cheme had become known. The colonel and some other officers
were sitting on the porch at headquarters when I passed, and I coolly
saluted him, saying:

"Good evening, Colonel."

He responded politely, and I walked on to our meeting place at the
hospital.

My comrades waited until the guards had been changed, and then, with
inward tremor and a bold, confident exterior, they walked in a
business-like way to the entrance and submitted their authority for
departure, which was duly acknowledged without a question. They soon
joined me, in high spirits over the ease with which the departure had
been accomplished.

We had $4 in greenbacks between us, and felt quite wealthy. Securing our
provisions as soon as darkness came, we quietly slipped over into the
woods, thence to the road, and went on our way rejoicing, full of hope
and with bright thoughts of home and dear ones.

CHAPTER XIV.

TRAMPS ONCE MORE.

The date of my second escape was the 23d of December, 1864.

We met one solitary horseman in the early part of the night, and we
avoided him by having a skirmisher out ahead, who saw the rider in time
for us to get out of sight in the woods without being seen, the traveler
being a white man, and to be avoided for that reason.

About midnight we met a negro and learned that we were on the Shreveport
road instead of the Gilmore road, which latter we wanted to follow. The
darkey sized us up correctly in short order, but, as usual with the
negroes, the fact that we were escaped prisoners only seemed to make him
the more eager to help us, and he asked us if we would not "accommodate"
_him_ by allowing him to show us a short cut through the woods to the
Gilmore road.

We were in a very accommodating mood just then, and we cheerfully
allowed him to lead the way. He guided us for what seemed to be a very
long distance over a rough piece of wooded country, and finally led us
into a broad, well-traveled road and informed us that we were now on
the right track.

The darkey was so voluble in his expressions of gratitude for the honor
of being "accommodated" that I had half a notion of presenting him with
a bill for services rendered, but we let him off easy by allowing him to
thank us profusely, and he seemed to be entirely satisfied, while we did
not complain.

We trudged along all night without any incident worthy of mention to
break the monotony of our tedious tramp, and at daylight we went off
from the road to