louder, as
if passing close to the window, became gradually fainter, and then grew
louder once more, and this over and over again.

At the same time that he was listening to this, he became aware of a
peculiar scratching noise close by, but until in his heavy drowsy state
he had settled in his own mind that it was a sentinel, he could not pay
any heed to the scratching.

By degrees he recognised the sound as being that of a pen, and knew that
some one was writing, and just as he had arrived at this conclusion,
there was the faint scrape of a chair, a clinking noise such as might be
made by the hilt of a sword against a breastplate, and directly after a
sun-browned, anxious face was gazing earnestly into his.

"Father!" whispered Fred, feebly.

"My dear boy! Thank Heaven!"

The first sentence was uttered aloud--the second breathed softly.

"How is it with you, Fred?"

"Bad, father, bad," he murmured. "I seem to have no strength left,
and--and--and--oh, father," he gasped, as he clung to the hand which
took his, "I did--indeed, I did my best."

"Why, Fred, my boy, Fred. Don't--don't take it so seriously as that.
You were overpowered and wounded."

"Yes, father, but you trusted me with the prisoners, and I allowed
myself to be out-manoeuvred, and I have disgraced myself."

"What! How?"

"And I did try so hard to do my duty. I wish now I had been killed."

"Fred! My son!"

"Don't be angry with me now I am so weak."

"Yes, too weak, my dear boy," said Colonel Forrester, as he knelt down
by the bedside, and passed his arm beneath the lad's neck as he kissed
his forehead, "too weak to talk about all this. Be silent and listen to
me."

Fred answered by a look.

"You think you have disgraced yourself by letting your enemies
out-manoeuvre you, and with the prisoners turn the table on your little
escort?"

Fred gave another pitiful look.

"That you have disgraced yourself for ever as a young officer?"

"Yes," whispered the wounded lad.

"And that I, your father and your colonel, am angry for what you look
upon as a lapse?"

Fred tried to bow his head, but failed.

"Well, then, my dear boy, let me set your poor weak head at rest. I
know everything you did from your start until you were trapped in the
wood, the enemy letting you pass one troop, and having another waiting
for you at the end of the wood."

"Yes, that is how it was, and I did not take sufficient care."

"Yes, you did, my boy; y