and the blessed rain fell softly on all alike, on skilful
guide, and busy soldier, on the wounded lying helpless in their beds of
sand, on the newly made graves of those for whom life's fitful fever was
ended. And above all, the loving Father, whose arm is never shortened
that He cannot save, gave His angels charge over us to keep us in all
our ways.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE SUNLIGHT ON OLD GLORY

The little green tent is made of sod,
And it is not long, and it is not broad,
But the soldiers have lots of room.
And the sod is a part of the land they saved,
When the flag of the enemy darkly waved,
A symbol of dole and gloom.

--WALT MASON.

"Baronet, we must have that spade we left over there this morning. Are
you the man to get it?" Sharp Grover said to me just after dusk. "We've
got to have water or die, and Burke here can't dig a well with his toe
nails, though he can come about as near to it as anybody." Burke was an
industrious Irishman who had already found water for us. "And then we
must take care of these." He motioned toward a still form at my feet,
and his tone was reverent.

"Over there" was the camp ground of the night before. It had been
trampled by hundreds of feet. Our camp was small, and finding the spade
by day might be easy enough. To grope in the dark and danger was another
matter. Twenty-four hours before, I would not have dared to try. Nothing
counted with me now. I had just risen from the stiffening body of a
comrade whom I had been trying to compose for his final rest. I had no
more sentiment for myself than I had for him. My time might come at any
moment.

"Yes, sir, I'll go," I answered the scout, and I felt of my revolvers;
my own and the one I had taken from the man who lay at my feet.

"Well, take no foolish chances. Come back if the way is blocked, but get
the spade if you can. Take your time. You'd better wait an hour than be
dead in a minute," and he turned to the next work before him.

He was guide, commander, and lieutenant all in one, and his duties were
many. I slipped out in the danger-filled shadows toward our camping
place of the night before. Every step was full of peril. The Indians had
no notion of letting us slip through their fingers in the dark. Added to
their day's defeats, we had slain their greatest warrior, and they would
have perished by inches rather than let us escape now. So our island was
guarded on every side. The black shadowed Plains wer