The Grizzly made him a rapid communication, the effect of which upon Lucius was to cause him to throw himself flat upon the bank of the ditch and roll about with delight.
‘Come on!’ cried the Grizzly. ‘Now mind ye do ezackly ez I do, and when ye run, keep a sharp eye fer the boat.’
They set off again at a quick pace, until they had cleared the field and entered the broad belt of trees which fringed the water. Here they slowed down, and made a bee-line, so far as they could, for the river. In five minutes or less they heard the splash of the swollen current against the bank, and turning their faces sharply down stream, moved on for two or three minutes more, making all the noise they could.
‘Halt! Who comes there?’
No sooner did the sharp challenge ring out than, as if at a signal for which they had been waiting, the two boys burst into wild, panic-stricken yells: ‘The Rebs! the Rebs! They’re on us! The pickets are driven in!’ Shouting which they charged madly down upon the sentry who had challenged them. Seeing, as he supposed, two Federal sentries in full flight, the man never doubted for a moment that the alarm was genuine, and discharging his rifle in the air, set off as hard as his legs could carry him through the belt of trees towards the fields, beyond which lay the camp.
And now all along the river bank the cry was taken up, ‘The Rebs! the Rebs!’ and everywhere could be heard the sound of feet crashing through the undergrowth, as the pickets bolted in upon their supports.
Bursting with laughter, Ephraim and Lucius watched the disappearance of the man immediately in their front; but the sharp call of a bugle and the noise of the long roll upon the drums, as the Federal regiments sprang to arms in anticipation of the threatened attack, warned them that there was no time to lose, and they continued their race down the bank.
‘There’s the boat!’ panted Lucius, after a few minutes. ‘I see her nose just peeping out.’
‘Down in the underbrush, then!’ said Ephraim sharply, ‘and don’t git up unless I call ye, or ye see thar’s need.’
‘What are you going to do?’ asked Lucius, obeying the order.