ounded by
the enemy.

"We must take our chances in the first dense thicket, wherein may be found
a stout tree, that we come across," he replied, "an' now instead of tryin'
to get a sight of the fortification, turn all your efforts toward findin'
a hidin'-place."

This promised to be as difficult a task as I had ever undertaken, for how
would it be possible in the darkness to say whether one thicket was denser
than another, and, without spending precious time in the examination, to
learn if there was a stout tree within any certain clump of bushes?

Because the sergeant had said we were to halt where was a tree, I believed
he proposed spending the day amid the branches, and any one who has ever
been in a forest can readily understand how few there are of such
hiding-places.

However, we were there, and within another hour must be screened from view
after some fashion, therefore it was useless to grumble, or say this or
that movement was impossible; but rather I should do the best I might, and
trust to the chapter of accidents that I did not lead my companion into
what would prove to be a trap.

All the thicket looked dense in the night, but when I was finally come to
a clump of bushes through which it was difficult to force my way, I
stopped and whispered to Sergeant Corney.

"This seems to be such a place as you would have; but who can say whether
it will answer our purpose?"

"So much the worse for us if it does not," the old man replied, grimly.
"Make your way in, an' if there be no tree to give us a roostin'-place, we
must take our chances on the ground, for the day is comin' on apace."

And indeed he said no more than the truth; already was it possible for me
to see surrounding objects, dimly, to be sure, but more clearly than when
we first began searching for a place of refuge.

Unless we were concealed from view within half an hour, we might as well
march straight to the nearest sentinel and give ourselves up as prisoners.

There was much to be desired in this thicket which we had chosen by
chance, as was learned when we were well within it. Several large trees
grew amid the clump of bushes, to be sure; but the foliage was not so
dense that one who passed near at hand with reasonable alertness would
have failed to discover us lurking there.

"It is better than the open country," Sergeant Corney said, when I would
have found fault with our blind choice. "We will burrow amid these small
bushes until day