Had it taken me two hours to crawl from the line of vedettes to this edge of the swamp?  The question rose in my mind from seeing a relief come down the hill at my right; two men, supposably a non-commissioned officer and a private, were going to pass in fifty yards of me.  I let them pass.  They went into the swamp.  Five minutes later two men returned by the same route, or almost so, but came a little nearer to me; I saw them coming and felt for my glass, but did not find it.  I supposed that Dr. Khayme had forgotten to put it in my haversack.  Yet the men—­no doubt the same non-commissioned officer, with the private he had just relieved from duty as a vedette—­passed so near me that I could distinctly see their dress, and could note its worn and bedraggled appearance.  These men had seen hard service, evidently.

Five minutes more passed.  The east was aglow with day.  Two men at my left were now coming down the hill.  They passed into the swamp.  These men wore uniforms fresh and clean.

The thought came upon me at once that I had passed between two vedettes belonging to different regiments.  I cast about for some way to take advantage of this circumstance, but racked my brains to no purpose.  Finally, however, an odd idea was born.  Could I not go back to the vedettes, and talk to either the right or the left man of the connecting line?  He would probably think that I belonged to the command joining his.  No doubt I could do this; but what should I gain?  I should merely be losing time.

Then another idea came.  Could I not post myself as a Confederate vedette between the connecting men?  But for what?  Even if I could do so there was no profit in this romantic idea.  I gave it up.

Yet I must do something.  I considered the chances of going forward boldly, walking straight between two pits, and on up the hill.  The pickets would see that I was a Confederate.  If I could strike between the connecting pits of the two commands, the thing might be done.  Yet I wanted a better way.

Before the second relief had returned I was hidden in the boughs of a tree.  The corporal and a man passed back as they had come.  They were talking, but I could not hear what they said.

I watched them from the tree.  A gully was in front of me, a large gully, only in parts visible from my position; it seemed to be on their route.  The two men became hidden by this gully.  I saw them no more.  My interest was excited.  Why had the men gone into this gully?  There was smoother ground outside.  They had a purpose; I must find it out.

Until the next relief should come I was comparatively safe.  I was on neutral ground, or unobserved ground, for an hour at least.  I could not know whether the reliefs came as ordinarily—­once every two hours.  There would probably be nobody passing between vedettes and pickets—­unless, indeed, some officer should go the rounds of the sentinels; that was something I must risk.