voices and the feet came nearer, and at last stopped directly in front of his hiding-place. There were terrible oaths outside, and bitter denunciations were breathed against any luckless Union man who might be lurking near, and then the light from the entrance of the cave was wholly obscured, and Will saw that a man’s back was against the opening, as if some one were sitting there. _Did_ they know of the cave? Would they come in there, and if they did would they find him? Will kept asking himself these questions and his breath came gaspingly as he knew that the man whose back barred the entrance to his hiding-place was the bitterest in his invectives against the Yankees, and the most anxious to find them. Something in his voice and language indicated both education and position superior to his companions, who evidently looked up to him as their leader, calling him “_Square_,” and acquiescing readily when, after the lapse of ten or fifteen minutes, he suggested that they go higher up the mountain to a gorge where some of the fugitives had heretofore taken refuge. Five minutes more and the footsteps and voices were heard far up the mountain, and Will breathed more freely again, and kneeling down in the pool of water, thanked God who had turned the danger aside, and kept him a little longer. He did not dare leave the cave, but he came out from under the rock, and stretching himself upon the ground tried to wring and dry the tatters which hung so loosely upon him. It was two days since he had tasted food, and the long fast began to make itself felt in the keen pangs of hunger. Surely he could venture out toward the close of the day, he thought, and see if there were not berries growing in the ledges, and when the sun was setting he crawled to the mouth of the cavern, where just in the best place for him to see it lay a huge corn-cake and slice of bacon, wrapped nicely in a bit of paper. How it came there he did not stop to ask. That it was there was sufficient for him then, and never had the costliest dinner, served on massive silver, tasted to him half so well as did that bit of bacon with the coarse corn bread.