|Are they friends or enemies?” was the question which rose
simultaneously in the thoughts of the two adventurers. One thing was
certain, they were not a cavalry scouting party from Rolla, as they
were not in the army uniform, but were dressed in the common garb of the
country, the universal “butternut.”
Two of the men dismounted and entered the house, or rather stepped just
within the doorway, while the others remained in their saddles and held
the horses of the two already mentioned. The first question of the one
who appeared to be leader was:
“Any Yanks about to-day?”
Receiving a negative reply, he asked if they had anything to drink. The
host said he had just a drop of whisky, but he was afraid there was n't
enough to go around. He brought out a bottle, and as it was less than
half-full it was very evident that it would be a small allowance for the
party of horsemen, supposing all of them were thirsty.
The captain, as his comrades called him, proceeded to fill the bottle
with water, thus diluting its contents, and then remarked that he
thought it would go around. After taking a good-sized drink for himself
he went outside and handed the bottle over to his subordinates, by whom
it was speedily emptied.
While they were discussing the whisky and remarking upon its thinness,
the captain questioned the two youths, who replied as they had
previously arranged to do. They told the story they had already given
several times, and which they had begun to believe was entirely within
the bounds of truth. The captain seemed somewhat suspicious at first,
but before they were through talking he fell into the same error as did
the woman at whose house they stopped in the morning.
“We're going south, too,” said the captain, “soon as we can raise more
men and horses. If you'd only a couple of horses we'd jest take you
along. But you don't look old enough for soldiers. How old are you?”
Jack said they would be sixteen very soon, and he added that perhaps the
war might last long enough for them to get their full size. He echoed
the wish of the captain that they had horses to travel with, so that
they could go along with his company.
“Well, p'r'aps you 'll find some in a day or two,” the captain answered;
“there's some of these Union men round here that 've got horses we ought
to have.”
Jack took the hint and indicated their willingness to help themselves
to horses whenever they could find any. This was satisfactory to the
captain, and he said that they might join him as soon as they were
mounted, and it would n't be very hard to find him if they asked in the
right quarters.
Then he gave them several names of men who could be relied upon, and
told where they lived. They covered a distance of fifteen or twenty
miles to the east and south, so that as soon as the youths had supplied
themselves with horses they could find out the captain's rendezvous.
“But don't trust this man,” said the captain, nodding in the direction
of the house in front of which they stood. “He talks South to our
fellows and North to the Yanks when they come around, and nobody knows
where to put him exactly. He's trying to carry water on both shoulders,
and 'll be likely to spill it if he don't look out sharp.” Then the
captain mounted his horse, after handing the empty bottle to the farmer,
and the troop of Southern recruits rode off. The farmer was evidently
glad to see them going away, and also not at all sorry when the boys
followed in the same direction. He had heard only a small part of the
conversation between them, but evidently caught enough of it to divine
its purport.
“It's getting rather exciting,” said Harry, as soon as they were alone.
“Had n't we better go back to Rolla and tell what we've seen and heard,
so as to put the colonel on the track of the captain who wants us to
become horse-thieves?”
“I've been thinking the same thing,” said Jack; “but how will we work
it?”
“That's the question,” Harry responded. “It won't do to turn round now,
as we should be suspected by everybody who has seen us, and particularly
by the man where we had dinner. I think he's a Union man, or neutral
anyhow; but we 'll take the captain's advice, and not trust him.”
“I have it,” said Jack. “We're tired now, and will go into the woods
and have a sleep. We're about fifteen miles from Rolla, and can get back
there by morning. Soon as it's dark we can start back and go just as
fast as we can, and by breakfast time to-morrow we 'll have a party of
cavalry on the heels of the captain.”
This was agreed to, and at once the boys, in the parlance of the
Southwest, “took to the woods.” They slept soundly till dark, and then
took the back track for Rolla. Fortunately they met nobody save a man in
a farm-wagon, and as they heard the sound of his wheels some time before
he reached them they had abundant opportunity to conceal themselves by
the roadside till he had passed.
Just at daylight they reached the pickets outside of Rolla, and were
immediately taken before the colonel, who received them in his tent and
heard their story. Then he sent for a lieutenant of cavalry, who was at
once dispatched with twenty men to hunt for the captain and his band of
horse-thieves. Jack and Harry offered to accompany them, but the
captain declined, partly because they were in great need of rest, having
traveled thirty miles in about twenty-six hours and been awake all
night, and partly because they would be recognized by those who had seen
them on the road, and by the captain and his men in case they should be
encountered.
“But do us one favor,” said Jack, when he found that their desire to
accompany the party would not be granted.
“Anything in reason,” said the lieutenant; “what is it?”
Then he told about the woman who had given them the milk and asked them
to stay to dinner, and he described the house so that it could not be
mistaken.
“Well, what about her?” asked the lieutenant, as Jack paused.
“Take her this,” said Jack, handing out a package containing half a
pound of tea, which he had obtained from the colonel's servant while
they were waiting the arrival of the lieutenant, after the boys had told
their story. “Just leave it and say it is from friends; you need n't
tell her anything more, and it isn't necessary for her to know. We feel
rather guilty at having had her hospitality for nothing, and want to
compensate her in some way.”
The lieutenant laughed as he tossed the package to his sergeant and gave
the order to mount. In two minutes the party was off. It was accompanied
by two Union men, natives in that region, who were to act as guides in
designating the roads leading to the probable retreat of the captain
with whom the youths had formed so brief an acquaintance.
The lieutenant carried out the request of the boys and left the woman a
good deal puzzled over the affair. He did not stop five minutes at the
house, and briefly told her that an old friend had sent her something
he thought would be acceptable. As the boys could not in any sense be
considered old friends, she never once thought of them, and especially
as they had gone, as she supposed, to the South, and turned their backs
altogether upon Rolla and the way the Yankees came from.
Let us follow the scouting party and see how it turned out.
About fifteen miles out from Rolla, and near the point where Jack and
Harry turned back, the lieutenant halted his men and sought a place of
concealment in the woods by the roadside, first putting out a picket to
prevent any one passing in either direction. Then, as the Union guides
were known, he had them change clothing and horses with two of the men,
whom he sent forward to one of the secessionists whose name had been
given by the rebel captain to the youths. For this work he selected two
young and beardless men, on the chance that the captain had told the
secessionist that the two youths might ask his whereabouts.
The lieutenant's calculations were correct. The resident readily told
where the captain was to be found, and the men returned by a circuitous
route to where the soldiers were waiting for the desired information.
Then there was a change back again to clothing and horses as before, and
the hunt for the human game was renewed.
So well was the affair managed that the whole band was captured without
the shedding of a drop of blood.
With the aid of the guides the camp of the rebel recruits was surrounded
and the whole party was taken by surprise. At first they were inclined
to fight, but when they saw their assailants were double their number,
and also were better armed, they considered discretion the better part
of valor and gave up as gracefully as they could.
The lieutenant returned in triumph to Rolla with his prisoners and their
horses. To guard against accidents the prisoners were not mounted on
their own steeds, but carried in a wagon which formed a part of their
camp equipment. Four soldiers with their carbines ready rode on each
side of the wagon, and if any attempt had been made to escape it would
have resulted badly for those who tried it.
The captured horses were turned over to the quartermaster, with the
exception of two, which the colonel gave to Jack and Harry for their
own use. Jack selected the one which had belonged to the captain, and
remarked as he did so that he had carried out that gentleman's wishes
in helping himself to a horse, though possibly not in the way the latter
intended.
The colonel praised the boys for what they had done, but advised them to
give the region of their late operations a wide berth in future.