Part 21 (2/2)
”It was in no way your fault; pray do not consider that I can ever blame you for the outcome.”
Her eyes were upon me; I could view her face in the starlight, and for the moment I utterly forgot the man who rested there between us.
”If you could only know,” I exclaimed eagerly, ”how sincerely I long to serve you,--to atone in some small way for all the difficulty I have brought into your life; how my heart throbs to your presence as to that of no other living woman--”
She hushed my impetuous words with the gesture of a queen, and rose to her feet facing me. Under the stars our eyes looked into each other, and her face was very white.
”You must not,” she said firmly, and I thought she glanced down upon the motionless figure at her feet. ”I have trusted you; do not cause me to regret it now.”
I bowed, humiliated to the very depths of my soul.
”Your rebuke is perfectly just,” I answered slowly. ”G.o.d knows I shall never be guilty again. You will have faith in me?”
”Always, everywhere--whether it ever be our fate to meet again or not.
But now you must go.”
”Go? And leave you here alone? Are you not afraid?”
”Afraid?” she looked about her into the darkness. ”Of what? Surely you do not mean of Frank--of Major Brennan? And as to my being alone, our quarters are within a scant hundred yards from here, and a single cry will bring me aid in plenty. Hus.h.!.+ what was that?”
It was the shuffling tread of many feet, the st.u.r.dy tramp of a body of infantry on the march.
”Go!” she cried hurriedly. ”If you would truly serve me, if you care at all for me, do not longer delay and be discovered here. It is the grand rounds. I beg of you, go!”
I grasped her outstretched hand, pressed my lips hotly upon it, and sped with noiseless footsteps down the black, deserted road.
CHAPTER XIX
THE CAVALRY OUTPOST
I LINGERED merely long enough to feel a.s.sured as to her safety, creeping closer until I heard her simple story of the Major's fall from his horse, and then watched through the night shadows while the little squad bore his unconscious form over the crest of the low hill toward their quarters. Then I turned my face eastward and tramped resolutely on.
The excitement of the night, and especially the sharp, fierce struggle with Brennan, had reawakened all my old military enthusiasm, and I felt every nerve tingling anew as I breasted the long slope before me. Even the depression naturally resulting from my unhappy parting with Edith Brennan gave way for the time being to this sense of surrounding danger, while the ardor of youth responded joyfully to the spirit of adventure. I simply would not think of what I had lost; certainly would not permit its memory to depress me. I was, first of all, a soldier, and nothing short of death or capture should prevent me reaching Lee with my message. Let what would happen, all else could wait!
The gleam of the stars fell upon the double row of b.u.t.tons down the breast of the coat I wore, and I stopped suddenly with an exclamation of disgust. Nothing could be gained by longer masquerade, and I felt inexpressible shame at being thus attired. Neither pa.s.s nor uniform would suffice to get me safe through those outer picket lines, and if I should fall in the attempt, or be again made prisoner, I vastly preferred meeting my fate clad in the faded gray of my own regiment.
With odd sense of relief I hastily stripped off the gorgeous trappings, flung them in the ditch beside the road, and pressed on, feeling like a new man.
There was small need for caution here, and for more than an hour I tramped steadily along, never meeting a person or being startled by a suspicious sound. Then, as I rounded a low eminence I perceived before me the dark outline of trees which marked the course of the White Briar, while directly in my front, and half obscured by thick leaves of the underbrush, blazed the red glare of a fire. I knew the stream well, its steep banks of precipitate rock, its rapid, swirling current which, I was well aware, I was not a sufficiently expert swimmer to cross.
Once upon the other bank I should be comparatively safe, but to pa.s.s that picket post and attain the ford was certain to require all the good fortune I could ever hope for.
But despair was never for long my comrade, and I had learned how determination opens doors to the courageous--it is ever he who tries that enters in. It took me ten minutes, possibly, creeping much of the way like a wild animal over the rocks, but at the end of that time I had attained a position well within the dense thicket, and could observe clearly the ground before me and some of the obstacles to be overcome.
As I supposed, it was a cavalry outpost; I could distinguish the crossed sabres on the caps of the men, although it was some time before I was able to determine positively where their horses were picketed.
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