The rebels listened for a moment, and one of them replied:

"I didn't hear any thing."

"Well, _I_ did," returned the colonel, "and it sounded very much
like some one shouting for help. I'm certain I heard it."

Archie, who lay in his concealment, trembling like a leaf, was also
confident that _he_ had heard something that sounded like a call
for assistance. What if it was Frank in danger, and shouting to the
cutter's crew for help? The thought to Archie was a terrible one, and he
forgot the dangers of his own situation, and thought only of his cousin.
But if Frank was in trouble, why did he not give the signal to the
cutter's crew? Archie waited and listened for it, but did not hear it
given.

While these thoughts were passing through his mind, the rebels sat on
the portico listening, and at length the colonel said:

"I know I hear something now, but it is the tramping of a horse. I
suppose it is Tibbs, coming with the mail."

The colonel's surmise proved to be correct, for in a few moments a man
rode up, and dismounting so close to Archie that the latter could have
touched him, tied his horse to the very bush which formed his
concealment; then, throwing a pair of well-filled saddle-bags across his
shoulder, he ran up the steps, saying:

"Good evening, gentlemen. What! colonel, are you wounded?" he added, on
seeing the rebel's bandaged arm.