Webster, who had been
listening exclusively for another shriek.

"Well, _I_ heard something, and it was a groan!" said Crawford.

"Oh Lord!" exclaimed the not-very-reverent Webster. "What next, I
wonder? Awhile ago we had shrieks: now we have groans! I wonder if this
place is haunted--just a little?"

"Hark! there it was again!" said Crawford. "It _was_ a groan, and not
very far from us, either!"

"In that case," said Webster, "as it is incumbent upon two members of
the Advance Guard not to come all this distance for nothing, we shall be
under the necessity of hunting out the groan. Ah!" and the speaker
paused a moment. "By Jupiter it _is_ a groan. I heard it myself that
time. It is here, under this shed!"

The long legs of Webster at once made a movement in that direction,
followed by the shorter and more symmetrical ones of Crawford. They
reached the door of the wood-house, opening towards the burned mansion.
The door was unclosed, and they could look within. Just as they reached
the door both heard another groan--quite sufficient to satisfy them that
they were not in error as to the place from which the sound had
proceeded. A faint red light from the fallen embers of the burning house
shone within the rough shed from the narrow door--scarce enough, at
first, to make objects distinctly visible; but as they gazed the eyes
grew accustomed to the dim light and they could distinctly trace what
the building contained. They stepped slowly within, no motion from the
occupants giving indication that their presence was known; and this is
what they saw--dimly, but clearly enough for the purposes of
recognition.

On a straw pallet lay an old man, thin-faced and hollow-eyed, his scanty
white hair streaming backward on the end of the pallet, which had been
turned up to form a pillow. Over him and reaching from his feet to his
breast, was drawn a sheet, and on that sheet lay one of his thin,
wrinkled and nerveless hands. His eyes were shut, and he might have
appeared to be asleep, but that ever and anon there broke from him one
of those low but distinct groans indicative of severe inward pain, which
had startled the two Zouaves. But the old man was not the most singular
or the most painful feature of this spectacle. Beside him on the ground,
kneeling, and rocking backward and forward with that peculiar motion so
indicative of intense and hopeless grief when used by some of the
European peasantry, was a young girl--apparentl