t, old Wait-and-See?"

"Wait and see," replied Harry so naturally that the others laughed.

The bombardment went on all through the night. Harry continually
breathed smoke and the odor of burned gunpowder, which seemed to keep
his nerves keyed to a great pitch, and to maintain the heat of his
blood. Yet, after a while, he lay down, when his turn at the guns
ceased, and slept through sheer exhaustion. His eyes closed to the
thunder of cannon and they awoke at dawn to the same heavy thudding.

The fire had not ceased at any time in the course of the night, and
Sumter looked like a ruin, but the flag still floated over it.
St. Clair and Langdon were awakened a few minutes later, and they
also stood up, rubbed their eyes, stared at the fort and listened
to the firing. Harry laughed at their appearance.

"You fellows are certainly grimy," he said. "You look as if you hadn't
seen water for a month."

"We can't see ourselves, old Wait-and-See," retorted Langdon, "but I
guess we're beauties alongside of you. If I didn't have the honor of
your acquaintance, I wouldn't know whether you came from the Indian
Territory, Ashantee or the Cannibal Islands."

"And the music goes merrily on," said St. Clair. "I went to sleep with
the cannon firing, and I wake up with them still at it. I suppose a
fellow will get used to it after a while."

"You can get used to anything," said an officer who heard them. "Now,
you boys eat your breakfasts. Your turn at the guns will come again
soon."

They took breakfast willingly, although they found a strong flavor of
smoke, sand, and burned gunpowder in everything they ate and drank.
Then they went to their guns, but, when a few more shots were fired,
a trumpet blew a signal, and it was echoed from battery to battery.
Every cannon ceased, and, in the silence and under the lifting smoke,
Harry saw a white flag going up on the fort.

Sumter was about to yield.

CHAPTER VII

THE HOMECOMING

A great and exultant cheer went up from the massed thousands in
Charleston. A smile passed over Beauregard's swarthy face and he showed
his white teeth. Colonel Leonidas Talbot regarded the white flag with
feelings in which triumph and sadness were mingled strangely. But
the emotions of Harry and his comrades were, for the moment, those of
victory only.

Boats put out both from the fort and the shore. Discipline was relaxed
now, and Harry, St. Clair and Langdon went outside the bat