ulge in such a luxury.

To Cold-Water Spring we went; but they were not to be seen, nor could
the other men give any account of them.

The lieutenant burst into a fit of laughter, not unmixed with vexation.

"A pretty set of troops I have to command--my sergeant sick, one drunk,
and two missing."

"Probably Klitz and Gillooly have only taken a ramble, and will soon be
back," I observed; "and by that time the other fellow will have
recovered from his tipsy fit; so it is of no use to be vexed. You
should be more anxious about Sergeant Custis, for I fear he will not be
able to accompany you for several days to come."

On going back to the house, we found the sergeant no better. Rachel,
indeed, said that he was in a raging fever, and that he must have
suffered from a sunstroke, or something of that sort.

The lieutenant was now almost in despair; and though the dispatches he
carried were not of vital importance, yet they ought, he said, to be
delivered as soon as possible, and he had already delayed two days. As
there was no help for it, however, and he could not at all events set
out until his men came back, I invited him to take a fishing-rod and
accompany me to a part of the stream where, although he might not catch
many fish, he would at all events enjoy the scenery.

It was a wild place; the rocks rose to a sheer height of two or three
hundred feet above our heads, broken into a variety of fantastic forms.
In one place there was a cleft in the rock, out of which the water
flowed into the main stream. The lieutenant, who was fond of fishing,
was soon absorbed in the sport, and, as I expected, forgot his troubles
about his men.

He had caught several trout and a couple of catfish, when I saw Rachel
hurrying towards us.

"Massa Sergeant much worse," she exclaimed; "him fear him die; want bery
much to see him officer, so I come away while Missie Clarice watch ober
him. Him bery quiet now,--no fear ob him crying out for present."

On hearing this, we gathered up our fishing-rods and hastened back to
the house, considerably outwalking Rachel, who came puffing after us.

We found Clarice standing by the bedside of the sick man, moistening his
parched lips, and driving away the flies from his face.

"I am afraid I am going, sir," he said as the lieutenant bent over him.
"Before I die, I wish to tell you that I do not trust those two men of
ours, Karl Klitz and Gillooly. I learned from Pat Sperry that they ha