but at that moment would have bet something on the chances of their
survival.

"I did not hear what you said just now, general," he remarked, with
great elegance of manner, "but I know from your reputation that it could
not be a lie. I therefore gather that there IS another way across."

The boy smiled; rather, his very short upper lip apparently vanished
completely over his white teeth, and his very black eyes, which showed a
great deal of the white around them, danced in their orbits.

"But YOU couldn't find it," he said, slyly.

"No more could you find the half-dollar I dropped just now, unless I
helped you."

Mr. Hamlin, by way of illustration, leaned deeply over his left stirrup,
and pointed to the ground. At the same moment a bright half-dollar
absolutely appeared to glitter in the herbage at the point of his
finger. It was a trick that had always brought great pleasure and profit
to his young friends, and some loss and discomfiture of wager to his
older ones.

The boy picked up the coin: "There's a dip and a level crossing about a
mile over yer,"--he pointed,--"but it's through the woods, and they're
that high with thick bresh."

"With what?"

"Bresh," repeated the boy; "THAT,"--pointing to a few fronds of bracken