r I i I THREE MIRACULOUS SOLDIERS II I j 1 KY STEPHEN CRAKE Copyright 1S96 by ± S IcCiure Ltd I I The girl was In the front room on the second floor peering through the Winds From between the slats she bad a view of the road as it wended across the meadow to the woods and again when it reappeared crossing the I hill half a mile away I lay yellow and warm in the summer sunshine From the long grasses of the meadow came the rhythmic click of the insects i Occasionally frogs in the hidden brookS brook-S made a peculiar chugchug sound as i somebody throttled them The leaves of the wood swung in gentle winds Through the dark green branches of the pines that grew in the front yard could be seen the mountains far to the r southeast and inexpressibly blue Marys eyes were fastened upon the f little streak of road that appeared on the distant hill Her face was flushed with excitement and the hand which f stretched in a strained pose on the sill trembled because of the nervous shaking shak-ing of the wrist The pines whisked their green needles with a soft hissing sound against the house At last the girl turned from the window win-dow and went to the head of the stairs l Well I just know theyre ciming anyhow she cried argumentatively to anyhow A voice retorted with the shrillness and mechanical violence of occasonal housewives The girl swished her I t skirts defiantly and returned to the L window I Upon the yellow stream of road that lay across the hillside there now was i a liandful of black dots horsemen A cloud of dust floated away The girl flew to the head of the stairs and I whirled down to the kitchen Theyre coming Theyre coming I I was as if she had cried Fire i Her mother had been pealing potatoes while seated comfortably at the table She sprang to her feet Noit cant T > e how you know its themwhere The stubby knife fell from her hand and two or three curls of potato skin dropped from her apron to the floor The girl turned and dashed up stairs Her mother followed gasping for breath and yet continuing to fill the s air with questions reproach and remonstrance re-monstrance The girl was already at the wlnuow eagerly pointing There There See em See em Rushing to the window the mother scanned for an instant the road on the bill She crouched back with a groans groan-s them She waved her hands in despairing gesture The black dots vanished into the woods The girl at the window was quivering and her eyes were shining like water when the sun flashes Hush They are in the woods Theyll be here directly She bended down and intently watched the green archway from whence tlie road emerged Hush I hear them corning corn-ing she swiftly whispered to her mother for the elder woman had dropped drop-ped dolefully upon the mattress and ras sobbing And indeed the girl could hear the quick dull trample of horses She stepped aside with sudden apprehension appre-hension but she bended her head forward for-ward in order to scan the road Here they are There was something very theatrical In the sudden appearance of these men to the eyes of the girl I was as if a scene had been shifted The forest suddenly disclosed them a dozen brownfaced troopers in blue gallop ingOh Oh look breathed the girl Her mouth was puckered into an expression of strange fascination Th > little troop rode in silence At 1 Its Mead was a youthful fellow with some dim yellov stripes upon his arm In his right hand he held his carbine slanting urward with the stock resting upon his knee He was absorbed in a scrutiny of the country before him At the head of the sergeant the rest of the Bauad rode in thin column with creak of leather and tinkle of steel and tin The troopers glanced for a moment like casual tourists and then returnee l to their study of the region in front The heavy thudding of lhe hoofs became c be-came a small noise The dust hanging in sheets slowly sank The sobs of the woman on the bed took form in words which while whie strong in their note of calamity yet express a querulous mental reaching for some near thing to blame And Itll toe lucky for us if we aint both butchered in our sleep plundering and running off horsesld Dantos gone you see if he aint plundering plunder-ing But ma said the girl perplexed and terrified in the same moment Theyve gone Oh but theyll come back cried the mother without pausing her wail Theyll come backtrust them for that running oft horses She suddenly sud-denly lifted herself and sat rigid string str-Ing at her daughter Mary she said I In tragic whisper the kitchen door isnt locked Already she was bended I 1 forward to listen her mouth agape her eyes fixed upon her daughter Mother faltered the girl Her mother again whispered The i kitchen door isnt locked Motionless and mute they stared into each others eyes At last the girl quavered We better I bet-ter we better eo and lock it The a mother nodded Hanging arm in arm they stole across the floor toward the head of the stairs A board of the t floor crtaked They halted and exchanged ex-changed a look of dumb agony At last they reached the head of the stairs From the kitchen came the bass humming of the kettle and frequent fre-quent sputtermgs and cracklings from the fire These sounds were sinister The mother and the girl stood Incapable incapa-ble of movement Theres somebody down Ithere whispered the older woman wo-man Finally the girl made a gesture of resolution She twisted her arm from her mothers hand and went two steps downward She addressed the kitchen Whos there Her tone was intended to be dauntless I rag so dramatic ally in the silence that a sudden new I panic seized them a i the suspected presence in the kitchen had cried out to them But the girl ventured again r Is there anybody there No reply I was mad save by the kettle and the lireWith p i With a stealthy tread the girl con i tinted her journey As she neared the I r last step the fire crackled explosively c and the girl screamed But the mystic L presence had not swept around the corner to grab her so she dropped to a c seat on a step and laughed I was wa only the fire she said stammering stammer-ing hysterically Then she arose wita sudden fortitude and cried Why there isnt anybody I there I know there isnjt She marched down into the kitchen On her face wan dread a if she half expected to I confront something but the room was It mpty She cried joyously Theres IL nobody here come on down ma She I ran to the kitchen door and locked I t The mother came down to the kitchen Oh dear what a fright Ive bad Its given me the sick headache I know it ha Ma said the girl coming from the window the barn door Is open I wonder i they took old Santo Of of course they have Of course tar I dont see what we are going to do I dont see what we are going to do The girl said Ma Im going I 0 see If they took old Santo > f e Mary cried the mother dont your you-r lare t T je Jrlrl had unlocked the door and Rh stepped upon the porch The mother cried in despair Mary Why there isnt anybody out there the girl called in response She stood for a moment with a curious smile upon her face as of gleeful satisfaction satis-faction at her daring The breeze was waving the boughs of the apple trees A rooster with an air importantly courteous was conducting conduct-ing three hens upon a foraging tour The girl swung impulsively from the little stoop and ran toward the barn The great door was open and the carved pig which usually performed I the office of a catch lay on the ground The girl could net see into the barn because of the heavy shadows She paused in a listening attitude and heard a horse munching placidly She gave a cry of delight and sprang across the threshold Then she suddenly shrank back and gasped She had confronted three men in gray seated upon the floor with their legs stretched out and their backs against Santos manger Their dustcovered countenances counten-ances were expanded in grins II As Mary span backward and screamed one of the alm men in gray still grinning announced I knowed youd holler Sitting there comfortably comforta-bly the three surveyed her with amusement amuse-ment Mary caught her breath throwing her hand un to her throat Oh she said you frightened me Were sorry lady but couldnt help it no way cheerfully responded another I an-other I knowed youd holler when I seen you coming yere but I raikined we couldnt help it no way We haint atroubling this yere barn I dont guess We been doin some mighty tall sleeping yore We done woke when them Yanks loped past Where did you come from Did did you escape from thethe Yan lee The gir1 still stammered and trembled The three soldiers laughed Nom Nom They mever catch us We was in a muss down the road yere about two mile And Bill yere they gin it to him in the arm Kehplunk And they pasted me thah too Curious And Sim yere he didnt git nothing but they chased us all quite a little piece and we done lose track of ou boysWas Was itwas it those who passed here just now Did they chase you The men in gray laughed again Whatthem No indeedee There was a mighty big swarm ctf Yanks and a mighty big swarm of bo I our boys too What that little passed Nom I She became calm enough to scan them more attentively They were much begrimed and very dusty Their gray clothes were tattered Splashed mud had dried upon them in reddish spots I appeared too that the men had not shaved in many days Of their hats there was a singular diversity One soldier wore the little blue cap of the northern infantry with corps emblem j I em-blem and regimental number still upon I It one wore a great brown slouch hat II I with a wide hole in the crpwn and the other wore no hat at all The left sleeve of one man and the right sleeve of another had been slit and the arms were neatly bandaged with a clean cloth These haint no more than two little cuts explained one We stopped up yere to Mis Heavitts she said her name wasand she bind them for us I Bill yere he had the thirst come on him and the fever too We I Mary interrupted him without intention I inten-tion Are you hungry she asked The soldiers looked at each other I struck by some sudden and singular shame They hung their heads Nomm replied one at last Santo in his stall was tranquilly chewing and chewing Sometimes he looked benevolently over at them He was an old horse and there was something some-thing about his eyes and his forelock which created the impression that he I wnrc spectacles Mary went and patted pat-ted his nose Well if you are hungry I can get you something she told the men Or you might come to the house We wouldnt dast go to the house said one That passel of Yanks was only a scouting crowd most like Just an advance More coming likely Well I can bring you something i cried the girl eagerly Wont you Ilet j me bring you something Well said a soldier with embarrassment I embar-rassment we haint had much I you could bring up a little snacklike Just a snack Wel Without waiting for him to cease the girl turned toward the door But before she had reached it she stopped abruptly Listen she whispered Her form was bended forward Her head turned and lowered her hand extended ex-tended toward the men in a command for silence They could faintly hear the thudding thud-ding of many hoofs the clank of arms and frequent calling voices By cracky its the Yanks The soldiers scrambled to their feet and came towards the door I knowed that first crowd was only an advance I I The girl and the three men peered from the shadows of the barn The view of the road was intercepted by tree trunks and a little henhouse However they could see many horsemen horse-men streaming along the road The horsemen Were in blue Oh hide hide hide cried the girl with a sob in her voice Wait a minute whispered a gray soldier excitedly Maybe theyre going along by No by thunder they haint They are halting Scoot boys They made a noiseless dash into the dark end of the barn The girkjtand ing by the door heard them break forth an instant later in clamorous whispers Wherell we hide Wherell we tide There haint a place to hide The girl turned and glanced wildly about the barn I seemed true The stock of hay had grown low under Santos endless munching and from occasional levyings by passing troopers in gray j The poles of the mow were barely covered cov-ered save in one corner where there was a little bunch The girl espied the great feed box She ran to i and lifted the lid Here Here she called get in here They had been tearing noiselessly around the rear part of the barn At her low call they came and plunged at the box They did not l get in at the same moment without a good deal of a tangle The wounded men gasped and muttered but they at last were flopped down on the layer of feed which covered cov-ered the bottom Swiftly and softly the girl lowered the lid and then turned like a flash toward the door No one appeared there she app s went closer to survey the situation The troopers had dismounted and stood in silence by their horses A gray bearded man whose red cheeks and nose showed vividly above the whis hers was strolling about with two or three others They wore double breasted coats and faded yellow sashes wee wound under their black leather swordbelts The graybearded soldier was apparently giving orders pointing here and ithere Mary tiptoed to the feed box Theyve l got off their horses she said to it A it finger projected from a knot hole near the top and Said to her very plainly Come closer She obeyed and then a muffled voice could be heard Scoot for the house lady and if we dont see you again why much obliged for what you have done box Goodbye e she said to the feed boxShe She made two attempts to walk dauntlessly from the barn but each time she faltered and failed just be fore she reached the point where she u could have been seen by the blue coated troopers At last however she made a sort of a rush forward and I went out into the bright sunshine l The group of men double breasted wheeled In her direction at the instant The graybearded moldier came toward her She stopped she seemed about I to run away But the soldier doffed his little blue cap and looked amiable You live here I presume he said Yes she answered I Well we are obliged to camp here for the night and as weve got two wounded men with us I dont suppose 1 youd mind if we put them in the barn I I Inin the barn I He became aware that she was agitated agi-tated He smiled assuringly You I neednt be frightened We wont hurt anything around here Youll all be safe enough I The girl balanced on one foot and I I swung the other to and fro in the I i grass She was looking down at i j 1 Butbut I dont think ma would Jike I i ifIf you took the barn I The old officer laughed Wouldnt I she said he Thats so Maybe she I wouldnt He reflected for a time and then decided cheerfully Well we will have to ask her anyhow Where is she In the house Yes replied the girl shes in the house She shell be scared to death I when she sees you Well you go and ask her then said the soldier always wearing a benign smile You go and ask her and then II come and tell in When the girl pushed open the door I j jI I and entered the kitchen she found it I i I > empty Ma she called softly There j i i was no answer The kettle was humming hum-ming its low song The knife and the curl of potato skin lay on the floor She went to her mothers room and < entered timidly The now lonely aspect as-pect of the house shook her nerves TJuon the bed there was a confusion I of coverings Ma called the girl quaking in fear that her mother was I not there to reply But there was a t sudden turmoil of the quilts and her mothers head was thrust forth 4 Mary she cried in what seemed to be a supreme astonishment I thought i I thought I Oh ma blurted the girl theres I over 1000 Yankees in the yard and I Ive hidden three of our men In the feedbox j The elder woman however I upon the appearance of her daughter I had begun to thresh hysterically about I on the bed and wailed I Ma the girl exclaimed And now they i want to use the barn and our I men in the feedbox What shall I do I I Ma what shall I do Her mother did not seem to hear I so absorbed was she in her grievous I j flounderings i and tears Ma appealed appeal-ed the girl Ma For a moment Mary stood silently I debating her lips apart her eyes fixed Then she went to the kitchen window I I and peeked The old officer and the others were staring up the road She I went to another window to get the proper view of the road and saw that j I they were gazing at a small body of I horsemen approaching at a trot and raising much dust Presently she recognized I rec-ognized them as the squad which had passed the house earlier for the young I man with the dim yellow chevrons still rode at their head An unarmed horseman I horse-man in gray was receiving their close attention As they came very near to I the house she darted to the first window I win-dow again The gray bearded officer I i was smiling a broad smile of satisfaction I satisfac-tion So you got him he called out I The young sergeant sprang from his 1 horse and his brown hand moved in a I I salute The girl could not hear his reply She saw the unarmed horseman I in gray stroking a very black mous tace and looking about him coolly with an interested air He appeared so indifferent I in-different that she did not understand he was a prisoner until she heard the graybeard call out Well put him in the barn Hell be safe there I guess I A party of troopers moved with the I prisoner toward the barn I The girl made a sudden gesture of i horror remembering the three men in the feedbox III II Over in front of the barn three troopers troop-ers sat talking comfortably Their carbines car-bines were leaned against the wall At their side ana outlined in the black of the open door stood a sentry his weapon resting in the hollow of his arm Four horses saddled and ac coutred were conferring with their heads close together The four bridle reins were flung over a post Mary had intended to go and tell the commander in blue that her mother did not wish his men to use the barn at all but she paused when she heard him speak to the sergeant She thought she perceived then that it mattered little I lit-tle to him what her mother wished and that an objection by her or by anybody would be futile She saw the soldiers conduct the prisoner in gray into the barn and for a long time she watched three chatting guards and the pondering sentry Upon her mind in desolate weight was the recollection of the three men in the feed box I seemed to her that in a case of this description it was her duty to be a heroine Plainly a heroine would take measures to rescue the four men I she did not at least make an attempt at-tempt she would be false to those carefully care-fully constructed ideals which were the accumulation of years and dreaming But the situation puzzled her There was the barn with only one door and with four armed troopers in front of this door one of them with his back to the rest of the world engaged no doubt in a steadfast contemplation of the calm man and incidentally of the feed box She knew too that even if she should open the kitchen door three heads and perhaps fcur would turn casually in her direction Their ears were real ears One by one she saw the gorgeous contrivances and expedients of fiction fall belfore the plain homely difficulties of this situation Sadly ruefully she thought of the calm man and of the contents of the feed box The sum of her invention was that she could sally forth t the commander of the blue cavalry and confessing to him that there were three of her friends and his enemies secreted in the feed box pray him to let them depart de-part unmolested But she was beginning begin-ning to believe the old gray beard to I be a bear I was hardly probable that he would give this plan his support I was more probable that he and some of his men would at once descend upon the feedbox and confiscate her three friends The difficulty with her wi1 idea was that she could not learn its value without trying it and then incase in-case of failure it would be too late for remedies and other plans She reflected reflect-ed that war made men very unreasonable unreason-able ableMI All she could do was to stand at the I window and mournfully regard the barn She admitted this to herself with a sense of deep humiliation She was not then made of that fine stuff that mental satin which enabled some I other beings tc be of such mighty service ser-vice to the distressed She was defeated defeat-ed by a barn with one door by four men with eight eyes trivialties that would not impede the real heroine The vivid white heat of the broad day began slowly to fade Tones of gray came upon the fields and the shadows were of lead In this more sombre atmosphere the fires built by the troops down in the far end of theI I orchard grew more brilliant becoming spots of crimson color in the dark grove The girl sat in the new gloom of the kitchen and watched The soldiers lit a lantern and hung it in the barn Its rays made the form of the sentry seem gigantic Horses whinnied from the orchard There was a low hum of human voices Sometimes small detachments de-tachments of troooers rode past the front of the house The girl heard the abrupt call of the sentries She fetched fetch-ed some food and ate it from her hand standing by the window She was so afraid that something would occur that she barely eft her post for an instant I t < Once she 1 that she had made hoi mind i to reconnoitre at any rate I I was night the lantern at the barn and the campfires made everything without with-out their circles into masses of heavy mystic bla kness She took two steps toward the door But there she paused paus-ed Innumerable possibilities of danger dan-ger had assailed her mind She returned ed to the window and stood wavering At last she went swiftly to the door opened it and shd noiselessly into the darkness For a moment she regarded the shadows shad-ows Down in the orchard the campfires camp-fires of the troops appeared precisely like a great painting all in red upon a black cloth The voices of the troopers troop-ers still hummed The girl started slowly slow-ly off in the opposite direction Her eyes were fixed in a stare she studied the darkness in front for a moment before be-fore she ventured upon a forward step Unconsciously her throat was arranged arrang-ed for a sudden scream High in the tree branches she could hear the voice of the wind a melody of the nisrht low and sad the plaint of an endless incommunicable sorrow Her own distress dis-tress the flight of the men in gray these near matters as well as all she had known or imagined of grief everything every-thing was expressed in this soft mourning mourn-ing of the wind in the trees At first she felt like weeping This song tOIl I her of human imi > otency and doom Then later the trees and the wind breathed strength to her sang of sacrifice sac-rifice of dauntless effort of hard carven car-ven faces that did not blanch when duty came at midnight or at noon She turned often to scan the shadowy figures that moved from time to time in the light a the barn door Once she trod upon a stick and it flopped crackling crack-ling in the intolerable manner of all sticks At this noise however the guards at the barn made no sign Finally I Fin-ally she was where she could see the knot holes in the rear of the structure gleaming like pieces of metal from the I effect of the light within Scarcely breathing in her excitement she glided close and applied an eye to a knot hole She had barely achieved one glance at the interior before she sprang back shuddering For the unconscious and cheerful sentry sen-try at the door was swearing away inflaming in-flaming sentences heaping one gorgeous gor-geous oath upon another making a conflagration of his description of his troop horse Why he was declaring to the calm prisoner li gray you aint got a horse in your hull army that can run forty rods with that there little mare C As in the outer darkness Mary cautiously cau-tiously returned to the knot hole the three guards in front suddenly called in low tones Sssh Quit Pete here comes the lieutenant The sentry I had apparently been about to resume his declamation but at these warnings I he suddenly posed in a soldierly manner man-ner nerA A tall and lean officer with a smooth face entered the barn The bar sentry saluted sa-luted primly The officer flashed a comprehensive com-prehensive glance about him Everything Every-thing all right I All right sir This officer 1art eves like the noints of stilletoes The lines from his nose to the corners of his mouth were deep and gave him a slightly disagreeable aspect as-pect but somewhere in his face there was a quality cT singular thoughtfulness thoughtful-ness as of the absorbed student dealing deal-ing in generalities which was utterly in opposition to the rapacious keenness of the eyes which saw everything Suddenly he lifted a long finger and pointed 1 Whats that That Thats a feedbox I suppose sup-pose poseWhats Whats in it I dont know 1 You ought to know said the officer sharply He walked over to the feedbox feed-box and flung up the lid With a sweeping gesture he reached down and scooped a handful of feed You ought to know whats in everything whenyou have prisoners in your care prsoners he added scowling During the timfe of this incident the I girl had weakly Iwooned Her hands searched weakly over the boards for something to which to cling With the pallor of the dying she had watched the downward sweep of the officers arm which after all had only brought forth a handful of feed The result was a stupefaction of her mind She was astonished out of her senses at this spectacle of three large men metamorphosed met-amorphosed into a handful of feed lilY I is perhaps a singular thing that this absence of the three men from the feedbox at the time of the sharp lieutenants lieu-tenants investigation should terrify f the girl more than it should joy her l That for which she had prayed had come to pass Apparently the escape of these men in the face of every improbability i I im-probability had been granted her but i her dominating emotion was fright I The feedbox was a mystic and terrible terri-ble machine like some dark magicians trap She felt it almost possible that she should see the three weird men floating spectrally away through the air She glanced with swift apprehension apprehen-sion behind her and when the dazzle from the lanterns light had left here her-e es saw only the dim hillside stretched in solemn silence The interior of the barn possessed for her another fascination because it was now uncanny I contained that extraordinary feedbox When she peeped again at the knot hole the J i calm gray prisoner was seated upon the j I feed box thumping it with his dang j I ling careless heels as if it were in nowise j no-wise his conception of a remarkable feed box The sentry also stood facing i it His carbine he held in the hollow of his arm His legs were spread apart and he musd From without came the low mumble of the three other troopers troop-ers The sharp lieutenant had vanished van-ished i The trembling yellow light of the lantern lan-tern caused the figures of the men to cast monstrous wavering shadows There were spaces of gloom which shrouded ordinary things in impressive garb The roof presented an inscrutable inscruta-ble blackness save where small rifts in the shingles glowed phosphorescently phosphorescent-ly Frequently old Santo put down a thunderous hoof The heels of the prisoner made a soind like the boomIng boom-Ing of a wild kind of drum When the men moved their heads their eyes shone with ghoulish whiteness and their complexions com-plexions were always waxen and unreal un-real And there was that profoundly I strange feed box imperturbable with its burden of fantastic mystery I Suddenly from down near her feet j j I the girl hisird a crunching sound a I I sort of nibbling as if some silent and vcry discreet terrier was at work upon I the turf She faltered back here was no doubt another grotesque detail of this most unnatural episode She did not run because physically she was now in the power of these events Her act were chained to the ground in submission sub-mission to this march of terror after terror As she stared at the spot from whence this sound seemed to come there floated through her mind a vague sweet vision a vision of her safe little room in which at this hour she usually was sleeping The scratching continued faintly and with frequent pauses a if the terrier was than listening When the girl first removed her eyes from the knot hole the scene appeared of one velvet dark o nes then gradually oblpcts loomed with r dim luster She could now see where thetops of the trees joined the sky and the form of the barn was before her dyed in heavy purple She was even about to shriek but no pound came from her constricted throat She gazed at the ground with the expression ex-pression of countenance of one wh > watches the sinister moving grass where a serpent approaches Dimly she saw a piece of sod wrenched wrench-ed free and drawn under the great foundation beam of the barn Once she Imagined that she saw human hands not outlined at all but sufficient In color col-or form or movement to make subtle suggestion Then suddenly a thought that illuminated minated the entire situation flashed In f her mind like a light The three men late of the feed box were beneath the floor of the barn and were now scraping scrap-ing their way under this beam She did not consider for a moment how they could come there They were marvelous mar-velous creatures The supernatural was to be expected of them She no longer trembled for she was possessed upon I this instant of the most unchangeable species of conviction The evidence before I be-fore her amounted to no evidence at i I all but nevertheless her opinIon grew j in an instant from an irresponsible acorn to a rooted and immovable tree I was as if she was on a jury She stooped down hastily and scanned scan-ned the ground There she indeed saw a riir of hands hauling at the dirt where the sod had been displaced Softly Ir a whisper like a breath she said Hey The dim hands were drawn hastily under the barn The girl reflected for a moment Then she stooped and whispered I whis-pered Hey Its me stocpeg After time there was a resumption of the digging The ghastly hands began be-gan once more their cautious mining She waited In hollow reverberations from the interior of the barn came the I frequent sounds of old Santos lazy movements The sentry conversed with the prisoner At last the girl saw a head thrust slowlv from under the barn She perceived per-ceived the face of one of the three miraculous soldiers fronj the feedbox I i i A air of eyes glinted and wavered then finally settled upon her a pale statue of a girl The eyes became lit with a kind of humorous greeting An arm gestured at her Stooping she breathed All right The man drew himself silently back under the beam A moment later the pair of hands resumed their cautious task Ultimately the head and arms of the man were thrust strangely from the earth He was lying on his back The girl thought of the dirt in his hair Wriggling slowly and pushing at the beam above him he forced his way out of the curious little passage He twisted his body and raised himself upon his hands He grinned at the girl and drew his feet carefully from under the beam When he at last stood erect beside her he at once began mechanically I me-chanically to brush the dirt from his i clothes with his hands In the barn the II I sentry and the prisoner were evidently engaged in an argument I The girl and the first miraculous soldier I sol-dier signalled warily I seemed they feared their arms would make noises I l in passing through the air Their lips moved conveying dim meanings I I In the sign language the girl described the situation in the barn With guarded guard-ed motions she told him of the importance im-portance of absolute stillness He nodded nod-ded ad then in the same manner he told her of his two companions under the barn floor He informed her again of their wounded state and wagged his head to express his despair He contorted con-torted his face to tell how sore were their arms and jabbed the air mournfully mourn-fully to express the remote geographical j geographi-cal position I i This signalling was Interrupted by the sound of a body being dragged or i dragging itself with slow swishing sound under the barn The sound was too loud for safety They rushed to the hole and began to semaphore wildly wild-ly at it but the swishing continued until a shaggy head appeared with roll ling I eyes and quick grin I With frantic downward motions of I their arms they suppressed their grin j and with it the swishing noise In 1 dramatic pantomime they informed this head of the terrible consequences of so much noise The head nodded and painfully but with extreme ease the second man pushed and pulled himself from the hole In a faint whisper the first man said I Wheres Sim The second man made low reply Hes right here He motioned reassuringly i suringly toward the hole I I When the third head appeared a soft smile of glee came upon each face and the mute group exchanged expressive glances When they all stood together togeth-er free from this tragic barn they brethe a long sigh that was contemporaneous contempor-aneous with another smile and another exchange of glances One of the men tiptoed to a knothole and peered into the barn A sentry was at that moment speaking Yes we know em all There isnt a house In I this region that we dont know who is In it most of the time We collar em once clar in awhile like we did you Nqw that house out yonder we The man suddenly left the knothole and returned to the others Upon his face dimly discerned there was an in dictation that he had made an astonishing discovery The others questioned him with their eyes but he simply waved an arm to express his inability to speak at that spot He led them back toward the I hill prowling carefully At a safe die i tance from the barn he halted and as a I they grouped eagerly about him he ex nloded Jn an intense miflprtnnp whv thatthats Capin Sawyer they got in I yonder Capn Sawyer incredulously red I r-ed the other men But the girl had something to ask How did you get out of that feedbox A man turned to her at once Oh The feedbox He smiled Well when you put us in there ve was just in a minute when we allowed it wasnt a mighty safe place and we allowed wed get out And we did We skedaddled round and round until it peared like we was going to get cotched and then we flung ourselves down in the cowstalls cowstals where its lowllke just dirt floor and then we just naturally went awhooping under the barnfloor when the Yanks come And we didnt know Capn Saw I yen by his voice no how We heard em discoursing and we allowed it was a mighty pert man but we didnt know that it was him Nomm These three men so recently from a situation of peril seemed suddenly to have dropped all thought of i They stood with sad faces looking at the barn They seemed to be making no plans at all to I reach a place of more complete safety They were halted and stupefied by some unknown calamity How do you raikon they cotch him I Sim one whispered mournfully I dont know replied another in the same tone The girl was staring at the I barn Suddenly she turned and whispered i whisper-ed Who is he Hes Capn Sawyer mm they told her sorrowfully Hes our own capn Hes 1 been in command of us yere since a long I time Hes got folks about yere Ralkon I they cotch him while he wa avisitlng She wi still for a time and then awed she sad Will they will they hang him Nomm Dont raikon no such thing Nomm The group became absorbed in a con I templation of the barn For a time no one moved nor spoke At last the girl was aroused by slight sounds and turn Ing she perceived that the three men j I I who had so recently escaped from the barn were now advancing toward it V The girl waiting in the darkness expo ex-po ted to hear the sudden crash and uproar of a fight as soon as the three creeping men should roach the barn When she arrived however she gazed gaze about her bewildered The men were gone She searched with her eys try ing to detect some moving thing but she could see nothing Left alone again she began to be afraid of the night The great stretches of darkness could hide crawling dangers dan-gers From sheer desire to see a human she was obliged to peep again at the knothole The sentry had apparently wearied of talking Instead he was reflecting re-flecting The prisoner still sat on the feedbox moodily staring at the floor The girl felt in one way that sho was looking at a ghastly group In wax She started when the old horse put down an echoing hoof She wished the men would speak their silence reinforced the strange aspect They might have been two dead menThe men-The girl felt impelled to look at tho corner of the interior where were the cowstalls There was nO light there savo the appearance of peculiar gray haze which marked the track of the dimming dim-ming rays of the lantern All else was sombre shadow At last she saw something some-thing move there I might have been as smal as a rat or it might have been apart I a-part of something as large as a man At any rate it proclaimed that something in that spot Was alive At one time she saw it plainly and at other times i vanished van-ished because her fixture of gaze caused her occasionally to greatly tangle and blur them peculiar shadows and faint lights At last however she perceived a human head I was monstrously disheveled dis-heveled and wild I moved slowly forward for-ward until its glance could fall upon the prisoner and then upon the sentry The p wandering rays caused the eyes to slitter slit-ter like silver The girls heart pounded so that she put her hand over i The sentry and the prisoner remained Immovably waxen and over in the gloom the heRd thrust from the floor watched them with its silver eyes Finally the prisoner slid from the feedbox and raising his arms yawned at great length Oh well he remarked you boys will get a good licking if you fool around here much longer Thats some satisfaction anyhow Even If you did bag me Youll get a good walloping He reflected for 3 moment ancj decided Im sort of Tvilllns to be captured if you fellows only get < damned good lick lag for being so smart The sentry looked up and smiled a superior su-perior smile Licking hay Nlxey He winked exasperatingly at the prisoner You fellows aro not fast enough jny boy Why didnt you lick usat And at And at He named some of the great battles To this the captive officer blurted in angry astonishment Why we did The sentry winked again in profound irony YesI know you did Of course You whipped us didnt you Fine kind of whIpping that was Why we Ho suddenly ceased smitten mute by a sound that broke the stillness of the night I was the sharp crack of a die ant shot that made wild echoes among the hills I was instantly followed by the hoarse cry of a himTan voice a faraway yell of warning singing of surprise peril fear of death A moment later there was a distant fierce spattering of shots The sentry and the prisoner stood facing each other their lips apart listening The orchard at that instant awoke to sudden tumult There was the thud and scramble and scamper of feet the hollow hol-low swift clash of arms mens voices in quesuon oath command hurried and unhurried resolute and frantic A horse sped along the road at a raging gallop A loud voice shouted What Is i Ferguson Fer-guson Another voice yelled something incoherent There was a sharp discordant discord-ant chorus of command An uproarious volley suddenly rang from the orchard The prisoner in gray moved from his intent In-tent listening attitude Instantly the eyes of the sentry blazed and he said i with a new and terrible sternness Stand where you are I The prisoner trembled in his excitement excite-ment Expression of delight and triumph bubbled to his lips A surprise by Gawd Now Now youll seeThe I see-The sentry stolidly swung his carbine to his shoulder He sighted carefully along the barrel until It pointed at the prisoners head about at his nose Well Ive got you anyhow Remember that Dont move I The prisoner could not keep his arms i from nervously gesturing I wont but butAnd And shut your mouth The three comrades of the sentry flung themselves into view Pete devil of a Ive got him said the sentry calmly and without moving It was as if the barrel of the carbine rested on piers of stone The three comrades turned and dove Into the darkness In the orchard it seemed as if two gigantic animals were engaged in a mad floundering encounter snarling howling in a whirling chaos of noise and motion In the barn the prisoner and his guard faced each other In silence As for the girl at the knot hole the sky had fallen at the beginning of this clamor She would not have been astonished as-tonished to see the stars swinging from their abodes and the vegetation the barn all blow away It was the end of everything the grand universal murder When two of the three miraculous soldiers sol-diers who formed the original feedbox corps emerged Jn detail from the hole under the beam and slid away Into the darkness she did not more than glance at them Suddenly she recollected the head with silver eyes She started forward and again applied her eyes to the knot hole Even with the din resounding from the orchard from up the road and down the road the central fascination was this mystic head There to her was the dark god of the tragedy The prisoner in gray at this momeat burst Into a laugh that was no moe than a hysterical gurgle Well you cant hold that gun out forever Pretty soon youll have to lower it The sentrys voice sounded slightly muffled muf-fled for his cheek was pressed against the weapon I wont be tired for some time yet The girl saw the head slowly rise the eyes fixed upon the sentrys face A tall black figure slunk across the cow stalls and vanished back of oU Santos quarters quar-ters She knew what vas to come to pass She knew this grim thing was upon up-on a terrible mission and that it would reappear again at the head of the little passage between Santos stall and the wall almost at the sentrys elbow and yet when she saw a faint indication as of a form crouching there a scream from an utterly new alarm almost escaped herThe The sentrys arms after all were not of granite He moved restively At last he spoke in his even unchanging tone Well I guess youll have to climb Into that feed box Stop back and lift the lid i Why you dont mean Step back The gin felt a cry of warning arising I to her lips as she gazed at this sentry 1 She noted every detail of his facial expression ex-pression She saw moreover his mass of brown hah bunching disgracefully i about his ears his clear eyes lit now I with a hard cold light his forehead ouch ored In a mhty scowl the ring upon the thrd finger of the left nand Oh they wont kill him Surely they wont kill him The noise of the light at the orchard was the loud music the thunder and lightning the rolling of the tempest which people love during the critical scene of a tragedy When the prisoner moved back In reluctant re-luctant obedience he faced for an instant in-stant the entrance of the little passage and what he saw there must have been written swiftly graphically in his eyes And the sentry lead it and knew then that he was upqn the threshold of his death In n fraction of time certain information in-formation vent from the grim thing in the passage to the prisoner and from the prisoner to sentry But at that instant the black formidable figure across towered tow-ered and made its leap A new shadow flashed across the floor when the blow was struck As for the girl at the knothole when she returned to sense she found herself standing with clenched hands and screaming with her might As if her reason had again departed from her she ran around the barn In at the door and flung herself sobbing beside be-side the body of the soldier In blue The uproar of the fight became at last coherent inasmuch as one party was giving giv-ing shouts of supreme exultation The firing no longer sounded in crashes it was now expressed in spiteful crackles the last words of the combat spoken with feminine vindictIveness Presently there was a thud of flying feet A grimly panting redfaced mob of troopers in blue plunged into the barn became instantly frozen to attitudes atti-tudes of amazement and rage and then roared In one great chorus Hes gone The girl who knelt weeping beside the body upon the floor turned toward them her lamenting eyes and cried Hes not dead is he He cant be dead They thronged forward The sharp lieutenant lieu-tenant who had been so particular about I the feedbox knelt by the side of the I girl and laid his head against the chest of the prostrate soldier Why no he said rising and looking at the man Hes all right Some of you boys throw water on him Are you sure demanded the girl Of course Hell be all right after awhile a-while Oh said she softly and then looked down at the sentry She started to arise and the lieutenant reached down and hoisted rather awkwardly at her arm Dont you worry about him Hes all right She turned her face with its curving lips and shining eyes once more toward the unconscious soldier upon the floor The troopers made a lane to the door the lieutenant bowed the girl vanished Queer said a young officer Girl very clearly worst kind of a rebel and yet she falls to weeping and wailing like mad over one of her enemies Be around in the morning with all sorts of doctoring doctor-ing you see it she aint Queer The sharp lieutenant shrugged his shoulders After reflection he shrugged his shoulders again He said War changes many things but it doesnt change everything thank God