"By the way," he remarked, as soon as he had concluded, "has a soldier giving his name as Wentworth, and claiming to be a friend of mine, called here within the last ten days."
"No one has called here of that name," replied Dr. Humphries.
"I am very anxious to receive some intelligence of him," remarked Harry, "He was the friend I mentioned, having made my escape with."
"He may have taken a different road to the one you pursued," Dr. Humphries observed.
"If I were satisfied in my mind that he did escape safely, my fears would be allayed," he answered, "but," he continued, "we left the gates of the prison together, and were not four yards apart when the treachery of the guard was discovered. We both started at a full run, and almost instantaneously the Yankees, who lay in ambush for us, fired, their muskets in the direction we were going. The bullets whistled harmless by me, and I continued my flight at the top of my speed, nor did I discover the absence of my friend until some distance from the prison, when stopping to take breath, I called him by name, and receiving no answer found out that he was not with me. I am afraid he might have been shot."
"Did you hear no cry after the Yankees had fired," enquired Dr. Humphries.
"No, and that is the reason I feel anxious to learn his fate. Had he uttered any cry, I should be certain that he was wounded, but the silence on his part may have been caused from instant death."
"You would have, heard him fall at any rate; had he been struck by the Yankee bullets," remarked Dr. Humphries.
"That is very doubtful," he replied. "I was running at such a rapid rate, and the uproar made by the Yankees was sufficient to drown the sound that a fall is likely to create."