Part 41 (2/2)
”Unnecessary?”
”I have an understanding with Swartz, and he with me.”
”What is that?”
”That we shall not employ the carnal weapon; only destroy each other by superior generals.h.i.+p.”
”You speak in enigmas, Nighthawk!”
”And yet, my meaning is very simple. If I can have Swartz arrested and hung, or he me, it is all fair. But we have agreed not to fight.”
”So, if you caught him to-night, you could have him hung as a spy?”
”Yes, colonel; but nothing would induce me to betray him.”
”Ah!”
”I have given him my parol, that he shall have safe conduct!”
I laughed, bade Nighthawk good-bye, and left him smiling as I had found him. In ten minutes I was again on the Brock road, riding on through the darkness, between the impenetrable thickets.
XXVI.
STUART SINGS.
My reflections were by no means gay. The scenes at the lonely house had not been cheerful and mirth-inspiring.
That grinning corpse, with the crust of bread in the bony fingers; that stain of blood on the floor; the grave of Achmed; lastly, the appointment of the mysterious Nighthawk with the Federal spy; all were fantastic and lugubrious.
Who was Nighthawk, and what was his connection with Mohun? Who was Mohun, and what had been his previous history? Who was this youth of unbounded wealth, as Nighthawk had intimated, in whose life personages supposed to be dead, but still alive, had figured?
”Decidedly, Mohun and Nighthawk are two enigmas!” I muttered, ”and I give the affair up.”
With which words I spurred on, and soon debouched on the Orange plank road, leading toward Mine Run.
As I entered it, I heard hoof-strokes on the resounding boards, and a company of hors.e.m.e.n cantered toward me through the darkness. As they came, I heard a gay voice singing the lines:--
”I wake up in the morning, I wake up in the morning, I wake up in the morning, Before the break o' day!”
There was no mistaking that gay sound. It was Stuart, riding at the head of his staff and couriers.
In a moment he had come up, and promptly halted me.
”Ah! that's you, Surry!” he exclaimed with a laugh, ”wandering about here in the Wilderness! What news?”
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