sought to draw Jake into conversation on the subject.

"You're as big as Sam is," he said after a while, "and I wonder you
let him talk so sharp to you. You're afraid o' him, aint you?"

"No, but you are."

"Yes I am. I'm afraid o' the lightning too, and he's got it in him, or
I'm mistaken."

"Yes 'n' you fellows hurrahed for him, 'cause you was afraid to stand
up for yourselves."

"To stand up for you, you mean, Jake. It wasn't our quarrel. We like
Sam, if we are afraid o' him, an' between him an' you there wa'nt no
call for us to take sides against him. Besides we're soldiers, you
know, an' he's capt'n."

"A purty capt'n he is, aint he, an' you're a purty soldier, aint you.
A soldier owning up that he's afraid," said Jake tauntingly.

"Well, you're afraid too, you know you are, else you wouldn't 'a' shut
up that way like a turtle when he told you to."

"No, I aint afraid, neither, and you'll find it out 'fore you're done
with it. I didn't choose to say anything then, but _I'll get even with
Sam Hardwicke yet_, you see if I don't."

"Mas' Jake," said a lump of something which had been lying quietly a
little way off all this time, but which now raised itself up and