e tenderest care,
and watched him until he and the men on either side of him were lost in
the darkness as they walked toward the Southern camp.

"I jest had to come an' find old Sam, dead or alive," he said. "Now,
which way, Yank, do you think this friend of yours is layin'?"

"But you're comin' with us," repeated Jim.

"No, I'm not. Didn't Yank here help us find Sam? An' are we to let the
Yanks give us lessons in manners? I reckon not. 'Sides, he's only a boy,
an' I'm goin' to see him through."

"I thank you," said Dick, much moved.

"Don't thank me too much, 'cause while I'm walkin' 'roun' with you
friendly like to-night I may shoot you to-morrow."

"I thank you, all the same," said Dick, his gratitude in nowise
diminished.

"Them that will stir no more are layin' mighty thick 'roun' here, but
we ought to find your friend pretty soon. By gum, how it rains! W'all,
it'll wash away some big stains, that wouldn't look nice in the mornin'.
Say, sonny, what started this rumpus, anyway?"

"I don't know."

"An' I don't, either, so I guess it's hoss an' hoss with you an' me.
But, sonny, I'll bet you a cracker ag'in a barrel of beef that none of
them that did start the rumpus are a-layin' on this field to-night. What
kind of lookin' feller did you say your young friend was?"

"Very tall, very thin, and about my age or perhaps a year or two older."

"Take a good look, an' see if this ain't him."

He held up the lantern and the beams fell upon a long figure half
raised upon an elbow. The figure was turned toward the light and stared
unknowing at Dick and the Southerner. There was a great clot of blood
upon his right breast and shoulder, but it was Warner. Dick swallowed
hard.

"Yes," he said, "it's my comrade, but he's hurt badly."

"So bad that he don't know you or anybody else. He's clean out of his
head."

They leaned over him, and Dick called:

"George! George! It's Dick Mason, your comrade, come to help you back to
camp!"

But Warner merely stared with feverish, unseeing eyes.

"He's out of his head, as I told you, an' he's like to be for many
hours," said the lantern bearer. "It's a shore thing that I won't shoot
him to-morrow, nor he won't shoot me."

He leaned over Warner and carefully examined the wound.

"He's lucky, after all," he said, "the bullet went in just under the
right shoulder, but it curved, as bullets have a way of doin' sometimes,
an' has come out on the side. There ain't no lead i