This must be sent up to head-quarters, and I'll get an order, and a boat, and some men, to go for them at once." All of which was promptly done.
"See here! I speak to be one of the fellows what goes," Jim emphatically announced.
"All right.

I reckon we'll both go, Given, if the General will let us,--and I think he will,"-- which was a safe guess and a true one.

The boat was soon ready and manned.

'Bijah, too weak to pull an oar, was left behind; and Jim, really not fit to do aught save guide them, still insisted on taking his share of work.

They found the place at last, and the men; and taking them on board,--Russell having to be moved slowly and carefully,--they began to pull for home.
The tide was going out, and the river low: that, with the heavy laden boat, made their progress lingering; a fact which distressed them all, as they knew the night to be almost spent, and that the shores were so lined with batteries, open and masked, and the country about so scoured by rebels, as to make it almost sure death to them if they were not beyond the lines before the morning broke.
The water was steadily and perceptibly ebbing,--the rowing growing more and more insecure,--the danger becoming imminent.
"Ease her off, there! ease her off!" cried the Captain,--as a harsh, gravelly sound smote on his ear, and at the same moment a shot whizzed past them, showing that they were discovered,--"ease her off, there! or we're stuck!" The warning came too late,--indeed, could not have been obeyed, had it come earlier.