ngs of the wolves; and he uttered more than
one sigh of relief as his eyes swept the peaks away across the valley,
which here and there sent forth flashes of light from a few scattered
patches of melting snow, the beautiful violet shadows of the transverse
gullies through which sparkling rivulets descended with many a fall to
join the main stream, which dashed onward with the dull, musical roar
which rose and fell, now quite loud, then almost dying completely away.
The valley formed a very paradise to the unfortunate fugitive, and he
muttered bitterly:

"How beautiful it would have been under other circumstances, when such a
wondrous scene of peace was not disfigured by war! So bitterly cold
last night," thought the young private impatiently, for he was fighting
now against two assaults, both of which came upon him when he was trying
hard to lie perfectly still and maintain his equanimity while the pangs
of hunger and thirst were growing poignant. "It seems so easy," he
muttered, "to lie still and keep silence, and here I am feeling that I
must move and do something, and wanting so horribly to talk. It would
be better if that poor boy would only awaken and speak to me. And
there's that water, too," he continued, as the faint plashing, rippling
sound rose to his ears from below. "Oh, how I could drink! I wish the
wind would rise, so that I couldn't hear that dull plashing sound. How
terribly hot the sun is; and it's getting worse!"

Then a horrible thought struck him, that Punch might suddenly wake up
and begin to talk aloud, feverish and delirious from his sufferings; and
then when Pen's troubles were at their very worst, and he could hardly
contain himself and keep from creeping downwards to the water's edge, it
seemed as if a cloud swept over him, and all was blank, for how long he
could not tell, but his fingers closed sharply to clutch the twigs and
grass amongst which he lay as he started into full consciousness.

"Why, I have been asleep!" he muttered. "I must have been;" and he
stared wildly around. There was a great shadow there, and now the sun
is beating down upon that little gully and lighting up the flashing
waters of the fall. "Why, I must have been sleeping for hours, and it
must be quite midday."

His eyes now sought the positions of the different vedettes, and all was
so brilliant and clear that he saw where the men had stood up their
muskets against bush or tree, noted the flash from bayone