Twenty-five cents would be a liberal appraisement of the value of the lumber for which the boy lost his life.
Half an hour afterward we thought we saw all the guards march out of the front gate.

There was still another pile of these same kind of pieces of board lying at the further side of the prison.

The crowd around me noticed it, and we all made a rush for it.

In spite of my lame feet I outstripped the rest, and was just in the act of stooping down to pick the boards up when a loud yell from those behind startled me.

Glancing to my left I saw a guard cocking his gun and bringing it up to shoot me.
With one frightened spring, as quick as a flash, and before he could cover me, I landed fully a rod back in the crowd, and mixed with it.
The fellow tried hard to draw a bead on me, but I was too quick for him, and he finally lowered his gun with an oath expressive of disappointment in not being able to kill a Yankee.
Walking back to my place the full ludicrousness of the thing dawned upon me so forcibly that I forgot all about my excitement and scare, and laughed aloud.