"The smoke is so heavy I can't see what damage was done! Now it has
cleared away! There are gaps in the Yankee lines, but the men have
closed up, and they come on at the double quick with their cannon still
firing over their heads!"

In his excitement he took his hand off Dick's shoulder and leaned forward
a little farther, supporting himself now against the earthen wall.
Dick stood just behind him, shielded from the sight of any one who might
be passing in the ravine, although there was little danger now from
searchers with a great battle going on. Meanwhile he watched the combat
with an eagerness fully equal to that of the old colonel.

The mighty crash of cannon and rifles together continued, but for a
little while the smoke banked up in front so densely that the whole
combat was hidden from them. Then a wind slowly rolled the smoke away.
The figures of the men began to appear like shadowy tracery, and then
emerged, distinct and separate from the haze.

"They are nearer now," said the Colonel. "I can plainly see their long
lines moving and their light guns coming with them. But our batteries
are raking them horribly. Their men are falling by the scores and
hundreds."

Miss Woodville uttered a deep sigh and turned her face away. But she
looked again in a few moments. The terrible spell was upon her, too.

Dick's nerves were quivering. His heart was with the assailants and
theirs with the assailed, but he would not speak aloud against the hopes
of Colonel Woodville and his daughter, since he was in their house,