ell? Won't be bad if
you could get me a bundle or two of hay and a greatcoat to cover over
me. The wind will come down pretty cold from the mountains; but I
sha'n't mind that so long as the bears don't come too. I shall be all
right, so you had better be off and get back to the regiment, and tell
them where you have left me. I say, you will get promoted for it."

"Nonsense, Punch! What for?"

"Sticking to a comrade like this. I have been thinking about it, and I
call it fine of you running back to help me, with the Frenchies coming
on. Yes, I know. Don't make faces about it. The colonel will have you
made corporal for trying to save me."

"Of course!" said Pen sarcastically. "Why, I'm not much older than
you--the youngest private in the regiment; more likely to be in trouble
for not keeping in the ranks, and shirking the enemy's fire."

"Don't you tell me," said the boy sharply. "I'll let the colonel and
everybody know, if ever I get back to the ranks again."

"What's that?" said Pen sharply. "If ever you get back to the ranks
again! Why, you are not going to set up a faint heart, are you?"

"'Tain't my heart's faint, but my head feels sick and swimmy. But, I
say, do you think you ought to do any more about stopping up the hole so
as to give a fellow a chance?"

"I'll do all I can, Punch," said Pen; "but you know I'm not a surgeon."

"Course I do," said the boy, laughing, but evidently fighting hard to
hide his suffering. "You are better than a doctor."

"Better, eh?"

"Yes, ever so much, because you are here and the doctor isn't."

The boy lay silent for a few minutes, evidently thinking deeply.

"I say, private," he said at last, "I can't settle this all out about
what's going to be done; but I think this will be best."

"What?"

"What I said before. You had better wait till night, and then creep off
and follow our men's track. It will be awkward in the dark, but you
ought to be able to find out somehow, because there's only one road all
along by the side of this little river. You just keep along that while
it's dark, and trust to luck when it's daytime again. Only, look here,
my water-bottle's empty, so, as soon as you think it's dark enough, down
you go to the river, fill it, and bring it back, and I shall be all
right till our fellows fight their way back and pick me up."

"And if they are not able to--what then?" said Pen, smiling.

"Well, I shall wait till I get so hungry I ca