“Why do you wait?” asked Dick curiously.

“I’m givin’ him time to say his prayers.”

“Why, he doesn’t know that you’re going to shoot at him, and he wouldn’t pray, even if he did.”

“Mebbe not, but I was raised right, an’ I know my duty.  I ain’t goin’ to send no man to kingdom without givin’ him time to pray.  Ef he won’t use it the blame is his’n, but that ain’t no reason why I oughtn’t to give him the time.”

“How long?”

“Wa’al, I reckon ’bout three minutes is ’nough fur a right good prayer.  Thar, he’s shot ag’in, but I don’t know whar his bullet went.  He’s usin’ up his prayin’ time fast.”

Reed never altered his quiet, assured tone.  He reminded Dick of Warner, talking about his algebra, and the lad was impressed so much by his manner that he believed he was going to do as he said.  He began unconsciously to count the seconds.

“Time’s up,” said Reed at length, “an’ that traitor is pokin’ his head ‘roun’ fur another shot.”

He raised suddenly his long-barreled rifle, took a quick aim, and pulled the trigger.  A stream of fire poured from the muzzle, the figure of a man leaped from the bush and then rolled down the snowy slope.

“I give him plenty uv time,” said Reed as he reloaded.  “Now I reckon I’ll look fur that other feller, Leonard.  I’ll know him when I see him, an’ this old cap-an’-ball rifle uv mine knows too how to talk to traitors.”

Dick left presently with a message to a captain who was in command of the force detached to hold the entrance to the valley.  He ran part of the way in the shelter of the trees and crept the rest, reaching the captain in safety.  Warner was there also, and the fire upon them from the slopes was hot.

“There has been no attempt to force the gate-way here,” said Warner.  “Since they failed with the horses they wouldn’t dare try it.  Besides, our sharpshooters are doing execution.  Those in the upper story of the house have an especially good chance.  Look at the black dots in the snow high up on the slopes.  Those are dead guerrillas.  There, two men fell!  Perhaps if they had known the kind of regiment it was they were coming after they wouldn’t have been in such a hurry to attack us.”

He spoke with pride, but Dick felt some chagrin.

“That’s true,” he said, “though I don’t like our regiment to be besieged here by a lot of guerrillas.  It’s an ignominy.  It’s not enough for us to hold our own against ’em, because they’re the people we came to get, and we ought to get ’em.”

“I dare say the colonel thinks as you do and he’s already planning how to do it.  This is a smart little battle, as it is.  Those sharpshooters of ours in the houses are certainly making it warm for the enemy!”

The firing was now very fast, and, as long as the brilliancy of the night remained unobscured, much of it was deadly, but a great amount of smoke gathered, and, as it rose, it formed a cloud.  The showers of bullets then decreased in volume and a comparative lull came.  But the men of Slade and Skelly could yet be seen on the crests and slopes, and there was no indication that they would draw off.