CHAPTER XVII. A SUCCESSFUL SCOUT--CAPTURE OF A REBEL CAVALRY SQUAD.
|Are they friends or enemies?” was the question which rosesimultaneously in the thoughts of the two adventurers. One thing wascertain, they were not a cavalry scouting party from Rolla, as theywere not in the army uniform, but were dressed in the common garb of thecountry, the universal “butternut.”
Two of the men dismounted and entered the house, or rather stepped justwithin the doorway, while the others remained in their saddles and heldthe horses of the two already mentioned. The first question of the onewho appeared to be leader was:
“Any Yanks about to-day?”
Receiving a negative reply, he asked if they had anything to drink. Thehost said he had just a drop of whisky, but he was afraid there was n’tenough to go around. He brought out a bottle, and as it was less thanhalf-full it was very evident that it would be a small allowance for theparty of horsemen, supposing all of them were thirsty.
The captain, as his comrades called him, proceeded to fill the bottlewith water, thus diluting its contents, and then remarked that hethought it would go around. After taking a good-sized drink for himselfhe went outside and handed the bottle over to his subordinates, by whomit was speedily emptied.
While they were discussing the whisky and remarking upon its thinness,the captain questioned the two youths, who replied as they hadpreviously arranged to do. They told the story they had already givenseveral times, and which they had begun to believe was entirely withinthe bounds of truth. The captain seemed somewhat suspicious at first,but before they were through talking he fell into the same error as didthe woman at whose house they stopped in the morning.
“We’re going south, too,” said the captain, “soon as we can raise moremen and horses. If you’d only a couple of horses we’d jest take youalong. But you don’t look old enough for soldiers. How old are you?”
Jack said they would be sixteen very soon, and he added that perhaps thewar might last long enough for them to get their full size. He echoedthe wish of the captain that they had horses to travel with, so thatthey could go along with his company.
“Well, p’r’aps you ‘ll find some in a day or two,” the captain answered;“there’s some of these Union men round here that ‘ve got horses we oughtto have.”
Jack took the hint and indicated their willingness to help themselvesto horses whenever they could find any. This was satisfactory to thecaptain, and he said that they might join him as soon as they weremounted, and it would n’t be very hard to find him if they asked in theright quarters.
Then he gave them several names of men who could be relied upon, andtold where they lived. They covered a distance of fifteen or twentymiles to the east and south, so that as soon as the youths had suppliedthemselves with horses they could find out the captain’s rendezvous.“But don’t trust this man,” said the captain, nodding in the directionof the house in front of which they stood. “He talks South to ourfellows and North to the Yanks when they come around, and nobody knowswhere to put him exactly. He’s trying to carry water on both shoulders,and ‘ll be likely to spill it if he don’t look out sharp.” Then thecaptain mounted his horse, after handing the empty bottle to the farmer,and the troop of Southern recruits rode off. The farmer was evidentlyglad to see them going away, and also not at all sorry when the boysfollowed in the same direction. He had heard only a small part of theconversation between them, but evidently caught enough of it to divineits purport.
“It’s getting rather exciting,” said Harry, as soon as they were alone.“Had n’t we better go back to Rolla and tell what we’ve seen and heard,so as to put the colonel on the track of the captain who wants us tobecome horse-thieves?”
“I’ve been thinking the same thing,” said Jack; “but how will we workit?”
“That’s the question,” Harry responded. “It won’t do to turn round now,as we should be suspected by everybody who has seen us, and particularlyby the man where we had dinner. I think he’s a Union man, or neutralanyhow; but we ‘ll take the captain’s advice, and not trust him.”
“I have it,” said Jack. “We’re tired now, and will go into the woodsand have a sleep. We’re about fifteen miles from Rolla, and can get backthere by morning. Soon as it’s dark we can start back and go just asfast as we can, and by breakfast time to-morrow we ‘ll have a party ofcavalry on the heels of the captain.”
This was agreed to, and at once the boys, in the parlance of theSouthwest, “took to the woods.” They slept soundly till dark, and thentook the back track for Rolla. Fortunately they met nobody save a man ina farm-wagon, and as they heard the sound of his wheels some time beforehe reached them they had abundant opportunity to conceal themselves bythe roadside till he had passed.
Just at daylight they reached the pickets outside of Rolla, and wereimmediately taken before the colonel, who received them in his tent andheard their story. Then he sent for a lieutenant of cavalry, who was atonce dispatched with twenty men to hunt for the captain and his band ofhorse-thieves. Jack and Harry offered to accompany them, but thecaptain declined, partly because they were in great need of rest, havingtraveled thirty miles in about twenty-six hours and been awake allnight, and partly because they would be recognized by those who had seenthem on the road, and by the captain and his men in case they should beencountered.
“But do us one favor,” said Jack, when he found that their desire toaccompany the party would not be granted.
“Anything in reason,” said the lieutenant; “what is it?”
Then he told about the woman who had given them the milk and asked themto stay to dinner, and he described the house so that it could not bemistaken.
“Well, what about her?” asked the lieutenant, as Jack paused.
“Take her this,” said Jack, handing out a package containing half apound of tea, which he had obtained from the colonel’s servant whilethey were waiting the arrival of the lieutenant, after the boys had toldtheir story. “Just leave it and say it is from friends; you need n’ttell her anything more, and it isn’t necessary for her to know. We feelrather guilty at having had her hospitality for nothing, and want tocompensate her in some way.”
The lieutenant laughed as he tossed the package to his sergeant and gavethe order to mount. In two minutes the party was off. It was accompaniedby two Union men, natives in that region, who were to act as guides indesignating the roads leading to the probable retreat of the captainwith whom the youths had formed so brief an acquaintance.
The lieutenant carried out the request of the boys and left the woman agood deal puzzled over the affair. He did not stop five minutes at thehouse, and briefly told her that an old friend had sent her somethinghe thought would be acceptable. As the boys could not in any sense beconsidered old friends, she never once thought of them, and especiallyas they had gone, as she supposed, to the South, and turned their backsaltogether upon Rolla and the way the Yankees came from.
Let us follow the scouting party and see how it turned out.
About fifteen miles out from Rolla, and near the point where Jack andHarry turned back, the lieutenant halted his men and sought a place ofconcealment in the woods by the roadside, first putting out a picket toprevent any one passing in either direction. Then, as the Union guideswere known, he had them change clothing and horses with two of the men,whom he sent forward to one of the secessionists whose name had beengiven by the rebel captain to the youths. For this work he selected twoyoung and beardless men, on the chance that the captain had told thesecessionist that the two youths might ask his whereabouts.
The lieutenant’s calculations were correct. The resident readily toldwhere the captain was to be found, and the men returned by a circuitousroute to where the soldiers were waiting for the desired information.Then there was a change back again to clothing and horses as before, andthe hunt for the human game was renewed.
So well was the affair managed that the whole band was captured withoutthe shedding of a drop of blood.
/> With the aid of the guides the camp of the rebel recruits was surroundedand the whole party was taken by surprise. At first they were inclinedto fight, but when they saw their assailants were double their number,and also were better armed, they considered discretion the better partof valor and gave up as gracefully as they could.
The lieutenant returned in triumph to Rolla with his prisoners and theirhorses. To guard against accidents the prisoners were not mounted ontheir own steeds, but carried in a wagon which formed a part of theircamp equipment. Four soldiers with their carbines ready rode on eachside of the wagon, and if any attempt had been made to escape it wouldhave resulted badly for those who tried it.
The captured horses were turned over to the quartermaster, with theexception of two, which the colonel gave to Jack and Harry for theirown use. Jack selected the one which had belonged to the captain, andremarked as he did so that he had carried out that gentleman’s wishesin helping himself to a horse, though possibly not in the way the latterintended.
The colonel praised the boys for what they had done, but advised them togive the region of their late operations a wide berth in future.