In the Saddle

by Oliver Optic

  CHAPTER XXVIII

  A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE

  The night passed without any alarm. The sentinels were relieved atregular intervals, including the two who patrolled the by-road. Thelatter complained, when others were put in their places, that they mightas well be asleep in the camp, for they could see nothing of the Texans.There was only one place where they could obtain a view of them when itwas light enough for them to see anything.

  The night was unusually dark, for a heavy mass of black clouds hadrolled up from the west, promising a smart shower. The Rangers hadextinguished their fires at an early hour in the evening, for whatreason the guards were unable to determine; but the fact was suspicious,and they redoubled their vigilance. The last that had been seen of thebemired troopers, they were building the causeway of hay to unite withthe one of solid rocks and earth built by the farmer to obtain accessto his hay-field.

  This causeway was believed to be the only possible way to get on or offthe meadow. Captain Gordon had made a survey of the locality in person,and had gone up the road as far as the house of the farmer, the only onein the vicinity. He had met the native in his walk, and had questionedhim with all the skill he possessed in regard to the surroundings; forthe fellow was not disposed to give any information. The only statementof any importance he could drag out of him was that the causeway was theonly way by which the Texans could leave the meadow. The captain couldsee none himself, though he believed from his manner that the man waslying to him.

  The place looked as though there had been an immense sink-hole there atsome remote period in the past, which had been filled up by the washfrom the hills around it. This flow had brought down quantities of dryleaves and other vegetable matter; and this, with the growth of rankgrass and weeds decaying on the spot, had formed what is called a bog inIreland, and a peat meadow in the Northern States.

  There was fuel enough in it to supply a village for a hundred years; butwood was so plentiful in this region that it would not pay to cut, dry,and carry it to more solid ground. Whether the captain was satisfied ornor with his investigations, he could obtain no further information. Themeadow seemed to be surrounded with rocky formations; though hisknowledge of it, obtained in the darkness, was very imperfect. But heand his men had seen the troopers laying the causeway of hay to the oneof earth, as though they believed this was the only avenue of escape.

  The two sentinels extended their beat as far as the farmer's house.After nine o'clock in the evening its windows were dark, and the peoplewithin appeared to have retired. But the big dog of the native did notretire with the rest of the family, and he made a rude attack upon theguards every time they approached the house. About midnight he hadassailed one of the men so furiously that he was obliged to defendhimself with his sabre; and the brute was so badly wounded that nothingmore was seen of him. His dead body was found the next morning near thehouse; and the farmer was as furious as the canine had been, though hehad a proper respect for carbines and sabres.

  When the guard was relieved after midnight, all was quiet on the meadow,and it was believed that the troopers had taken to their blankets. Oneof the sentinels declared that he could hear them snore; but this wasdoubtless a camp-fire exaggeration. They watched the causeway, as theyhad been instructed to do; and certainly none of the Texans came outthat way. One of them proposed to explore the space between the by-roadand the position of the troopers; but the other insisted that such anenterprise would result in certain death, for no doubt the enemy hadsentinels whose carbines were loaded with ball cartridges.

  So far as the guards could report, there was no change at the by-roadduring the night. The headquarters tent had been pitched, and Major Lyonhad been up half the night studying his maps, and repeatedly reading thewritten orders he had received, as well as a mass of newspaper cuttingswhich had been sent with them. The latter were, for the most part,accounts of outrages committed by Confederate cavalry of companies of"Partisan Rangers," and of bands who were not provided with even thedoubtful authority of the insurrectionary government.

  Before daylight in the morning Major Lyon was on his feet; for he feltthat he was loaded with a heavy responsibility. He was charged with theprotection of the railroad bridges in the vicinity, though he was to beimmediately relieved from this duty to enable him to assist with themore vigor in suppressing the guerillas and other predatory bands.Artie, now his orderly, slept in the tent with him, and he was sent tohave "The Assembly of Buglers" sounded; and this is the call for thetroopers to appear on the parade.

  There was a commotion at the guard quarters; and before Artie had rousedthe bugler from his slumbers, he was called by the officer of the day.Was Major Lyon awake? He was, for he had called his orderly.

  "Inform him at once that the sentinel from the by-road reports thedisappearance of the enemy in the bog," said the officer.

  As soon as he received the information, the major hastened to the guardtent, where the sentinel who had brought the news was detained. Thetrooper repeated his information to the commander. It was hardly lightenough in the bog to see anything, but he and his mate had satisfiedthemselves that the Rangers had all disappeared; but of how or wherethey had made their escape he had no knowledge.

  "Did you hear no noise of any kind?" asked the major.

  "Nothing at all; it was as still as a tomb all the time I was on guard,"replied the sentinel. "We were not sure they were gone till we walkedout a piece on the meadow, and found the hay, of which they had made aroad to solid ground; but it did not lead to the causeway."

  "Where did it lead?" demanded the major.

  "In the direction of the farmer's house; but we did not follow it, forit was decided that I should come up to the camp and report what we hadfound out."

  "Who was with you, More?" asked the officer of the guard.

  "Bunch; and he was to follow the hay-road after I left him," replied thesentinel.

  Major Lyon was very prompt in deciding upon his action, and the firstcompany was soon in line, and ready to march. Deck belonged in one ofits ranks, and Artie was in close attendance upon the commander. As theformer had conducted the detachment "across lots" the afternoon before,the major sent for him; and the two young soldiers rode side by sidebehind their father, who had Captain Gordon at his side.

  "It seems that we are to have a long tramp of it after this; and we arenot likely to be at home Christmas or Thanksgiving this year," saidArtie, as the column descended the hill to the by-road.

  "Wherever we may be, it looks like a lively time ahead; for things seemto be very much mixed in the State," replied Deck.

  "How do you suppose the Texans got out of the mud-hole, Deck?"

  "I don't know; but I have no doubt the farmer who lives near it and ownsthe farm helped them out of it. He is a surly fellow, and I saw that hewas a Secessionist when I met him."

  "What do these two darkies want?" asked Artie, pointing to a couple ofcolored men, who were running down the hill from the northward as thoughtheir very lives depended upon their speed.

  "Probably they are messengers who have come from the vicinity of thebridge by the same route I did," replied Deck, as he noticed that oneof them was flourishing what looked like a letter in the air.

  The two men reached the brook before the column turned in at theby-road, and had a chance to catch their breath before the officers cameup to them. They had probably seen the column come out from the camp,and had hurried to intercept it before it turned into the highway theysaw ahead; and it was probable that they were familiar with thelocality.

  "W'ich o' you uns is Mars'r Major Lyon?" asked the man with the letterof the first one he met, who happened to be Deck.

  "The one with the plume in his hat," replied the private. "Where do youcome from, Caesar?"

  "From de souf road; more'n a t'ousand so'diers dar. De man wid de federin his hat," replied the negro, as he rushed forward to the major anddelivered his letter, with a jumbled speech, of which the recipient tookno notice.

 
Major Lyon drew up his horse at the side of the brook, his sonsremaining with him, while the column continued on the march. He toreopen the envelope, and read the epistle written with a pencil.

  "Be'n a-lookin' fo' you all night, Mars'r," said the bearer. "De gin'raldone gib me de letter 'fo' dark, an done tell me to find you. Done trampseben miles on de roleraid; but we done couldn't found you."

  "Where did you sleep?" asked the major, who was evidently pleased withthe information contained in the letter.

  "In a swotch-house," replied the messenger, who was very much confused,and his small stock of English was badly mixed. "In a swotch-house on deroleraid."

  "He means a switch-house," laughed Deck, who could not see why thefellow upset his words so badly.

  The major read the missive a second time, and then took a sort ofportfolio from his pocket, and hastily wrote a reply to it, which hefolded and pinned together in the absence of an envelope.

  "How did you find us this morning?" asked the major.

  "We done find de hoss-tracks an' de wagon-tracks, an' we follers dem."

  "Here's a dollar for your service; but don't spend it for apple-jack, myboy," said the major, as he handed a couple of half-dollars to themessengers. "You may go to the camp yonder, and get something to eat, ifyou like, before you return."

  The men were grateful; and the one who received the money gave half ofit to his companion. The major and his orderlies hurried forward, andfound that Captain Gordon had halted the company at the causeway, wherethe inquiry must begin.

  "The Home Guards arrived at the bridge last night, and the captain ofthe company reports to me as directed. I have written out whatinformation I have to give him, and you will send a couple of your mento deliver the paper."

  Two troopers were despatched at once as the bearers of the order. It waspossible that the men might encounter some of the Rangers who hadescaped from the other side of the meadow; and they were cautioned bythe major to be on the lookout for them, and to return as soon aspossible. They departed at a gallop, which promised a speedy return.

  "One thing is plain enough: the Texans did not come out of the mire bythis causeway," said the major, as he turned his attention to thequestion under consideration.

  "The sentinels were here all night," replied Captain Gordon.

  "But we can easily discover where they did escape," added the commanderas he dismounted, indicating that he intended to conduct the inquirypersonally; and Deck and Artie followed his example. "Detail ten men togo with us, dismounted, and you will go with us, Captain."

  Deck and Artie were directed to go ahead as guides. They descended thecauseway, and came to the sod that covered and concealed the mudbeneath. The turf was strong enough to support men on foot, as had beenseen the afternoon before in the movements of the Rangers. But the hoofsof the horses cut through it, and they were mired as soon as theyadvanced, though some of them wallowed a considerable distance beforethey gave up the struggle.

  The meadow was nearly round in form, and about half a mile in diameter.The orderlies, as both of them soon came to be called, advanced safely,though they were compelled to avoid the places where the Texans' horseshad cut up the sod and brought the mud to the surface. The material ofthe hay causeway, which had at first been extended in the direction ofthe solid one, had been removed; but leading from the brook, towards apoint above the farmer's house, they saw the one that must have beenused by the Rangers.

  The two haystacks seen the day before had been entirely removed, and theroad built of it was about a foot deep of hay. The officers and the tenmen followed the guides; and the hay causeway conducted them to aninclined plane built of old boards and planks, which the party mounted,and came to a field near the road. The mysterious disappearance of theTexans was fully explained.