Woods and the corporal then went into the cabin, and Frank was left to himself.  A feeling of loneliness he had never before experienced came over him.  At first he determined to go and call his cousin to come and stand watch with him, so that he would have some one to talk with; but, on second thought, he remembered that Archie was to come on watch at two o’clock, and probably would not like to be disturbed.  Besides, if he called him, it would look as though he was a coward, and afraid to stand his watch alone; so he gave up the idea, and remained in his place of concealment.  Once he thought he discovered the sheen of a musket among the bushes; but it was only his imagination, and after waiting half an hour without hearing any thing suspicious, he shouldered his gun, and commenced pacing the deck, in full view of the woods.  But he was not molested, and when two o’clock came he saw a figure steal cautiously out of the cabin, and creep along toward him, under cover of the wheel-house.  As he approached nearer, Frank recognized his cousin.

“Where are the rebs?” inquired the latter.

“The corporal said he saw two of them out there in the woods,” answered Frank, pointing to a thick clump of bushes that stood on the edge of the bank; “and there was something out there, and I shot at it.  But I’ve been on deck here, in plain sight, for the last hour, and haven’t seen any thing.”

“I hope there are no rebs in there,” said Archie; “but I’ll keep dark for awhile.  I shipped to fight, but I don’t like the idea of having a fellow send a bullet into me when I can’t see him,” and he began to settle himself into a comfortable position behind the chicken-coop.

“I don’t think there is any danger,” said Frank; “but perhaps it is well to be careful at first.  Be sure and call us when you come off watch,” and he shouldered his rifle and walked leisurely into the cabin.

CHAPTER V.

A Discomfited Rebel.

Archie stood his watch without seeing or hearing any thing of the rebels, and when he was relieved, at four o’clock, he aroused Simpson, Woods, and his cousin, and after they had tied up their hammocks, and stowed them away in the nettings, Woods went to the sergeant’s room to obtain his consent to their proposed excursion.  This was easily accomplished, and while they were filling their pockets with musket-cartridges, Frank proposed that they should go out and see what it was that had occasioned the alarm during the night; so they leaned their muskets up in one corner of the cabin, and ran out on the bank, and there, weltering in his blood, lay, not a rebel, but a white mule.  He it was that, while feeding about in the woods, had occasioned the disturbance in the bushes, and Frank’s shot had done its work.  The two men with muskets had existence only in the corporal’s imagination.  Simpson burst into a loud laugh.