e wretch's words were smooth and oily. To Hal it really looked as
though this fellow respected gameness enough not to take it out on a
defenseless enemy.

So Hal lay face downward and gave up his hands for binding.

Wrap! wrap! He felt the cord passing swiftly around his wrists, and then
an extra turn was taken around his ankles.

"Your name's Overton, isn't it?" asked the leader with a wicked grin on
his face.

"Yes."

"Then you're the man we want."

"From the way you acted I judged that you wanted me," mocked Hal dryly.

"Yes; but we wanted you for more than general reasons. In fact, we want
you, most of all, for purely personal reasons. Or, at least, one of our
fellows does. Here he comes."

An eighth man of the wretched crew now came swiftly forward from the
hiding that he had kept from the first.

As he came he chuckled maliciously, and Hal Overton knew that sinister
laugh.

Then the fellow halted, bending over the prostrate, tied young sergeant.

The face was the face of that evil deserter from the Army--ex-Private
Hinkey!

CHAPTER XXI

THE ENEMY HAS HIS INNINGS

"I'D much better have stayed up the tree and been shot out of it!"
flashed through Sergeant Hal's startled brain.

"Howdy!" jeered Hinkey, leering wickedly. "Didn't expect to see me, did
you?"

"No," Hal admitted frankly.

"It's my inning now, Overton."

"It looks like it."

"And I'm to have my own way with you--you officers' boot-lick!"

"That's a lie, Hinkey, and you know it!" broke in the deep, indignant
voice of Private Dietz. "Overton's a man, first, last and always. He's
worth a million of your kind."

"Good!" added Private Johnson valiantly. "And true, too! I never
realized it until to-day, either."

"Oh, you both hold your tongues," ordered Hinkey, glaring over at the
pair of bound soldiers who lay beyond. "You fellows are no good, either.
No man that'll stay in the Army is any good."

"I'm glad to know why you left, Hinkey," jeered Dietz. "I've wondered a
lot about that."

"Oh, have you?" snarled Hinkey. "Nobody but a boot-lick would stay in
the Army, and I don't lick any man's boots, not for the whole Army."

"Come, hurry up, Hink, and have your grudge satisfied, and come along.
We don't want to be caught by a lot of soldiers. All the shooting we've
done here will be sure to attract the hunters."

"No it won't," rejoined Hinkey. "We trailed the hunting parties, and
they went out in three squads, in thr