ou do this, Carl?" said Fritz. "There is no cause that you
should be kind to me. I did you some ill turns. You did right to run
away. But our father swears you shall have your share of the property if
you ever come back for it, and the Yankees do not take it."

"It is all lies they tell you about the Yankees!" said Carl. "O Pomp!
this is my cousin--see what you can do for him."

Pomp had been reluctantly convinced that he could do nothing for
Withers: his wound was mortal. And Withers had said to him, in cheerful,
feeble tones, "I feel I'm about to the eend of my tether. So don't waste
yer time on me."

So Pomp turned his attention to the Minnevich. But Penn and Stackridge
remained with the dying patriot.

"Wish ye had a Union flag to wrap me in when I'm dead, boys! That's what
I've fit fur; that's what I meant to die fur, if 'twas so ordered. It's
all right, boys! Jest look arter my family a little, won't ye? And don't
give up old Tennessee!"

These were his last words.

Penn and Stackridge rejoined their comrades in the fight.

"Shoot him! shoot him! shoot him!" cried Cudjo, in a frenzy of
excitement, pointing at the rebel who had fallen from the tree upon the
projection of the chasm wall. "Him dar! Dat Sile Ropes!"

"Ropes?" said Penn, looking up through the opening. "That he!"--raising
his gun. "But he can do no harm there; and he can't get out."

"Don' ye see? Dey's got a rope to help him wif! Gib him a shot fust! O,
gib him a shot!"

The projection to which the lieutenant clung was a broken shelf less
than half a yard in breadth. There he cowered in abject terror betwixt
two dangers, that of falling if he attempted to move, and that of being
picked off if he remained stationary and in sight. To avoid both, he got
upon his hands and knees, and hid his face in the angle of the ledge,
leaving the posterior part of his person prominent, no doubt thinking,
like an ostrich, that if his head was in a hole, he was safe. The very
ludicrousness of his situation saved him. The patriots reserved him to
laugh at, and fired over him at the rebels on the cliff. At each shot,
Silas could be seen to root his nose still more industriously into the
rock. At length, however, as Cudjo had declared, a rope was brought and
let down to him.

"Take hold there!" shouted the rebels on the cliff. Ropes could feel the
cord dangling on his back. "Tie it around your waist!"

Silas, without daring to look up, put out his hand, whic