He moved his body a little, as if his slumbers were disturbed by unpleasant dreams; and added a noise like a snore to complete the delusion. Tom retired for a moment till his victim should again be composed; but Somers, instead of subsiding into the slumber of a sleepy and tired man, gradually opened his eyes and waked up. Slowly rising into a sitting posture, he looked around him; and apparently, as if entirely by accident, he discerned Tom. "Can't yer sleep?" asked Tom, with extraordinary good nature for a person of his saturnine disposition. "I've been asleep these two hours, I believe," gaped Somers. "What time is it, Tom?" "'Tain't eight o'clock yet. Yer hain't been asleep more'n fifteen minutes." "Haven't I?" "Not more'n that. Better lay down, and finish yer nap; kase I s'pose yer won't git much sleep to-night, if ye're gwine over the river." "I feel better than I did, at any rate. I think I'll get up. It's tremendous hot here. Don't you ever open your windows?" "I reckon we do. I was just thinkin' o' that." And it was quite probable he was thinking of it; for he certainly wanted the earliest information of the approach of the soldiers. He opened the window in the front of the house, and Somers opened that in the rear. The latter then went to the door, and took a careful survey of the entry, in order to determine the way which the deserter must take to reach the cellar, where he was to conceal himself when the soldiers came. The prudent son of the master of the house had opened the door leading to the cellar, from which he was to enter his subterranean retreat. For more than an hour, Tom nervously watched the wakeful Yankee, and several times suggested to him that he could sleep just as well as not, promising to wake him up if there was any danger; but Somers was most provokingly lively for a man who had been up all the preceding night, and resolutely refused to take a hint or to adopt a suggestion. Both of them were fearfully anxious for the result that was pending, and each had his plan for overreaching the other. It was a long hour; but at last Tom broke the spell which seemed to rest on both of them by declaring that he was "clean choked up," and must go and get a drink of water. At the same moment, Somers heard the tramp of the soldiers in the road as they approached the house, and understood why his companion had suddenly become so thirsty. "No," said Somers, placing himself between the deserter and the door, with the revolver in his hand. "I don't want to be left alone. Somebody is coming to the house--half a dozen men. They are soldiers!" he exclaimed, glancing out at the window. "Run right up chimley thar, and you'll be as safe as if you was t'other side of the river."