CHAPTER XXXVI. CONVICTED BY A DUMB WITNESS--SHORT RATIONS--A CAPTURE.
|The boys pushed on as fast as they could, but it was not possible tomake so good time with so many horses to lead as though they had beenunencumbered. But they had a good start at any rate, and besides,they had brought away the horses of their would-be captors, and thusdiminished the chances of pursuit.
“Those fellows from the woods have n’t any horses to follow us with,that’s certain,” said Harry; “but there’s no telling how many our latehost may have in his barn, or close by in the brush.”
“That’s so,” answered Jack; “but I don’t believe he has many. There wasonly one in the barn when we put up our horses, and we’ve got him alongwith us. But quite likely he has some out in the brush, and they mayscare up two or three saddles and come after us. What shall we do ifthey turn up?”
“Let their horses go, and cut for Forsyth as fast as we can,” saidHarry; “that’s the only thing I can suggest, or at any rate the safestthing. They ‘ll stop to get their horses, and we ‘ll easily outrunthem.”
Jack agreed to the suggestion, and it was resolved to put it intopractice in case of necessity. As time went on it was evident that Mr.Jones did n’t have any extra horses handy, as there were no indicationsof pursuit, and as daylight approached the boys began to feel safe.Every hour brought them nearer the camp of the army, and they knew thatonce within the lines they could tell their story in perfect security.
Suddenly they heard the sound of horses’ feet behind them, and asthey looked back they saw three or four men riding rapidly in theirdirection. The glance showed that the men were in the costume of thecountry, and quite likely they were the pursuers whom the boys dreaded.
“We’re in for it now,” exclaimed Harry. “Let go your horses and I ‘lllet go mine.”
“Not much,” answered Jack; “just look ahead.”
Harry looked and saw approaching from the other direction a squad of tenor twelve cavalry in the Union blue.
Harry wanted to shout, “Hurrah!” but just then he was too much occupiedto do it. He took in the situation in an instant; they were aboutequally distant from their pursuers and the cavalry, and the advantagein their favor was that they could get to the shelter of their friendsbefore they could possibly be overtaken by the bushwhackers. The latteralso saw the predicament they were in and immediately checked theirspeed. The sergeant of the cavalry saw that there was something wrong,and he and his men came forward at a gallop.
“Go for those fellows and I ‘ll explain afterwards,” said Harry, as thesergeant drew rein near him. The sergeant recognized the youths and didnot wait for further words. Away went the cavalry in chase, and in alittle while returned with two captured horses and one man, the resthaving got away.
The cavalry squad accompanied the boys to the picket line, which wasonly half a mile further along the road. The picket-guard was just thenbeing relieved, and the prisoner was turned over to it and sent to campalong with the captured horses. The squad then proceeded on the foragingexpedition for which it had started when it so opportunely met ouryoung friends and saved them from trouble. The boys went triumphantlyto General Vandever with their prizes, and told the story of theiradventure to a group of interested listeners. They were the heroes ofthe day, and received a liberal amount of praise for the shrewd mannerin which they not only got out of their predicament, but turned it totheir advantage. Of course they carefully concealed the part whichthe girl played in warning them, but pretended that they overheard theconversation between Mr. Jones and his wife after they had retired andwere supposed to be in bed.
The prisoner stoutly denied any complicity in the attempted capture ofthe youths, and professed the most thorough ignorance of them or anydesire to pursue and retake the runaways. He explained that he and hisfriends had come from Douglas county in search of some stray cattle,and were just on the point of turning back when they saw the boys and amoment afterward the cavalry.
There was nothing to disprove his story, and no evidence against himexcept the circumstantial evidence that he and his friends were ridingvery rapidly toward the youths before they saw the cavalry, and triedhard to get away immediately afterwards. If their mission was aninnocent one, there was no reason for their fast riding; and furthermorethey had no need to be as alarmed as they were on seeing the soldiers.But of course this was only circumstantial, and he might havebeen released but for a suggestion from Harry, on which action wasimmediately taken.
The five horses which Harry and Jack had secured at the time of theirhasty flight from Mr. Jones’s house were turned loose in the yard; theyhad not been fed since their night-journey, and might fairly be supposedto be hungry.
Soon after they had thus been put by themselves the officer who hadcharge of the prisoner suggested that they would go and see what thegeneral had to say on the subject of liberating the captive. As if byaccident they crossed the yard where the horses where inclosed, theprisoner not suspecting the trick and being too intent on his releaseto observe the presence of the captured animals, especially as they weremingled with some ten or twelve others.
As they entered the yard one of the horses came familiarly up to theprisoner, rubbed his nose against the man’s shoulder, and in otherways gave most positive testimony that he had found his master. Theidentification of the man by the horse was complete. As the officer andhis charge walked around the yard and then out of it, the horse followedlike a dog; and though the man protested that he had never before seteyes on the animal, the evidence was altogether too strong against himto be doubted.
“That’s enough,” said the officer, when the horse had followed the manfor five or six minutes. “We’ll hold on to you for a while and see what‘ll turn up. Guess we ‘ll send you to St. Louis and have you tried forbushwhacking.”
At this the fellow broke down and confessed to his connection withthe plan for abducting the boys. Then he was plied with questions, andbefore his inquisitors were through with him they had elicited a gooddeal of valuable information. On the strength of this information anexpedition was immediately sent out, which succeeded in capturing asmall camp and securing a goodly supply of provisions that had beenaccumulated for the purpose of sending to Price’s army as soon as theway was open. Altogether the performance of Harry and Jack on thatmemorable night “panned out” very well, to use the expression of agold-miner belonging to one of the companies of the Ninth Iowa.
A few days after the occurrences above narrated the army moved toBatesville, Arkansas, farther down the White river, and at a point whereGeneral Curtis expected to be met by gun-boats convoying steamers withsupplies and ammunition for his army. No enemy opposed them, and therewere no incidents of consequence on the march. There was a small forceof rebel cavalry in the town, but it fled before the advance of the armyafter firing a few shots, which did no harm to any one.
Harry and Jack now believed that the long-talked-of advance on LittleRock had begun. Batesville is about one hundred miles from that city,and if unopposed in its march, the army could easily reach it in a weekor ten days. The rumor went through the army that Little Rock was theobjective point of the campaign, and bets were freely offered that thestars and stripes would float over the capital of Arkansas long beforethe fourth of July.
But there were serious difficulties in the way of the advance in thedesired direction. In the first place, the river was unusually lowfor that season of the year, as it had only four feet of water in thechannel, while the gun-boats and most of the transports needed not lessthan five or six feet. One of the gun-boats that tried to ascend theriver was blown up by a rebel battery at St. Charles, and the transportscould not move without the aid of their armed brothers. The wagon roadto Rolla was a long one and open to interruptions by raiding bandsof rebels. One entire train was captured and destroyed by them withinthirty miles of Rolla, and other trains were more or less interferedwith. The army was short of food and ammunition, and in such a conditionit could not take the offensive.
To add to General Curtis’s perplexities a part of his army (tenregiments) were ordered to join the forces of General Halleck, thenbesieging Corinth, Mississippi, and to move with all possible haste.They were ordered in the direction of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, twohundred and forty miles away. They performed the march in ten days, anaverage of twenty-four miles a day, which may be considered one of thebest instances of marching during the war. Many of the men wore outtheir shoes on the journey, and were barefooted for the last fifty orsixty miles. The withdrawal of this force, added to the scarcity ofprovisions and ammunition, made the army too weak to venture upon LittleRock, and General Curtis began to turn his eyes in the direction of theMississippi river.
The army remained seven weeks at Batesville, and during that period itsent out many foraging expeditions, in the hope of collecting provisionsenough to subsist it without drawing upon its scanty supply of rationswhich it had received from Rolla. But in spite of all efforts the supplycould not be maintained, and many a time the soldiers had to live twodays upon food that would have been no more than enough for one. Thegun-boats and the transports did not come, and instead of rising theriver continued to fall.
Harry and Jack accompanied many of the foraging expeditions, and, onseveral occasions, they were of much practical service. Harry was ableto find concealed stores of pork and bacon where others declaredthere was nothing, and one day Jack brought from under a heap of strawsufficient bacon to feed a whole regiment for nearly a week. Harry hada keen eye for chickens, and whenever he went on a tour it was anoticeable circumstance that General Vandever usually had chicken thatday for supper. Jack was as sharp after pigs as Harry was for chickens,and many were the young porkers that fell into his hands.
One day they ran into a scouting party of rebels, and the foraging partyhad a sharp skirmish with their adversaries over the possession of ahaystack. The rebels were discomfited and the unionists secured thecoveted prize, but not until three of their number had been wounded, oneof them severely. The rebels suffered to the extent of having two menkilled, two or three wounded and four captured. The prisoners were takenback to camp under guard of two soldiers, assisted by our young friends,who kept a sharp watch to prevent the escape of the captives. Duringthe march Harry fell into conversation with one of them, and very soonlearned something that caused him to open his eyes with astonishment.
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The Lost Army Page 36