his guest, who was also his prisoner. She had in the meantime divested
herself and her maid of their burden, and the precious drug had been
carefully packed for shipment under guard to Richmond. She had also
slept long and well after her breakfast, and was now as fresh and as
full of spirit as if she had known no hardship, and passed through no
danger.
Before the dinner hour, Stuart had taken pains to send away all the
members of his staff, each upon some errand manufactured for the
occasion. At dinner there was no one present but his own family, Agatha,
and Captain Baillie Pegram.
Stuart was all eagerness to learn not only the results, but the details
of the perilous journey, and to that end he required Agatha to begin at
the beginning and relate each day's experience. She did so, explaining
the arrangements she had made for her underground railway, and telling
him of a plan she had formed to give to that line a number of termini at
various points in Virginia, each under charge of some trusty "Dixie
girl," in order that there might be no interruption of the traffic,
whatever the future movements of the two armies might be.
"It's the very crookedest railroad you ever heard of, General," she
added, when her account of it was finished, "but I expect it to do a
considerable traffic. I am to be its general freight agent, and I have
impressed all my agents with the fact that the preservation of our
secret is of far greater importance than the safe delivery of any one
consignment of goods. They will take plenty of time at every step, and
not risk discovery for the sake of speed."
"That is excellent. But I wish I had suggested to you to make some
arrangement by which you might--"
"O, I did that," she interrupted. "I took a leaf out of your book. Of
course, it will often be possible to get little letters through, but
letters are very dangerous--at least, when they say anything. So I have
taken your signal-words as my model, and laboriously constructed a
system by which I can say the most dangerous things in a letter without
seeming to say anything at all."
"By signal-words?"
"Yes, partly, but more in other ways."
"For example?"
"Well, if I send a foolish, chattering girl's note about nothing, and I
happen to write it in a 'back hand,' that fact will tell my
correspondent what I want to tell her. So if I write in an ordinary
hand, that will mean something quite different. In the same way, if I
write, 'My dear Mary,' it will signify one thing, while 'Dear Mary' will
mean another; I've arranged fourteen different forms of address, each
having its own particular meaning. The punctuation will mean something,
too, and the way I sign myself, and the colour of my ink, and the
occasional slight misspelling of a word--all these and a dozen other
things are carefully arranged for, so that I can tell a friend pretty
nearly anything I please, while seeming only to tell her the colour of
my new gown--if I ever have a new gown again--or anything else of the
kind that girls are fond of writing letters about."
"But you and all your correspondents must have copies of your code for
all this. Isn't there great danger that one or another of them may be
discovered?"
The girl laughed before answering.
"Even you, General Stuart, must have found out that it is difficult to
discover what is in a young woman's mind. This code exists nowhere else
in the world. We've all learned it by heart, and can recite it backward
or forward or even sideways. No word of it has ever been written down on
paper, or ever will be. You gentlemen are fond of saying that we women
cannot keep a secret. You shall see how well we keep this."
"O, as to that," answered Stuart, "I never shared any such belief. Why,
women keep secrets so well that we never know even what they think of
us. Is not that so, Captain Pegram?"
"Yes, and perhaps it is fortunate for us, too, sometimes."
"But I did betray a secret to Captain Pegram this morning," Agatha
continued, speaking gravely now. "He seemed so troubled at having to
arrest me under the circumstances in which I seemed to have placed
myself, that I relieved his mind by telling him I was acting under your
orders, or, at least, with your consent."
"Perhaps you'd like to prefer charges against the captain? I dare say he
was very stern and inconsiderate."
Instantly the girl flushed, and speaking with unusual seriousness, she
answered:
"I beg to assure you, General Stuart, that Captain Pegram was altogether
generous and kind to me--far more so than I had a right to expect. I can
never sufficiently thank him."
To Baillie, this speech was inscrutable and bewildering. It might mean
one thing, or another--much or little--according to the interpretation
put upon the words. It might refer only to Baillie's care for her
physical comfort and safety, or, as Baillie scarcely dared believe, it
might obliquely include in its intent, an acknowledgment of the
passionate declaration of love that he had been betrayed into making. It
might be interpreted to mean that the words surprised from his lips were
not unwelcome to her who had heard them. She had bidden him forget what
he had said, but might it not be that she herself remembered and was
not displeased with the recollection?
He resolved to ask her for the answer to that riddle at the earliest
possible moment, but for the present he flushed crimson and kept silent.
Stuart, however, had accomplished his purpose. He had found out, or
believed that he had found out, what he wished to know concerning the
attitude of these two toward each other, and he was mightily pleased
with the discovery. He abruptly changed the course of the conversation.
"When would you like to go to your home, Miss Agatha?"
"I should like to set out early to-morrow, General, if I may--if I am
released from arrest."
"O, I shall not release you yet. You are much too dangerous a
conspirator for that. I shall send you home under guard, and I have
selected Captain Pegram to be your safe-keeper. I shall send him with
you, under orders to remain at Willoughby for a week, keeping you under
close surveillance. If at the end of that time he finds you sufficiently
subdued, he will have orders to put you on parole, and return to his
command. As he and you are 'almost strangers,' he will be a safer judge
of the propriety of releasing you than any other officer I could send
for that purpose."
The two were sorely embarrassed by this announcement, coming as it did
without warning to either. Neither knew what to say, or whether the
arrangement was welcome or unwelcome to the other. The sudden
announcement of it, at any rate, was very embarrassing to both, and
Pegram received it with a feeling of consternation for the moment. In
the next instant, he realised the opportunity it would give him to renew
the morning's conversation, and to learn definitely what Agatha's
attitude toward him was to be after such a declaration as he had made.
For whatever else happens, an avowal of that kind, made with such
earnestness, never fails to work some change in a true woman's mind and
soul. Baillie managed, with some difficulty, to say:
"I will be glad to carry out your orders, General."
Agatha said nothing. What she thought and felt, it would be idle to
inquire.
XVIII
_A BRUSH AT THE FRONT_
A situation which might have become embarrassing, had it been prolonged,
was relieved at that moment by the arrival of a courier who had come in
hot haste with messages from the front.
The enemy was moving upon Fairfax Court-house in three columns and in
strong force. The light of battle came into Stuart's eyes as he received
the news, and he issued hurried orders to his staff-officers as one
after another they came up at a gallop. To Agatha he said:
"Remain here, you and the other ladies, unless orders come for you to
leave. I must borrow Captain Pegram from your service for a time, if I
may."
"Gladly!" answered the girl, and her tone sorely puzzled Baillie Pegram.
But there was no time for speculation upon its meaning, for Stuart
turned to him and ordered:
"Take your battery down the Vienna road, and act with Fitz Lee or
whomever else you find there. Move rapidly, but spare your horses all
you can."
Then hurriedly turning to the couriers and staff-officers who stood by
their horses, he issued orders with the rapidity of one who recites the
alphabet or the multiplication table. Within the space of two minutes he
had assigned every brigade and regiment under his command to its post
and duty, and had sent to General Johnston at Centreville a request that
infantry supports might be moved forward and held within call in case of
need. A minute later he was a-gallop for the front.
Baillie had preceded him, and even before the general had reached
Fairfax Court-house, Pegram's battery was hurrying down the Vienna road,
with the First and Fourth Regiments of Virginia cavalry just in front.
It was the work of a very few moments to form these forces and others
that were coming up, into a line of battle, facing the enemy, but by the
time they were in position, Stuart himself came up and took command.
"Tell Captain Pegram," he said to a staff-officer, "to advance his
battery to the brow of the hill yonder, and open a vigorous fire upon
whatever he finds in front. Order Colonel Jones of the First Regiment to
take position immediately in rear of the battery, and support it at all
hazards."
Within less time than it takes to write the words, Baillie Pegram's guns
were hurling shrapnel into the face of the enemy, whose response was
menacingly slow and deliberate.
"That looks," said Stuart, presently, to one who rode by his side, "as
if they meant business this time. Send orders to the infantry in rear to
form a second line, and be ready in case we are beaten back."
It should be explained that during the autumn of 1861 McClellan sent out
many expeditions, each wearing the aspect of an advance in force against
the Confederate position at Centreville. These movements were in reality
intended as threats, and nothing more. The chief purpose of them was to
keep the Confederates uneasy, and at the same time to accustom the
Federal volunteers to stand fire and to contemplate battle in earnest as
the serious business of the soldier.
These advances were made always with a brave show of infantry, cavalry,
and artillery, and with all the seeming of the vanguard of an army
intending battle. But after a heavy skirmish the columns were always
withdrawn, leaving only picket-lines at the front. McClellan was not yet
ready to offer battle. It was during that period that President Lincoln,
weary of McClellan's delay and inactivity, sarcastically said that if
the general had no use for the army, he (Lincoln) would like to borrow
it for awhile.
But this day's movement differed in some respects from those that had
gone before. It involved a much heavier force, for one thing, and the
proportion of artillery to the other arms was greater. Still more
significant was the fact that the commander of the expedition, instead
of making the customary dash, threw forward a heavy skirmish-line,
holding his main body in reserve, and otherwise conducting himself after
the fashion of a general sent to hold the front with as little fighting
as might be, until a much heavier force could be brought up.
It was Stuart's duty, as the commander of the cavalry, to find out as
quickly as possible what lay behind the lines that confronted him, in
order that he might know and report precisely what and how much the
movement meant. To that end he sent for Colonel Jones, of the First
Regiment, and when that most unmilitary-looking of hard fighters
presented himself in his faded yellow coat, the pot hat which he always
wore at that time, and with his peculiar nasal drawl, Stuart gave the
order:
"Take your right company and ride to the right around the flank of the
enemy's line. Find out what it amounts to. See if there are baggage and
ammunition trains in rear, and if they mean business. The whole thing is
probably as hollow as a gourd, but it may be otherwise. Go and find
out."
In the meantime, Stuart had dismounted a part of his forces, and ordered
them with their carbines to form a skirmish-line on foot in front. The
rest of his men--three thousand stalwart young cavaliers, mounted upon
horses that had pedigrees behind them--were drawn up in double ranks
wherever there was space for a regiment, a company, or a squad of them
to stand.
Then came half an hour of waiting. The enemy had thrown additional
infantry forward, and the skirmishing grew steadily heavier, as if the
Federal skirmish-line were being reinforced from moment to moment.
In fact, that heavy advance-line embraced all there was of the Federal
movement, as Colonel Jones discovered, when with a single company of
horsemen he gained the enemy's rear. There were no baggage or provision
or ammunition trains to indicate a serious purpose of giving battle.
The captain of the company which Colonel Jones had taken with him on
this mission of discovery, was a reticent person, but a man of quick
wits, ready resource, and a daring that always had a relish of humour in
it. When Colonel Jones suggested a return march around the enemy's left
flank, the captain asked:
"Why not take a short cut?" and when asked for his meaning, answered:
"It's an egg-shell, that line. The quickest way of letting Stuart know
the fact, it seems to me, would be to break through right here. He won't
be long in getting to windward of the situation when he sees us coming."
The suggestion was instantly acted upon, with a startling dramatic
result. With a yell that made them seem a regiment of howling demons,
the fifty or sixty men charged upon the rear of the line and broke
through it. Even before the head of their little column showed itself on
the farther side, their yells had made sufficient report of the facts to
the alert mind of Jeb Stuart. He instantly led his entire force forward
to the charge.
There was a clatter of hoofs, a clangour of sabres, a rattle of small
arms, and a roar from Baillie Pegram's guns. Everything was shrouded in
an impenetrable cloud of dust and powder-smoke.
The enemy stood fast for a time, resisting obstinately and fairly
checking the tremendous onset. It was not until a brigade of infantry
and three full batteries had been brought into action that the Federals
gave way. Even then, they retreated in orderly fashion, with no
suggestion of panic or loss of cohesion.
"George B. McClellan has at last got his army into fighting shape,"
commented Stuart, when all was over. "He's going to give us trouble from
this time forth."
The Federals were in full retreat, but their steadiness did not
encourage Stuart to send small forces in pursuit. He contented himself
with advancing his line half a mile for purposes of observation, after
which, as the night was falling, he ordered a general return of his
regiments to their encampments.
When all was over, there were found to be many empty saddles in Stuart's
command. Among them was that which Baillie Pegram had ridden during the
morning's journey with Agatha Ronald.
XIX
_AGATHA'S RESOLUTION_
The reports which came to Stuart from the several commands that evening
included one from the senior lieutenant of Baillie Pegram's battery.
After reading it, Stuart took Agatha aside, and said:
"I have news which it will not be pleasant for you to hear. Captain
Pegram is badly wounded, and in the hands of the enemy."
The girl paled to the lips, but controlled herself, and replied in a
voice constrained but steady:
"Tell me about it, General--all of it, please."
"I'll tell you all that is known. Captain Pegram is an unusually
energetic officer, with a bad habit of getting himself wounded. His
battery to-day was in the extreme advance, but it seems that a little
hill just in front of him interfered with the fire of one of his guns,
and so he advanced with that piece to the crest of the mound. At that
moment the enemy made a dash at that point, and it became necessary to
retire the gun to prevent its capture. Pegram gave orders to that
effect, and they were executed. But almost as the orders left his lips,
he fell from his horse with a bullet-hole through his body. His men
tried to bring him off, but that involved the risk of losing the gun, so
he peremptorily ordered them to save the gun and leave him where he lay.
The enemy's line swarmed over the little hill, and when our men
recovered it, Pegram was nowhere to be found. The enemy had evidently
carried him to the rear to care for him as a wounded prisoner."
"Can anything be done?" the girl asked, still with an apparent calm that
would have deceived a less sagacious observer than Stuart.
"I could send a flag of truce to-morrow to ask concerning him, but it
would be of no use. You see the enemy refuses as yet to recognise our
rights as belligerents, and will not communicate with us in proper form.
Their answer would come back addressed to me, but carefully lacking all
indication of my character as an officer in the Confederate army. Under
my orders I could not receive a communication so addressed. It would be
of no use, therefore, to inquire, and in any case we could not secure
his exchange, as we have now no exchange cartel in force. I do not see
that we can do anything."
The young woman stood silent for a full minute, while Stuart looked at
her, full of an admiration for the courage she was manifesting. At last
she asked:
"General, will you send to the camp of Captain Pegram's battery, and bid
his servant report here to me at once?"
For reply Stuart called Corporal Hagan--the swarthy giant who had charge
of his couriers--and ordered him to send a courier on Agatha's mission
without delay.
Half an hour later Sam presented himself with eyes red from weeping, and
Agatha proceeded at once to business.
"You care a great deal for your master, don't you, Sam?"
"Kyar for Mas' Baillie? Ain't I his nigga? An' ain't he de mastah of
Warlock? Kyar for him? Why, Mis' Agatha, I'se ready to lay down an' die
dis heah very minute 'case he's done got hisse'f shot an' captured."
"Then you are willing to take some risks for his sake?"
"Sho' as shootin' I is. Yes, sho'er'n shootin', 'case shootin' ain't
always sho'. Jes' you tell me how to do anything for Mas' Baillie, an'
then bet all the money you done got, an' put your mortal soul into de
bet, dat Sam'll face de very debil hisse'f to carry out yer
'structions."
"I believe you, Sam, and I'm going to trust you. You will go with me to
Willoughby to-morrow. We'll start soon in the morning and get there
before night. From there I'm going to send you north to find your
master. I'll tell you how to do it. When you find him, you are to stay
with him and nurse him, no matter where he is. And when he gets well
enough, you must find some way of setting him free from the hospital so
that he can make his way back to Virginia again."
"But, Mis' Agatha, how's I to--"
"Never mind the details now. I'll tell you about all that when I get my
plans ready. I'll tell you everything you must do and how to do it, so
far as I can, and you must depend on your wits for the rest. You're
pretty quick, I think."
"Yes'm; anyhow I kin see through a millstone ef there's a hole through
it. But, Mis' Agatha, is you sho' 'nuff gwine to tell me how to fin'
Mas' Baillie an' take kyar o' him?"
Agatha reassured him, and sent him off to sleep in order to be ready for
their early start in the morning. Then she joined Stuart and asked him:
"Did you pick up any prisoners near the point where Captain Pegram
fell?"
"I really don't know. Why?"
"Why, if you did you'd know to what command they belonged, and that
would help me."
"Help you? Why, what are you planning?"
"To find Captain Pegram."
"But how?"
"Through my agents,--and Sam, his body-servant."
"O, I see. Your underground railroad is to have a passenger traffic.
I'll find out what you wish to know. And if you'd like I'll have Sam
passed through our lines, after which he can pretend to be a runaway."
"I thought of that," Agatha answered, "but it will not do. I must send
him through my friends. You see in Maryland he'll require a slave's pass
from a master, and my friends will be his masters, one after another.
Besides, they will help me find out in what hospital Captain Pegram is.
I've thought it all out. I must first prepare my friends for Sam's
coming. With your permission I'll take him with me to Willoughby
to-morrow."
"You are a wonderful woman!"
That is all that Stuart said, but it sufficiently suggested the
admiration he felt for her courage, her resourcefulness, and her womanly
devotion. Bidding her call upon him for any assistance she might need in
carrying out her plans, he dismissed her for the night, ordering her to
go to sleep precisely as he might have ordered a soldier to go to his
tent. But Agatha did not obey as the soldier would have done. She went
to bed, indeed, but she could not sleep. Her nerves were all a-quiver as
the result of the trying experiences to which she had been subjected,
until now her excited brain simply would not sink into quietude. She lay
hour after hour staring into the darkness, thinking, thinking,
thinking. She remembered the words that suffering on her account had
wrung from Baillie Pegram that morning at the bivouac, and she bitterly
reproached herself for having given him no worthier answer than a
command to forget what he had said. She knew now with what measure of
devotion this man loved her, and she knew something else, too, as she
lay there in the darkness face to face with her own soul. She knew now
that she loved Baillie Pegram with all that was best in her proud and
passionate nature. That truth confronted her. It was "naked and not
ashamed." Her conscience scourged her for what she regarded as her
heartlessness and frivolity in putting aside his declaration of love
with the false pretence that it found no response in her own soul.
"I might at least have thanked him," she thought. "I might at least have
said to him 'there is no longer war between me and thee.' And now he
lies dead perhaps, or on a bed of suffering,--a wounded prisoner in the
hands of the enemy. All that I can now do is to search him out and send
Sam to nurse and comfort him." Then a new thought came to her. "That is
_not_ all that I can do. Shame upon me for thinking so, even for a
moment. I can go to him myself, and I will, if God lets him live long
enough. I'll take Sam with me. He can be very helpful in the search,
with his sharp wits and the freedom from suspicion which his black face
will secure him."
The dawn was breaking now, and a score of bugles were musically sounding
the reveille in the camps round about. Agatha rose quickly, and without
summoning her weary maid, plunged her face into a basin of cold water
half a dozen times. Then seeing in her little mirror how hollow-eyed and
haggard she was, she wetted a towel and flagellated herself with it till
the colour came back and her nerves lost their tremulousness.
So great a transformation did this treatment work, that Stuart
complimented her upon her freshness of face when she appeared at the
breakfast-table. He had meanwhile secured for her definite information
as to the Federal command that had made Pegram prisoner. He had also
managed in some way to secure a side-saddle for her to ride upon, and a
squad of cavalrymen, under command of a sergeant, was waiting outside
to be her escort on her journey.
"Thank you, General, for giving me so good a mount," she said, glancing
with a practised eye at the lean but powerful animal provided for her
use.
"You should have a better one, if a better were to be had. You deserve
it. By the way, you need not send the horse back by the escort. He will
not be needed here, for a time at least."
Agatha looked at him, and then at the animal again, this time
recognising it as the one that Baillie Pegram had ridden by her side
twenty-four hours before.
"He belongs to Captain Pegram, I believe," she answered.
"Yes, his second horse, and he is specially careful of him."
"I'll see that the animal is well cared for," answered the girl,
"until--"
She did not finish the sentence, and Stuart turned away, pretending not
to see the tears that stood beneath her eyelids.
XX
_TWO HOME-COMINGS_
News of Agatha's safe return to Virginia had been sent to Colonel Archer
by a courier, on the morning of her arrival at Stuart's headquarters,
and the octogenarian promenaded up and down the porch all the next day,
during her homeward journey.