Red Blaze slipped away unnoticed.

But he came back very soon, and men and women came with him, bringing food and smoking coffee.

There was enough for twenty.
Red Blaze had spread among the villagers, every one of whom he knew, the news that the Union arms had won a victory.

Nor had it suffered anything in the telling.

Colonel Newcomb's regiment, by the most desperate feats of gallantry, had beaten off at least ten thousand Southerners, and the boy and the man in uniform, who were resting by the fire in the station, had been the greatest two heroes of a battle waged for a whole night.
Curious eyes gazed at Dick and the sergeant as they sat there by the stove.