He ignored the challenge and stuck to his text. "I never thought to see the son of old Mad-bull Roger wearing a red coat," he said.
"That is nothing. Many as good a Whig as I am has been forced to wear a red coat ere this, or go barebacked. But why don"t you knot the halter?
In common justice you should either hang me or feed me. "Tis hard upon noon, and I breakfasted early."
"Fall in!" said the big man; and so I was marched quickly aside from the road and into the denser thicketing of the wood. Here my captors blindfolded me, and after spinning me around to make me lose the compa.s.s points, hurried me away to their encampment which was inland from the stream, though not far, for I could still hear the distance-minished splashing of the water.
When the kerchief was pulled from my eyes I was standing in the midst of a mounted riflemen"s halt-camp, face to face with a young officer wearing the uniform of the colonelcy in the North Carolina home troops.
He was a handsome young fellow, with curling hair and trim side-whiskers to frame a face fine-lined and eager--the face of a gentleman well-born and well-bred.
"Captain Ireton?" he said; by which I guessed that one of my capturers had run on ahead to make report.
"The same," I replied.
"And you are the son of Mr. Justice Roger Ireton, of Appleby Hundred?"
"I have that honor."
He gave me his hand most cordially.
"You are very welcome, Captain; Davie is my name. I trust we may come to know each other better. You are in disguise, as I take it; do you bring news of the army?"
"On the contrary, I am thirsting for news," I rejoined. "I and three others have but now returned from pursuing a British and Indian powder convoy into the mountains to the westward. We have been out five weeks and more."
He looked at me curiously. "You and three others?" he queried. "Come apart and tell me about it whilst Pompey is broiling the venison. I scent a whole Iliad in that word of yours, Captain Ireton."
"One thing first, if you please, Colonel Davie," I begged. "My companions are faring forward on the road to Queensborough. They know naught of my detention. Will you send a man to overtake them with a note from me?"
The colonel indulged me in the most gentlemanly manner; and when my note to Jennifer was despatched we sat together at the roots of a great oak and I told him all that had befallen our little rescue party. He heard me through patiently, and when the tale was ended was good enough to say that I had earned a commission for my part in the affair. I laughed and promptly shifted that burden to Ephraim Yeates"s shoulders.
"The old hunter was our general, Colonel Davie. He did all of the planning and the greater part of the executing. But for him and the friendly Catawba, it would have gone hard with Jennifer and me."
"I fear you are over-modest, Captain," was all the reply I got; and then my kindly host fell amuse. When he spoke again "twas to give me a resume in brief of the military operations North and South.
At the North, as his news ran, affairs remained as they had been, save that now the French king had sent an army to supplement the fleet, and Count Rochambeau and the allies were encamped on Rhode Island ready to take the field.
In the South the distressful situation we had left behind us on that August Sunday following the disastrous battle of Camden was but little changed. General Gates, with the scantiest following, had hastened first to Salisbury and later to Hillsborough, and had since been busy striving to rea.s.semble his scattered forces.
A few military partizans, like my host, had kept the field, doing what the few might against the many to r.e.t.a.r.d my Lord Cornwallis"s northward march; and a week earlier the colonel with his handful of mounted riflemen had dared to oppose his entry into Charlotte.
""Twas no more than a hint to his Lordship that we were not afraid of him," said my doughty colonel. "You know the town, I take it?"
"Very well, indeed."
"Well, we had hara.s.sed him all the way from Blair"s Mill, and "twas midnight when we reached Charlotte. There we determined to make a stand and give him a taste of our mettle. We dismounted, took post behind the stone wall of the court house green and under cover of the fences along the road."
"Good! an ambush," said I.
"Hardly that, since they were looking to have resistance. Tarleton was sick, and Major Hanger commanded the British van. He charged, and we peppered them smartly. They tried it again, and this time their infantry outflanked us. We abandoned the court house and formed again in the eastern edge of the town; and now, bless you! "twas my Lord Charles himself who had to ride forward and flout at his men for their want of enterprise."
"But you could never hope to hold on against such odds!" I exclaimed.
"Oh, no; but we held them for a third charge, and beat them back, too.
Then they brought up two more regiments and we mounted and got off in tolerably good order, losing only six men killed. But Colonel Francis Locke was one of these; and my brave Joe Graham was all but cut to pieces--a sore blow to us just now."
The colonel sighed and a silence fell upon us. "Twas I who broke it to say: "Then we are still playing a losing hand in the South, as I take it?"
""Tis worse than that. As the game stands we have played all our trumps and have not so much as a long suit left. Cornwallis will go on as he pleases and overrun the state, and the militia will never stand to front him again under Horatio Gates. Worse still, Ferguson is off to the westward, embodying the Tories by the hundred, and we shall have burnings and hangings and harryings to the king"s taste."
I nursed my knee a moment and then said: "What may one man do to help, Colonel Davie?"
He looked up quickly. "Much, if you are that man, and you do not value your life too highly, Captain Ireton."
"You may leave that out of the question," said I. "I shall count it the happiest moment of my life when I shall have done something worth their killing me for."
Again he gave me that curious look I had noted before. Then he laughed.
"If you were as young as Major Joe Graham, and had been well crossed in love, I could understand you better, Captain. But, jesting aside, there is a thing to do, and you are the man to do it. Our spies are thick in Cornwallis"s camp, but what is needed is some master spirit who can plot as well as spy for us. Major Ferguson moves as Cornwallis pulls the strings. Could we know the major"s instructions and designs, we might cut him off, bring the Tory uprising to the ground, and so hearten the country beyond measure. I say we might cut him off, though I know not where the men would come from to do it."
"Well?" said I, when he paused.
"The preliminary is some better information than our spies can give us.
Now you have been an officer in the British service, and--"
I smiled. "Truly; and I have the honor, if you please to call it so, of his Lordship"s acquaintance. Also, I have that of Colonel Tarleton and the members of his staff, the same having tried and condemned me as a spy at Appleby Hundred some few weeks before this chase I have told you of."
His face fell. "Then, of course, it is out of the question for you to show yourself in Cornwallis"s headquarters."
I rose and b.u.t.toned my borrowed coat.
"On the contrary, Colonel Davie, I am more than ever at your service.
Let me have a cut of your venison and a feed for my horse, and I shall be at my Lord"s headquarters as soon as the nag can carry me there."
x.x.xII
IN WHICH I AM BEDDED IN A GARRET
"Tis a very pretty hazard, Captain Ireton. But can it be brought off successfully, think you?"
"As I have said, it hangs somewhat upon the safety of my portmanteau. If that has come through unseized to Mr. Pettigrew at Charlotte, and I can lay hands on it, "twill be half the battle."
"You say you left it behind you at New Berne?"
"Yes; Mr. Carey was to forward it as he could."