"Now look here, boys," he said. "It's all right tew talk about holding eout a week or a fortnight here on a flask of brandy and a piece of jerked venison about big enough tew give one h'arty man a good meal, but, it won't work. We kan't dew it, and I reckon some on us has got tew go under. Neow look here! I kin hide that little gal so that the devil hisself kan't find her, and I kan hide one more along with her. But, I kan't hide three or four."
"Save her, Josh, at all hazards."
"That's what I say. I'm going tew save her, but someone hez got tew be with her, yew know. Now then, who shill it be?"
"You, by all means," said Will.
"Not a bit of it. I'm tew long tew stick intew my hiding-place handy, and besides, the gal mout not like it. I guess you'll hev tew be the one."
"I will not desert you, Seth."
"Oh, git eout. Desert the devil! Once I git yew tew safe I laugh at every Injin in the territory. Come here."
A nearly perpendicular but irregular wall of stone formed the back part of the fort. A point jutted out considerably further than the rest, leaving a fissure about four feet across. In this fissure a large stone, apparently broken off from the rock above, lay loosely upon the earth, with its side pressed against the rock. Putting his ponderous strength to the stone, the Yankee moved it easily to one side and disclosed an opening close to the ground, nearly three feet high. "Git in, and see how yew like it," he said. "It's one of my holes."
The young soldier crawled in, and striking a match, saw that he was in a hole scooped out by the hand of nature in the solid wall, which was large enough for two persons to sit in comfortably, though they could not rise to their feet. Having satisfied himself, he crept out as he came in. "The air seems pure," he said.
"How is it when the stone is replaced?"