ness,
with his gun leveled on the squad bearing Si. Wat realized instantly
that the rebel must be suppressed with out alarm to others that might be
behind him. He dropped Shorty's foot, and with a backward sweep of his
mighty right took the rebel in the stomach with such force as to double
him up. The next instant Wat had his throat in his terrific grip, and
tried to tear the windpipe from him. Then he flung the rebel forward
down the hill, gathered up Shorty's feet again, and gave the command:

"Hall right. Go a'ead, boys, quick has you can."

With great difficulty they made their way over the wreckage of battle
down the hill toward where they expected to find the regimental wagon.
But it had received all that it could hold of its ghastly freight and
moved off.

They were is despair for a few minutes, until Abel Waite discovered an
abandoned wagon near by, with one mule still hitched to it. Next they
found a wounded artillery horse which had been turned loose from his
battery. He was hitched in, and Si and Shorty were laid on the layer of
ammunition-boxes which still covered the bottom of the bed.

"Who'll drive the bloody team?" growled Wat. "Hi never druv a 'oss hin
my life. 'Ere, Barney, you get hin the saddle."

"Not Oi," answered Barney. "Oi niver could droive ayven a pig, on the
brightest day that shone. Oi'll not fool wid a couple av strange horses,
a wagon-load av foire an' brimstone, an' a brace av dead men, in the
midst av Aygytian darkness. Not Oi."

"Here, I kin drive two horses, anyway," said Abel Waite, climbing into
the saddle. "I've done that much on the farm."

They pushed off into the road marked by the dark line of troops moving
silently toward McFarland's Gap, and after some contest with other
drivers secured a place behind one of the regiments of their brigade.

A couple of miles ahead Forrest's cavalry was making a noisy dispute
of the army's retreat, the woods were on fire, and the fences on either
side of the road were blazing.

The long line was halted in anxious expectation for a little while, as
the storm of battle rose, and the men looked into each other's faces
with sickening apprehension, for it seemed much like defeat and capture.
Then loud cheers, taken up clear down the line', rose as Turchin's
Brigade, by a swift bayonet charge, swept away all opposition, scattered
the rebels to the shelter of the woods, and reopened the way. But
the rebels still continued to fire long distan