"I never was here before; but I guess we are not more than six miles below the intrenchments of the enemy on the Cumberland, and they have another breastwork on the south side of the river," replied Deck, as he continued to look about him. "Where is Robertsport, of which you spoke a while ago?" "That's on the opposite side of the river, not more than a quarter of a mile higher up. I suppose you are satisfied now that you are on the north side of the stream, and not on the south, as you anticipated, Ben," said Deck. "Yes; I reasoned that matter out, and found you were right. I suppose you are about used up by this time. I wonder what o'clock it is." "I have a watch if you have a match." The sergeant took a tin box from his pocket, and lighted a match from it, and held it under his cap. Deck produced his watch, and found that it was twenty-five minutes past one. "Later than I supposed," he added. "We have been on our feet nearly twenty-four hours, and I think you must be about played out," said the sergeant with a gape. "I am tired out; and you are still young, too young to go without your regular sleep." "But I shall survey this locality before I do anything else." "I am with you." "I did not expect to find anything like a flat surface here," continued the lieutenant, as he started to walk towards a high bluff in the direction from which they had come. It was only a couple of rods from the water, and the flat space where they had come ashore was evidently made by the caving of the earth along the bluff, when the river had been even higher than at present. It was a hill which had possibly turned the river aside from its westerly course to the south at some remote period in the past. There was just such a bluff on the other side of the tongue of land, and possibly a hill there had again changed the river's course to the westward. But Deck's theory explained the presence of the fortunate flat where they had landed. "Now we must find a way to get up on the hill above the high bluff," said he, as he led the way up the river. Beyond the bluff the bank of the river was the same as it had been all the way from the fort, and the flat came to a sudden ending. "Here is a flatboat," said Ben, who was the first to discover it. "Somebody must live near here." "This looks like a path up the bank," added Deck, who had been studying the river above. "I think this must be a ferry, Ben; though I should suppose the ferryman would find it hard work to get through the current that brought us down."