passage to the prisoner, and from the prisoner to the sentry. But at
that instant the black formidable figure arose, towered, and made its
leap. A new shadow flashed across the floor when the blow was struck.

As for the girl at the knot-hole, when she returned to sense she found
herself standing with clenched hands and screaming with her might.

As if her reason had again departed from her, she ran around the barn,
in at the door, and flung herself sobbing beside the body of the soldier
in blue.

The uproar of the fight became at last coherent, inasmuch as one party
was giving shouts of supreme exultation. The firing no longer sounded in
crashes; it was now expressed in spiteful crackles, the last words of
the combat, spoken with feminine vindictiveness.

Presently there was a thud of flying feet. A grimy, panting, red-faced
mob of troopers in blue plunged into the barn, became instantly frozen
to attitudes of amazement and rage, and then roared in one great chorus:
"He's gone!"

The girl who knelt beside the body upon the floor turned toward them
her lamenting eyes and cried: "He's not dead, is he? He can't be dead?"

They thronged forward. The sharp lieutenant who had been so particular
about the feed-box knelt by the side of the girl, and laid his head
against the chest of the prostrate soldier. "Why, no," he said, rising
and looking at the man. "He's all right. Some of you boys throw some
water on him."