Another instant and she reappeared, sweeping past him without so much as a word, and bearing in her hand my old campaign hat, came directly up to us.
"Sentry," she said in her old imperious manner, "I desire to place this hat on the head of your prisoner."
The fellow glanced uneasily over his shoulder at the seemingly unconscious officer, not knowing whether it were better to permit the act or not, but she waited for no permission.
"Captain Wayne," she said, her voice grown kindly in a moment, and her eyes frankly meeting mine, "you will pardon such liberty, I am sure, but it is not right that you should be compelled to march uncovered in this sun."
She placed the hat in position, asking as she did so:
"Does that feel comfortable?"
"The memory of your thoughtfulness," I replied warmly, bowing as best I might, "will make the march pleasant, no matter what its end may mean to me."
Her eyes darkened with sudden emotion.
"Do not deem me wholly ungrateful," she said quickly and in a low tone.
"The conditions are such that I am utterly helpless now to aid you.
Major Brennan is a man not to be lightly disobeyed, but I shall tell my story to General Sheridan so soon as we reach his camp."
I would have spoken again, but at this moment Brennan came striding toward us.
"Come, Edith," he cried, almost roughly, "this foolishness has surely gone far enough. Peters, what are you waiting here for? I told you to take your prisoner down the road."
A few moments later, the centre of a little squad of heavily armed men, I was tramping along the rocky pathway, and when once I attempted to glance back to discover if the others followed us, the sergeant advised me, with an oath, to keep my eyes to the front. I obeyed him.
It was a most tiresome march in the hot sun over the rough mountain roads. There were times when we left these altogether, and crept along half-obliterated trails leading through the dense woods and among the rocks. I learned from sc.r.a.ps of conversation floating about me as we struggled onward, that these precautions were not taken out of any fear of meeting with Confederate troops, whose nearest commands were supposed to be considerably to the westward of where we were, but because of a desire to avoid all possibility of conflict with those armed and irresponsible bands that ranged at will between the lines of the two great armies. Already they had become sufficiently strong to make trouble for small detachments.
It must have been nearly the end of the afternoon. We had certainly traversed several miles, and were then moving almost directly south upon a well-defined pike, the name of which I never knew. All the party were travelling close together, when the scout, who throughout the day had been kept a few hundred yards in advance, came back toward us on a run, his hand flung up in an urgent warning to halt.
"What is it, Steele?" Brennan questioned, spurring forward to meet him.
"Come, speak up, man!"
"A squad of cavalry has just swung onto the pike, sir, from the dirt road that leads toward the White Briar," was the soldier"s panting reply. "And I could get a glimpse through the trees down the valley, and there"s a heavy infantry column just behind them. They"re Rebs, sir, or I don"t know them."
"Rebs?" with an incredulous laugh. "Why, man, we"ve got the only Reb here who is east of the Briar."
"Well," returned the scout, sullenly, "they"re coming from the west, and I know they ain"t our fellows."
He was too old a soldier to have his judgment doubted, and he was evidently convinced. Brennan glanced quickly about. However he may have sneered at the report, he was not rash enough to chance so grave a mistake.
"Get back into those rocks there on the right," he commanded sharply.
"Hustle your prisoner along lively, men, and one of you stand over him with a c.o.c.ked gun; if he so much as opens his mouth, let him have it."
Rapidly as we moved, we were scarcely all under cover before the advance cavalry guard came in sight, the light fringe of troopers, dust-begrimed and weary, resting heavily in their saddles, and apparently thoughtless as to any possibility of meeting with the enemy.
There were not more than a troop of them all told, yet their short gray jackets and wide-brimmed light hats instantly told the story of their service. Their rear rank was yet in sight when we heard the heavy tread of the approaching column, together with the dull tinkle of steel which always accompanies marching troops. Peering forth as much as I dared from behind the thick brush where I had been roughly thrown face downward, I saw the head of that solid, st.u.r.dy column swing around the sharp bend in the road, and in double front, spreading from rock to rock, come sweeping down toward us.
The command was moving forward rapidly at the rout step, that long, easy, swinging stride so peculiar to the Southern infantry, with the merest semblance of order in formation, which is the inevitable result of hard, rapid marching. Every movement bespoke them veteran troops.
They were covered with dust, their faces fairly caked with it, their uniforms almost indistinguishable; their drums silent, their colors cased, their wide-brimmed hats pulled low over their eyes, their guns held in any position most convenient for carrying, and with stern, wearied faces set doggedly upon the road in their front. No pomp and circ.u.mstance of glorious war was here, but these were fighting men.
Never before, save as I watched Pickett"s charging line sweep on to death at Gettysburg, did I feel the stern manliness of war as now.
File upon file, company after company, regiment following regiment, they swung sternly by. Scarcely so much as a word reached us, excepting now and then some briefly muttered command to close up, or a half- inaudible curse as a shuffling foot stumbled. I could distinguish no badge, no insignia of either corps or division; the circling dust enveloped them in a choking, disfiguring cloud. But they were Confederates! I marked them well; here and there along the toiling ranks I even noted a familiar face, and there could be no mistaking the gaunt North Carolina mountaineer, the sallow Georgian, or the jaunty Louisiana Creole. They were Confederates--Packer"s Division of Hill"s corps, I could have almost sworn--east-bound on forced march, and I doubted not that each cross-road to left and right of us would likewise show its hurrying gray column, st.u.r.dily pressing forward. The veteran fighting men of the left wing of the Army of Northern Virginia were boldly pushing eastward to keep their tryst with Lee. The despatch intrusted to my care had been borne safely to Longstreet.
The keen joy of it lighted up my face, and Brennan turning toward me as the last limping straggler disappeared over the ridge, saw it, and grew white with anger.
"You Rebel cur!" he cried fiercely, in his sudden outburst of pa.s.sion, "what does all this mean? Where is that division bound?"
"Some change in Longstreet"s front, I should judge," I answered coolly, too happy even to note his slur.
"You know better," he retorted hotly. "The way those fellows march tells plainly enough that they have covered all of fifteen miles since daybreak. It is a general movement, and, by Heaven! you shall answer Sheridan, even if you won"t me."
CHAPTER XI
IN THE PRESENCE OF SHERIDAN
It had been dark for nearly an hour before we entered what was from all appearances a large and populous camp. Hurried forward constantly, closely surrounded by my guard, I was enabled to gain but an inadequate conception of either its situation or extent. Yet the distance traversed by our party after pa.s.sing the outer sentries and before we made final halt, taken in connection with evidence on every side of the presence in considerable numbers of all the varied branches of the service, convinced me we were within no mere brigade encampment, but had doubtless arrived at the main headquarters of this department.
Although I noted all this in a vague way, so as to recall it afterwards, yet I was too thoroughly fatigued to care where I was or what became of me. Hardened as I had grown through experience to exposure and weariness, the continuous strain undergone since I had ridden westward from General Lee"s tent had completely unnerved me. No sooner was I thrust into the unknown darkness of a hut by the not unkindly sergeant, than I threw myself p.r.o.ne on the floor, and was sound asleep before the door had fairly closed behind him.
My rest was not destined to be a long one. It seemed I had barely closed my eyes when a rough hand shook me again into consciousness. The flaming glare of an uplifted pine-knot flung its radiance over half-a- dozen figures grouped in the open doorway. A corporal, with a white chin beard, was bending over me.
"Come, Johnny," he said tersely, "get up--you"re wanted."
The instinct of soldierly obedience in which I had been so long trained caused me to grope my way to my feet.
"What time is it, Corporal?" I asked sleepily.
"After midnight."
"Who wishes me?"
"Headquarters," he returned brusquely. "Come, move on. Fall in, men."
A moment later we were off, pa.s.sing between long lines of dying fires, tramping rapidly along a rough road which seemed to incline sharply upward, our single torch throwing grotesque shadows on either side. The swift movement and the crisp night air swept the vestiges of slumber from my brain, and I began instinctively to gather together my scattered wits for whatever new experience confronted me.
Our march was a short one, and we soon turned abruptly in at a wide- open gateway. High pillars of brick stood upon either hand, and the pa.s.sage was well lighted by a brightly blazing fire of logs. Two sentries stood there, and our party pa.s.sed between them without uttering a word. As we moved beyond the radiance I noted a little knot of cavalrymen silently sitting their horses in the shadow of the high wall. A wide gravelled walk, bordered, I thought, with flowers, led toward the front door of a commodious house built after the colonial type. The lower story seemed fairly ablaze with lights, and at the head of the steps as we ascended a young officer came quickly forward.
"Is this the prisoner brought in to-night?"
The corporal pushed me forward.
"This is the man, sir."
"Very well; hold your command here until I send other orders."
He rested one hand, not unkindly, upon my arm, and his tone instantly changed from that of command to generous courtesy.