Part 87 (2/2)
”Yes--” was the firm answer. ”Listen to this--”
She seized a copy of the morning paper.
”Colonel Dahlgren's instructions to his men. This doc.u.ment was found on his person when shot. There is no question of its genuineness--”
She paused and read in cold hard tones:
”Guides, pioneers (with oak.u.m, turpentine and torpedoes), signal officer, quarter master, commissary, scouts, and picket men in rebel uniform--remain on the north bank and move down with the force on the south bank. If communications can be kept up without giving an alarm it must be done. Everything depends upon a surprise, and no one must be allowed to pa.s.s ahead of this column. All mills must be burned and the ca.n.a.l destroyed. Keep the force on the southern side posted of any important movement of the enemy, and in case of danger some of the scouts must swim the river and bring us information. We must try to secure the bridge to the city (one mile below Belle Isle) and release the prisoners at the same time. If we do not succeed they must then dash down, and we will try to carry the bridge from each side. The bridges once secured, and the prisoners loosed and over the river, the bridges will be secured and the city destroyed--”
Jennie paused and lifted her eyes burning with feverish light.
”Merciful G.o.d! How? With oak.u.m and turpentine. A city of one hundred thousand inhabitants, under the cover of darkness--men, women and children, the aged, the poor, the helpless!”
Socola made no answer. A thoughtful dreamy look masked his handsome features.
Jennie read the next sentence from the Dahlgren paper in high quivering tones:
”The men must be kept together and well in hand, and once in the city, it must be destroyed and _Jeff Davis and his Cabinet_ killed--”
The girl paused and fixed her gaze on Socola.
”The man who planned that raid came with the willful and deliberate murder of unarmed men in his soul. The man who helped him inside is equally guilty of his crime--”
She resumed her reading without waiting for reply.
”Prisoners will go along with combustible material. The officer must use his discretion about the time of a.s.sisting us. Pioneers must be prepared to construct a bridge or destroy one. They must have plenty of oak.u.m and turpentine for burning, which will be rolled in soaked b.a.l.l.s, and given to the men to burn when we get into the city--”
Socola lifted his hand.
”Please, dear--these instructions are not mine. I do not excuse or palliate them. The daring youngster who conceived this paid the penalty with his life. It's all that any of us can give for his country. There's something that interests me now far more than this sensation--far more than the mere fact that my true business here has been discovered by you and my life forfeited to your Government--”
”And that is?”
”That the woman I love can deliver me to death--”
”You doubt it?”
”I had not believed it possible.”
”I'll show you.”
Jennie stepped to the door and pulled the old-fas.h.i.+oned bell-cord.
A servant appeared.
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