“I am,” replied Manning.
“Me too,” added Chick.
“Come along then, both of you.”
The corporal rose uncertainly to his feet, picked up his own rifle, and started to pick up the one belonging to Barriscale with which McCormack had intrusted him.
“Here,” said Chick, bravely, “give that one to me.”
The first sergeant looked down on him with pitying eyes. Yesterday he would have despised him and thrust him aside. But to-day the boy was so shrunken, so white and trembling, such a pathetic little figure to undertake to carry a man’s load.
“No,” said Barriscale, “you can’t. I’ll carry ’em both, Dick, if you’ll trust me.”
He took both rifles, put one over each shoulder, pushed a way through the noisy and wondering crowd, and together the three started up the main street toward the central city.