pressively. "You both
understand that. Do you, Minny-fish?"

"I vas never shot," said Carl, "but I sushpect I know vat shooting is."
And he smiled again, with trouble in his heart, that would have quite
disconcerted a youth of less nerve and phlegm.

"Well," said Captain Sprowl, "if you don't, you will know, if you
undertake to play any of your Dutch tricks with me!"

"O, sir!" said Carl, humbly, "if I knowed any trick I vouldn't ever
think of playing it on you, you are so wery shmart!"

"How do you know I am?" said Lysander, who felt flattered, and thought
it would be interesting to hear the lad's reasons; for neither he, nor
any one present, had perceived the craft and sarcasm concealed under
that simple, earnest manner.

"How do I know you are shmart? Pecause," replied Carl, "you have such a
pig head. And such a pig nose. And such a pig mouth. That shows you are
a pig man."

This was said with an air of intense seriousness, which never changed
amid the peals of laughter that followed. Nobody suspected Carl of an
intentional joke; and the round-eyed innocent surprise with which he
regarded the merriment added hugely to the humor of it. Everybody
laughed except Lysander, who only grimaced a little to disguise his
chagrin. This upstart officer was greatly disliked for his conceited
ways, and it was not long before the "Dutch boy's compliments" became
the joke of the camp, and wherever Lysander appeared some whisper was
sure to be heard concerning either the "pig mouth," or "pig nose," of
that truly "pig man."

As for Carl, he had something far more serious to do than to laugh. How
to circumvent the designs of these men? That was the question.

In the first place, it is necessary to state that his conscience
acquitted him entirely of all obligations to them or their cause. He was
no secessionist. He had enlisted to save his benefactor and friend. He
had said, "I will give you my services if you will give that man his
life." They had immediately afterwards broken the contract by seeking to
kill his friend, and he felt that he no longer owed them anything. But
they held _him_ by force, against which he had no weapon but his own
good wit. This, therefore, he determined to use, if possible, to their
discomfiture, and the salvation of those to whom he owed everything. But
how?

He had saved Toby from torture and confession by promising what he never
intended literally to perform.

Once more in the guard-house, re