er
as plain as day.

"Yes, I will stay by you," was her positive reply in the same language.

Then he lay quite still, for his head was dull and heavy; but it was
scarcely an ache, and he did not suffer pain. Instead, a soothing
content pervaded his entire system and he felt no anxiety about
anything. He tried to remember his moments of unconsciousness, but his
mind went back only to the charge, the blow upon the head, and the fall.
There everything had stopped, but he was still sure that Lucia
Catherwood had found him and somehow had brought him here. He would have
died without her, of that he had no doubt, and by and by he should learn
about it all.

Men came into the house and went away, but he felt no curiosity. That
part of him seemed to be atrophied for the present, but after awhile
something aroused his interest. It was not any of the men or women who
passed and repassed, but that curious, dull, steady, distant sound which
had beat softly upon his ears the moment he awoke. He remembered now
that it had never ceased, and it began to trouble him, reminding him of
the buzzing of flies on a summer afternoon when he was a boy and wanted
to sleep. He wondered what it was, but his brain was still dulled and
gave no information. He tried to forget but could not, and looked up at
Lucia Catherwood for explanation, but she had none to offer.

He wished to go to sleep, but the noise--that soft but steady drumming
on the ear--would not let him. His desire to know grew and became
painful. He closed his eyes in thought and it came to him with sudden
truth it was the sound of guns, cannon and rifles. The battle, taken up
where it was left off the night before, was going on.

North and South were again locked in mortal strife, and the Wilderness
still held its secret, refusing to name the victor. Prescott felt a
sudden pang of disappointment. He knew the straits of the South; he knew
that she needed every man, and he was lying there helpless on a bed
while the persistent Grant was hammering away and would continue to
hammer away as no general before him had done. He tried to move, but
Lucia put her cool hand upon his forehead. That quieted him, but he
still listened intently to the sound of battle, distinguishing with a
trained ear the deep note of the cannon and the sharper crash of the
rifle. All waited anxiously for the return of the Secretary, confident
that he would come and confident that he would bring true news of th