"He hasn't had as much as he will get!" said Dennis positively. "Just listen to that, will ye!"
The roar of great guns in the distance again was distinctly heard, and so threatening was the sound that it did not seem possible to the startled listeners that the men who were engaged in the combat could be far away.
"Listen to that!" repeated Dennis. "That means that we're goin' to be busy just as soon as they take us out of this guard-house."
"I think I would rather be there than here," said Noel, "although I confess that ever since Malvern Hill I have not been eager to go into the sharpshooters' pit."
"You'll be in no sharpshooters' pit here. They don't know enough to count you for what you're worth. If we're fortunate enough iver to get back to the —th, where we belong, there we'll pass for just exactly what we are. The most I want here is just to get out of the guard-tent. I think I can take care of the rest of it mesilf."
The conversation of the young soldiers continued in spite of the repeated sounds of the distant firing. Two hours or more had elapsed, and still no word was brought them, nor had the chaplain returned. Eagerly the boys had talked over the possibilities of Levi being a spy, Dennis firmly contending that there was not "spunk enough in the little spalpeen to do anything for himself." Noel, however, claimed that the former sutler was not without a form of courage of his own.
"There comes the chaplain," said Dennis, after a few minutes more had elapsed. "From the look of him I think he has got something he would like to say to us."
Nor was the young Irishman disappointed. When the chaplain entered the tent his face was beaming and his satisfaction over what he was about to say was so manifest that every one of the inmates was confident good news of some kind had been brought.
"We have just heard from Washington!" said the chaplain eagerly. "We sent a message to President Lincoln informing him just what had been done here,—the number of deserters, who had been hanged, and who had been shot, and how many were on hand, and asked what we should do next."
"Did you tell him about us?" broke in Dennis.