I was too weary to more than reach a recumbent position before I was asleep. I had been asleep long enough to feel completely chilled from the cold fog when something awoke me. I aroused with a start and a feeling that some one was near me. On the alert at once I waited with baited breath for some further noise to indicate in which direction the disturbance had been, but none came and I finally concluded that I had been mistaken or dreaming. I went over to look at my horse and make sure that he had not pulled loose. He was where I had left him and had evidently spent his time nibbling off every tender branch in his reach. I determined to look around before mounting. It was barely daybreak and there was a light fog, which made all excepting near objects indistinct. I made my way through a shallow, dry gully and across a wide flat covered with trees. I knew I must then be near the road which I had been skirting the latter part of my ride, so I paused a moment before advancing further. Hearing nothing I went on around a jutting point of rocks on a thicket-covered slope and stopped at the head of a washout, made by the summer rains. As I stood listening the ground suddenly gave way with me and I went down a steep bank, to find the road sooner than I expected, and myself in the company of two Rebel soldiers and a broken down army wagon. I found out with a vengeance what had aroused me, and as is sometimes the case with investigators, learned more than was desirable. The men had evidently been half asleep, when my abrupt appearance brought them to their feet. A man has to think quickly in moments of danger. I took in the situation at a glance and in the same brief time decided to enter into conversation with them. "What's up?" I asked. "Broke down," replied the liveliest looking of the two, while both kept their muskets suggestively convenient and eyed me suspiciously. The wagon was heavily loaded and the back axle-tree had broken in two, letting down the end. I looked it over because I had nothing better to do. One of the men volunteered the information that it was twice too much of a load. "You don't expect to sit here with it all day, do you?" I asked, intending to offer to go ahead and find some one to help them right matters as an excuse to get away. "No," said the man who had not spoken before. "Holly, 'es gone on thar an' 'ell bring back some of our squad to help." As he spoke, faintly approaching sounds indicated that a "Holly" was coming back with assistance. There was no chance for me to leave and nothing better suggested itself than to act so that whoever came back would think I belonged there. I proposed to the men that we might as well see what we could do while we waited.