"Going home."
"Where do you belong?"
"Over there--at Oakland," pointing in the direction of their home, which seemed suddenly to have moved a thousand miles aways.
"Where have you been?" The other soldiers had come up now.
"Been down this way." The boys" voices were never so meek before. Each reply was like an apology.
"Been to see your brother?" asked one who had not spoken before--a pleasant-looking fellow. The boys looked at him. They were paralyzed by dread of the approaching question.
"Now, boys, we know where you have been," said a small fellow, who wore a yellow chevron on his arm. He had a thin moustache and a sharp nose, and rode a wiry, dull sorrel horse. "You may just as well tell us all about it. We know you"ve been to see "em, and we are going to make you carry us where they are."
"No, we ain"t," said Frank, doggedly.
w.i.l.l.y expressed his determination also.
"If you don"t it"s going to be pretty bad for you," said the little corporal. He gave an order to two of the men, who sprang from their horses, and, catching Frank, swung him up behind another cavalryman.
The boy"s face was very pale, but he bit his lip.
"Go ahead," continued the corporal to a number of his men, who started down the path. "You four men remain here till we come back," he said to the men on the ground, and to two others on horseback. "Keep him here," jerking his thumb toward w.i.l.l.y, whose face was already burning with emotion.
"I"m going with Frank," said w.i.l.l.y. "Let me go." This to the man who had hold of him by the arm. "Frank, make him let me go," he shouted, bursting into tears, and turning on his captor with all his little might.
"w.i.l.l.y, he"s not goin" to hurt you,--don"t you tell!" called Frank, squirming until he dug his heels so into the horse"s flanks that the horse began to kick up.
"Keep quiet, Johnny; he"s not goin" to hurt him," said one of the men, kindly. He had a brown beard and shining white teeth.
They rode slowly down the narrow path, the dragoon holding Frank by the leg. Deep down in the woods, beyond a small branch, the path forked.
"Which way?" asked the corporal, stopping and addressing Frank.
Frank set his mouth tight and looked him in the eyes.
"Which is it?" the corporal repeated.
"I ain"t going to tell," said he, firmly.
"Look here, Johnny; we"ve got you, and we are going to make you tell us; so you might just as well do it, easy. If you don"t, we"re goin"
to make you."
The boy said nothing.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE BOY FACED HIS CAPTOR, WHO HELD A STRAP IN ONE HAND.]
"You men dismount. Stubbs, hold the horses." He himself dismounted, and three others did the same, giving their horses to a fourth.
"Get down!"--this to Frank and the soldier behind whom he was riding.
The soldier dismounted, and the boy slipped off after him and faced his captor, who held a strap in one hand.
"Are you goin" to tell us?" he asked.
"No."
"Don"t you know?" He came a step nearer, and held the strap forward.
There was a long silence. The boy"s face paled perceptibly, but took on a look as if the proceedings were indifferent to him.
"If you say you don"t know"--said the man, hesitating in face of the boy"s resolution. "Don"t you know where they are?"
"Yes, I know; but I ain"t goin" to tell you," said Frank, bursting into tears.
"The little Johnny"s game," said the soldier who had told him the others were not going to hurt w.i.l.l.y. The corporal said something to this man in an undertone, to which he replied:
"You can try, but it isn"t going to do any good. I don"t half like it, anyway."
Frank had stopped crying after his first outburst.
"If you don"t tell, we are going to shoot you," said the little soldier, drawing his pistol.
The boy shut his mouth close, and looked straight at the corporal. The man laid down his pistol, and, seizing Frank, drew his hands behind him, and tied them.
"Get ready, men," he said, as he drew the boy aside to a small tree, putting him with his back to it.
Frank thought his hour had come. He thought of his mother and w.i.l.l.y, and wondered if the soldiers would shoot w.i.l.l.y, too. His face twitched and grew ghastly white. Then he thought of his father, and of how proud he would be of his son"s bravery when he should hear of it. This gave him strength.
"The knot--hurts my hands," he said.
The man leaned over and eased it a little.
"I wasn"t crying because I was scared," said Frank.
The kind looking fellow turned away.
"Now, boys, get ready," said the corporal, taking up his pistol.
How large it looked to Frank. He wondered where the bullets would hit him, and if the wounds would bleed, and whether he would be left alone all night out there in the woods, and if his mother would come and kiss him.
"I want to say my prayers," he said, faintly.
The soldier made some reply which he could not hear, and the man with the beard started forward; but just then all grew dark before his eyes.
Next, he thought he must have been shot, for he felt wet about his face, and was lying down. He heard some one say, "He"s coming to," and another replied, "Thank G.o.d!"
He opened his eyes. He was lying beside the little branch with his head in the lap of the big soldier with the beard, and the little corporal was leaning over him throwing water in his face from a cap.
The others were standing around.
"What"s the matter?" asked Frank.