who overheard him, "and so are all who are left
in this regiment. If they see the flash of water nothing can hold them
back, not even Bragg's whole army. How those skirmishers hang on to us!
Whizz-z! there went their bullets right over our head!"

The Winchesters turned, delivered a heavy volley into a thicket, whence
the bullets had come, and marched on, looking eagerly now for water.
They began to talk about it. They spoke of the cool brooks, "branches"
they called them, that they had known at home, and they told how, when
they found one, they would first drink of it, and then lie down in its
bed and let its water flow over them.

But Dick's thirst could not wholly take his mind from the tremendous
scenes accompanying that sullen and defiant retreat. Hills and mountains
were in deepest gloom, save when the signal lights of the Southern
armies flashed back and forth. The clouded moon touched everything
nearer by with somber gray. The fire of cannon rolled through the forest
and gorges with redoubled echoes.

A shout suddenly came from the head of the Winchester column.

"Water! Water!" they cried. A young boy had caught a glimpse of silver
through some bushes, and he knew that it was made by the swift current
of a brook. In an instant the regiment broke into a run for the water.
Colonel Winchester could not have stopped them if he had tried, and he
did not try. He knew how great was their need.

"We're off!" cried Pennington.

"I see it! The water!" shouted Dick.

"I do, too!" exclaimed Warner, "and it's the most beautiful water that
ever flowed!"

But they stopped in their rush and dropped down in the thickets.
Sergeant Whitley had given the warning shout, and fortunately most of a
volley from a point about a hundred yards beyond the stream swept over
their heads. A few men were wounded, and they not badly.

Dick crawled to the head of the column. The sergeant was already there,
whispering to Colonel Winchester.

"They've taken to cover, too, sir," said the sergeant.

"How many do you suppose they are?" asked the colonel.

"Not more than we are, sir."

"They run a great risk when they attack us in this manner."

"Maybe, sir," said Dick, "they, too, were coming for the water."

Colonel Winchester looked at Sergeant Whitley.

"I'm of the opinion, sir," said the sergeant, "that Mr. Mason is right."

"I think so, too," said Colonel Winchester. "It's a pity that men should
kill each other over a drink