PLANNING FOR THE NIGHT ATTACK
For a distance of several yards the soldier boys proceeded through the
darkness without appearing to attract any attention.
The officers and soldiers of C Company were finishing their hasty,
cheerless meal. There was nothing strange about two soldiers having
finished ahead of the rest and deciding for a stroll through the camp.
The darkness was the greatest protection of our young friends. They
refrained from going very close to any group. Added to this, their
campaign sombreros were so well drawn down over their faces as to hide
a good deal of their features, and this without exciting suspicion.
Hal and Noll were two thirds of the way through the camp, when there
came a sharp hail that made Private Overton quiver inside:
"Hey, there!"
There could be no doubt that the hail was intended for the soldier
boys, though neither gave any heed, even by as much as turning.
"Look out Overton, of B Company, doesn't catch you!" jeered the same
voice.
Noll threw one hand behind him, waving it.
"Don't go more than ten or twenty yards beyond our lines, men," warned
Captain Freeman, looking up from the hard tack at which he had been
munching.
Hal wheeled about, saluting respectfully, but did not trust himself to
speak.
Then the chums continued their slow stroll.
Three minutes later they were just beyond the edge of the camp, halting
beside a bush.
"Here's our chance," whispered Hal, glancing just past the roots of the
bush.
A little gully started there. Twenty feet further on it was more than
six feet deep.
Hal passed around the bush, dropping into the gully. In another moment
Noll had leisurely joined him.
Now, they traveled faster over the bed of the gully, though they were
careful to go cat-footed, for they had yet to pass sentries, very
likely outposts, and there was a grave risk of their running into some
scouting detachment from C Company.
The gully ran for some two hundred yards. Then the soldier boys came
out in the open once more.
"More caution than ever now," whispered Hal, detaining his bunkie by a
strong grip on the arm.
"We must be beyond their guard line," Noll returned in a whisper.
"Don't you believe it! Freeman isn't the captain to maintain lax guard.
Don't attempt to stand up. Crouch low, and get all the cover you can
behind bushes. Better let me lead. I'll halt often and listen."
With great stealth the pair had covered another two hundred yards or
so, when there came a sharp hail of:
"Halt! Who's there."
The challenge had come from some one invisible to the bunkies. Hal
instantly and noiselessly dropped to the ground, lying as flat as he
could.
Noll imitated his example.
"Halt! Who's there?" came the insistent challenge.
Then the lurkers heard a man coming toward them. Neither dared stir,
as the slightest noise might prove enough for their undoing. It was a
desperate situation, at any rate, for it hardly seemed possible that
the sentry could fail to come upon them.
But in another minute the sentry had halted.
"Huh!" the bunkies heard him mutter. "I reckon I'm getting as nervous
as a sick cat, after what happened to Corporal Raynes's outpost last
night."
Then the lurkers heard the sentry slowly returning to the point from
which he had first challenged them.
It was three full minutes ere cautious Private Overton ventured to
crawl away from the spot. He crawled for more than a hundred and fifty
yards, too, ere he ventured to rise to crouch, peering all around him.
Then he nodded to Noll, close behind him, and the bunkies proceeded.
It was not until they had made fifteen minutes more of the most
stealthy progress that Hal and Noll began to feel really easy.
"Now, see here, bunkie," spoke Private Overton at last, "we're not as
well 'out of the woods' as we might be fooled into imagining. I think
it is even dangerous for us to go together just now. We might run into
a scouting detachment, lurking among the rocks, or behind bushes, and
get captured after all. Look hard through the darkness. Do you see that
massive, peculiar formation of rock ahead? About three quarters of a
mile from here, I would say."
"Yes; I remember noting it in daylight," nodded Terry.
"All right. You make a wide detour to the left, and I'll do the same to
the right. Go cautiously every step of the way, and have your eyes and
ears open. Take your time. I'll meet you there."
"But what's the good of doing that?" objected Noll.
"Just this: If we go together we may run into a superior force of the
enemy and be captured. If we go singly we won't both be caught by the
same force, anyway, and there'll be a chance for one of us to get
through to Captain Cortland with the news. Left oblique for yours,
Noll! March!"
It was nearly fifteen minutes later when the chums met at the spot
agreed upon.
"Whew!" muttered Hal, halting, as he came up and recognized his bunkie.
"I guess we're safely away now, Noll. That being the case, I don't mind
admitting to you that when we left the cave and stepped out into the
camp, I hadn't a belief in the world, hardly, that we'd get away with
our strategy."
"Oh, my shoes!" winced Noll.
"What's the matter with them?"
"Oh, nothing, except that they're full of sore feet!"
"I've some trouble of that sort myself," Hal grinned. "But we've got to
forget all about it until we get to the twin oaks. Forward, bunkie!"
They traveled together, after that. An hour later they heard the most
welcome challenge in the world:
"Halt! Who's there?"
The speaker belonged to a B Company outpost.
"Friends," replied Private Overton.
"How many friends?"
"Two."
The sentry spoke something in an undertone. Then, after a brief pause,
he continued:
"Advance two friends, but two only, to be recognized."
As the bunkies came up they saw Corporal Cotter and two privates eyeing
them.
"Oh, if it's the kid soldiers, they're all right," spoke Corporal
Cotter easily.
"Corporal," begged Hal, "show us the quickest, easiest cut to camp.
I've news for Captain Cortland."
"Been scouting some more?" laughed Cotter.
"My news, Corporal, is for the company commander."
"That's all right, kid. See the grove yonder?"
"Surely."
"Right in the middle of that you'll find the tent of the company
officers. They're asleep, I guess. Sergeant Hupner is commander of the
guard, and Lieutenant Prescott is officer of the day."
"Thank you. Corporal."
"Proceed!"
Two minutes later the bunkies were halted by one of the camp sentries.
Then they hurried direct into camp.
At a distance of some twenty yards young Lieutenant Prescott was found
seated on the ground, talking in low tones with Sergeant Hupner. The
young West Pointer leaped quickly to his feet when he saw the soldier
boys approaching.
"Sir," announced Hal, saluting, "we report our return to the company."
"You've completed this afternoon's duty?"
"Yes, sir--and much more."
"How more?" queried Lieutenant Dick Prescott, eyeing them closely.
"Lieutenant, we desire, sir, to speak with Captain Cortland at once."
"It's as important as that?" asked Prescott.
"Judge for yourself, sir. We have just returned from C Company's camp,
and we've heard Captain Freeman and his officers discussing the plan by
which they expect to attack this camp to-night and bag B Company whole
hog."
"You've been to C Company's camp?" repeated Lieutenant Prescott, eyeing
the rookies closely. "Wasn't that exceeding your instructions by a
very wide margin?"
"We didn't go there by design, sir. It's a long story."
"And you do well to remind me that I am wasting time in not calling
Captain Cortland," continued the young lieutenant. "Wait here, men."
It was barely more than a minute when Lieutenant Prescott came back
with Captain Cortland and Lieutenant Hampton.
"What's this I hear, Overton?" demanded B Company's commander. "C
Company expects to bag us here to-night?"
"Yes, sir."
"How?"
Hal briefly sketched the plan, as he understood it, of attacking the
camp by moving up through the ravine.
"We've a sentry down at the ravine," declared Captain Cortland. "But,
Mr. Prescott, I believe you would do well to rouse enough men to create
an emergency outpost beyond the other end of the ravine. Also send
a small scouting detachment out considerably beyond the ravine. But
instruct the scouts to be prepared for a quick recall at any moment."
Lieutenant Prescott saluted his superior officer, then hastened away
to rout out the needed men and post them.
"Go on with your story, Overton. Better give it all to us in order, but
be brief in the telling, my man."
So Hal plunged promptly into the narration of what he and Noll had been
through, beginning with the false scent on which they had been sent by
the hunter at the cabin.
Captain Cortland held out his hand almost impulsively, both to Hal and
to Noll.
"My men," he said earnestly, "I must tell you that I believe you both
did wisely in adopting the profession of arms. Obedience is the first
requisite of the soldier. The records of both of you stand well in that
respect. But scouting work, which comes under the head of the service
of information and security, is of the utmost importance in a campaign,
and you two show positive genius as scouts. This is all of a piece with
your great work of last night, Overton. I shall not forget it. As every
man will be called within fifteen minutes, you may remain here under
Sergeant Hupner's orders. Mr. Hampton, you and I will take a brief
stroll and decide swiftly upon what we are to do."
"Lads," broke in Sergeant Hupner, as the officers strolled away,
"either you're mighty lucky or else you're born soldiers. I believe it
is the latter."
Five minutes later the two senior company officers returned.
"Sergeant Hupner, we are going to call the men, but no bugle will be
sounded," stated Captain Cortland. "Rouse the remaining sergeants
first; then instruct them to rouse all the men and with great
quietness."
B Company was soon aroused; in ten minutes more all of the guard except
the soldiers down by the ravine had been recalled.
"We won't strike our tents," Cortland informed his sergeants. "It
will do no harm to leave the camp standing, especially if the enemy's
commander uses his night glasses at a distance. He will feel certain
that we are nicely bagged. Now, pass the word, without loud command,
for the company to fall in."
Two minutes later, in single file, B Company marched toward the ravine
like so many unsubstantial spectres.