Glancing neither to the right nor left the two soldiers steadily moved forward and in a brief time passed beyond the strange assembly on the roadside. "Is she after me, lad?" whispered Dennis loudly, glancing anxiously behind him. "I don't think so," replied Noel, "but I shan't look back just yet. I don't hear anybody coming and they are singing like mad back there yet." "Just listen to them, will you!" he added as there came from the crowd an increased volume of sound, which was somewhat indicative of the excitement that possessed the assembly. "I guess we 're all right now," Noel said a few minutes later when they had turned a bend in the road and their admirers no longer were to be seen. "Now, Noel, me boy," said Dennis, "I want ye to promise me something." "What's that?" inquired Noel quizzically, although he was confident that he understood what the request of his companion was to be. "I want ye to promise me that ye'll kape what happened here a sacret. 'Tis just between you and me, me boy." "Oh, but, Dennis," suggested Noel, "think what fun the boys in the camp will miss if we don't tell them what the black woman did." "Shure, you won't tell on me!" Dennis pleaded as he stopped a moment and gazed anxiously at his companion. "I shall have to think about that," replied Noel mockingly. The expression of consternation that appeared for a moment on the face of his companion caused the young soldier to laugh heartily. "Why don't you tell them about it yourself, Dennis?" he asked abruptly. "Niver!" replied the young Irish soldier. "'Tis one of the sacrets I shall niver tell, not aven to me mither. But I want to feel that you will help me to kape the sacret." "I'll agree not to tell it to-night," said Noel at last. "Well, I suppose I'll have to be contint wid that, thin," responded Dennis. "But let me tell ye wan thing, Noel Curtis. If I find the story ever does lake out, I shall know where it came from and the fellow that tells on me will want to go to the surgeon to be put together. Indade an' he will that!" "He won't if he gets that black woman here to help him," laughed Noel. "Now, how are you going to get that pig into the camp? You know what the colonel said about foraging, and what he told us would happen to the boy who tried it, after such strict orders had been given against it." "Shure, and I'll give the colonel a piece o' the rib o' me pig. When he once swallows that he'll forget all about his orders." "I'm not so sure about that," said Noel good-naturedly. "But here we are almost back to camp, and you'll have a chance to try it out in a little while." CHAPTER II THE SUTLER'S GOODS