Free A Dangerous Promise by Joan Lowery Nixon Page A

scratching his face and arms. His leg felt as if it were on fire. / have to get help or ril die, Mike thought. As he landed headfirst against a tree trunk, a sea of blackness curled around him, plunging him into a deep, pain-free unconsciousness.

    Monster nightmares tortured Mike's dreams. He tried to cry out, but he couldn't. Through blinking eyes, he saw only darkness.
    Don't fight the pain, Mike. Let go, he thought he heard Da say. With a sigh, Mike slipped into a blackness that soothed hira like a stroking hand.
    He awoke in a puddle of blood and sweat and mottled sunlight as a shower of pebbles stung his face. The sounds of war had vanished, leaving behind a silence even more horrible.
    A few more pebbles rattled down the slope, striking Mike's face, and he glanced up through the noonday brightness to see a Confederate soldier making his way down the hill toward where he lay. The Reb yelled to someone out of Mike's sight, "There's a dead Yank down here! Looks like he's got fairly good boots. Ought to fit somebody."
    "I don't like this robbin' the dead. That shouldn't be part
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    of a soldier's duty." The voice that had answered the Reb sounded familiar. Whose was it?
    "We got their ammunition—what little was left—and you know the men in our company are in need of every pair of decent boots we can find."
    "Long as we leave it at that," the familiar voice said. "But don't go through their pockets, Jiri. The bugle you been braggin' about should have been enough, but I saw you take that dead boy's pocket watch as well."
    "It was mine by rights. I killed him."
    Mike gasped and stiffened, remembering the grin on the Reb's face. Rage, stronger than his pain, poured like red-hot metal through Mike's mind and body, and he clenched his fists, biding his time.
    "Besides, the watch won't do the Yank any good." The wiry blond Reb called Jiri laughed and slid farther down the bank until he stood next to Mike.
    Mike's eyes narrowed to slits. As Jiri bent forward, Mike reached up and grabbed his neck, pulled Jiri off balance, and slammed his face into the dirt. Mike yelled, "Give me Todd's watch! Grave robber! Dirty Confederate grave robber!"
    But Mike's wound had left him weak, and it took only a moment for Jiri to scramble free. He got to his feet and gave Mike a kick in the side. Mike cried out in pain.
    Having reached the bottom of the slope, the other soldier grabbed Jiri and pulled him back just as he was aiming another kick.
    "What's wrong with you, Jiri?" he shouted. "The man's wounded! For all we know, he's dyin'."
    "He attacked me!" Jiri complained.
    "He stole Todd's watch!" Yelling the words took all Mike's energy.
    Grinning, Jiri pulled the watch from his pocket and dangled it out of Mike's reach. "It's mine now," he said. "I got it fair and square off a dead Yank."

    The watch had baby tooth marks on it. There was no doubt about it—the watch was Todd's.
    The other soldier shoved Jiri aside and stared down at Mike. "Well, I'll be!" he said. "It's you, Mike Kelly."
    Mike looked into the eyes of the tall lean Reb with sun-bleached hair and gasped. "Corey Blair!" he cried out. Mike well remembered Corey, who had been so intent on courting and marrying Marta, the young woman who worked for Mike's first adoptive parents, Mr. and Mrs. Friedrich.
    "If you can, get up and come with us," Corey said.
    "As a prisoner," Jiri sneered.
    "I can't get up," Mike told Corey. "My leg . . ."
    Corey tore Mike's pants leg free from the wound. He made a retching soimd. "Looks awful," he said, and turned back toward Mike, his face pale. He wiped at the sweat on his forehead. "Mike, you got hurt bad and lost a lot of blood. There's pus and dirt and maggots in the wound."
    "I'm not going to die," Mike said firmly.
    Corey managed a shaky grin. "I'll go along with that. A nearly dead man couldn't pull Jiri off his feet the way you done."
    As if he'd just remembered Jiri, Corey stood and said to the other man, "Why don't you go see what else you