Indian wolves are waiting for us. It's the hazard of
war; that's all. But we needn't all be sacrificed. You, who aren't
wounded, can't help us who are. You have nothing here to make our
suffering less. To stay here means--you all know what. Now the men who
can go must leave us to what's coming. I feel sure now that you can get
through together somehow, for the tribes are scattering. It is only the
remnant left over there to burn us out at last. There is no reason why
you should stay here and die. Make your dash for escape together
to-night, and save your lives if you can. And"--his voice was brave and
full of cheer--"I believe you can."

Then a silence fell. There were two dozen of us gaunt, hungry men,
haggard from lack of sleep and the fearful tax on mind and body that
tested human endurance to the limit--two dozen, to whom escape was not
impossible now, though every foot of the way was dangerous. Life is
sweet, and hope is imperishable. We looked into one another's face
grimly, for the crisis of a lifetime was upon us. Beside me lay Morton.
The handkerchief he had bound about his head in the first hour of
battle had not once been removed. There was no other handkerchief to
take its place.

"Go, Baronet," he said to me. "Tell your father, if you see him again,
that I remembered Whately and how he went down at Chattanooga."

His voice was low and firm and yet he knew what was awaiting him. Oh!
men walked on red-hot ploughshares in the days of the winning of the
West.

Sharp Grover was sitting beside Forsyth. In the silence of the council
the guide turned his eyes toward each of us. Then, clenching his gaunt,
knotted hands with a grip of steel, he said in a low, measured voice:

"It's no use asking us, General. We have fought together, and, by
Heaven, we'll die together."

In the great crises of life the only joy is the joy of self-sacrifice.
Every man of us breathed freer, and we were happier now than we had been
at any time since the conflict began. And so another twenty-four hours,
and still another twenty-four went by.

The sun came up and the sun went down,
And day and night were the same as one.

And any evil chance seemed better than this slow dragging out of
misery-laden time.

"Nature meant me to defend the weak and helpless. The West needs me," I
had said to my father. And now I had given it my best. A slow fever was
creeping upon me, and weariness of body was greater than pain and
hunger. Dea