THE YOUNG HERO OF THE BATTLE
The steed of the officer of the Texans was a diminutive animal, and was,
perhaps, a mustang from Mexico, a tough little beast with nearly the
endurance of a mule. Ceph, in the exercise through which his young
master put him when they were alone by themselves, had leaped quite as
high as the backbone of the officer's steed; but it was under favorable
circumstances. In the furious conflict both the rider and the steed were
excited in the highest degree.
Ceph had failed to leap over the back of the mustang, but he had brought
him to the ground, and the lieutenant upon him; for he could do nothing
for himself, and Deck made a vigorous use of his sabre the moment the
enemy was under him, as his gallant charger sprang from the wreck he had
accomplished, and dashed forward into the _mêlée_.
If Deck had won no prize for his sabre drill, it was only because none
was offered. He was as quick as a flash in his movements, and had a
strong arm. The Ranger nearest to his officer when the latter went down
aimed a tremendous blow at the head of the young soldier, which would
have cleft it in twain if Deck had not parried it skilfully and
powerfully. In return, he inflicted the same kind of a blow upon his
assailant, whose horse carried him out of the affray when he ceased to
direct him, and he fell to the ground at the side of the road.
The ringing voice of the Texan officer was no longer heard in the
furious strife, and the Rangers were fighting each on his own
responsibility. Captain Truman had brought up his men, and they had made
a tremendous onslaught. The ten men sent to the flank had done their
whole duty, and Deck found not a single one of the enemy who was not
engaged in a hand-to-hand encounter with a Ranger. The enemy were
surrounded, hemmed in, and discouraged by the fall of their brave
leader. They were also outnumbered, and one of them was often engaged
with two of the Union cavalrymen.
The Texans had assuredly done all that could be done, and it was soon
evident that they were only defending themselves till they could work
out of the desperate _mêlée_. On the flanks, as they could detach
themselves from the struggling mass, they fled into the field on the
south of the road. Such a conflict could last but a few moments, for
there was not breath enough in the human body to keep up such a strain.
An observer would have supposed that more than half on both sides had
been killed; yet very few had fallen to the ground, and fewer still had
come out of it without wounds of greater or less magnitude. The Texans
fought to free themselves from the embrace of the Unionists, as it were;
and as soon as they had worked out of the confusion, they fled at the
best speed of their half-exhausted animals. Some one among them had
taken in the lay of the country; and they all fled in one direction,
which was towards the road by which they had come from their camp.
The battle was fought, and the Union cavalrymen remained in possession
of the field. Most of the men were at least spotted with gore, and some
of them looked as though they had been at work in a slaughter-house.
Dr. Farnwright had already begun his work at the side of the road. Three
of the company were silent and motionless, and the surgeon had
pronounced them dead. The wagons were sent for, including those of the
Guards, and the few who were severely wounded were sent to the hospital
the surgeon had established.
Deck had received no additional wound; and the bullet injury did not
trouble him much, for he could handle his reins with the left hand
nearly as well as ever. Artie had received three cuts upon his sword
arm, but they happened to be all slight. In fact, the soldier who had
not been damaged to some extent was hardly to be found. Only five men
had been killed, nine wounded seriously enough to disable them.
"You seem to be all right, Deck," said Captain Truman, when they met at
the camp.
"I am, Captain, and ready for another fight when you bring it along,"
replied the young soldier, laughing, and putting a bold face on the
situation.
"Don't be too ambitious, my boy," replied the officer, shaking his head.
"You have been reckless to-day."
"But I have come out all right; and I don't think I was any more
reckless than the rest of the fellows," added Deck.
"You have fought like a veteran; and I think we owe more to you for the
result of the action than to any other single individual, though all the
boys behaved like heroes, and proved that they were the equals of even
the Texan desperadoes."
"I don't think I did anything more than the rest of our fellows,"
suggested Deck; and he was not in this matter indulging in mere bravado:
he really believed he had done nothing except what came naturally to his
hands, as others had done.
"Then I must differ in opinion from you; but while I commend your skill
and bravery, I cannot wholly approve of the gymnastics in which you
indulged at the beginning of the charge, for it was simply
recklessness," said the captain very seriously. "It is your duty to
fight courageously, my boy; but it is also a duty you owe to your
country, as well as to your father and all the members of your family,
to save your life and limbs with honor if you can."
"Haven't I done so, Captain Truman?" asked Deck, with a very cheerful
smile on his face. "I came out with hardly a wound after the bullet hit
me in the arm at the beginning. I have nothing but half-a-dozen
scratches to show for it."
"You were excited to the highest pitch in the affair, and you have not
got over it yet. When you do, you will feel your scratches more. But I
hope you will not be so reckless another time, my boy."
"I didn't know I was reckless. Lieutenant Gadbury fired our blood so
that I could hardly hold in; and I went in for all I was worth, and only
did the best I knew how," replied Deck, trying to cool off his heated
blood.
"You didn't know you were reckless, my boy!" exclaimed the captain. "You
were a volunteer in the second company, and you advanced ahead of the
first rank with the lieutenant. That was a bold exposure; but what I
particularly refer to as reckless was your attempt to leap your horse
over that of the Texan leader."
"I did not intend to leap my horse over him; but I went for that
officer. When I came up with him, and was going to use my sabre, Ceph
thought I wanted him to leap over him, for he and I have practised
together at that a great deal. He meant right; but I knew he couldn't
clear the horse, small as he was, to say nothing of the rider. Ceph came
down upon both of them, and I drove my weapon into the officer before he
had a chance to stick me. That was the whole of it."
"If you were not trying to make your steed leap over the horse and
rider, I will acquit you of recklessness in that particular."
This conversation occurred as they were moving back to the camp. The
wounded on both sides were put into the wagons, the lieutenant in
command of the Rangers among the others. He was badly wounded, and his
chance of recovery was small. Those the doctor pronounced dead were
placed by the side of the road, to be disposed of later.
"How are you now, Artie?" asked Deck, as he rode up to his brother at
the camp, and looked at him with anxiety, to ascertain the extent of his
injuries, though he looked as rosy and vigorous as usual.
"I'm all right, Deck, though I have a lot of scratches, and a cut on the
sword arm which is beginning to make itself felt," replied his brother,
quite as cheerfully as the other.
"I didn't see you till the affair was about over," added Deck. "But you
were putting in the dry licks as though you felt that your time for work
was very short."
"But I saw you just us soon as we started from the cross-roads, and I
did not expect to see you come out of it alive, Deck," replied Artie;
and he could not wholly conceal the admiration he felt for his brother
since he saw him take his place in advance of his detachment, and
vanquish the Texan lieutenant almost in the twinkling of an eye. "The
captain said you were reckless at the time of it."
"He don't say so now."
"You tried to leap your horse over rider and steed."
"Ceph did that on his own hook; and I could not very well help following
his lead, as I was on his back, though I had nearly slidden off when he
mounted in the air. I am not badly damaged, and I am ready to return to
the first company; I am only waiting for the captain to write a note to
the major."
"I am all ready to go back, though I should like to have Dr. Farnwright
dress the cut on my arm before I go," added Artie. "But he is too busy
with the men who are worse off than I am, and I will let it go as it is.
But here comes the captain with a paper in his hand. I suppose father
will wonder what has become of us."
"He must have heard the firing in this direction. Perhaps he has been
fully occupied himself, or he would have sent more men over this way."
No effort had been used to make prisoners of any of the Texans, for the
captain had his hands full. He was satisfied that Major Lyon expected
warm work where he was, for he would not have sent for the additional
force otherwise. The rest of the company with which he had been engaged
might be at no great distance from him, and doubtless this was the force
the first company was expected to encounter.
"Here is the letter, Deck, in which I have given a hasty statement of
the action," said Captain Truman, as he handed him the paper, which
could hardly be called a letter. "I believe we have met a portion of the
enemy he expected to engage; and probably he is not in a hurry, for we
have heard no firing at the south of us."
"We are all ready to go; but Artie has a wound in his arm which troubles
him, and there is no surgeon with the first company," interposed Deck.
"Farnwright!" shouted the captain, as he saw that he had just finished
his attention to one patient and was hastening to another.
The surgeon came promptly at his call, and proceeded to dress the arm of
the wounded soldier without his dismounting from his horse.
"I wish I had no worse cases than that, my boy," said the doctor.
"I am sorry you have, sir," replied Artie.
"You will be all right in a few days, my young friend; and I learn that
you have both fought like Trojans, though I believe Artie did not try to
leap his horse over any Texan's head," added Dr. Farnwright, with a look
of admiration at Deck, who appeared to have won the laurel of the day on
the field.
"Neither did I, Doctor. If any one tried to do a big thing, it was
Ceph," protested the hero.
"Ceph? Who is he?"
"My horse;" and Deck hastily gave his version of the daring deed, as it
appeared to be to those who had observed it.
But the dressing of the wound was finished, and the young soldiers
started on their return to the camp of the first company. The excitement
of the morning had subsided, and they began to feel the wear and tear to
which they had been subjected.
"We don't get such a morning's work as this every day in the week," said
Artie as they crossed the east road.
"But I imagine we shall get some worse days than this has been," added
Deck. "We haven't seen the end of this day yet, and we may be in another
fight before noon. I suppose these Texan troopers have been sent over
here to destroy the bridges on the railroad extending to Louisville."
"It isn't a great while since the Confederates were trying to keep the
road open," added Artie.
"The situation has changed since that, and we are farther along into the
war. Then they wanted to keep this road open, so that they could bring
provisions down for the use of the armies of the enemy. Now they want to
destroy them, to prevent the United States Government from sending
troops for the invasion of the Southern States," replied Deck.
The conversation the rest of the way was in regard to the events of the
day, filled up with surmises as to what the first company was doing.
When they left Major Lyon he was on the top of the planter's house,
surveying the surrounding country, wishing to obtain the first
intelligence of the approach of the enemy. Both of the messengers
wondered that he had not seen the coming of the detachment with whom the
second company had engaged; but they concluded that the road they had
taken led them beyond certain hills in that direction.
When the boys reached the mansion of Mr. Barkland, Major Lyon was still
on the house, and shouted to them to join him at once.