and the prayers of the frightened he heard always that
eager, tireless passing of many feet. So familiar it became, so constant an
accompaniment to his restless thoughts, that when at last the day wore out
and the streets grew empty, he found himself listening for the steps of a
passer-by as intently as he had listened in the morning for the renewed
clamour of the battle on the Maryland fields.

The stir of the retreat did not reach the stable where he lay; all night
the army was recrossing the Potomac, but to Dan, tossing on his bed of
straw, it lighted the victor's watch-fires on the disputed ground. He had
not seen the shattered line of battle as it faced disease, exhaustion, and
an army stronger by double numbers, nor had he seen the gray soldiers lying
row on row where they had kept the "sunken road." Thick as the trampled
corn beneath them, with the dust covering them like powder, and the
scattered fence rails lying across their faces, the dead men of his own
brigade were stretched upon the hillside, but through the long night he lay
wakeful in the stable, watching with fevered eyes the tallow dips that
burned dimly on the wall.

In the morning a nurse, coming with a bowl of soup, brought the news that
Lee's army was again on Virginia soil.

"McClellan has opened a battery," she explained, "that's the meaning of
this fearful noise--did you ever hear such sounds in your life? Yes, the
shells are flying over the town, but they've done no harm as yet."

She hastened off, and a little later a dishevelled straggler, with a cloth
about his forehead, burst in at the open door.

"They're shelling the town," he cried, waving a dirty hand, "an' you'll be
prisoners in an hour if you don't git up and move. The Yankees are comin',
I seed 'em cross the river. Lee's cut up, I tell you, he's left half his
army dead in Maryland. Thar! they're shellin' the town, sho' 'nough!"

With a last wave he disappeared into the alley, and Dan struggled from his
bed and to the door. "Give me your arm, Big Abel," he said, speaking in a
loud voice that he might be heard above the clamour. "I can't stay here. It
isn't being killed I mind, but, by God, they'll never take me prisoner so
long as I'm alive. Come here and give me your arm. You aren't afraid to go
out, are you?"

"Lawd, Marse Dan, I'se mo' feared ter stay hyer," responded Big Abel, with
an ashen face. "Whar we gwine hide, anyhow?"

"We won't hide, we'll run," returned Dan gravel