THE GUERRILLA'S BRIDE
"How did you come to be with the soldiers I met?" asked Lawrence of Dan.
The two were now in Leavenworth, waiting for a boat to take them down
the river.
"It was this way," answered Dan. "When those rascally cavalrymen
deserted you and rode back to Platte City, word was sent post-haste
here, asking for a company to go to the aid of Captain Leeper, and help
chastise the band which had murdered you, and, if possible, to procure
your body. I was nearly wild when I heard you had been killed, and
nothing could have prevented me from accompanying the company sent to
Captain Leeper. I tell you, charges ought to be preferred against those
four men who so basely deserted you. They should be court-martialed for
cowardice and shot."
"Not so fast, Dan," replied Lawrence. "Those men heard the shots, looked
back and saw, as they supposed, the Corporal and myself both killed.
They did not know how many guerrillas were in the brush, and they did
the best and about the only thing they could do--get to Platte City as
soon as possible, and give the alarm."
"They should have known there were but two from the report of the guns,"
grumbled Dan. "I tell you it was a cowardly trick. Do you think I would
have left you, if I had been one of the four?"
"No, Dan," said Lawrence, laying his hand on his shoulder,
affectionately. "You would have charged back there if there had been
fifty guerrillas, instead of two; but all men are not dear old Dan."
There was a suspicious moisture in Dan's eyes, but he only said: "Pshaw!
Any fellow with any grit would have done it."
A boat coming along, they took passage for Lexington, the boat making
quite a long stop at Kansas City. They found that all fear that the
enemy might be able to capture the towns along the Missouri had
subsided. Everywhere the guerrillas had been beaten, and they were
fleeing south by the hundreds to hide in the Ozarks or among the
mountains of northern Arkansas. Still, numerous small bands remained in
hiding. Within a radius of a hundred miles, taking Lexington as a
center, then were a score of these bands operating, but there were two
of them which were especially daring and troublesome.
One of these bands was led by the notorious Quantrell, and the other by
Jerry Alcorn, known as Red Jerry.
Jerry, the year before, had fled from St. Louis, being detected in a
plot to assassinate Lawrence Middleton and Guilford Craig. He had joined
Price's army, but soon deserted to become leader of a band of
guerrillas. Lawrence, with his scouts, had met this band the year
before, and given it a crushing defeat. As has also been seen, it was
Jerry and his men that chased Lawrence and Dan as they were going in
search of Colonel Warner at Lone Jack.
When Lawrence reached Lexington, he received dispatches from General
Schofield, saying he would not be able to go to Springfield to take
command of the army quite as soon as he had expected, and that Lawrence
should report to him at St. Louis; but before he reported he was to see
that all the guerrilla bands around Lexington were dispersed.
Lawrence found that a force was being organized in Lexington to try to
surprise and capture Red Jerry and his entire band. He determined to
accompany it. But when he found the officer who was to command the
expedition was a Colonel Jennison, he hesitated. He had but little use
for that officer. He commanded one of those regiments known as
jay-hawkers. The men composing the regiment were fighters, but in their
tactics differed little from the guerrillas. With them it was "an eye
for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."
Lawrence talked it over with Dan, and they were so anxious that Red
Jerry be brought to justice for his many crimes that he decided to
overcome his repugnance to the Colonel, and go, taking the place of the
Major of the regiment, who was sick.
Jerry was reported as hanging around the plantation of a Mr. Floyd
Templeton, a very respected old gentleman, but a bitter Southern
partisan. Mr. Templeton had two children--a son who was with Price, and
a daughter who oversaw the household, the mother being dead.
This daughter, Agnes by name, was at this time about twenty, and was a
strikingly beautiful girl. Her lustrous hair, dark as midnight, crowned
a well-shaped head, which she carried as proudly as a queen. Her dark
eyes, lovely in repose, could with a languishing glance cause the heart
of the most prosaic of men to beat more rapidly; but in their depth was
a hidden fire which would blaze forth when aroused, and show the
tempestuous soul which dwelt within. She was above medium height, and
her body was as lithe and supple as a panther's.
In vain had her hand been sought by the beaux for twenty miles around.
When the war came, she told them no one need woo her until her beloved
Missouri was free of the Yankee foe, and he who did win her must be a
soldier, brave and true.
Some months before, Jerry's gang had been attacked and scattered, and
Jerry, his horse being killed, fled on foot. In his flight he came to
the Templeton house, his pursuers close behind.
He implored Agnes to save him, and this she did by secreting him in a
hidden closet behind the huge chimney. To the Federal soldiers in
pursuit she swore the guerrilla chieftain had passed by without
stopping. A careful search of the house revealing nothing, the soldiers
were forced to believe she told the truth.
Jerry was not only grateful to his fair preserver, but fell violently in
love with her. The rough guerrilla soldier was not the soldier of the
dreams of the proud, aristocratic girl. Concealing her repugnance to his
advances, she gently but firmly refused him, telling him her duty was to
her aged father. Jerry was so persistent in his advances that she
finally told him he must never speak of the subject again, or he would
be refused the house.
More than once did Jerry conceive the scheme of carrying her off by
force and marrying her against her will; but he became aware that the
girl possessed as fierce a spirit as his own, and if need were she would
not hesitate to plunge a dagger in his heart.
With the fires of unrequited love burning in his heart, he had to cease
his advances; but, like the silly moths that flutter around a candle, he
made every excuse to call at the Templeton residence. The girl warned
him by saying that by his course he was bringing not only danger on
himself, but on her father as well.
Jerry knew this, and the dastardly thought came to him that if the
Federals did make way with her father, Agnes, in her loneliness, might
come to him. It was a thought worthy of his black nature, but that he
madly loved the girl, there was no doubt.
The expedition against Jerry was well planned, but he got wind of it,
and scattered his force.
In a running fight that took place, Jerry captured two of Jennison's
men. These he calmly proceeded to hang, almost in sight of Templeton's
door, for the purpose of bringing down the wrath of Jennison on
Templeton's head. Only too well did the damnable plot succeed.
Jennison was beside himself with rage, and after pursuing Jerry until
all hopes of catching him had ended, he returned to the Templeton place,
and, calling the old man to the door, he denounced him in the most
violent terms, calling him a sneaking rebel, who made his house a
rendezvous for murderers.
Mr. Templeton drew himself up proudly. "I may be what you call a rebel,"
he exclaimed, "but I am not a sneaking one. My heart and soul are with
the South in her struggle for liberty, and every one knows it. As for
the men you call guerrillas, I can no more help their coming here than I
can help your coming."
"You lie, you old scoundrel!" shouted Jennison. "You invite them to
come, and aid them in their nefarious work. The murderers you have been
harboring hanged two of my men yesterday, almost at your very door, and
no doubt you looked on and approved."
"I did no such thing," answered Mr. Templeton. "I did not know of the
deed until it was done; then I told Alcorn never again to set foot on my
premises."
"More lies, you canting old hypocrite. Do you know what I am going to do
with you?" shouted Jennison.
"I am in your power; you can do anything you wish," answered Mr.
Templeton, with dignity.
"I am going to shoot you, and burn your house," yelled Jennison.
"You will never harbor any more guerrillas."
At these words, Agnes sprang before her father, with a scream. "If you
shoot any one, shoot me--not him," she said. "If there has been any
harboring, it is I who am to blame. I have harbored those fighting to
rid our State of such as you, and I glory in it. Shoot me--not him."
Lawrence and Dan just now rode up and gazed in astonishment at the
scene. The girl stood in front of her father, her arms outspread, her
bosom heaving with excitement, her eyes blazing, inviting the deadly
volley.
Her tragic attitude, her wondrous beauty, awed the men, and they lowered
the guns that had been raised to slay the father.
"Drag her away, and shoot!" commanded Jennison, with an oath.
"Hold!" cried Lawrence. "Colonel Jennison, do you realize what you are
doing? What does this mean?"
"It means I'm going to shoot this old villain and burn the house. It
means I am going to put an end to this harboring of guerrillas, if I
have to burn every house in this accursed State," thundered Jennison.
"Now drag the girl away."
"The first man that touches that girl dies!" cried Lawrence, drawing his
revolver.
"I'm with you," said Dan, drawing his revolver, and taking his place by
Lawrence's side.
For a moment Colonel Jennison was too astonished to speak; then his face
turned livid with passion. "Young man," he hissed, "do you know what you
are doing? By a word I can have you both shot--shot for mutiny--and, by
God! I ought to say the word."
"But, Colonel, what you are going to do is an outrage," cried Lawrence,
"a damnable outrage--one that will bring black disgrace on our arms. It
is an act that General Schofield will never countenance, and in his name
I ask you to countermand the order."
"Which I will not do!" exclaimed Jennison, white with rage. "I have been
trammelled enough with orders from headquarters. I propose to deal with
these red-handed assassins as I please. We, along the border, propose to
protect ourselves. Captain Middleton, you and your companion are under
arrest for insubordination. Lieutenant Cleveland, take their swords, and
with a detail of six men escort them back to Lexington. When I return I
will make a formal charge against them."
There was no use in resisting. The majority of Jennison's regiment was
composed of men from Kansas who had suffered from the raids of the
Border Ruffians before the war, or had been driven from their homes in
Missouri, and heartily sympathized with the Colonel in his warfare of
retaliation.
Lawrence also knew he had committed a grave offence when, in his
indignation, he tried to prevent the execution of Templeton by force. So
he quietly submitted to arrest; but as he rode away there came to his
ears the shrieks of the girl, then the sharp crack of three or four
carbines. Lawrence shuddered and, looking back, he saw great columns of
smoke rolling up, and through the blackness red tongues of leaping
flame.
After the volley killing her father had been fired, the girl uttered one
more shriek, and then stood with dry eyes, gazing as if in a trance;
then with a low moan she threw herself on the still body, enfolding it
with her arms as if she would shield it from the profane gaze of those
around it. She lay as if dead; and so they left her.
Hours afterward, Red Jerry came creeping up from his hiding place, and
found her. At first he thought her dead, but at his touch and the sound
of his voice she aroused and stood up--but a changed being--changed from
a woman into a demon.
She spoke a few words to Jerry, but in so low a tone his few followers
who had gathered round could not hear. Jerry gently led her away from
the rest; but the men noticed she walked as one seeing not.
They stopped under a tree not far away.
"Jerry," she said, in a tone devoid of the least sign of feeling, "you
have often told me you loved me, and wanted me to become your wife. I
have as often refused. I am now ready to marry you, if you make me one
promise."
Red Jerry's heart gave a great bound. He had won. The peerless Agnes
Templeton was to become his wife--he, a guerrilla chieftain.
"Anything you ask," he cried, rapturously, and attempted to take her in
his arms.
"Do not touch me," she said, in the same passionless tones. "You must
not touch me until you have promised, and not then until the words are
spoken which give you a right."
"What is it you want me to promise, Agnes? You know anything in my power
will be granted," Jerry replied, his voice showing the depth of his
passion.
"That you will let me dress as a man and ride by your side; that you
will never order me away, however great the danger; that where you are,
I may always be."
"For you to ride at my side would be bliss," said Jerry; "but, oh!
Agnes, to lead you into danger--how can I do it?"
"It must be as I say, or I can never be your wife," was her answer.
Jerry promised, and side by side they rode away to the home of a
minister. It was near midnight when they reached it, and there, amid the
clashing of the elements--for a fearful storm had arisen--the words were
spoken that made Agnes Templeton the bride of Jerry Alcorn, the
guerrilla.
Sacrificing everything feminine, except her luxuriant hair, which she
coiled tightly on top of her head and concealed under a wide sombrero,
she rode by the side of her husband throughout his career. No Federal
thought the smooth-faced, handsome young man who was always with Jerry
was a woman.
The band became known as one of the most cruel and merciless in the
State. It revelled in deeds of bloodshed, and of all the band, the young
man with the angel face and the heart of a demon, who rode by Red Jerry,
was known as the most merciless.