With Lee in Virginia: A Story of the American Civil War by G. A. Henty (good book recommendations .txt) 📕

The girl looked doubtful for a moment, and then she shook her head.

"I could not think of that, sir. It would be difficult enough for you to get through the enemy by yourselves. It would add terribly to your danger to have us with you."

"I do not think so," Vincent replied. "Two men would be sure to be questioned and suspected, but a party like ours would be far less likely to excite suspicion. Every foot we get south we shall find ourselves more and more among peopl[Pg 192]e who are friendly to us, and although they might be afraid to give shelter to men, they would not refuse to take women in. I really think, Miss Kingston, that this plan is the best. In the first place, it would be a dangerous journey for you through the woods to Nashville, and if you fall into the hands of any of those ruffians who have been here you may expect no mercy. At Nashville you will have great difficulty in obtaining employment of any kind, and even suppose you went further north your position as a friendless girl would be a most painful one. As to your staying here, that is plainly out of the question. I think that there is no time to lose in making a decision. Those fellows may go to the camp at the bridge, give their account of the affair, declare that they have been attacked by a party of Confederate sympathizers, and return here with a troop of horse."

"What do you say, Chloe?" Lucy asked.

"I'se ready to go wid you whereber you like, Miss Lucy; but I do tink dat, in times like dis, dat a young gal is best wid her own folk. It may be hard work getting across, but as to danger dar can't be much more danger than dar has been in stopping along here, so it seems to me best to do as dis young officer says."

"Very well, then, I will, sir. We will go under your protection, and will give you as little trouble as we can. We will be ready in five minutes. Now, Chloe, let us put a few things together. The fewer the better. Just a small bundle which we can carry in our hands."

In a few minutes they returned to the room, Chloe carrying a large basket, and looking somewhat ruffled.

"Chloe is a little upset," the girl said, smiling, "because I won't put my best clothes on; and the leaving her Sunday gown behind is a sore trouble to her."

"No wonder, sah," Chloe said. "Why, dey say dat thar am no pretty dresses in de 'Federacy, and dat blue gown wid red spots is just as good as new, and it am downright awful to tink dat dose fellows will come back and take it."

"Never mind, Chloe,[Pg 193]" Vincent said, smiling. "No doubt we are short of pretty dresses in the South, but I dare say we shall be able to find you something that will be almost as good. But we must not stand talking. You are sure you have got everything of value, Miss Kingston?"

"I have got my purse," she said, "and Chloe has got some food. I don't think there is anything else worth taking in the house."

"Very well, we will be off," Vincent said, leading the way to the door.

A minute later Dan rode past, and Vincent called him and told him they were going to start.

"Shall we take de horses, sah?"

"No, Dan. We are going to carry out our original plan of crossing the river in a boat, and I think the horses would be rather in our way than not. But you had better not leave them here. Take them to the farther side of the clearing, and get them through the fence into the forest, then strike across as quickly as you can and join us where we were stopping to-day. Miss Kingston and her servant are going with us. They cannot stay here after what has taken place."

Dan at once rode off with the two horses, and the others walked across to the edge of the clearing and waited until he rejoined them.

"Now, Miss Kingston, you must be our guide at present."

"We must cross the road, first," the girl said. "Nearly opposite to where we are there is a little path through the wood, leading straight down to the river. The boat lies only a short distance from it."

The path was a narrow one, and it was very dark under the trees.

"Mind how you go," Vincent said, as the girl stepped lightly on ahead. "You might get a heavy fall if you caught your foot in a root."

She instantly moderated her pace. "I know the path well, but it was thoug[Pg 194]htless of me to walk so fast. I forgot you did not know it, and if you were to stumble you might hurt your arm terribly. How does it feel now?"

"It certainly hurts a bit," Vincent replied in a cheerful tone; "but now it is strapped tightly to me it cannot move much. Please do not worry about me."

"Ah!" she said, "I cannot forget how you got it—how you attacked twelve men to save me!"

"Still less can I forget, Miss Kingston, how you, a young girl, confronted death rather than say a word that would place me in their power."

"That was quite different, Mr. Wingfield. My own honor was pledged not to betray you, who had trusted me."

"Well, we will cry quits for the present, Miss Kingston; or, rather, we will be content to remain for the present in each other's debt."

A quarter of an hour's walking brought them to the river.

"Now," Lucy said, "we must make our way about ten yards through these bushes to the right."

With some difficulty they passed through the thick screen of bushes, the girl still leading the way.

"Here it is," she said; "I have my hand upon it." Vincent was soon beside her, and the negress quickly joined them.

"There are no oars in the boat," Vincent said, feeling along the seat.

"Oh, I forgot! They are stowed away behind the bushes on the right; they were taken out, so that if the Yankees found the boat it would be of no use to them."

Dan made his way through the bushes, and soon found the oars. Then, uniting their strength, they pushed the boat through the high rushes that screened it from the river.

"It is afloat," Vincent said. "Now, Dan, take your place in the bow."

"I will row, Mr. Wingfield. I am a very good hand at it. So please take your seat with Chloe in the stern."

"Dan [Pg 195]can take one oar, anyhow," Vincent replied; "but I will let you row instead of me. I am afraid I should make a poor hand of it with only one arm."

The boat pushed quietly out. The river was about a hundred yards wide at this point. They had taken but a few strokes when Vincent said:

"You must row hard, Miss Kingston, or we shall have to swim for it. The water is coming through the seams fast."

The girl and Dan exerted themselves to the utmost; but, short as was the passage, the boat was full almost to the gunwale before they reached the opposite bank, the heat of the sun having caused the planks to open during the months it had been lying ashore.

"This is a wet beginning," Lucy Kingston said, laughing, as she tried to wring the water out of the lower part of her dress. "Here, Chloe; you wring me and I will wring you."

"Now, Dan, get hold of that head-rope," Vincent said; "haul her up little by little as the water runs out over the stern."

"I should not trouble about the boat, Mr. Wingfield; it is not likely we shall ever want it again."

"I was not thinking of the boat; I was thinking of ourselves. If it should happen to be noticed at the next bridge as it drifted down, it would at once suggest to anyone on the lookout for us that we had crossed the river; whereas, if we get it among the bushes here, they will believe that we are hidden in the woods or have headed back to the North; and we shall be a long way across the line, I hope, before they give up searching for us in the woods on the other side."

"Yes; I didn't think of that. We will help you with the rope."

The boat was very heavy, now that it was full of water. Inch by inch it was pulled up, until the water was all out except near the stern. Dan and Vincent then turned it bottom upward, and it was soon hauled up among the bushes.

[Pg 196]

"Now, Miss Kingston, which do you think is our best course? I know nothing whatever of the geography here."

"The next town is Mount Pleasant; that is where the Williamsport road passes the railway. If we keep south we shall strike the railway, and that will take us to Mount Pleasant. After that the road goes on to Florence on the Tennessee River. The only place that I know of on the road is Lawrenceburg. That is about forty miles from here, and I have heard that the Yankees are on the line from there right and left. I believe our troops are at Florence; but I am not sure about that, because both parties are constantly shifting their position, and I hear very little, as you may suppose, of what is being done. Anyhow, I think we cannot do better than go on until we strike the railway, keep along by that till we get within a short distance of Mount Pleasant, and then cross it. After that we can decide whether we will travel by the road or keep on through the woods. But we cannot find our way through the woods at night; we should lose ourselves before we had gone twenty yards."

"I am afraid we should, Miss Kingston."

"Please call me Lucy," the girl interrupted. "I am never called anything else, and I am sure this is not a time for ceremony."

"I think that it will be better; and will you please call me Vincent? It is much shorter and pleasanter using our first names; and as we must pass for brother and sister, if we get among the Yankees, it is better to get accustomed to it. I quite agree with you that it will be too dark to find our way through the woods unless we can discover a path. Dan and I will see if we can find one. If we can, I think it will be better to go on a little way at any rate, so as to get our feet warm and let our clothes dry a little."

"They will not dry to-night," Lucy said. "It is so damp in the woods that even if our clothes were dry now they would be wet before morning."

"I did not think [Pg 197]of that. Yes, in that case I do not see that we should gain anything by going farther; we will push on for two or three hundred yards, if we can, and then we can light a fire without there being any chance of its being seen from the other side."

"That would be comfortable, Mr.—I mean Vincent," the girl agreed. "That is, if you are quite sure that it would be safe. I would rather be wet all night than that we should run any risks."

"I am sure if we can get a couple of hundred yards into this thick wood the fire would not be seen through it," Vincent said; "of course I do not mean to make a great bonfire which would light up the forest."

For half an hour they forced their way through the bushes, and then Vincent said he was sure that they had come far enough. Finding a small open space, Dan and Lucy, and the negress set to work collecting leaves and dry sticks. Vincent had still in his pocket the newspaper he had bought in the streets of Nashville, and he always carried lights. A piece of the paper was crumpled up and lighted, a few of the driest leaves that they could find dropped upon it, then a few twigs, until at last a good fire was burning.

"I think that is enough for the present," Vincent said. "Now we will keep on adding wood as fast as it burns down, so as to get a great pile of embers, and keep two or three good big logs