sing his head between his hands.
Another had his hand to his shoulder, and the sticky red of fresh blood
showed between his fingers. The two others, very young, stood nervously,
their hands high. If the Yankee noncom was thinking of trying something,
his material was not promising. Drew broke the moment of silence with a
warning.

"You're surrounded, subject to fire from both sides, Sergeant! I suggest
surrender. You will be treated as prisoners of war and given parole. We
_are_ from General Forrest's command. We're scouts. Believe me, if we
had wished to, we could have shot every one of you out of the saddle
before you knew we were here. Guerrillas would have done just that."

The logic of that argument reached the Union sergeant. He still eyed
Drew straightly, but there was a ruefulness rather than hostile defiance
in his voice as he asked:

"What do you plan to do with us?"

"Nothing." Drew was crisp. "Give us your parole, leave your arms, your
horses, your rations--if you are carrying any. Then you are free to go."

"We've been ordered not to take parole," the sergeant objected.

"General Forrest hasn't given any orders not to grant it," Drew
countered. "As far as I am concerned, you can take it, we'll accept your
word."

"All right." The other dismounted awkwardly, and with one hand unbuckled
his saber, dropping his belt and gun.

Kirby went among the men gathering up their weapons. Then he and Drew
tended the slight wounds of their enemies.

"You'll both do until you can get to town," Drew told them. "And you've
a road and plenty of daylight to help you foot it...."

To Drew's surprise, the sergeant suddenly laughed. "This ain't going to
sit well with the captain. He swore all you Rebs were run out of here a
couple of weeks ago."

"You can assure him he's wrong." Drew saw a chance to confuse the enemy.
"We're very much around. You'll be seem' a lot of us from now on, a lot
more."

They watched the squad in blue, now afoot, plod on down the road. When
they were out of sight around a bend, Webb and Croff came out of hiding
to inspect the spoil. Unfortunately the Yankees had not possessed
rations, but their opponents acquired five horses, five Springfields,
four sabers, and three Colts, as well as welcome rounds of ammunition--a
fine haul.

Croff methodically smashed the stocks of the Springfields against a rock
and pitched the ruined weapons back of the fence. They had seen during
the retreat just h