"Why there, beside that bush."
"Come along, you there; you'll be shot for a spy to-morrow morning at nine o'clock."
"All right, Mr. Corporal, I'm ready."
Now all this was fine sport; for Corporal Harter and Elias were both of my company, and knew me quite as well as I knew them; but they were bent on having a little fun at my expense, and the corporal had marched me off some distance toward headquarters, beyond the ravine, when again the call rang along the line,—
"Corporal of the guard, post number three!" "Corporal of the guard, post number three!"
Back the corporal trotted me to Elias.
"Well, what in the mischief's up now?"
"Another fellow trying to break my guard, corporal."
"Well, where is he? Trot him out! We'll have a grand execution in the morning! The more the merrier, you know; and 'Long live the Union!'"
"I'm sorry, corporal, but the fact is I killed this chap myself. I caught him trying to climb over the gate there, and he wouldn't stop nor give the countersign, and so I up and at him, and ran my bayonet through him, and there he is!"