bushes a more vivid idea of the change which had come over the besieging
army than this one incident, when the commanders, at whose frowns savages
as well as white men cringed, were treated with such utter lack of
ceremony.

I fully expected to hear one or the other of these three burst into a
towering rage, and order the immediate punishment of those who had
offended, whereas the men extricated themselves from the tangle of
half-drunken soldiers and savages as best they could, immediately
resuming the apparently confidential conversation with the idiot.

I saw Sergeant Corney shrug his shoulders, as if to say that he had given
over even trying to guess what might have happened, and then he beckoned
for us to follow as he crept straight away from the, to us, perplexing
scene.

There was little need for us to give much heed to our movements so far as
concerned making a noise, for I dare venture to say that a full company of
men might have marched boldly past without raising an alarm, so long as
they remained hidden from view.

When we were twenty yards or more from where the commanders stood trying
to hold their position against the drunken tide of reds and whites, the
sergeant halted and looked at us lads inquiringly:

"Well?" I said, irritably, vexed because of my bewilderment. "If you can't
explain the situation there is no need to look at us. It beats anything I
ever heard of or dreamed about. Have they all lost their senses?"

"Somethin' is goin' mightily wrong!" Sergeant Corney said, impressively,
as if he was imparting valuable information.

"Goin' wrong!" Jacob repeated. "I should say it had already gone wrong
with a vengeance. Can't you make some kind of a guess, sergeant?"

"Not a bit of it, lad. This 'ere business lays way over anythin' I ever
saw in all my experience as a soldier. There's one thing certain,
howsomever, which is that jest now an hundred of our people could walk
through the entire encampment without bein' called upon to spill a drop of
blood."

"Well?" I asked again, as the old man ceased speaking.

"Colonel Gansevoort must know how mixed up is this 'ere army."

"We can go back an' tell him," Jacob replied, promptly. "I reckon we might
walk straight out toward the fort, an' never a man here would give heed to
us."

"If we knew exactly what had happened it might be as well for all three to
go back to the fort; but there's no knowin' when matters may take a turn,
an' we must keep a