A STRATEGIC MOVEMENT.
“Shall the balance of Tommy’s quorum go over to-night, or to-morrow?
That’s the question,” said Briscoe, as I joined him at the bridge.
“I don’t want to go to-night,” added Bowles.
“Why not?”
“I want to see the fun.”
“You can see just as well from the other side of the chasm,” I
suggested. “Besides, you may be able to serve us better there than
here.”
“What can I do?” asked Bowles. “If I can be of any use over there to
our party, I am willing to go.”
“You can,” said Briscoe. “We only intend to obtain our arms
to-night--that’s all. We desire to have the election go on just as
though the whole crowd were there. We intend to be present at the
right time. You know where we are going to operate, and you must serve
us on the bluff, as you see opportunity to do so, only don’t be too
zealous.”
“I’ll go, and do the best I can,” replied Bowles.
He called up the nine who were to go with him, and planned the matter
to suit himself. Conducting them towards the chasm, he was soon joined
by Hacker; and all of them disappeared in the woods. I was very curious
to know how the party was to be transferred to High Bluff; but I was
soon satisfied that it was not by crossing the gully. Briscoe and I
had agreed to keep the rest of our fellows back, for Bowles had gone
off with great pretensions to secrecy, as though he were veritably
deserting with his followers. I crept over to the rocks near the
fishing raft, and soon discovered that the party were there. They were
in the act of embarking in a large boat, which I concluded, belonged to
the raft, and was the property of the hotel-keeper. They pushed off,
and disappeared in the darkness. It was evident, therefore, that there
was some way of reaching the summit of the bluff from the lake side.
The coast was clear now, and our fellows were silently led to the raft
by Briscoe. Those who were to assist me pulled up the plank, and,
having secured one of the ropes with which the raft was moored, we
carried it to the road near the point where the bridge had been removed.
“Now we want to know whether there are any sentinels on this side of
the bluff,” said I to Sergeant Langdon.
“I don’t see any.”
“Go to the chasm, and make a slight noise. If there is any one there,
it will start him up.”
Langdon soon reported that he could discover no one. I had not seen any
guard in this direction since dark. Tommy was doubtless satisfied that
a chasm twenty-four feet wide, with perpendicular sides, could not be
passed by any of our party. It had been arranged between Briscoe and
myself that his party should make noise enough to engage the attention
of all on the bluff, while mine were bridging the gully. As I was
attaching the rope to one end of the plank, I heard the shouts of
our co-laborers beyond the promontory. They had pushed the raft into
position beneath the bluff and now waked the echoes of the night with
their yells.
The alarm was promptly given in the camp. We saw the garrison rush
to the place where the arms were stacked, and we lay low until they
had left for the point of danger. There was evidently a great deal of
excitement among Tommy’s adherents. Perhaps they expected a violent
assault upon their works.
“Now, lively, fellows!” I called to my party, as they picked up the
plank and bore it to the chasm.
The end to which I had fastened the rope was dropped into the abyss, so
that it rested upon a rock which I had before selected. With a couple
of the hoop-holes we pushed the upper end over to the other side of
the gully, where it was to rest as part of the bridge. By the rope
attached to the lower end we pulled it up, and placed it on the rock.
The experiment was a complete success and I was very well pleased with
my first attempt at engineering. It was a very simple experiment, after
all; and though satisfied, I was not vain of the result.
I was the first to cross the plank; but my fellows all followed me.
Taking six or seven muskets apiece, we soon placed them on the right
side of the gully, and our work was accomplished. Briscoe’s forces were
still shouting as though their salvation depended upon the amount of
noise they could make. If there were any night voyagers on the lake in
that vicinity, they must have suspected that the demons of this wild
region were engaged in an hilarious frolic; but I think there was no
one within hearing of our voices.
“I say, captain, we might as well finish the job, now we are here,”
said Langdon, after we had stacked the arms by the side of the road.
“How finish it?”
“Wouldn’t it be better to have the bridge material on this side of the
gully?” suggested the sergeant.
“I don’t know that it would.”
“We could hold Tommy and his party as prisoners then.”
“Possibly it would be a good move; but when we go over to-morrow, we
must do it with a rush, after the balloting has begun.”
We decided to transfer the bridge materials to our side of the chasm.
Perhaps it was just as well, so far as Tommy was concerned; for I did
not believe, after I had looked at the heavy timbers which comprised
the string-pieces, that he had the engineering skill to reconstruct the
bridge. We completed our work in a very short time, and without any
interruption from the valiant garrison which defended the place. Having
finished the job, we placed the plank on six sticks, and with one boy
at each end of them, conveyed it back to the lake as we had brought it
up. Briscoe’s party were still demonstrating under the high cliff of
the island. Langdon, who could whistle like a locomotive through his
fingers, made the signal we had agreed upon that our work was finished.
By this time most of us were thoroughly fatigued, and I felt that a bed
of pine furze in the grove would be as good as a downy couch for me.
We had worked off the effects of the potations of strong coffee, and
some of us were so sleepy that we could hardly keep our eyes open. One
of the cooks lighted a match, so that I could see the face of my watch,
and I found that it was almost midnight. But we had to wait nearly an
hour before Briscoe’s fellows could work the raft back, for it was a
clumsy thing to handle in deep water. When they came in sight, they
were towing it with the large boat in which Hacker had conveyed his
recruits to the fortress. Without it I doubt whether they could ever
have brought the raft back to its moorings. We were too tired to put
the raft in position as we had found it, and, making it fast to the
shore, returned to our camp.
We were a sorry set when we turned in at about one o’clock that night;
and if we had taken a vote on the question, I think we should have
decided unanimously that campaigning after dark, and especially after
midnight, was anything but fun. The weather was so warm that we did not
need fires; and wrapping our blankets around us, we lay down without
troubling ourselves to post a single sentinel to watch over the camp
while we slumbered. There was no danger of an assault from Tommy’s
forces, for we had them bottled up in their strong fortress. Briscoe’s
party had brought away the boat in which Sergeant Hacker had made his
visit to our camp, and there was now no possible way for any of the
enemy to reach us.
The garrison on High Bluff were as much fatigued as we were, and were
as little disposed to make an assault as we were to repel one. I cannot
speak for others, except to say that no one disturbed us; and I slept
like a rock upon my hard bed. It was after eight in the morning when I
waked; but not a single soul seemed to be stirring. I was in no hurry;
so I turned over and went to sleep again as all my companions were
still slumbering.
“Hallo, Skotchley!”
I opened my eyes. It was Briscoe.
“We are sleeping all day,” said he.
“What’s the odds? We have nothing to do but eat breakfast until noon.
We may as well rest ourselves while we have the chance.”
“But it is after nine o’clock,” laughed he.
“I think I have slept enough, then,” I replied, springing to my feet,
well satisfied that no rheumatism had found a lurking-place in any of
my joints.
Some of the fellows were already up, and among them Fryes, who was
directed to blow a blast on his bugle to wake the slumberers. In a few
minutes we had them all on their feet. I went to the rushing brook, and
took an eye opener in the shape of a splendid wash in the clear, cold
waters, which made me feel like a new man, fit for the great enterprise
of the day. Frying bacon without a frying-pan was declared by the cooks
to be a difficult achievement; but an iron kettle was a tolerable
substitute. We boiled half a bushel of potatoes, and by ten o’clock we
were ready for our morning meal. As an expedient for plates, we used
smooth, flat stones, taken from a slate ledge a few rods from the camp.
The breakfast was eminently satisfactory.
“Where is Jed?” asked Briscoe, as we rose from the ground when the
repast was finished. “He has not come yet.”
“I think he will come,” I replied.
“Suppose he should not come?” suggested the senior captain.
“Then we must get along without him.”
“I don’t see how we can.”
“My party took the precaution last night to bring the bridge materials
over to this side of the gully, we can put the bridge up when we want
it, though it will take some time to do the job.”
Briscoe laughed heartily as I explained to him that Major Tommy and
his forces were actually prisoners on High Bluff, and would have to
stay there until we permitted them to leave. As we intended to turn
the tables upon our gallant commander-in-chief, I hoped that our
precautions would not prove to be useless. It was possible that Jed
might not be able to come, however good his intentions might be; and
I walked down to the place where we had stored the bridge stuff,
accompanied by my working party, in order to make preparations for
crossing at this point if Jed should fail us. I simply fixed upon a
plan for doing the work; and, after examination, I was satisfied that
the method by which we had laid down the plank the night before was the
best one. I then went with Briscoe’s party to the fishing raft, where,
in a few moments, we put everything just as we had found it.
While we were thus engaged, Jed arrived, and we all hastened to the
camp to complete the grand _coup de main_ of the day.