n him now, which is
good. He was pow'ful lucky, too, in not bein' hit in the head, 'cause he
ain't got no such skull as Sam has, not within a mile of it. His skull
wouldn't have turned no bullet. He has lost a power of blood, but if you
kin get him back to camp, an' use the med'cines which you Yanks have in
such lots an' which we haven't, he may get well."
"That's good advice," said Dick. "Help me up with him."
"Take him on your back. That's the best way to carry a sick man."
He set down his lantern, took up Warner bodily and put him on Dick's
back.
"I guess you can carry him all right," he said. "I'd light you with the
lantern a piece of the way, but I've been out here long enough. Marse
Bob an' old Stonewall will get tired waitin' fur me to tell 'em how to
end this war in a month."
Dick, holding Warner in place with one hand, held out the other, and
said:
"You're a white man, through and through, Johnny Reb. Shake!"
"So are you, Yank. There's nothin' wrong with you 'cept that you
happened to get on the wrong side, an' I don't hold that ag'in you. I
guess it was an innercent mistake."
"Good-bye."
"Good-bye. Keep straight ahead an' you'll strike that camp of yourn that
we're goin' to take in the mornin'. Gosh, how it rains!"
Dick retained his idea of direction, and he walked straight through the
darkness toward the Northern camp. George was a heavy load, but he did
not struggle. His head sank down against his comrade's and Dick felt
that it was burning with fever.
"Good old George," he murmured to himself rather than to his comrade,
"I'll save you."
Excitement and resolve had given him a strength twice the normal, a
strength that would last the fifteen or twenty minutes needed until this
task was finished. Despite the darkness and the driving rain, he could
now see the lights in his own camp, and bending forward a little to
support the dead weight on his back, he walked in a straight course
toward them.
"Halt! Who are you?"
The form of a sentinel, rifle raised, rose up before him in the darkness
and the rain.
"Lieutenant Richard Mason of Colonel Winchester's regiment, bringing in
Lieutenant George Warner of the same regiment, who is badly wounded."
The sentinel lowered his rifle and looked at them sympathetically.
"Hangs like he's dead, but he ain't," he said. "You'll find a sort of
hospital over thar in the big tents among them trees."
Dick found the improvised hospital, and pu
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