'Serve us right for coming out on this night! Truly we have earned our
thousand marks!' were the ejaculations of a fourth.

'There was blood on the broken marble,' another said after a pause--'the
lightning never brought that there. And for him--is he safe? Look at his
throat! See, comrades, the wolf has been lying on him and keeping his
blood warm.'

The officer looked at my throat and replied:

'He is all right; the skin is not pierced. What does it all mean? We
should never have found him but for the yelping of the wolf.'

'What became of it?' asked the man who was holding up my head, and who
seemed the least panic-stricken of the party, for his hands were steady
and without tremor. On his sleeve was the chevron of a petty officer.

'It went to its home,' answered the man, whose long face was pallid, and
who actually shook with terror as he glanced around him fearfully.
'There are graves enough there in which it may lie. Come, comrades--come
quickly! Let us leave this cursed spot.'

The officer raised me to a sitting posture, as he uttered a word of
command; then several men placed me upon a horse. He sprang to the
saddle behind me, took me in his arms, gave the word to advance; and,
turning our faces away from the cypresses, we rode away in swift,
military order.

As yet my tongue refused its office, and I was perforce silent. I must
have fallen asleep; for the next thing I remembered was finding myself