CAPTAIN JACK AT THE FRONT.
Two days after the conversation recorded in the last chapter the folks
living at the Ruthven plantation were disturbed at daybreak by the
distant firing of cannon, which continued for over two hours, gradually
drawing closer and closer.
"What can this mean?" asked Mrs. Ruthven, in alarm, as she moved to the
window. "Can the Yankees be pressing our army back again?"
"I will take the spyglass and go to the roof," said Jack. "Perhaps I'll
be able to see something."
Armed with the glass he made his way to the garret of the plantation
home, and then up a ladder leading to a scuttle of the roof. Marion, as
anxious as anybody, came after him.
Standing on the roof, Jack adjusted the spyglass and gave a long look in
the direction from whence the sounds were proceeding.
"What do you see, Jack?"
"I can see nothing but smoke," he answered. "Some is over at Bannock's
woods and the other near Townley church."
"Don't you see any of our soldiers?"
"No. The trees are in the way, and all I can see is a stretch of the bay
road. Hark! the cannon are at it again!"
"But the sounds are closer," persisted Marion.
"That is true. They must be--hullo! there come our men, along the bottom
of the woods--they are retreating!"
"Do you mean to say they are coming this way, Jack?"
"Yes, Marion. See for yourself!" And he handed the girl the spyglass.
Marion took a long look, and gave a sigh. "You are right, our brave
soldiers are suffering another defeat. Perhaps they will come to our
plantation!"
"If they do, we ought to do all we can for the wounded," answered Jack
quickly.
"To be sure. Oh, see! they are running this way as fast as they
can--fully two regiments of them!"
Again Jack took the glass. "Yes, and now I can see the Yankees. My, what
a lot of them! At least twice as many men as there are on our side. I
really believe they are going to push on to here, Marion!"
At this the girl turned pale. "And if they do?"
"We must defend ourselves as best we can," answered Jack. "Do you know
what I am going to do? Call out the Home Guard!"
"But, Jack, you may be shot down?"
"If I am, it will be only at my post of duty, Marion."
So speaking, Jack leaped down the ladder into the garret and ran
downstairs. He met Old Ben just coming into the house, accompanied by
Darcy Gilbert.
"Darcy! just the fellow I want to see! And Old Ben, too!"
"The Yankees are coming!" answered Darcy.
"I know it, Darcy. I was going to call out the Home Guard."
"Exactly my idea."
"Old Ben can help you get the boys together."
"'Deed I will, Massah Jack, if yo' wants me to," responded the colored
man.
Darcy and Ben were soon off and Jack re-entered the house, to be
confronted by Mrs. Ruthven.
"What are you up to, Jack?"
"I have called out our Home Guard, mother. The Yankees shall not destroy
this plantation or molest you and Marion."
"You must do nothing rash, Jack."
"I will be careful. But this is private property, and you and Marion are
ladies, and our enemy must remember this," responded Jack, and ran off
to don his uniform and his sword.
Inside of half an hour the members of Jack's company began to appear,
until there were nineteen boys assembled. Each had his gun or his pistol
fully loaded, and the appearance made by the lads, when drawn up in a
line, was quite an imposing one.
"Ise got a pistol," said Old Ben, showing a long, old-fashioned "hoss"
pistol on the sly. "If anybody tries to shoot Massah Jack, he will heah
from dis darky, suah."
"Thank you, Ben," answered our hero. "You always were true to me. If
ever I grow up to be a man and get rich, I shan't forget you," and this
made Old Ben grin from ear to ear.
Presently there was a clatter on the road beyond the plantation, and a
Confederate battery, drawn by horses covered with foam, swept past.
"The Yanks are coming!" was the cry. "Get indoors and hide your jewelry
and silverware!"
"They are coming!" muttered our hero. He called the boys together. "Home
Guard, attention!" he cried out. "Line up here. Carry arms! Boys, are
you willing to stand by me and help me to keep my mother's house from
being ransacked?"
"Yes! yes!" was the ready reply.
"Hurrah for Captain Jack!" put in several of the more enthusiastic ones.
"Thank you, boys. We won't fight unless we have to. But if it comes to
that, let everybody give a good account of himself."
"We will! We will!"
Soon another battery swept by the house, the horses almost ready to drop
from exhaustion. Marion saw this and whispered to her mother.
"Let me do it, mother," she pleaded.
"If you so much wish it," answered Mrs. Ruthven.
With all speed the girl ran to the barn and brought out her own horse, a
beautiful black, and ran him to the road.
"Take my horse and hitch him to yonder cannon!" she cried. "He is
fresh--he will help you save the piece!"
"Good fer you, young lady!" shouted one of the cannoneers. "We've got
friends yet, it seems!" The horse was taken, and the cannon moved on at
a swifter pace than ever.
"That was grand of you, Marion!" cried Jack. He knew just how much she
thought of the steed she had sacrificed, her pet saddle horse.
And now came several of the hospital corps, carrying the wounded on
stretchers, and also several ambulances. In the meantime the shooting
came closer and closer, and several shells sped over the plantation, to
burst with a crash in the woods beyond.
"The battle is at hand! God defend us!" murmured Mrs. Ruthven.
Several Confederates with stretchers were crossing the lawn. On the
stretchers lay three soldiers, all badly wounded.
"We can't carry them any further, madam," said one of the party. "Will
you be kind enough to take them in?"
"Yes, yes!" cried Mrs. Ruthven. "Bring them in at once. We will do our
best for them!" And she summoned the servants to prepare cots on the
lower floor, since it would have been awkward to take the wounded
upstairs.
The stretcher-carriers were followed by others, until six wounded
Confederates lay on cots in the sitting room. A young surgeon was at
hand, and he went to work without delay, and Mrs. Ruthven and Marion
assisted.
And now the army was passing by the plantation, some on foot, some on
horseback, and all exhausted, ragged, covered with dust and dirt, and
many badly wounded. The shooting of small-arms had ceased, but the
distant cannon still kept booming, and occasionally a shell burst in the
vicinity. As the last of the Confederates swept by Jack ran down to the
roadway.
"The enemy are coming!" he said, after a long look ahead. "They will be
here in less than ten minutes."
Soon the trampling of horses' hoofs was heard, and then came the
occasional blast of a trumpet. At last a troop of cavalry swept by,
paying no attention to the Ruthven homestead.
The cavalry was followed at a distance by a company of rascally looking
guerrillas--followers of every army--who fight simply for the sake of
looting afterward.
"To the house!" cried the captain of the guerrillas, a man named Sandy
Barnes.
"Company, attention!" cried out Jack, and drew up his command across the
lawn in front of the homestead.
"Halt!" shouted Captain Barnes. And then he added; "What are you boys
doing here?"
"We are the guard of this house," answered Jack, quietly but firmly.
"Guard nothin'! Out of our way!" growled the guerrilla.
"We will not get out of your way, and you will advance at your peril."
"What, will you boys show fight?" queried the guerrilla curiously.
"We will!" came from the boys. "Keep back!"
"This is private property and must be respected," went on Jack.
"Besides, the house is now a hospital, for there are six wounded
Confederates inside, in charge of a surgeon."
The guerrilla muttered something under his breath.
"Come on, anyhow!" shouted somebody in a rear rank. "It looks like a
house worth visitin'!"
"Try to enter the house and we will shoot!" went on Jack, his face
growing white.
"Why, youngster, you don't know who you are talking to," growled Barnes.
He stepped forward as if to enter the house by a side door, when Jack
ran in front of him and raised his sword.
"Not another step, if you value your life!"
"Out of my way, boy!" And now the guerrilla raised his own sword, while
some of his men raised their guns.
It was truly a trying moment, and Marion, at the window, looked on with
bated breath. "Oh, if Jack should be killed!" she thought.
But now there came a shout from the road, and there appeared a regiment
of regular Federal troops. The guerrillas saw them coming, and gazed
anxiously at their leader.
"It's Colonel Stanton's regiment!" muttered a guerrilla lieutenant. "He
won't stand no nonsense, cap."
"I know it," growled Barnes. "Right face, forward march!" he shouted,
and, as quickly as they had come, the guerrillas left the plantation and
took to a side road leading to the distant hills.
But the Federal regiment had seen them, and as the guerrillas ran they
received a volley which lay several of them low. They were virtually
outlaws, and knew it, and lost no time in getting out of sight.
"Halt!" shouted the Federal colonel as he rode up across the lawn, and
one after another the companies behind him stopped in their march. Then
the Northerner came closer to Jack and the others of the Home Guard.
"What's the matter here? What does this mean?"
Jack gazed up into the face of the Federal colonel and saw that it was
an unusually kindly one. "We are defending this home, sir; that's all. I
reckon those fellows who just ran off wanted to ransack it."
"The scoundrels! I've been after them twice before. Was anybody hurt?"
"No, sir."
"You are a young Confederate, I presume?"
"I am the captain of these boys. We call ourselves the Home Guard. We
wish to protect our homes, that's all."
At this the face of the colonel broke out into a warm smile.
"You do yourself credit, my lad. You could not do better than protect
your homes and your mothers and sisters. Whose place is this?"
"Mrs. Alice Ruthven's."
"Did the Confederate battery just retreat past here?"
"I cannot answer that question, sir."
"Well, it doesn't matter much. We have got them on the run, and that was
all we wanted for the present."
"I hope you don't intend to do anything to this place," went on Jack
anxiously. "It is private property, and, besides, we have six wounded
men here, in charge of a surgeon."
"An officer who is a gentleman always respects private property," was
the grave answer. "As long as you do nothing treacherous, you have
nothing to fear from me or my men." And so speaking, the colonel rode
back to the road.
"A fine-looking man, and a gentleman, if ever there was one," thought
Jack. "What a difference between him and that fellow who threatened me
with his sword!"
"Will they come back, Jack?" asked Mrs. Ruthven, as she came outside.
"I don't know, mother. But the officer said we had nothing to fear."
"He looked like an honest gentleman."
"So I thought. How are those wounded men making out?"
"One is already dead, poor fellow. But the surgeon has hopes of the
others."
"Is Marion helping the doctor?"
"Yes. I want her to come away from the awful sights, but she will not.
Jack, she is almost as brave as you are!"
"Pooh! I'm not so brave, mother."
"Yes, you are. Why, that rascal was going to run you through with his
sword!"
"Dat he was," put in Old Ben. "But let me tell yo' sumt'ing, missus. I
had dat feller covered wid dis hoss-pistol ob mine. If he had tried to
slew Jack dat would hab been de end of the rascal, suah pop!"
"Good for you, Ben! Continue to look out for Jack, and I will reward you
handsomely," concluded Mrs. Ruthven, and returned to the house.