As he said, so it was; he hustled everything before him, permitting me
to keep my horse and allowing Whistling Jim to go along. "Good-by,
mother," he said; "I'm sorry to leave you in such a place as this. I
suppose you are waiting for Major Whiskers." He laughed gayly as he
said this, and his mother slapped him playfully as she kissed him.
He invited me to ride with him at the head of his little squad of
troops, saying that when a colonel started out to command a corporal's
guard he assuredly needed assistance. He was perhaps thirty years old,
but he had a tremendous fund of animal spirits, so that he had all the
ways of a gay youth of twenty. He paid no more attention to the man who
had been knocked about by Whistling Jim than if he had been a log of
wood, and yet he was very tender-hearted. Whatever was in the line of
war appealed to his professional instincts. War was his trade, and he
seemed to love it; and he had a great relish for the bustle and stir
that are incident thereto.
His sister rode in the top-buggy in which I had first seen her, and she
might have been the commander of the men, judging from the way she gave
instructions. She seemed to know all the roads, for she went ahead
without the slightest hesitation. She was driving a good horse, too;
his trot was sufficient to keep our horses in a canter; and whenever he
heard us coming up behind him he would whisk the buggy away as if he
scorned company. Perhaps this was due to the little lady who was
driving him.
I had no grudge against her, heaven knows, but somehow I resented my
present plight, for which I thought she was responsible. She had given
me fair warning, but she should have known that it was my purpose to
carry out the orders of General Forrest; and if I was to be warned at
all she should have told me the precise nature of the danger. In that
case, I could not only have escaped, but I could have been instrumental
in the capture of her brother and his whole party. Perhaps she knew
this--and perhaps this was why she would give me no definite
information.
But if she knew at all she must have known everything; her brother must
have come in response to a summons from her or her mother. In any case
I had been tricked--I had been made a fool of--and after what I had
done for her, I felt that I had a right to feel aggrieved. Colonel
Ryder observed my sullenness and commented on it.
"Don't be down-hearted, my boy. It is the fortune of war; there is no
telling when it may turn its sunny side to you. In your place I should
whistle and sing and make the best of it. Still, I know how you feel,
and I sympathize with you."
"I should not have gone to that house last night," he went on, "but I
knew that my mother was there, and I had received information that one
of our scouts by the name of Leroy was in great danger of capture. What
I did discover was that Miss Ryder had been captured." He laughed as he
said this, and gave me a peculiar look.
"As to Leroy," I asked, "was he at that house? I am very much
interested in knowing, for General Forrest detailed me to capture him."
"Under the circumstances, you acquitted yourself wonderfully well, and
General Forrest has no right to be displeased with you," remarked
Colonel Ryder.
"But you have not answered my question," I said.
"In the nature of things," he replied, enigmatically, "I prefer not to
tell you. Of one thing you may be sure--Leroy is not likely to bother
the rebels for some time to come. I think you have put him out of
business, as the boys say."
"Then Leroy must be the name of the man that tried to capture me at the
tavern. It was the negro that put him out of business."
"But Leroy is a very dear friend of mine," laughed the Colonel, "and
you may be sure I should not have left him there. You observed, of
course, that I was very attentive to the man your negro had whipped."
He was still laughing, and I could not imagine for the life of me why
he was tickled.