eemed to the boy that
they were hunting for him to kill him.

He grew more and more sure of this as the voices came nearer, but at
last he realised the truth--that the men were searching amongst the
bushes for the wounded and dead.

This went on for an hour, and Dick's courage rose as he saw them
carrying man after man down to the track, men in red and men in blue,
and bearing them away, with the voices growing fewer and fewer.

"And it will soon be dark," the boy said to himself, "and then I can go
back and find mother and father."

Just then he heard shouts again, and he shrank back beneath the bushes,
to listen, not understanding a word; but the voices came nearer and
nearer and Dick's heart sank, for there was a shout and two men ran up
to within a dozen yards of where the boy lay.

"They can see me, and are going to shoot," he thought, and he shut his
eyes and shivered, and thought of the corporal and his wife.

But no shot was fired; no bright keen bayonet plunged through the
bushes; and taking courage the boy raised his head and peered upward
towards where two French soldiers were busy doing something, and another
came and joined them, to stand talking and laughing.

Then the boy grasped the fact that they had seen the mule, and were
cutting the ropes and opening the pack to see if there was anything
worth taking.

At last the notes of a bugle came echoing up the ravine from side to
side.

The soldiers immediately rose from where they were busy, shouldered
their muskets, and began to descend the slope, while Dick lay listening
to the crackling and brushing sounds as they forced their way through
the bushes. There was another bugle call, and some time after another,
sounding quite faint, and as the boy crept out of his hiding-place at
last, to find the contents of the mule's pack, the belongings of the
corporal's mess for the most part scattered about the ground, he looked
keenly in search of danger!

And how still it was! Not a sound--even the cry of a bird; only a faint
silvery rippling tinkle somewhere near; a sound which set the boy
creeping, to find it low down between some rocks slippery with green
moss which grew all about a tiny pool, into which after lying flat upon
his chest he plunged his lips, and drank again and again to quench his
thirst.

CHAPTER FIVE.

That long, deep draught of sweet, cool water seemed to send fresh life
through Dick, and he rose up, thinking that it would be