‘I don’t call it a one-horse adventure,’ replied Lucius. ‘A whole team would be more like it. I imagine this is what you might call a pretty crowded day. Eh, Grizzly?’ ‘Waal, I ’low it is so fur,’ admitted Ephraim with the ghost of a smile. ‘Same time, I dunno what I’d hev done ter myself ef ennythin’ had gone wrong with ye in thet rumpus jest now. I’d never hev got over it or fergiv myself. By time! ter see them two pore men go down like thet alongside us all in a moment. It might jest ez well hev been you.’ He blew his nose loudly, and furtively knuckled his eyes. ‘But it wasn’t, you see,’ returned Lucius cheerfully. ‘A miss is as good as a mile, Grizzly. And I wish you wouldn’t blame yourself, for I came with you of my own free will.’ ‘Ye didn’t bargain fer all this, though,’ said Ephraim mournfully. ‘Ye didn’t ’magine ye were ter be stuck up ez a target fer our own boys.—By gracious!’ he added with animation, forgetting his troubles in the glorious recollection, ‘didn’t they give the Yanks howdy in fine style? See ’em comin’ across thet bridge! Didn’t they jest nat’ally tear along?’ ‘They did,’ answered Lucius with glistening eyes. ‘It was splendid.—So we’ve seen a battle after all,’ he went on, with a low laugh of satisfaction. ‘Ah!’ replied Ephraim. ‘And ye warn’t sittin’ on the ring fence nuther.’ ‘No,’ chuckled Lucius, ‘and thet bull er Holmes’s is powerful servigerous.’ He laughed out again. ‘Garn away! What air ye givin’ me?’ said Ephraim. ‘But I ’low, Luce, ter see ye standin’ thar in the ranks like a bit er rock, it war marvellious.’ ‘I can tell you I felt badly enough at first, when those two men were killed alongside us,’ said Lucius. ‘I might have been a thousand miles underground for all the power I had to move. I was simply stiffened where I stood. Then it all seemed to go away and leave me, and I felt quite cool. How did you feel?’ ‘Pretty bad,’ admitted Ephraim. ‘But I war so taken up with thinkin’ about you thet it soon went orf.’ He made this remark in the most matter-of-fact way, not in the least to draw attention to his own unselfishness, but as if it were the most natural thing in the world that Lucius should be his first concern. ‘Well, I’m afraid that I was thinking of myself,’ said Lucius; ‘but after the first burst I only grew more and more interested in the fight.’ ‘Oh yes,’ exclaimed Ephraim, struck by a sudden recollection. ‘What made ye turn round and say thet about old Blue Bag?’ The fire went out of Luce’s eyes; the glow faded from his cheeks and left them pale. Again the memory of those awful moments in the air overcame him. His voice was unsteady as he answered: ‘I don’t know what set me thinking of it; but all of a sudden the thought crossed me, and I felt as if I should die. I never shall forget it. I never can forget it as long as I live.’