Will looked thoughtfully at me without speaking, and the expression of deep sadness came over his face again. "Where is he?" I whispered. "His body was thrown into a trench with some others outside the town," answered Will. "Then you killed him? Or was it a dream, what?" I gasped. "Don't try to talk, Dick. You remember you shot him, don't you? Hit him through the body. I knocked your first pistol away, for your sister's sake, but you fired again before I could stop you. Don't talk any more and you will come out all right. "There's not much dream about the whole business, I only wish there was." CHAPTER XII The evacuation of Norfolk by the British practically ended the war for a time in Virginia, and Dunmore soon sailed away never to return. In a couple of weeks I was on my feet again, very little the worse for the wound Harrison had given me. Will had been with me all the time and Barron and the Major spent nearly all their spare hours in the hospital. The companies had now begun to disband, that is all except those who volunteered to join Washington's army at the north. Colonel Woodford gave over his command to Colonel Howe, of North Carolina, and after that he did little else than receive the praise he had so well earned. Everywhere he was feted and applauded, until even the tories began to come over to his way of thinking. My company broke up and the men either went home or joined other commands, and I was given indefinite leave on account of my wound. Will, who held no commission, made ready to go with me to Judkins' Hall. Now that the fighting was over, Major Bullbeggor appeared to suffer acutely, and I made up my mind that the only thing that would save the old soldier's life would be for him to join the army in the north. "It's no use, Dick, my boy," said he, the day before I left him. "I have these pains a'shooting all through me and a vertigris in the skull. Why, I wouldn't be able to stand anything in that cold climate. This twitching of the nerves and numbing of the bones certainly means disintegration, sir; yes, sir, it certainly does mean something. Go and get married, Dick, and try to get Will to join the army in the north. He will make a splendid soldier, for there's nothing so desperate and dangerous in a fight as a man crossed in love." "But, Major," I said, "you know the army needs just such men as you to guide them in military affairs. It's your duty to go where your country calls for you when you are a soldier." "I have a wife and six young children, Dick, all of them mostly ailing. I've tried Miranda Jones' spring medicine, and all of them have had Dr. McGuire bleed them until they could stand it no longer, but it didn't do any good. They are all dependent on me. Who would pay for their medicines if I should happen to fall ill and die?"