angerous piece of work, an' I'll bet he's cut his lucky,
an' gone home, an' if ever I get back there I'll pull his nose for a
sneak, you just see if I don't."

"Very well," said Sam, "go to sleep again, then. If he has gone home
it is a good riddance of very bad rubbish."

Sam was not by any means satisfied that Jake had gone home, however.
Indeed he was pretty well convinced that he had done nothing of the
sort, and he wished for a chance to think, so that he might determine
what was best to be done. He believed Jake would not dare to go home
as a deserter, knowing very well what reputation he would have to bear
ever afterward, in a community in which personal courage was held to
be the first of the virtues, and the lack of it the worst possible
vice. Where had he gone, then, and for what? Sam did not know, but he
had an opinion on the subject which grew stronger and stronger the
more he revolved the matter in his mind.

Jake Elliott, he knew, had a personal grudge against him, and no very
kindly feeling for the other boys. He was confessedly afraid to
continue in the service in which he was engaged, and it was not easy
for him to quit it. There was just one safe way out of it; and that
offered, not safety only, but revenge of precisely the kind that Jake
Elliott was likely to take. Sam knew very well that, notwithstanding
his magnanimity, Jake still bitterly hated him, and still cherished
the design of wreaking his vengeance upon him at the first
opportunity.

"What is more probable, then," he asked himself, "than that Jake is
trying to betray us into the hands of the enemy to die as spies? He is
abundantly capable of the treachery and the meanness, and his
desertion of the camp to-night strongly confirms the suspicion."

This much being decided, it was necessary for Sam to determine what
should be done in the circumstances. If there had been no camp in his
rear, he would have withdrawn his command through the woods at once.
As it was, he must find some other way. It was clearly his duty to
escape with his boys, if he could, and to lose no time in attempting
it. The danger was now too near at hand, and too positive to be
ignored, and there was really very little more for him to do here. He
must escape at once.

But could he escape?

That was a question which the event would have to answer, as Sam could
not do it. Unluckily, it was already beginning to grow light, and he
would not have the shelter of darkness.