initial commit of ebook 26892HEADmain

1 files changed, 6492 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/26892.txt b/26892.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3324bc3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26892.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,6492 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Chasing an Iron Horse, by Edward Robins
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Chasing an Iron Horse
+       Or, A Boy's Adventures in the Civil War
+
+Author: Edward Robins
+
+Release Date: October 12, 2008 [EBook #26892]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHASING AN IRON HORSE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank, Juliet Sutherland and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "The Next Moment Was a Blank"]
+
+
+
+
+CHASING AN IRON HORSE
+Or
+A Boy's Adventures in the Civil War
+
+By
+EDWARD ROBINS
+
+Author of "With Washington in Braddock's Campaign,"
+"A Boy in Early Virginia," etc.
+
+[Illustration: QUI NON PROFICIT DEFICIT]
+
+PHILADELPHIA
+GEORGE W. JACOBS & CO.
+PUBLISHERS
+
+
+
+
+Copyright, 1902,
+By GEORGE W. JACOBS & Co.
+
+Published August, 1902.
+
+
+
+
+Preface
+
+The locomotive chase in Georgia, which forms what may be called the
+background of this story, was an actual occurrence of the great Civil War.
+But I wish to emphasize the fact that the following pages belong to the
+realm of fiction. Some of the incidents, and the character of Andrews, are
+historic, whilst other incidents and characters are imaginary. The reader
+who would like to procure an account of the chase as it really happened
+should consult the narrative of the Reverend William Pittenger. Mr.
+Pittenger took part in the expedition organized by Andrews, and his record
+of it is a graphic contribution to the annals of the conflict between
+North and South.
+
+                                                          Edward Robins.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER                           PAGE
+     I.  HAZARDOUS PLANS             7
+    II.  NEARING THE GOAL           27
+   III.  MINGLING WITH THE ENEMY    56
+    IV.  PLOT AND PLOTTERS          95
+     V.  ON THE RAIL               121
+    VI.  AN UNPLEASANT SURPRISE    156
+   VII.  ENERGETIC PURSUIT         188
+  VIII.  TWO WEARY WANDERERS       206
+    IX.  IN GREATEST PERIL         232
+     X.  FINAL TRIALS              263
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+"The Next Moment was a blank"                          Frontispiece
+The Major merely changed the position of his legs                82
+Fuller was steaming to the northward with "The Yonah"           192
+None too soon had he executed this manoeuvre                    214
+Watson placed his hand over the man's mouth                     270
+
+
+
+
+CHASING AN IRON HORSE
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+HAZARDOUS PLANS
+
+
+The lightning flashes, the mutterings of thunder, like the low growls of
+some angry animal, and the shrieking of the wind through swaying branches,
+gave a weird, uncanny effect to a scene which was being enacted, on a
+certain April night of the year 1862, in a secluded piece of woodland a
+mile or more east of the village of Shelbyville, Tennessee. In the centre
+of a small clearing hemmed in by trees stood a tall, full-bearded man of
+distinguished bearing. Around him were grouped twenty sturdy fellows who
+listened intently, despite the stir of the elements, to something that he
+was saying in a low, serious tone of voice. None of them, strangely
+enough, wore a uniform, although they were all loyal Union soldiers
+belonging to the division of troops commanded by General O. M. Mitchell,
+then encamped on the banks of Duck River, only a couple of miles away. For
+the country was now engaged in the life-and-death struggle of the Civil
+War, when Northerner fought against Southerner--sometimes brother against
+brother--and no one could predict whether the result would be a divided or
+a reunited nation.
+
+"My friends," the speaker was solemnly saying, as a new flash from the
+darkened heavens lit up the landscape for a second, and showed how
+resolute were the lines of his face; "my friends, if you go into this
+scheme with me, you are taking your lives into your hands. It's only fair
+that I should impress this upon you, and give any and all of you a chance
+to drop out."
+
+There was a quick, sharp clap of thunder, which was not loud enough,
+however, to drown the earnest protest of every listener. "We're not
+cowards, Andrews!" "We'll stick to you through thick and thin!" "Nobody's
+going to draw back!" These were among the fervent answers which greeted
+the leader addressed as Andrews. The latter was evidently pleased, though
+by no means surprised. He was dealing with brave men, and he knew his
+audience.
+
+"All the better, boys," he went on, with a complacent ring in his soft but
+penetrating voice. "You see, this is the situation. The Confederates are
+concentrating at Corinth, Mississippi, and Generals Grant and Buell are
+advancing by different routes against them. Now, our own General Mitchell
+finds himself in a position to press into East Tennessee as far as
+possible, and he hopes soon to seize Chattanooga, after he has taken
+Huntsville, Alabama. But to do this he must cut off Chattanooga from all
+railroad communication to the south and east, and therefore all aid. In
+other words, we men are to enter the enemy's country in disguise, capture
+a train on the Georgia State railroad, steam off with it, and burn the
+bridges leading in the direction of Chattanooga, on the northern end of
+the road. It is one of the most daring ideas ever conceived, and its
+execution will be full of difficulties. If we fail we shall be hanged as
+spies! If we succeed, there will be promotion and glory for all of us, and
+our names will go down into history."
+
+There was a murmur of encouragement from the men, as one said: "We must
+succeed, if only to save our necks." The next moment the barking of a dog
+could be heard above the whistling of the wind.
+
+"Be careful," cried Andrews, warningly; "some one may be listening."
+
+Hardly had he spoken before two figures bounded from the encircling trees
+into the open space wherein stood the startled conspirators. While flashes
+of lightning played through the branches, and gave fitful illumination to
+the scene, the men saw revealed a lad of about fifteen or sixteen years of
+age, flushed and breathless, and at his heels a tiny Yorkshire terrier,
+bright of face, and with an inquiring glance that seemed to say: "What is
+all this fuss about?" As the animal danced around the boy it was evident
+that the latter was by no means frightened, or even surprised, by the
+strangeness of this meeting in the forest. His regular, handsome features
+and intelligent, sparkling gray eyes denoted excitement rather than fear.
+He sprang forward, and, pulling a letter from an inner pocket of his blue
+jacket, made straight for Andrews.
+
+"Why, if it isn't George Knight," muttered one soldier, "and his chum,
+Waggie."
+
+The dog, hearing his own name, came up and fawned upon the man who had
+spoken, while the boy thrust into the hands of the leader the letter which
+he had so carefully guarded.
+
+"This is from General Mitchell," explained young Knight. "He said it was
+most urgent--and I was to fetch it to you as soon as possible."
+
+Andrews opened the letter, as he replied kindly to the lad: "You look out
+of breath, George. Did you have a hard time reaching here?"
+
+"As Waggie and I were hurrying up the Shelbyville road in the darkness,"
+returned George Knight, "we ran into a company of Confederate guerrillas.
+They paid us the compliment of firing at us--and we had to run for our
+lives. But we gave the fellows the slip."
+
+Thereupon Waggie gave a growl. Andrews, who was about to read the letter
+from General Mitchell, assumed a listening attitude. So did every one
+else. Out on the highroad, not a hundred yards away, could be heard the
+tramping of horses. Involuntarily the men put their hands towards the
+pockets which contained their revolvers.
+
+"The guerrillas!" muttered the boy, as Andrews gave him a questioning
+look.
+
+"How many are there of them?" asked the leader.
+
+"Hard to tell in the dark," answered George. "I think there were a dozen
+or so."
+
+"Oh, if that's all, let's give 'em a scare, boys!" laughed Andrews.
+Suiting the action to his words, he pulled out a pistol from his hip
+pocket, and fired it in the direction of the highroad. His companions,
+nothing loath, quickly followed his example. George and his canine chum
+looked on expectantly, as if regretting that neither of them possessed a
+weapon. Now there came the clatter of hoofs, like a stampede, and the
+guerrillas seemed to be engaged in a wild scramble to get away. They were
+an intrepid party, without doubt, but the sudden volley from the
+mysterious and darkened recesses of the woods (which might come, for all
+the Southerners knew, from a whole regiment of troops) demoralized them.
+In another instant they were scampering off, and the sound of the horses
+on the road was soon lost in the distance.
+
+Andrews replaced his revolver, with a little chuckle of amusement.
+
+"They are a daring lot to venture so near our army," he said. Then he
+began to read the letter, with the aid of a dark lantern provided by one
+of his companions.
+
+While he is engaged in this occupation let us ask two questions. Who is
+Andrews, and who is George Knight? James Andrews, though a Virginian by
+birth, has lived in the mountains of Kentucky for many years, and is now a
+spy of the Union army, in the employ of General Buell. The war is only
+fairly begun, but already more than once has the spy courted death by
+penetrating into the lines of the Confederacy, in the guise of a merchant,
+and bringing back to the Northern forces much valuable information. He is
+a man of fine education and polished manners, despite his life in the
+wilds, and is tall, aristocratic-looking, and full of a quiet courage
+which, in his own dangerous profession, answers far better than the
+greatest impetuosity. He has plenty of daring, but it is a daring tempered
+with prudence. Although he has masqueraded among the enemy at times when
+the slightest slip of the tongue might have betrayed him, he has thus far
+returned to the Union lines in safety. How long, some of his friends ask
+anxiously, will he be able to continue in so perilous an enterprise? Yet
+here he is, planning, with the consent of General Mitchell, a scheme
+bolder than anything yet dreamed of in the annals of the war.
+
+And what of George Knight? He is an active, healthy-minded drummer boy
+belonging to one of the Ohio regiments in General Mitchell's division. His
+mother had died in his infancy. At the outbreak of the war, a year before
+the opening of our story, he was living in Cincinnati with his father. The
+latter suddenly gave up a prosperous law practice to go to the help of the
+North, secured a commission as a captain of volunteers, went to the front,
+and was either captured or killed by the Confederates. Since the preceding
+Christmas nothing had been heard of him. George, with an aching heart,
+stayed at home with an uncle, and chafed grievously as he saw company
+after company of militia pass through his native town on the way to the
+South. Where was his father? This he asked himself twenty times a day. And
+must he, the son, stand idly by whilst thousands of the flower of the land
+were rushing forward to fight on one side or the other in the great
+conflict? "I must enlist!" George had cried, more than once. "Pshaw!"
+replied his uncle; "you are too young--a mere child." But one fine day
+George Knight had himself enrolled as a drummer boy in a regiment then
+being recruited in Cincinnati, and, as his uncle had a large family of his
+own, with no very strong affection to spare for his nephew, there was not
+as much objection as might have been expected. So the lad went to the war.
+He had now become a particular _protege_ of General Mitchell, who had
+taken him into his own service as an assistant secretary--a position in
+which George had already shown much natural cleverness.
+
+After reading the letter just brought to him, Andrews tears it into a
+hundred little pieces which he scatters to the winds.
+
+"What's the matter?" ask several of the men, as they crowd around him.
+
+"Hurry's the matter," laughs the leader, as unconcernedly as if he were
+speaking of nothing more dangerous than a picnic. "The General tells me we
+must start at once, if we want to accomplish anything. To-morrow [Tuesday]
+morning he takes his army straight south to Huntsville. If he captures the
+town by Friday, as he expects to do, he can move eastwards, to
+Chattanooga. So we will do our bridge-burning and our train-stealing on
+Friday, before the railroad is obstructed with trains bringing Confederate
+reinforcements to the latter city."
+
+Even in the darkness one could detect the gleam in the eyes of the men as
+they saw before them, with pleasure rather than fear, the risky part they
+were to play in the drama of warfare. The eyes of George sparkled,
+likewise.
+
+"If I could only go with them," he thought. What was camp life compared to
+the delight of such an adventure? Waggie gave a bark. Even he seemed to
+scent something interesting.
+
+"You soldiers," continued Andrews, "must break into detachments, make your
+way eastward into the Cumberland Mountains, and then southward, well into
+the Confederate lines. There you can take the cars, and by next Thursday
+night you must all meet me down at Marietta, Georgia. The next morning
+according to a plan which you will learn at Marietta, (which is on the
+Georgia State Railroad) we will put our little ruse into effect--and may
+providence smile on it."
+
+"But what will the men pretend to be while on their way down to Marietta?"
+asked George, who could scarce contain either his curiosity or his
+enthusiasm.
+
+"Look here, my boy," said Andrews, in a quick though not in an unkindly
+way. "I don't know that you should be hearing all this."
+
+Had the scene been less dark one might have seen the flush on the boy's
+face.
+
+"I didn't think I was playing eavesdropper," he retorted.
+
+Andrews put his right hand on George's shoulder. "Come," he said, in a
+spirit of friendliness; "I didn't exactly mean that. I know you're to be
+trusted, from what General Mitchell has said of you. But you must keep a
+tight rein on your tongue, and not say a syllable, even in camp, of this
+expedition. There's no reason why the whole army should be discussing
+it--until the thing's done. Then you can talk about it as much as you
+want."
+
+George no longer felt offended. "You can depend on me," he said manfully.
+"I won't even tell the General."
+
+At this there was a peal of laughter from the men, which seemed to be
+answered, the next instant, by a blinding fork of lightning, and then a
+fresh outburst of thunder. Andrews lifted up his hand warningly. He was
+very grave, as befitted a man on the verge of a mighty responsibility.
+
+"Not so loud," he protested. "You boys must impersonate Kentuckians who
+are trying to get down south to join the Confederate army. A great many
+fellows have gone from Kentucky to throw in their lot with the
+Confederacy, and if you are prudent you will have no trouble in making
+people believe you. If any of you fall under suspicion on the way, and are
+arrested, you can enlist in the Confederate army, and then escape from it
+at the first opportunity. The Southerners are glad to get all the recruits
+they can, suspicious or otherwise. But I hope you will all reach Marietta
+in safety. Pray be careful of one thing. If you meet me as we are
+traveling, don't recognize me unless you are sure no one is watching us.
+At Marietta we will contrive to meet in the hotel near the railroad
+station, where I will tell you all that is to be done the next morning."
+
+"We have no money for the journey," interposed a young volunteer. "Uncle
+Sam doesn't pay us privates very large salaries, you know, Mr. Andrews."
+
+Andrews produced a large wallet from the inner pocket of his overcoat. It
+was fairly bulging with paper money.
+
+"I've seen to that," he explained. "Here's a whole wad of Confederate
+currency which will pay your expenses through the Southern lines." And
+with that he began to deal out the bills to the men, who hastily stowed
+away the money in their own pockets.
+
+"Now, boys," went on the leader, "I want you to divide yourselves into
+parties of three or four, so that you may travel in separate groups, and
+thus avoid the suspicion which might be aroused if you all went in a body.
+And remember! One party must have nothing to do with another."
+
+Thereupon, in the gloomy woods, the future spies formed themselves, as
+their inclinations directed, into six parties or detachments, four
+containing three men each, and two containing four. Andrews was to proceed
+southward alone, without an escort. Poor George Knight and Waggie appeared
+to be left out in the cold. George was burning to join the expedition.
+Even the rain which suddenly began to fall could not quench his ardor.
+
+"Mr. Andrews," he said, coming up close to the leader, and speaking in a
+whisper, "can't I go to Marietta, too?"
+
+Andrews peered at the boy in admiring surprise. "By Jove," he answered,
+"you're not afraid of danger, even if you are little more than a child.
+It's bad enough for grown men to risk their lives--and bad enough for me
+to drag them into such a position,--without getting a plucky boy into the
+scrape also. No! Don't ask me to do that."
+
+"But I won't be in any more danger in the South than I am here," pleaded
+George. "If I stay here I may be shot in battle, while if I go to Marietta
+I----"
+
+"If you go to Marietta, and are found out, you may be hanged as a spy,"
+interrupted Andrews. "I'd rather see you shot than strung up with a
+rope."
+
+"The Confederates would never hang me if I am little more than a child, as
+you call me," urged the lad.
+
+Andrews was evidently impressed by George's persistence, but he hastened
+to say: "Anyway, I have no authority to send you off on this chase. You
+are a member of General Mitchell's military household, and he alone could
+give you the permission."
+
+"Then promise me that if I get his permission you will let me go."
+
+The spy hesitated. He could just discern the earnest, pleading expression
+in the upturned face of the boy, upon which the rain-drops were pouring
+almost unnoticed.
+
+"Well," he said, at last, "I am going back to camp now, and I start out
+before daylight. If you can induce the General to let you accompany us
+before that time I'll make no objection."
+
+George gave a little exclamation of delight. "Come," he said, snapping his
+fingers at Waggie, "let us see what we can do to talk the old General into
+it."
+
+The rain was now coming down in torrents, while the sharp, almost
+deafening cracks of thunder sounded as if the whole artillery of the Union
+army were engaged in practice. Soon all the conspirators were hurrying
+back to camp. Andrews was the very last to leave the woods where he had
+divulged his plans.
+
+"Heaven forgive me," he mused, half sadly, "if I am leading these boys
+into a death trap." But as a sudden flash of lightning illuminated the wet
+landscape, as with the brightness of day, there came into the leader's
+strong face a look of calm resolution. "It's worth all the danger," he
+added.
+
+                   *       *       *       *       *
+
+An hour later George Knight came running into the tent which Andrews
+occupied in the camp on Duck River. The leader was enveloped in a woolen
+overcoat, and on his well-shaped head was a slouch hat of the kind
+generally worn by Southerners. By the dim, sickly light of the candle
+which sputtered on a camp stool it could be seen that he had been writing,
+for pen, ink and a sealed letter were spread out upon the top of a
+leathern army trunk.
+
+"Well," cried Andrews, picking up the candle from its tin socket and
+flashing it in the radiant face of the boy. "Ah! No need to ask you! I see
+by your dancing eyes that you have wheedled old Mitchell into allowing you
+to do a foolish thing."
+
+The smile on the lad's face vanished. "Don't you want me to go along with
+you?" he asked, in an injured tone.
+
+The leader replaced the candle in the socket and then took one of George's
+hands between his own strong palms. "George," he said cordially, "you're a
+boy after my own heart, and I'd like nothing better than to have you for a
+companion; but it's because I do like you that I'm sorry you are about to
+run such a risk--and that's the truth. How did you contrive to persuade
+the General?"
+
+George seated himself on Andrews' bed, and laughed. "It was hard work at
+first," he explained, "but after he had refused me twice I said to him:
+'General, if you were a boy in my place, and had heard of this expedition,
+what would you do?' 'By all the stars,' he said, 'I would run away to it
+rather than miss it--and get shot afterwards as a deserter, I suppose.'
+'Then don't put me under the temptation of running away,' said I. At this
+the General laughed. Then he said: 'Well, tell Andrews you can go--and
+that I'll never forgive him if he lets anything happen to you. After all,
+the Confederates would never hang a child like you.'"
+
+"So he too calls you a child!" laughed Andrews.
+
+"Of course I'm not a child," cried George proudly, as he jumped from the
+bed and stood up very straight, to make himself look as tall as possible;
+"but the General may call me a six-weeks' old baby if he only lets me go
+along with you."
+
+"There is no time to waste," announced Andrews. "In the third tent from
+mine, to the right, you will find Privates Macgreggor and Watson, of the
+Second Ohio Volunteers. They have just offered to go with us, and I have
+accepted them in addition to the rest. Go to them, ask them to get you a
+suit of plain clothes, put it on instead of your uniform, and stick to
+them closely from the moment you leave camp until you meet me, as I hope
+you will, at Marietta. And be particularly careful to have nothing about
+you which could in any way lead to your identification as a Union soldier
+in case you should be arrested and searched."
+
+"Hurrah!" said George, half under his breath.
+
+"May we all be hurrahing this time next week," returned Andrews. "Here,
+George, as you go out give this letter to the sentry outside, to be sent
+off to-morrow in the camp mail." As he spoke he took the sealed note from
+the army trunk, and handed it to the boy. "It is written to the young
+woman I am engaged to marry," he explained, "and if we all get out of this
+bridge-burning business with our heads on our shoulders you can come dance
+at my wedding, and be my best man."
+
+"I'd dance at twenty weddings for you," enthusiastically cried George, who
+was beginning to have a great admiration for his new friend.
+
+"You don't want me to be married twenty times, do you, my boy?" protested
+Andrews, smiling.
+
+"I would do a great deal to oblige you," retorted George. Then, after
+warmly grasping his leader by the hand, he bounded out of the tent. The
+night was black, and the rain was still descending in a veritable torrent,
+but to the lad everything seemed clear and rosy. He only saw before him a
+mighty adventure--and that, to his ardent, youthful spirit, made the whole
+world appear charming.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+NEARING THE GOAL
+
+
+It was the Thursday afternoon succeeding the Monday night described in the
+former chapter. On the north bank of the Tennessee River, not far from the
+town of Jasper, three drenched figures might be discerned. They were
+looking somewhat longingly in the direction of a white frame house not
+fifty yards away from the stream, which, swollen by the recent storms, was
+in a particularly turbulent mood. There was nothing very attractive about
+the building save that it suggested shelter from the rain without, and
+that the smoke curling up from its large chimney held forth vague hopes of
+a palatable supper. Certainly there was little in the landscape itself to
+tempt any one to remain outdoors. The three wanderers seemed to be of this
+opinion, for they suddenly made a move towards the house. They were
+roughly dressed, their clothes were soaking, and their high boots bore the
+evidence of a long, muddy tramp across country.
+
+"Well," grumbled one of them, a thick-set, middle-aged man, with a
+good-humored expression and a four-days' growth of iron-gray beard on his
+face; "why did I leave home and home cooking to enlist in the army and
+then wander over the earth like this?"
+
+"Mr. Watson!" exclaimed the person next to him, in a tone of boyish
+surprise; "how can you talk like that? Why, _I_ am having the time of my
+life."
+
+The speaker was George Knight. There was mud on his face, and the natty
+drummer boy in blue uniform had given place to a young fellow who
+outwardly resembled an ordinary farm hand. But there could be no doubt,
+from the light which shone in his bright eyes, that he was enjoying
+himself to the full.
+
+"Humph!" returned Watson. "When you get as old as I am, my boy, you won't
+take such keen delight in walking through mire."
+
+The boy laughed, and turned to the third member of the party. "Are you
+tired, too, Macgreggor?" he asked.
+
+Macgreggor, a compactly built, athletic young man of twenty-seven or
+thereabouts, with a light-brown beard and mustache which made him look
+older than he really was, shook the rain from his hat and said cheerily,
+"I've done a good deal of mountain climbing since Tuesday morning, but I'm
+not too tired to eat a good supper, if we are lucky enough to find one in
+this place."
+
+It need hardly be repeated that Watson and Macgreggor were the two men in
+whose care Andrews had placed George Knight. They were both brave,
+resourceful men. During their long trudge across the mountainous country
+between Shelbyville and the Tennessee, Watson had uttered many a grumble,
+but his complaints meant nothing more than a desire to hear himself talk.
+When it came to fording a stream, climbing a precipice, or fairly wading
+through the slush, he was quite as willing and energetic as the other two
+members of his party.
+
+George knocked loudly at the door of the house, as he and his companions
+hastily sheltered themselves under the little piazza which ran along the
+front of the place.
+
+"Be on your guard, boys," whispered Watson. "Stick to your story about our
+being Kentuckians, and say nothing imprudent that may arouse suspicion.
+Remember! we _must_ be in Marietta by to-morrow night."
+
+The meeting at Marietta had, at the very last moment, been postponed by
+Andrews from Thursday night to Friday night. "It is well he did postpone
+it," thought Macgreggor; "we are far enough from Marietta as it is."
+
+The door was suddenly thrown open by an old negro "aunty" behind whom
+stood a neat, bustling little white woman. The latter was evidently
+engaged in the business of preparing supper, if one might judge from the
+fact that her bare arms were almost encaked in flour.
+
+"We are three Kentuckians from Fleming County on our way to enlist in
+Chattanooga," spoke out Macgreggor, in a voice which seemed to have the
+ring of truth in it. "Can we spend the night here, so that we can cross
+the river in the morning?"
+
+The expression of the woman, which had at first been one of surprise and
+irritation at being stopped in her work, softened immediately. "Come in,"
+she said, quickly; "my husband's only a farmer, and we can't give you
+anything very fine, but it was never said of Mandy Hare that she turned
+away from her house any loyal friend of the South."
+
+With that she led her gratified visitors through a scantily-furnished
+parlor into a kitchen which seemed to them like a Paradise. Over the
+roaring fire in the great hearth several vessels were simmering and
+emitting the most delightful odors, while a table near by was already set
+for the coming meal. On a chair facing the fire a fat, white cat was
+purring blissfully. The room was delightfully warm; the whole scene had an
+irresistible attraction and air of domesticity.
+
+"Make yourselves at home," commanded Mrs. Hare, cheerfully. "My husband
+will be home from Jasper in a few minutes, and then you'll have something
+to eat--such as 'tis."
+
+At this instant there was a querulous little bark, which appeared to come
+from the region of George Knight's heart. Mrs. Hare looked around in
+surprise; the white cat stirred uneasily. The next second the boy had
+shaken his overcoat, and from out of a large side pocket jumped the
+diminutive Waggie. The cat, with one bound, took a flying leap to the
+kitchen stairs, and brushing past the half-opened door at the bottom of
+the flight, fairly tore up to the second story, where she disappeared.
+Waggie gave a shrill yelp of emotion, but evidently concluded that it was
+safer not to chase a strange and muscular cat in a strange house.
+
+"Gracious me," cried Mrs. Hare; "did you bring that little fellow all the
+way from Kentucky?"
+
+"When I came away he followed me," replied George. He spoke the truth,
+although he did not add that he "came away" from a Union camp rather than
+from Kentucky. Waggie had been consigned to a member of General Mitchell's
+staff, to remain with him during his owner's absence, but George had not
+proceeded five miles on his journey before he heard a joyous bark behind
+him--and there frisked and capered Waggie. "You'll have to turn spy now,"
+George said. It was too late to send him back. Thus the dog joined the
+party, much to the pleasure of all concerned.
+
+Hardly had Waggie made his theatrical entrance into the kitchen before a
+lean, prematurely shriveled man of fifty, whose long shaggy beard
+proclaimed him a veritable countryman, came shambling into the room. At
+sight of the three strangers a curious look came into his restless eyes.
+It was almost as if the look was one of triumph. George, observing it,
+shivered, although he could hardly say why he did so.
+
+"This is my husband," explained Mrs. Hare, with an awkward attempt at
+courtesy. "These men," she continued, addressing her lord and master,
+"have the good of the Southern cause at heart, and are on their way to
+Chattanooga, to enlist in the Confederate army." She cast such an
+approving glance upon the wanderers as she spoke, and was so good-natured,
+that George's heart smote him at the deception which was being practised
+upon her. He was a frank, honest boy, who hated the very idea of appearing
+anywhere under false pretences. But he realized that he was playing a part
+for the good of his General, and his General's cause, and he resolved to
+maintain, as well as he could, his new character of a Southern
+sympathizer.
+
+Farmer Hare gave to each of the visitors a surly recognition. Waggie
+walked up to him, sniffed about his boots, and uttered a low growl. It was
+plain that the dog did not approve of the master of the house.
+
+"You fellows are taking a pretty long journey to serve the South,"
+remarked Mr. Hare at last, in a nasal tone sadly at variance with the
+customary soft Southern cadence.
+
+"Can he suspect us?" thought Watson. The same thought went through the
+mind of Macgreggor, but he merely said: "We are nearly at our journey's
+end now. By to-morrow we will be in Chattanooga."
+
+"Sit down and make yourselves comfortable," snarled Hare, with the air of
+an unwilling host. The visitors took the chairs which Mrs. Hare had placed
+for them at the supper-table. They were joined by husband and wife, and
+the negro "aunty" was soon serving a delicious meal of corn bread, Irish
+stew, and other good things. They all ate with a will, including Waggie,
+who was given a private lot of bones by the fireside. When the supper was
+over the farmer arose abruptly. "I s'pose you fellows have had a pretty
+long tramp, and want to go to bed," he said. "We keep good hours in this
+house, anyway, and turn in early at night--so that we may turn out early
+in the morning."
+
+"Give them a chance to dry themselves before the fire," urged Mrs. Hare.
+
+"Let 'em dry themselves in bed," muttered the farmer. Whereupon he lighted
+a candle, and turned towards the door leading to the second story. He was
+evidently in a great hurry to get his guests up-stairs. Watson, Macgreggor
+and George looked at one another, as if trying to fathom the cause of
+their peculiar reception at the hands of Farmer Hare. But each one
+silently decided that their only cue was to be as polite as possible, and
+refrain from any altercation with their host.
+
+"After all," thought Watson, "if we can spend the night here we will be
+off again at dawn--and then let our surly host take himself to Kamchatka,
+for all we care."
+
+Half an hour later Watson and Macgreggor, thoroughly tired out, were sound
+asleep, in one of the small rooms in the second-story of the house.
+George, however, lay tossing from side to side on a bed in the adjoining
+room, directly over the kitchen, with Waggie curled up on the floor close
+by. The more he thought of the strange behavior of Hare the more uneasy he
+became. Why had the farmer regarded him and his two companions with such a
+suspicious glance? Then George suddenly recollected where he had seen that
+face before. Yes! There could be no mistake. While he, Macgreggor and
+Watson were dining that day at the village tavern in Jasper, Hare was
+loitering on the porch of the place. But what of that? The three pretended
+Kentuckians had told their usual story, and professed their love for the
+Confederacy, and no one there had seemed to doubt their truthfulness for a
+moment.
+
+In vain the boy tried to fall asleep. At last, hearing voices in the
+kitchen, he rose quietly from his bed, stole out of his room, and
+stealthily walked to the little hallway that led to the kitchen stairway.
+At the head of the staircase he halted. It was clear that Farmer Hare was
+saying something emphatic, while his wife was entering a feeble protest.
+An intuition told the listener that his own party was the subject of
+discussion. Slowly, cautiously, he crept down the stairway, until he
+almost touched the closed door which led from it to the kitchen.
+
+"I tell you, woman," Hare was saying, "these three fellows are spies of
+some sort, and the sooner we have them under arrest the better."
+
+"I can't believe it," murmured the wife.
+
+"I don't care whether you believe it or not," rejoined the husband, in a
+harsh tone. "Don't I tell you that when these two men, and the boy, were
+at the tavern in Jasper to-day, one of the men was recognized by John
+Henderson. Henderson is a spy in the service of General Beauregard, and
+was in the camp of General Mitchell only a few days ago, disguised as a
+trader. There he saw this fellow--the one with the brown beard--and he
+swears there's no mistake. But he didn't tell us in time--the three
+disappeared. No; there's mischief of some sort brewing here, and I intend
+to stop it, if my name's Hare. We don't want any spies around here."
+
+"Spies!" exclaimed the woman. "Then if they are caught within our lines
+they will be shot!" It seemed as if she shuddered as she spoke.
+
+"Or hanged," added the farmer, with an unpleasant laugh.
+
+"Let them go," whispered Mrs. Hare, pleadingly. "I'm just as good a
+Confederate as you are, Jake, but don't let us have the blood of these
+fellows on our hands. That nice little chap with the dog--I would as soon
+see my own son get into trouble, if I was lucky enough to have one, as
+that bright-eyed boy. Turn 'em out of the house, Jake, if you suspect
+them--tell them to go about their business--but don't set a trap for
+them." Her voice became almost plaintive. It was evident that the
+strangers had made a favorable impression upon Mrs. Hare, and that her
+woman's feelings revolted at the idea of betraying them, even though they
+were the secret enemies of her cause. "I hate war, anyway," she added. "It
+sets friend against friend, brother against brother, father against son,
+state against state. All this trouble between the North and South might
+have been fixed up without fighting, if there'd been a little more
+patience on both sides."
+
+"Don't preach," muttered Hare. "There ain't time for it. Where's Uncle
+Daniel?"
+
+The listening George did not know that "Uncle Daniel" was the black
+farm-hand who helped Hare, but, from the name, he felt sure that a slave
+was meant.
+
+"Uncle Daniel is out in the barn, I reckon," answered the wife. "What do
+you want him for?"
+
+"Wait and see," rejoined her husband, gruffly. With that enigmatical reply
+he opened a door leading to the barn, stalked out, and disappeared. There
+was a half-stifled cry from Mrs. Hare, but she apparently made no effort
+to detain him. "The Vigilants! Oh! the Vigilants!" she repeated, in
+accents of distress.
+
+"The sooner we get out of this the better for our necks," thought George.
+He had no sense of fear; he was only filled with one consuming idea. He
+must get word to his two companions, and at once. Just what Hare
+contemplated in the way of a trap he could not tell, yet it was evident
+that the sooner Watson and Macgreggor were awakened the more chance would
+all three have for escaping from whatever fate the farmer had in store for
+them.
+
+Cautiously George crept back until he was at the door of the room where
+the two men were heavily sleeping. His first impulse was to rattle at the
+knob; but he recollected in time that this would make a noise that might
+bring Mrs. Hare to the scene. He stood still and reflected. It would be
+foolish to invite the attention of her husband or herself before a plan of
+action could be decided upon. For nearly five minutes he stood in the
+hallway, wondering how he could awaken his tired fellows without making a
+disturbance.
+
+"I wonder if I'm very stupid," thought the boy. He could hear the kitchen
+door open, as Hare came back into the house, and began talking to his wife
+in low tones. He could distinguish but one word. It was "Vigilants!"
+
+At last he gave a faint exclamation of satisfaction, and stole back to his
+own room. Waggie, who was now lying on the bed, moved uneasily. George
+lighted a candle and examined the plastered wall which ran between his
+room and the one where the unconscious Watson and Macgreggor were gently
+snoring. He knew that the bed on which they slept was directly on the
+other side of this wall, and he judged that the partition itself was very
+thin. In this theory he was correct: the laths and their plaster covering
+formed a mere shell, which was not much thicker than an ordinary wooden
+partition. Taking a large jack knife from his waistcoat he began to cut
+into the wall, about four feet from the floor. Before long he had made a
+small hole, not bigger than the dimensions of a five-dollar gold piece,
+straight through the plaster. Looking through it, with the aid of his
+candle, he saw that Watson and Macgreggor were stretched out in bed on the
+other side, each half-dressed and each sleeping as if there were no such
+thing in the world as war or danger.
+
+"They deserve a good sleep," said the boy to himself; "but it can't be
+helped, so here goes!" At the same moment he extinguished his candle,
+pulled it out of the candlestick, and poked it through the hole. He
+directed it in such a way that it fell squarely on the face of Macgreggor.
+The man suddenly stopped snoring, turned his body from one side to the
+other, and then started up in the bed, in a half-sitting posture.
+
+"Macgreggor! Mac!" whispered George; "it's I, George Knight. Don't speak
+loud."
+
+"Where on earth are you?" asked the newly-awakened sleeper, in a startled
+voice.
+
+"Never mind where I am," answered George. "Only don't make a noise. But
+get up, light your candle, and open your door for me without letting them
+hear you down-stairs."
+
+By this time Watson was awake too, and had jumped to the floor. When
+Macgreggor lighted his candle, and saw the little hole in the wall, at
+which appeared one of George's eyes, he almost gave a cry of surprise; but
+prudence restrained him, and he merely touched Watson's arm, pointed to
+the hole, and then quietly unlocked the door of their room. George soon
+crept carefully in, and proceeded, in as low a voice as he could command,
+to tell the two men what he had heard from the kitchen.
+
+"The Vigilants!" whispered Watson. "Why, don't you know what that means?
+When we were in Jasper to-day I saw some of them standing around the
+village grocery store, and even talked with them. They thought I was a
+good 'Confed,' and I found out that they are organized into a band to
+arrest suspicious characters, keep things in order in this section of the
+county and even turn guerrillas when they are wanted."
+
+"I see the whole thing," said Macgreggor. "This Hare has sent his negro
+over to Jasper to bring the Vigilants here to take charge of us, and to
+string us up, no doubt, to the first convenient tree. The sooner we get
+away from here the better for our lives. Jasper is only two miles off, and
+the Vigilants will be riding over here before we have time to say Jack
+Robinson."
+
+"There's still time," said George, "and as there's only one man here
+against us now--I mean Hare--we can seize him, tie him to something, and
+then escape into the darkness."
+
+"So we can, my boy," replied Watson, who was thinking as deeply and as
+calmly as if a game of chess, rather than a matter of life and death, were
+the issue. "There's no trouble as to our escaping. But remember this. It's
+pitch dark and raining again like cats and dogs; we don't know our way; we
+are sure to get lost before we have run fifty yards from the house, and
+these Vigilants, who understand every foot of the country, will divide
+into small parties, and hunt us down, as sure as fate. And if they can't,
+they will put hounds on our track--and then we'll be beautifully carved up
+into beefsteaks. I have seen hounds, and I know how they appreciate a nice
+little man hunt." Watson smiled grimly.
+
+Macgreggor walked silently to one of the windows, opened the sash just a
+crack, and listened. He could hear nothing but the downpour of the rain.
+Yet it would not be long before the Vigilants dashed up to the house. No
+doubt they had all been telling anecdotes in the corner grocery store, and
+they would take but a short time for the mounting of their horses.
+Cautiously closing the window he returned to the centre of the room.
+
+"It's a dark night," he said, "and all the better for a plan I have to
+propose. We are each secretly armed with pistols, are we not? Well, then,
+let us put out this candle, and open the window to the left, looking out
+towards the highroad to Jasper. When the Vigilants come riding up the road
+and get in front of the house we will suddenly fire on them. This may
+cause a panic, as the fellows will not be able to tell just where the
+enemy are, and then----"
+
+"Pshaw!" interrupted Watson. "You don't know whom you're dealing with.
+These Vigilants are as brave as they are reckless, and there are at least
+twenty-five or thirty of them. Three men can't frighten them. They would
+only get us in the end, even if we did succeed in disabling one or two of
+them in the first surprise."
+
+"Then what are we to do?" asked George eagerly. Watson was so composed
+that the boy felt sure he must have some better plan for escape.
+
+"I have a scheme," said Watson, quite simply. "I have been hatching it in
+my brain while we were talking. But the quicker it's put to the test, the
+quicker will we save our necks. Are you willing to trust me blindly?"
+
+There was a whispered "yes" from both the other conspirators. Watson
+inspired confidence by his assurance.
+
+"Then let us get all our clothes, shoes, everything on at once, and walk
+boldly down-stairs."
+
+Three minutes later the trio were marching down-stairs into the kitchen.
+Hare and his wife were standing at the fireplace, looking the picture of
+surprise, as their guests burst into the room, with the irrepressible
+Waggie at their heels. The old negro "aunty," who had been dozing on a
+stool near the hearth, jumped to her rheumatic feet in consternation.
+"Hallelujah! Hallelujah!" she cried, throwing her withered arms above her
+turbaned head. For the guests held revolvers in their hands, and the
+"aunty's" heart always sank at the thought of gunpowder.
+
+The farmer took a step forward, as if uncertain what to do or say. At last
+he said, trying to smile, yet only succeeding in looking hypocritical:
+"You ain't going to leave us this time of night, are you? Wait till
+morning, and get some breakfast."
+
+"It's a nice breakfast you'd give us in the morning," laughed Watson, with
+a significant look at their host. "A halter stew, or some roast bullets, I
+guess!"
+
+Hare jumped backward with such suddenness that he almost knocked into the
+fire his frightened wife who had been standing directly behind him. "What
+do you mean?" he hissed.
+
+"You know perfectly well what I mean, Mr. Hare," said Watson, looking him
+straight in the face, whilst the other spectators listened in breathless
+interest. "You have sent word to the Jasper Vigilants to ride over here
+and arrest us, on the suspicion of being spies."
+
+Had the heavens suddenly fallen, the countenances of the Hares could not
+have shown more dismay.
+
+"How did you find that out?" asked the farmer, quite forgetting to play
+his part of amiable host.
+
+"Never mind how," cried George, who was burning to play his part. "Only
+it's a pity you haven't as much mercy in you as your wife has."
+
+"Listen," said Watson, as he motioned the others in the room to be silent.
+"George, you will watch this old negress, and if she attempts to make a
+sound, or to leave the room before we are ready, give her a hint from your
+revolver."
+
+With a scream of fright, comical in its intensity, the "aunty" sank back
+on her stool near the hearth, and covered her dark face with her hands.
+There she sat, as if she expected to be murdered at any moment.
+
+"And you, Macgreggor," continued Watson impressively, "will keep the same
+sort of watch over Mrs. Hare. Happen what may, there is not to be a sound
+from either woman."
+
+Mrs. Hare started in confusion. Her husband made a bound for the kitchen
+door. With another bound no less quick Watson darted forward, caught the
+farmer, pushed him back at the point of the pistol, and bolted the door.
+
+"What do you want to do?" demanded Hare. "Are we to be murdered?"
+
+"No," cried Watson, "but----"
+
+Then there came the sound of horses' hoofs in the distance. Every one
+listened eagerly, and none more so than the farmer.
+
+"You're done for," he said slowly, casting a half-malevolent,
+half-triumphant glance at the three Northerners.
+
+"Not by a great deal," said Watson. "March with me to the parlor, open the
+front door just a crack, and, when the Vigilants come up, say to them that
+we three men have escaped from the house, stolen a flatboat, and started
+to row across the Tennessee River. Send them away and shut the door. I
+will be standing near you, behind the door, with my pistol leveled at your
+head. Make one movement to escape, or say anything but what I have told
+you to say, and you are a dead man!"
+
+The patter of the horses was becoming more and more distinct.
+
+"Will you do as I tell you?" asked Watson, very coolly, as he toyed with
+his revolver.
+
+"If I won't?" asked Hare. His face was now convulsed by a variety of
+emotions--fear, rage, craftiness, and disappointment.
+
+"I give you three seconds to choose," said Watson. "If you refuse, you
+will be stretched out on that floor."
+
+Mrs. Hare, with white cheeks, leaned forward, and whispered to her
+husband: "Do as he tells you, Jake. Better let these Yankees go, and save
+your own life."
+
+"One--two----" counted Watson.
+
+Hare held up his right hand, and then dropped it listlessly by his side.
+
+"I give in," he said sullenly. "You've got the better of me." He looked,
+for all the world, like a whipped cur.
+
+There was not a second to lose. The horsemen were riding up to the house.
+Watson motioned to the farmer, who walked into the parlor, which was
+unlighted, closely followed by the soldier. There were sounds without, as
+of horses being reined in, and of men's gruff voices. Hare opened the
+parlor door a few inches, while Watson, safe from observation, stationed
+himself within a few feet of him, with cocked revolver. "Remember!" he
+whispered, significantly.
+
+"Is that you, boys?" shouted Hare. "Those three spies I sent word about
+escaped from here ten minutes ago, stole a boat on the bank, down by the
+landing, and started to row across the river."
+
+"They will never reach the other side a night like this," called out some
+one.
+
+"What did you let 'em get away from you for?" asked another of the
+Vigilants.
+
+"How could I help it?" growled the farmer. "They were well armed--and
+'twas three men against one."
+
+"Pah! You've brought us out on a wild-goose chase, and on a durned bad
+night," came a voice from the wet and darkness.
+
+"Perhaps they'll drift back to this side of the river, and can be caught,"
+one Vigilant suggested. But this idea evidently met with little approval.
+It was plain, from what Watson could hear of the discussion which ensued,
+that the Vigilants were disgusted. They were ready, indeed, to give up the
+chase, on the supposition that the three fugitives would either drift down
+in midstream, or else be capsized and find a watery grave.
+
+"Come, we'll get home again," commanded a horseman, who appeared to be the
+leader. "And no thanks to you, Jake Hare, for making us waste our time."
+
+"Say Jake, won't you ask us in to have something warm to drink?" cried
+another Vigilant.
+
+Watson edged a trifle nearer to Hare, and whispered: "Send 'em away at
+once, or else----"
+
+Once bring the Vigilants into the house, as the soldier knew, and capture
+or death would be the result.
+
+Hare could almost feel the cold muzzle of the revolver near his head.
+
+"Go away, fellows," he called, "You know I ain't got nothing for you."
+
+A jeer, and a few sarcastic groans greeted this remark. "I always reckoned
+you was a skinflint," yelled one of the party.
+
+There was a derisive cheer at this sally. Then, at a word of command, the
+Vigilants turned their horses and cantered back towards Jasper. The sound
+of hoofs became fainter and fainter.
+
+"Shut the door," ordered Watson, "and go back to the kitchen."
+
+Sullenly the farmer obeyed. When the two were once more by the blazing
+hearth, George and Macgreggor, who had been guarding Mrs. Hare and the
+negress, rushed forward to grasp the hands of their deliverer. They were
+about to congratulate him upon his successful nerve and diplomacy when he
+interrupted them.
+
+"Don't bother about that," he said; "let us get away from here as soon as
+possible, before our kind host has a chance to play us any more tricks."
+
+"I suppose you think yourself pretty smart, don't you?" snapped Hare,
+casting a spiteful glance at Watson.
+
+"So smart," put in George, "that if you don't want to be laughed at from
+now until the day of your death you'd better not tell the citizens of
+Jasper about to-night's occurrences."
+
+"Come, boys, let us be going," exclaimed Watson impatiently, as he offered
+his hand to Mrs. Hare, and said to that lady: "Thank you for the best
+supper we've had since we left--home."
+
+Mrs. Hare refused to shake hands, but she regarded Watson with an admiring
+expression. "I won't shake hands with you," she replied, half smiling,
+"for you may be an enemy of the South, but I'm glad you've escaped
+hanging. You've too much grit for that. As for you, Jake, don't ever
+pretend to us again that you're the brainiest man in the county."
+
+"Hold your tongue, woman," cried the amiable farmer.
+
+In a couple of minutes the three travelers were striking out from the back
+of the house into the slush, and rain, and blackness of the night. Waggie
+was occupying his usual place inside a pocket of George's overcoat. He had
+supped regally at the Hares on bacon and bones, and he felt warm and at
+peace with the world.
+
+Before the party had more than emerged from the garden (a task by no means
+easy in itself, on account of the darkness), something whistled by them,
+to the accompaniment of a sharp report. Looking behind them they saw the
+meagre form of Hare standing in the kitchen doorway. He held a rifle in
+his right hand. The kitchen fire made him plainly visible.
+
+"Pretty good aim, old boy," shouted Macgreggor, "considering you could
+hardly see us. But I can see you plainly enough."
+
+As he spoke he drew his revolver. Hare was already putting the rifle to
+his shoulder, preparing for another shot. He had hardly had a chance to
+adjust the gun, however, before he dropped it with a cry of pain and ran
+into the house. A bullet had come whizzing from Macgreggor, and struck the
+farmer in his right arm.
+
+"Just a little souvenir to remember me by," laughed the lucky marksman.
+
+"Hurry up!" cried Watson. "To-morrow night we must be in Marietta. We are
+still many miles away, and in a hostile, unknown country."
+
+So the three pushed on into the gloom. The prospect of meeting James
+Andrews at the appointed place was not reassuring. Their only hope was to
+keep on along the bank of the Tennessee River until they reached
+Chattanooga. From there they could take a train for Marietta.
+
+"Shall we make it?" thought George. Waggie gave a muffled bark which
+seemed to say: "Courage!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+MINGLING WITH THE ENEMY
+
+
+It was weary work, this tramping along the Tennessee shore, through mud,
+or fields of stubble, over rocks, or amid dripping trees; but the three
+kept on towards Chattanooga for a couple of hours, until all the good
+effects of their warming at Farmer Hare's were quite vanished. Watson,
+having showed by his mother-wit and presence of mind that he was a man to
+be relied upon, had now resumed his privilege of growling, and gave vent
+to many angry words at the roughness and unutterable dreariness of the
+way.
+
+"Why was America ever discovered by that inquisitive, prying old
+Christopher Columbus?" he grunted, after he had tripped over the stump of
+a cottonwood-tree, and fallen flat with his face in the slime. "If he had
+never discovered America there would never have been any United States;
+had there never been any United States there would never have been any war
+between North and South; had there never been any war between North and
+South I wouldn't be making a fool of myself by being down here. I wish
+that fellow Columbus had never been born--or, if he was born, that he had
+never been allowed to sail off for America. Ugh!"
+
+In a few minutes they reached a log cabin situated on an angle of land
+where a little stream emptied itself into the now stormy waters of the
+Tennessee River. There was no light nor sign of life about the mean abode,
+and the travelers were almost upon it before they saw its low outline in
+the dense gloom.
+
+"Look here," said Watson, calling a halt. "There's no use in our trying to
+go further to-night. It's too dark to make any sort of time. And we are
+far enough away now from Jasper to avoid any danger of pursuit--even if
+our amiable friend Mr. Hare should inform the Vigilants."
+
+"Don't be afraid of that," said Macgreggor and George in the same breath.
+Hare was not likely to relate a joke so much at his own expense as their
+clever escape had proved. Even if he did, they reasoned, the chances of
+capture were now rather slim, whatever they might have been when the three
+fugitives were nearer Jasper.
+
+"Then let us get a few hours' sleep in this cabin," urged Watson. "Some
+negro probably lives here--and we can tell him our usual Kentucky story.
+Give the door a pound, George, and wake him up."
+
+George used first his hands and then his boots on the door, in a vain
+effort to make some one hear. He took Waggie out of his pocket, and the
+shrill little barks of the dog added to the noise as he jumped around his
+master's feet.
+
+"Let's break the door down," urged Macgreggor. "The seven sleepers must
+live here. We might pound all night and not get in."
+
+With one accord the three threw themselves vigorously against the door.
+They expected to meet with some resistance, due to a bolt or two; but,
+instead of that, the door flew open so suddenly that they were
+precipitated into the cabin, and lay sprawling on the ground. It had been
+latched but neither locked nor bolted.
+
+"We were too smart that time," growled Watson, as the three picked
+themselves up, to the great excitement of Waggie. "The place must be
+deserted. So much the better for us. We can get a little sleep without
+having to go into explanations."
+
+He drew from inside his greatcoat, with much care, three or four matches.
+By lighting, first one and then the others, he was able to grope around
+until he found the hearth of the cabin. Cold ashes marked the remains of a
+fire long since extinguished. His foot struck against something which
+proved to be a small piece of dry pine-wood. With the flame from his last
+match Watson succeeded in lighting this remnant of kindling. He carefully
+nursed the new flame until the stick blazed forth like a torch. Then the
+travelers had a chance to examine the one room which formed the whole
+interior of the lonely place. The cabin was deserted. It contained not a
+bit of furniture; nothing, indeed, save bare walls of logs, and rude
+mortar, and a clean pine floor.
+
+"This palace can't be renting at a very high price," remarked Macgreggor,
+sarcastically.
+
+"It will do us well enough for a few hours' sleep," said George.
+
+Watson nodded his head in assent. "It's a shelter from the rain, at
+least," he said, "and that's something on such a pesky night." While he
+was speaking the rush of the rain without confirmed the truth of his
+words, and suggested that any roof was better than none. Ere long the pine
+stick burned itself out; the intruders were left in absolute darkness. But
+they quickly disposed themselves on the floor, where, worn out by the
+fatigues of the day and the stirring adventure of the evening, they were
+soon fast asleep. They had closed the door, near which Waggie had settled
+his little body in the capacity of a sentinel. George dreamed of his
+father. He saw him standing at the window of a prison, as he stretched his
+hands through the bars and cried out: "George, I am here--here! Help me!"
+Then the boy's dream changed. He was back in the dark woods near
+Shelbyville, listening to Andrews as the leader outlined the expedition in
+which they were now engaged. In the middle of the conference some one
+cried: "The Confederates are on us!" George tried to run, but something
+pinned him to the ground--a wild animal was at his throat.
+
+He awoke with a start, to find that Waggie was leaping upon his chest,
+barking furiously.
+
+"Hush up, you little rascal!" ordered George. He felt very sleepy, and he
+was angry at being aroused. But Waggie went on barking until he had
+succeeded in awakening Macgreggor and Watson, and convincing his master
+that something was wrong.
+
+"What's the trouble?" demanded Watson.
+
+"Listen," said George, softly. He was on his feet in an instant, as he ran
+first to one and then to the other of the two windows which graced the
+cabin. These windows, however, were barricaded with shutters. He hurried
+to the door, which he opened a few inches. The rain had now stopped, and
+he could hear, perhaps a quarter of a mile away, the sound of horses
+moving cautiously through the mud, along the river bank. In a twinkling
+Watson and Macgreggor were at his side, straining their ears.
+
+"Can it be cavalry?" asked Macgreggor.
+
+"Mounted men at least," whispered Watson. "Perhaps the Vigilants are on
+our track, bad luck to them!"
+
+"Can Hare have told them, after all?" queried George.
+
+"Don't know about that," muttered Watson, "but I think we have the
+gentlemen from Jasper to deal with once again."
+
+"Let's decamp into the darkness before it's too late," said Macgreggor.
+
+"Come, come," whispered Watson impatiently. "If they are on the scent, and
+we leave this hut, they will only run us to earth like hounds after a
+fox."
+
+The baying of dogs which were evidently accompanying the party gave a
+sudden and terrible effect to the force of Watson's argument. And now the
+Vigilants, if such they were, came nearer and nearer. The three
+Northerners who listened so anxiously at the doorway could already detect
+the sound of voices.
+
+"There's but one thing for us to do," quickly murmured Watson. "We must
+stay in this cabin."
+
+"But they won't pass the place by," urged Macgreggor. "If they know it to
+be deserted by a tenant this is the very reason for their looking in to
+see if we are hiding here. And when it comes to defending ourselves, how
+can we put up any sort of barricade?"
+
+"When you can't use force, or hide yourself, try a little strategy,"
+answered the soldier. "Can either of you fellows talk like a darky?"
+
+"Not I," said Macgreggor. Had he been asked if he could speak Hebrew, he
+would not have been more surprised.
+
+"Can you, George?" asked Watson, as he shut the door.
+
+"I might," whispered George. "When I was up in Cincinnati we boys
+used----"
+
+"Never mind what you boys did--only do as I tell you, and if you can give
+a good imitation you may save us from arrest, and worse!"
+
+The horsemen now seemed to be within a few yards of the cabin. They had
+evidently halted for consultation. Meanwhile Watson was whispering some
+instructions to George. After he had finished he leaned against the door
+with his whole weight, and indicated to Macgreggor that he was to do the
+same thing. The latter obeyed in silence.
+
+The horsemen without made a great deal of clatter. If they were pursuing
+the fugitives they did not seem to think secrecy of movement very
+necessary. "Whose cabin is this?" demanded one of them.
+
+"It did belong to old Sam Curtis, but he's moved away, down to Alabama,"
+some one answered.
+
+"Some darky may live in it now, eh?" said the first voice.
+
+"Perhaps it's empty, and these tarnation spies are in it," was the
+rejoinder in a lower tone.
+
+The men moved their horses closer to the house, which they quickly
+surrounded. No chance now for any one to escape; it seemed as if the three
+men in the cabin must inevitably be caught like rats in a trap. Yet they
+waited courageously, breathlessly. It was a tense moment. Another minute
+would decide their fate. Would they remain free men, or would they fall
+into the hands of their pursuers, with all the consequences that such a
+capture implied?
+
+Already one of the Vigilants, evidently the leader, had dismounted.
+Approaching the door of the cabin, he gave it a push as if he expected it
+would open at once. But there was no yielding; Watson and Macgreggor were
+still leaning firmly against the other side.
+
+The leader began to knock on the door with a revolver. "Here, here," he
+shouted; "if there's any one in this cabin, come out--or we'll have you
+out!"
+
+At first there was no response, save a bark from Waggie. The leader
+rattled savagely at the door. "Let's break in," he cried to his
+companions, "and see if the place has any one in it!"
+
+The Vigilants were about to follow the example of their leader, and
+dismount when there came a wheedling voice--apparently the voice of a
+negress--from within the cabin.
+
+"What you gemmen want dis time o' night wid poor Aunty Dinah?"
+
+"A nigger's living here," muttered the leader, in surprise.
+
+"What for you gwyne to disturb an ole niggah at dis hour?" asked the voice
+from within.
+
+"It's all right, aunty," called out the leader. "We only want some
+information. Come to the door."
+
+"In one minute I be with you," was the answer. "I'se a nursin' my old man
+here--he done gone and took the smallpox--and----"
+
+The smallpox! Had the voice announced that a million Union troops were
+descending upon the party the consternation would not have been half as
+great. The smallpox! At the mention of that dreaded name, and at the
+thought that they were so close to contagion, the Vigilants, with one
+accord, put spurs into their horses and rushed madly away. The leader,
+dropping his revolver in his excitement, and not even stopping to pick it
+up, leaped upon his horse and joined in the inglorious retreat. On, on,
+dashed the men until they reached the town of Jasper, tired and provoked.
+Like many other men, North or South, they were brave enough when it came
+to gunpowder, but were quickly vanquished at the idea of pestilential
+disease.
+
+"Bah!" cried the leader, as they all reined up in front of the village
+tavern, which now looked dark and uninviting; "those three spies, if spies
+they are, can go to Guinea for all I care. I shall hunt them no more."
+
+There was a general murmur of assent to this fervent remark. One of the
+Vigilants said, in an injured tone: "I wish Jake Hare was at the bottom of
+the ocean!"
+
+In explanation of which charitable sentiment it may be explained that
+Farmer Hare, on the departure of Watson, Macgreggor and George Knight, had
+run all the way to Jasper. Here he told the Vigilants that the three men
+had returned in the boat (which he had previously declared they had taken)
+and landed on the bank of the river. They could be easily caught, he said.
+He carefully suppressed any account of the way in which he had been
+outwitted by Watson. The fact was that Hare made up his mind, logically
+enough, that the fugitives would keep along the Tennessee until morning
+came, and as he had seen the direction they had taken he determined to set
+the Vigilants on their track. His scheme, as we have seen, was nearly
+crowned with success.
+
+                   *       *       *       *       *
+
+"A miss is as good as a mile," laughed Watson, as he stood with his two
+companions in the pitch black interior of the cabin, listening to the last
+faint sounds of the retreating Vigilants.
+
+"There's nothing like smallpox, eh?" said George.
+
+"Or nothing like a boy who can imitate a darky's voice," put in
+Macgreggor. "Where did you learn the art, George?"
+
+"We boys in Cincinnati had a minstrel company of our own," the boy
+explained, "and I used to play negro parts."
+
+"I'll never call the minstrels stupid again," said Watson. "They have been
+instrumental in saving our lives."
+
+"Rather say it was your own brains that did it," interposed George.
+
+So they talked until daybreak, for they found it impossible to sleep.
+Meanwhile the weather had changed. When the sun came peeping over the
+horizon, between tearful clouds, as if afraid that it was almost too damp
+for him to be out, the trio were pushing cautiously along the bank of the
+Tennessee, in the direction of Chattanooga.
+
+"I don't know who brought the Vigilants out for us the second time, unless
+it was our dear friend Hare, and I don't know whether they will give us
+another chase this morning," said Watson, as they were laboriously
+ascending one of the mountain spurs which led down to the river shore,
+"but we must go steadily on, and trust to luck. To delay would be fatal.
+This is Friday--and we must be in Marietta by this evening."
+
+On they trudged, over rocks and paths that would have taxed the ability of
+a nimble-footed chamois, as they wondered how the rest of their friends
+were faring, and where might be the intrepid Andrews. Sometimes Waggie
+scampered joyously on; sometimes he reposed in his master's overcoat. The
+clouds had now cleared away; the sun was shining serenely over the swollen
+and boisterous waters of the crooked Tennessee. Nature was once more
+preparing to smile.
+
+"I'm getting frightfully hungry," cried George, about noon-time. "I
+wouldn't mind a bit of breakfast."
+
+"There's where we may get some," said Macgreggor. He pointed to an
+old-fashioned colonial house of brick, with a white portico, which they
+could see in the centre of a large open tract about a quarter of a mile
+back of the river. The smoke was curling peacefully from one of the two
+great chimneys, as if offering a mute invitation to a stranger to enter
+the house and partake of what was being cooked within. In a field in front
+of the mansion cattle were grazing, and the jingle of their bells sounded
+sweetly in the distance. No one would dream, to look at such an attractive
+picture, that the grim Spectre of War stalked in the land.
+
+"Shall we go up to the house, and ask for something?" suggested
+Macgreggor, who was blessed with a healthy appetite.
+
+Watson looked a little doubtful. "There's no use in our showing ourselves
+any more than is necessary," he said. "Rather than risk our necks, we had
+better go on empty stomachs till we reach Chattanooga."
+
+But such a look of disappointment crept over the faces of George and
+Macgreggor, and even seemed to be reflected in the shaggy countenance of
+Waggie, that Watson relented.
+
+"After all," he said, "there's no reason why there should be any more
+danger here than in Chattanooga or Marietta. Let's make a break for the
+house, and ask for a meal."
+
+Hardly had he spoken before they were all three hurrying towards the
+mansion. When at last they stood under the portico, George seized the
+quaint brass knocker of the front door, and gave it a brisk rap. After
+some delay a very fat negress opened the door, and eyed the strangers
+rather suspiciously. Their tramp over the country had not improved their
+appearance, and her supercilious, inquisitive look was not strange, under
+the circumstances.
+
+"What you folks want?" she asked, putting her big arms akimbo in an
+uncompromising attitude. Watson was about to reply when an attractive
+voice, with the soft accent so characteristic of the Southerners, called:
+"What is it, Ethiopia? Any one to see me?"
+
+The next instant a kindly-faced gentlewoman of about fifty stood in the
+doorway.
+
+"Is there anything I can do for you?" she asked pleasantly.
+
+Macgreggor proceeded to tell the customary story about their being on
+their way from Kentucky to join the Confederate army further south. His
+heart smote him as he did so, for she was so gentle and sympathetic in her
+manner that he loathed to practice any deception, however necessary; but
+there was no help for it. So he ended by asking for something to eat.
+
+"Come in," said the mistress of the mansion, for such she proved to be,
+"and take any poor hospitality I can offer you. My husband, Mr. Page, and
+both my children are away, fighting under General Lee, and I am only too
+glad to do anything I can for others who are helping the great cause." She
+smiled sweetly at George, and patted his dog. The boy regarded her almost
+sheepishly; he, too, hated the idea of imposing on so cordial a hostess.
+
+Mrs. Page led the party into a great colonial hallway, embellished with
+family portraits. "By-the-way," she added, "there is a Confederate officer
+in the house now--Major Lightfoot, of the --th Virginia Regiment. He
+reached here this morning from Richmond and goes to Chattanooga this
+afternoon on a special mission."
+
+Watson bit his lip. "We're coming to too close quarters with the enemy,"
+he thought, and he felt like retreating from the mansion with his
+companions. But it was too late. Such a move would only excite suspicion,
+or, worse still, lead to pursuit. "We must face the thing through," he
+muttered, "and trust to our wits."
+
+Mrs. Page ushered the strangers, including the delighted Waggie, into a
+large, handsomely paneled dining-room on the left of the hallway. She made
+them gather around an unset table. "Sit here for a few minutes," she said,
+"and the servants will bring you the best that Page Manor can offer you.
+In the meantime, I'll send Major Lightfoot to see you. He may be able to
+help you in some way."
+
+She closed the door and was gone. "I wish this Major Lightfoot, whoever he
+is, was in Patagonia at the present moment," whispered Watson. "It's easy
+enough to deceive the Southern country bumpkins, and make them think you
+are Confederates, but when you get among people with more intelligence,
+like officers----"
+
+"What difference does it make?" interrupted Macgreggor, looking longingly
+at a mahogany sideboard. "Didn't you hear Mrs. Page say the Major was a
+Virginian? He doesn't know anything about Kentucky."
+
+"That's lucky," laughed Watson, "for we don't either."
+
+"Hush!" came the warning from George. The door opened, and several negro
+servants began to bring in a cold dinner. What a meal it was too, when the
+time came to partake of it, and how grateful the three hungry travelers
+felt to the mistress of the house. When it had been disposed of, and the
+servants had left the dining-room, George said, almost under his breath:
+"Hadn't we better be off? We have a good number of miles yet, between here
+and Marietta."
+
+Watson was about to rise from the table when the door opened to admit a
+tall, stalwart man of about thirty, whose cold, gray-blue eyes and
+resolute mouth denoted one who was not to be trifled with. He was dressed
+in the gray uniform of a Confederate officer, but he had, presumably, left
+his sword and pistols in another room. The visitors stood up as he
+entered.
+
+"Glad to see you, my men," he said, shaking hands with each one.
+
+"Is this Major Lightfoot?" asked Watson, trying to look delighted, but not
+making a brilliant success of it.
+
+"Yes," returned the Major. "I hear you boys are Kentuckians."
+
+"We are," said Macgreggor stoutly; "we are ready to die for our country,
+and so we are journeying southward to enlist."
+
+"You're a pretty young chap to take up arms," observed the Major, eyeing
+George keenly.
+
+"One is never too young to do that," answered the boy. He was determined
+to put a bold face on the affair, and he saw no reason why the Confederate
+officer should suspect him if he spoke up unhesitatingly.
+
+"The South has need of all her loyal sons," remarked Watson, who felt no
+compunction in deceiving the Major, whatever might have been his
+sentiments as to hoodwinking Mrs. Page.
+
+"So you all come from Kentucky?" went on the officer. "That interests me,
+for I come from Kentucky myself!"
+
+The jaws of the three strangers dropped simultaneously. Had a bomb fallen
+at their feet they could not have been more disconcerted. What did they
+know about Kentucky, if they had to be put through a series of
+cross-questions by a native! But there was no reason, after all, why the
+Major should dwell on the subject.
+
+"I thought Mrs. Page said you belonged to a Virginia regiment," exclaimed
+Macgreggor, almost involuntarily.
+
+"So I do," replied the Major, "but I only settled in Virginia two years
+ago. I was born and bred in Kentucky, and there's no state like it--now is
+there?"
+
+"No!" cried the trio, with a well-feigned attempt at enthusiasm. They felt
+that they were treading on dangerous ground, and resolved to play their
+parts as well as they could.
+
+"Do you all come from the same part of Kentucky?" queried the Major, as he
+sat down on a chair, evidently prepared for a pleasant chat.
+
+"From Fleming County," said Watson carelessly, quite as if he knew every
+other county in the State. "I fear, sir, we must be moving on towards
+Chattanooga. We are in a hurry to enlist, and we have already been delayed
+too long."
+
+The Major completely ignored the latter part of this sentence. "From
+Fleming County," he said. "Well, that's pleasant news. I know Fleming
+County like a book. There is where my father lived and died. What part of
+the county do you come from?"
+
+Had the Major asked them to tell the area of the United States in square
+inches he could not have propounded a more puzzling question.
+
+"Dunder and blitzen;" thought Watson. "If I only knew more of Kentucky
+geography I might get myself out of this scrape."
+
+"We come from the southeastern part of the county," said Macgreggor, after
+an awkward pause.
+
+"Near what town?"
+
+Another pause. Oh, for the name of a town in the southeastern part of
+Fleming County, Kentucky. The Major was looking at the visitors curiously.
+Why this sudden reticence on their part?
+
+At last Watson spoke up, although evasively. "We were a long distance from
+any town; we worked on adjoining farms, and when the call to arms came we
+determined to rush to the rescue of our beloved Southland."
+
+The Major gave Watson one searching look. "Humph!" said he, "that's all
+very pretty, and I'm glad you are so patriotic--but that won't do. What is
+the nearest town to the places you live in?"
+
+The name of Carlisle flashed through Watson's mind. He recalled that it
+was somewhere in the part of Kentucky in which Fleming County was
+situated. A man he knew had once lived there. He would risk it.
+
+"The nearest town is Carlisle," he said shortly. "And now, Major, we
+really must be off! Good-bye!"
+
+He started for the door, followed by George and Macgreggor, who were both
+devoutly wishing that such a state as Kentucky had never existed.
+
+"Wait a second," suddenly commanded the Southerner, stepping in front of
+the door to bar the way. "You seem to be strangely ignorant of your own
+county. Carlisle happens to be in the adjoining county."
+
+"Here, sir, we're not here to be examined by you, as if we were in the
+witness box," cried Watson, who hoped to carry the situation through with
+a strong hand. He would try a little bluster.
+
+A sarcastic smile crossed the firm face of Major Lightfoot. "Don't try to
+bluff me," he said quietly but sternly; "for it won't work. I see very
+clearly that you fellows have never been in Fleming County, nor do I think
+you have ever been in Kentucky at all, for the matter of that. You
+certainly talk more like Yankees than Kentuckians."
+
+"Then you don't believe us?" asked Macgreggor, trying to assume an air of
+injured innocence.
+
+"Certainly not," answered the Major. He folded his arms, and regarded the
+visitors as if he were trying to read their inmost thoughts. "You are
+lying to me! And as you've lied to me about coming from Kentucky, it's
+quite as likely you've lied to me about your being on your way to enlist
+in the Confederate army. For all I know you may be Union spies. In short,
+my friends, you are acting in the most suspicious way, and I put you under
+arrest!"
+
+George's heart sank within him. He was not afraid of being arrested, but
+to think that he might never take part in the bridge-burning expedition.
+Lightfoot turned the key in the door.
+
+Watson walked up to the Major, and tapped him on the shoulder. "Look
+here," he said, in the tone of a man who is quite sure of his position.
+"You talk about putting us under arrest, but you're only playing a game of
+bluff yourself. We are three to your one--and I'd like to know what is to
+prevent our walking out of this house, and knocking you down, too--or, if
+you prefer, shooting you--if you attempt to stop us?"
+
+Lightfoot laughed, in a superior sort of way. "Go, if you want," he said
+curtly; "but I don't think you'll go very far." His eyes glistened, as if
+he thought the whole scene rather a good joke. "Half a mile back of this
+mansion there's a squadron of Confederate cavalry picketed. If I give them
+the alarm they'll scour the whole countryside for you, and you'll all be
+in their hands within an hour."
+
+Watson turned pale. It was the paleness of vexation rather than of fear.
+"Why were we fools enough to come to this house," he thought. He knew how
+quickly they could be caught by cavalrymen.
+
+The Major smiled in a tantalizing manner. "I think you will take my advice
+and surrender," he said, sitting down carelessly in a chair and swinging
+one of his long legs over the other. "If, on investigation, it proves that
+you are not spies, you will be allowed to go on your way. If there's any
+doubt about it, however, you will be sent to Richmond."
+
+Macgreggor, with a bound, leaped in front of the Confederate, and, pulling
+out a revolver, pointed it at Lightfoot's head. "Unless you promise not to
+have us followed, you shan't leave this room alive!" he cried with the
+tone of a man daring everything for liberty. George fully expected to see
+the officer falter, for he had seen that the Major was unarmed.
+
+But Lightfoot did nothing of the kind. On the contrary, he gave one of his
+provoking laughs. "Don't go into heroics," he said, pushing Macgreggor
+away as though he were "shoohing" off a cat. "You know I would promise
+anything, and the second your backs were turned I'd give the alarm. You
+don't think I would be fool enough to see you fellows walking away without
+making a trial to get you back?"
+
+Macgreggor hesitated, as he looked at George and Watson. Then he answered
+fiercely, handling his pistol ominously the meanwhile: "We've but one
+chance--and we'll take it! We will never let you leave this room alive,
+promise or no promise. You are unarmed, and there are _three_ of us,
+armed."
+
+The Major did not seem to be at all startled. He merely changed the
+position of his legs, as he answered: "Killing me wouldn't do you any
+good, my boy! If you do shoot me before I can escape from the room the
+shooting would only alarm the house--the cavalry would be summoned by Mrs.
+Page, and you would find yourself worse off even than you are now."
+
+Watson touched Macgreggor on the shoulder. "The Major's right," he said;
+"we would only be shooting down a man in cold blood, and gaining nothing
+by it. He has trapped us--and, so long as those plagued cavalrymen are so
+near, we had better submit. I think I've got as much courage as the next
+man, but I don't believe in butting one's head against a stone wall."
+
+Macgreggor sullenly replaced his pistol. He could not but see the force of
+Watson's reasoning. The Major rose to his feet. He was smiling away again,
+as if he were enjoying himself.
+
+"We surrender!" announced Watson with a woebegone expression on his strong
+face.
+
+"You'll admit," said Lightfoot, "that I was too clever for you?"
+
+There was no answer. George picked up Waggie. "Can I take my dog along
+with us, wherever we go?" he asked.
+
+[Illustration: The Major Merely Changed the Position of His Legs]
+
+The Major suddenly advanced towards George, and patted the tiny animal.
+"Hello! Waggie, how are you, old man?" he cried.
+
+George gasped. "How on earth did you know Waggie's name?" he asked. For
+Waggie had been chewing at a bone on the floor ever since the entrance of
+the Confederate, and his master had not addressed a word to him during
+that time.
+
+"I know his name almost as well as I do yours, George Knight," said
+Lightfoot.
+
+In his excitement George dropped Waggie on a chair. The three Northerners
+heard this last announcement with open-mouthed astonishment.
+
+Lightfoot burst into a great laugh that made the mystery the more intense.
+"Why, comrades," he cried, "I ought to go on the stage; I had no idea I
+was such a good actor. Don't you know your friend, Walter Jenks?" The
+Southern accent of the speaker had suddenly disappeared.
+
+The listeners stood dumfounded. Then the whole situation dawned upon them.
+They had been most gloriously and successfully duped. This Major Lightfoot
+was none other than Walter Jenks, a sergeant from General Mitchell's camp,
+whom Andrews had sent out on the bridge-burning party. He had shaved off
+his beard, and assumed a Southern accent (something he was able to do
+because he was a Marylander), so that the guests at the Page mansion had
+failed to recognize him.
+
+Jenks shook the three warmly by the hand. "It was a mean trick to play on
+you fellows," he explained, lowering his voice, "but for the life of me I
+couldn't resist the temptation."
+
+"How on earth did you turn up here in the guise of a Confederate officer?"
+asked Watson, who now felt a sense of exhilaration in knowing that he
+might yet join Andrews at Marietta.
+
+"It is too long a story to tell," whispered Jenks. "I'll only say here
+that I got lost from the other two fellows I was traveling with--was
+suspected of being a spy in one of the villages I passed through--and, to
+avoid pursuit, had to shave off my beard and disguise myself in this
+Confederate uniform, which I was lucky enough to 'appropriate.' I was
+nearly starved--stumbled across this place or my way down--told a
+plausible story (Heaven forgive me for deceiving so delightful a lady as
+Mrs. Page)--and here I am! And the sooner we set off from here, the sooner
+we will meet at the appointed town."
+
+"When the war's over," remarked Macgreggor, "you can earn a fortune on the
+stage."
+
+Half an hour later the four Northerners had taken a grateful farewell of
+the unsuspecting Mrs. Page, and were hurrying along the bank of the
+Tennessee. By four o'clock in the afternoon they had reached a point
+directly opposite Chattanooga. Here they found a ferryman, just as they
+had been given to expect, with his flat "horse-boat" moored to the shore.
+He was a fat, comfortable-looking fellow, as he sat in tailor-fashion on
+the little wharf, smoking a corncob pipe as unconcernedly as though he had
+nothing to do all day but enjoy tobacco.
+
+Watson approached the man. "We want to get across the river as soon as
+possible," he explained, pointing to his companions. "This officer
+(indicating Walter Jenks, who retained his Confederate uniform) and the
+rest of us must be in Chattanooga within half an hour."
+
+The ferryman took his pipe from his mouth and regarded the party
+quizzically. "You may want to be in Chattanooga in half an hour," he said,
+in a drawling, lazy fashion, "but I reckon the river's got somethin' to
+say as to that!" He waved one hand slowly in the direction of the stream,
+which was, without a shadow of doubt, an angry picture to gaze upon. Its
+waters were turbulent enough to suggest that a passage across them at this
+moment would be attended by great risk.
+
+But to the anxious travelers any risk, however great, seemed preferable to
+waiting. If they missed the evening train from Chattanooga to Marietta
+their usefulness was ended. No bridge-burning adventure for them!
+
+"I tell you we _must_ get over to-night," urged Jenks, who hoped that his
+uniform would give him a certain prestige in the eyes of the ferryman. "I
+am Major Lightfoot, of the --th Virginia, and I'm on an important mission.
+Every minute is precious!"
+
+"That may be true enough, Colonel," replied the man, ignoring the title of
+"major," and taking a whiff from his pipe. "That may be true enough, but I
+calculate nature's got somethin' to say in this world. And I calculate I
+ain't a-going to risk my life, and the happiness of my wife and five
+children, by tryin' to stem the Tennessee in this turmoil."
+
+George's heart sank within him. To be so near the realization of his dream
+of adventure, and to be stopped at the eleventh hour by this stupid,
+cautious boatman! Waggie, who had been frisking near him, suddenly became
+solemn.
+
+Watson pulled from his coat a large pack of Confederate money. "There's
+money for you," he cried, "if you'll take us over!"
+
+The ferryman eyed him in a sleepy way, and took another pull at that
+provoking pipe.
+
+"Money!" he said, after a long pause, during which the Northerners gazed
+at him as if their very lives depended on his decision. "Money! What's the
+use to me of money, if we all get drowned crossing over?"
+
+As he spoke the river roared and rushed downwards on its course with a
+heedlessness that quite justified him in his hesitation. "Wait till
+to-morrow morning, and the Tennessee will be quieter. Then I'll help you
+out."
+
+"Wait till doomsday, why don't you say?" thundered Jenks. "We must take
+the risk--and I order you to take us over, at once!"
+
+"You may be a very big man in the army," answered the ferryman, "but your
+orders don't go here!" He produced a small tin box from the tail of his
+coat, leisurely poured from it into his pipe some strong tobacco, and
+slowly lighted the stuff. Then he arose, walked to the edge of the wharf,
+and beckoned to a lad of nine or ten years old who was half asleep in the
+boat. The boy jumped up, leaped upon the wharf, and ran off along the
+river's bank in the opposite direction from which the four strangers had
+come. He had received a mysterious order from the ferryman.
+
+"What's the matter now?" asked Macgreggor, who had a strong desire to
+knock down this imperturbable fellow who refused to be impressed even by a
+Confederate uniform.
+
+"Nothing," replied the man, stolidly. He sat down again, crossed his legs,
+and took a long pull at the pipe.
+
+"For the last time," shouted Jenks, shaking his fist in the smoker's face,
+"I order you to take out that boat, and ferry us across the river!"
+
+"For the last time," said the man, very calmly, "I tell you I'm not going
+to risk my life for four fools!"
+
+George walked up closer to Watson, and whispered: "Let's seize the boat,
+and try to cross over ourselves!"
+
+Watson beckoned to his two companions, and told them what the boy
+suggested.
+
+"We will be taking our lives in our hands," said Jenks, "but anything is
+better than being delayed here."
+
+"Besides," added Macgreggor, "although the river _is_ pretty
+mischievous-looking, I don't think it's any more dangerous than waiting
+here."
+
+Jenks took out his watch, and looked at it. "I'll give you just five
+minutes," he said, addressing the ferryman, "and if by that time you
+haven't made up your mind to take us over the river, we'll take the law
+into our own hands, seize your boat, and try the journey ourselves."
+Waggie began to bark violently, as if he sympathized with this speech.
+
+The man smiled. "That will be a fool trick," he answered. "If it's
+dangerous for me, it'll be death for you uns. Better say your prayers,
+partner!"
+
+"Only four minutes left!" cried Jenks, resolutely, keeping an eye on the
+watch.
+
+The ferryman closed his eyes and resumed his smoking. The others watched
+him intently. Meanwhile George was thinking. Two minutes more passed. The
+boy was recalling a saying of his father's: "Sometimes you can taunt an
+obstinate man into doing things, where you can't reason with him."
+
+"Time is up!" said Jenks, at last. "Come, boys, let's make a break for the
+boat!"
+
+The ferryman placed his pipe on the ground with the greatest composure.
+"Take the boat if you want," he observed, rising to his feet, "but you
+fellows won't get very far in it! Look there!"
+
+He pointed up the river's bank. The boy who had been sent away a few
+minutes before was coming back to the wharf; he was now, perhaps, a
+quarter of a mile away, but he was not alone. He was bringing with him
+five Confederate soldiers, who were walking briskly along with muskets at
+right shoulder.
+
+"You fellows looked kind o' troublesome," explained the ferryman, "so as
+there's a picket up yonder I thought I'd send my son up for 'em!"
+
+Watson made a move towards the boat. "Better stay here," cried the
+ferryman; "for before you can get a hundred feet away from the bank in
+this contrary stream those soldiers will pick you off with their muskets.
+D'ye want to end up as food for fishes?"
+
+The men groaned in spirit. "It's too late," muttered Jenks. He could
+picture the arrival at Marietta of all the members of the expedition save
+his own party, and the triumphal railroad escapade the next day. And when
+the Northern newspapers would ring with the account of the affair, his own
+name would not appear in the list of the brave adventurers.
+
+Suddenly George went up to the ferryman, and said, with much distinctness:
+"I see we have to do with a coward! There's not a boatman in Kentucky who
+wouldn't take us across this river. Even a Yankee wouldn't fear it. But
+you are so afraid you'll have to get your feet wet that you actually send
+for soldiers to protect you!"
+
+George's companions looked at him in astonishment. The boatman, losing his
+placidity, turned a deep red. "Take care, young fellow," he said, in a
+voice of anger; "there's not a man in Tennessee who dares to call Ned
+Jackson a coward!"
+
+"I dare to call you a coward unless you take us over to Chattanooga!"
+answered the boy, sturdily. "You're afraid--and that's the whole truth!"
+
+Jackson's face now underwent a kaleidoscopic transformation ranging all
+the way from red to purple, and then to white. All his stolidity had
+vanished; he was no longer the slow countryman; he had become the
+courageous, impetuous Southerner.
+
+"If you weren't a boy," he shouted, "I'd knock you down!"
+
+"That wouldn't prove your bravery," returned George, regarding him with an
+expression of well-feigned contempt. "That would only show you to be a
+bully. If you have any courage in your veins--the kind of courage that
+most Southerners have--prove it by taking us across the river."
+
+The soldiers were gradually drawing near the wharf. Meanwhile George's
+companions had caught his cue. He was trying to goad Jackson into ferrying
+them over the riotous stream.
+
+"Humph!" said Macgreggor; "a good boatman is never afraid of the water;
+but our friend here seems to have a consuming fear of it!"
+
+"He ought to live on a farm, where there is nothing but a duck pond in the
+shape of water," added Jenks. Jackson was actually trembling with rage;
+his hands were twisting nervously.
+
+Watson eyed him with seeming pity, as he said: "It's a lucky thing for you
+that you didn't enlist in the Confederate army. You would have run at the
+first smell of gunpowder!"
+
+Jackson could contain his wrath no longer. "So you fellows think I'm a
+coward," he cried. "Very well! I'll prove that I'm not! Get into my boat,
+and I'll take you across--or drown you all and myself--I don't care which.
+But no man shall ever say that Ned Jackson is a coward!" He ran to the
+boat, leaped into it and beckoned to the Northerners. "Come on!" he
+shouted. Within a minute George, Macgreggor, Watson and Jenks were in the
+little craft, and the ferryman had unmoored it from the wharf.
+
+"Never mind," he cried, waving his hand to the soldiers, who had now
+reached the wharf. "I don't want you. I'm going to ferry 'em over the
+river--or go to the bottom! It's all right."
+
+Already were the voyagers in midstream, almost before they knew it. It
+looked as if Jackson, in his attempt to prove his courage, might only end
+by sending them all to the bottom. Waggie, who was now reposing in a
+pocket of George's coat, suddenly gave a low growl. George produced from
+another pocket a bone which he had brought from Mrs. Page's house, and
+gave it to the dog.
+
+"Well," laughed Watson, in unconcern, "if Wag's to be drowned, he'll be
+drowned on a full stomach--and that's one consolation."
+
+"He's the only critter among you as has got any sense," snarled the
+ferryman; "for he's the only one who didn't ask to be taken across this
+infarnal river!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+PLOT AND PLOTTERS
+
+
+In after years George could never quite understand how he and his
+companions reached the Chattanooga shore. He retained a vivid recollection
+of tempestuous waves, of a boat buffeted here and there, and of Ned
+Jackson muttering all manner of unkind things at his passengers and the
+turbulent stream. They did at last reach their destination, and bade
+farewell to the ferryman, whom they loaded down with Confederate notes.
+
+No sooner was the latter embarked on the return voyage than Watson said:
+"That was a clever ruse of yours, George. That Jackson was a brave man at
+heart, and you put him on his mettle. He wanted to show us that he wasn't
+afraid of the water--and he succeeded."
+
+George laughed. He explained that it was a remark of his father's which
+had put the idea into his own head, and then he wondered where that same
+father could be. Was he dead or was he still living, perhaps in some
+prison?
+
+It was not long before the party reached the railroad station at
+Chattanooga. Here they purchased their tickets for Marietta, and were soon
+in the train bound southward for the latter place. The sun had nearly set
+as the engine pulled slowly out of the depot. The car in which they sat
+was filled with men on their way down South, some of them being soldiers
+in uniform and the rest civilians. Macgreggor, Watson and Jenks were at
+the rear end of the car, while George had to find a seat at the other end,
+next to a very thin man who wore the uniform of a Confederate captain.
+
+"Isn't it strange?" thought the boy. "To-morrow morning we will be
+reversing our journey on this railroad, and burning bridges on our way
+back to Chattanooga. But how are we to steal a train? I wonder if Andrews
+and the rest of the party will be on hand to-night at Marietta." Then, as
+he realized that he was in a car filled with men who would treat him as a
+spy, if they knew the nature of his errand to the South, there came over
+him a great wave of homesickness. He had lived all his life among friends;
+it was for him a new sensation to feel that he was secretly opposed to his
+fellow-travelers.
+
+The thin Captain who sat next to him turned and curiously regarded Waggie,
+who was lying on his master's lap. He had shrewd gray eyes, had this
+Captain, and there was a week's growth of beard upon his weazened face.
+
+"Where did you get your dog from, lad?" he asked, giving Waggie a pat with
+one of his skeleton-like hands. It was a pat to which the little animal
+paid no attention.
+
+"From home--Cincinnati."
+
+George had answered on the spur of the moment, thoughtlessly, carelessly,
+before he had a chance to detect what a blunder he was making. The next
+second he could have bitten out his tongue in very vexation; he felt that
+his face was burning a bright red; he had a choking sensation at the
+throat.
+
+The emaciated Captain was staring at him in a curiously surprised fashion.
+"From Cincinnati? Cincinnati, Ohio?" he asked, fixing his lynx-like eyes
+attentively upon his companion.
+
+Poor George! Every idea seemed to have left him in his sudden confusion;
+he was only conscious that the Confederate officer continued to regard him
+in the same intent manner. "I say," repeated the latter, "is your home in
+Ohio?"
+
+"Yes, Cincinnati, Ohio," said the boy boldly. "After all," as he thought,
+"I had better put a frank face on this stupidity of mine; a stammering
+answer will only make this fellow the more suspicious."
+
+"So then you're a Northerner, are you, my son?" observed the Captain. "I
+thought you spoke with a bit of a Yankee accent!"
+
+"Yes, I'm a Northerner," answered George. As he felt himself plunging
+deeper and deeper into hot water he was trying to devise some plausible
+story to tell the officer. But how to invent one while he was being
+subjected to that close scrutiny. One thing, at least, was certain. Once
+he had admitted that his home was in Ohio he could not make any use of the
+oft repeated Kentucky yarn.
+
+"And what are you doing down here?" asked the Captain. He spoke very
+quietly, but there was an inflection in his voice which seemed to say:
+"Give a good account of yourself--for your presence in this part of the
+country is curious, if nothing more."
+
+George understood that he must think quickly, and decide on some plan of
+action to cover up, if he could, any bad results from his blunder. He was
+once more cool, and he returned the piercing look of the officer with
+steadfast eyes. His mind was clear as to one thing. There was no need of
+his trying to invent a story, on the spur of the moment, with a man like
+the Captain quite ready to pick it to pieces. For it was plain that this
+Confederate was shrewd--and a trifle suspicious. The boy must pursue a
+different course.
+
+"My being down South is my own concern," he said, pretending to be
+virtuously offended at the curiosity of his inquisitor.
+
+The Captain drew himself up with an injured air. "Heigh ho!" he muttered;
+"my young infant wants me to mind my own business, eh?"
+
+George flushed; he considered himself very much of a man, and he did not
+relish being called an "infant." But he kept his temper; he foresaw that
+everything depended upon his remaining cool. He treated the remark with
+contemptuous silence.
+
+The officer turned away from him, to look out of the window of the car.
+Yet it was evident that he paid little or no attention to the rapidly
+moving landscape. He was thinking hard. Not a word was spoken between the
+two for ten minutes. Most of the other passengers were talking excitedly
+among themselves. Occasionally a remark could be understood above the
+rattle of the train. George heard enough to know they were discussing the
+battle of Shiloh, which had been fought so recently.
+
+"I tell you," cried a soldier, "the battle was a great Confederate
+victory."
+
+"That may be," answered some one, "but if we have many more such victories
+we Southerners will have a lost cause on our hands, and Abe Lincoln will
+be eating his supper in Richmond before many months are gone."
+
+At this there was a chorus of angry dissent, and several cries of
+"Traitor!" George listened eagerly. He would dearly have liked to look
+behind him, to see what his three companions were doing, or hear what they
+were saying, at the other end of the car. But he was not supposed to know
+them. He could only surmise (correctly enough, as it happened) that they
+were acting their part of Southerners, although doing as little as
+possible to attract attention. One thing worried the young adventurer. He
+distrusted the continued silence of the Captain.
+
+It was a silence that the officer finally broke, by looking squarely into
+George's face, and saying, in a low tone: "When a Northerner travels down
+South these times he must give an account of himself. If you won't tell me
+who you are, my friend, I may find means of making you!"
+
+As he spoke the train was slowing up, and in another minute it had stopped
+at a little station.
+
+"Now or never," thought George. He arose, stuffed Waggie into his pocket,
+and said to the Captain: "If you want to find out about me, write me. This
+is my station. Good-bye!"
+
+The next instant he had stepped out of the car, and was on the platform.
+He and an elderly lady were the only two passengers who alighted. No
+sooner had they touched the platform than the train moved on its way,
+leaving the Captain in a state of angry surprise, as he wondered whether
+he should not have made some effort to detain the boy. It was too late to
+do anything now, and the officer, as he is carried away on the train, is
+likewise carried out of our story.
+
+What were the feelings of Watson, and Jenks, and Macgreggor as they saw
+George leave the car, and the train rattled away? They were afraid to make
+any sign; and even if they had thought it prudent to call out to the lad,
+or seek to detain him, they would not have found time to put their purpose
+into execution, so quickly had the whole thing happened. Not daring to
+utter a sound, they could only look at one another in blank amazement.
+"What was the boy up to," thought Watson, "and what's to become of him?"
+He was already devotedly attached to George, so that he felt sick at heart
+when he pictured him alone and unprotected at a little wayside village in
+the heart of an enemy's country. Nor were the other two men less
+solicitous. Had George suddenly put on wings, and flown up through the
+roof of the car, they could not have been more horrified than they were at
+this moment. Meanwhile the train went rumbling on, as it got farther and
+farther away from the little station. It was now almost dark; the brakeman
+came into the car and lighted two sickly lamps. Some of the passengers
+leaned back in their seats and prepared to doze, while others, in heated,
+angry tones, kept up the discussion as to the battle of Shiloh. The
+civilian who had hinted that the engagement was not a signal victory for
+the Confederates got up and walked into a forward car, to rid himself of
+the abuse and arguments of several of his companions.
+
+Watson was sorely tempted to pull the check rope of the train, jump out,
+and walk back on the track until he found the missing boy; but when he
+reflected on the possible consequences of such a proceeding he unwillingly
+admitted to himself that to attempt it would be the part of madness. He
+would only bring the notice of every one in the train upon himself;
+suspicion would be aroused; he and his companions might be arrested; the
+whole plot for burning the bridges might be upset.
+
+"What can have gotten into George's head?" he said to himself a hundred
+times. Jenks and Macgreggor were asking themselves the same question.
+Steadily the train went on, while the sky grew darker and darker. In time
+most of the passengers fell asleep. Occasionally a stop would be made at
+some station. Marietta, in Georgia, would not be reached until nearly
+midnight.
+
+                   *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Where had George gone?" the reader will ask. The question is not so hard
+to answer as it may seem. The moment that the Captain had become
+inquisitive the boy had made up his mind that the sooner he could get away
+from that gentleman the better it would be for the success of Andrews'
+expedition. He saw that the train stopped at different stations along the
+road, and he began to map out a scheme for escape. Thus, when the cars
+came to the place already spoken of, he jumped out, as we have described,
+and stood on the platform with the elderly lady who had alighted almost at
+the same instant. The latter passed on into the station, and left the
+platform deserted, except for George. Hardly had she disappeared before
+the conductor pulled the check-rope, and the train began to move. As it
+slowly passed by him the boy quickly jumped upon the track, caught hold of
+the coupling of the last car, and hung there, with his knees lifted up
+almost to his chin. In another second he had grasped the iron railing
+above him; within a minute he had raised himself and clambered upon the
+platform. The train was now speeding along at the customary rate. As
+George sat down on the platform, he gave a sigh of relief. No one had seen
+him board the car. For all that the inquisitive Captain knew he might
+still be standing in front of the station. And what were Watson, Jenks and
+Macgreggor thinking about his sudden exit from the scene? George laughed,
+in spite of himself, as he pictured their amazement. He would give them a
+pleasant surprise later on, when they reached Marietta. In the meantime he
+would stay just where he was, if he were not disturbed, until they arrived
+at that town. Then it would be late at night, when he could evade the
+lynx-eyed Confederate officer.
+
+Having settled his plans comfortably in his mind George was about to put
+his hand in his coat pocket to give a reassuring pat to Waggie (who had
+been sadly shaken up by his master's scramble) when the door of the car
+opened. A man put out his head, and stared at the boy.
+
+"What are you doing here, youngster?" asked the man. George recognized him
+as the conductor of the train.
+
+"Only trying to get a breath of fresh air," replied the lad, at the same
+time producing his railroad ticket and showing it in the dusk. The
+conductor flashed the lantern he was holding in George's face, and then
+glanced at the ticket.
+
+"Well, don't fall off," he observed, evidently satisfied by the scrutiny.
+"You were in one of the forward cars, weren't you? Where's your dog? In
+your pocket, eh?" He turned around, shut the door, and went back into the
+car without waiting for an answer.
+
+"One danger is over," whispered George to himself. Then he began to pat
+Waggie. "You and I are having an exciting time of it, aren't we?" he
+laughed. "Well, there's one consolation; they can't hang you for a spy,
+anyway, even if they should hang me!"
+
+So the night passed on, as George clung to the railing of the platform,
+while the train rumbled along in the darkness to the Southward. The
+conductor did not appear again; he had evidently forgotten all about the
+boy. At last, when Waggie and his master were both feeling cold, and
+hungry, and forlorn, there came a welcome cry from the brakeman:
+"Marietta! All out for Marietta!"
+
+In a short time the passengers for Marietta had left the train. Watson,
+Jenks and Macgreggor were soon in a little hotel near the station, which
+was to be the rendezvous for Andrews and his party. As they entered the
+office of the hostelry all their enthusiasm for the coming escapade seemed
+to have vanished. The mysterious disappearance of George had dampened
+their ardor; they feared to think where he could be, or what might have
+become of him.
+
+The office was brilliantly lighted in spite of the lateness of the hour.
+In it were lounging eight or nine men. The pulses of the three newcomers
+beat the quicker as they recognized in them members of the proposed
+bridge-burning expedition. Among them was Andrews.
+
+"Yes," he was saying, in a perfectly natural manner, to the hotel clerk,
+who stood behind a desk; "we Kentuckians must push on early tomorrow
+morning. The South has need of all the men she can muster."
+
+"That's true," answered the clerk; "Abe Lincoln and Jefferson Davis have
+both found out by this time that this war won't be any child's play. It'll
+last a couple of years yet, or my name's not Dan Sanderson."
+
+Macgreggor and Jenks walked up to the register on the desk, without
+showing any sign of recognition, and put down their names respectively as
+"Henry Fielding, Memphis, Tennessee," and "Major Thomas Brown,
+Chattanooga." The latter, it will be remembered, wore a Confederate
+uniform. Watson wrote his real name, in a bold, round hand, and added:
+"Fleming County, Kentucky." Then he turned towards Andrews. "Well,
+stranger," he said, "did I hear you say you were from Kentucky? I'm a
+Kentuckian myself. What's your county?"
+
+He extended his right hand and greeted Andrews with the air of a man who
+would like to cultivate a new acquaintance. Andrews rose, of course, to
+the occasion, by answering: "I'm always glad to meet a man from my own
+state. I'm from Fleming County."
+
+"Well, I'll be struck!" cried Watson. "That's my county, too! What part of
+it do you live in?"
+
+After a little more of this conversation, which was given in loud tones,
+the two men withdrew to a corner and sat down. "We are all here now except
+two of our men," said Andrews, in a low voice. "Half of the fellows have
+gone to bed, thoroughly tired out. But where's George? Isn't he with
+you?"
+
+"It makes me sick to think where he is," whispered Watson, "for----"
+
+Before he could finish his sentence George entered the office, followed by
+Waggie. He had lingered about the Marietta Station, after leaving the
+platform of the car, until he was safe from meeting the Captain, in case
+that gentleman should have alighted at this place. Then he had cautiously
+made his way to the hotel.
+
+Watson rose as quietly as if the appearance of George was just what he had
+been expecting. "What did you lag behind at the station for, George?" he
+asked. Then, turning to Andrews, he said: "Here's another Kentuckian,
+sir--a nephew of mine. He wants to join the Confederate army, too."
+
+George, as he shook hands with Andrews quite as if they had never met each
+other before, could not help admiring the presence of mind of Watson.
+
+"You young rascal," whispered the latter, "you have given me some
+miserable minutes."
+
+"Hush!" commanded Andrews, in the same tone of voice. "We must not talk
+together any more. As soon as you go up-stairs to bed you must come to my
+room--number 10, on the second floor, and get your instructions for
+to-morrow. Everything has gone very smoothly so far, and we are all here
+excepting two of us, although some of us have had a pretty ticklish time
+in getting through to this town. Remember--Room Number 10."
+
+Andrews moved away. Soon all the members of the party assembled at the
+hotel were in their rooms up-stairs, presumably asleep, with the exception
+of George and his three companions. They were able, after considerable
+coaxing, to get admittance into the dining-room. Thereby they secured a
+nocturnal meal of tough ham, better eggs, and some muddy "coffee." The
+latter was in reality a concoction consisting of about seven-eights of
+chickory, and the other eighth,--but what the remaining eighth was only
+the cook could have told. The meal tasted like a Delmonico feast to the
+famished wanderers, nor was it the less acceptable because they saw it
+nearly consumed before their hungry eyes; for Waggie, who had a power of
+observation that would have done credit to a detective, and a scent of
+which a hound might well have been proud, made his way into the
+dining-room in advance of the party, and jumped upon the table while the
+negro waiter's back was turned. As George entered, the dog was about to
+pounce upon the large plate of ham. Mr. Wag cast one sheepish look upon
+his master, and then retired under the table, where he had his supper
+later on.
+
+After they had finished their meal, the four conspirators were taken
+up-stairs by a sleepy bell-boy, and shown into a large room containing two
+double beds. The servant lighted a kerosene lamp that stood on a centre
+table, and then shuffled down to the office.
+
+Macgreggor lifted the lamp to take a survey of the room. "Take a good look
+at those beds, fellows," he said, with a grim chuckle; "it may be a long
+time before you sleep on such comfortable ones again. For if we come to
+grief in this expedition----"
+
+"Pshaw!" interrupted Jenks impatiently, but in subdued tones. "Don't
+borrow trouble. We are bound to succeed."
+
+Macgreggor placed the lamp on the centre table, and began to take off his
+shoes. "I'm just as ready as any of you for this scheme," he answered,
+"but I can't shut my eyes to the risks we are running. Did you notice on
+your way down that the railroad sidings between Chattanooga and Marietta
+were filled with freight cars? That means, to begin with, that we won't
+have a clear track for our operations to the Northward."
+
+Watson smiled rather grimly. "The more we appreciate the breakers ahead of
+us," he whispered, "the less likely are we to get stranded on the beach.
+But we really can't judge anything about the outlook for to-morrow until
+we get our detailed instructions from Andrews."
+
+As he spoke there was a very faint tap at the door. The next moment
+Andrews had cautiously entered the room. He was in stocking feet, and wore
+neither coat nor waistcoat.
+
+"I thought it better to hunt you fellows up," he explained, in a voice
+that they could just hear, "instead of letting you try to find me. I was
+listening when the boy showed you up to this room." He proceeded to sit
+upon one of the beds, while his companions gathered silently around him.
+"Listen," he continued, "and get your instructions for to-morrow--for
+after we separate to-night there will be no time for plotting.
+
+"To-morrow we must reverse our journey and take the early morning train to
+the northward, on this Georgia State Railroad. In order to avoid
+suspicion, we must not all buy tickets for the same station. In point of
+fact we are only to go as far as Big Shanty station, near the foot of
+Kenesaw Mountain, a distance of eight miles. Here passengers and railroad
+employees get off for breakfast, and this is why I have selected the place
+for the seizure of the train. Furthermore, there is no telegraph station
+there from which our robbery could be reported. When we board the train at
+Marietta we must get in by different doors, but contrive to come together
+in one car--the passenger car nearest the engine. After all, or nearly all
+but ourselves have left the cars at Big Shanty for breakfast, I will give
+the signal, when the coast is clear, and we will begin the great work of
+the day--that of stealing the locomotive."
+
+Here Andrews went into a detailed description of what each man in the
+expedition (he had now twenty-one men, including himself, and not counting
+George) would do when the fateful moment arrived. George, who sat
+listening with open mouth, felt as if he were drinking in a romantic tale
+from the "Arabian Nights," or, at least, from a modern version of the
+"Nights," where Federal soldiers and steam engines would not be out of
+place. He thrilled with admiration at the nicety with which Andrews had
+made all his arrangements. It was like a general entering into elaborate
+preparations for a battle. The two soldiers who were to act as engineers,
+those who were to play brakemen, and the man who was to be fireman, had
+their work carefully mapped out for them. The other men were to form a
+guard who would stand near the cars that were to be seized; they were to
+have their revolvers ready and must shoot down any one who attempted to
+interfere.
+
+"We must get off as quickly as possible," went on the intrepid Andrews.
+"From what I hear to-night it is evident that General Mitchell captured
+Huntsville to-day, which is one day sooner than we expected him to do it.
+We must cut all telegraph wires and then run the train northward to
+Chattanooga, and from there westward until we meet Mitchell advancing
+towards Chattanooga on his way from Huntsville. I have obtained a copy of
+the time-table showing the movement of trains on the Georgia State
+Railroad, and I find we have only two to meet on our race. These two won't
+trouble us, for I know just where to look for them. There is also a local
+freight-train which can be passed if we are careful to run according to
+the schedule of the captured train until we come up to it. Having gotten
+by this local freight we can put on full steam, and speed on to the
+Oostenaula and Chickamauga bridges, burn them, and run on through
+Chattanooga to Mitchell. There's a glorious plan for you fellows. What do
+you think of it?"
+
+There was a ring of pride in his lowered voice as he concluded.
+
+"Admirable!" whispered Walter Jenks, "It's a sure thing, and the man who
+invented the scheme has more brains than half the generals in the war!"
+
+As George pictured to himself the stolen train flying along the tracks, in
+the very heart of the enemy's country, he could hardly restrain his
+enthusiasm. "It's grand!" he murmured. Had he dared he would have given a
+great cheer.
+
+The leader smiled as he saw, in the dim lamplight, the radiant face of the
+boy. "You have lots of grit, my lad," he said, in a kindly fashion, "and
+God grant you may come out of this business in safety." Then, turning to
+Watson, he asked: "How does my plan, as now arranged, impress you,
+Watson?"
+
+After a minute's silence, during which the others in the room gazed
+intently at Watson, that soldier said: "I have as great an admiration for
+James Andrews as any one of our party, and I am ready to follow wherever
+he leads. Whatever my faults may be, I'm not a coward. But we should look
+carefully on each side of a question--and I can't help thinking that owing
+to circumstances which we have not taken into account our expedition
+stands a very decided chance of failure."
+
+"What are those circumstances?" asked Andrews.
+
+"In the first place," was the reply, "I find that there is a large
+encampment of Confederate troops at Big Shanty. Escape in a captured train
+would have been very easy while those soldiers were elsewhere; but, being
+there, do you suppose that the sentries of the camp will stand idly by
+when we seize cars and locomotive and attempt to steam away to the
+northward? In the second place--and this is no less important--the
+railroad seems to be obstructed by numerous freight trains, probably not
+on the schedule, and flying along the track towards Chattanooga will not
+be as plain sailing as you believe. One unlooked-for delay might be fatal.
+We are in the midst of enemies, and should there be one hitch, one change
+in our program, the result will be failure, and perhaps death, for all of
+us."
+
+There was a painful silence. At last Andrews said, very quietly, but with
+an air of strong conviction: "I think the very objections you urge, my
+dear Watson, are advantages in disguise. I know, as well as you, that
+there's a big encampment at Big Shanty, but what of it? No one dreams for
+one second that there is any plot to capture a train, and no one,
+therefore, will be on the lookout. The thing will be done so suddenly that
+there will be no chance for an alarm until we are steaming off from the
+station--and then we can laugh. If we strike any unscheduled trains, they
+too will be to our advantage; for they will make such confusion on the
+road that they will detract attention from the rather suspicious
+appearance of our own train."
+
+"Perhaps you are right," answered Watson, rather dubiously.
+
+Andrews arose from the bed, and solemnly shook hands with each of his four
+companions. Then he said, very impressively: "I am confident of the
+success of our enterprise, and I will either go through with it or leave
+my bones to bleach in 'Dixieland.' But I don't want to persuade any one
+against his own judgment. If any one of you thinks the scheme too
+dangerous--if you are convinced beforehand of its failure--you are at
+perfect liberty to take the train in any direction, and work your way home
+to the Union camp as best you can. Nor shall I have one word of reproach,
+either in my mind or on my lips, for a man whose prudence, or whose want
+of confidence in his leader, induces him to draw back."
+
+Andrews was an adroit student of men. No speech could have better served
+his purpose of inducing his followers to remain with him. It was as if he
+declared: "You may all desert me, but _I_ will remain true to my flag."
+
+"You can count on me to the very last," said Watson stoutly. He was always
+ready to face danger, but he liked to have the privilege of grumbling at
+times. In his heart, too, was a conviction that his leader was about to
+play a very desperate game. The chances were all against them.
+
+"Thank you, Watson," answered Andrews, gratefully. "I never could doubt
+your bravery. And are the rest of you willing?"
+
+There were hearty murmurs of assent from Jenks, George and Macgreggor.
+Jenks and the boy were very sanguine; Macgreggor was rather skeptical as
+to future success, but he sternly resolved to banish all doubts from his
+mind.
+
+"Well, George," said Andrews, as he was about to leave the room, "if you
+get through this railroad ride in safety you will have something
+interesting to remember all your life." In another moment he had gone. The
+time for action had almost arrived.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+ON THE RAIL
+
+
+At an early hour the next morning, just before daylight, the conspirators
+were standing on the platform of the Marietta station, awaiting the
+arrival of their train--the train which they hoped soon to call theirs in
+reality. They were all in civilian dress; even Walter Jenks had contrived
+to discard his uniform of a Confederate officer, regarding it as too
+conspicuous, and he was habited in an ill-fitting suit which made him look
+like an honest, industrious mechanic.
+
+Andrews was pacing up and down with an anxious, resolute face. He realized
+that the success of the manoeuvre which they were about to execute rested
+upon his own shoulders, but he had no idea of flinching. "Before night has
+come," he was thinking confidently, "we shall be within the lines of
+General Mitchell, and soon all America will be ringing with the story of
+our dash."
+
+George, no less sanguine, was standing near Watson and Macgreggor, and
+occasionally slipping a lump of sugar into the overcoat pocket which
+served as a sort of kennel for the tiny Waggie. There was nothing about
+the party to attract undue attention. They pretended, for the most part,
+to be strangers one to another, and, to aid in the deception, they had
+bought railroad tickets for different places--for Kingston, Adairsville,
+Calhoun and other stations to the northward, between Marietta and
+Chattanooga.
+
+Soon the train was sweeping up to the platform. It was a long one, with
+locomotive, tender, three baggage cars and a number of passenger cars. The
+adventurers clambered on it through various doors, but at last reached the
+passenger car nearest to the engine. Here they seated themselves quite as
+if each man had no knowledge of any one else. In another minute the train,
+which was well filled, went rolling away from Marietta and along the bend
+around the foot of Kenesaw Mountain. "Only eight miles," thought George,
+"and then----"
+
+The conductor of the train, a young man with a very intelligent face,
+looked searchingly at the boy as he examined his ticket. "Too young,"
+George heard him mutter under his breath, as he passed on to the other
+passengers.
+
+A thrill of feverish excitement stirred the lad. "What did he mean by too
+young?" he asked himself. "Can he possibly have gotten wind of our
+expedition?" But the conductor did not return, and it was not until long
+afterwards that George was able to understand what was meant by the
+expression, "Too young." The man had been warned by the Confederate
+authorities that a number of young Southerners who had been conscripted
+into the army were trying to escape from service, and might use the cars
+for that purpose. He was ordered, therefore, to arrest any such runaways
+that he might find. When he looked at George it is probable that he
+thought: "This boy is too young to be a conscript," and he evidently gave
+unconscious voice to what was passing through his mind. Fortunately
+enough, he saw nothing suspicious in any of the Northerners.
+
+The train ran rather slowly, so that it was bright daylight before it
+reached Big Shanty. "Big Shanty; twenty minutes for breakfast!" shouted
+the conductor and the brakemen. George's heart beat so fast that he almost
+feared some one would hear it, and ask him what was the matter. The hoarse
+cries of the employees as they announced the name of the station made him
+realize that now, after all these hours of preparation and preliminary
+danger, the first act of his drama of war had begun. Every one of his
+companions experienced the same feeling, but, like him, none had any
+desire to draw back.
+
+No sooner had the cars come to a standstill than nearly all the
+passengers, excepting the Northerners, quickly left their seats, to repair
+to the long, low shanty or eating-room from which the station took its
+unpoetic name. Then the train hands, including the engineer and fireman,
+followed the example of the hungry passengers, and hurried off to
+breakfast. The engine was deserted. This was even better than the
+adventurers could have hoped, for they had feared that it might be
+necessary to overpower the engineer before they could get away on their
+race.
+
+The twenty-one men and the one boy left in the forward passenger car
+looked anxiously, guardedly, at one another. More than one felt in his
+clothes to make sure that he had his revolver. Andrews left the car for
+half a minute, dropped to the ground, and glanced rapidly up and down the
+track. There was no obstruction visible. Within a stone's throw of him,
+however, sentries were posted on the outskirts of the Confederate camp. He
+scanned the station, which was directly across the track from the
+encampment, and was glad to see, exactly as he had expected, that it had
+no telegraph office from which a dispatch concerning the coming escapade
+might be sent. Having thus satisfied himself that the coast was clear, and
+the time propitious, he reentered the car.
+
+"All right, boys," he said, very calmly (as calmly, indeed, as if he were
+merely inviting the men to breakfast), "let us go now!"
+
+The men arose, quietly, as if nothing startling were about to happen, left
+the car, and walked hurriedly to the head of the train. "Each man to his
+post," ordered Andrews. "Ready!"
+
+In less time than it takes to write this account the seizure of the train
+was accomplished, in plain view of the puzzled sentries. The two men who
+were to act as engineer and assistant engineer clambered into the empty
+cab of the locomotive, as did also Andrews and Jenks. The latter was to be
+the fireman. One of the men uncoupled the passenger cars, so that the
+stolen train would consist only of the engine, tender, and the three
+baggage cars. Into one of these baggage cars the majority of the party
+climbed, shutting the doors at either end after them, while the two men
+who were to serve as brakemen stationed themselves upon the roof. Watson
+and Macgreggor were in this car, while George, with Waggie in his pocket,
+was standing in the tender, his handsome face aglow with excitement, and
+his eyes sparkling like stars.
+
+"All ready! Go!" cried Andrews. The engineer opened the valve of the
+locomotive; the wheels began to revolve; in another second the train was
+moving off towards Chattanooga. The next instant Big Shanty was in an
+uproar. As he peered over the ledge of the tender, and looked back, George
+saw the sentries running here and there, as the passengers in the
+breakfast-room came swarming out on the platform. There were shouts from
+many voices; he even heard the report of several rifles.
+
+But shouts or shots from rifles could not avail now. The engine was
+dancing along the track on the road to Chattanooga; Big Shanty was soon
+many yards behind. George took Waggie out of his pocket, and held him up
+in the air by the little fellow's forepaws. "Say good-bye to the Confeds,"
+he shouted, "for by to-night, Wag, you'll be in the Union lines!" The dog
+barked gleefully; and jumped about on the platform of the tender, glad
+enough to have a little freedom again. Then Waggie was replaced in his
+master's pocket.
+
+Andrews, who was sitting on the right-hand seat of the cab, looked the
+picture of delight.
+
+"How was that for a starter?" he cried. "It's a good joke on Watson: he
+was so sure the sentries would stop us, and the soldiers didn't realize
+what we were doing until it was too late--for them! Hurrah!"
+
+It was all that the four men in the cab, and that George in the tender,
+could possibly do to keep their balance. The road-bed was very rough and
+full of curves; the country was mountainous, and the track itself was in
+wretched condition. Yet it was a magnificent sight as "The General," which
+was the name of the engine, careered along through the picturesque country
+like some faithful horse which tries, with all its superb powers of
+muscle, to take its master farther and farther away from a dangerous
+enemy.
+
+But suddenly the engine began to slacken its speed, and at last came to a
+complete standstill. Andrews, who had made his way into the tender, with
+considerable difficulty, in order to speak to George, turned a trifle
+pale.
+
+"What's the matter, Brown?" he shouted to the engineer.
+
+"The fire's nearly out, and there's no steam," was the rejoinder. At the
+same moment the men in the baggage car opened the door nearest the tender,
+and demanded to know what had happened.
+
+Andrews called back to them that there would only be a short delay.
+
+"It's only the fire that's out," he added; "and I'm thankful it is nothing
+worse. When I saw the train slowing up I was afraid some of the machinery
+had broken." No one understood better than he how a broken engine would
+have stranded all his men in the enemy's country, only a short distance
+away, comparatively, from Big Shanty and the Confederate camp.
+
+George worked with a will in assisting the men in the cab to convey wood
+from the tender into the engine furnace. In three minutes "The General"
+had resumed its way.
+
+"I wonder," thought George, as the train twisted around a curve and then
+sped across a narrow embankment, "if any attempt will be made to follow
+us." But the very idea of such pursuit seemed absurd.
+
+Andrews turned to Jenks with a smiling countenance. "The most difficult
+part of our journey is already over," he said triumphantly. "There's only
+one unscheduled train to meet, in addition to the two regulars. After I
+meet it, probably at Kingston, twenty-five miles or more farther on, we
+can put the old 'General' to full speed, and begin our work! We have got
+the upper hand at last."
+
+"Don't forget your telegraph wire is to be cut," said Jenks, as he jammed
+his shabby cap over his head, to prevent it from sailing off into space.
+
+"Wait a couple of minutes," answered the leader. "We'll cut it." He knew
+that although there was no telegraph station at Big Shanty, yet the enemy
+might tap the wire, if it were not cut, and thus send word along the line
+that a train manned by Northern spies was to be watched for and
+peremptorily stopped. The simplest obstruction on the track would be
+sufficient to bring this journey to an untimely end.
+
+"Brown, we'll stop here," commanded the leader, a minute or two later, as
+the engine was running over a comparatively level section. "The General"
+was soon motionless, whereupon Watson, peering out from the baggage car,
+called out: "Anything wrong?"
+
+"Only a little wire-cutting to be done," shouted Andrews. Then coming to
+George, he said: "Look here, my boy, how are you on climbing?"
+
+"Never had a tree beat me yet," said the lad.
+
+"Then try your skill at that pole yonder, and see if you can get to the
+top of it."
+
+Without waiting to make answer George handed Waggie to Jenks, jumped from
+the tender to the ashy road-bed, and started towards the nearest telegraph
+pole, only a few feet away from the engine. It was a far more difficult
+task to coax one's way up a smooth pole than up the rough bark of a tree,
+as George soon learned. Twice he managed to clamber half way up the pole,
+and twice he slid ignominiously to the ground. But he was determined to
+succeed, and none the less so because the men in the baggage car were
+looking on as intently as if they were at the circus. Upon making the
+third attempt he conquered, and reached the top of the pole amid the
+cheering of the spectators.
+
+"Now hold on there for a minute, George," called Andrews. He produced from
+one of his pockets a ball of very thick twine, or cord, to one end of
+which he tied a small stick of kindling-wood, brought from the tender.
+Next he leaned out from the cab and threw the stick into the air. It flew
+over the telegraph wire, and then to the ground, so that the cord, the
+other end of which he held in his left hand, passed up across the wire,
+and so down again. To the end which he held Andrews tied a good-sized
+axe.
+
+"Do you see what I want?" he asked the boy, who was resting himself on the
+cross-bar supporting the wire.
+
+George needed no prompting. The cord was eight or nine feet away from him;
+to reach it he must move out on the telegraph wire, hand over hand, with
+his feet dangling in the air. Slowly he swung himself from the cross-bar
+to the wire, and began to finger his way towards the cord. But this was an
+experience new to the expert tree-climber; ere he had proceeded more than
+three feet his hands slipped and he fell to the ground. The distance was
+thirty-five feet or more, and the lookers-on cried out in alarm. The boy
+would surely break his legs--perhaps his neck!
+
+But while Master George might not be an adept in handling a wire he had
+learned a few things about falling from trees. As he came tumbling down he
+gracefully turned a somersault and landed, quite unhurt, upon his feet.
+
+"I'll do it yet," he maintained pluckily, running back to the telegraph
+pole.
+
+"Wait, George," shouted Andrews. He leaped from the cab, and taking a new
+piece of the cord, tied it around the lad's waist. "If I had the sense I
+was born with I might have done that first," he muttered.
+
+George began his second ascent of the pole, and this time reached the top
+without hindrance or mishap. Andrews now fastened the axe to the cord, of
+which George had one end; in a few seconds the axe had been drawn up by
+the boy. Then, with his left hand holding on to the cross-bar, and his
+legs firmly wound around the pole, he took the axe in his right hand and
+hit the wire. Three times did he thus strike; at the third blow the wire
+snapped asunder, and the longer of the two pieces fell to the ground. He
+let the tool fall, and slid down the pole as the men cheered him lustily.
+Andrews now took the axe, cut the dangling wire in another place, and
+threw the piece thus secured into the tender.
+
+"They can't connect that line in a hurry," he said, as he turned to George
+with the remark: "Well, my son, you're earning your salt!" George,
+blushing like a peony, felt a thrill of pride.
+
+"And now, fellows," added Andrews, addressing the men in the baggage car,
+"it will be best to take up a rail, so that if we are pursued, by any
+chance, the enemy will have some trouble in getting on any further."
+
+The occupants of the car, headed by Watson, sprang to the ground. Andrews
+handed him a smooth iron bar, about four feet in length. "We have no
+track-raising instruments," explained the leader, "but I guess this will
+answer." Watson managed to loosen some of the spikes on the track, in the
+rear of the train, by means of this bar; later several of his companions
+succeeded in placing a log under the rail and prying it up so that at last
+the piece of iron had been entirely separated from the track.
+
+The perspiration was dripping from Watson's brow. "Great guns!" he
+growled, "we are acting as if we had a whole eternity of time before us."
+
+"Don't worry about that," said Andrews, reassuringly, as he leaped into
+the cab; "we have been running ahead of schedule time. But hurry up;
+there's lots of work before us!" In the next minute the Northerners were
+once more on their way.
+
+After the train had run a distance of five miles, Andrews signaled to the
+engineer, and it was brought slowly to a stop. The chief jumped from the
+engine, walked along the track to the end car, and gazed intently to the
+southward.
+
+"No sign of pursuit thus far," he said to himself. Then, turning back and
+speaking to the men in the baggage car who had once more opened the door,
+he cried: "There's time, boys, for another wrestle with the
+telegraph--only this time we will try a new plan." This time, indeed, a
+pole was chopped down, and placed (after the wire had been cut) upon the
+track directly behind the last baggage car.
+
+"There," said Andrews, "that will have to be lifted off before our friends
+the enemy can steam by--even if they have an engine good for seventy miles
+an hour."
+
+Walter Jenks came walking back to the cab. He looked pale and tired.
+
+"What's the matter?" asked Andrews.
+
+"I strained my back a bit in helping the fellows to put that pole on the
+track," was the answer.
+
+"Go back into the car and take a rest," urged the leader. "George can take
+your place as fireman. Eh, George?"
+
+The boy, coming up at that moment, and hearing the suggestion, smiled
+almost as broadly as the famous Cheshire cat. He longed to know that he
+was of some real use in the expedition. So Jenks retired to the baggage
+car, carrying with him, for a temporary companion, the struggling Waggie,
+who might be very much in George's way under the new arrangement of
+duties.
+
+Off once more rattled "The General," and George, in his capacity of
+fireman, felt about three inches taller than he had five minutes before.
+The spirits of Andrews seemed to be rising higher and higher. Thus far
+everything had gone so successfully that he began to believe that the
+happy ending of this piece of daring was already assured.
+
+"Now, my boys, for a bit of diplomacy," he said, at last, as the occupants
+of the cab saw that they were approaching a small station flanked by half
+a dozen houses. "Stop 'The General' here, Brown, for I think there's a
+tank at the place."
+
+As the train reached the platform and slowly stopped, the station-master,
+a rustic-looking individual with a white beard three feet long, shambled
+up to the cab.
+
+"Ain't this Fuller's train?" he drawled, gazing curiously at the four
+Northerners, as he gave a hitch to his shabby trousers. He could not
+understand the presence of the strangers in the engine, nor the
+disappearance of the passenger cars.
+
+Andrews leaned out of the cab window. He knew that Fuller was the
+conductor of the stolen train, whom they had left behind at Big Shanty.
+"No," he said, in a tone of authority, "this is not Fuller's train. He'll
+be along later; we have the right of way all along the line. I'm running a
+special right through to General Beauregard at Corinth. He is badly in
+need of powder."
+
+"Be the powder there?" asked the station-master, pointing to the three
+baggage cars.
+
+The men hiding in one of them had received their instructions; they were
+as silent as the grave, and their doors were closed. The brakemen sat mute
+on top of the cars.
+
+"Yes, there's enough powder in there to blow up the whole State of
+Georgia," returned Andrews.
+
+"Wall, I'd give my shirt and my shoes to Beauregard if he wanted 'em,"
+said the man of the long beard. "He's the best General we have in the
+Confederate service;--yes, better even than Robert Lee."
+
+"Well, then help Beauregard by helping me. I want more water--I see you
+have a tank here--and more wood."
+
+"You can have all you can hold," cried the station-master,
+enthusiastically. He was only too glad to be of use.
+
+Thus it happened that ten minutes later "The General" was speeding away
+from the station with a fresh supply of water and a huge pile of wood in
+the tender.
+
+"That yarn worked admirably, didn't it?" asked Andrews. The engineer and
+his assistant laughed. George shut the heavy door of the furnace, into
+which he had been throwing wood, and stood up, very red in the face,
+albeit smiling.
+
+"But even if the story was true," he suggested, "you couldn't get through
+to Corinth."
+
+"Exactly," laughed the leader, "but our goat-bearded friend at the station
+didn't think of that fact. Corinth is away off in the state of
+Mississippi, near its northern border, nearly three hundred miles away
+from here; besides, if I were a Southerner, I couldn't possibly reach
+there without running afoul of General Mitchell and his forces, either
+around Huntsville, or Chattanooga. However, I knew more about Mitchell's
+movements than the station man did--and that's where I had the
+advantage."
+
+"We may not have such plain sailing at Kingston," said the engineer, as
+"The General" just grazed an inquisitive cow which showed signs of
+loitering on the track.
+
+"We'll have more people to deal with there," admitted Andrews, "and we
+must be all the more on our guard."
+
+Both the men spoke wisely. It was just two hours after leaving Big Shanty,
+and about thirty miles had been covered, when the alleged powder-train
+rolled into the station at the town of Kingston.
+
+"I hope we meet that irregular freight train here," muttered Andrews.
+There were certainly plenty of cars in evidence on the sidings; indeed,
+the station, which was the junction for a branch line running to Rome,
+Georgia, presented a bustling appearance.
+
+No sooner was "The General" motionless than a train-dispatcher emerged
+from a gathering of idlers on the platform and walked up to the
+locomotive. He held in his hand a telegraphic blank. As he saw Andrews,
+who was leaning out of the cab with an air of impatience that was partly
+real and partly assumed, the dispatcher drew back in surprise. He
+recognized "The General," but there were strange men in the cab.
+
+"I thought this was Fuller's train," he said. "It's Fuller's engine."
+
+"Yes, it is Fuller's engine, but he's to follow me with his regular train
+and another engine. This is a special carrying ammunition for General
+Beauregard, and I must have the right of way clear along the line!"
+
+The dispatcher scanned the train. He saw nothing to excite his suspicions.
+The baggage cars were closed, and might easily be filled with powder and
+shot; the men in the engine, and the two brakemen on the top of one car
+had a perfectly natural appearance.
+
+"Well, you can't move on yet," he announced. "Here's a telegram saying a
+local freight from the north will soon be here, and you must wait till she
+comes up."
+
+Andrews bit his lip in sheer vexation. He had reasoned that this irregular
+freight train would already be at Kingston on his arrival, and he hated
+the idea of a delay. The loiterers on the platform were listening eagerly
+to the conversation; he felt that he was attracting too much attention.
+But there was no help for it. He could not go forward on this single-track
+railroad until the exasperating freight had reached the station.
+
+"All right," he answered, endeavoring to look unconcerned, "shunt us
+off."
+
+Within three minutes the train had been shifted from the main track to a
+side track, and a curious crowd had gathered around "The General."
+
+It was a critical situation. The idlers began to ply the occupants of the
+cab with a hundred questions which must be answered in some shape unless
+suspicion was to be aroused--and suspicion, under such circumstances,
+would mean the holding back of the train, and the failure of the
+expedition.
+
+"Where did you come from?" "How much powder have you got on board?" "Why
+did you take Fuller's engine?" "Why is Beauregard in such a hurry for
+ammunition?" were among the queries hurled at the defenceless heads of the
+four conspirators.
+
+George, as he gazed out upon the Kingstonians, began to feel rather
+nervous. He realized that one contradictory answer, one slip of the
+tongue, might spoil everything. And in this case to spoil was a verb
+meaning imprisonment and ultimate death.
+
+A dapper young man, with small, piercing eyes and a head that suggested a
+large bump of self-conceit, called out: "You chaps can't reach Beauregard.
+You'll run right into the Yankee forces."
+
+"I've got my orders and I'm going to try it," doggedly answered Andrews.
+
+"And run your ammunition right into the hands of the Yankees?" sneered the
+dapper young man. "I don't see the sense in that."
+
+An angry flush came into Andrews' cheeks. "When you have been in the
+Confederate army a little while, young man, as I have," he said, "you'll
+learn to obey orders and ask no questions. Why don't you go serve your
+country, as other young men are doing, instead of idling around at a safe
+distance from the bullets?"
+
+At this sally a shout of laughter went up from the crowd. It was evident
+that the dapper young man was not popular. He made no answer, but went
+away. "Will that freight never turn up?" thought Andrews.
+
+Suddenly there came a barking from the baggage car nearest the tender,
+wherein were confined the majority of the party. George's heart beat the
+faster as he listened; he knew that the querulous little cries were
+uttered by Waggie.
+
+An old man, with snow-white hair and beard, cried out: "Is that dog in the
+car part of your ammunition?" His companions laughed at the witticism. For
+once Andrews was nonplused. George came bravely to the rescue.
+
+"It's a dog in a box," he said, "and it's a present to General
+Beauregard."
+
+"Well, I hopes the purp won't be blown up," remarked the old man. There
+was another titter, but the story was believed.
+
+"Things are getting a little too warm here," Andrews whispered to George.
+As the words left his lips he heard the screeching of a locomotive. "It's
+the freight!" he cried.
+
+It was, indeed, the longed-for freight train; puffing laboriously, it came
+up to the station and was quickly switched off to a siding.
+
+"Now we can get rid of these inquisitive hayseeds," said Andrews.
+
+"Look," cried George; "I see a red flag!" He pointed to the rear platform
+of the end freight car, from which was suspended a piece of red bunting.
+Andrews stamped his foot and indulged in some forcible language. He knew
+that the flag indicated the presence of another train back of the
+freight.
+
+Andrews was out of the cab like a flash. "What does this red flag mean?"
+he demanded of the conductor of the freight train, who was about to cross
+the tracks to enter the station.
+
+"What does _what_ mean?" asked the conductor, in a tone of mild surprise.
+
+"Why is the road blocked up behind you?" asked the leader. Had he been the
+President of the Southern Confederacy he could not have spoken more
+imperiously. "I have a special train with orders to take a load of powder
+to General Beauregard without delay! And here I find my way stopped by
+miserable freight trains which are not a quarter as important as my three
+cars of ammunition."
+
+"I'm sorry, sir," explained the conductor, "but it ain't my fault. Fact
+is, Mitchell, the Yankee General, has captured Huntsville, and we're
+moving everything we can out of Chattanooga, because it's said he is
+marching for there. We have had to split this freight up into two
+sections--and t'other section is a few miles behind. Don't worry. It'll be
+here soon. But, look here, sir! You'll never be able to reach Beauregard.
+General Mitchell will get you long before you are near Corinth."
+
+"Pooh!" replied Andrews. "Mitchell may have taken Huntsville, but he can't
+stay there. Beauregard has, no doubt, sent him flying by this time. And,
+anyway, I'm bound to obey orders from Richmond, come what may."
+
+"I wish you luck, sir," said the freight conductor, who was impressed by
+the authoritative bearing of Andrews, and believed the spy to be some
+Confederate officer of high rank.
+
+The leader returned to the cab. It was still surrounded by the curious
+idlers.
+
+"This is what I call pretty bad railroad management," he grumbled, loud
+enough to be heard by the Kingstonians. "This line should be kept clear
+when it's necessary to get army supplies quickly from place to place. What
+are fifty freight trains compared to powder for the troops?"
+
+The minutes passed slowly; it seemed as if that second freight train would
+never come. At last a dull, rumbling sound on the track gave warning of
+the approach of the second section. In a few moments the heavily-laden
+cars, drawn by a large engine, had glided by "The General," down the main
+track. The men in the cab gave unconscious sighs of relief. Now they could
+move onward. But what was it that the sharp eyes of George detected? Yes,
+there could be no mistake. At the end of the second freight train was
+another red flag.
+
+"Look!" he whispered. Andrews saw the flag, and turned white.
+
+"How many more trains are we to wait for?" he said.
+
+After regaining his composure he left the engine, to seek the conductor of
+the new train. He was back again in five minutes.
+
+"Well?" asked George.
+
+"I find from the conductor that there's still another section behind him,"
+explained Andrews. "The Confederate commander at Chattanooga fears the
+approach of General Mitchell and has ordered all the rolling stock of the
+railroad to be sent south to Atlanta. The new train should be here in ten
+minutes."
+
+In the meantime the people around the station had all heard of the danger
+which threatened Chattanooga from the Union army. The train-dispatcher
+came running over to the engine, and doffed his cap to Andrews.
+
+"It ain't none of my business," he said, with supreme indifference to any
+rules of grammar, "but they say Mitchell is almost at Chattanooga--and
+you'll never get through to Corinth."
+
+Andrews assumed an air of contemptuous superiority.
+
+"I happen to know more of General Mitchell's movements than you do," he
+said, "And, what's more, no Confederate officer takes orders from a
+railroad employee."
+
+"I didn't mean any offense," answered the train-dispatcher.
+
+"Then go back and see that the switches are ready for me to move on the
+instant the next freight gets here," ordered the leader. The young man
+walked away, with a nod of assent.
+
+"He talks proud enough," he thought; "he must be a relation of Jefferson
+Davis, from his airs."
+
+After the dispatcher had gone, Andrews whispered to George: "We ought to
+let the boys in the car know the cause of our detention--and warn them
+that in case of anything going wrong in our plans they must be prepared to
+fight for their lives. Could you manage to get word to them without
+attracting suspicion?"
+
+The boy made no verbal answer. But as he left the cab and vaulted to the
+ground, his looks showed that he understood what was wanted, and proposed
+to execute the commission. After sauntering among the men who stood near
+the engine, he crossed the track of the siding, directly in front of "The
+General's" headlight, and soon leaned, in a careless attitude, against the
+car in which so many of his companions were waiting. He was now on the
+opposite side of the track from the Kingstonians, but directly alongside
+the main track, and in full view from the station.
+
+George began, in a very low tone, to whistle a few bars from "The Blue
+Bells of Scotland." It was a tune he had often indulged in during his
+travels from the Union camp. As he finished there came a bark of
+recognition from Waggie, and a slight stir in the car.
+
+"Are you there, Watson?" asked the boy, under his breath. "Can you hear
+me? If you can, scratch on the wall."
+
+There was a moment's pause, and the faint sound of footsteps was heard
+within the car. Then came an answering scratch.
+
+George went on, in the same tone, as he leaned against the car, and
+apparently gazed into space: "Andrews wants you--to know--that we're
+waiting--till some freight trains--get in--from Chattanooga. But if
+anything--should happen--before we--can get away--be ready to fight. Keep
+Waggie from barking--if you can."
+
+Another scratching showed that Watson had heard and understood. But Waggie
+began to bark again. George was filled with vexation. "Why did I let
+Waggie go in the car?" he asked himself.
+
+Just then a welcome whistle proclaimed that the third freight train was
+approaching. It was time; the delay at Kingston must have occupied nearly
+an hour--it seemed like a whole day--and the men about the railroad
+station were becoming skeptical. They could not understand why the
+mysterious commander of the powder-train should persist in wanting to go
+on after hearing that Mitchell was so near.
+
+When George returned to the engine the new freight went by on the main
+track directly in the wake of the second freight, which had been sent half
+a mile down the line, to the southward. The main track was now clear for
+Andrews. But the intrepid leader seemed to be facing fresh trouble. He was
+standing on the step of the cab, addressing the old man who had charge of
+the switches.
+
+"Switch me off to the main track at once," thundered Andrews. "Don't you
+see, fool, that the last local freight is in, and I have a clear road!"
+
+There was a provokingly obstinate twist about the switch-tender's mouth.
+
+"Switch yourself off," he snarled. "I shan't take the responsibility for
+doing it. You may be what you say you are, but I haven't anything to prove
+it. You're a fool, anyway, to run right into the arms of the Yankee
+general."
+
+His fellow-townsmen indulged in a murmur of approval. The men in the cab
+saw that another minute would decide their fate, adversely or otherwise.
+
+"I order you to switch me off--in the name of the Confederate Government!"
+shouted the leader.
+
+More citizens were running over from the station to find out the cause of
+the disturbance.
+
+"I don't know you, and I won't take any orders from you!" said the
+switch-tender, more doggedly than ever. He walked over to the station,
+where he hung up the keys of the switch in the room of the ticket-seller.
+
+In a twinkling Andrews had followed him, and was already in the ticket
+room.
+
+"You'll be sorry for this," he cried; "for I'll report your rascally
+conduct to General Beauregard!" He seized the keys as he spoke, and shook
+them in the old man's face.
+
+The latter looked puzzled. He had begun to think that this business of
+sending powder to Beauregard was a trick of some kind, yet the confident
+bearing of the leader impressed him at this crisis. Perhaps he had made a
+mistake in refusing to obey the orders; but ere he could decide the knotty
+problem Andrews took the keys, hurried from the station, and unlocked the
+switch. Then he jumped into the cab, as he shouted to the men near the
+engine: "Tell your switch-tender that he will hear from General Beauregard
+for this!" He gave a signal, and the engineer grasped the lever and opened
+the steam valve.
+
+"The General" slowly left the siding and turned into the main track. As
+the train passed the station, heading towards the north, the switch-tender
+was standing on the platform, with a dazed expression in his eyes. Andrews
+tossed the keys to him, as he cried: "Forgive me for being in such a
+hurry, but the Confederacy can't wait for you!" Soon Kingston was left
+behind.
+
+"Keep 'The General' going at forty miles an hour," said the leader. "We
+have only the two trains to meet now--a passenger and a freight--which
+won't give us any trouble. I tell you, we had a narrow escape at Kingston.
+More than once I thought we were all done for."
+
+"I was pretty well scared when that rascal of a Waggie barked," observed
+George. The train was now gliding swiftly on past hills and woods and
+quiet pasture-lands. After the long delay the sensation of rapid motion
+was delightful.
+
+"By Jove!" cried Andrews, with a tinge of humor. "You must bring that
+rogue back with you into the engine. When he barks in a place where
+there's supposed to be nothing but powder the thing doesn't seem quite
+logical. It throws discredit on an otherwise plausible story. Let us stop
+a couple of miles from here, near Adairsville, do some wire-cutting,
+release Waggie, and see how the fellows are getting along in the baggage
+car."
+
+When the stop was made the men in the car quickly opened the door and came
+tumbling to the ground. They were glad to stretch their legs and get a
+breath of fresh air. Waggie bounded and frisked with delight when he
+espied George.
+
+"I've had a time with that dog," said Jenks. "I had a flask of water with
+me, and he insisted on my pouring every bit of it out on the palm of my
+hand, and letting him lap it."
+
+The other occupants of the car were crowding around Andrews, as they
+discussed with him the fortunate escape from Kingston. Watson, who seemed
+to be fired with a sudden enthusiasm, addressed the party.
+
+"Boys," he said, "when I heard that switch-tender refuse to put us on the
+main track I thought our hour had come. But the coolness and the presence
+of mind of our friend Andrews have saved the day. Let us give him three
+cheers! Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!"
+
+The cheers were given with a will.
+
+"Thank you, comrades," said Andrews, modestly. "But don't waste any time
+on me; I only did what any other man would have done in my place. Let's
+get to work again--time's precious."
+
+At a hint from him George clambered up a telegraph pole, taking with him a
+piece of cord by which he afterwards drew up an axe. Then he cut the wire,
+while others in the party were removing three rails from the track in the
+rear of the train. The rails were afterwards deposited in the baggage car
+occupied by the men, as were also some wooden cross-ties which were found
+near the road-bed.
+
+"All this may be a waste of time," said Andrews. "We shall probably be in
+Chattanooga before any one has a chance to chase us."
+
+"Yet I have a presentiment that we shall be chased," cried Macgreggor. "I
+believe there will be a hot pursuit."
+
+His hearers, including Andrews, laughed, almost scornfully.
+
+"Just wait and see," returned Macgreggor. "A Southerner is as brave, and
+has as much brains as a Northerner."
+
+We shall see who was right in the matter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+AN UNPLEASANT SURPRISE
+
+
+On sped the fugitive train once more, and in a few minutes it had stopped,
+with much bumping and rattle of brakes at the station called Adairsville.
+Hardly had the wheels of the faithful old "General" ceased revolving
+before a whistle was heard from the northward.
+
+Andrews peered through the cab up the track. "It's the regular freight,"
+he said, and calling to the station hands who were gaping at "Fuller's
+train," as they supposed it must be, he told them the customary story
+about the powder designed for General Beauregard. They believed the
+leader, who spoke with his old air of authority, and they quickly shunted
+his "special" on to the side track. No sooner had this been accomplished
+than the freight made its appearance.
+
+As the engine of the latter passed slowly by "The General" Andrews shouted
+to the men in the cab: "Where's the passenger train that is on the
+schedule?"
+
+"It ought to be right behind us," came the answer.
+
+"That's good," whispered Andrews. "Once let us pass that passenger, and
+we'll have a clear road to the very end of the line."
+
+In the meantime the freight was moved past the station and switched on to
+the siding, directly behind the "special," there to wait the arrival of
+the passenger train.
+
+George began to grow restless, as the minutes passed and no train
+appeared. At last, with the permission of Andrews, he jumped from the cab,
+and walked over to the platform, Waggie following close at his heels. He
+looked anxiously up the track, but he could see nothing, hear nothing.
+
+Two young men, one of them a civilian and the other evidently a soldier
+who was home on furlough (to judge by his gray uniform and right arm in a
+sling), were promenading up and down, and smoking clay pipes.
+
+"I don't understand it," the soldier was saying. "They talk about sending
+powder through to General Beauregard, but it's an utter impossibility to
+do it."
+
+"You're right," said his friend. "The thing looks fishy. If these fellows
+are really what they----"
+
+"Hush," whispered the soldier. He pointed to George as he spoke. "Well,
+you're beginning railroading pretty young," he added aloud, scrutinizing
+the boy as if he would like to read his inmost thoughts.
+
+"It's never too young to begin," answered the boy, carelessly.
+
+"What is this powder train of yours, anyway?" asked the soldier, in a
+wheedling voice which was meant to be plausible and friendly.
+
+George had heard enough of the conversation between the two young
+Southerners to know that they were more than curious about the supposed
+powder train. And now, he thought, they would try to entrap him into some
+damaging admission. He must be on his guard. He put on as stupid a look as
+he could assume (which was no easy task in the case of a boy with such
+intelligent features), as he replied stolidly: "Dunno. I've nothing to do
+with it. I'm only fireman on the engine."
+
+"But you know where you're going?" demanded the soldier, with a gesture of
+impatience.
+
+"Dunno."
+
+"Who is the tall chap with the beard who has charge of the train?"
+
+"Dunno."
+
+"How much powder have you got on board?"
+
+"Dunno."
+
+"I don't suppose you even know your own name, you little idiot!" cried the
+soldier. "The boy hasn't got good sense," he said, turning to his friend.
+
+"You were never more mistaken in your life," answered his friend. "He's
+only playing a game. I know something about faces--and this boy here has
+lots of sense."
+
+George called Waggie, put the animal in his pocket, and walked to the door
+of the little station without taking any notice of this compliment to his
+sagacity. Under the circumstances he should have preferred the deepest
+insult. He felt that a long detention at Adairsville would be dangerous,
+perhaps fatal.
+
+Opening the door, the boy entered the station. It comprised a cheerless
+waiting-room, with a stove, bench and water-cooler for furniture, and a
+little ticket office at one end. The ticket office was occupied by the
+station-agent, who was near the keyboard of the telegraph wire; otherwise
+the interior of the building was empty.
+
+"Heard anything from the passenger yet?" asked George, as he walked
+unconcernedly into the ticket office.
+
+"Just wait a second," said the man, his right hand playing on the board;
+"I'm telegraphing up the line to Calhoun to find out where she is. The
+wires aren't working to the south, somehow, but they're all right to the
+north."
+
+Click, click, went the instrument. George returned leisurely to the
+doorway of the waiting-room. He was just in time to hear the young soldier
+say to his friend: "If these fellows try to get away from here, just let
+'em go. I'll send a telegram up the road giving warning that they are
+coming, and should be stopped as a suspicious party. If they don't find
+themselves in hot water by the time they get to Dalton I'm a bigger fool
+than I think I am."
+
+George stood stock still. Here was danger indeed! He knew that to send a
+telegram up the road would be but the work of a minute; it could go over
+the wires to the north before the "special" had pulled away from
+Adairsville.
+
+At this moment the station-agent came out of his office. "The passenger is
+behind time," he said, and he ran quickly across the tracks to speak to
+Andrews, who was looking anxiously out from the cab of "The General."
+
+"It's now or never," thought George. He turned back into the deserted
+waiting-room, entered the ticket-office, and pulled from the belt under
+his inner coat a large revolver--the weapon which he carried in case
+self-defense became necessary. Taking the barrel of the revolver, he tried
+to pry up the telegraphic keyboard from the table to which it was
+attached. But he found this impossible to accomplish; he could secure no
+leverage on the instrument. He was not to be thwarted, however; so
+changing his tactics, he took the barrel in his hand and began to rain
+heavy blows upon the keys, with the butt end. In less time than it takes
+to describe the episode, the instrument had been rendered totally
+useless.
+
+"There," he said to himself, with the air of a conqueror, "it will take
+time to repair that damage, or to send a telegram." He was about to leave
+the office when he discovered a portable battery under the table. It was
+an instrument that could be attached to a wire, in case of emergency.
+George hastily picked it up, and hurried into the waiting-room. It would
+never do to leave this battery behind in the office; but how could he take
+it away without being caught in the act? His eyes wandered here and there,
+until they rested upon the stove. There was no fire in it. An inspiration
+came to him. He opened the iron door, which was large, and threw the
+battery into the stove. Then he closed the door, and sauntered carelessly
+out to the platform. The soldier and his friend were now standing at some
+distance from the station, on a sidewalk in front of a grocery store. They
+were engaged in earnest conversation. Over on the side-track, where "The
+General" stood, the station-agent was talking to Andrews. George joined
+his leader, and sprang into the cab.
+
+"From what I hear," said Andrews, "the passenger train is so much behind
+time that if I make fast time I can get to Calhoun before it arrives
+there, and wait on a siding for it to pass us."
+
+"Then why don't you move on," urged George, who happened to know how
+desirable it was to get away, but dared not drop any hint to his leader in
+the presence of the station-agent.
+
+"You're taking a risk," said the station-agent. "You may strike the train
+before you reach Calhoun." He was evidently not suspicious, but he feared
+an accident.
+
+"If I meet the train before we reach Calhoun," cried Andrews, striking his
+fist against the window-ledge of the cab, "why then she must back till she
+gets a side-track, and then we will pass her."
+
+He turned and looked at his engineer and the assistant.
+
+"Are you ready to go, boys?" he asked. They quickly nodded assent; they
+longed to be off again.
+
+"Then go ahead!" ordered Andrews. "A government special must not be
+detained by any other train on the road!"
+
+"The General" was away once more. George began to explain to Andrews what
+he had heard at the station, and how he had disabled the telegraph.
+
+"You're a brick!" cried the leader, patting the boy approvingly on the
+shoulder; "and you have saved us from another scrape. But 'tis better to
+provide against any repairing of the telegraph--and the sooner we cut a
+wire and obstruct the track, the better for us."
+
+Thus it happened that before the train had gone more than three miles "The
+General" was stopped, more wires were cut, and several cross-ties were
+thrown on the track in the rear. Then the train dashed on, this time at a
+terrific speed. Andrews hoped to reach Calhoun, seven miles away, before
+the passenger should arrive there. It was all that George could do to keep
+his balance, particularly when he was called upon to feed the engine fire
+with wood from the tender. Once Waggie, who showed a sudden disposition to
+see what was going on around him, and tried to crawl out from his master's
+pocket, came very near being hurled out of the engine. Curves and up
+grades seemed all alike to "The General"; the noble steed never slackened
+its pace for an instant. The engineer was keeping his eyes on a point way
+up the line, so that he might slow up if he saw any sign of the passenger;
+the assistant sounded the whistle so incessantly that George thought his
+head would split from the noise. Once, at a road crossing, they whirled by
+a farm wagon containing four men. The boy had a vision of four mouths
+opened very wide. In a second wagon and occupants were left far behind.
+
+In a space of time which seemed incredibly short Calhoun was reached. Down
+went the brakes and "The General" slid into the station to find directly
+in front, on the same track, the long-expected passenger train.
+
+"There she is!" cried Andrews; "and not before it's time!"
+
+It was only by the most strenuous efforts that the engineer could keep
+"The General" from colliding with the locomotive of the opposing train.
+When he brought his obedient iron-horse to a standstill there was only the
+distance of a foot between the cowcatchers of the two engines. The
+engineer of the passenger train leaned from his cab and began to indulge
+in impolite language. "What d'ye mean," he shouted, "by trying to run me
+down?" And he added some expressions which would not have passed muster in
+cultivated society.
+
+"Clear the road! Clear the road!" roared Andrews. "This powder train must
+go through to General Beauregard at once! We can't stay here a minute!"
+
+These words acted like a charm. The passenger train was backed to a
+siding, and "The General" and its burden were soon running out of
+Calhoun.
+
+"No more trains!" said Andrews. His voice was husky; the perspiration was
+streaming from his face. "Now for a little bridge burning. There's a
+bridge a short distance up the road, across the Oostenaula River, where we
+can begin the real business of the day. But before we get to it let us
+stop 'The General' and see what condition he is in."
+
+"He has behaved like a gentleman, so far," said the engineer. "He must be
+in sympathy with us Northerners."
+
+"Slow up!" ordered Andrews. "The old fellow is beginning to wheeze a
+little bit; I can tell that he needs oiling."
+
+Obedient to the command, the engineer brought "The General" to a halt. As
+the men came running from the baggage car, Andrews ordered them to take up
+another rail.
+
+"It's good exercise, boys," he laughed, "even if it may not be actually
+necessary."
+
+Then he helped his engineers to inspect "The General." The engine was
+still in excellent condition, although the wood and water were running a
+little low. It received a quick oiling, while George climbed up a
+telegraph pole and severed a wire in the manner heretofore described.
+Eight of the party were pulling at a rail, one end of which was loose and
+the other still fastened to the cross-ties by spikes.
+
+Suddenly, away to the southward, came the whistle of an engine. Had a
+thunderbolt descended upon the men, the effect could not have been more
+startling. The workers at the rail tore it away from the track, in their
+wild excitement, and, losing their balance, fell headlong down the side of
+the embankment on which they had been standing. They were up again the
+next instant, unhurt, but eager to know the meaning of the whistle.
+
+Was there an engine in pursuit? Andrews looked down the track.
+
+"See!" he cried.
+
+There _was_ something to gaze at. Less than a mile away a large
+locomotive, which was reversed so that the tender came first, was running
+rapidly up the line, each instant approaching nearer and nearer to the
+fugitives. In the tender stood men who seemed to be armed with muskets.
+
+"They are after us," said Andrews. "There's no doubt about it." He was
+very calm now; he spoke as if he were discussing the most commonplace
+matter in the world.
+
+His companions crowded around him.
+
+"Let us stand and fight them!" cried Watson.
+
+"Yes," urged Jenks, who had forgotten all about his sore back; "we can
+make a stand here!"
+
+Andrews shook his head. "Better go on, boys," he answered. "We have taken
+out this rail, and that will delay them. In the meantime we can go on to
+the Oostenaula bridge and burn it."
+
+There was no time for discussion. The men yielded their usual assent to
+the orders of their chief. They quickly scrambled back into the train, to
+their respective posts, and Andrews gave the signal for departure.
+
+"Push the engine for all it's worth!" he commanded; "we must make the
+bridge before the enemy are on us." The engineer set "The General" going
+at a rattling pace.
+
+"How on earth could we be pursued, after the way we cut the wires along
+the line," muttered the leader. "Can the enemy have telegraphed from Big
+Shanty to Kingston by some circuitous route? I don't understand."
+
+"Are you making full speed?" he asked the engineer, a second later.
+
+"The old horse is doing his best," answered the man, "but the wood is
+getting precious low."
+
+"George, pour some engine oil into the furnace."
+
+The boy seized the oil can, and obeyed the order. The speed of "The
+General" increased; the engine seemed to spring forward like a horse to
+which the spur has been applied.
+
+"That's better," said Andrews. "Now if we can only burn that bridge before
+the enemy are up to us, there is still a chance for success--and life!"
+His voice sank almost to a whisper as he uttered the last word. With a
+strange, indescribable sensation, George suddenly realized how near they
+all were to disaster, even to death. He thought of his father, and then he
+thought of Waggie, and wondered what was to become of the little dog. The
+boy was cool; he had no sense of fear; it seemed as if he were figuring in
+some curious dream.
+
+Suddenly Andrews left the engine, lurched into the tender, and began to
+climb out of it, and thence to the platform of the first baggage car.
+George looked back at him in dread; surely the leader would be hurled from
+the flying train and killed. But he reached the car in safety and opened
+the door. He shouted out an order which George could not hear, so great
+was the rattle of the train; then he made his way, with the ease of a
+sure-footed chamois, back to "The General." He had ordered the men in the
+car to split up part of its sides for kindling-wood. By the use of the
+cross-ties, which they had picked up along the road, they battered down
+some of the planking of the walls, and quickly reduced it to smaller
+pieces. It was a thrilling sight. The men worked as they had never worked
+before. It was at the imminent risk of falling out, however, and as the
+train swung along over the track it seemed a miracle that none of them
+went flying through the open sides of the now devastated car.
+
+On rushed "The General." As it turned a curve George, who was now in the
+tender, glanced back to his right and saw--the pursuing engine less than a
+mile behind.
+
+"They are after us again!" he shouted. "They have gotten past the broken
+rail somehow," he said. "They must have track repairing instruments on
+board."
+
+Andrews set his lips firmly together like a man who determines to fight to
+the last.
+
+George made his way back to the cab. "Will we have time to burn the
+bridge?" he asked.
+
+"We must wait and see," answered the leader, as he once more left the
+engine and finally reached the despoiled baggage car. He said something to
+Jenks; then he returned to the cab.
+
+"What are you going to do?" anxiously asked the boy. He could hear the
+shrill whistle of the pursuing locomotive. "Com-ing! Com-ing!" it seemed
+to say to his overwrought imagination.
+
+Andrews made no answer to George; instead he shouted a command to the
+engineer: "Reverse your engine, and move backwards at full speed!"
+
+The engineer, without asking any questions, did as he was told. Jenks ran
+through to the second car and contrived, after some delay caused by the
+roughness of the motion, to uncouple it from the third. This last car was
+now entirely loose from the train, and would have been left behind had it
+not been that the engine had already begun to go back. Faster and faster
+moved "The General" to the rear.
+
+"Go forward again," finally ordered Andrews. The engine slowly came to a
+standstill, and then plunged forward once more. Now George could see the
+meaning of this manoeuvre. The third car, being uncoupled, went running
+back towards the enemy's tender. Andrews hoped to effect a collision.
+
+But the engineer of the pursuing locomotive was evidently ready for such
+an emergency. He reversed his engine, and was soon running backwards. When
+the baggage car struck the tender no harm was done; the shock must have
+been very slight. In another minute the enemy's engine was puffing onward
+again in the wake of the fugitives, while the car was being pushed along
+in front of the tender.
+
+"That didn't work very well," said Andrews, placidly. "Let's try them
+again."
+
+Once more "The General" was reversed. This time the second car was
+uncoupled and sent flying back. "The General" was now hauling only the
+tender and the one baggage car in which the majority of the members of the
+party were confined. The second attempt, however, met with no better
+result than the first: the enemy pursued the same tactics as before;
+reversing the locomotive, and avoiding a serious collision. It now started
+anew on the pursuit, pushing the two unattached cars ahead of it,
+apparently little hampered as to speed by the incumbrance. And now,
+unfortunately enough, the bridge was in plain view, only a few hundred
+yards ahead. As the enemy turned a new curve George caught a view of the
+tender. A dozen men, armed with rifles, were standing up in it; he could
+see the gleam of the rifle barrels.
+
+"More oil," ordered Andrews. The boy seized the can, and poured some more
+of the greasy liquid into the fiery furnace. He knew that the wood was
+almost exhausted, and that it would soon be impossible to hold the present
+rate of progress. Oh, if there only would be time to burn the bridge, and
+thus check the pursuers! But he saw that he was hoping for the
+impracticable.
+
+"Shall we stop on the bridge?" asked the engineer, in a hoarse voice.
+
+"It's too late," answered Andrews. "Keep her flying."
+
+Over the bridge went the engine, with the pursuers only a short distance
+behind.
+
+"Let us have some of that kindling-wood for the furnace," shouted Andrews
+to the men in the baggage car. The men began to pitch wood from the door
+of the car into the tender, and George transferred some of it to the
+furnace.
+
+"That's better," cried the engineer. "We need wood more than we need a
+kingdom!"
+
+"Throw out some of those cross-ties," thundered the leader. The men
+dropped a tie here and there on the track, so that a temporary obstruction
+might be presented to the pursuing locomotive.
+
+"That's some help," said Andrews, as he craned his neck out of the cab
+window and looked back along the line. "Those ties will make them stop a
+while, any way." In fact the enemy had already stopped upon encountering
+the first log; two men from the tender were moving it from the track.
+
+"We've a good fighting chance yet," cried Andrews, whose enthusiasm had
+suddenly returned. "If we can burn another bridge, and block these
+fellows, the day is ours!"
+
+"The water in the boiler is almost gone!" announced the engineer.
+
+George's heart sank. What meant all the wood in the world without a good
+supply of water? But Andrews was equal to the emergency. "Can you hold out
+for another mile or so?" he asked.
+
+"Just about that, and no more," came the answer.
+
+"All right. We are about to run by Tilton station. A little beyond that,
+if I remember rightly, is a water tank." Andrews, in his capacity as a spy
+within the Southern lines, knew Georgia well, and had frequently traveled
+over this particular railroad. It was his acquaintance with the line,
+indeed, that had enabled him to get through thus far without failure.
+
+Past Tilton ran "The General," as it nearly swept two frightened rustics
+from the platform. Then the engine began to slow up, until it finally
+rested at the water tank.
+
+"I was right," said Andrews. He leaped from the cab, and gazed down the
+line. "The enemy is not in sight now," he cried. "Those ties are giving
+them trouble. Put some more on the track, boys. George, try some more
+wire-cutting. Brown, get your boiler filled."
+
+In an incredibly short space of time the telegraph wire had been cut, the
+engine was provided with water, and some more ties had been placed upon
+the track in the rear. What a curious scene the party presented; how
+tired, and dirty, yet how courageous they all looked.
+
+"Shall we take up a rail?" demanded Macgreggor. Scarcely had the words
+left his lips before the whistle of the enemy was again heard.
+
+"No time," shouted the leader. "Let's be off!"
+
+Off went the train--the grimy, panting engine, the tender, and the one
+baggage car, which was now literally torn to pieces in the frantic
+endeavor to provide kindling-wood.
+
+"We want more wood," George shouted back to the men after they had
+proceeded a couple of miles. Some wood was thrown into the tender from the
+baggage car, with the gloomy news: "This is all we have left!"
+
+"No more wood after this," explained George.
+
+"All right," answered Andrews, very cheerfully. "Tell them to throw out a
+few more ties on the track--as long as they're too big to burn in our
+furnace."
+
+The order was shouted back to the car. It was instantly obeyed. There was
+now another obstruction for the enemy; but George wondered how Andrews,
+full of resources though he might be, would find more wood for the engine.
+But Andrews was equal even to this.
+
+"Stop!" cried the leader, after they had passed up the line about a mile
+from where the ties had been last thrown out. "The General" was soon
+motionless, breathing and quivering like some blooded horse which had been
+suddenly reined in during a race.
+
+"Here's more work for you, boys," cried Andrews. He was already on the
+ground, pointing to the wooden fences which encompassed the fields on both
+sides of the track. The men needed no further prompting. In less than
+three minutes a large number of rails were reposing in the tender. George
+regarded them with an expression of professional pride, as befitted the
+fireman of the train.
+
+"No trouble about wood or water now," he said, as "The General" tore
+onward again.
+
+"No," replied the leader. "We will beat those Southerners yet!" He
+positively refused to think of failure at this late stage of the game. Yet
+it was a game that did not seem to promise certain success.
+
+Thus the race continued, with "The General" sometimes rocking and reeling
+like a drunken man. On they rushed, past small stations, swinging around
+curves with the men in the car sitting on the floor and clinging to one
+another for fear they would be knocked out by the roughness of the motion.
+As George thought of this terrible journey in after years he wondered why
+it was that engine, car and passengers were not hurled headlong from the
+track.
+
+"We are coming to Dalton," suddenly announced Andrews. Dalton was a
+good-sized town twenty-two miles above Calhoun, and formed a junction with
+the line running to Cleveland, Tennessee.
+
+"We must be careful here," said Andrews, "for we don't know who may be
+waiting to receive us. If a telegram was sent via the coast up to
+Richmond, and then down to Dalton, our real character may be known. Brown,
+be ready to reverse your engine if I give the signal--then we'll back out
+of the town, abandon the train, and take to the open fields."
+
+George wondered if, by doing this, they would not fall into the hands of
+their pursuers. But there was no chance for argument.
+
+The speed of "The General" was now slackened, so that the engine
+approached the station at a rate of not more than fifteen miles an hour.
+Andrews saw nothing unusual on the platform; no soldiers; no preparations
+for arrest.
+
+"Go ahead," he said, "and stop at the platform. The coast's clear so
+far."
+
+It was necessary that a stop should be made at Dalton for the reason that
+there were switches at this point, owing to the junction of the Cleveland
+line, and it would be impossible to run by the station without risking a
+bad accident. It was necessary, furthermore, that this stop should be as
+brief as possible, for the dilapidated looks of the broken baggage car and
+the general appearance of the party were such as to invite suspicion upon
+too close a scrutiny. Then, worse still, the enemy might arrive at any
+moment. Andrews was again equal to the occasion. As the forlorn train drew
+up at the station he assumed the air and bearing of a major-general, told
+some plausible story about being on his way with dispatches for
+Beauregard, and ordered that the switches should be immediately changed so
+that he could continue on to Chattanooga. Once again did his confident
+manner hoodwink the railroad officials. The switch was changed, and "The
+General" was quickly steaming out of Dalton. The citizens on the platform
+looked after the party as if they could not quite understand what the
+whole thing meant.
+
+"Shall we cut a wire?" asked George.
+
+"What is the good?" returned Andrews. "The enemy's engine will reach
+Dalton in a minute or two--perhaps they are there now--and they can
+telegraph on to Chattanooga by way of the wires on the Cleveland line.
+It's a roundabout way, but it will answer their purpose just as well."
+
+"Then we dare not keep on to Chattanooga?" asked George, in a tone of keen
+regret. He had fondly pictured a triumphant run through Chattanooga, and
+an ultimate meeting with the forces of Mitchell somewhere to the westward,
+accompanied by the applause of the troops and many kind words from the
+General.
+
+"Not now," answered the leader. "We may yet burn a bridge or two, and then
+take to the woods. It would be folly to enter Chattanooga only to be
+caught."
+
+At last Andrews saw that he must change his plans. He had hoped, by
+burning a bridge, to head off the pursuing engine before now; his failure
+to do this, and the complication caused by the telegraph line to
+Cleveland, told him that he must come to a halt before reaching
+Chattanooga. To run into that city would be to jump deliberately into the
+lion's mouth.
+
+"Let us see if there's time to break a rail," suddenly said the leader.
+The train was stopped, within sight of a small camp of Confederate troops,
+and the men started to loosen one of the rails. But hardly had they begun
+their work when there came the hated whistling from the pursuing engine.
+The adventurers abandoned their attempt, leaped to their places in cab and
+car, and "The General" again sped onward. There were no cross-ties
+remaining; this form of obstruction could no longer be used. It was now
+raining hard; all the fates seemed to be combining against the plucky
+little band of Northerners.
+
+Andrews began at last to see that the situation was growing desperate.
+
+"There's still one chance," he muttered. He knew that he would soon pass a
+bridge, and he went on to elaborate in his mind an ingenious plan by which
+the structure might be burned without making delay necessary, or risking a
+meeting with the pursuers. He scrambled his way carefully back to the
+baggage car.
+
+"Boys," he said, "I want you to set fire to this car, and then all of you
+crawl into the tender."
+
+There was a bustle in the car at once, although no one asked a question.
+The men made a valiant effort to ignite what was left of the splintered
+walls and roof of the car. But it was hard work. The rain, combined with
+the wind produced by the rapid motion of the train, made it impossible to
+set anything on fire even by a very plentiful use of matches.
+
+"We'll have to get something better than matches," growled Watson. He had
+just been saved from pitching out upon the roadside by the quick efforts
+of one of his companions, who had seized him around the waist in the nick
+of time. Andrews went to the forward platform of the car.
+
+"Can't you get us a piece of burning wood over here," he called to
+George.
+
+The lad took a fence rail from the tender, placed it in the furnace, until
+one end was blazing, and then contrived to hand it to the leader from the
+rear of the tender. Andrews seized it, and applied the firebrand to
+several places in the car. But it was no easy task to make a
+conflagration; it seemed as if the rail would merely smoulder.
+
+"Stop the engine," he ordered. "The General" was brought to a halt, and
+then, when the artificial wind had ceased, the rail flared up. Soon the
+torn walls and roof of the car burst into flames.
+
+"Into the tender, boys," cried Andrews. The men needed no second bidding.
+The fire was already burning fiercely enough, despite the rain, to make
+their surroundings anything but comfortable. They scrambled into the
+tender. The engineer put his hand to the lever, pulled the throttle, and
+the party were again on the wing although at a slow and constantly
+lessening rate of speed. At last they scarcely moved.
+
+"The General" was now passing over the bridge--a covered structure of
+wood. Andrews uncoupled the blazing car, and climbed back into the tender.
+The engine again sped on, leaving the burning car in the middle of the
+bridge. The scheme of the leader was apparent; he hoped that the flames
+would be communicated to the roof of the bridge, and so to the entire
+wood-work, including the railroad ties and lower beams.
+
+"At last!" thought Andrews. He would have the satisfaction of destroying
+one bridge at least--and he would put an impassable barrier between the
+enemy and himself. His joy was, however, only too short lived. The
+Confederates boldly ran towards the bridge.
+
+"They won't dare to tackle that car," said George, as "The General" kept
+moving onward. Yet the pursuing engine, instead of putting on brakes,
+glided through the bridge, pushing the burning car in front of it. When it
+reached the other side of the stream the car was switched off on a siding,
+and the enemy prepared to sweep onwards. The bridge was saved; Andrews'
+plan had failed. The Northerners gave groans of disappointment as they
+fled along in front.
+
+Finally it was resolved to make a last stop, and to attempt to pull up a
+rail. The enemy was now some distance behind, having been delayed by the
+time necessarily consumed in switching off the car, so that there seemed a
+reasonable chance of executing this piece of strategy. When the men had
+again alighted on firm ground several of them felt actually seasick from
+the jolting of the engine and tender. It was now that one of the party
+made a novel proposition to Andrews. The plan seemed to have a good deal
+to recommend it, considering how desperate was the present situation.
+
+"Let us run the engine on," he said, "until we are out of sight of the
+enemy, and are near some of the bushes which dot the track. Then we can
+tear up a rail, or obstruct the track in some way, and quickly hide
+ourselves in the bushes. The engineer will stay in 'The General,' and, as
+soon as the enemy comes in sight, can continue up the road, just as if we
+were all on board. When the Confederates reach the broken rail, and
+prepare to fix it, we can all rush out at them and fire our revolvers.
+They will be taken by surprise--we will have the advantage."
+
+"That sounds logical enough," observed Andrews; "it's worth trying,
+if----"
+
+Again the enemy's whistle sounded ominously near. There was no chance to
+argue about anything now. The men leaped to their places, and "The
+General" was quickly gotten under way.
+
+Watson looked at Jenks, next to whom he was huddled in the tender.
+
+"How long is this sort of thing to be kept up?" he asked. "I'd far rather
+get out and fight the fellows than run along this way!"
+
+Jenks brushed the rain from his grimy face but made no answer.
+
+"This all comes from that fatal delay at Kingston," announced Macgreggor.
+"We would be just an hour ahead if it hadn't been for those wretched
+freight trains."
+
+The enemy's engine gave an exultant whistle. "Vic-to-ry! Vic-to-ry!" it
+seemed to shriek.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+ENERGETIC PURSUIT
+
+
+Who were pursuing the Northern adventurers, and how did they learn the
+story of the stolen engine? To answer these questions let us go back to
+Big Shanty at the moment when the train having the conspirators on board
+reached that station from Marietta. The conductor, William Fuller, the
+engineer, Jefferson Cain,--and Anthony Murphy, a railroad official from
+Atlanta, were among those who went into the "Shanty" to enjoy breakfast.
+They were naturally unsuspicious of any plot; the deserted engine seemed
+absolutely secure as it stood within very sight of an encampment of the
+Confederate army.
+
+Suddenly Murphy heard something that sounded like escaping steam. "Why,
+some one is at your engine," he cried to Fuller, as he jumped from his
+seat. Quick as a flash Fuller ran to the door of the dining-room.
+
+"Some one's stealing our train!" he shouted. "Come on, Cain!" The
+passengers rushed from their half-tasted meal to the platform. The
+conductor began to run up the track, followed by his two companions, as
+the train moved rapidly away.
+
+"Jerusha!" laughed one of the passengers, a gouty-looking old gentleman;
+"do those fellows expect to beat an engine that way?"
+
+The crowd joined in the fun of the thing, and wondered what the whole
+scene could mean. Perhaps it was but the prank of mischievous boys who
+were intent on taking an exciting ride.
+
+"What's up, anyway?" asked Murphy, as the three went skimming along on the
+railroad ties, and the train drew farther and farther away from them.
+
+"I'll bet some conscripts have deserted from camp," cried Fuller. "They'll
+run up the line a mile or two, then leave the engine and escape into the
+woods." He did not imagine, as yet, that his train was in the hands of
+Northern soldiers.
+
+On, on, went the trio until they reached the point where George had cut
+the wire.
+
+"Look here," said Cain; "they've cut the wire! And look at the broken
+rail!"
+
+One glance was sufficient to show that the engine thieves, whoever they
+might be, knew their business pretty well. There was something more in
+this affair than a mere escape of conscripts.
+
+"Look up the road," said Murphy. He pointed to some workmen who had a
+hand-car near the track, not far above him. Hurrying on, the trio soon
+reached these men, explained to them what had happened, and impressed them
+into the service of pursuit. In two or three minutes the whole party were
+flying up the line on the hand-car.
+
+"Kingston is nearly thirty miles away," explained Fuller, as they bowled
+along. "I don't know who the fellows are, but they'll be blocked by
+freight when they get there, and we may manage to reach them somehow."
+Even if the unknown enemy got beyond Kingston, he thought he might yet
+reach them if he could only find an engine. The whole escapade was a
+puzzle, but the three men were determined to bring back "The General."
+
+Thus they swept anxiously but smoothly on until--presto! The whole party
+suddenly leaped into the air, and then descended into a ditch, with the
+hand-car falling after them. They had reached the place where the
+telegraph pole obstructed the track. They had turned a sharp curve, and
+were on it, before they realized the danger.
+
+"No one hurt, boys?" asked Murphy.
+
+No one was hurt, strange to say.
+
+"Up with the car," cried Fuller. The hand-car was lifted to the track,
+beyond the telegraph pole, and the journey was resumed.
+
+"Shall we find an engine here?" thought Fuller, as the car approached
+Etowah station.
+
+"There are iron furnaces near here," said Murphy, "and I know that an
+engine named 'The Yonah' has been built to drag material from the station
+to the furnaces. It's one of the finest locomotives in the South."
+
+"I hope that hasn't been stolen too," said Cain.
+
+Now they were at the station. They knew that it would be impossible to
+make the necessary speed with a hand-car. If they were to reach the
+runaways they _must_ obtain an engine, and quickly at that.
+
+"By all that's lucky," shouted Murphy; "there's 'The Yonah'!"
+
+There, right alongside the platform, was the welcome engine. It was about
+to start on a trip to the iron furnaces. The steam was up; the fire was
+burning brightly.
+
+Etowah was ablaze with excitement as soon as the pursuers explained what
+had happened.
+
+"I must have 'The Yonah,'" cried Fuller, "and I want some armed men to go
+along with me!" No question now about seizing the engine; no question as
+to the armed men. With hardly any delay Fuller was steaming to the
+northward with "The Yonah," and the tender was crowded with plucky
+Southerners carrying loaded rifles. The speed of the engine was at the
+rate of a mile a minute, and how it did fly, to be sure. Yet it seemed as
+if Kingston would never be reached.
+
+When, at last, they did glide up to the station, Fuller learned that the
+alleged Confederate train bearing powder to General Beauregard had left
+but a few minutes before. Great was the amazement when he announced that
+the story of the leader was all a blind, invented to cover up one of the
+boldest escapades of the war.
+
+[Illustration: Fuller was Steaming to the Northward with "The Yonah"]
+
+But now Fuller was obliged to leave the faithful "Yonah." The blockade of
+trains at Kingston was such that it would have required some time before
+the engine could get through any farther on the main track. He seized
+another engine, which could quickly be given the right of way, and rushed
+forward. Two cars were attached to the tender; in it were more armed men,
+hastily recruited at Kingston. They were ready for desperate work.
+
+"'The Yonah' was a better engine than this one," said Murphy, regretfully,
+before they had run more than two or three miles. He spoke the truth; the
+new engine had not the speed of "The Yonah." The difference was quite
+apparent.
+
+"We must do the best we can with her," said Fuller. "Put a little engine
+oil into the furnace. We'll give her a gentle stimulant."
+
+His order was promptly obeyed, but the locomotive could not be made to go
+faster than at the rate of forty miles an hour. Murphy and Cain were both
+at the lever, keeping their eyes fixed as far up the line as possible, so
+that they might stop the train in good time should they see any
+obstruction on the track. Thus they jogged along for some miles until the
+two men made a simultaneous exclamation, and reversed the engine. In front
+of them, not more than a hundred yards away, was a large gap in the track.
+It marked the place where the Northerners had taken up the rails south of
+Adairsville.
+
+"Jupiter! That was a close shave!" cried Murphy. For the train had been
+halted within less than five feet of the break. Out jumped the whole
+party, Fuller, Cain and Murphy from the cab, and the armed men from the
+cars. The delay, it was supposed, would be only temporary; there were
+track-laying instruments in the car; the rails could soon be reset. But
+when it was seen that each of the rails had disappeared (for our
+adventurers had carried them off with them) there was a murmur of disgust
+and disappointment.
+
+"Why not tear up some rails in the rear of the train, and lay them in the
+break," suggested one of the Southerners.
+
+"That will take too long," cried Fuller, and to this statement Murphy
+readily assented. As it was, the stolen "General" was far enough ahead of
+them; too far ahead, indeed. If the pursuers waited here for such a
+complicated piece of work as this tearing up and re-laying of the track,
+they might lose the race altogether. The conductor and Murphy started once
+more to run up the road-bed (just as they had footed it earlier in the
+morning at Big Shanty), and left the rest of the party to mend the track.
+
+Were they merely running on in an aimless way? Not by any means. They had
+not gone very far before the freight train which Andrews had encountered
+at Adairsville came groaning down the track. The two men made violent
+gesticulations as signals to the engineer, and the train was slowly
+stopped.
+
+"Did you meet 'The General'?" cried Fuller.
+
+The freight engineer told the story of the impressed powder-train that was
+hurrying on to Beauregard, and of the fine-looking, imperious Confederate
+who was in command.
+
+"Well, that Confederate is a _Yankee_," came the explanation.
+
+The freight engineer made use of some expressions which were rather
+uncomplimentary to Andrews. To think that the supposed Confederate, who
+had acted as if he owned the whole State of Georgia, was an enemy--a spy!
+Why, the thought was provoking enough to ruffle the most placid temper.
+And the engineer's natural temper was by no means placid.
+
+"I must have your engine to catch these fellows!" said Fuller. Naturally
+there was no dissent to this command. He quickly backed the train to
+Adairsville, where the freight cars were dropped. Then Fuller, with engine
+and tender still reversed (for there was no turn-table available), hurried
+northward on the way to Calhoun station.
+
+"This engine is a great sight better than the last one I had," said the
+conductor, in a tone of exultation, to Bracken, his new engineer.
+
+"Ah, 'The Texas' is the finest engine in the whole state," answered
+Bracken, with the air of a proud father speaking of a child.
+
+They were tearing along at a terrific speed when Bracken suddenly reversed
+"The Texas" and brought her to a halt with a shock that would have thrown
+less experienced men out of the cab. On the track in front of them were
+some of the cross-ties which the fugitives had thrown out of their car.
+Fortunately Fuller had just taken his position on the tender in front and
+gave the signal the instant he saw the ties. As "The Texas" stood there,
+all quivering and panting, the conductor jumped to the ground and threw
+the ties from the track; then he mounted the tender again, and the engine
+kept on to the northward with its smoke-stack and headlight pointed in the
+opposite direction. The same program was repeated later on, where more
+ties were encountered.
+
+When "The Texas" dashed into Calhoun it had run a distance of ten miles,
+including the time spent in removing cross-ties, in exactly twelve
+minutes.
+
+"I'm after the Yankees who're in my stolen engine," cried Fuller to the
+idlers on the platform. "I want armed volunteers!" He wasted no words; the
+story was complete as he thus told it; the effect was magical. Men with
+rifles were soon clambering into the tender. As "The Texas" glided away
+from the platform Fuller stretched out his sturdy right arm to a boy
+standing thereon and pulled him, with a vigorous jerk, into the cab. The
+next minute the engine was gone. The lad was a young telegraph operator
+whom the conductor had recognized. There was no employment for him as yet,
+because the wires were cut along the line, but there might be need for him
+later.
+
+Fuller was now aglow with hope. He was brave, energetic and full of
+expedients, as we have seen, and he was warming up more and more as the
+possibility of overtaking "The General" became the greater. From what he
+had learned at Calhoun he knew that the Northerners were only a short
+distance ahead. His promptness seemed about to be crowned with a glorious
+reward. He might even make prisoners of the reckless train-robbers.
+
+And there, not more than a mile in front of him, was "The General"! He saw
+the engine and the three baggage cars, and his heart bounded at the
+welcome sight. Then he espied the men working on the track, and saw them,
+later, as they rapidly boarded their train. The Southerners in the tender
+of "The Texas" cheered, and held firmly to their rifles. At any second now
+might their weapons be needed in a fight at close quarters.
+
+Of the chase from this point to Dalton we already know. Before Fuller
+reached that station he knew that it would be possible to send a telegram
+to Chattanooga, by way of Cleveland, even if the Northerners should cut
+the wires on the main line.
+
+"Here," he said to the young telegraph operator, "I want you to send a
+telegram to General Leadbetter, commanding general at Chattanooga, as soon
+as we get to Dalton. Put it through both ways if you can, but by the
+Cleveland line at any rate." The conductor took a paper from his wallet
+and wrote a few words of warning to General Leadbetter, telling him not to
+let "The General" and its crew get past Chattanooga. "My train was
+captured this morning at Big Shanty, evidently by Federal soldiers in
+disguise," he penciled.
+
+On the arrival at Dalton this telegram was sent, exactly as the shrewd
+Andrews had prophesied. Then "The Texas" fled away from Dalton and the
+chase continued, as we have seen in the previous chapter, until a point of
+the railroad about thirteen miles from Chattanooga was reached.
+
+In the cab of "The General" Andrews was standing with his head bowed down;
+his stock of hopefulness had suddenly vanished. At last he saw that the
+expedition, of which he had cherished such high expectations, was a
+complete failure. A few miles in front was Chattanooga, where capture
+awaited them, while a mile in the rear were well-armed men.
+
+"There's only one thing left to do," he said mournfully to George, who was
+regarding his chief with anxious interest. "We must abandon the engine,
+scatter, and get back to General Mitchell's lines as best we can, each in
+his own way!"
+
+Then the leader put his hand on the engineer's shoulder. "Stop the
+engine," he said; "the game is up; the dance is over!"
+
+The engineer knew only too well what Andrews meant. He obeyed the order,
+and the tired "General," which had faithfully carried the party for about
+a hundred miles, panted and palpitated like a dying horse. The great
+locomotive was, indeed, in a pitiable condition. The brass of the journals
+and boxes was melted by the heat; the steel tires were actually red-hot,
+and the steam issued from all the loosened joints.
+
+Andrews turned to the men who were huddled together in the tender.
+
+"Every man for himself, boys," he cried. "You must scatter and do the best
+you can to steal into the Federal lines. I've led you as well as I
+could--but the fates were against us. God bless you, boys, and may we all
+meet again!"
+
+As he spoke the leader--now a leader no longer--threw some papers into the
+furnace of the locomotive. In a twinkling they were reduced to ashes. They
+were Federal documents. One of them was a letter from General Mitchell
+which, had it been found upon Andrews by the Confederates, would in itself
+have proved evidence enough to convict him as a spy.
+
+The men in the tender jumped to the ground. So, likewise, did George, the
+engineer and his assistant. Andrews remained standing in the cab. He
+looked like some sea captain who was waiting to sink beneath the waves in
+his deserted ship. He worked at the lever and touched the valve, and then
+leaped from his post to the roadbed. The next moment "The General" was
+moving backwards towards the oncoming "Texas."
+
+"We'll give them a little taste of collision!" he cried. His companions
+turned their eyes towards the departing "General." If the engine would
+only run with sufficient force into the enemy, the latter might--well, it
+was hard to predict what might not happen. Much depended on the next
+minute.
+
+There was a whistle from "The Texas." "The General" kept on to the rear,
+but at a slow pace. No longer did the staunch machine respond to the
+throttle. The fire in the furnace was burning low; there was little or no
+steam; the iron horse was spent and lame.
+
+The adventurers looked on, first expectantly, then gloomily. They saw that
+"The General" was incapacitated; they saw, too, that the enemy reversed
+their own engine, and ran backwards until the poor "General" came to a
+complete standstill. Pursuit was thus delayed, but by no means checked.
+
+"That's no good," sighed Andrews. "Come, comrades, while there is still
+time, and off with us in different parties. Push to the westward, and we
+may come up to Mitchell's forces on the other side of Chattanooga."
+
+Soon the men were running to the shelter of a neighboring wood. George
+seemed glued to the sight of the departing "General." He felt as if an old
+friend was leaving him, and so he was one of the last to move. As he, too,
+finally ran off, Waggie, who had been released from his master's pocket,
+bounded by his side as if the whole proceeding were an enjoyable picnic.
+When George reached the wood many of the men were already invisible. He
+found Watson leaning against a tree, pale and breathless.
+
+"What's the matter?" asked the boy anxiously.
+
+"Nothing," said Watson. "This rough journey over this crooked railroad has
+shaken me up a bit. I'll be all right in a minute. Just wait and we'll go
+along together. I wouldn't like to see any harm happen to you, youngster,
+while I have an arm to protect you.
+
+"Come on," he continued, when he had regained his breath; "we can't stay
+here. I wonder why Mitchell didn't push on and capture Chattanooga. Then
+we would not have had to desert the old engine."
+
+The fact was that General Mitchell, after capturing Huntsville on April
+the 11th, had moved into the country to the northeastward until he came
+within thirty miles of Chattanooga. At this point he waited, hoping to
+hear that Andrews and his companions had destroyed the railroad
+communications from Chattanooga. No such news reached him, however; he
+feared that the party had failed, and he was unable to advance farther,
+under the circumstances, without receiving reinforcements. But of all this
+Watson was ignorant.
+
+The man and boy stole out of the wet woods, and thence a short distance to
+the westward until they reached the bottom of a steep hill which was
+surmounted by some straggling oaks. They started to walk briskly up the
+incline, followed by Waggie. Suddenly they heard a sound that
+instinctively sent a chill running up and down George's spine.
+
+"What's that?" he asked. "Some animal?"
+
+Watson gave a grim, unpleasant laugh. "It's a hound," he answered. "Come
+on; we don't want that sort of gentleman after us. He'd be a rougher
+animal to handle than Waggie."
+
+George redoubled his pace. But his steps began to lag; his brain was in a
+whirl; he began to feel as if he was acting a part in some horrible dream.
+Nothing about him seemed real; it was as if his sensations were those of
+another person.
+
+"Anything wrong?" asked Watson, as he saw that the lad was falling behind
+him.
+
+"Nothing; I'm coming," was the plucky answer. But fatigue and hunger, and
+exposure to the rain, had done their work. George tottered, clutched at
+the air, and then sank on the hillside, inert and unconscious. In a moment
+Waggie was licking his face, with a pathetic expression of inquiry in his
+little brown eyes, and Watson was bending over him. Again came the bay
+from the hound and the distant cry from a human voice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+TWO WEARY WANDERERS
+
+
+"Poor boy," muttered Watson. "He is done out." He saw that George's
+collapse was due to a fainting spell, which in itself was nothing
+dangerous. But when he heard the distant baying of the dog, and heard,
+too, the voices of men--no doubt some of the armed Southerners from the
+pursuing train--he saw the peril that encompassed both himself and the
+boy. Here they were almost on top of a hill, near the enemy, and with no
+means of escape should they be unfortunate enough to be seen by the
+Southerners or tracked by the hound. If George could be gotten at once to
+the other side of the hill he would be screened from view--otherwise he
+and Watson would soon----But the soldier did not stop to think what might
+happen. He jumped quickly to his feet, seized the unconscious George, and
+ran with him, as one might have run with some helpless infant, to the top
+of the hill, and then down on the other side. Waggie came barking after
+them; he seemed to ask why it was that his master had gone to sleep in
+this sudden fashion. Watson paused for a few seconds at the bottom of the
+hill, and placed his burden on the wet grass. There was as yet no sign of
+returning life. Once more came that uncanny bay. The man again took George
+in his arms.
+
+"We can't stay here," he said. He himself was ready to drop from the
+fatigue and excitement of the day, but hope of escape gave him strength,
+and he ran on through an open field until he reached some bottom-land
+covered by a few unhealthy-looking pine-trees. Here he paused, panting
+almost as hard as the poor vanished "General" had done in the last stages
+of its journey. He next deposited his charge on the sodden earth. They
+were both still in imminent danger of pursuit, but for the time being they
+were screened from view.
+
+Watson bent tenderly over the boy, whilst Waggie pulled at his sleeve as
+he had been accustomed to do far away at home when he wanted to wake up
+his master. George finally opened his eyes and looked around him, first
+dreamily, then with a startled air.
+
+"It's all right, my lad," whispered Watson cheerily. "You only fainted
+away, just for variety, but now you are chipper enough again."
+
+George stretched his arms, raised himself to a sitting posture, and then
+sank back wearily on the ground.
+
+"I'm so tired," he said. "Can't I go to sleep?" He was utterly weary; he
+cared not if a whole army of men and dogs was after him; his one idea was
+rest--rest.
+
+"This won't do," said Watson firmly. "We can't stay here." He produced
+from his pocket a little flask, poured some of the contents down the boy's
+throat, and then took a liberal drink himself. George began to revive, as
+he asked how he had been brought to his present resting-place.
+
+"In my arms," exclaimed Watson. "But I can't keep that sort of thing up
+forever. We must get away from here. Every moment is precious."
+
+As if to emphasize the truth of this warning, the baying of the dog and
+the cries of men began to sound nearer. Watson sprang to his feet. The
+increase of the danger gave him new nerve; he no longer looked the tired,
+haggard man of five minutes ago.
+
+"We can't stay here," he said, calmly but impressively; "it would be
+certain capture!"
+
+George was up in an instant. The draught from the flask had invested him
+with new vigor.
+
+"Where shall we go?" he asked. "I'm all right again."
+
+"To the river," answered Watson. He pointed eagerly to the right of the
+pines, where they could see, in the darkening light of the afternoon, a
+swollen stream rushing madly past. It might originally have been a small
+river, but now, owing to the spring rains and freshets, it looked
+turbulent and dangerous. It was difficult to cross, yet for that very
+reason it would make a barrier between pursued and pursuers. Should the
+former try the experiment?
+
+"Can you swim?" asked Watson.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then we'll risk it. After all, the water's safer for us than the land."
+
+Out through the pines they ran until they were at the water's edge. The
+sight was not encouraging. The river foamed like an angry ocean, and a
+strong current was sweeping down to the northward.
+
+The soldier looked at the boy in kindly anxiety. "The water is a little
+treacherous, George," he said. "Do you think you're strong enough to
+venture across?"
+
+"Of course I am!" answered George, proudly. He felt more like himself now;
+he even betrayed a mild indignation at the doubts of his friend.
+
+"Well," began Watson, "we had--but listen! By Jove, those rascals have
+discovered us! They're making this way!"
+
+It was true; the barking of the dog and the sound of many voices came
+nearer and nearer. Waggie began to growl fiercely, quite as if he were
+large enough to try a bout with a whole Confederate regiment.
+
+"Take off your shoes, George," cried Watson. "Your coat and vest, too."
+
+Both the fugitives divested themselves of boots, coats and vests; their
+hats they had already lost in their flight from "The General." In their
+trousers pockets they stuffed their watches and some Confederate money.
+
+A sudden thought crossed George's mind. It was a painful thought.
+
+"What's to become of Waggie?" he asked. "I can't leave him here." He would
+as soon have left a dear relative stranded on the bank of the river.
+
+"I'm afraid you'll have to leave him," said Watson.
+
+"I can't," replied George. There was a second's pause--but it seemed like
+the suspense of an hour. Then the lad had a lucky inspiration. He leaned
+down and drew from a side pocket of his discarded coat a roll of strong
+cord which had been used when he climbed the telegraph poles. Pulling a
+knife from a pocket in his trousers he cut a piece of the cord about two
+yards in length, tied one end around his waist and attached the other end
+to Waggie's collar. The next instant he had plunged into the icy water,
+dragging the dog in after him. Watson followed, and struck out into the
+torrent with the vigor of an athlete.
+
+George found at once that his work meant something more than keeping
+himself afloat. The current was rapid, and it required all his power to
+keep from being carried down the river like a helpless log. Waggie was
+sputtering and pawing the water in his master's wake.
+
+"Keep going," shouted Watson. "This current's no joke!" Even he was having
+no child's play.
+
+Just then George had his mouth full of water; he could only go on battling
+manfully. But he began to feel a great weakness. Was he about to faint
+again? He dared not think of it. There was a loosening of the cord around
+his waist. He looked to his left and there was Waggie floating down the
+stream like a tiny piece of wood. His head had slipped from his collar.
+
+Watson tried to grab the dog as he floated by, but it was too late. He
+might as well have tried to change the tide.
+
+"Go on, George, go on!" he urged, breathlessly. The boy struggled onward,
+but he had already overtaxed his strength. He became dizzy; his arms and
+legs refused to work.
+
+"What's the matter?" sputtered his companion, who was now alongside of
+him.
+
+"Go on; don't mind me," said George, in a choking voice.
+
+"Put your hand on my belt," sternly commanded Watson. The young swimmer
+obeyed, scarcely knowing what he did. Watson kept on like a giant fish,
+sometimes in danger of being swept away, and sometimes drawing a few feet
+nearer to the opposite bank.
+
+                   *       *       *       *       *
+
+The next thing that George knew was when he found himself lying on the
+river's edge. Watson was peering at him anxiously.
+
+"That's right; open your eyes," he said. "We had a narrow escape, but
+we're over the river at last. I just got you over in time, for when we
+neared shore you let go of me, and I had to pull you in by the hair of
+your head."
+
+"How can I ever thank you," said George, feebly but gratefully.
+
+"By not trying," answered Watson. "Come, there's not a second to lose.
+Don't you hear our enemies?"
+
+There was no doubt as to the answer to that question. Across the river
+sounded the baying and the harsh human voices. Almost before George
+realized what had happened Watson had pulled him a dozen yards away to a
+spot behind a large boulder.
+
+"Keep on your back!" he ordered. "The men are on the other bank."
+
+None too soon had he executed this manoeuvre. He and George could hear,
+above the noise of the rushing stream, the tones of their pursuers. They
+had just reached the river, and must be searching for the two Northerners.
+More than once the hound gave a loud whine, as if he were baffled or
+disappointed.
+
+"They can't be here," came a voice from across the river. "We had better
+go back; they may be down the railroad track."
+
+"Perhaps they swam across the stream," urged some one else.
+
+"That would be certain death!" answered the first voice.
+
+There was a whining from the dog, as if he had discovered a scent. Then a
+simultaneous cry from several sturdy lungs. "Look at these coats and
+boots!" "They did try to cross, after all." "Well, they never got over in
+this current!" "They must have been carried down the Chickamauga and been
+drowned!" Such were the exclamations which were wafted to the ears of the
+two fugitives behind the rock.
+
+[Illustration: None too Soon Had He Executed this Manoeuvre]
+
+"The Chickamauga," said Watson, under his breath. "So that's the name of
+the river, eh?"
+
+There was evidently some heated discussion going on among the unseen
+pursuers. At length one of them cried: "Well, comrades, as there's not one
+of us who wants to swim over the river in its present state, and as the
+fools may even be drowned by this time, I move we go home. The whole
+countryside will be on the lookout for the rest of the engine thieves by
+to-morrow--and they won't escape us before then."
+
+"Nonsense," interrupted a voice, "don't you know night's just the time
+which they will take for escape?"
+
+"Are you ready, then, to swim across the Chickamauga?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then go home, and don't talk nonsense! To-morrow, when the river is less
+angry, we will be up by dawn--and then for a good hunt!"
+
+Apparently the advice of the last speaker was considered wise, for the men
+left the river bank. At last their voices could be no longer heard in the
+distance. The shades of twilight began to fall, and the rain ceased. Then
+Watson and his companion crawled cautiously from behind the boulder. They
+were two as dilapidated creatures as ever drew breath under a southern
+sky. With soaking shirts and trousers, and without coats, vests, or shoes,
+they looked the picture of destitution. And their feelings! They were
+hungry, dispirited, exhausted. All the pleasure seemed to have gone out of
+life.
+
+"We can't stay in this charming spot all night," said Watson,
+sarcastically.
+
+"I suppose a rock is as good as anything else we can find," answered the
+boy gloomily. "Poor Waggie! Why did I try to drag him across the river?"
+
+"Poor little midget," said Watson. "I'll never forget the appealing look
+in his eyes as he went sailing past me."
+
+"Do you hear that?" cried George.
+
+"Hear what? Some one after us again?"
+
+"No; it's a dog barking!"
+
+"Why, it sounds like Waggie, but it can't be he. He's gone to another
+world."
+
+"No, he hasn't," answered George. He forgot his weakness, and started to
+run down the bank, in the direction whence the sound proceeded. Watson
+remained behind; he could not believe that it was the dog.
+
+In the course of several minutes George came running back. He was holding
+in his hands a little animal that resembled a drowned rat. It was
+Waggie--very wet, very bedraggled, but still alive.
+
+"Well, if that isn't a miracle!" cried Watson. He stroked the dripping
+back of the rescued dog, whereupon Waggie looked up at him with a grateful
+gleam in his eyes.
+
+"I found him just below here, lying on a bit of rock out in the water a
+few feet away from the bank," enthusiastically explained George. "He must
+have been hurled there, by the current."
+
+Watson laughed.
+
+"Well, Waggie," he said, "we make three wet looking tramps, don't we? And
+I guess you are just as hungry as the rest."
+
+Waggie wagged his tail with great violence.
+
+"Think of a warm, comfortable bed," observed the boy, with a sort of grim
+humor; "and a nice supper beforehand of meat--and eggs----"
+
+"And hot coffee--and biscuits--and a pipe of tobacco for me, after the
+supper," went on Watson. He turned from the river and peered into the
+rapidly increasing gloom. About a mile inland, almost directly in front of
+him, there shone a cheerful light.
+
+George, who also saw the gleam, rubbed his hands across his empty stomach,
+in a comical fashion.
+
+"There must be supper there," he said, pointing to the house.
+
+"But we don't dare eat it," replied his friend. "The people within fifty
+miles of here will be on the lookout for any of Andrews' party--and the
+mere appearance of us will be enough to arouse suspicion--and yet----"
+
+Watson hesitated; he was in a quandary. He was not a bit frightened, but
+he felt that the chances of escape for George and himself were at the
+ratio of one to a thousand. He knew actually nothing of the geography of
+the surrounding country, and he felt that as soon as morning arrived the
+neighborhood would be searched far and wide. Had he been alone he might
+have tried to walk throughout the night until he had placed fifteen or
+twenty miles between himself and his pursuers. But when he thought of
+George's condition he realized that it would be a physical impossibility
+to drag the tired lad very far.
+
+Finally Watson started away towards the distant light.
+
+"Stay here till I get back," he said to George; "I'm going to explore."
+
+In less than an hour he had returned to the river's bank.
+
+"We're in luck," he said joyously. "I stole across to where that light is,
+and found it came from a little stone house. I crept into the garden on my
+hands and knees--there was no dog there, thank heaven--and managed to get
+a glimpse into the parlor through a half-closed blind. There sat a
+sweet-faced, white-haired old gentleman, evidently a minister of the
+gospel, reading a chapter from the scriptures to an elderly lady and two
+girls--his wife and children I suppose. He can't have heard anything about
+our business yet--for I heard him ask one of the girls, after he stopped
+reading, what all the blowing of locomotive whistles meant this
+afternoon--and she didn't know. So we can drop in on them to-night, ask
+for supper and a bed, and be off at daybreak to-morrow before the old
+fellow has gotten wind of anything."
+
+Soon they were off, Watson, George and Waggie, and covered the fields
+leading to the house in unusually quick time for such tired wanderers.
+When they reached the gate of the little garden in front of the place
+George asked: "What story are we to tell?"
+
+"The usual yarn, I suppose," answered Watson. "Fleming County,
+Kentucky--anxious to join the Confederate forces--_et cetera_. Bah! I
+loathe all this subterfuge and deceit. I wish I were back fighting the
+enemy in the open day!"
+
+They walked boldly up to the door of the house and knocked. The old
+gentleman whom Watson had seen soon stood before them. The lamp which he
+held above him shone upon a face full of benignity and peacefulness. His
+features were handsome; his eyes twinkled genially, as if he loved all his
+fellow-men.
+
+Watson told his Kentucky story, and asked food and lodgings for George and
+himself until the early morning.
+
+"Come in," said the old man, simply but cordially, "any friend of the
+South is a friend of mine."
+
+The minister (for he proved to be a country preacher who rode from church
+to church "on circuit"), ushered the two Northerners and the dog into his
+cozy sitting-room and introduced them to his wife and two daughters. The
+wife seemed as kindly as her husband; the daughters were pretty girls just
+growing into womanhood.
+
+"Here, children," said the old man, "get these poor fellows some supper.
+They're on a journey to Atlanta, all the way from Kentucky, to enlist. And
+I'll see if I can't rake you up a couple of coats and some old shoes."
+
+He disappeared up-stairs, and soon returned with two half-worn coats and
+two pairs of old shoes, which he insisted upon presenting to the
+fugitives.
+
+"They belong to my son, who has gone to the war," he said, "but he'd be
+glad to have such patriots as you use them. How did you both get so bare
+of clothes?"
+
+"We had to swim across a stream, and leave some of our things behind,"
+explained Watson. He spoke but the simple truth. He was glad that he did,
+for he hated to deceive a man who stood gazing upon him with such gentle,
+unsuspecting eyes.
+
+It was not long before Watson and George had gone into the kitchen, where
+they found a table laden with a profusion of plain but welcome food.
+Waggie, who had been given some milk, was lying fast asleep by the
+hearth.
+
+George looked about him, when he had finished his supper, and asked
+himself why he could not have a week of such quiet, peaceful life as this?
+Yet he knew that he was, figuratively, on the brink of a precipice. At any
+moment he might be shown in his true light. But how much better he felt
+since he had eaten. He was comfortable and drowsy. The minister and his
+family, who had been bustling around attending to the wants of their
+guests, began to grow dim in his weary eyes. Watson, who was sitting
+opposite to him, looked blurred, indistinct. He was vaguely conscious that
+the old gentleman was saying: "These are times that try our souls." Then
+the boy sank back in his chair, sound asleep. He began to dream. He was on
+the cowcatcher of an engine. Andrews was tearing along in front on a
+horse, beckoning to him to come on. The engine sped on faster and faster,
+but it could not catch up to the horseman. At last Andrews and the horse
+faded away altogether; and the boy was swimming across the Chickamauga
+River. He heard a great shout from the opposite bank--and awoke.
+
+Watson had risen from the table; the pipe of tobacco which the minister
+had given him as a sort of dessert was lying broken on the hearth. There
+was a despairing look on his face. It was the look that one might expect
+to see in a hunted animal at bay. Near him stood the old man, who seemed
+to be the incarnation of mournful perplexity, his wife, who was no less
+disturbed, and the two daughters. One of the latter, a girl with dark hair
+and snapping black eyes, was regarding Watson with an expression of anger.
+On the table was an opened letter.
+
+"I am in your power," Watson was saying to the minister.
+
+What had been happening during the half hour which George had devoted to a
+nap?
+
+"Poor, dear boy, he's dropped off to sleep," murmured the minister's wife,
+when she saw George sink back in his chair. She went into the sitting-room
+and returned with a cushion which she proceeded to place under his head.
+"He is much too young to go to the war," she said, turning towards
+Watson.
+
+"There was no keeping him from going South," answered his companion. "He
+would go." Which was quite true.
+
+The minister handed a pipe filled with Virginia tobacco to Watson, and
+lighted one for himself.
+
+"It's my only vice," he laughed pleasantly.
+
+"I can well believe you," rejoined the Northerner, as he gratefully
+glanced at the spiritual countenance of his host. "Why should this old
+gentleman and I be enemies?" he thought. "I wish the war was over, and
+that North and South were once more firm friends." He proceeded to light
+his pipe.
+
+They began to talk agreeably, and the minister told several quaint stories
+of plantation life, while they smoked on, and the women cleared off the
+food from the table.
+
+At last there came a knocking at the front door. The host left the
+kitchen, went into the hallway, and opened the door. He had a brief parley
+with some one; then the door closed, and he reentered the room. Watson
+thought he could distinguish the sound of a horse's hoofs as an unseen
+person rode away.
+
+"Who's coming to see you this kind of night?" asked the wife. It was a
+natural question. It had once more begun to rain; there were flashes of
+lightning and occasional rumbles of thunder.
+
+"A note of some kind from Farmer Jason," explained the clergyman. "I hope
+his daughter is not sick again."
+
+"Perhaps the horse has the colic," suggested one of the girls, who had
+gentle blue eyes like her father's, "and he wants some of your 'Equine
+Pills.'"
+
+"Who brought the letter?" enquired the wife.
+
+"Jason's hired man--he said he hadn't time to wait--had to be off with
+another letter to Farmer Lovejoy--said this letter would explain
+everything."
+
+"Then why don't you open it, pa, instead of standing there looking at the
+outside; you act as if you were afraid of it," spoke up the dark-eyed
+girl, who was evidently a damsel of some spirit.
+
+"Here, you may read it yourself, Cynthia," said her father, quite meekly,
+as if he had committed some grave offense. He handed the envelope to the
+dark-eyed girl. She tore it open, and glanced over the single sheet of
+paper inside. Then she gave a sharp cry of surprise, and darted a quick,
+penetrating glance at Watson. He felt uneasy, although he could not
+explain why he did.
+
+"What's the matter?" asked the minister. "Anything wrong at the Jasons'?"
+
+"Anything wrong at the Jasons'," Miss Cynthia repeated, contemptuously.
+"No; there's something wrong, but it isn't over at Jasons'. Listen to
+this!" She held out the paper at arm's length, as if she feared it, and
+read these lines:
+
+  "Pastor Buckley,
+
+  "Dear Sir:
+
+  "This is to notify you as how I just have had news that a party of
+  Yankee spies is at large, right in our neighborhood. They stole a
+  train to-day at Big Shanty, but they were obleeged to jump off only a
+  few miles from here. So you must keep on the lookout--they are
+  around--leastwise a boy and grown man have been seen, although most
+  of the others seem to have gotten away. One of my sons--Esau--caught
+  sight of this man and boy on the edge of the river late this
+  afternoon. He says the boy had a dog.
+
+                                                        "Yours,
+                                                    "Charles Jason."
+
+After Miss Cynthia finished the reading of this letter there was a silence
+in the room almost tragic in its intensity. Watson sprang to his feet, as
+he threw his pipe on the hearth. Waggie woke up with a whine. The Reverend
+Mr. Buckley looked at Watson, and then at the sleeping boy in a dazed
+way--not angrily, but simply like one who is grievously disappointed. So,
+too, did Mrs. Buckley and her blue-eyed daughter.
+
+Finally Miss Cynthia broke the silence.
+
+"So you are Northern spies, are you?" she hissed. "And you come here
+telling us a story about your being so fond of the South that you must
+travel all the way from Kentucky to fight for her." She threw the letter
+on the supper-table, while her eyes flashed.
+
+Watson saw that the time of concealment had passed. His identity was
+apparent; he was in the very centre of the enemy's country; his life hung
+in the balance. He could not even defend himself save by his hands, for
+the pistol which he carried in his hip-pocket had been rendered
+temporarily useless by his passage across the river. Even if he had
+possessed a whole brace of pistols, he would not have harmed one hair of
+this kindly minister's head.
+
+"I _am_ a Northerner," said Watson, "and I _am_ one of the men who stole a
+train at Big Shanty this morning. We got within a few miles of
+Chattanooga, and then had to abandon our engine, because we were trapped.
+We tried to burn bridges, but we failed. We did no more than any
+Southerners would have done in the North under the same circumstances."
+
+It was at this point that George awoke. He saw at once that something was
+wrong but he prudently held his tongue, and listened.
+
+"You are a spy," reiterated Miss Cynthia, "and you know what the
+punishment for that must be--North or South!"
+
+"Of course I know the punishment," said Watson, with deliberation. "A
+scaffold--and a piece of rope."
+
+The minister shuddered. "They wouldn't hang the boy, would they?" asked
+his wife anxiously.
+
+Mr. Buckley was about to answer, when Miss Cynthia suddenly cried,
+"Listen!"
+
+Her sharp ears had detected some noise outside the house. She left the
+room, ran to the front door, and was back again in a minute.
+
+"Some of the neighbors are out with dogs and lanterns, looking, I'm sure,
+for the spies," she announced excitedly, "and they are coming up the
+lane!"
+
+The first impulse of Watson was to seize George, and run from the house.
+But he realized, the next instant, how useless this would be; he could
+even picture the boy being shot down by an overwhelming force of
+pursuers.
+
+"They are coming this way," said Mr. Buckley, almost mournfully, as the
+sound of voices could now be plainly heard from the cozy kitchen.
+
+"We are in your hands," said Watson, calmly. He turned to the minister.
+
+"You are fighting against my country, which I love more dearly than life
+itself," answered Mr. Buckley. "I can have no sympathy for you!" His face
+was very white; there was a troubled look in his kindly eyes.
+
+"But they will be hung, father!" cried the blue-eyed daughter.
+
+"I'm ashamed of you, Rachel," said Miss Cynthia. Mrs. Buckley said
+nothing. She seemed to be struggling with a hundred conflicting emotions.
+Waggie ran to her, as if he considered her a friend, and put his forepaws
+on her dress.
+
+"Are you going to give us up?" asked Watson.
+
+"I am a loyal Southerner," returned the minister, very slowly, "and I know
+what my duty is. Why should I shield you?"
+
+Watson turned to George.
+
+"It was bound to come," he said. "It might as well be to-night as
+to-morrow, or the next day." The pursuers were almost at the door.
+
+"All right," said George, pluckily.
+
+"Father," said Miss Cynthia, "the men are at the door! Shall I let them
+in?"
+
+Mrs. Buckley turned away her head, for there were tears in her eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+IN GREATEST PERIL
+
+
+"Wait!" commanded the minister. There was a new look, one of decision,
+upon his face. "Heaven forgive me," he said, "if I am not doing right--but
+I cannot send a man to the gallows!"
+
+He took a step towards the door leading to the entry.
+
+"Not a word, Cynthia," he ordered. He opened a large closet, filled with
+groceries and preserving jars, quickly pushed George and Watson into it,
+and closed the door.
+
+"Now, Rachel," he said, "let the men in." The girl departed. Within the
+space of a minute nearly a dozen neighbors, all of them carrying muskets,
+trooped into the kitchen. They were sturdy planters, and they looked wet
+and out of humor.
+
+"Well, Dominie," exclaimed one of them, walking up to the fire and warming
+his hands, "you can thank your stars you're not out a mean night like
+this. Have you heard about the big engine steal?"
+
+"Friend Jason has written me about it," replied Mr. Buckley.
+
+"Why, it was the most daring thing I ever heard tell on," cried another of
+the party. "A lot of Yankees actually seized Fuller's train when he was
+eating his breakfast at Big Shanty, and ran it almost to Chattanooga. They
+had pluck, that's certain!"
+
+"We're not here to praise their pluck," interrupted another man. "We are
+here to find out if any of 'em have been seen around your place. We've
+been scouring the country for two hours, but there's no trace of any of
+'em so far--not even of the man with the boy and the dog, as Jason's son
+said he saw."
+
+"Why didn't Jason's son tackle the fellows?" asked a voice.
+
+"Pooh," said the man at the fireplace; "Jason's son ain't no 'count. All
+he's fit for is to dance with the girls. It's well our army doesn't depend
+on such milksops as him. He would run away from a mosquito--and cry about
+it afterwards!"
+
+"You haven't seen any one suspicious about here, have you, parson?" asked
+a farmer.
+
+The minister hesitated. He had never told a deliberate falsehood in his
+life. Was he to begin now?
+
+"Seen no suspicious characters?" echoed the man at the fireplace. "No boy
+with a dog?"
+
+The tongue of the good clergyman seemed to cleave to the roof of his
+mouth. He could see the eagle glance of Miss Cynthia fixed upon him. Just
+then Waggie, who had been sniffing at the closet door, returned to the
+fireplace.
+
+"Why, since when have you started to keep dogs, parson?" asked the last
+speaker.
+
+The minister had an inspiration.
+
+"That dog walked in here this evening," he said. "I believe him to be the
+dog of the boy you speak of." He spoke truth, but he had evaded answering
+the leading question.
+
+"Great George!" cried the man at the fireplace. "Then some of the spies
+are in the neighborhood yet!" There were shouts of assent from his
+companions.
+
+"When did the dog stray in?" was asked.
+
+"More than an hour ago," said Mr. Buckley.
+
+"Come, let's try another hunt!" called out a young planter. The men were
+out of the house the next minute, separating into groups of two and three
+to scour the countryside. The lights of their lanterns, which had shone
+out in the rain like will-o'-the-wisps, grew dimmer and dimmer, and
+finally disappeared.
+
+As the front door closed the minister sat down near the table, and buried
+his face in his hands.
+
+"I wonder if I did wrong," he said, almost to himself. "But I could not
+take a life--and that is what it would have been if I had given them up."
+
+"Pa, you're too soft-hearted for this world," snapped Miss Cynthia.
+
+Mrs. Buckley looked at her daughter reprovingly.
+
+"Your father is a minister of the gospel," she said solemnly, "and he has
+shown that he can do good even to his enemies."
+
+Mr. Buckley arose, and listened to the sound of the retreating neighbors.
+Then he opened the door of the closet. Watson and George jumped out
+joyfully, half smothered though they were, and began to overwhelm the old
+man with thanks for their deliverance.
+
+He drew himself up, however, and refused their proffered hand shakes.
+There was a stern look on his usually gentle face.
+
+"I may have saved your necks," he said, "because I would sacrifice no
+human life voluntarily, but I do not forget that you are enemies who have
+entered the South to do us all the harm you can."
+
+"Come," said Watson, "it's a mere difference of opinion. I don't care what
+happens, George and I will never be anything else than your best
+friends!"
+
+"That is true," cried George; "you can't call us enemies!"
+
+The manner of the minister softened visibly; even Miss Cynthia looked less
+aggressive than before.
+
+"Well, we won't discuss politics," answered Mr. Buckley. "You have as much
+right to your opinions as I have to mine. But I think I have done all I
+could be expected to do for you. Here, take this key, which unlocks the
+door of my barn, and crawl up into the hayloft where you can spend the
+night. If you are there, however, when I come to feed the horse, at seven
+o'clock to-morrow morning, I will not consider it necessary to keep silent
+to my neighbors."
+
+"Never fear," said Watson, in genial tones; "we'll be away by daylight.
+Good-bye, and God bless you. You have done something to-night that will
+earn our everlasting gratitude, little as that means. Some day this
+wretched war will be over--and then I hope to have the honor of shaking
+you by the hand, and calling you my friend."
+
+Watson and George were soon safely ensconced for the night in the
+minister's hayloft, with Waggie slumbering peacefully on top of a mound of
+straw.
+
+"I think we are more comfortable than our pursuers who are running around
+the country," said George. He was stretched out next to Watson on the hay,
+and over him was an old horse-blanket.
+
+"Thanks to dear old Buckley," answered Watson. "He is a real
+Southerner--generous and kind of heart. Ah, George, it's a shame that the
+Americans of one section can't be friends with the Americans of the other
+section."
+
+Then they went to sleep, and passed as dreamless and refreshing a night as
+if there were no dangers for the morrow. At the break of day they were up
+again, and out of the barn, after leaving the key in the door.
+
+"I feel like a general who has no plan of campaign whatever," observed
+Watson, as he gazed at the minister's residence, in the uncanny morning
+light, and saw that no one had as yet arisen.
+
+"I guess the campaign will have to develop itself," answered George. The
+night's rest, and the good supper before it, had made a new boy of him.
+Twelve hours previously he had been exhausted; now he felt in the mood to
+undergo anything.
+
+The two walked out of the garden, accompanied by Waggie, and so on until
+they reached an open field. Here they sat down, on the limb of a dead and
+stricken tree, and discussed what they were to do.
+
+"We don't know," mused Watson, "whether any of our party have been caught
+or not. But one thing is as certain as sunrise. Just as soon as the
+morning is well advanced the pursuers will begin their work again, and
+they will have all the advantage--you and I all the disadvantage."
+
+"The men will be on horseback, too," added George, "while we will be on
+foot. We must remember that."
+
+"Jove," cried Watson, giving his knee a vigorous slap. "I've got an
+idea."
+
+"Out with it," said George.
+
+"Listen," went on his friend. "Here is the situation. If we try to push to
+the westward, to join Mitchell's forces, in broad daylight, or even at
+night, we are pretty sure to be captured if we try to palm ourselves off
+as Kentucky Southerners. If we hide in the woods, and keep away from
+people, we will simply starve to death--and that won't be much of an
+improvement. That Kentucky story won't work now; it has been used too much
+as it is. Therefore, if we are to escape arrest, we must change our
+characters."
+
+"Change our characters?" repeated George, in wonderment.
+
+"Exactly. Suppose that we boldly move through the country as two
+professional beggars, and thus gradually edge our way to the westward,
+without appearing to do so. You can sing negro songs, can't you?"
+
+"Yes; and other songs, too."
+
+"That's good. And Waggie has some tricks, hasn't he?"
+
+"He can play dead dog--and say his prayers--and howl when I sing--and do
+some other tricks."
+
+"Then I've got the whole scheme in my mind," said Watson, with enthusiasm.
+"Let me play a blind man, with you as my leader. I think I can fix my eyes
+in the right way. We can go from farm to farm, from house to house,
+begging a meal, and you can sing, and put the dog through his tricks.
+People are not apt to ask the previous history of beggars--nor do I think
+any one will be likely to connect us with the train-robbers."
+
+George clapped his hands.
+
+"That's fine!" he said. There was a novelty about the proposed plan that
+strongly appealed to his spirit of adventure.
+
+Watson's face suddenly clouded.
+
+"Come to think of it," he observed, "the combination of a man, a boy and a
+dog will be rather suspicious, even under our new disguise. Remember
+Farmer Jason's letter last night."
+
+"That's all very well," retorted George, who had fallen in love with the
+beggar scheme, "but if we get away from this particular neighborhood the
+people won't have heard anything about a dog or a boy. They will only know
+that some Northern spies are at large--and they won't be suspicious of a
+blind man and his friends."
+
+"I reckon you're right," said Watson, after a little thought. "Let us get
+away from here, before it grows lighter, and put the neighbors behind
+us."
+
+The man and boy, and the telltale dog, jumped to their feet.
+
+"Good-bye, Mr. Buckley," murmured Watson, as he took a last look at the
+minister's house, "and heaven bless you for one of the best men that ever
+lived!"
+
+They were hurrying on the next moment, nor did they stop until they had
+put six or seven miles between themselves and the Buckley home. The sun,
+directly away from which they had been moving, was now shining brightly in
+the heavens, as it looked down benevolently upon the well-soaked earth.
+They had now reached a plantation of some two hundred acres or more, in
+the centre of which was a low, long brick house with a white portico in
+front. They quickly passed from the roadway into the place, and moved up
+an avenue of magnolia trees. When they reached the portico a lazy looking
+negro came shuffling out of the front door. He gazed, in a supercilious
+fashion, at the two whites and the dog.
+
+"Wha' foah you fellows gwine come heh foah?" he demanded, in a rich,
+pleasant voice, but with an unwelcome scowl upon his face.
+
+"We just want a little breakfast," answered Watson. He was holding the
+boy's arm, and looked the picture of a blind mendicant.
+
+The darky gave them a scornful glance. "Git away from heh, yoh white
+trash," he commanded. "We doan want no beggars 'round heh!"
+
+Watson was about to flare up angrily, at the impudent tone of this order,
+but when he thought of the wretched appearance which he and George
+presented he was not surprised at the coolness of their reception. For not
+only were their clothes remarkable to look upon, but they were without
+hats. Even Waggie seemed a bedraggled little vagabond.
+
+But George rose valiantly to the occasion. He began to sing "Old Folks at
+Home," in a clear sweet voice, and, when he had finished, he gave a
+spirited rendition of "Dixie." When "Dixie" was over he made a signal to
+Waggie, who walked up and down the pathway on his hind legs with a comical
+air of pride.
+
+The expression of the pompous negro had undergone a great change. His
+black face was wreathed in smiles; his eyes glistened with delight; his
+large white teeth shone in the morning light like so many miniature
+tombstones.
+
+"Ya! ya! ya!" he laughed. "Doan go way. Ya! ya! Look at de dog! Ho! ho!"
+
+He reentered the house, but was soon back on the portico. With him came a
+handsome middle-aged man, evidently the master of the house, and a troop
+of children. They were seven in all, four girls and three boys, and they
+ranged in ages all the way from five to seventeen years.
+
+No sooner did he see them than George began another song--"Nicodemus, the
+Slave." This he followed by "Massa's in the cold, cold ground." As he
+ended the second number the children clapped their hands, and the master
+of the house shouted "Bravo!" Then the boy proceeded to put Waggie through
+his tricks. The dog rolled over and lay flat on the ground, with his paws
+in the air as if he were quite dead; then at a signal from his master he
+sprang to his feet and began to dance. He also performed many other clever
+tricks that sent the children into an ecstasy of delight. Watson nearly
+forgot his role of blind man, more than once, in his desire to see the
+accomplishments of the terrier. But he saved himself just in time, and
+contrived to impart to his usually keen eyes a dull, staring expression.
+
+By the time Waggie had given his last trick the young people had left the
+portico and were crowding around him with many terms of endearment. One of
+them, seizing the tiny animal in her arms, ran with him into the house,
+where he must have been given a most generous meal, for he could eat
+nothing more for the next twenty-four hours.
+
+The handsome man came off the portico and looked at the two supposed
+beggars with an expression of sympathy.
+
+"You have a nice voice, my boy," he said, turning to George. "Can't you
+make better use of it than this? Why don't you join the army, and sing to
+the soldiers?"
+
+George might have answered that he already belonged to one army, and did
+not feel like joining another, but he naturally thought he had better not
+mention this. He evaded the question, and asked if he and the "blind man"
+might have some breakfast.
+
+"That you can!" said the master, very cordially. "Here, Pompey, take these
+fellows around to the kitchen and tell Black Dinah to give them a _good_
+meal. And when they are through bring them into my study. I want the boy
+to sing some more."
+
+The black man with the white teeth escorted the strangers to the kitchen
+of the mansion, where an ebony cook treated them to a typical southern
+feast. It was well that Black Dinah had no unusual powers of reasoning or
+perception, for the beggars forgot, more than once, to keep up their
+assumed roles. Watson found no difficulty in eating, despite his supposed
+infirmity, and George came within an inch of presenting a Confederate bill
+to Madame Dinah. But he suddenly reflected that paupers were not supposed
+to "tip" servants, and he stuffed the money back into his trousers
+pocket.
+
+When they had finished Pompey escorted them to the study of the master of
+the house. It was a large room, filled with books and family portraits,
+and in it were assembled the host (Mr. Carter Peyton) and his children.
+The latter were still engaged in petting Waggie, who began to look a
+trifle bored. From the manner in which they ruled the house it was plain
+that their father was a widower. At the request of Mr. Peyton, George sang
+his whole repertoire of melodies, and the dog once more repeated his
+tricks. Watson was given a seat in one corner of the study. "It's time we
+were off," he thought.
+
+As Waggie finished his performance Watson rose, and stretched out his hand
+towards George.
+
+"Let's be going," he said.
+
+"All right," answered George. He was about to say good-bye, and lead his
+companion to the door, when a turbaned negress entered the room.
+
+"Massa Peyton, Massa Charles Jason done ride oveh heh ta see you."
+
+"Is he here now?" asked Mr. Peyton. "Then show him in. I wonder what's the
+matter? It is not often that Jason gets this far away from home." The girl
+retired.
+
+Charles Jason! Where had the two Northerners heard that name? Then it
+flashed upon them almost at the same instant. Charles Jason was the name
+of the farmer who had warned Mr. Buckley about them. If he saw them both,
+and in company with the dog, they would be under suspicion at once.
+
+George drew nearer to Watson and whispered one word: "Danger!" He picked
+up Waggie and put him in his pocket.
+
+"We must be going," reiterated Watson, moving towards the door with
+unusual celerity for a blind man who had found himself in an unfamiliar
+apartment.
+
+"Don't go yet," urged Mr. Peyton, seeking to detain the supposed
+vagabonds; "I want Mr. Jason to hear some of these plantation songs. I'll
+pay you well for your trouble, my boy--and you can take away all the food
+you want."
+
+"I'm sorry," began George, "but----"
+
+As the last word was uttered Farmer Charles Jason was ushered into the
+study. He was a chubby little man of fifty or fifty-five, with red hair,
+red face and a body which suggested the figure of a plump sparrow--a
+kindly man, no doubt, in the ordinary course of events, but the last
+person on earth that the two fugitives wanted to see.
+
+"Well, this _is_ a surprise," said the master of the house, very
+cordially. "It's not often you favor us with a visit as far down the
+highway as this."
+
+"When a fellow has gout as much as I have nowadays," returned Jason, "he
+doesn't get away from home a great deal. But something important made me
+come out to-day."
+
+"Nothing wrong, I hope?" asked Mr. Peyton.
+
+George took hold of Watson's left hand, and edged towards the open door.
+But Mr. Peyton, not waiting for Jason to answer his question, leaped
+forward and barred the way.
+
+"You fellows must not go until Mr. Jason has heard those negro melodies."
+
+Owing to the number of people in the room (for all the children were
+there), Jason had not singled out the Northerners for any attention. But
+now he naturally looked at them. There was nothing suspicious in his
+glance; it was merely good-natured and patronizing.
+
+"Yes, don't go," cried one of the children, a pretty little girl of ten or
+eleven. "Show Mr. Jason how the doggie can say his prayers." She hauled
+Waggie from George's coat, and held him in front of the farmer. George
+seized Waggie and returned him to his pocket. There was an angry flush on
+the boy's face. He had no kind feelings for pretty Miss Peyton.
+
+Jason's expression underwent a complete transformation when he saw the
+dog. An idea seemed to strike him with an unexpected but irresistible
+force. The sight of the dog had changed the whole current of his thoughts.
+He stared first at Watson, and then at George, with a frown that grew
+deeper and deeper. Then he turned to Mr. Peyton.
+
+"I came over to tell you about the Yankee spies who are loose in the
+county," he cried quickly, in excited tones. "One of them was a boy with a
+dog. My son saw them--and I believe this to be the lad. I----"
+
+The farmer got no further.
+
+"Come, George!" suddenly shouted Watson.
+
+At the back of the study there was a large glass door leading out to the
+rear porch of the house. He ran to this, found that it would not open, and
+so deliberately hit some of the panes a great blow with his foot.
+
+Crash! The glass flew here and there in a hundred pieces. The next moment
+the ex-blind man had pushed through the ragged edges of the remaining
+glass, and was scurrying across a garden at the back of the house. After
+him tore George. In going through the door he had cut his cheek on one of
+the projecting splinters, but in the excitement he was quite unconscious
+of the fact. The children and their father stood looking at Jason in a
+dazed, enquiring way. They had not heard of the locomotive chase; they
+knew nothing of Northern spies; they did not understand that the farmer
+had suddenly jumped at a very correct but startling conclusion.
+
+"After them!" shouted Jason. "They are spies!"
+
+By this time the whole house was in an uproar. Most of the children were
+in tears (being frightened out of their wits at the mention of terrible
+spies), and the servants were running to and fro wringing their hands
+helplessly, without understanding exactly what had happened. Jason tore to
+the broken door, broke off some more glass with the end of the riding whip
+he held in his hand, and was quickly past this bristling barrier and out
+on the back porch. Mr. Peyton was behind him.
+
+At the end of the garden, nearly a hundred yards away, was an
+old-fashioned hedge of box, which had reached, in the course of many
+years, a height of twelve feet or more. A little distance beyond this box
+was a wood of pine-trees. As Jason reached the porch he could see the two
+Northerners fairly squeeze their way through the hedge, and disappear on
+the other side. He leaped from the porch, and started to run down the
+garden. But his enemy, the gout, gave him a warning twinge, and he was
+quickly outdistanced by Mr. Peyton, who sped onward, with several negroes
+at his heels.
+
+The party continued down the garden until they reached the hedge; then
+they ran to the right for a short distance, scurried through an arched
+opening in the green box, and thus reached the outskirts of the pine
+woods. Next they began to search through the trees. But not a sight of the
+fugitives could they obtain. After they had tramped over the whole woods,
+which covered about forty acres, they emerged into open fields. Not a
+trace of the runaways! They went back and made a fresh search among the
+pines; they sent negroes in every direction; yet the result was the same.
+When Mr. Peyton returned, very hot and disgusted, to his usually quiet
+study he found Charles Jason lying on the sofa in an agony of gout.
+Several of the children were near him.
+
+"Oh, papa, I hope you did _not_ catch them," cried one of the latter. She
+was the little girl who had pulled Waggie from George's pocket.
+
+Mr. Peyton laughed, in spite of himself.
+
+"Have you fallen in love with the boy who sang, Laura?" he asked, with a
+twinkle in his eye.
+
+"No," said Miss Laura, indignantly, "but Mr. Jason says they were
+spies--and spies are always hung--and I wouldn't like to see that nice dog
+hung."
+
+The father burst into a peal of merriment.
+
+"Don't worry," he said; "I reckon the dog would be pardoned--on the ground
+that he was led astray by others older than himself. Anyway, the rascals
+have gotten away as completely as if they had disappeared from the face of
+the earth."
+
+Jason groaned. Whether the sound was caused by pain, or disappointment at
+the escape of the spies, or both, it would have been hard to tell. When he
+was taken to his home, not until the next day, he vowed he would never
+more chase anything, be it even a chicken.
+
+And where were the missing man, boy, and dog? Much nearer to the Peyton
+house than any of its inmates fancied. When Watson and George ran down the
+garden their only idea was to get as far off from the house as possible,
+although they believed that they were pretty sure to be captured in the
+end. Their pistols were still useless; they did not know the geography of
+the neighborhood; there were enemies everywhere. But after they squeezed
+through the hedge, they found in front of them, between the box and the
+edge of the woods, a little patch of muddy, uncultivated land, devoted to
+the refuse of a farm. A trash heap, a broken plough, empty boxes, barrels,
+broken china, and other useless things betokened a sort of rustic
+junk-shop--a receptacle for objects which had seen their best days.
+
+Among this collection, the quick eye of Watson caught sight of a large
+molasses hogshead, now empty and with its open end turned upwards. He
+pulled George by the sleeve, pointed to the hogshead, and then looked at
+the hedge, as he said, breathlessly: "This is big enough to hold us both;
+jump in--the hedge is so high they can't see us from the house!"
+
+There was no chance to say more. In a twinkling the two had vaulted into
+the huge barrel, and were fairly squatting at the bottom. Above them was
+the open sky and the warm sun. Any pursuer who chose to stand on tiptoe
+and look in would have been rewarded for his pains. But Watson calculated
+that no one would think of the hogshead for the very reason that it stood
+out so prominently amid all the trash of this dumping ground. No one, in
+fact, gave a thought to the spot; it suggested nothing in the way of a
+hiding-place. Once a negro who had joined the hunt brushed by the
+hogshead, much to the terror of its occupants, but he gave it no heed. A
+few minutes later Mr. Peyton stopped within a few feet of it, to speak to
+his white overseer.
+
+"We have searched the wood thoroughly," said the overseer, "but they are
+gone--that's sure."
+
+"Well, they have gotten out of the place," observed the master. "But they
+won't get many miles away. I want you to take the sorrel mare and spread
+the alarm through the neighborhood."
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+Hardly had Mr. Peyton and his overseer hurried away before Waggie indulged
+in a little yelp, to ease his own feelings. He found things rather cramped
+at the bottom of the hogshead, to which he had been transferred from
+George's pocket; he longed to have more leeway for his tiny legs.
+
+"If you had given that bark a minute ago," muttered George, "you would
+have betrayed us, Master Waggie."
+
+"Oh! oh! oh!" whispered Watson; "I am so cramped and stiff I don't know
+what will become of me. This is the most painful experience of the war."
+
+There would have been something amusing in the position of the hiders if
+it had seemed less dangerous. Watson was now sitting with legs crossed, in
+tailor fashion; on his lap was George; and upon George's knee jumped
+Waggie.
+
+"You're getting tired too soon," said George. "We will be here some time
+yet."
+
+He was quite right, for it was not until dusk that they dared leave their
+curious refuge. Sometimes they stood up, when they got absolutely
+desperate, and had it not been that the tall hedge protected him, the head
+of Watson would assuredly have been seen from the Peyton mansion. At last
+they cautiously abandoned the hogshead, and crept into the pines in front
+of them. When it was pitch dark the fugitives pushed forward in a
+northwestwardly direction, until they reached a log cabin, at a distance
+of about four miles from their point of departure. Within the place a
+light was cheerily burning.
+
+"Shall we knock at the door?" asked Watson, in some doubt.
+
+"I'm very hungry," laughed George. "I think I could risk knocking
+anywhere--if I could only get something to eat."
+
+"Well, we might as well be hung for sheep as lambs," observed Watson. "Let
+us try it."
+
+He had begun to think that it was only the question of a few hours before
+he and George would be in the hands of the enemy.
+
+They knocked at the door. It was half opened by a long, lanky man, with a
+scraggy chin-beard, who looked like the customary pictures of "Uncle
+Sam."
+
+"What is it?" he asked the travelers. There was a sound of voices within.
+
+Was it prudent to play the blind man once again? Or had this fellow heard
+of the excitement at the Peyton mansion? Watson bethought himself of a
+method of finding out whether or not he should be endowed with sight.
+
+"Are we anywhere near Squire Peyton's?" he demanded.
+
+"'Bout four miles off, or five miles by the road along the creek," said
+this Southern "Uncle Sam."
+
+"Do you know if he's living at his place now?"
+
+"He was there three days ago, whan I driv over ta sell him some shotes,"
+returned "Uncle Sam." "Reckon he must be there still."
+
+"Humph!" thought Watson; "this fellow hasn't heard anything about the
+Peyton _fracas_. I'll lose my sight once again."
+
+He clutched George's hand in a helpless fashion, and poured forth a tale
+of woe. He was blind and poor, he said; he and his nephew (meaning George)
+were in need of food and shelter.
+
+"I'll sing for you," said George.
+
+"Tarnation pumpkins," cried Uncle Sam; "I hate squalin'. But come in. I
+never shut my door on anybody."
+
+He opened the door the whole way. The two Northerners and the dog walked
+into the dazzling light made by a great wood-fire--and confronted five
+Confederate soldiers and an officer who were toasting their feet at the
+hearth! They all glanced at the newcomers, who dearly regretted, when too
+late, that they had entered. The officer stared first at Watson and then
+at George with the air of a man who is searching for some one. Uncle Sam
+introduced them to the party in a manner more vigorous than polite.
+
+"Here's a couple o' beggars," he said. "Ma, get 'em somethin' to eat!"
+
+"Ma," who was his wife, came bustling out of the second room, or kitchen,
+of the cabin. She was red in the face, and of generous proportions.
+
+"Look here, pop," she cried, "do you expect me to cook for a hotel? I've
+just been feedin' these soldiers, and now you want me to get victuals for
+beggars."
+
+When the plump hostess saw the blind man, the boy and the dog, her face
+softened. She went back to the kitchen, and soon returned with some coarse
+but highly acceptable food, which was gratefully eaten by George and
+Watson.
+
+"Do you two tramp through the country together?" asked the officer. He was
+addressed by his men as Captain Harris. Every line and feature of his
+clean-shaven face denoted shrewdness.
+
+"Yes," answered Watson. "My nephew sings--the dog has some tricks--we make
+a little money--even in war time." He would put the best face possible on
+this trying situation.
+
+"You have no home?" went on the officer, in a sympathetic voice.
+
+"None."
+
+"Where did you come from before you took to begging?"
+
+Watson hesitated for a second. Then he said: "Lynchburg, Virginia." It was
+the only place he could think of at that moment, and it seemed far enough
+off to be safe.
+
+"I spent three weeks in Lynchburg last year," said Captain Harris. "What
+part of the town did you live in?"
+
+This time George came to the rescue. "On Main Street," he answered. He had
+known a boy in Cincinnati whose mother had once resided in Lynchburg, and
+he had heard the lad speak of a Main Street in that town.
+
+"On Main Street," repeated the Captain. Was the look that passed quickly
+across his face one of surprise or disappointment?
+
+"Yes, on Main Street," asserted George. He felt very sure of himself now.
+
+"How near were you to the Sorrel Horse Hotel?" asked the Captain, after a
+brief pause.
+
+"About two streets away, eh George?" said Watson. He had, very naturally,
+never heard of the Sorrel Horse, and he knew nothing of Lynchburg, but it
+would be fatal to show any ignorance on the subject.
+
+"Yes, just about two streets away," agreed the boy.
+
+The men were all sitting near the blazing fire. Suddenly Captain Harris,
+without saying a word, lifted his right arm and sent his fist flying
+towards the face of Watson, who sat near him. With an exclamation of anger
+Watson jumped to his feet, just in time to avoid the blow.
+
+"What do you mean?" he cried, as he glared at his antagonist.
+
+The Captain smiled. He did not seem at all pugnacious now.
+
+"I mean," he answered, "that I have proved my suspicions to be true. I
+thought you were not blind--and I find that you still have enough sight
+left to see a blow when it is coming to you!"
+
+Watson could cheerfully have whipped himself for his blunder.
+
+"Further," went on the officer, in a politely taunting tone that was very
+provoking, "I find that neither you nor the boy ever lived in Lynchburg,
+for the simple reason that there is no Sorrel Horse Hotel in that place,
+and there never was!"
+
+How nicely had he planned this little trap! And how foolish the two
+fugitives felt.
+
+"And now, my dear beggars," went on the Captain, in the same ironical
+vein, "allow me to say that I don't believe you are beggars at all. I
+strongly suspect that you are members of this engine-stealing expedition
+which has come to grief. This afternoon I was sent out from Chattanooga,
+among others, to scour the country, and it will be my duty to march you
+there to-morrow morning."
+
+There was a pause painful in its intensity.
+
+"Have either of you got anything to say?" demanded the Captain.
+
+"We admit nothing!" said Watson.
+
+"I'm not surprised," answered the Captain. "Your offense is a hanging one.
+But you were a plucky lot--that's certain."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+FINAL TRIALS
+
+
+The next morning Watson and George Knight, with the faithful Waggie (who
+was destined to remain with his master throughout all these adventures, in
+which he had played his own little part), were taken by the detachment of
+Confederates to Chattanooga. Here they were placed in the jail, and here
+also, in the course of a few days, were brought Andrews and the other
+members of the ill-fated expedition. For they were all captured, sooner or
+later, as might have been expected. The whole South rang with the story of
+the engine chase, and every effort was made to track and capture the
+courageous Northerners.
+
+After a stay of several weeks in Chattanooga the party were taken by
+railroad to Madison, in Georgia, for it was feared that General Mitchell
+was about to take possession of the former place. In a few days, however,
+when the danger had passed, they were returned to Chattanooga. It was not
+until September of 1863 that this city fell into the hands of a Union
+force.
+
+Of the movements and separation of the prisoners after their return to
+Chattanooga, or of the experiences of some of them in Knoxville, it is not
+necessary to make detailed mention. Andrews, after a trial, was executed
+in Atlanta as a spy, dying like a brave man, and seven of his companions,
+condemned by a court-martial, shared the same fate. It was the fortune of
+war. George could never dance, as he had promised, at his leader's
+wedding.
+
+Let us change the scene to the city prison of Atlanta, where the remaining
+fourteen members of the expedition were to be found in the following
+October. Among them were Watson, George Knight, Jenks and Macgreggor.
+Waggie, too, was still in evidence, but he would have found life rather
+dreary had not the kind-hearted jailer allowed one of his family to take
+the dog many a scamper around the city.
+
+"Poor Andrews," said Watson, one afternoon, "it is hard to realize that he
+and seven others of us have gone."
+
+The party were occupying a well-barred room on the second floor of the
+prison. This second floor comprised four rooms for prisoners, two on each
+side of a hallway. In the hallway was a staircase which led to the first
+story, where the jailer and his family had their quarters. Outside the
+building was a yard surrounded by a fence about nine feet high, and here
+and there a soldier, fully armed, was on guard.
+
+"I don't want to be doleful, boys," said Macgreggor, "but I think we will
+soon follow Andrews. As the days rolled on and we heard no more of any
+trial or execution I began to hope that the Confederate Government had
+forgotten the rest of us. I even thought it possible we might be exchanged
+for the same number of Confederates in Northern prisons, and thus allowed
+to go back to our army. But I've kept my eyes and ears open--and I have
+now become anxious."
+
+"Why so?" asked George. The boy looked thin and very pale, after his long
+confinement.
+
+"I heard some one--I think it was the Provost-Marshal--talking to the
+jailer this morning, at the front door of the prison. I was looking out of
+the window; you fellows were all playing games. 'Keep a very strict eye on
+those engine-stealers,' the marshal said; 'a court is going to try
+them--and you know what that means--death! A trial will be nothing more
+than a formality, for the whole fourteen of them are spies, under the
+rules of war. They were soldiers who entered the enemy's line in civilian
+disguise. So don't let them get away.'"
+
+Macgreggor's listeners stirred uneasily. This was not what might be called
+pleasant news.
+
+"Why didn't you tell us before?" asked Jenks.
+
+"I hadn't the heart to," returned Macgreggor. "You boys were all so
+cheerful."
+
+Watson cleared his voice.
+
+"I tell you what it is, boys," he whispered, as he gave Waggie a mournful
+pat; "if we don't want to be buried in an Atlanta graveyard we must
+escape!"
+
+George's white face flushed at the thought. The idea of liberty was
+dazzling, after so many weary days.
+
+"Well," said one of the men, in the same low tone, "it's better to escape,
+and run the risk of failing or of being re-captured, than to rot here
+until we are led out to be hanged."
+
+"Let's invent a plan that will enable us not only to get out, but to
+_stay_ out," laughed Jenks.
+
+There was dead silence for nearly ten minutes. The men, who had been
+sitting on the floor watching two of their number at a game of checkers,
+were deep in thought. At last Watson opened his lips.
+
+"I have a plan," he whispered. "Tell me what you think of it. You know
+that about sunset the darkies come into the rooms to leave us our supper.
+The jailer stands outside. Then, later, the jailer comes and takes away
+the dishes. He is then alone. Suppose we seize him, gag him, take his
+keys, unlock all the doors on this floor, and release all the prisoners.
+As you know, there are a number besides our own party--whites and negroes.
+All this must be quietly done, however, if it is to prove successful. Then
+we can go down-stairs, without making any noise, overpower the seven
+sentinels, take their guns, and make off, after locking up these
+gentlemen."
+
+Watson went further into details, to show the probable workings of his
+scheme. It was finally agreed that the dash was well worth the trial. As
+Jenks remarked: "It's either that or a few feet of cold rope, and a
+coffin!"
+
+The late afternoon of the next day was fixed upon for the escape. In
+addition to the fourteen remaining adventurers, a Union captain from East
+Tennessee, who shared the room with them, was to be associated in this
+daring enterprise. It seemed to George as if the hour would never come;
+but as the sun began to sink gradually towards the horizon on the
+following afternoon he realized, from the feverish restlessness of the
+whole party, that there was not much longer to wait.
+
+"Keep up your nerve, fellows," said Watson, who had become the leader of
+the party, "and remember that all depends upon the quietness with which we
+conduct things on this floor, so that the guard below won't take the
+alarm."
+
+As he spoke there was a rattling of keys and a creaking of locks. The
+heavy door of the room opened, and in walked Waggie. He had been having a
+walk, with a daughter of the jailer, and one of the negro servants had
+taken him up-stairs and unlocked the door. The next moment the key was
+turned; the prisoners were again shut in from the world.
+
+"Poor little Waggie," said Macgreggor. "Is he going too?"
+
+"I've taken him through too much to leave him behind now," said George
+fondly. "Look. This is as good as a kennel." He pointed to an overcoat,
+which the East Tennessee Captain had given him, and showed on one side a
+large pocket. The side of the latter was buttoned up closely to the coat.
+
+The minutes dragged along. Finally Watson said, with a sort of mournful
+impressiveness: "Boys, let us all bid each other good-bye. For some of us
+may never meet again!"
+
+The men clasped one another by the hand. In the eyes of most of them were
+tears--not timid tears, but the tears of soldiers who had become attached
+to one another through suffering and hoping together. It was a solemn
+scene which the rays of the dying sun illumined, and George would never
+forget it.
+
+Watson brushed a drop from his cheek.
+
+"I feel better, now," he said cheerfully; "I'm ready for anything.
+Remember one thing. Treat the jailer as gently as possible. He has been a
+kind fellow where some would have been the reverse."
+
+"Aye," murmured his companions. It was an order which had their hearty
+sympathy.
+
+In a little while there was the long-expected creaking at the door. It was
+supper time! Two negroes entered and placed some pans containing food upon
+the table. Then they retired, and the door was locked.
+
+"Eat, boys," whispered Watson; "we don't know when we may get our next
+square meal."
+
+The men soon disposed of the food. Hardly had they finished before the
+door was thrown open, and the jailer, an elderly, bearded man, appeared.
+
+"Good-evening, men," he said, in a pleasant, unsuspicious voice. He halted
+at the doorway with the keys in his right hand.
+
+It was a terrible moment. George felt as if he were living ten years in
+that one instant.
+
+[Illustration: Watson Placed His Hand Over the Man's Mouth]
+
+"Good-evening, sir," said Watson, approaching the jailer. "It's such a
+very pleasant evening that we intend to take a little walk." He threw back
+the door as he spoke.
+
+The jailer was unprepared for this move. He did not even divine what was
+intended.
+
+"How--what do you mean----" he faltered.
+
+"We've had enough of prison life," said Macgreggor, in a calm, even voice,
+"and we are going to leave you. Now give up the keys, and keep very quiet,
+or you'll find----"
+
+"Keep off!" cried the jailer, as he tightened his hold on the bunch of
+keys. He was about to call for help, but Watson placed his left hand over
+the man's mouth, and with his right clutched the unfortunate's throat.
+Then Macgreggor seized the keys, after a sharp but decisive struggle, and
+hurried into the hallway, where he began to release the general prisoners.
+He quickly unlocked in succession the doors of the three other rooms on
+the second floor. The men thus freed did not understand the significance
+of it all, but they saw unexpected liberty staring them in the face, and
+they ran out of their quarters like so many sheep.
+
+Meanwhile the members of the engine expedition, with the exception of
+Watson and Macgreggor, had run almost noiselessly down the staircase,
+through the jailer's quarters on the first floor, and thus out into the
+prison yard. Some of them threw themselves upon the three soldiers in the
+rear of the yard, wrenched from them their muskets, crying out at the same
+time: "Make a movement or a cry and we'll shoot you down!" The rest of the
+party, among whom were George Knight and Jenks, tore into the front part
+of the yard, where four guards were patroling near the main door of the
+jail. Two of these guards were quickly disarmed. But the other two, seeing
+the oncoming of the prisoners, ran out of the gate of the picket fence,
+uttering loud cries as they went. Their escape was entirely unexpected.
+
+The general prisoners now came tumbling into the yard, headed by Watson
+and Macgreggor. Watson, warned that there was no time to lose, had
+released his hold upon the astonished jailer. He did not know that two of
+the sentinels had escaped, but he arrived down-stairs just in time to see
+the result of their disappearance. A large reserve guard of Confederates,
+warned of the jail delivery by these two soldiers, came rushing madly into
+the yard.
+
+"Look out, boys!" cried Watson. Other members of the engine party, seeing
+the arrival of the troops, released the five remaining sentinels, threw
+down their newly acquired muskets, and began to scale the prison fence.
+There came the sharp crack of rifles from the reserve guard. Whiz! The
+bullets rattled all around the heads of the fence-climbers, the whistling
+noise having for accompaniment the cries of the angry Confederates. Whiz!
+Another volley! Yet no one was hit. On the fugitives went, as they
+descended on the other side of the fence, and made for some woods at a
+distance of nearly a mile from the prison.
+
+"After 'em, men," came the word of command to the Confederates. Soldiers
+were running hither and thither, while the general prisoners, who had been
+released by Macgreggor, were soon safely housed in their old rooms. The
+bullets were flying thick and fast within and without the prison yard; the
+scene was one of pandemonium. Ere long five of the engine party had been
+captured, three inside of the yard and two immediately outside. Among
+these were Jenks and Macgreggor who were both uninjured, but both very
+much disheartened. Soon there was the clatter of hoofs, and a troop of
+cavalry dashed up to the front of the jail.
+
+"No more chance of escape!" said Jenks bitterly, as he looked out of the
+barred window. He could hear the cavalry colonel excitedly crying: "Hunt
+down the fellows till you have every one of them!"
+
+"I hope some of the boys will get off," remarked Macgreggor. "Any one who
+is captured is sure to be hung now." Afterwards another prisoner was
+captured. There were now six of the party back in jail.
+
+Where were Watson and George during this escapade? No sooner had the
+former cried out his warning, on the approach of the reserve guard, than
+he made directly for George, who was in the back part of the yard.
+
+"Come on," he said, in tones of suppressed excitement, "over the fence
+with us. It's our only chance--now!"
+
+Imitating the example of others the man and boy were soon balanced on top
+of the wooden fence. Whirr! George was conscious of a whistling sound, and
+a bullet flew by him as it just grazed the tip of one ear.
+
+"Hurry up!" urged Watson. In another second the two had dropped from the
+fence and were running like mad over a large field.
+
+"Halt!" cried some voices behind them. Looking back they could see that
+about a dozen soldiers were in hot pursuit. A ball sped by George,
+dangerously near the capacious pocket in which Waggie was ensconced; a
+second bullet would have ended the life of Watson had it come an inch
+nearer the crown of his head.
+
+"Look here," said Watson. "These men are fresh--we are weakened by
+imprisonment--they will get up to us in the end. Let's try a trick. The
+next time the bullets come we'll drop as if we were dead."
+
+At that moment another volley rattled around and over them. Watson threw
+up his arms, as if in agony, and sank on the grass. George uttered a loud
+cry, and went down within a few feet of his companion.
+
+All but one of the Confederates halted, upon seeing the apparent success
+of their aim, and turned to pursue in a new direction. The remaining
+soldier came running up to the two prisoners, and after taking one look
+which convinced him that they were either dead or dying he scurried back
+to rejoin his detachment. There was no use in wasting time over corpses
+when living enemies remained to be caught.
+
+The "corpses" waited until all was quiet around them. Then they arose, and
+kept on towards the woods. These they reached when darkness had fallen
+upon the trees--a circumstance which aided them in one way, as it lessened
+the danger of pursuit. But in another way the night impeded their progress
+for they could not get their bearings. They groped from tree to tree, and
+from bush to bush, like blind men. Once they heard a great rustling, and
+were convinced that it was caused by some of their companions, but they
+dared not speak, for fear of a mistake. At last they stumbled out upon a
+deserted highroad.
+
+"Where are we?" whispered George.
+
+"I don't know," returned Watson. "Hark! Do you hear anything?"
+
+A sound, at first very faint, became more and more distinct as they
+listened. Galloping horsemen and the rattle of sabres proclaimed the
+approach of cavalry.
+
+"Back into the woods," urged Watson. "We may be putting ourselves in a
+trap--but for the life of me I don't know where else to go!"
+
+They hurried into the wood, where they crawled under a scrubby pine bush,
+and anxiously awaited the outcome. On rushed the horsemen until they
+reached the outskirts of the wood. Here they halted. The hiders under the
+pine bush could hear one of the officers say: "The infantry will soon be
+here to relieve us."
+
+"We've had a great time to-night," growled another officer. "These
+Yankees, not content with troubling us on the battle-field, must even stir
+things up when they are prisoners."
+
+"I don't wonder those locomotive-stealers wanted to escape," laughed the
+first officer. "They know what the punishment of a spy always is."
+
+In a few minutes a company of infantry marched to the scene. After a short
+conference between their officers and those of the cavalry the horsemen
+galloped away. The infantry were now formed into squads, and sent to keep
+guard in the woods.
+
+"Things are getting rather warm!" whispered Watson. George murmured an
+assent. Well might he do so, for a sentry had soon been posted within
+fifty feet of the two fugitives. The situation was fraught with the
+greatest danger. Watson and George realized that the soldiers would patrol
+the woods until morning, when discovery would be inevitable.
+
+Watson sank his voice so low that it could just be heard by his
+companion.
+
+"We can't afford to stay here until daylight," he whispered. "We must
+wriggle out of here until we come to the edge of the road. Then we must
+make a break and run."
+
+"Run where?" asked George.
+
+"Providence alone knows," answered Watson. "We must trust to chance. But
+anything is better than remaining here, to be caught like rabbits by
+dogs."
+
+"I'm ready," replied George. He already saw himself back in the Atlanta
+prison, and he even pictured himself with a rope around his neck; but he
+was prepared for any adventure, whatever might be the result.
+
+"The sooner the better," whispered Watson. Without any more words the two
+began to wriggle along the ground and kept up this snake-like motion until
+they reached the edge of the wood. It was slow work and very tiresome, but
+it was their one chance of escape. Then they stood up, and bounded across
+the highroad.
+
+"There they go!" shouted one of the soldiers in the wood. At once there
+was an uproar, as the sentries ran out into the road, and began to fire
+their guns in wild confusion. It was pitch dark, and they could see
+nothing. Over the road and into an open field tore the two fugitives. They
+felt like blind men, for they could hardly distinguish any object before
+them; moreover they were wholly ignorant of their surroundings. They ran
+on, however, and finally reached another field in which were several large
+trees. Watson made straight for one of them.
+
+"Up we go," he said, and, suiting the action to the order, he had soon
+clambered up the tree, and seated himself across one of its branches.
+George was quick to follow; he climbed up with even more celerity than
+Watson, and settled himself on a neighboring branch.
+
+They could hear the cries of the sentries, mingled with an occasional
+shot. Two of the soldiers passed directly under the tree occupied by the
+Northerners.
+
+"They have gotten off," one of them was saying.
+
+"I'm not surprised," rejoined the other sentry. "Any fellows who could do
+what they did at Big Shanty are not easy customers to deal with."
+
+In a little while the two sentries returned, and, again passing under the
+tree, evidently went back to the woods. The uproar had ceased; there was
+no more firing; it was plain that the chase had been abandoned.
+
+After the lapse of half an hour Watson and George descended from their
+uncomfortable perches. Once upon the ground the boy released Waggie from
+his pocket, and the little party pushed on in the darkness for about a
+mile. Here they found a hayrick in a field, alongside of which they laid
+their weary bones and slept the sleep of exhaustion. When daylight came
+they had awakened, feeling much refreshed and ready for more adventures.
+
+"I'll tell you what I think," said Watson. "There's a chance for us yet,
+provided we try a new means of getting away from the South."
+
+"What do you mean?" asked George.
+
+"If we try to move northward," continued Watson, "we are sure to be
+caught. Every countryman between Atlanta and Chattanooga will be on the
+lookout for us. Instead of that, let us strike out towards the Gulf of
+Mexico, where we should reach one of the ships of the Union blockading
+squadron. New Orleans is in the hands of the North, and many of our
+vessels must be patroling the Gulf. Once we reach the coast we are
+practically free."
+
+"The very thing!" cried the boy. "You're a genius!"
+
+Watson smiled.
+
+"Not a genius," he said, "but I have what they call horse-sense up our
+way--and I'm not anxious to return to the delights of the Atlanta
+prison."
+
+Acting upon this new theory the wanderers began their long journey. This
+they pursued amid many hardships, not the least of which was hunger. Even
+poor Waggie grew emaciated. First they reached the banks of the
+Chattahoochee River, after which they secured a boat and rowed their way
+down via the Apalachicola River, to Apalachicola, Florida, on the Gulf of
+Mexico. Here they found, to their great delight, that a Federal blockading
+squadron was patroling on the Gulf, near the mouth of Apalachicola Bay.
+
+The two fugitives now pushed their little boat out into the open sea. They
+were a sorry looking couple, with their old clothes fairly dropping from
+them, and their thin, gaunt figures showing the consequences of many days
+of privation. Watson was feverish, with an unnatural glitter in his eyes,
+while George's face was a sickly white. Waggie reposed at the bottom of
+the rickety craft, as if he cared not whether he lived or died.
+
+"Look!" cried Watson, who was at the oars. He pointed out towards the
+south, where were to be seen a collection of masts and smoke-stacks,
+rising above long black hulls.
+
+"It's the Federal fleet," said George. He was glad to have a look at
+it--glad to know that deliverance was at hand--but he felt too exhausted
+to put any enthusiasm into his voice.
+
+"Can you see any flag?" he asked, wearily. "Perhaps we have been fooled
+after all. The ships may belong to the Confederate navy."
+
+Soon they could detect, as they drew nearer, a flutter of bunting from the
+vessel nearest to them.
+
+"It's the old flag!" cried George, jumping from his seat in the stern with
+a precipitancy that threatened to upset the boat. "See the blue--and the
+red and white stripes! Hurrah!" But he was too weak for much enthusiasm
+even now and he soon had to sit down once more.
+
+Watson uttered a cry which was meant to be triumphant, although it came
+like a hoarse croak from his parched throat. Then the tears gushed into
+his eyes as he gazed again upon the flag. It almost seemed as if he were
+home again.
+
+Nearer and nearer they rowed to the squadron. There were four ships of
+war, and now they could see the sailors walking the decks and the guns in
+the portholes.
+
+"We'll be there in ten minutes now," said Watson, "and I think I can eat
+a----" He gasped and failed to finish the sentence. He half rose from his
+seat, relinquished the oars, with a despairing cry, and then, losing all
+consciousness, pitched over the gunwale into the sunlit waters of the
+Gulf.
+
+George jumped up from the stern and stretched out his arm to seize the
+inanimate body of his friend. But the movement was too much for the
+equilibrium of the frail boat and for the balance of the boy. Out into the
+water shot George, overturning the craft until its keel was in the air.
+
+George struck out for Watson and succeeded in grabbing him by the hair of
+his head just as he was about to disappear beneath the waves. Then he
+changed his hold upon the man, and with his left hand clutching the neck
+of Watson's coat he pulled to the side of the upturned boat. To this he
+held with his right hand like grim death, as he put his left arm around
+Watson's waist. The boy was panting for breath, and as weak as if he had
+been swimming for miles. Not until now had he thoroughly realized how
+hunger, exposure and privation had done their work. The next instant he
+felt a gentle paddling near him; he looked down and there was Waggie's wet
+but plucky little face.
+
+"Hello! old boy," said George. "I would rather drown myself than see you
+go under. So here goes!"
+
+He released his hold of Watson and by a quick movement swung Waggie to the
+upturned bottom of the boat, near the keel. The tiny animal gave a bark
+that said "Thank you," as plainly as if he had spelled out every letter of
+the two words. George again seized Watson and clung to the boat more
+tightly than before. The soldier gradually came back to consciousness.
+
+"What have I done?" he asked, staring wildly at the hot sun above him.
+
+"Nothing!" answered George. "Only try to hold on to the boat. For I'm so
+worn out that it's all I can do to keep myself up."
+
+Watson clawed frantically at the gunwale. At last he managed to grasp it
+with his tired, bony fingers.
+
+"I can't hold on much longer!" suddenly said George, in a faint voice. His
+hands were numb; he felt as if he had not one particle of strength left in
+his emaciated body. His mind began to wander. He forgot that he was in the
+Gulf of Mexico; he thought he was holding on to a horse. By and by the
+horse began to move. Could he keep his grasp on the animal? No; not much
+longer. The horse started to canter, and the boy felt himself slipping
+backward. In reality he had let go his hold upon the boat. So, too, had
+Watson. The next moment was a blank. The sun came burning down on poor
+Waggie, perched on top of the craft, as he growled piteously at the sight
+of master and friend drifting helplessly away.
+
+                   *       *       *       *       *
+
+When George recovered his senses he was lying on the deck of one of the
+war-vessels, and Waggie was barking in an effort to awaken him. Near him
+sat Watson, with a happy smile on his wan face. Around him was a group of
+officers.
+
+"By Jove," one of the latter was saying. "Those poor fellows had a narrow
+escape. It was well we saw their plight and sent a boat after them. It got
+there just in time."
+
+"Well, my boys," asked an older officer (who was evidently the captain of
+the vessel), in a gruff but not unkindly tone, "what on earth _are_ you,
+and where did you come from? You don't appear to have been gorging
+yourselves lately."
+
+When George and Watson were a little stronger they told the story of their
+adventures, in brief but graphic terms, to the interested group of
+officers. When they had finished the Captain came up to them, and put a
+hand upon the shoulder of each.
+
+"You fellows want a good round meal!" he said emphatically. "And after
+that some clothes will not come amiss, I guess."
+
+To this they readily assented. How delicious the food tasted when it was
+served to them at the officers' mess; and how comfortable but strange they
+felt when, an hour later, they were arrayed in all the glory of clean
+underclothes, shoes, nice suits and naval caps. When they came on deck
+again, how the sailors did cheer. And Waggie! How fine and cheerful he
+looked, to be sure, all decked out in ribbons provided by the tars; and
+how pleased he felt with the whole world since he had eaten--but it would
+take too long to detail the _menu_ with which the dog had been regaled.
+The wonder was that he survived the spoiling that he received during the
+next four days.
+
+At the end of that time he accompanied his master and Watson, who were
+sent on a government vessel to New York. From New York they traveled by
+rail to Washington, where they were to relate their experiences, and the
+result of the railroad chase, to President Lincoln.
+
+First they saw Mr. Stanton, the Secretary of War, who made them dine and
+spend the night as his guests, and who the next morning took them to the
+White House. George trembled when he was ushered into the private office
+of Mr. Lincoln. He felt nervous at the thought of encountering the man
+who, more than any one else, held in his hand the destiny of the nation.
+But, when a tall, gaunt person, with wonderful, thoughtful eyes and a
+homely face, illumined by a melancholy but attractive smile, walked up to
+him and asked: "Is this George Knight?" all the boy's timidity vanished.
+As he answered, "Yes, I am George Knight," he felt as if he had known the
+President for years.
+
+Mr. Lincoln listened to the narrative of the two fugitives--now fugitives
+no longer--and put to them many questions. When the recital was over the
+President asked: "Do you know that poor General Mitchell has died from
+yellow fever?"
+
+They answered in the affirmative, for Mr. Stanton had given them this
+unwelcome information upon their arrival in Washington.
+
+Mr. Lincoln pulled a paper from one of the pockets of his ill-fitting
+black coat and handed it to Watson.
+
+"Here is a commission for you as a Captain in the regular army," he
+explained. "I know of no one who could deserve it more than Captain
+Watson."
+
+"How can I ever thank you, Mr. President?" cried Watson.
+
+"The thanks are all on my side," answered the President, smiling. "That
+reminds me of a little story. When----"
+
+Mr. Stanton, who was standing immediately behind his chief, began to cough
+in a curious, unnatural way.
+
+A gleam of humor came into the unfathomable eyes of the President.
+
+"Mr. Stanton never appreciates my stories," he said, quizzically, "and
+when he coughs that way I know what he means." Then, turning to George, he
+continued: "My lad, you are one of the heroes of the war! I had intended
+giving you, too, a commission, but I find you are too young. But I suppose
+you want to see more of the war?"
+
+"Indeed I do, Mr. Lincoln!" cried George.
+
+"Well, since poor Mitchell is dead, how would you like to go as a
+volunteer aid on the staff of one of our generals?"
+
+"The very thing!" said the boy, with ardor.
+
+Mr. Lincoln faced his Secretary of War.
+
+"You don't always let me have my own way, Mr. Secretary," he observed,
+dryly, "but I think you must oblige me in this."
+
+"The boy's pretty young," answered the Secretary, "but I fancy it can be
+arranged."
+
+"Very good," said the President. "And now, George, if you behave with half
+the pluck in the future that you have shown in the past, I'll have no fear
+for you. Do your duty, and some day you may live to see--as I may not live
+to see--a perfect reunion between North and South; for God surely does not
+intend that one great people shall divide into two separate nations."
+
+George left the White House in a perfect glow of enthusiasm. The very next
+day he was ordered to join the staff of General George H. Thomas, and he
+joyfully obeyed the summons to leave Washington. His only regret was in
+parting from Waggie, whom he was obliged to entrust to the care of a
+friend of Secretary Stanton's. The boy saw plenty of army life throughout
+the rest of the war. When the conflict was over he hurried back to
+Washington, found Waggie alive and well, and then went home with him to
+Cincinnati. Here he had a startling but delightful reunion with his
+father, whose mysterious disappearance had been due to his capture by the
+Confederates, and an incarceration for many months in an out-of-the-way
+Southern prison.
+
+There were many things of interest which George did not learn until after
+the last gun of the war had been fired. One was that Watson had made a
+brilliant record for himself as a regular army officer, and had come out
+of the war with a sound skin and the rank of Colonel. Another piece of
+news concerned the fortunes of the soldiers who escaped from the Atlanta
+jail. Eight of the engine party and the East Tennessee Captain (this
+number including Watson and George), managed to escape, and finally
+reached the Northern lines in safety. The six prisoners who were
+recaptured, among them Macgreggor and Jenks, escaped hanging, and were
+exchanged for the same number of Southern prisoners. Jenks was killed at
+the battle of Gettysburg; Macgreggor served through the war, was honorably
+discharged as a Major of Volunteers, and finally developed into a
+successful physician in the growing city of Chicago.
+
+Waggie has been gathered to his canine forefathers these many years. But
+it is comforting to reflect that he lived to a fine old age, and died full
+of honors. He was known far and wide as the "Civil War Dog"--a title which
+caused him to receive much attention, and a good many dainty bits of food
+in addition to his regular meals. Let it be added, however, that his
+digestion and his bright disposition remained unimpaired until the end.
+
+George Knight is now a prosperous merchant, happily married, and living in
+St. Louis. He is proud in the possession of a son who saw active service
+in the Spanish-American War as an officer in the navy. Before we say
+good-bye to our hero let us record that he never forgot the kindness of
+the Rev. Mr. Buckley, who had saved his life as a boy. Many a
+Christmas-time gift testified to the gratitude of the Northerner.
+
+In the desk in George Knight's office is a bundle of letters from the old
+clergyman. The last of these to be received reads as follows:
+
+  "Dear Friend George:
+
+  "This is Christmas Day--the last, I am sure, that I will ever see. I
+  am too feeble to write you more than my best wishes for the holiday
+  season, and to say--Thank God, the war has been over these twenty
+  years and we are once more a united nation. No North, no South, no
+  East, no West--but simply America. I have been spared to see
+  this--and I am grateful.
+
+                                              "Cordially yours,
+                                                     "Amos Buckley."
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Chasing an Iron Horse, by Edward Robins
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHASING AN IRON HORSE ***
+
+***** This file should be named 26892.txt or 26892.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/8/9/26892/
+
+Produced by Roger Frank, Juliet Sutherland and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.