"Now, what next?"

"How do you mean?"

"Why, what is your next move?"

"Well, I suppose we must remain here till the provisions come, if we decide to send for them," answered the man.

The lieutenant shrugged his shoulders, and for the moment remained silent. Presently he said:

"Of course that's for you to determine. But for myself I can't see why you should deliberately waste two days giving the moonshiners time in which to rip out their stills and bury them where even your sagacity will never find them. I don't see why you shouldn't utilize the time of waiting for supplies in finding and capturing stills. However that is none of my business. Will you tell me where you wish to make your headquarters, so that I may pitch my camp accordingly?"

At that moment bullets began pattering in the camp and the lieutenant instantly leaped to his feet and hurried to the platform of the parapet.

Using his field gla.s.s he presently located the points from which the firing came. Then calmly but quickly he descended and called to Sergeant Malby:

"Form the men in open order out there under the bluff."

Then he strode away hurriedly to the bluff and hastily examined it, selecting the points at which it was easiest of ascent. With a few quietly given orders, he mounted to the top of the rock, and in half a minute more his men, crouching down to shield themselves from the fire, were in line of battle by his side.

"I'm going to see that," said Tom, seizing his rifle and hurrying to the line of troops. "It's better than a game of chess."

By this time, under the lieutenant's calmly uttered instructions--for there seemed to be no suggestion of excitement in his voice or manner--two small squads had been thrown forward from the right and left of the line, and were rapidly creeping up the mountain, with the evident purpose of getting to the rear of the moonshiners. Meantime the lieutenant stood up with his gla.s.s to his eyes, minutely observing the progress of his flanking parties. By his orders his men all lay down, taking advantage of every rock and inequality of the ground for protection, and delivering a steady fire all the time.

Presently the lieutenant lowered his gla.s.s and turning, saw little Tom standing erect by his side.

"This will never do, my boy!" he exclaimed. "Lie down quick or one of those mountaineers will pick you off with his rifle."

[Ill.u.s.tration: "LIE DOWN; QUICK!"]

"I can stand up as long as you can, Lieutenant," answered Tom, "even if I am not a soldier."

"But it is my duty to stand just now," said the lieutenant. "I must direct this operation and strike from here the moment my flanking parties reach proper positions."

"And it is my pleasure to stand," answered Tom, "to see how you do it."

The lieutenant again brought his gla.s.s to his eyes. Then he lowered it and looked earnestly at Tom, who still stood erect by his side, paying no heed to the rain of bullets about him.

"Why aren't you at West Point?" he asked. "You're the sort we want in the army."

Then, without waiting for an answer, the lieutenant again looked through his gla.s.s and seeing that his flanking parties had gained the positions desired in rear of the mountaineers, he ordered the whole line to advance as rapidly as possible. At the same time the flanking parties closed in upon the rear of the mountaineers, and five minutes later the action ended in the surrender of all the moonshiners.

Tom saw it all, but when it was over he discovered a pain in his left ear, and, feeling, found that a small-bore bullet had pa.s.sed through what he called the flap of it, boring a hole as round as if it had been punched with a railroad conductor's instrument.

The captured mountaineers were brought at once to Camp Venture. Two of them were dead and three severely wounded. To these last and to two of the lieutenant's men who had also received bullets in their bodies, the Doctor ministered a.s.siduously. The unwounded mountaineers were placed in a hastily constructed "guard house," built just under the bluff.

CHAPTER XXIX

_A Puzzling Situation_

No sooner was the action over and the wounded men attended to than the lieutenant again talked with the revenue officer. That person was more halting and irresolute than ever. He had hidden, in a crouching position behind the barrier during the fight, and Jack, seeing him thus screened, had said to him:

"Perhaps you now begin to understand why we needed our protective work;"

but the man made no answer. The lieutenant said to him after the melee:

"Now that I have two of my own men and three of the mountaineers severely wounded, I cannot march down the mountain. I shall stay here and answer any duty call you may make upon me. But I must have food for my men and for your prisoners. Are you going to provide it or are you not?"

The man who was not only irresolute but an arrant coward as well, hesitated. He pleaded for "time to think."

"But while you are thinking," answered the soldier, "we'll all starve.

Are you ready to send one of your men down the mountain under escort or are you not? Yes or no, and I'll act accordingly."

"Well, you see, this fuss will bring all the moonshiners in the mountains down upon us," answered the man, "and really, Lieutenant, I don't think it would be prudent just now, to weaken your force by detaching any of your men. We might all be butchered here at any moment."

The military officer was exasperated almost beyond endurance by the manifest cowardice and obstinacy of the revenue agent. He was on the point of breaking out into denunciation, but he restrained himself and called to a sentinel instead. When the sentinel came he said to him:

"Tell Sergeant Malby to report to me," and when the sergeant touched his hat and stood "at attention," the lieutenant said:

"Go at once and make out a requisition for one month's supplies for all the troops and all the prisoners, and for pack mules enough to bring the stuff up the mountain. Order Corporal Jenkins to report to me with a detail of four men, equipped for active work, immediately."

Then borrowing writing materials from the boys, he wrote a hurried note to his commandant below, relating the events that had occurred and setting forth the circ.u.mstances in which he was placed. By the time that this was done, the sergeant returned with the requisition ready for signature, and the corporal reported with his squad. With a few hurried instructions to the corporal, the lieutenant sent him down the mountain, specially charging him to hurry both going and coming. "You see we've got all these prisoners to feed--seven of them, not counting the wounded--as well as ourselves. We'll all be starving in another twenty-four hours. So make all haste."

Then the lieutenant sought out the boys, who had gone to work at their chopping--all of them except the Doctor, who was still busy over the wounded men,--for Ed was now well enough to do a little work each day, under orders to avoid severe strains and heavy lifting.

When the officer sought out Jack and asked him for a conference, Jack called the other boys about him, explaining:

"Our camp is sort of a republic, Lieutenant, in which all have an equal voice, while each does the thing that he can do better than anybody else can. So with your permission I will call all the boys together for our talk."

The lieutenant a.s.sented and all sat down on the logs that were lying about.

"We're in a rather awkward position," said the military man. "That revenue agent asked our commandant for some soldiers to protect him in raiding a still up here. He gave us the impression that it would take one day to come up here and do the work, and one day for our return. So I was ordered to take half a company, with three days' cooked rations, and accompany the revenue officers. They knew just where your camp was, and they thought they knew that it was the still they wanted.

"Now the irresolute--Well never mind that. The revenue agent insists upon staying in the mountains for an indefinite time, and now that two of my men and three of our prisoners are severely wounded and in the hands of your good young Doctor, I am not reluctant to stay. But we must have food, and that sublimated idiot has provided none and is afraid even to send after any. So I have myself sent a squad down the mountain with a requisition. They will return just as quickly as possible, but I don't see how it will be possible for them to get back under two, or more--probably three days. So I want to ask you to lend us some provisions, which I will return the moment the caravan gets here."

"But we have no provisions!" said Jack, in consternation. "Our total supply consists of less than two bags of meal and perhaps half a dozen squirrels and rabbits. That wouldn't go far among so many."

"I'll tell you what," broke in Tom. "If the lieutenant will lend me two men to help carry, I'll go foraging and see what I can bring in in the way of game."

Jack explained to the military man that Tom had been from the first the camp's reliance for meat supplies, and that incidentally he had secured all the meal that was then in camp.

"Excellent!" exclaimed the lieutenant. "We have more bread than anything else, and we needn't borrow any of your meal. But if your brother--by the way, it was you who stood by me in the fight out there this morning, wasn't it? Are you much hurt?"

"Oh, no," answered Tom. "One of those moonshiners thought I ought to wear earrings, and so he pierced my left ear with a bullet, that's all,"

said Tom, whose ear the Doctor had carefully disinfected and bandaged.

"But why aren't you at West Point?" again asked the officer. "I never saw a cooler hand or a boy that the army so clearly needed. Why aren't you at West Point?"