‘I wish we war in her now,’ said Ephraim disconsolately. ‘Oh! no, no, no,’ exclaimed Lucius vehemently. ‘I’d rather be hanged a hundred times than go through that horrible experience again.’ ‘Waal, ye wouldn’t feel the ninety-nine, after ye’d got comfortably done with the first,’ said Ephraim with one of his quiet grins. ‘But it don’t foller, because we got into one rumpus up in the clouds, thet we’d immediately git inter another. We wouldn’t go so high for one thing.’ ‘No, no, I tell you,’ cried Lucius, almost as terrified at the prospect as he had been at the reality. ‘I wouldn’t get into the awful thing again to save my life.’ Ephraim looked at him silently for a moment. Then he said with a little sigh: ‘Waal, Luce, I reckon ye won’t be put ter it ter make the choice, fer by this time I should say old Blue Bag has either been busted by thet pesky cunnel, or took inter camp by the men.’ ‘Oh!’ said Lucius regretfully, ‘I am real mean, Grizzly, after all the trouble you took to make it.’ ‘Waal, waal, I ain’t keerin,’ answered Ephraim hastily. ‘It’s gone now, and thar’s an end er it. Ye’ll oblige me, Luce, if ye don’t say no more about it.—Hark!’ as the bugle sounded once more. ‘Thet tells us we’d better quit.’ ‘I wonder what it means,’ pondered Lucius, rising to his feet. ‘What, thet call?’ answered Ephraim. ‘Breakfast, I ’magine. I know _I_ feel it must be somewhar about that time. Got yer watch?’ ‘No,’ replied Lucius; ‘I forgot that, like everything else, in my hurry to leave home.’ He thought for a minute and added: ‘Say, Grizzly, how are we to know but what that bugle is being blown in our own lines somewhere? It’s as likely as not.’ ‘Thar’s suthin’ in what ye say,’ answered Ephraim. ‘We sutt’nly don’t know whether old Stonewall is ahead of us, or behind, or to the right or to the left. We don’t know nuthin’, and we can’t see nuthin’ fer this pesky wood shuttin’ out the sky. Ef we could see the sun, we might git an idee of the lay of the land. We’ll move on, anyway.’ ‘In what direction then?’ ‘It don’t matter. All roads is alike sence we don’t know the right one. We’ll move towards the music. On’y we must feel our way cautious.’ ‘And keep a sharp eye for the colonel,’ observed Lucius. ‘By time! yes. I wouldn’t give much fer our chances ef he gripped holt on us now after that smack in the face ye gin him. Ef he warn’t in ’arnest before, he will be ef ever he ketches us agen.’ ‘He owes you one as well, Grizzly, for the tumble you gave him,’ laughed Lucius. ‘I reckon,’ answered Ephraim. ‘But then he war down on me right from the beginnin’, ’cause he got it inter his thick head I meant ter be impident ter him.’