"We're digging a
well; have gone down six feet; three feet below the surface is soapstone,
so soft we can cut it with our jack-knives. We mean to work our way out
to-night. Will you join us?"
"With all my heart."
"Suppose we are caught in the attempt," said one.
"We can't be in much worse condition than now," observed another;
"starving in this pestiferous atmosphere filled with the malaria from that
swamp, and the effluvia from half-decayed corpses; men dying every day,
almost every hour, from famine, disease, or violence."
"No," said Harry, "we may bring upon ourselves what Allison is enduring,
or instant death; but I for one would prefer the latter to the slow
torture of starvation."
"If we are ready," said Harold, in low, solemn tones. "It is appointed to
men once to die, and after that the judgment."
"And what should you say was the needful preparation?" queried another,
half-mockingly. "'Repent ye and believe the gospel.' 'Let the wicked
forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return
unto the Lord and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will
abundantly pardon.' 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved.'"
Silence fell on the little group. Duncan's eyes wandered over the field,
over the thousands of brave men herded together there like cattle, with
none of the comforts, few of the necessaries of life--over the living, the
dying, the dead; taking in the whole aggregate of suffering with one
sweeping glance.
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