“What am I doin’ here?” Bill repeated, sticking his cap a little more to one side, and half shutting one of his wicked grey eyes, “Kinder peekin’ round to see what I can find. Be I friend or foe? You must be green to ask that. Don’t you re-cog-nize my _regimentals_, made after the cut of Uncle Sam, _siled_ some, to be sure, but then I’ve been at a dirty job,—been lickin’ jest such scamps as you. Now, then, corporal, seein’ I answered you civil, what are _you_ doin’ here? You won’t answer me, hey?” he continued, as the stranger deigned him no other reply than a look of ineffable disdain. “Wall, then, if you’re so ’fraid of your tongue, s’posin’ we try a rastle, rough and tumble, you know; and the one that gits beat is t’other’s prisoner. That’s fair, as these dead folks will witness;” and Bill’s glance for the first time fell upon the bodies lying near them,—upon Charlie’s childish face, with the golden curls clustering around it. The sight touched a tender chord in Bill, and forgetting for a moment his new acquaintance, he bent over the drummer boy, murmuring, “Poor child, your folks or’to have been ashamed to let you come to war.” Now was the Rebel’s time. He felt intuitively that he was no match for the thick-set, brawny Bill. Safety lay alone in flight, and with a sudden bound he fled like a deer. “Nuff said,” dropped from Bill’s lips, and the next instant he, too, was flying through the woods in pursuit of the foe. It proved an unequal race, and Bill’s strong arms ere long closed like a vice around the struggling soldier, who resisted manfully, until resistance was vain, and then sullenly stood still, while Bill fastened his hands behind him, with the cords unwittingly furnished by Rose Mather! “Don’t squirm so, corporal,” Bill said, as he bound the knots securely, with his knee upon the back of the stranger, whom he had thrown upon his face. “Don’t squirm so like an eel and I’ll be done the quicker. I calkerlate to tie you so you can’t git away, and you may as well hold on. Got kinder delicate hands, haint you? Never done nothin’, I guess, but lick niggers and shute your betters. There, you may stan’ up now if you want tew.” The young man struggled to his feet, saying, proudly: “What do you intend doing next, sir?” “What do I intend doin’?” Bill replied, with imperturbable gravity. “I intend leadin’ you by this string inter camp, and showin’ you up for to’pence a sight. What d’ye s’pose I intended doin’?”