CHAPTER XXXVII. RETURNING CORDELIA’S KINDNESS--JACK AND HARRY ON A NAVALEXPEDITION.
|But though he opened his eyes with astonishment, he did not open hislips to say why he did so. To have done so would have been imprudent tothe last degree.
The question to the prisoner had revealed the fact that the captive whomHarry was so closely guarding was the son of Mr. Jones, the treacheroushost from whom the two youths had had such a narrow escape, and thebrother of the girl who had given them the hint which led to their hastydeparture. He had joined Price’s army as originally intended, and wasserving with a cavalry regiment that had been assigned to the duty ofharassing the union forces and preventing their obtaining the suppliesthey desired. His company was the one with which the union cavalryhad disputed the possession of the haystack, as described in the lastchapter.
“Now,” thought Harry, “I’ve got a chance to pay off the girl for herkindness to us. I ‘ll get her brother free and send him home to her. He‘ll never know how it came about, but I’m sure she ‘ll understand.”
Further questioning showed that another of the prisoners was a nearneighbor of young Jones, and that he was very much attached to MissCordelia; in fact, the twain were lovers, and this circumstancedetermined Harry on his course of action, and on the way to Batesvillehe studied how best to accomplish his object.
He found that the young fellows were heartily tired of the war, andwanted to go home; this was particularly the case with the young lover,whose interest was greatly roused when he found that Harry had seen thegirl he left behind him. Harry gave no particulars of his acquaintancewith her, other than that he had stopped at the house of Mr. Jones onhis way from Springfield to Forsyth, and remembered seeing a younggirl such as the prisoner described, or rather such as her brothertold about. He said he could not remember the name, but thought it wasCorinne, or Cor--something or other.
The prisoners were fearful that something terrible would happen to them,as they had heard the usual wild stories about the barbarity of theYankees. Harry encouraged their belief as far as he thought judicious,in order to make them all the more grateful for any service he mightrender them. He promised to do his best to save them from being hangedor shot, and suggested that a great deal would depend on their conduct.
“If you try to escape,” said he, “you will be shot down at once; but ifyou obey orders and do exactly what is told you without question, you‘ll find it to your advantage.”
They promised everything he asked of them, and on reaching camp theywent demurely to the quarters assigned them, and made not the leasttrouble. As soon as he was relieved of his charges Harry went straightto General Vandever and asked to see him privately, a request which thegeneral readily granted.
Under the seal of confidence Harry then told the whole story of how heand Jack had been saved from capture by the warning given by Cordelia,and how two of the prisoners then in camp were the brother and loverof the warm-hearted girl. He wanted them set free as a return forthe service she had rendered the two youths, but at the same time hespecially desired that neither the prisoners nor any one else shouldknow or suspect the real reason of his request.
“We can easily arrange that,” answered the general. “I ‘ll see GeneralCurtis and ask him to turn the prisoners over to me, to do with as Ithink best: I’ve no doubt he ‘ll do it, and if he does there won’t beany trouble about the other details.”
An hour later the general sent for Harry, who responded with alacrity tothe call.
“It’s all right,” said the general, as soon as Harry came into hispresence. “The five horses that you and Jack captured that night areworth more to us than the prisoners; the men might not like to knowthey’ve been traded for horses, but that’s the way I look at it. Go andsee if you can get the prisoners to take an oath not to serve in therebel armies again during the war, and you may tell them they ‘ll bereleased if they ‘ll do it.”
Harry went at once to the guard-house, where the prisoners wereconfined, and it did not take long for them to make the desired promise.He explained that he had urged their case before the general, and hadpersuaded the latter to grant his request on condition that they wenthome at once and stayed there, and furthermore, that they signed therequired oath and gave no further aid in any way to the war.
This being arranged the prisoners were taken before General Vandever,who gave them a severe lecture, pretended he was opposed to letting themloose, but had only done so at the urgent request of Harry, who believedthem to be honest, but misguided, and who felt sure they would liveup to their promise. There was much more talk to the same effect, alltending to show that they owed their liberation to Harry and Jack; andfinally the papers were signed, the oath was taken, and the prisonerswere escorted to the lines and allowed to go on their way toward Forsythand home.
It was afterward ascertained that the arrival of the pair at theJones’ mansion was the cause of great astonishment to the family, andespecially to the senior Jones, who had been in mortal terror ever sincethat night, for fear that the youths would cause his house to be burnedover his head in revenge for his treachery. Cordelia blushed down to theroots of her hair, but her blushes were attributed to her joy atseeing her lover and brother safe at home from the wars. No one hadthe slightest suspicion that she had aught to do with the escape of theyouths and the capture of the horses. As the returned soldiers babbledon about the kindness of Harry, and how he had brought about theirliberation, the tears came into her eyes, and it was with greatdifficulty that she preserved her composure.
As before stated, the army in camp at Batesville, weakened by thewithdrawal of a portion of its numbers, which were sent to aid in thesiege of Corinth, and, being short of provisions and ammunition, wasin no condition to advance upon Little Rock. Its only line of marchwas back to Rolla, or through the country that lay between it and theMississippi river. The movement upon Rolla would be a retrograde one,while that toward the Mississippi would be an advance; consequently thelatter was selected without hesitation.
From the sixth of May until the twenty-fourth of June the army lay atBatesville, making preparations for its future movements. Word camethat gun-boats and transports were ascending the White river, andwould probably come to Jacksonport, which is twenty-five miles belowBatesville and at the junction of the White with the Black river. Forten days previous to the departure from Batesville, Captain Winslow, thequartermaster-in-chief of General Curtis’s array, bought corn and otherprovisions, and saved the army rations so that he had enough on handfor a twenty days’ supply, which was considered sufficient to carry themthrough to Helena, on the bank of the Mississippi, in case the gun-boatsand transports should fail to reach Jacksonport. As subsequent eventsdeveloped, this precaution was a wise one.
For the first time in its history this part of Arkansas was honored witha navy. General Curtis built five large flat-boats, with strong decks,partly for the transportation of supplies and partly for use as pontoonsin case a river was to be crossed. Cotton bales were ranged around theirsides and firmly fastened, as a protection against musketry in case therebels should attempt to hinder their progress, and it was thought theywould even be able to stop cannon-shot of the smaller calibers.There were no naval officers and sailors with the army, and so it wasnecessary to improvise them. There was a liberal number of volunteersfor the new service, as it promised to be exciting and was certainlynovel.
Captain Wadsworth, of the Thirteenth Illinois, was put in command of thefleet, and his company formed the crew. Harry and Jack were accepted asvolunteers to aid in navigating the boats, each of which was providedwith sweeps, or long oars, that were necessary to keep it in thechannel. Some of the old soldiers were accustomed to flat-boatnavigation on the Mississippi, and felt confident they could avoidgetting ashore; but, of course, it was unknown what the rebels might doto hinder their progress.
Harry was half inclined to back out when he found that the road fromBatesville to Jacksonport did not follow the bank of the river, butwoun
d among the hills at a considerable distance from it. In case ofan attack upon the naval forces of General Curtis the army would not benear enough to furnish any efficient aid, except in a few places. But,having agreed to go, he said nothing; neither did Jack.
The advance of the array moved out of Batesville on the morning of thetwenty-fourth of June. Then came each of the three divisions in itsorder, and by noon the town was deserted. The navy pushed off from theshore and floated slowly down the stream, the captain, who had beenpromoted by his associates to the rank of admiral, ordering his mento make no exertions at the oars other than might be necessary to keeptheir craft in the current. Some of the natives of the country offeredto assist as pilots, and one of them who claimed to know all about theriver was taken aboard the “Cordelia,” the boat where Harry and Jackwere serving, and to which they had given the name. He was so enormouslyfat that Jack suggested he should be called Pauncheous Pilot, but he wascareful to keep the suggestion from the ears of the subject of it.
The youths had intrusted their horses to the care of two of theircomrades, as it was not practicable to take them on board the“Cordelia,” which had only sufficient room for her crew and wasencumbered with boxes and other freight. Convenient loopholes had beenmade between the bales of cotton, so that the occupants of the boatscould defend themselves from musketry fire without serious risk. Theoars or sweeps were operated in openings between the bales somewhatwider than the loopholes, and movable screens of thick plank werearranged so that the oarsmen would be fairly well protected.