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 is; you'll be surprised, and if you aint very strong of heart, it will go nigh to sicken you. But it does good to see it for one's self; it makes one strong against tyranny."

"It grows very dark here."

"That's water before you, and a good big pond, too," said Davis.

"This is the track, major;" and Humphries led the way to the left, inclining more in the direction of the river. A sullen, child-like cry, succeeded by a sudden plunge into the water, indicated the vicinity of an alligator, which they had disturbed in his own home; the rich globules of light, showering over the water around him, giving a singular beauty to the scene, in every other respect so dark and gloomy. They kept continually turning in a zigzag fashion almost at every step, to avoid the waving vine, the close thicket, or the half-stagnant creek, crowded with decayed fragments of an older and an overthrown forest.

A shrill whistle at this moment, thrice repeated, saluted their ears. It was caught up in the distance by another, and another, in a voice so like, that they might almost have passed for so many echoes of the same.

"Our sentries watch closely, major; we must answer them, or we may sup on cold lead," said Humphries. As he spoke, he responded to the signal, and his answer was immediately followed by the appearance of a figure emerging from behind a tree that bulged out a little to the left of the tussock upon which they were now standing. The dim outline only, and no feature of the new-comer, was distinguishable by the group.

"Ha! Warner, you watch?&mdash;All's well; and now lead the way. Are all the boys in camp?"

"All!" was the reply; "and a few more come in from Buford's corps who know Frampton."

"And how is he?&mdash;does he know them?"

"He's in a bad fix, and knows nothing. You can hardly get word out of him since his wife's come."

"His wife! Why, man, what do you think of?&mdash;his wife's dead!" exclaimed Humphries with surprise.

"Yes&mdash;we know that; but he brought her, all the same as was alive, on his shoulders, and he won't give her up. There he