“Here,” he said to two soldiers, “turn this man over on his face and bring him to. You know how.”
Then to the men: “On with your work, men. We must reach Fort Snelling to-morrow night.”
Bill had slipped away to his corner on the coil of ropes. His teeth chattered and his hands felt so numb that he could hardly wriggle out of his wet and sticky garments.
When he was once more in dry clothes, he hurried to the mess-room and asked the cook for the hottest tea he had.
The cook did not have to be told.
“I’d give you something better,” he said, “if I had it, but the hot milk is all gone. The captain is in a deuce of a hurry, so we went right by Mankato and St. Peter without stopping.”
After two cups of hot tea, sweetened with plenty of brown sugar, Bill’s teeth stopped rattling, but set themselves with a will into the meal of ham, potatoes, and bread placed before the hungry boy, who had not yet had his supper.
While Bill was eating, Colonel Lantry came around.
“Where did you learn it, boy?” he asked. “It was a neat piece of work.”
“Oh, I learned it at Vicksburg,” Bill replied. “We boys used to swim across the river, but there the water is warm.”