An order rang down the line. "Sthop firing, is it?" remarked the Irishman. "And that's the first dacint wurrud I've heard this half hour! Wid all the plazure in life, captin!" He rested his musket against the stones, drew himself up, and viewed the prospect. "Holy Saint Pathrick! look at them sthramin' off into space! An' look at the mile of wagons they're afther lavin! Refrishmint in thim, my frind, for body and sowl!" Steve pulled himself up beside the other. "Thar ain't any danger now of stray bullets, I reckon? There's something awful in seeing a road like that. There's a man that his mother wouldn't know!--horse stepped on his face, I reckon. Gawd! we have gangs of prisoners!--Who's that coming out of the cloud?" "Chew's Horse Artillery--with Ashby, the darlint!" Ashby stopped before the stone house to the right. "There are men in here--officers with them. Captain, go bid them surrender." The captain, obeying, found a barred door and no answer. An approach to the window revealed behind the closed blinds the gleam of a musket barrel. "Go again! Tell them their column's cut and their army dispersed. If they do not surrender at once I will plant a shell in the middle of that room." The captain returned once more. "Well?" "They said, 'Go to hell,' sir. They said General Banks would be here in a moment, and they'd taken the house for his headquarters. They've got something in there beside water, I think." A sergeant put in a word. "There's a score of them. They seized this empty house, and they've been picking off our men--" "Double canister, point-blank, Allen.--Well, sergeant?" "It's not certain it was an empty house, sir. One of the Tigers, there, thinks there are women in it." "Women!" "He don't know--just thinks so. Thinks he heard a cry when the Yanks broke in--Ah!--Well, better your hat than you, sir! We'll blow that sharpshooter where he can look out of window sure enough! Match's ready, sir." Ashby put back on his head the soft wide hat with a bullet hole beside the black plume. "No, no, West! We can't take chances like that! We'll break open the door instead." "The others think that the Tiger was mistaken, sir. They say all the women went out of the other houses, and they're sure they went out of this one, too. Shan't we fire, sir?" "No, no! We can't take chances. Limber up, lieutenant, and move on with the others.--Volunteers to break open that door!" "Ain't nobody looking," thought Steve, behind the wall. "Gawd! I reckon I'll have to try my luck again. 'T won't do to stay here." To the big Irishman he said, "Reckon I'll try again to find my company! I don't want to be left behind. Old Jack's going to drive them, and he needs every fighter!" CHAPTER XXII THE VALLEY PIKE