_THE MEN WITH THE DARK LANTERN._
The moon had now set, and it was dark. The frightened girl could not
distinguish the features of him who bent over her; but through the
trance of horror that was upon her, she recognized a voice.
"Wirginie! I tought it vas you! Don't you know me, Wirginie?"
No voice had ever before brought such joy to her soul.
"O Carl! why didn't I know you?"
"Vy not? Pecause maybe you vas looking for somepody else. Mishter
Hapgoot came part vay mit me, but he vas so used up I made him shtop
till I came to pring Toby up vere he is."
Then Virginia, recovering from her agitation, had a score of questions
to ask about her father, about the fight, and about Penn.
"If you vill only go up, he vill tell you so much more as I can. Then
you vill go and see your fahder. That vill be petter as going back
to-night, vere there is no goot shtout fellow in the house to prewail on
them willains to keep their dishtance."
Even at the outset of her adventurous journey Virginia had felt a vague
hope that she should visit her father before she returned. What the boy
said inspired her with courage to proceed. She would go up as far as
where Penn was waiting, at all events: then she would be guided by his
advice.
The two set out, Carl leading her by the hand, and assisting her. It
grew darker and darker. The stars were hidden: the sky was almost
completely overcast by black clouds. Slowly and with great difficulty
they made their way among trees and bushes, through abrupt hollows, and
over rocks. Virginia felt that she could have done nothing without Carl;
and the thought of returning alone, in such darkness, down the mountain,
made her shudder.
But at length even Carl began to sweat with something besides the
physical exertion required in making the ascent. His mind had grown
exceedingly perturbed, and Virginia perceived that his course was
wavering and uncertain.
He stopped, blowing and wiping his face.
"Dish ish de all confoundedesht, meanesht, mosht dishgusting road for a
dark night the prince of darkness himself ever inwented!" he exclaimed,
speaking unusually thick in his heat and excitement. "I shouldn't be
wery much surprised if I vas a leetle out of the right vay. You shtay
right here till I look."
She sat down and waited. Intense darkness surrounded her; not a star was
visible; she could not see her own hand. For a little while Carl's
footsteps could be heard feeling for more familiar ground; and then,
occasionally, the crackling of a dry twig, as he trod upon it, showed
that he was not far off. Then he whistled; then he softly called,
"Hello!" in the woods; moving all the time farther and farther away.
Carl believed that Penn could not be far distant, and, in order to get
an answering signal, he kept whistling and calling louder and louder. At
length came a response--a low warning whistle. So he plodded on, and had
nearly reached the spot where he was confident Penn was searching for
him, when there came a rush of feet, and he was suddenly and violently
seized by invisible assailants.
"Got him?"
"Yes! all right!"
"Hang on to him! It's the Dutchman, ain't it? I thought I knew the
brogue!"
The last speaker was Lieutenant Silas Ropes; and Carl perceived that he
had fallen into the hands of a squad of confederate soldiers. That he
was vastly astonished and altogether disconcerted at first, we may well
suppose. But Carl was not a lad to remain long bereft of his wits when
they were so necessary to him.
"Ho! vot for you choke a fellow so?" he indignantly demanded. "I vas
treated petter as that ven I vas a prisoner."
"What do you mean, you d--d deserter?"
"Haven't I just got avay from Stackridge? and vasn't I running to find
you as vast as ever a vellow could? And now you call me a deserter!"
retorted Carl, aggrieved.
"Running to find _us_!"
"To be sure! Didn't I say, 'Is it you?' For they said you vas on the
mountain. Though I did not think I should find you so easy!" which was
indeed the truth.
Carl persisted so earnestly in regarding the affair from this point of
view, that his captors began to think it worth while to question him.
"Vun of them vellows just says to me, he says, 'Shpeak vun vord, or make
vun noise, and I vill plow your prains out!' I vasn't wery much in favor
to have my prains plowed out, so I complied mit his wery urgent request.
That's the vay they took me prisoner."
"Wal," remarked Silas, "what he says may be true, but I don't believe
nary word on't. Got his hands tied? Now lock arms with him, and bring
him along."
Carl was in despair at this mode of treatment, for it rendered escape
impossible,--and what would become of Virginia? His anxiety for her
safety became absolute terror when he discovered the errand on which
these men were bound.
By the light of a dark lantern they led him through the grove, across a
brook that came tumbling down out of a wild black gorge, and up the
mountain slope into the edge of the great forest above. Here they
stopped.
"This yer's a good place, boys, to begin. Kick the leaves together.
That's the talk."
They were in a leafy hollow of the dry woods. A blaze was soon kindled,
which shot up in the darkness, and threw its ruddy glare upon the trunks
and overhanging canopy of foliage, and upon the malignant, gleaming
faces of the soldiers. Little effort was needed to insure the spreading
of the flames. They ran over the ground, licking up the dry leaves,
crackling the twigs, catching at the bark of trees, and filling the
forest, late so silent and black, with their glow and roar.
"That's to smoke out your d--d Union friends!" said Silas to Carl, with
a hideous grin.
Yes, Carl understood that well enough. In this same forest, on the banks
of the brook above where it fell into the gorge, the patriots were
encamped. And Virginia? Still believing that the worst that could happen
to her would be to fall into the hands of these ruffians, the lad
sweated in silent agony over the secret he was bound to keep.
"What makes ye look so down-in-the-mouth, Dutchy? 'Fraid your friends
will get scorched?"
"I vas thinking the fire vill be apt to scorch us as much as it vill
them. And I have my hands tied so I can't run."
"Don't be afraid; we'll look out for you. I swear, boys! the fire looks
as though 'twas dying down! Get out o' this yer holler and there ain't
no leaves to feed it; and I be hanged if the wind ain't gitting
contrary!"
Carl witnessed these effects with a gleam of hope. The soldiers fell to
gathering bark and sticks, which they piled at the roots of trees. The
lad was left almost alone. Had his hands been free, he would have run. A
soldier passed near him, dragging a dead bush.
"Dan Pepperill! cut the cord!" Dan shook his head, with a look of
terror. "Drop your knife, then!"
"O Lord!" said Dan. "They'd hang me! I be durned if they wouldn't!"
"Dan, you must! I don't care vun cent for myself. But Wirginie
Willars--she is just beyond vere you took me. Vill you leave her to die?
And Mishter Hapgoot is just a little vay up the mountain, and there is
nopody to let him know!"
A look of ghastly intelligence came into Dan's face as he stopped to
listen to this explanation. He seemed half inclined to set the boy's
limbs free, and risk the consequences. But just then Ropes shouted at
him,--
"What ye at thar, Pepperill? Why don't ye bring along that ar brush?"
So the brief conference ended, and the cords remained uncut. And a
great, dangerous fire was kindling in the woods. And now Carl's only
hope for Virginia was, that she would take advantage of its light to
make good her retreat from the mountain.