blaze t'other side of the house, and the smoke of it drives across so
that 'tis only between whiles you can see the child at all. The odds
are, he'll be burnt alive or smothered before he starves outright;
and, I reckon, put one against the other, 'twill be the mercifuller
end.'

'Poor little beggar,' said the sergeant. 'But why don't the general
send in a white flag, and take him off?'

'A lot the governor would believe--and after what you and me have
seen these two days! A nice tenderhearted crew to tell him,
"If you please, we've come for a poor little three-year-old."
Why, he'd as lief as not believe we meant to _eat_ him.'

Sergeant Wilkes glanced up across the camp-fire to the spot where
Corporal Sam had been standing. But Corporal Sam had disappeared.



CHAPTER VI.


Although the hour was close upon midnight, and no moon showed,
Corporal Sam needed no lantern to light him through San Sebastian;
for a great part of the upper town still burned fiercely, and from
time to time a shell, soaring aloft from the mortar batteries across
the river, burst over the citadel or against the rocks where the
French yet clung, and each explosion flung a glare across the
heavens.