"Another's lifted it——"
"Lord, save us!"
"Why don't you lie down, ye damn fool," Tom shouted. "I'm huggin' the ground so close now I don't want a piece of paper under me, and if there's got to be a piece I don't want no writin' on it!"
"Now look, are they comin'?" the pious boy gasped.
Ned made no answer. His wide set eyes were staring at the man who had caught that color-bearer in his arms and was carrying him to the rear.
It was John Vaughan!
His lips were moving now in silent prayer and his sword hung limp in his hands.
Through chattering teeth he cried:
"Don't shoot that fellow carrying his friend down the hill, boys!"
"They're runnin' now?" the pious one asked.