sort of place, and I looked at it as I did at everything, and saw an old
negro with grizzled hair standing some distance in front of it. Now
everything reminded me of that girl because she was on my mind, and
instantly I was struck with the idea, that the old fellow looked like
the servant who had been locking the bag in the house by Germania Ford.
I wasn't sure it was the same darky, but I thought I'd see. There was a
patch of woods back of the house, and I ordered the party to wait there
till I joined them, and I threw my bridle to a soldier and turned in at
the gate. The man loped out for the house, but I halted him. Then I went
along past the negro to the cabin, and opened the door, which had been
shut tight.
"There was a table littered with papers in the middle of the room, and
behind it, in a gray riding-habit, with a gray soldier-cap on her red
hair, writing for dear life, sat the girl. She lifted her head quick, as
the door swung open, and then made a jump to get between me and the
table. I took off my cap, and said I:
"'I'm very glad to see you. I was just wondering if we'd ever meet
again.' She only stared at me. Then I said: 'I'm sorry, but I'll have to
ask you for those papers.' I knew by the look of them that they were
some sort of despatches.
"At that she laughed in a kind of a friendly, cocksure way. She wasn't
afraid of anything, that girl. 'No,' she threw at me--just like
that--'No.'" The General tossed back his big head and did a poor
imitation of a girl's light tone--a poor imitation, but the way he did
it was winning. "'No,' said she, shaking her head sidewise. 'You can't
have those papers--not ever,' and with that she swept them together and
popped them into a drawer of the table and then hopped up on the table
and sat there laughing at me, with her little riding-hoots swinging. 'At
least, unless you knock me down, and I don't believe you'll do that,'
said she.
"Well, I had to have those papers. I didn't know how important they
might be, but if this girl was sending information to the Southern
commanders I was inclined to think it would be accurate and worth while.
It wouldn't do not to capture it. At the same time I wouldn't have laid
a finger on her, to compel her, for a million dollars. I stood and
stared like a blockhead for a minute, at my wit's end, and she sat there
and smiled. All of a sudden I had an idea. I caught the end of the table
and tipped it up, and off slid the young lady, and I snatched at the
knob of the drawer, and had the papers in a second.
"It was simple, but it worked. Then it was her turn to look foolish. Of
course she had a temper, with that colored hair, and she was raging. She
looked at me as if she'd like to tear me to pieces. There wasn't
anything she could say, however, and not lose her dignity, and I guess
she pretty nearly exploded for a minute, and then, in a flash, the joke
of it struck her. Her eyes began to dance, and she laughed because she
couldn't help it, and I with her. For a whole minute we forgot what a
big business we were both after, and acted like two children.
"'That's right,' said I finally. 'I had to get them, but I did it in the
kindest spirit. I see you understand that.'
"'Oh, I don't care,' she answered with her chin up--a little way she
had. 'They're not much, anyway. I hadn't got to the important part.'
"'Won't you finish?' said I politely, and pretended to offer her the
papers--and then I got serious. 'What are you doing here?' I asked her.
'Where are you going?'
"She looked up at me, and--I knew she liked me. She caught her breath
before she answered. 'What right have you got to ask me questions?' said
she, making a bluff at righteous indignation.
"But I just gripped her fingers into mine--it was getting to be a habit,
holding her hand.
"'And what are _you_ doing here?' she went on saucily, but her voice was
a whisper, and she let her hand lie.
"'I'll tell you what I'm doing,' said I. 'I'm obeying the Bible. My
Bible tells me to love my enemies, and I'm going to. I do,' said I.
'What does your Bible tell you?'
"'My Bible tells me to resist the devil and he will flee from me,' she
answered back like a flash, standing up straight and looking at me
squarely, as solemn as a church.
"'Well, I guess I'm not that kind of a devil,' said I. 'I don't want to
flee worth a cent.'
"And at that she broke into a laugh and showed all her little teeth at
me. That was one of the prettiest things about her, the row of small
white teeth she showed every time she laughed.
"'Just at that second the old negro stuck his head in at the door.
'We're busy, uncle,' said I. 'I'll give you five dollars for five
minutes.'
"But the girl put her hand on my arm to stop me, 'What is it, Uncle
Ebenezer?' she asked him anxiously.
"'It's young Marse, Miss Lindy,' the man said, 'Him'n Marse Philip
Breck'nridge 'n' Marse Tom's ridin' down de branch right now. Close to
hyer--dey'll be hyer in fo'-five minutes.'
"She nodded at him coolly. 'All right. Shut the door, Uncle Ebenezer,'
said she, and he went out and shut it.
"And before I could say Jack Robinson she was dragging me into the next
room, and pushing me out of a door at the back.
"'Go--hurry up--oh, go!' she begged. 'I won't let them take you.'
"Well, I didn't like to leave her suddenly like that, so I said, said I:
'What's the hurry? I want to tell you something.'
"'_No_,' she shot at me. 'You can't. Go--won't you, please go?' Then I
picked up a little hand and hold it against my coat. I knew by now just
how she would catch her breath when I did it."
At about this point the General forgot me. Such good comrades we were
that my presence did not trouble him, but as for telling the story to
me, that was past--he was living it over, to himself alone, with every
nerve in action.
"'Look here,' said I, 'I don't believe a thing like this ever happened
on the globe before, but this has. It's so--I love you, and I believe
you love me, and I'm not going till you tell me so.'
"By that time she was in a fit. 'They'll be here in two minutes; they're
Confederate officers. Oh, and you mustn't cross at Kelly's Ford--take
the ford above it'--and she thumped me excitedly with the hand I held.
I laughed, and she burst out again: 'They'll take you--oh, please go!'
"'Tell me, then,' said I, and she stopped half a second, and gasped
again, and looked up in my eyes and said it. 'I love you,' said she. And
she meant it.
"'Give me a kiss,' said I, and I leaned close to her, but she pulled
away.
"'Oh, no--oh, please go now,' she begged.
"'All right,' said I, 'but you don't know what you're missing,' and I
slid out of the back door at the second the Southerners came in at the
front.
"There were bushes back there, and I crawled behind them and looked
through into the window, and what do you suppose I saw? I saw the
biggest and best-looking man of the three walk up to the girl who'd just
told me she loved me, and I saw her put up her face and give him the
kiss she wouldn't give me. Well, I went smashing down to the woods,
making such a rumpus that if those officers had been half awake they'd
have been after me twice over. I was so maddened at the sight of that
kiss that I didn't realize what I was doing or that I was endangering
the lives of my men. 'Of course,' said I to myself, 'it's her brother or
her cousin,' but I knew it was a hundred to one that it wasn't, and I
was in a mighty bad temper.
"I got my men away from the neighborhood quietly, and we rode pretty
cautiously all that afternoon, I knew the road leading to Kelly's Ford,
and I bore to the north, away from there, for I trusted the girl and
believed I'd be safe if I followed her orders. She'd saved my life twice
that day, so I had reason to trust her. But all the time as I jogged
along I was wondering about that man, and wondering what the dickens she
was up to, anyway, and why she was travelling in the same direction that
I was, and where she was going--and over and over I wondered if I'd over
see her again. I felt sure I would, though--I couldn't imagine not
seeing her, after what she'd said. I didn't even know her name, except
that the old negro had called her 'Miss Lindy.' I said that a lot of
times to myself as I rode, with the men's bits jingling at my buck and
their horses' hoofs thud-thudding. 'Lindy--Miss Lindy--Linda--my
Linda--I said it half aloud. It kept first-rate time to the
hoof-beats--'Lindy--Miss Lindy.'
"I wondered, too, why she wouldn't let me cross the Rappahannock by
Kelly's Ford, for I had reason to think there'd be a Union post on the
east side of the river there, but there was a sense of brains and
capability about the girl, as well as charm--in fact, that's likely to
be a large part of any real charm--and so I trusted to her.
[Illustration: "I got behind a turn and fired as a man came on alone."]
"Well, late in the afternoon we were trotting along, feeling pretty
secure. I'd left the Kelly's Ford road at the last turn, and was
beginning to think that we ought to be within a few miles of the river,
when all of a sudden, coming out of some woods into a small clearing
with a farmhouse about the centre of it, we rode on a strong outpost of
the enemy, infantry and cavalry both. We were in the open before I saw
them, so there was nothing to do but make a dash for it and rush past
the cabin before they could reach their arms, and we drew our revolvers
and put the spurs in deep and flew past with a fire that settled some
of them. But a surprise of this sort doesn't last long, and it was only
a few minutes before they were after us--and with fresh mounts. Then it
was a horse-race for the river, and I wasn't certain of the roads.
However, I knew a trick or two about this business, and I was sure some
of the pursuers would forge ahead; so three times I got behind a turn
and fired as a man came on alone. I dismounted several that way. This
relieved the strain enough so that I got within sight of the river with
all my men. It was a quarter of a mile away when I saw it, and at that
point the road split, and which branch led to the ford for the life of
me I didn't know. There wasn't time for meditation, however, so I shot
down the turn to the left, on the gamble, and sure enough there was the
ford--only it wasn't any ford. The Rappahannock was full to the banks
and perhaps two hundred yards across. The Confederates were within
rifle-shot, so there were exactly two things to do--surrender or swim. I
gave my men the choice--to follow me or be captured--and I plunged in,
without any of them."
"What!" I demanded here, puzzled. "Didn't the men know how to swim?"
"Oh, yes, they knew how," the General answered, and looked embarrassed.
"Well, then, why didn't they?" It began to dawn on me, "Were they
afraid--was it dangerous--was the river swift?"
"Yes," he acknowledged. "The river was swift--it was a foaming torrent."
"They were afraid--all ten of them--and you weren't--you alone?" The
General looked annoyed. "I didn't want to be captured," he explained
crossly. "I had the despatches besides." He went on: "I slipped off my
horse, keeping hold of the bridle to guide him, and swam low beside him,
because they were firing from the bank. But all at once the shots
stopped, and I heard shouting, and shortly after I got a glimpse, over
my horse's back, of a rider in the water near me, and there was a flash
of a gray cap. One of the Southerners was swimming after me, and I was
due for a tussle when we landed. I made it first. I scrambled to shore
and snatched out my sword--the pistols were wet--and rushed for the
other man as he jumped to the bank, and just as I got to him--just in
time--I saw him. It wasn't him--it was her--the girl. Heavens!" gasped
the General; "she gave me a start that time. I dropped my sword on the
ground, I was so surprised, and stared at her with my mouth open.
"'Oo-ee!' said that girl, shaking her skirt, as calm as a May morning.
'Oo-ee!' like a baby crowing. 'My, but that's a cold river!' And her
teeth chattered.
"Well, that time I didn't ask permission. I took her in my arms and held
her--I had to, to keep her warm. Couldn't let her stand there and click
her teeth--could I? And she didn't fight me. 'What did you do such a
crazy thing for?' asked I.
"'Well, you're mighty par-particular,' said she as saucy as you please,
but still shivering so she couldn't talk straight. 'They were popping
g-guns at you--that's what for. Roger's a right bad shot, but he might
have hit you.'
"'And he might, have hit you,' said I. 'Did you happen to think of
that?'
"She just laughed. 'Oh, no--they wouldn't risk hitting me. I'm too
valuable--that's why I jumped in--to protect you.'
"'Oh!' said I. 'I'm a delicate flower, it seems. You've been protecting
me all day. Who's Roger?'
"'My brother,' said she, smiling up at me.
"'Was that the man you kissed in the cabin back yonder?'
"'Shame!' said she. 'You peeped.'
"'Was it?' I insisted, for I wanted to know. And she told me.
"'Yes,' she told me, in that low voice of hers that was hard to hear,
only it paid to listen.
"'Did you ever kiss any other man?' said I.
"'It's none of your business,' said the girl. 'But I didn't--the way you
mean.'
"'Well, it wouldn't make any difference, anyway--nothing would,' I said.
'Except this--are you ever going to?'
"All this time that bright-colored head of hers was on my shoulder,
Confederate cap and all, and I was afraid of my life to stir, for fear
she'd take it away. But when I said that I put my face down against
hers and repeated the question, 'Are you ever going to?'
"It seemed like ages before she answered and I was scared--yet she
didn't pull away,--and finally the words came--low, but I heard. 'One,'
said she. 'If he wants it.'
"Then--" the General stopped suddenly, and the splendid claret and
honey color of his cheeks went a dark shade more to claret. He had come
to from his trance, and remembered me. "I don't know why I'm telling you
all these details," he declared abruptly. "I suppose you're tired to
death listening." His alert eyes questioned me.
"General," I begged, "don't stop like that again. Don't leave out a
syllable. 'Then--'"
But he threw back his head boyishly and laughed with a touch of
self-consciousness. "No, madam, I won't tell you about 'then.' I'll
leave so much to your imagination. I guess you're equal to it. It wasn't
a second anyway before she gave a jump that took her six feet from me,
and there she was tugging at the girth of her saddle.
"'Quick--change the saddles!' she ordered me. 'I must be out of my mind
to throw away time when your life's in danger. They're coming around by
the bridge,' she explained, 'two miles down. And you have to have a
fresh mount. They'd catch you on that.' She threw a contemptuous glance
at my tired brute, and began unbuckling the wet straps with her little
wet fingers.
"'Don't do that,' said I. 'Let me.' But she pushed me away. 'Mustn't
waste time.' She gave her orders as business-like as an officer. 'Do
your own saddle while I attend to this. Zero can run right away from
anything they're riding--from anything at all. Can't you, Zero?' and she
gave the horse a quick pat in between unbuckling. He was a powerful,
rangy bay, and not winded by his run and his swim. 'He's my father's,'
she went on. 'He'll carry you through to General Hooker's camp at
Falmouth--he knows that camp. It's twenty-five miles yet, and you've
ridden fifty to-day, poor boy.'
"I wish I could tell you how pretty her voice was when she said things
like that, as if she cared that I'd had a strenuous day and was a little
tired.
"'How do you know I'm going to Falmouth? How do you know how far I've
ridden?' I asked her, astonished again.
"'I'm a witch,' she said. 'I find out everything about you-all by magic,
and then I tell our officers. They know it's so if I tell them. Ask
Stonewall Jackson how he discovered the road to take his cavalry around
for the attack on Howard. I reckon I helped a lot at Chancellorsville.'
"'Do you reckon you're helping now?' I asked, throwing my saddle over
Zero's back. 'Strikes me you're giving aid and comfort to the enemy hand
over fist.'
"That girl surprised me whatever she did, and the reason was--I figured
it out afterward--that she let herself be what few people let themselves
be--absolutely straightforward. She had the gentlest ways, but she
always hit straight from the shoulder, and that's likely to surprise
people. This time she took three steps to where I stood by Zero and
caught my finger in the middle of pulling up the cinch and held to it.
"'I'm not a traitor,' she threw at me. 'I'm loyal to my people, and
you're my enemy--and I'm saving you from them. But it's you--it's you,'
she whispered, looking up at me. It was getting dark by now, but I could
see her eyes. 'When you put your hand over mine this morning it was like
somebody'd telegraphed that the one man was coming; and then I looked at
you, and I knew he'd got there. I've never bothered about men--mostly
they're not worth while, when there are horses--but ever since I've been
grown I've known that you'd come some time, and that I'd know you when
you came. Do you think I'm going to let you be taken--shot, maybe? Not
much--I'll guard your life with every breath of mine--and I'll keep it
safe, too.'
"Now, wasn't that a strange way for a girl to talk? Did you ever hear of
another woman who could talk that way, and live up to it?" he demanded
of me unexpectedly.
I was afraid to say the wrong thing and I spoke timidly. "What did you
do then?"
He gave me a glance smouldering with mischief. "I didn't do it. I tried
to, but she wouldn't let me.
"'Hurry, hurry,' said she, in a panic all of a sudden. 'They'll be
coming. Zero's fast, but you ought to get a good start.'
"And she hustled me on the horse. And just as I was off, as I bent from
the saddle to catch her hand for the last time, she gave me two more
shocks together." Silent reminiscent laughter shook him.
"'When am I going to see you again?' asked I hopelessly, for I felt as
if everything was mighty uncertain, and I couldn't bear to leave her.
"'To-morrow,' said she, prompt as taxes. 'To-morrow. Good-by, Captain
Carruthers.'
"And she gave the horse a slap that scared him into a leap, and off I
went galloping into darkness, with my brain in a whirl as to where I
could see her to-morrow, and how under creation she knew my name. The
cold bath had refreshed me--I hadn't had the like of it for nine
days--and I galloped on for a while feeling fine, and thinking mighty
hard about the girl I'd left behind me. Twenty-four hours before I'd
never seen her, yet I felt, as if I had known her all my life. I was
sure of this, that in all my days I'd never seen anybody like her, and
never would. And that's true to this minute. I'd had sweethearts
a-plenty--in a way--but the affair of that day was the only time I was
ever in love in my life."
To tell the truth I had been a little scandalized all through this
story, for I knew well enough that there was a Mrs. Carruthers. I had
not met her--she had been South through the months which her husband had
spent in New York--but the General's strong language concerning the
red-haired girl made me sympathize with his wife, and this last
sentiment was staggering. Poor Mrs. Carruthers! thought I--poor, staid
lady, with this gay lad of a husband declaring his heart forever buried
with the adventure of a day of long ago. Yet, a soldier boy of
twenty-three--the romance of war-time--the glamour of lost love--there
were certainly alleviating circumstances. At all events, it was not my
affair--I could enjoy the story as it came with a clear conscience. So I
smiled at the wicked General--who looked as innocent as a baby--and he
went on.
"I knew every road on that side the river, and I knew the Confederates
wouldn't dare chase me but a few miles, as it wasn't their country any
longer, so pretty soon I began to take things easy. I thought over
everything that had happened through the day, everything she'd said and
done, every look--I could remember it all. I can now. I wondered who
under heaven she was, and I kicked myself that I hadn't asked her name.
'Lindy'--that's all I knew, and I guess I said that over a hundred
times. I wondered why she'd told me not to go to Kelly's Ford, but I
worked that out the right way--as I found later--that her party expected
to cross there, and she didn't want me to encounter them; and then the
river was too full and they tried a higher ford. And I'd run into them.
Yet I couldn't understand why she planned to cross at Kelly's, anyway,
because there was pretty sure to be a Union outpost on the east bank
there, and she'd have landed right among them. That puzzled me. Who was
the girl, and why on earth was she travelling in that direction, and
where could she be going? I went over that problem again and again, and
couldn't find an answer.
"Meanwhile it was getting late, and the bracing effect of the cold
water of the Rappahannock was wearing off, and I began to feel the
fatigue of an exciting day and a seventy-five-mile ride--on top of
nine other days with little to eat and not much rest. My wet clothes
chilled me, and the last few miles I have never been able to remember
distinctly--I think I was misty in my mind. At any rate, when I got to
headquarters camp I was just about clear enough to guide Zero through
the maze of tents, and not any more, and when the horse stopped with his
nose against the front pole of the general's fly I was unconscious."
I exclaimed, horrified: "It was too much for human nature! You must have
been nearly dead. Did you fall off? Were you hurt?"
"Oh, no--I was all right," he said cheerfully. "I just sat there. But an
equestrian statue in front of the general's tent at 11 P.M. wasn't
usual, and there was a small sensation. It brought out the
adjutant-general and he recognized me, and they carried me into a tent,
and got a surgeon, and he had me stripped and rubbed and rolled in
blankets. They found the despatches in my boots, and those gave all the
information necessary. They found the letter, too, which Stoneman had
given me to hand back to General Ladd, and they didn't understand that,
as it was addressed simply to 'Miss Ladd, Ford Hall,' so they left it
till I waked up. That wasn't till noon the next day."
The General began chuckling contagiously, and I was alive with curiosity
to know the coming joke.
"I believe every officer in the camp, from the commanding general down,
had sent me clothes. When I unclosed my eyes that tent was alive with
them. It was a spring opening, I can tell you--all sorts. Well, when I
got the meaning of the array, I lay there and laughed out loud, and an
orderly appeared at that, and then the adjutant-general, and I reported
to him. Then I got into an assortment of the clothes, and did my duty by
a pile of food and drink, and I was ready to start back to join my
chief. Except for the letter of General Ladd--I had to deliver that in
person to give the explanation. General Ladd had been wounded, I found,
at Chancellorsville, but would see me. So off I went to his tent, and
the orderly showed me in at once. He was in bed with his arm and
shoulder bandaged, and by his side, looking as fresh as a rose and as
mischievous as a monkey, sat a girl with red hair--Linda Ladd--Miss
Ladd, of Ford Hall--the old house where I first saw her. Her father
presented me in due form and told me to give her the letter and--that's
all."
The General stopped short and regarded me quietly.
"Oh, but--" I stammered. "But that isn't all--why, I don't
understand--it's criminal not to tell the rest--there's a lot."
"What do you want to hear?" he demanded, "I don't know any more--that's
all that happened."
"Don't be brutal," I pleaded. "I want to know, for one thing, how she
knew your name."
"Oh--that." He laughed like an amused child. "That was rather odd. You
remember I told you that when they were chasing us I took shelter and
shot the horses from under some of the Southerners."
"I remember."
"Well, the first man dismounted was Tom Ladd, the girl's cousin, who'd
been my classmate at the Point, and he recognized me. He ran back and
told them to make every effort to capture the party, as its leader was
Captain Carruthers, of Stoneman's staff, and undoubtedly carried
despatches."
"Oh!" I said. "I see. And where was Miss Ladd going, travelling your way
all day?"