Under the dim starlight he saw two shadowy forms leave by the captain's back door. Each carried a bundle, though Hal could not make out the size or shape of either very distinctly. "The burglars--at their tricks!" flashed Hal exultantly. But he wasted no time thinking. In a twinkling he slipped a cartridge into his rifle, bringing the piece to his shoulder. "Halt!" he challenged. "Who's there?" The two figures, crouching low, made a bolt for the tall corn in a vegetable garden at the rear of the grounds. "As fast as he could shout the words Private Hal Overton shouted: "Halt! Who's there? Halt! Who's there?" Having obeyed a sentry's instructions to challenge three times, and receiving no answer, Hal pressed the trigger. A flash of flame lit the darkness around the rifle. It leaped straight from the muzzle. Bang! The bullet sped in among the corn stalks. Over it all sounded Hal's voice: "Corporal of the guard, post number three!" Hal shot back the bolt of his rifle, dropping in a cartridge with fingers as steady as at drill. "Corporal of the guard, post number three!" The gate was too far away. Hal took the fence at a bound, carrying his cocked piece with him. Straight to the growing corn the young private took his speedy way. "Come out and show yourselves, or I fire at once," Private Overton shouted. Crack! crack! Two pistol shots rang out from the corn patch. CHAPTER XXI THE DUEL IN THE DARK ALL this had occupied but a few seconds. Private Hal Overton was on duty, and bent on business. "I'll get one, or both of the rascals--dead or alive!" flashed through his mind. Not even those two pistol shots brought him to a halt. Yet one of the bullets struck the ground beside him as he raced, the other fanning his left cheek with a little breeze. "Get back there, boy!" growled a gruff voice. "You don't want to be killed, do you?" For answer Hal sighted swiftly and fired. Then, for an instant, he dropped to one knee. From out of the corn patch a curse reached his ears. "If you'd rather be a dead soldier, all right," came the ugly response. "Give it to him good and hot!" Hal had already slipped back the bolt of his piece. Now, as fast as he could handle the material, and while still down on one knee, he slipped five cartridges into his magazine, and a sixth he drove home in the chamber. Bright flashes, swift reports greeted him from two points in the corn patch. These points were about twenty feet apart. The young soldier simply couldn't cover both points of attack. From the way the bullets whistled past his face and body the recruit knew that both his enemies were firing in deadly earnest. And now, from a third point, another assailant joined in the firing, and Hal marveled, with each second, that he still remained alive. He felt as though he were the center of a leaden storm. Yet, as coolly as he could, Soldier Hal chose the man at the left and drove two shots straight in the direction of the flashes.