Part 20 (1/2)
Owen Raynes was an easy-going young man; familiar with the practical jokes of the army, enjoying them with the most keen relish when no one's feelings were hurt, and no damage was done to person or property. He was not, therefore, disposed to put a serious construction on what seemed to him to be one of these farces; but his father took an entirely different view of the affair. He wanted to argue the question, and show that it could not be a joke; but Somers was too impatient to listen to any eloquence of this description.
Sue, who had now actually found the young man who had been indicated as her ”manifest destiny,” was in no hurry to part with him; and when the father proposed that Owen and Allan should accompany the impostor, as he insisted upon calling him, to the brigade headquarters, where his pa.s.s was dated, she decidedly objected to the proposition. The earnestness of Mr. Raynes, however, at last vanquished her and the young man; and they started to escort our young lieutenant to the place indicated.
Now, Somers, being a modest man, as we have always held him up to our readers, and being averse to all the pomp and parade of martial glory in its application to himself, was strongly averse to an escort. He preferred to go alone, tell his own story, and fight his own battles, if battles there were to be fought. Owen and Allan were unutterably affectionate. They received him into their small circle of fellows.h.i.+p, and stuck to him like a brother. They were both good fellows, splendid fellows; and, under ordinary circ.u.mstances, Somers would have been delighted to cultivate their friends.h.i.+p. As it was, he ungratefully resolved to give them the slip at the first convenient opportunity.
Unhappily for him, no opportunity occurred, for his zealous friends would not permit him to go a single rod from them; and Somers had about made up his mind to trust the matter to the judgment of Major Platner, who had shown a remarkable discrimination during the former interview, when the trio came to a line of sentinels guarding a brigade camp.
”What regiment do you belong to?” demanded the guard.
”Fourth Alabama,” replied Owen.
”You can't pa.s.s this line, then.”
”But I have a pa.s.s,” interposed Somers.
”Show your pa.s.s.”
Somers showed the important doc.u.ment, which the sentinel, after a patient study, succeeded in deciphering.
”Your pa.s.s is right--pa.s.s on; but you can't go through,” he added to Owen and Allan.
Owen explained.
CHAPTER XIV
THE REBEL DIVISION GENERAL
The sentinel listened very patiently to the explanation of Owen Raynes; but, as he proceeded, the face of the soldier relaxed till his muscles had contracted into a broad grin. The sergeant of the guard was then sent for, and the explanation repeated. At its conclusion, both the sentinel and the sergeant seemed to be disposed to laugh in the faces of the twin friends, so keenly were the former alive to the ludicrous.
”That's a very pretty story, my men! You, without the pa.s.s, are going to see that everything is right about the man that has the pa.s.s; in other words, the devils are going to see that the angels don't do anything wicked,” said the sergeant, laughing at the awkward position of Owen and Allan, and perhaps quite as much at the sharpness of his own ill.u.s.tration.
”We are entirely satisfied in regard to this young man,” said Owen; ”but we have come in order to satisfy another person, who believes that he is an impostor. We promised to take him to Major Platner.”
”You can't enter these lines without a pa.s.s,” replied the sergeant firmly. ”This man can go through; for he has a pa.s.s,” he added to Somers.
”As I am all right, and in a hurry, I will proceed to the brigade headquarters,” said Somers. ”Now, good-by, my friends; I am very glad to have met you, and much obliged to you for the trouble you have taken to come so far with me.”
”You take it coolly,” laughed Owen.
”Perhaps, if you desire to go to the brigade headquarters, the sergeant will let you pa.s.s, if I will vouch for you,” continued Somers with great good humor.
”We are not very particular.”
”What do you say, sergeant?”
”My orders are to permit no stragglers from other camps to pa.s.s these lines, and I shall obey my orders to the letter,” replied the official, who, for some reason or other, seemed to be prejudiced against Somers's friends.
”Stragglers!” exclaimed the sensitive Allan. ”I think we have gone far enough.”