Forrest turned his head abruptly, the statue coming to life. And there was impatience in the answer which was certainly meant for all the doubters at large and not to one sergeant of scouts relaying a message. "Well, ain't we in theirs?" General Armstrong, his men out of ammunition, made his own plea to fall back. But the orders were to hold. Hood was at Sugar Creek with the army; he must have time to cross. It was late afternoon when Forrest at last ordered the withdrawal, and they made it in an orderly fashion. Through the night the rear guard toiled on and a little after midnight they reached the Sugar in their turn. Drew splashed cold water on his face, not only to keep awake, but to rinse off the mud and grime of days of riding and fighting. He could not remember when he had had his clothes off, had bathed or worn a clean shirt. Now he smeared his jacket sleeve across his face in place of a towel and tramped wearily back to the fire where his own small squad had settled in for what rest they could get. Croff was sniffing the air, hound fashion. "Ain't gonna do you no good," Webb told him sourly. "Theah ain't nothin' in the pot, nor no pot neither--'less Kirby 'membered to stow it last time. Lordy, m' back an' m' middle are clean growed together, seems like." "Feast your eyes, man! Jus' feast your eyes!" Kirby unrolled his prized coat. In its folds was a greasy package which did indeed give up a treasure--a good four-inch-thick slab of bacon squeezed in with a block of odd, brownish-yellow stuff. They crowded around, dazzled by the sight of bacon, real bacon. Then Drew pointed at the accompanying block. "What's that? New kind of hardtack?" "Nope. That theah's vegetables." Kirby spoke with authority. "Vegetables?" "Yeah. These heah Yankee commissaries bin workin' out new tricks all th' time. They takes a lot of stuff like turnips, carrots, beets, all such truck, an' press it into cakes like this. 'Course you have to be careful. I heard tell as how one blue belly, he chawed the stuff dry an' then drank water; it bloated him up like a cow in green cane. Poor fella, he jus' natchelly suffered from bein' so greedy. But you drop it in water an' give it a boil...." "Looks like hay," Drew commented without enthusiasm. He picked it up and sniffed dubiously. "Man," Webb said, "if the Yankees can eat hay, then we can too. An' I'm hungry 'nough to chaw grass, were you to show me a tidy patch an' say go to it! How come you know all 'bout this hay-stuff, Anse?" "We found some of it on the _Mazeppa_. The lieutenant told us how it worked--" "The _Mazeppa_!" Webb breathed reverently, and there was a moment of silence as they all recalled the richness of that capture. "We shore could do with another boat like that one. Too bad this heah crick ain't big 'nough to float a nice bunch of supplies in, right now."