In obedience to orders, Co. Q moved briskly out and deployed as skirmishers, covering the regimental front. As the line advanced through field and thicket Si Klegg's heart was not the only one that thumped against the blouse that covered it.
It was not long till a squad of cavalrymen came galloping back, yelling that the rebels were just ahead. The line was halted for a few minutes; while the Generals swept the surrounding country with their field glasses and took in the situation.
The skirmishers, for fear of accidents, took advantage of such cover as they could find. Si and Shorty found themselves to leeward of a large stump.
"D'ye reckon a bullet 'd go through this 'ere stump?" said Si.
Before Shorty could answer something else happened that absorbed their entire attention. For the time they didn't think of anything else.
'Boom-m-m-m!'
"Great Scott! d'ye hear that?" said Si through his chattering teeth.
"Yes, and there's somethin' comin' over this way," replied Shorty.
A shell came screaming and swishing through the air. The young Hoosiers curled around the roots of that stump and flattened themselves out like a pair of griddle-cakes. If it was Si that the rebel gunners were after, they timed the shell to a second, for it burst with a loud bang just over them. The fragments flew all around, one striking the stump and others tearing up the dirt on every side.