“Here are the man’s quarters, sir; but I’m out of matches.  If you’ll wait a minute I’ll bring a candle.”

“All right,” Dick responded, in a loud voice; “I’ll stand here until you come back.”

The quest of the candle would take the guide to the closet in the guard-room, and, risking little to learn much, Dick struck a match and peered into the stuffy little room, more like a corn-crib than a prison-cell.

“Hist, Jack! is it you?” he called.

There was an exclamation from the farther end of the room, and then a fervent—­

“Heavens, Dick! is it really you?”

“Sh—­sh—!”

The soldier’s returning footfalls sounded in the passage-way; but, as he re-entered the hall where Dick stood shading the flickering light, he could not see the hastily extinguished match in Dick’s hand.  As the man came slowly along the winding passage-way, Dick whispered: 

“You are a recruit in Rickett’s legion; you were drunk and lost your way, and I am your major; you are stationed at Fort Lee near Mechanicsville, and you belong to Company G.”

Jack pretended to be sound asleep when the soldier and Dick entered.  He rubbed his eyes sleepily, and looked up in a vacant, tipsy way, leering knowingly at the soldier, who had caught him by the shoulder.

“What are you doing here, Tarpey?  Why aren’t you with your company?  You’ll get ball and chain for this lark, or my name’s not James Braine.”

“But, major, it—­it wasn’t my fault.  My cousin, Joe Tarpey, came down from Staunton with a barrel of so’gum whisky, and—­and—­”

“You drank too much and was caught where you had no business to be.  However,” Dick added, sternly, “the regiment marches in the morning—­you must get out of here.  Soldier, show me to Captain Payne’s quarters.  Say to him that Major Braine, of Rickett’s Legion, desires to speak with him a moment.”  But he had no sooner said this than he realized the danger he was running.

The captain might know Braine, and then how could he extricate himself from the dilemma?  Luckily the captain was not in his quarters, and Dick, with calm effrontery, sat down and wrote out a statement of the case, where he was to be found, and his reasons for carrying the prisoner away.

The sergeant, having read this, made no objection to releasing the alleged deserter, since there had been no orders concerning him, and, without more ado, Jack walked away with his captain, the picture of abashed valor and repentant tipsiness.

“Now, Dick, there’s no time to ask the meaning of your miraculous doings.  We’ve still time to let our friends out and get away before daylight; but we mustn’t lose a second.  Sh! stand still, what’s that?  Troopers!  Good heavens, they can’t have found out your trick so soon!  Ah, no!  They are floundering about looking for quarters,” he added, in immeasurable relief, as the voices of the riders sounded through the darkness, cursing luck, the road, and everything else.  “O Dick, if we only had the countersign I could play a brilliant trick on these greenhorns!  Perhaps I can as it is.”