CHAPTER X.

A STARTLING DISCOVERY.

It may seem strange that they were able to sleep in the perilous
situation they were in; but they were men who were used to holding their
lives in their hands. They say that Napoleon could take a nap, during a
lull in battle, while he was waiting for his reserves to be brought up.

The men were cold and damp, of course, but it was impossible for them to
light a fire, even had they dared to take such a risk. But the darkness
was their principal shield.

But all the cold in the world could not have kept Clif awake; he and the
rest of the men were soon fast asleep, hidden away in the enemy's
country, and surrounded by perils innumerable, yet resting as quietly as
if they were at home.

And none of them awakened either, as the dark night wore on. The day
began to break over the mountains to the eastward, and the gay sunbeams
streamed into the room to find the sailors still undisturbed and
unconscious.

The sun had risen and was half an hour up in the sky before any of the
Americans showed signs of awakening. One of the sailors turned over and
then sat up and stared about him.

It was not strange that the man wondered where he was, for a moment; he
had been through so much during the previous day.

He found himself seated in a little bare apare apartment half charred by
fire, and having damp straw for flooring. His companions, including the
officer, were stretched out upon it.

They seemed in blissful ignorance of the fact that it was damp.

The sailor rose to his feet; he was rather stiff and sore, and somewhat
hungry, but he felt that he ought to be glad to be alive.

And then he stole quickly over to the tiny window to look out; naturally
enough he was a little curious to see what sort of a place it was they
had hit on in the darkness.

There was light, then, plenty of it--too much in fact, so the man
thought. It showed him everything.

And the everything must have included something rather startling. For
the sailor acted in a most surprising way.

He took a single glance out of the window; and then he staggered back as
if some one had shot him.

The man's face was as white as a sheet.

He stood for a moment seemingly dazed, his eyes staring vacantly. And
then suddenly he made a leap across the room and seized Clif by the
shoulder.

It was a startling way for Clif to be awakened; the face of that man had
a sort of nightmare look.

"What is it?" Clif gasped. "Qu