A short, powerful man, with a voice like the roar of thunder, bade him hush or he would feel a rifle barrel across his back.

Dick had noticed this man, a sergeant named Whitley, who had shown singular courage and coolness throughout the battle, and he crowded closer to him for companionship.

The man observed the action and looked at him with blue eyes that twinkled out of a face almost black with the sun.
"Don't take it so hard, my boy," he said.

"This battle's lost, but there are others that won't be.

Most of the men were raw, but they did some mighty good fightin', while the regulars an' the cavalry are coverin' the retreat.