|General Curtis wants you to go on an expedition,” said General
Vandever, when the youths reported to him. “Are you ready for it?”
“Certainly, General,” replied Harry; “anything that you order we 'll do
if we can.”
“It is n't an order,” said the general, smiling, “as it is one of those
things that come outside of orders.”
Then he paused, and the youths waited for him to continue, which he did
in a moment.
“It's an expedition into the enemy's country, where you 'll run a good
deal of risk; but, as you are not enlisted into the service, you can
undertake it without compromising yourselves to the same extent that
a soldier would. You 'll have to go in disguise, and conceal your real
character. There's where the risk comes in.”
The general left them, while he strolled outside his tent, to give them
an opportunity to consider the proposal.
“I'm ready to go, Jack,” said Harry, “provided you are.”
“Of course I'm ready enough,” was the reply, “and feel sure we shall get
through all right. We can play our old game that we succeeded with
last year, though we may have to vary it a good deal, according to
circumstances.” When the general returned they announced their decision.
He immediately accompanied them to General Curtis's tent, and they
received their instructions.
“I want you to go to Fort Scott, in Kansas, about one hundred miles
northwest from here; go as quickly as you can, but don't press your
horses or appear to be in a great hurry. Take two days for the trip, or
three, if necessary, and when you get there do as the commander of the
post directs you. I will see that you are provided with 'butternut'
clothes during the day; and if you are using military saddles on your
horses, you had better change them for common ones of the country.
“I have heard of the cleverness you have shown on previous occasions,”
the general continued, “and have no doubt you will get through all right
and come back safely. But it will require courage and presence of mind,
as you are likely to meet scouting parties of the enemy, and must be
prepared to play your characters well.”
The boys promised they would do their best, and at a signal from General
Vandever they saluted and retired.
From a quantity of clothing in the hands of the quartermaster they
selected two well-worn suits of common material of the country. Though
well worn, the suits were clean, having been recently washed, and by
order of General Vandever the garments were sent to General Curtis for
his chief of staff to inspect. The inspection showed that they needed
mending in several places, to insure their holding out through the
journey, and they were accordingly submitted to the care of the
headquarters' tailor for a few hours. To make sure that the work was
properly done, the chief of staff had it performed in his own tent,
and directly under his eye, being unwilling to trust the tailor out of
sight.
Toward evening the patched and mended garments were ready, and were
brought by an orderly to General Vandever's tent. Their hats and boots
were in keeping with the rest of their wardrobe, and when fully rigged
the boys looked the very picture of natives of the soil of Missouri or
Arkansas. By General Vandever's order they did not show themselves about
the camp in their new outfit, but remained closely concealed in a tent
in the rear of his. They ate a hearty supper and went early into their
blankets, so as to be up and off before the break of day.
Nearly two hours before daylight their horses, which had been tied close
to the general's tent and well fed, were saddled, and the boys, after
swallowing a hasty and very early breakfast, announced themselves ready
to start. The general bade them good-bye, and said his adjutant would
escort them out of the lines.
“But we have n't any dispatches yet,” said Harry. “We supposed General
Curtis had some dispatches for us to carry.”
“Don't you remember, he said, 'Go to Fort Scott and do as the post
commander directs you'? That's all. You 'll get your orders when you
arrive there.”
Satisfied with the explanation, Harry returned the general's good-bye,
and so did Jack. The adjutant appeared at this moment, and under
the convoy of a single cavalryman they moved in the direction of the
northern boundary of the camp.
Under the orders of the adjutant the picket allowed the two youths to
pass, and in a few moments they were lost in the darkness. They jogged
slowly along the road until daylight came, and then, as the country
became visible, quickened their pace.
After riding about three hours, and meeting no interruption, they halted
at the crossing of a small creek to eat some of the corn-bread they
carried in their pockets, and give their horses a chance to graze.
It was Harry's suggestion that they should provide themselves with
corn-bread instead of dry biscuit or hard-tack, such as formed the
rations of the soldiers. “You see,” he explained, “the hard-tack might
give us away in case we are stopped and searched; but if we carry
nothing but corn-bread, which everybody eats in this country, it won't
be at all suspicious.” Jack agreed to the soundness of this argument,
and accordingly corn-bread formed their sole supply of provisions, with
the addition of a few slices of bacon.
While they were lying on the ground, indulging in their very plain meal,
a party of ten or twelve men appeared suddenly, from the direction they
intended to go. Their leader brought them to a halt, and they quickly
surrounded the two boys.
Harry and Jack were prepared for just such an emergency, and continued
to munch their corn-bread with the greatest unconcern. The leader of the
scouting party asked who they were and where they were going.
“We's from Forsyth way, and want to find some Home-Guard Yankees that
stole two of our horses,” Harry explained.
“Forsyth way? Then you know Pony Matteson, down on Dobbin's Branch.”
“Don't know him,” answered Harry, “but I've heard tell of him. We ain't
lived there long enough to know many folks; used to live up close to
Rolla, till the Yanks drove us out six months ago.”
This suggestion appeared satisfactory to the questioner, as it implied
the soundness of the youths on the war-question. But he was not
altogether convinced, and asked if they'd been in the army.
Harry answered that they tried to get down to join Price's army before
the battle of Pea Ridge, but were captured by the Yankee soldiers, and
only got away by promising to go home and stay there. Since the battle
the country had been in the hands of the Yankees and Home Guards, and
they had to hide in the bushes most of the time to keep out of the way.
Then he went into a general denunciation of the Yankees, and gave
details, somewhat garrulous, about their appearance and conduct. To this
he added stories of what the people around the battlefield said about
them, and altogether gave them anything but a good character.
The leader cut short the talk by ordering the boys to stand up. Needless
to say they obeyed, but with a wondering expression on their faces.
“We'll go through you,” said he, with more emphasis than civility in his
tone, “and if we find out you're lying it 'll be bad for you.”
At his orders four of the men searched the youths, turning their pockets
inside out, and looking in the inside of their hats and shoes. If
any dispatches had been concealed there they would surely have been
discovered. By advice of General Vandever, rather than their own
inclination, they had taken no weapons of any kind, and now they thanked
their stars that they were unarmed. Had they carried their pistols they
would have been of no use at this juncture, and would certainly have got
them into trouble.
Harry had a pocket-knife, very old and worn, and this he was allowed to
keep. Jack had a dozen fish-hooks in his pocket and three or four yards
of line, in addition to eight or ten dollars in rebel shinplasters. The
shin-plasters and fish-hooks were appropriated by the searchers, and
also the line, the captain remarking that they could buy more line when
they got home. The pieces of corn-bread which they had in their pockets
were left to them, along with the pocket-knife, and then they were told
they might go.
Jack protested against the loss of his fish-hooks, but he did not
continue the protest very long. Then Harry assumed the role of
questioner, and asked about the roads leading to the northwest, and was
particularly anxious to ascertain if any Home Guards had been seen in
that direction. He described the lost horses minutely, and asked the
captain to send word to James Pratt at Forsyth in case he found out
where the horses were.
With this parting request he mounted his steed, thankful that it was
left to him, and Harry followed his example. It was fortunate for the
youths that the scouting party were all well mounted and their horses
were fresh, as they would have been quite likely to ask for an exchange,
and make it, too, without waiting to ascertain if an exchange was
desired by the parties of the second part.
“They're pretty searching in their investigations,” said Harry, as
soon as they were out of sight and hearing. “It was lucky we had no
dispatches about our hats or boots.”
“Yes, indeed,” responded Jack. “Wonder what the next party 'll do?
Perhaps they 'll make us take off our clothes and see if we have n't
something written on our skins.”
“That's a good idea,” said Harry. “I 'll suggest it to General Vandever
the next time he wants to send a courier through the enemy's country.”
“I have it,” exclaimed Jack. “Why not put a dispatch under a porous or
some other plaster between a fellow's shoulders? Nobody would think of
disturbing it.”
“Don't be so sure of that,” was the reply. “The plaster is an old trick
of diamond smugglers; it has been successfully used, and it has also
been detected. It might work on these country jayhawkers, but anybody of
experience is sure to have heard of it.”
[Illustration: 259]
As they rode along they busied themselves with devising means of
concealing dispatches and making ciphers which would be absolutely blind
to the uninitiated and only read by those possessing the key. As fast as
one of them designed a mode of concealment the other cited an instance
of its previous use, and whenever one proposed a cipher the other
managed in one way or another to show its defects.
They had about come to the conclusion that Solomon was right when he
said there was nothing new under the sun, when suddenly a gruff voice
from the bushes at the roadside called out:
“Halt, there!”
They looked in the direction whence the sound came, and saw the muzzles
of four or five rifles pointing directly at them. It is needless to say
they halted.