Part 14 (2/2)
”I have much reason to be obliged to the cap,” said Mason dryly. ”That or the skull must have had a reasonable portion of thickness, I admit.”
”Come, come, Tom, you are a licensed joker, so I'll not feign anger with you,” returned the captain, good-humoredly. ”But Singleton's lieutenant, I am fearful, will fare better than yourself for this day's service.”
”I believe both of us will be spared the pain of receiving promotion purchased by the death of a comrade and friend,” observed Mason kindly. ”It was reported that Sitgreaves said he would live.”
”From my soul I hope so,” exclaimed Lawton. ”For a beardless face, that boy carries the stoutest heart I have ever met with. It surprises me, however, that as we both fell at the same instant, the men behaved so well.”
”For the compliment, I might thank you,” cried the lieutenant with a laugh; ”but modesty forbids. I did my best to stop them, but without success.”
”Stop them!” roared the captain. ”Would you stop men in the middle of a charge?”
”I thought they were going the wrong way,” answered the subaltern.
”Ah! our fall drove them to the right about?”
”It was either your fall, or apprehensions of their own; until the major rallied us, we were in admirable disorder.”
”Dunwoodie! the major was on the crupper of the Dutchman.”
”Ah! but he managed to get off the crupper of the Dutchman. He came in, at half speed, with the other two troops, and riding between us and the enemy, with that imperative way he has when roused, brought us in line in the twinkling of an eye. Then it was,” added the lieutenant, with animation, ”that we sent John Bull to the bushes. Oh! it was a sweet charge-heads and tails, until we were upon them.”
”The devil! What a sight I missed!”
”You slept through it all.”
”Yes,” returned the other, with a sigh; ”it was all lost to me and poor George Singleton. But, Tom, what will George's sister say to this fair-haired maiden, in yonder white building?”
”Hang herself in her garters,” said the subaltern. ”I owe a proper respect to my superiors, but two such angels are more than justly falls to the share of one man, unless he be a Turk or a Hindoo.”
”Yes, yes,” said the captain, quickly, ”the major is ever preaching morality to the youngsters, but he is a sly fellow in the main. Do you observe how fond he is of the cross roads above this valley? Now, if I were to halt the troops twice in the same place, you would all swear there was a petticoat in the wind.”
”You are well known to the corps.”
”Well, Tom, a slanderous propensity is incurable-but,” stretching forward his body in the direction he was gazing, as if to aid him in distinguis.h.i.+ng objects through the darkness, ”what animal is moving through the field on our right?”
”'Tis a man,” said Mason, looking intently at the suspicious object.
”By his hump 'tis a dromedary!” added the captain, eying it keenly.
Wheeling his horse suddenly from the highway he exclaimed, ”Harvey Birch!-take him, dead or alive!”
Mason and a few of the leading dragoons only understood the sudden cry, but it was heard throughout the line. A dozen of the men, with the lieutenant at their head, followed the impetuous Lawton, and their speed threatened the pursued with a sudden termination of the race.
Birch prudently kept his position on the rock, where he had been seen by the pa.s.sing glance of Henry Wharton, until evening had begun to shroud the surrounding objects in darkness. From this height he had seen all the events of the day, as they occurred. He had watched with a beating heart the departure of the troops under Dunwoodie, and with difficulty had curbed his impatience until the obscurity of night should render his moving free from danger. He had not, however, completed a fourth of his way to his own residence, when his quick ear distinguished the tread of the approaching horse. Trusting to the increasing darkness, he determined to persevere. By crouching and moving quickly along the surface of the ground, he hoped yet to escape unseen. Captain Lawton was too much engrossed with the foregoing conversation to suffer his eyes to indulge in their usual wandering; and the peddler, perceiving by the voices that the enemy he most feared had pa.s.sed, yielded to his impatience, and stood erect, in order to make greater progress. The moment his body arose above the shadow of the ground, it was seen, and the chase commenced. For a single instant, Birch was helpless, his blood curdling in his veins at the imminence of the danger, and his legs refusing their natural and necessary office. But it was only for a moment. Casting his pack where he stood, and instinctively tightening the belt he wore, the peddler betook himself to flight. He knew that by bringing himself in a line with his pursuers and the wood, his form would be lost to sight. This he soon effected, and he was straining every nerve to gain the wood itself, when several hors.e.m.e.n rode by him but a short distance on his left, and cut him off from this place of refuge. The peddler threw himself on the ground as they came near him, and was pa.s.sed unseen. But delay now became too dangerous for him to remain in that position. He accordingly rose, and still keeping in the shadow of the wood, along the skirts of which he heard voices crying to each other to be watchful, he ran with incredible speed in a parallel line, but in an opposite direction, to the march of the dragoons.
The confusion of the chase had been heard by the whole of the men, though none distinctly understood the order of Lawton but those who followed. The remainder were lost in doubt as to the duty that was required of them; and the aforesaid cornet was making eager inquiries of the trooper near him on the subject, when a man, at a short distance in his rear, crossed the road at a single bound. At the same instant, the stentorian voice of Lawton rang through the valley, shouting,-
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