"I must congratulate you on your bravery and determination," said the officer. "But you were hurt," he added, as he approached Ralph. "See the blood at your left hand."
Ralph was startled, at first. He felt no pain, but there was blood flowing out of his left sleeve.
"Oh! I remember now; that is only the old wound reopened," he explained, so the surgeon was called in at once.
CHAPTER XIV
THE CAPTURE AND ESCAPE
The General looked at the boy for a moment and then exclaimed: "The old wound! When were you wounded?"
"At Russon, more than a week ago," he answered, without any attempt at bravado. That story by this time had gotten to be an old one with him.
"We cannot give you a machine to take you back to headquarters, but you may have a horse," said the officer; so as soon as the wound was dressed Ralph mounted a fine animal, and was told to take the cross country route, as the animal would leap any ordinary barrier.
Although he had ridden from his earliest recollection this was the first time that he was ever on a horse that could leap across obstacles, and when the first fence came in sight the horse refused to stop but with Ralph clinging to the saddle vaulted across with so much ease that it gave him the utmost confidence.