Through the darkness came the sound of many voices and the clank of moving wheels.
Dick asked permission for his two comrades and himself to go down near the river and obtained it.
"But don't get shot," cautioned Colonel Winchester.

"The Confederate riflemen will certainly be on watch on the other side of the stream." Dick promised and the three went forward very carefully among some bushes.

They were led on by curiosity and they did not believe that they would be in any great danger.

The singular friendliness which always marked the pickets of the hostile armies in the Civil War would prevail.
It was several hundred yards down to the Antietam, and luckily the ribbon of bushes held out.

But when they were half way to the stream a thick, dark figure rose up before them.