"Hello!" said Jack, and held out a plump white hand.
"Hello!" G. W. replied, and laid his thin brown fingers slowly in the other's grasp.
The moment while Jack stood by the little soldier's bed was long enough for the two boys to eye each other well.
Jack spoke first. "You saved my father, G. W.,—you are a brick! Whatever I've got, you can have half of it."
"Did you see dat hoss by de do'?" said G. W., after a moment. "Dat hoss is mine! You—can—take—de fust ride! An' dis is my tent, my Colonel give it to me, an' dis an' all dat I'se got b'longs ter you half!"
Then they smiled broadly into each other's faces, forgetting the onlookers.
"We're going to be just like brothers," whispered Jack Austin. That was the thought that floated through the dusky little bodyguard's dreams that night as he slept in the little tent beside the Colonel's.
And the Mother's words to the Colonel mingled with Jack's: "The boys'll have a good time!"
And the tall light-house on the Point blazed out its message to the sailors upon the sea, "All's well! All's well!" And to the brave soldier-boys sleeping within its shadow it sent down soft rays of light that breathed, "All's well! All's well!"
On his cot poor weak little G. W., waking in the moonlight, smiled and sighed with content, then smiled again.