THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED
we could see the sentinel walking his beat. We stopped to arrange a plan of attack upon him. Prewitt was to move down on the right of the boats, I on the left, and Kent, direct from the point we halted. We started; everything was going nicely, and in a very few minutes we would have had the sentinel, and the boats would have been ours. We were slowly getting nearer and nearer to the bridge upon which the sentinel walked, which was built upon piles about two feet above the water. Just as we were ready for the final move, out on the night air rang the voice of Gillispie, howling, "don't shoot! don't shoot!" This, of course, alarmed the sentinel on the bridge; he fired his gun and called lustily for the sergeant of the guard; the fort was alarmed, the guards turned out, and our liberty was gone. In a few moments more we would have been sailing across the mouth of the Savannah River, free men, had not Gillispie howled out like a wolf.
Prewitt and myself pulled ourselves
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