The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1898-03-15

| ne aC once began mechanically to brush
the dirt from his clothes with his hands
In the barn the sentry and tho prisoner
were evidently engaged in an argument
Tho girl and the first miraculous sol
dier Signaled warily. 1t seemed that
! they feared their arms would make
noises in passing through the air. Their
lips moved, conveying dim meanings
In the sign language the girl described
the situation in the barn. With guard
ed motions she told him of the impor-
tance of absolute stiffness. He nodded
and then i'll the same manner he told
her OF his two companions under the
barn floor. He informed her again of
their wounded state and wagged his
head to express his despair He con-
tortcd his face to tell how sore were
their arms and jabbed tho air mourn
| fully to express their remote gcograph-
ical position.
This signaling was interrupted by tho
sound of body being dragged, or drag
ging itself, with slow, swishing sound
under the barn. Tho sound was too loud
for safety. They rushed to the holo and
began to semaphore wildly at it, but
the swishing continued with serene in
difference until a shaggy head appeared
with rolling eyes and quick grin.
With frantic downward motions of
their arms they suppressed tho grin
and with 1T the swishing noise In
dramatic pantomime they informed this
head Of the terrible consequences of so
much noise. The head nodded painful
| ly, but with extreme care the second
| ,,,,c1,ol
| the hole.
In faint whisper tho first man said,
where's Sim?'
The second man made low reply,
Hes right here He motioncd reas-
suringly toward tho hole.
When the third head appeared, soft
smile of glee came upon each face and
the mute group exchanged expressive
glances. When they all stood together
free from this tragic barn, they breath.
ed long sigh that was contemporaries
Gus with another smile and another ex.
change of glances.
One of tho men tiptocd to knotholo
and peered into the barn. Tho sentry
was at that moment speaking. eyes,
we know 'em all. There isn't "a house
in this region that we don't know who
is in it most Of tho time. We collar 'em
once in awhile--liko we did you. Now,
that house out onder, wei
The man suddenly left the knothole
and returned to the others Upon his
face, dimly discerned, there was an in
dication that ne had made an astonish-
ing discovery. Tho others questioned
him with their eyes, but he simply
waved an Drm to express his inability
to speak a. that spot. He led them back
toward tho hill, prowling carefully. At
safe distance from the barn he halted,
and as they grouped eagerly about him
he exploded in an intense undcrtone,
"Why, that-that's Cap'n Sawyer they
got in yonder.
"Cap'n Sawyer" incredulously whis-
pered the other men.
But the girl had something to ask.
"How did you get out Of that feed box?"
A man turned to her at once. ooh, the
feed boX?' He smiled. "Well, when
you put us in there, we was just in
minute when Wo allowed it wasn't a
mighty safe place, and we allowed we'd
get out, and we did. We skedaddled
round and round until it 'poared like
W. ""o bolhtS w bco SolSilc'i, anu tlcll
we flung ourselves down in the COW
stalls where it's lowlile-just dirt floor
and then we just naturally went
a-whooping under the barn floor when
the Yanks come, and we didn't know
Cap'n Sawyer by his voice nohow. We
heard 'em discoursing, and we allowed
it was mighty pert man, but we did
not know that 1t was him. No'm'm!"
These three men so recently from
situation Of peril seemed suddenly to
have dropped all thought Of it, They
stood with sad faces looking at the