's face.

"Have you got a wife?" he asked bluntly.

Dan shook his head as he stared gravely at the embers.

"A sweetheart, I guess? I never met a Johnnie who didn't have a
sweetheart."

"Yes, I've a sweetheart--God bless her!"

"Well, you take my advice and go home and tell her to cure you, now she's
got the chance. I like your face, young man, but if I ever saw a
half-starved and sickly one, it is yours. Why, I shouldn't have thought you
had the strength to raise your rifle."

"Oh, it doesn't take much strength for that; and besides the coffee did me
good, I was only hungry."

"Hungry, hump!" grunted the Union soldier. "It takes more than hunger to
give a man that blue look about the lips; it takes downright starvation."
He dived into his haversack and drew out a quinine pill and a little bottle
of whiskey.

"If you'll just chuck this down it won't do you any harm," he went on, "and
if I were you, I'd find a shelter before I went to sleep to-night; you
can't trust April weather. Get into that cow shed over there or under a
wagon."

Dan swallowed the quinine and the whiskey, and as the strong spirit fired
his veins, the utter hopelessness of his outlook muffled him into silence.
Dropping his head into his open palms, he sat dully staring at the
whitening ashes.

After a moment the man in blue rose to his feet and fastened his haversack.

"I live up by Bethlehem, New Hampshire," he remarked, "and if you ever come
that way, I hope you'll look me up; my name's Moriarty."

"Your name's Moriarty, I shall remember," repeated Dan, trying, with a
terrible effort, to steady his quivering limbs.

"Jim Moriarty, don't you forget it. Anybody at Bethlehem can tell you about
me; I keep the biggest store around there." He went off a few steps and
then came back to hold out an awkward hand in which there was a little heap
of silver.

"You'd just better take this to start you on your way," he said, "it ain't
but ninety-five cents--I couldn't make out the dollar--and when you get it
in again you can send it to Jim Moriarty at Bethlehem, New Hampshire.
Good-by, and good luck to you this time."

He strode off across the field, and Dan, with the silver held close in his
palm, flung himself back upon the ground and slept until Pinetop woke him
with a grasp upon his shoulder.

"Marse Robert's passin' along the road," he said. "You'd better hurry."

Struggling to his feet Dan rushed from the woods across the deserted field