One of the drunken soldiers muttered in his sleep, at first lowly, then louder and louder,--"Catch 'em! Grapple 'em! Have at 'em! Ha--long cutlasses! Take that, runaway!" "What's the matter with ye, Phil ?" hiccoughed the other, who was not yet asleep.

"Keep quiet, will ye?
Ye ain't at Fontenoy now." "He's a runaway prisoner, I say.

Catch him, catch him!" "Oh, stush with your drunken dreaming," again hiccoughed his comrade, violently nudging him.

"This comes o' carousing." Shortly after, the dreamer with loud snores fell back into dead sleep.
But by something in the sound of the breathing of the other soldier, Israel knew that this man remained uneasily awake.

He deliberated a moment what was best to do.