"Were you with him when he was wounded? How was it?" "Yes, Ma'am. There was somethin' queer about it; for he 'peared to know the chap that killed him, an' the chap knew him. I don't dare to ask, but I rather guess one owned the other some time,--for, when they clinched, the chap sung out, 'Bob!' an' Dane, 'Marster Ned!'--then they went at it." I sat down suddenly, for the old anger and compassion struggled in my heart, and I both longed and feared to hear what was to follow. "You see, when the Colonel--Lord keep an' send him back to us!--it a'n't certain yet, you know, Ma'am, though it's two days ago we lost him--well, when the Colonel shouted, 'Rush on, boys, rush on!' Dane tore away as if he was goin' to take the fort alone; I was next him, an' kept close as we went through the ditch an' up the wall. Hi! warn't that a rusher!" and the boy flung up his well arm with a whoop, as if the mere memory of that stirring moment came over him in a gust of irrepressible excitement. "Were you afraid?" I said,--asking the question women often put, and receiving the answer they seldom fail to get. "No, Ma'am!"--emphasis on the "Ma'am,"--"I never thought of anything but the damn' Rebs, that scalp, slash, an' cut our ears off, when they git us. I was bound to let daylight into one of 'em at least, an' I did. Hope he liked it!" "It is evident that you did, and I don't blame you in the least. Now go on about Robert, for I should be at work." "He was one of the fust up; I was just behind, an' though the whole thing happened in a minute, I remember how it was, for all I was yellin' an' knockin' round like mad. Just where we were, some sort of an officer was wavin' his sword an' cheerin' on his men; Dane saw him by a big flash that come by; he flung away his gun, give a leap, an' went at that feller as if he was Jeff, Beauregard, an' Lee, all in one. I scrabbled after as quick as I could, but was only up in time to see him git the sword straight through him an' drop into the ditch. You needn't ask what I did next, Ma'am, for I don't quite know myself; all I'm clear about is, that I managed somehow to pitch that Reb into the fort as dead as Moses, git hold of Dane, an' bring him off. Poor old feller! we said we went in to live or die; he said he went in to die, an' he's done it."