Part 23 (1/2)
”Here it is,” she said; ”I have my hand upon it.” Vincent was soon beside her, and the negroes 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 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 pa.s.sage, 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 ash.o.r.e.
”This is a wet beginning,” Lucy Kingston said laugh 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 any one 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.
”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 pa.s.ses 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 s.h.i.+fting 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 Vin. It is much shorter and pleasanter using our first names; and as we must pa.s.s 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 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 it being seen from the other side.”
”That would be comfortable, Mr.--I mean Vin,” the girl agreed.