"What do you mean, Captain?" he asked.

"I knew that you had good eyes and I believed that with the aid of the
glasses you would be able to trace figures, despite the shelter of the
bushes. Study the undergrowth again, will you, Harry, and tell me what
more you can see there?"

"I don't need to study it. I can tell at one look that they're gathering
a force. Maybe they mean to rush the creek at a shallow place."

"Is that force moving in any direction?"

"Yes, it's going down the creek."

"Then we'll go down the creek with it. We mustn't be lacking in
hospitality."

Sherburne drew a whistle from his pocket and blew a low call upon it.
Scores of shadowy figures rose from the undergrowth, and followed his
lead down the stream. Harry was still able to see that the force on the
other side was increasing largely in numbers, but Sherburne reminded him
that his duties, as far as the coming skirmish was concerned, were over.

"General Lee didn't send you here to get killed," he said. "He wants you
instead to report how many of us get killed. You know that while the
general is a kind man he can be stern, too, and you're not to take the
risk. The orderly is behind that hill with your horse and mine."

Harry, with a sigh, fell back toward the hill. But he did not yet go
behind it, where the orderly stood. Instead he lay down among the trees