esting
the outer limits of the town. A detached knot of dark shapes stood in
front of the head of the column.

Presently the picket at the end of the wharf began to challenge in
undertones single figures approaching from the plain. Those messengers
sent back from the scouting parties flung to their comrades brief
sentences and passed on rapidly, becoming lost in the great motionless
mass, to make their report to the Staff. It occurred to Captain Mitchell
that his position could become disagreeable and perhaps dangerous, when
suddenly, at the head of the jetty, there was a shout of command, a
bugle call, followed by a stir and a rattling of arms, and a murmuring
noise that ran right up the column. Near by a loud voice directed
hurriedly, "Push that railway car out of the way!" At the rush of bare
feet to execute the order Captain Mitchell skipped back a pace or two;
the car, suddenly impelled by many hands, flew away from him along the
rails, and before he knew what had happened he found himself surrounded
and seized by his arms and the collar of his coat.

"We have caught a man hiding here, mi teniente!" cried one of his
captors.

"Hold him on one side till the rearguard comes along," answered the
voice. The whole column streamed past Captain Mitchell at a run, the
thundering noise of their feet dying away suddenly on the shore. His
captors held him tightly, disregarding his declaration that he was
an Englishman and his loud demands to be taken at once before their
commanding officer. Finally he lapsed into dignified silence. With a
hollow rumble of wheels on the planks a couple of field guns, dragged
by hand, rolled by. Then, after a small body of men had marched past
escorting four or five figures which walked in advance, with a jingle
of steel scabbards, he felt a tug at his arms, and was ordered to come
along. During the passage from the wharf to the Custom House it is to be
feared that Captain Mitchell was subjected to certain indignities at
the hands of the soldiers--such as jerks, thumps on the neck, forcible
application of the butt of a rifle to the small of his back. Their ideas
of speed were not in accord with his notion of his dignity. He became
flustered, flushed, and helpless. It was as if the world were coming to
an end.

The long building was surrounded by troops, which were already piling
arms by companies and preparing to pass the night lying on the ground in
their ponchos with their sacks under th