In reality, long as the time had seemed, hardly more than a full minute had passed. Captain Ruggles, with a pair of white-striped trousers drawn on over his pajamas, and slippers on his feet, presented a picture of speed. Hal bent beside his old enemy of the home town to see where Tip had been hit. Captain Ruggles, changing his revolver to his left hand, drew a match and struck it. Tip's first apparent wound was a graze at the top of his right shoulder. A dark, red stain appeared there. Another bullet had grazed his right wrist. The third wound apparent was at the right side of the chest. "It'll need a rain-maker (Army surgeon) to tell whether that bullet touched the scoundrel's right lung," declared Captain Ruggles. At that instant a woman's voice sounded from one of the windows of the house behind them: "Corporal of the guard, you'll find Captain Ruggles and the sentry somewhere back of the garden." Then came the sounds of running feet. Corporal Sanders was coming with the guard. That incident showed the young soldier, more clearly than anything else could have done, how brief the duel between Tip and himself had been. For Hal knew that, when the alarm is sounded, accompanied by the sound of a shot, the corporal and the guard come on the dead run. "Right here, Corporal of the guard!" shouted Captain Ruggles, standing up. "Send one man back immediately for hospital men and a stretcher." "Hospital men and a stretcher, Davidson," called the corporal, and one soldier detached himself from the running squad, wheeling and racing back. Then the corporal of the guard dashed up at the head of his men, giving Captain Ruggles the rifle salute by bringing his left hand smartly against the barrel of his piece. Barely behind the guard came Lieutenant Hayes, of A Company, who was officer of the day. "The sentry has caught one of the burglars, Hayes," called Captain Ruggles, as the lieutenant came up on the run. "Glad of it, sir. It's about time." Then, turning to Hal, Lieutenant Hayes continued: "You're sentry on number three, Private Overton?" "Yes, sir." "Make your report in as few words as you can." This Hal did, telling about the two men whom he saw sneaking away with bundles, and also about the third man who had joined in firing at him. "Which way did the other two retreat, Private Overton?" "I couldn't see, sir," the young soldier answered. "I was in the corn at that moment." The corporal of the guard, in the meantime, had sent another man to relieve Noll Terry on post number four, directing Terry to report to the officer of the day. Still another member of the guard had been placed on post number three. All the other commissioned officers on post, including Colonel North, now appeared, and the investigating party was adjourned to the roadway. Noll reported that he had seen two fugitives at a distance, and had fired three times.