"Captain, you and I went through some pretty tough scrimmages and you were always dead true and game; when we lost our colonel and major, you took command and led the charge that day at Cold Harbor; Grant or Sheridan couldn't have done better."
"It _was_ rather warm," smiled the captain, blushing at the compliment; "but, corporal, it looks as if we are going to have something of the kind here."
Corporal Parker deliberately turned to the wondering group behind him.
"Jim and Tom, you know what we agreed on, if this should prove to be my old commander. You two wore the gray, but you are true blue now."
At this reminder, two of the company without a word rode forward and placed themselves beside the corporal.
His suggestion was followed. The three wheeled their animals around, so that their riders, like the footmen, were in a line confronting Colonel Briggs and his astonished company.
"Dress," said the corporal, looking down and moving his mule about until the alignment would have drawn a compliment from a West Point cadet.
"Now, boys, are your shooting irons ready?"
"They gin'rally air," was the significant response of one of the men.
"All right, colonel," added the corporal making a military salute; "everything being in readiness please let the skirmish proceed."
Colonel Briggs emitted a forceful exclamation.
"What's the meaning of all this? I don't understand it."
"There are six on each side; that evens matters; shall you start the music or do you prefer to have the captain fire the opening gun?"
"But you haven't told me what this means."
"It means that Captain Dawson and Corporal Bob Parker have drunk from the same canteen."
It must be conceded that Colonel Briggs had one merit; no one was quicker than he to grasp a situation. So long as there were nine men on one side and three on the other, the success of the former was promising. He meant to crowd the defiant miners to the wall and would have done so but for the unprecedented turn of affairs. Now it was six to six and he knew the mettle of the three recruits that had joined the miners. Bob Parker was the most terrific fighter in the whole company. He was one of those men, occasionally seen, who was absolutely without fear. He would have stood up alone and fought the other eight. During that single week in Sacramento, he gained the name of a terror and caused a sigh of relief on the part of the authorities when he left for the mountains.