechanically I cocked my rifle and opened the
door, and strained my eyes into the darkness. Nobody. I let down the
hammer again.

Fear had oozed out of my fingers' ends, in lifting the latch, just as
valor did from those of Bob Acres, and Jenkins was himself again. We
jobbed our bayonets under the lager-beer counter, to provide for the
case of any lurking foe in that quarter. Just here the road forked.
Sending two of us to the right, the rest kept on the Alexandria. 'Look
there,' chatters Todd second between his teeth, wafting in my face a
mingled odor of fear and gin cocktails. 'Where?' 'Why there! on top of
the hill--a horse.' 'Is that a horse?' 'Yes.' 'A man on him, too!' 'Two
of 'em!' Click, click, click, from our locks. We creep on and up
stealthily. We are scarcely thirty yards distant from the two horsemen,
when a man darts out from the left-hand side of the road behind us--two
men--three! We are surrounded. Todd second would have fired, but I held
him back. '_Who's that?_' I whispered; '_speak quick, or I fire!_'
'Can't you see, you d--d fool,' barks out our surly adjutant, who,
unknown to us, had been leading a similar scout on the opposite side of
the road. Click, click, from up the hill. The enemy are going to shoot.
An awful moment. We steady our rifles and our nerves; all trace of fear
is gone; nothing remains but eagerness for the conflict that seems so
near, and with a bound, without waiting for orders, we move quickly up
the hill. Lieutenant Harch moves his men out into the road, where the
bright moonlight betrays, perhaps multiplies, their number; the horsemen
spring to their saddles, and are off at a clattering gallop, to alarm
Alexandria. 'Don't shoot!' shrieks the adjutant; our rifles waver; the
hill hides the flying picket; the chance is lost; presently all
Alexandria will be awake, and a beautiful surprise frustrated. As we
peer into the moonlit distance from the top of the hill now almost
spaded away and t