It must have been midnight, possibly even later, when a number of rapid shots fired outside the tent aroused me, and I heard many voices shouting, mingled with the tread of horses' feet. The night-watch had already disappeared, and the startled inmates of the tent were in a state of intense confusion. As I lifted myself slightly, dazed by the sudden uproar and eager to learn its cause, the tent-flap, which had been lowered to exclude the cold night air, was hastily jerked aside, and a man stepped within, casting one rapid glance about that dim interior. The flaring lamp overhead revealed to me a short, heavy-set figure, clad in a gray uniform. “No one here need feel alarm,” he said quietly. “We are not making war upon the wounded. Are there any Confederates present able to travel?” A dozen eager voices answered him, and men began to crawl out of their cots onto the floor. He started down the aisle. “We can be burdened with no helpless or badly wounded men,” he said sternly. “Only those able to ride. No, my man, you are in too bad shape to travel. Very sorry, my boy, but it can't be done. Only your left arm, you say? Very well, move out in front there. No, lad, it would be the death of you, for we must ride fast and hard.” He came to a pause a half-dozen cots away from me, and seemed about to retrace his steps. Dim as the light was, I felt convinced I had formerly seen that short figure and stern face with its closely cropped beard. “Mosby,” I called out, resolved to risk his remembrance, “Colonel Mosby, isn't it possible to take me?” “Who are you?” he questioned sharply, turning in the direction of my voice. “Wayne,” I answered eagerly, “Wayne, of the ----th Virginia.” In an instant he was standing beside my cot, his eyes filled with anxious interest. “Phil Wayne, of Charlottesville? You here? Not badly hurt, my boy?” “Shot and bruised, Colonel, but I'd stand a good deal to get out of this.” “And, by the Eternal, you shall; that is, if you can travel in a wagon. Here, Sims, Thomas; two of you carry this officer out. Take bed-clothes and all--easy now.” The fellows picked me up tenderly, and bore me slowly down the central aisle. Mosby walked beside us as far as the outer opening. “Put him down there by the fire,” he ordered, “until I look over the rest of these chaps and divide the wheat from the chaff.” CHAPTER XXIV A NIGHT RIDE OF THE WOUNDED