"It'll need a rain-maker (Army surgeon) to tell whether that bullet touched the scoundrel's right lung," declared Captain Ruggles.
At that instant a woman's voice sounded from one of the windows of the house behind them:
"Corporal of the guard, you'll find Captain Ruggles and the sentry somewhere back of the garden."
Then came the sounds of running feet. Corporal Sanders was coming with the guard.
That incident showed the young soldier, more clearly than anything else could have done, how brief the duel between Tip and himself had been.
For Hal knew that, when the alarm is sounded, accompanied by the sound of a shot, the corporal and the guard come on the dead run.
"Right here, Corporal of the guard!" shouted Captain Ruggles, standing up. "Send one man back immediately for hospital men and a stretcher."
"Hospital men and a stretcher, Davidson," called the corporal, and one soldier detached himself from the running squad, wheeling and racing back.
Then the corporal of the guard dashed up at the head of his men, giving Captain Ruggles the rifle salute by bringing his left hand smartly against the barrel of his piece.
Barely behind the guard came Lieutenant Hayes, of A Company, who was officer of the day.