You would certainly be shot."
"I recognize that fact, sir, and I shall await a better opportunity."
"What to do with you in the morning I don't know, but we shall probably
be able to take care of you. Meanwhile, Dick, go to sleep if you can.
See, our boys are spread here through the woods. If it were day you'd
probably find at least a dozen among them whom you know, and certainly a
hundred are of blood kin to you, more or less."
Dick saw the dim forms stretched in hundreds on the ground, and,
thanking his uncle for his kindness, he stretched himself upon an
unoccupied bit of turf and closed his eyes. But it was impossible for
young Richard Mason to sleep. He felt again that terrible thrill of
agony, because he, alone, of all the score and more of Northern millions,
knew that the Southern trap was about to fall, and he could not tell.
Never was he further from sleep. His nerves quivered with actual
physical pain. He opened his eyes again and saw the dim forms lying
in row on row as far in the forest as his eye could reach. Then he
listened. He might hear the rifle of some picket, more wary or more
enterprising than the others, sounding the alarm. But no such sound
came to his ears. It had turned warmer again, and he heard only the
Southern wind, heavy with the odors of grass and flower, sighing through
the tall forest.
An anger against his own surged up in his breast. Why wouldn't they
look? How could they escape seeing? Was it possible for one great army
to remain unknown within cannon shot of another a whole night? It was
incredible, but he had seen it, and he knew it.
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