"I don't know, Dennis, whether or not we had better go much farther," said Noel, hesitating as he stood on the hillside and looked anxiously about him. "We must be five or six miles from camp now and we ought to get back long before sunset."
"What's scarin' ye, Noel?" demanded Dennis.
"Nothing is scaring me," answered Noel; "but I don't want to get a reprimand for being late in the camp. We wouldn't get leave to be away again very soon if we did."
"There are no Johnnies around here, anyway."
"You don't know that," said Noel positively.
"We haven't seen any."
"That doesn't mean that General Lee has not sent some division over this way. He has a trick of doing that, you know, and making his men show up where they aren't always expected."
"I don't mind the Johnnies," said Dennis boldly, "if we can only keep away from the nagers. Did you mind, lad, the cockle-burrs that were in the wool of that ould field-hand that tried—"
Dennis stopped abruptly, and turning sharply listened to the sounds which had apparently come from the valley below them.
"What's that?" he whispered.