hap, just as I expected!" cried the sympathizing
Josh, while even Hanky Panky once more dared to lift his head and look;
but almost immediately afterwards Josh changed his tune from despair to
one of new hope--"no, he was only badly injured that time, and not
killed, you see, because now he's going on again. Oh! I take off my hat
to that gallant man! There never lived a braver chap, never; and now I
do hope he'll get close enough up to fire that bomb he's carrying along
with him on to that battery."

Perhaps the marksmen who were amusing themselves in trying to pick
another foeman off did not realize what the French soldier really meant
to do. Had they grasped the full situation a volley would surely have
finished his career, and left his self-appointed mission unfulfilled.

Josh kept tabs of his movements. He even knew when again the crawling
figure gave signs of having been struck once more by some of that leaden
hail. This he could tell from the way in which the heroic fellow writhed
as in pain.

"But, Rod, they just _can't_ keel him over, don't you see!" cried
the admiring Josh, clapping his hands in his excitement; "twice now
they've hit him, but he won't give up the game. Why, he has to drag that
left leg after him all the while, showing where he's been hit. Oh! what
wouldn't I give for a chance to help him out; but it's no use; he's just
got to do it by himself!"

The seconds went on. Perhaps other eyes were following the slow and
painful progress of that lone French hero as he crawled along foot by
foot, suffering dreadfully no doubt with every movement, yet never for a
minute dismayed. Perhaps the eyes of the French commander-in-chief may
have been glued on him through his powerful glasses; and realizing what
the success of the daring soldier's mission might mean for a second
assault on the defenders of the ford, his heart would begin to pick up
renewed hope the closer the private crept to the battery.

There could be no question as to the unflinching spirit that dwelt in
the breast of that particular soldier. Rod remembered many things he had
read in ancient history, but somehow they all paled into insignificance
when with his own eyes he saw this wonderful exhibition of valor
unparalleled. The heroic defense of the Pass of Thermopylae; the swimming
of the Hellespont by Leander, yes, and other instances made famous in
the annals of history had once struck the boy as wonders in their way,
but somehow seein