Part 41 (2/2)
Soon they entered the mountains, and they met many Confederate soldiers returning to their homes. Harry always sought from them news of his father, and he learned at last that he was somewhere in the western part of the state. Then he heard, a day or two later, that a band of guerrillas to the south of them were plundering and sometimes murdering. They believed from what details they could gather that it was Slade and Skelly with a new force, and they thought it advisable to turn much farther toward the west.
”The longest way 'round is sometimes the shortest way through,” said Sergeant Whitley, and the others agreed with him. They came into a country settled then but little. The mountains were clothed in deep forest, now in the full glory of early spring, and the log cabins were few. Usually they slept, the nights through, in the forest, and they helped out their food supply with game. The sergeant shot two deer, and they secured wild turkeys and quant.i.ties of smaller game.
Although they heard that the guerrillas were moving farther west, which necessitated the continuation of their own course in that direction, they seemed to have entered another world. Where they were, at least, there was nothing but peace, the peace of the wilderness which made a strong appeal to all of them. In the evenings by their campfire in the forest De Langeais would often play for them on his violin, and the great trees about them seemed to rustle with approval, as a haunting melody came back in echoes from the valleys.
They had been riding a week through a wilderness almost unbroken when, just before sunset, they heard a distant singing sound, singularly like that of De Langeais' violin.
”It is a violin,” said De Langeais, ”but it's not mine. The sound comes from a point at the head of the cove before us.”
They rode into the little valley and the song of the violin grew louder. It was somebody vigorously playing ”Old Dan Tucker,” and as the woods opened they saw a stout log cabin, a brook and some fields. The musician, a stalwart young man, sat in the doorway of the house. A handsome young woman was cooking outside, and a little child was playing happily on the gra.s.s.
”I'll ride forward and speak to them,” said Harry Kenton. ”That man and I are old friends.”
The violin ceased, as the thud of hoofs drew near, but Harry, springing from his horse, held out his hand to the man and said:
”How are you, d.i.c.k Jones? I see that the prophecy has come true!”
The man stared at him a moment or two in astonishment, and then grasped his hand.
”It's Mr. Kenton!” he cried, ”an' them's your friends behind you. 'Light, strangers, 'light! Yes, Mr. Kenton, it's come true. I've been back home a week, an' not a scratch on me, though I've fit into nigh onto a thousand battles. I reckon my wife, that's Mandy there, wished so hard fur me to come back that the Lord let her have her way. But 'light, strangers! 'Light an' hev supper!”
”We will,” said Harry, ”but we're not going to crowd you out of your house. We've plenty of food with us, and we're accustomed to sleeping out of doors.”
Nevertheless the hospitality of d.i.c.k Jones and his wife, Mandy, was unbounded. It was arranged that the two colonels should sleep inside, while the others took to the gra.s.s with their blankets. Liberal contributions were made to the common larder by the travelers, and they had an abundant supper, after which the men sat outside, the colonels smoking good old North Carolina weed, and Mrs. Jones knitting in the dusk.
”Don't you and your family get lonesome here sometimes, Mr. Jones?” asked Harry.
”Never,” replied the mountaineer. ”You see I've had enough o' noise an' mult.i.tudes. More than once I've seen two hundred thousand men fightin', and I've heard the cannon roarin', days without stoppin'. I still git to dreamin' at night 'bout all them battles, an' when I awake, an' set up sudden like an' hear nothin' outside but the tricklin' o' the branch an' the wind in the leaves, I'm thankful that them four years are over, an' n.o.body is shootin' at n.o.body else. An' it's hard now an' then to b'lieve that they're really an' truly over.”
”But how about Mrs. Jones?”
”She an' the baby stayed here four whole years without me, but we've got neighbors, though you can't see 'em fur the trees. Jest over the ridge lives her mother, an' down Jones' Creek, into which the branch runs, lives her married sister, an' my own father ain't more'n four miles away. The settlements are right thick 'roun' here, an' we hev good times.”
Mrs. Jones nodded her emphatic a.s.sent.
”Which way do you-all 'low to be goin' tomorrow?” asked Jones.
”We think we'd better keep to the west,” replied Colonel Talbot. ”We've heard of a guerrilla band under two men, Slade and Skelly, who are making trouble to the southward.”
”I've heard of 'em too,” said Jones, ”an' I reckon they're 'bout the meanest sc.u.m the war hez throwed up. The troops will be after 'em afore long, an' will clean 'em out, but I guess they'll do a lot o' damage afore then. You gen'lemen will be wise to stick to your plan, an' keep on toward the west.”
They departed the next morning, taking with them the memory of a very pleasant meeting, and once more pursued their way through the wilderness. Harry, despite inquiries at every possible place, heard nothing more of his father, and concluded that, after the surrender, he must have gone at once to Kentucky, expecting his son to come there by another way.
But the reports of Slade and Skelly were so numerous and so sinister that they made a complete change of plan. The colonels, St. Clair and Langdon, would not try to go direct to South Carolina, but the whole party would cling together, ride to Kentucky, and then those who lived farther south could return home chiefly by rail. It seemed, on the whole, much the wiser way, and, curving back a little to the north, they entered by and by the high mountains on the line between Virginia and Kentucky. Other returning soldiers had joined them and their party now numbered thirty brave, well-armed men.
They entered Kentucky at a point near the old Wilderness Road, and, from a lofty crest, looked down upon a sea of ridges, heavy with green forest, and narrow valleys between, in which sparkled brooks or little rivers. The hearts of Harry and d.i.c.k beat high. They were going home. What awaited them at Pendleton? Neither had heard from the town or anybody in it for a long time. Antic.i.p.ation was not unmingled with anxiety.
Two days later they entered a valley, and when they stopped at noon for their usual rest Harry Kenton rode some distance up a creek, thinking that he might rouse a deer out of the underbrush. Although the country looked extremely wild and particularly suited to game, he found none, but unwilling to give up he continued the hunt, riding much farther than he was aware.
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