"The orders were to load and fire, and I was bound to obey them before any others!" said Frank, preparing to prime.
Just then Atwater, who was again on his back, suddenly dropped his piece, which fell across his left arm, and brought his right hand to his breast. The movement was so abrupt and unusual it attracted Frank's attention.
"Are you hit, Abe?"
And in an instant he saw the answer to his hurried question in a gush of blood which crimsoned the poor, brave fellow's breast.
"It has come!" said Atwater.
"How could it—and you lying down so!" ejaculated Frank.
"I don't know—never mind me!" replied Abe, faintly.
Then Frank remembered the mysterious shots aimed at him and Sinjin in the woods, and the subsequent solution of the mystery. He looked up—all around—overhead.
"What's the trouble, Manly?" screamed Tucket. "What do you see?"
"There!" Frank shouted, pointing upwards; "there! the man that killed Atwater!"