? ? ? ? The officer looked at my throat and replied, "He is all right, the skin is not pierced. What does it all mean? We should never have found him but for the yelping of the wolf."
? ? ? ? "What became of it?" asked the man who was holding up my head and who seemed the least panic-stricken of the party, for his hands were steady and without tremor. On his sleeve was the chevron of a petty officer.
? ? ? ? "It went home," answered the man, whose long face was pall- id and who actually shook with terror as he glanced around him fearfully. "There are graves enough there in which it may lie. Come, comrades--come quickly! Let us leave this cursed spot."
? ? ? ? The officer raised me to a sitting posture, as he uttered a word of command; then several men placed me upon a horse.He sprang to the saddle behind me, took me in his arms, gave the word to advance; and, turning our faces away from the cypress- es, we rode away in swift military order.
? ? ? ? As yet my tongue refused its office, and I was perforce silent. I must have fallen asleep; for the next thing I remem- bered was finding myself standing up, supported by a soldier on each side of me. It was almost broad daylight, and to the north a red streak of sunlight was reflected like a path of blood over the waste of snow.
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