by Oliver Optic
CHAPTER XXXII
THE SKIRMISH IN THE GREAT CIRCLE
Probably the leader of the marauders hurried the march of his followersas the Falstaffian column approached the village, in order to preventthe news of their coming from being circulated too soon. At any rate,Deck came down the slope at the best speed Ceph could make some timebefore the sergeant expected to see him.
"Coming, be they, Deck?" inquired he when Deck reined in before him.
"They are hurrying up, pounding their horses with their heels and thebutts of their guns," replied Deck. "I don't believe there is a nag inthe procession that can make over six miles an hour."
"Have they left the blocusses on foot behind?"
"No; but I fancy they are about out of wind by this time, for they arerunning to keep up."
"All right, Deck. I have seen your pa, and you can go down and tell himall you know; for I am posted here to signal him when the right timefor him to move has come."
Deck obeyed the order; but he had nothing special to report, except thenearer approach of the ruffians. He fell back when he had said what hehad to say, and watched eagerly for the signal from the sergeant. He wasto keep near the major, to carry his orders if any were to be sent out;but this would not prevent him from taking part in the fight. Even hisfather had provided himself with a sabre, which he was ready to wield inthe conflict if occasion required; not otherwise. The carbines of theplatoon had been unslung, and the men were in readiness to fire a volleywhen the time came.
"There is Knox's signal, father!" exclaimed Deck, as the major hadturned away to answer a question of the colonel.
The commander had seen the sergeant waving his cap very vigorously atthe corner. The time had come. The colonel and the clergyman, with thosesurrounding them, were the only ones who were excited. The platoon wasas steady as though it was to march to a prayer-meeting.
"Gallop--march!" said the major to Lieutenant Gilder, who was in commandof the body.
Both the magnate and the minister had provided themselves with rifles,and insisted upon doing their share of the fighting, though Major Lyonassured them that he had force enough to handle double that of theenemy. The lieutenant gave the orders in detail, and the command was offin a moment. The major rode on the flank of the platoon, and thecitizens followed him. Deck kept at the side of his father. Artie waswith the captain; and his office was to carry any report or informationto the major, if the circumstances should require.
We prefer to look through the eyes of Deck at the scene that followed.As soon as he reached the corner, somewhat in advance of the body of thecompany, he discovered the enemy. The mounted men were riding at thebest speed of the miserable animals on which they were mounted; and verysoon they reached what Knox called "the great circle," which was laidout to set off the grand entrance to Greeltop, the name of the estate ofthe colonel; and the village had taken its designation from the statelymansion and grounds. Before they reached this arena, they set up aseries of frightful yells, evidently intended to intimidate the peopleof the village, and make them believe that the imps of the infernalregions had all broken in upon them at once.
The avenue was very wide, and the platoon resolved itself into "companyfront" at the command of the lieutenant. This was the first view theenemy had of the Union force waiting for them. The body advanced at agallop, till the officer reduced the speed, and then formed them in adouble rank. Lieutenant Gilder gave the orders in detail, which resultedin a volley, before which half-a-dozen saddles were emptied.
"Sling--carbine!" shouted the lieutenant before the smoke enabled themen to see what execution they had executed. "Draw--sabre!"
As the smoke rolled away the enemy was seen to be badly broken up, andthe leader was using his best efforts to rally his undisciplinedsoldiers. But his men had fired as soon as they saw the troopers infront of them, and two of the latter had been wounded. The volley hadhardly been discharged by the portion of the company in front of themarauders, when Captain Gordon was seen at the head of his men. He drewthem up in such a position as to avoid sending the bullets into themidst of the other portion of his company.
Another volley followed from his men; and more of the wretches in frontof them dropped from their saddles, or fell over if they were notmounted. A panic seized the enemy; and the major ordered his lieutenantnot to charge upon the guerillas in accordance with the usual programmeof the squadron.
"Dexter!" called the commander.
"Here, Major!" replied the orderly promptly, as he saluted thecommander, with his drawn sabre ready for the charge.
"Ride around the flank of the enemy as quick as you can, and giveCaptain Gordon my order not to charge till I send him word," said themajor. "Be careful of yourself, and return if you find the passagedangerous."
It did not look like a perilous undertaking to the father, or he wouldnot have sent his son with the message. The action had come to look likea mere butchery to him, and he was not willing to engage in any inhumanslaughter. Deck dashed along the front of the company; for there was aspace of at least a hundred feet between them and the enemy. Theunmounted men were crushing in a mass to get behind the horses; for theyexpected another murderous volley.
Deck forced his horse into the broad gutter; for Ceph was more inclinedto leap into the crowd of guerillas, as he had been trained to do. Hesaw the captain several rods from him, and he urged his steed forward toreach him. His uniform seemed to be a hateful sight to the banditti; anda couple of them rushed in front of him to intercept his passage. One ofthem raised his musket to fire at him; but the intrepid trooper struckit down with his sabre. The other did not attempt to shoot him, andprobably his gun was not loaded. Both of the men kept their places infront of him, and were trying to beat him down with their clubbedweapons.
This was just the sport for Ceph; and, at the right signal from hisrider, he made a spring into the air, with the evident intention ofleaping over the obstacle in front of him. At the same time Deck made avigorous use of his sabre, and hit the foremost of the men in the head,which caused him to spread himself out on the ground. Ceph went clearover the other, and the rider gave him a blow with the weapon in hishand as he did so.
Ceph went flying the rest of the way; and the guerillas did not attemptto stop him. The young horseman had a good chance to see the conditionof the enemy at a glance. The footmen had hemmed in the horses in theirefforts to escape the expected bullets; and there was no question in hismind that the horde had already been effectually defeated. If thesergeant's big bag had been ready, they were all ready to go into it.
"Good Heaven, Deck!" exclaimed Captain Gordon, rushing up to him withall the speed of his horse. "Did you cut through the enemy?"
"Not exactly, Captain," replied Deck. "I am here to deliver to you MajorLyon's order not to charge the enemy without a special order to thateffect."
"I haven't given that order yet, for the enemy are about crushedalready; but I intended to follow up the charge of the rest of thecompany on the other side. But I saw you, Deck, engaged against two menin front of you only a few minutes ago; and I was about to order theplatoon to charge in order to rescue you. I thought the first companyhad lost one of its best soldiers then."
"But I have come through all right, Captain," added Deck, laughing atthe excitement of his officer. "Ceph always does me a good turn when Iget into a tight place, and he did this time."
"There come some more of the men from the other side of the house,"added the captain, as he pointed to the way the orderly had come.
Deck looked, and saw Life Knox, with a dozen troopers, rushing along thegutter through which he had come; but the guerillas did not attempt tomolest them, for they were formidable enough to have beaten the wholesquad of the enemy, even before they had lost a man.
"Major Lyon sent me after you, Deck," said the sergeant, as he stoppedhis horse in front of him. "You had a narrow squeak of it that time, myboy."
"No, I didn't, Life; what's the use of making such a to-do aboutnothi
ng? I'm all right," replied Deck, who thought his father and therest of them were treating him like an infant.
"But your pa was tearing his hair like a mother that had lost her baby,to think he had sent you into such a tight place," added Knox. "He would'a' sent the whole company after you in two minutes more. But you aresafe, and I thought you'd gone to feed the worms sure."
"The worms will not dine on me just yet. I am going back now to my placeon the other side of the enemy," said Deck. "You can come when you getready, Life."
As he spoke he wheeled his trusty steed, and intimated to him that hewas ready; whereupon Ceph made a spring, and darted off at a breakneckspeed.
"Hold on, Baby!" shouted the sergeant, calling him by a name he had usedbefore, to which Deck did not object as long as the Kentuckian did nottreat him like an infant. "We uns kim over to escort you back!"
"Obey your orders, Life," returned the furious young rider, without evenlooking behind him.
Knox started after him with all the hurry there was in his steed; butthere was hardly a horse in the squadron that could run as fast asCeph, for he had been trained to this branch of his equine profession asa racer. But none of the guerillas were disposed to meddle with himagain; and perhaps the two who had attacked him before had mistaken hisintentions. He rode into the presence of the major, saluted himgracefully; and the cavalrymen who had witnessed his encounter broke outin a cheer.
"Captain Gordon replied that he did not give the order to charge,because he was waiting for you to begin on this side of the enemy," saidDeck.
"Thank Heaven that you are safe, Dexter!" replied the father devoutly.
"Heaven and Ceph," added the young hero.
The father was busy just then, and he said no more. As soon as Deck hadstarted with his message, Major Lyon realized that the action wouldbecome a slaughter, and he was anxious to stay the flow of blood. He wasnot willing to cut down the men in front of him with the sabres of hissoldiers; for they appeared to be helpless, as much from panic as fromthe want of proper arms.
"Do you surrender?" he shouted at the top of his lungs, directing hisvoice to the mass of the wretches gathered in the centre of the greatcircle.
No one answered him, and probably no one heard him. He orderedLieutenant Gilder to move his men forward very slowly. This officer wasin front of his troopers; and he led the way as directed, the majorremaining on the flank.
The lieutenant raised his white handkerchief on his sabre, and waved itin the air to indicate his peaceful intentions. When he had gone halfthe distance to the enemy, he halted the platoon.
"Do you surrender?" he shouted at the top of his voice.
The answer was the discharge of half-a-dozen muskets by the mountedguerillas who held the front of the mass. Lieutenant Gilder dropped fromhis horse to the ground; and something like a confused cheer went upfrom the men who had fired the volley. Sergeant Knox was the next incommand; and, pushing his horse to the front, he waved his sabre in theair.
"Draw--pistol!" he cried. "Ready--aim--fire!"
The pistols were all ready for use, and the men fired them into thefront rank of the enemy, which seemed to contain all the fightingability there was left in the band. They were reloading their old guns;but some of them did not live to complete the operation. Dr. Farnwright,who had been near the major, rushed forward, and Knox sent two men toassist him. Regardless of the danger of the position, the surgeon rushedto the front to attend to the lieutenant.
"Platoon--charge!" shouted the sergeant, afraid that the work of thedoctor would be impeded by the senseless operations of the mob.
The troopers, with the sergeant in front of them, darted at the mass ofbanditti in the circle; but they fell back only to precipitatethemselves upon the command of Captain Gordon behind them. At thismoment Major Lyon ordered his bugler to sound the recall. The soldiersfell back only a very short distance in obedience to the signal, andthey had hardly struck a blow. They held the enemy where they were.