Louis made a clutch for it, but missed it through Jerry’s wild endeavors. The line was thrown a second time and the youth in midstream caught the knot just as it was floating out of his reach. “Jerry--let--go, do!” he pleaded, but Jerry was deaf to all appeals. Seeing this, Louis held his breath as well as he was able, while Harry and a dozen others who had followed to the scene of the trouble pulled in with might and main. Louis felt the bottom with a sigh of relief. “You can walk ashore now,” he cried, wrenching himself free at last. “Is--is it safe?” spluttered Jerry. “Yes; try it for yourself.” With great caution Jerry did as told. Striking bottom in water which was hardly up to his waist, he made a dash for dry land. Having reached this, he did not even look back to see if Louis was safe, but struck out for camp, five hundred feet away. “By gosh!” muttered Harry, as Louis gave him a certain glance. “If there is a meaner fellow in our camp than Jerry Rowe I have still to find him.” “He didn’t waste breath in thanking you, did he?” put in Hornsby, who was in the crowd. “The chances are that Jerry won’t believe I did anything for him,” answered Louis, when he had recovered his breath. “He may even say that he could have saved himself if he had been left alone.” And this is what Jerry actually did, much to his discredit and to the disgust of all who heard him. But the others did not forget Louis, and he was spoken of as a brave boy in blue for a long while to come. The building of the bridge occupied two days more, and then the Goreville Volunteers struck camp again and moved forward another mile nearer the Confederate capital. Serious fighting was now “in the air” and the men were kept under strict discipline. The rival armies, each over a hundred thousand strong, were about to engage in the first of the great battles of the campaign, a battle called by the Unionists Fair Oaks, and by the Confederates Seven Pines, both names belonging to certain territories of the battlefield, which was many miles in extent. To go into the details of this battle, great and important as it was, would be beyond the scope of this tale, so we will only take a brief review ere we return, to follow the fortunes of Louis on one side and Andy upon the other. The battle was fought mostly upon very low and level ground, abounding in swamps and small streams, and covered nearly everywhere with heavy woods. The railroad to Richmond ran nearly east and west, and parallel to it, half a mile southward, ran the Williamsburg road. There was also a cross road called the Nine Mile Road. The woods were thickest near to Richmond and here many trees had been laid low, to serve as a shelter to the Confederate troops and to obstruct the advance of the Union army.