XXVII.
_THE MEN WITH THE DARK LANTERN._
The moon had now set, and it was dark. The frightened girl could notdistinguish the features of him who bent over her; but through thetrance of horror that was upon her, she recognized a voice.
"Wirginie! I tought it vas you! Don't you know me, Wirginie?"
No voice had ever before brought such joy to her soul.
"O Carl! why didn't I know you?"
"Vy not? Pecause maybe you vas looking for somepody else. MishterHapgoot came part vay mit me, but he vas so used up I made him shtoptill I came to pring Toby up vere he is."
Then Virginia, recovering from her agitation, had a score of questionsto ask about her father, about the fight, and about Penn.
"If you vill only go up, he vill tell you so much more as I can. Thenyou vill go and see your fahder. That vill be petter as going backto-night, vere there is no goot shtout fellow in the house to prewail onthem willains to keep their dishtance."
Even at the outset of her adventurous journey Virginia had felt a vaguehope that she should visit her father before she returned. What the boysaid inspired her with courage to proceed. She would go up as far aswhere Penn was waiting, at all events: then she would be guided by hisadvice.
The two set out, Carl leading her by the hand, and assisting her. Itgrew darker and darker. The stars were hidden: the sky was almostcompletely overcast by black clouds. Slowly and with great difficultythey made their way among trees and bushes, through abrupt hollows, andover rocks. Virginia felt that she could have done nothing without Carl;and the thought of returning alone, in such darkness, down the mountain,made her shudder.
But at length even Carl began to sweat with something besides thephysical exertion required in making the ascent. His mind had grownexceedingly perturbed, and Virginia perceived that his course waswavering and uncertain.
He stopped, blowing and wiping his face.
"Dish ish de all confoundedesht, meanesht, mosht dishgusting road for adark night the prince of darkness himself ever inwented!" he exclaimed,speaking unusually thick in his heat and excitement. "I shouldn't bewery much surprised if I vas a leetle out of the right vay. You shtayright here till I look."
She sat down and waited. Intense darkness surrounded her; not a star wasvisible; she could not see her own hand. For a little while Carl'sfootsteps could be heard feeling for more familiar ground; and then,occasionally, the crackling of a dry twig, as he trod upon it, showedthat he was not far off. Then he whistled; then he softly called,"Hello!" in the woods; moving all the time farther and farther away.
Carl believed that Penn could not be far distant, and, in order to getan answering signal, he kept whistling and calling louder and louder. Atlength came a response--a low warning whistle. So he plodded on, and hadnearly reached the spot where he was confident Penn was searching forhim, when there came a rush of feet, and he was suddenly and violentlyseized by invisible assailants.
"Got him?"
"Yes! all right!"
"Hang on to him! It's the Dutchman, ain't it? I thought I knew thebrogue!"
The last speaker was Lieutenant Silas Ropes; and Carl perceived that hehad fallen into the hands of a squad of confederate soldiers. That hewas vastly astonished and altogether disconcerted at first, we may wellsuppose. But Carl was not a lad to remain long bereft of his wits whenthey were so necessary to him.
"Ho! vot for you choke a fellow so?" he indignantly demanded. "I vastreated petter as that ven I vas a prisoner."
"What do you mean, you d--d deserter?"
"Haven't I just got avay from Stackridge? and vasn't I running to findyou as vast as ever a vellow could? And now you call me a deserter!"retorted Carl, aggrieved.
"Running to find _us_!"
"To be sure! Didn't I say, 'Is it you?' For they said you vas on themountain. Though I did not think I should find you so easy!" which wasindeed the truth.
Carl persisted so earnestly in regarding the affair from this point ofview, that his captors began to think it worth while to question him.
"Vun of them vellows just says to me, he says, 'Shpeak vun vord, or makevun noise, and I vill plow your prains out!' I vasn't wery much in favorto have my prains plowed out, so I complied mit his wery urgent request.That's the vay they took me prisoner."
"Wal," remarked Silas, "what he says may be true, but I don't believenary word on't. Got his hands tied? Now lock arms with him, and bringhim along."
Carl was in despair at this mode of treatment, for it rendered escapeimpossible,--and what would become of Virginia? His anxiety for hersafety became absolute terror when he discovered the errand on whichthese men were bound.
By the light of a dark lantern they led him through the grove, across abrook that came tumbling down out of a wild black gorge, and up themountain slope into the edge of the great forest above. Here theystopped.
"This yer's a good place, boys, to begin. Kick the leaves together.That's the talk."
They were in a leafy hollow of the dry woods. A blaze was soon kindled,which shot up in the darkness, and threw its ruddy glare upon the trunksand overhanging canopy of foliage, and upon the malignant, gleamingfaces of the soldiers. Little effort was needed to insure the spreadingof the flames. They ran over the ground, licking up the dry leaves,crackling the twigs, catching at the bark of trees, and filling theforest, late so silent and black, with their glow and roar.
"That's to smoke out your d--d Union friends!" said Silas to Carl, witha hideous grin.
Yes, Carl understood that well enough. In this same forest, on the banksof the brook above where it fell into the gorge, the patriots wereencamped. And Virginia? Still believing that the worst that could happento her would be to fall into the hands of these ruffians, the ladsweated in silent agony over the secret he was bound to keep.
"What makes ye look so down-in-the-mouth, Dutchy? 'Fraid your friendswill get scorched?"
"I vas thinking the fire vill be apt to scorch us as much as it villthem. And I have my hands tied so I can't run."
"Don't be afraid; we'll look out for you. I swear, boys! the fire looksas though 'twas dying down! Get out o' this yer holler and there ain'tno leaves to feed it; and I be hanged if the wind ain't gittingcontrary!"
Carl witnessed these effects with a gleam of hope. The soldiers fell togathering bark and sticks, which they piled at the roots of trees. Thelad was left almost alone. Had his hands been free, he would have run. Asoldier passed near him, dragging a dead bush.
"Dan Pepperill! cut the cord!" Dan shook his head, with a look ofterror. "Drop your knife, then!"
"O Lord!" said Dan. "They'd hang me! I be durned if they wouldn't!"
"Dan, you must! I don't care vun cent for myself. But WirginieWillars--she is just beyond vere you took me. Vill you leave her to die?And Mishter Hapgoot is just a little vay up the mountain, and there isnopody to let him know!"
A look of ghastly intelligence came into Dan's face as he stopped tolisten to this explanation. He seemed half inclined to set the boy'slimbs free, and risk the consequences. But just then Ropes shouted athim,--
"What ye at thar, Pepperill? Why don't ye bring along that ar brush?"
So the brief conference ended, and the cords remained uncut. And agreat, dangerous fire was kindling in the woods. And now Carl's onlyhope for Virginia was, that she would take advantage of its light tomake good her retreat from the mountain.