Part 17 (1/2)

”Now and then a good idea springs up in some way in that old head of yours, George. I'll do the same.”

Dalton opened the top drawer.

”Something has been left here,” he said.

He held up a large doll with blue eyes and yellow hair.

”As sure as we're living,” said Harry, ”we're in the room of little Miss Julia Moncrieffe, aged nine, the young lady who sent us the holly. Evidently they took away all their clothing and lighter articles of furniture, but they forgot the doll. Put it back, George. They'll return to Fredericksburg some day and we want her to find it there.”

”You're right, Harry,” said Dalton, as he replaced the doll and closed the drawer. ”You and I ought to be grateful to that little girl whom we may never see.”

”We won't forget,” said Harry, as he undressed rapidly and lay down upon their luxurious bed of blankets and straw.

Neither of them remembered anything until they were dragged into the middle of the room next morning by St. Clair and Langdon.

”Here! here! wake up! wake up!” cried Langdon. ”It's not polite to your hosts to be snoring away when breakfast is almost ready. Go down on a piece of the back porch that's left, and you'll find two pans of cold water in which you can wash your faces. It's true the pans are frozen over, but you can break the ice, and it will remind you of home and your little boyhood.”

They sprang up and dressed as rapidly as they could, because when they came from the covers they found it icy cold in the room. Then they ran down, as they had been directed, broke the ice in the pans and bathed their faces.

”Fine air,” said Harry.

”Yes, but too much of it,” said Dalton.

”Br-h-h-h-h, how it freezes me! Look at the icicles, George! I think some new ones came to town last night! And what a cold river! I don't believe there was ever a colder-looking river than the Rappahannock!”

”And see the fogs and mists rising from it, too. It looks exactly as it did the morning of the battle.”

”Let it look as it pleases,” said Harry. ”I'm going to make a dash for the inside and a fire!”

They found the colonels and the rest of the staff in the sitting-room, all except two, who were acting as cooks, but their work ceased in a moment or two, as breakfast was ready. It consisted of coffee and bread and ham left over from the night before. A heap of timber glowed in the fireplace and shot forth ruddy flames. Harry's soul fairly warmed within him.

”Sit down, all of you,” said Colonel Talbot, ”and we'll help one another.”

They ate with the appet.i.te of the soldier, and Colonel Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel St. Hilaire, finis.h.i.+ng first, withdrew to a wide window seat. There they produced the board and box of chessmen and proceeded to rearrange them exactly as they were before the battle of Fredericksburg.

”You will recall that your king was in great danger, Leonidas,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire.

”Truly I do, Hector, but I do not think it beyond my power to rescue him.”

”It will be a hard task, Leonidas.”

”Hector, I would have you to remember that I am an officer in the Army of Northern Virginia, and the Army of Northern Virginia prefers hard tasks to easy ones.”

”You put the truth happily, Leonidas, but I must insist that your position is one of uncommon danger.”

”I recognize the fact fully, Hector, but I a.s.sert firmly that I will rescue my red king.”

Harry, his part of the work finished, watched them. The two gray heads bent lower and lower over the table until they almost touched. Everybody maintained a respectful silence. Colonel Talbot's brow was corded deeply with thought. It was a full quarter of an hour before he made a move, and then his opponent looked surprised.

”That does not seem to be your right move, Leonidas.”