XIX
_AGATHA'S RESOLUTION_
The reports which came to Stuart from the several commands that eveningincluded one from the senior lieutenant of Baillie Pegram's battery.After reading it, Stuart took Agatha aside, and said:
"I have news which it will not be pleasant for you to hear. CaptainPegram is badly wounded, and in the hands of the enemy."
The girl paled to the lips, but controlled herself, and replied in avoice constrained but steady:
"Tell me about it, General--all of it, please."
"I'll tell you all that is known. Captain Pegram is an unusuallyenergetic officer, with a bad habit of getting himself wounded. Hisbattery to-day was in the extreme advance, but it seems that a littlehill just in front of him interfered with the fire of one of his guns,and so he advanced with that piece to the crest of the mound. At thatmoment the enemy made a dash at that point, and it became necessary toretire the gun to prevent its capture. Pegram gave orders to thateffect, and they were executed. But almost as the orders left his lips,he fell from his horse with a bullet-hole through his body. His mentried to bring him off, but that involved the risk of losing the gun, sohe peremptorily ordered them to save the gun and leave him where he lay.The enemy's line swarmed over the little hill, and when our menrecovered it, Pegram was nowhere to be found. The enemy had evidentlycarried him to the rear to care for him as a wounded prisoner."
"Can anything be done?" the girl asked, still with an apparent calm thatwould have deceived a less sagacious observer than Stuart.
"I could send a flag of truce to-morrow to ask concerning him, but itwould be of no use. You see the enemy refuses as yet to recognise ourrights as belligerents, and will not communicate with us in proper form.Their answer would come back addressed to me, but carefully lacking allindication of my character as an officer in the Confederate army. Undermy orders I could not receive a communication so addressed. It would beof no use, therefore, to inquire, and in any case we could not securehis exchange, as we have now no exchange cartel in force. I do not seethat we can do anything."
The young woman stood silent for a full minute, while Stuart looked ather, full of an admiration for the courage she was manifesting. At lastshe asked:
"General, will you send to the camp of Captain Pegram's battery, and bidhis servant report here to me at once?"
For reply Stuart called Corporal Hagan--the swarthy giant who had chargeof his couriers--and ordered him to send a courier on Agatha's missionwithout delay.
Half an hour later Sam presented himself with eyes red from weeping, andAgatha proceeded at once to business.
"You care a great deal for your master, don't you, Sam?"
"Kyar for Mas' Baillie? Ain't I his nigga? An' ain't he de mastah ofWarlock? Kyar for him? Why, Mis' Agatha, I'se ready to lay down an' diedis heah very minute 'case he's done got hisse'f shot an' captured."
"Then you are willing to take some risks for his sake?"
"Sho' as shootin' I is. Yes, sho'er'n shootin', 'case shootin' ain'talways sho'. Jes' you tell me how to do anything for Mas' Baillie, an'then bet all the money you done got, an' put your mortal soul into debet, dat Sam'll face de very debil hisse'f to carry out yer'structions."
"I believe you, Sam, and I'm going to trust you. You will go with me toWilloughby to-morrow. We'll start soon in the morning and get therebefore night. From there I'm going to send you north to find yourmaster. I'll tell you how to do it. When you find him, you are to staywith him and nurse him, no matter where he is. And when he gets wellenough, you must find some way of setting him free from the hospital sothat he can make his way back to Virginia again."
"But, Mis' Agatha, how's I to--"
"Never mind the details now. I'll tell you about all that when I get myplans ready. I'll tell you everything you must do and how to do it, sofar as I can, and you must depend on your wits for the rest. You'repretty quick, I think."
"Yes'm; anyhow I kin see through a millstone ef there's a hole throughit. But, Mis' Agatha, is you sho' 'nuff gwine to tell me how to fin'Mas' Baillie an' take kyar o' him?"
Agatha reassured him, and sent him off to sleep in order to be ready fortheir early start in the morning. Then she joined Stuart and asked him:
"Did you pick up any prisoners near the point where Captain Pegramfell?"
"I really don't know. Why?"
"Why, if you did you'd know to what command they belonged, and thatwould help me."
"Help you? Why, what are you planning?"
"To find Captain Pegram."
"But how?"
"Through my agents,--and Sam, his body-servant."
"O, I see. Your underground railroad is to have a passenger traffic.I'll find out what you wish to know. And if you'd like I'll have Sampassed through our lines, after which he can pretend to be a runaway."
"I thought of that," Agatha answered, "but it will not do. I must sendhim through my friends. You see in Maryland he'll require a slave's passfrom a master, and my friends will be his masters, one after another.Besides, they will help me find out in what hospital Captain Pegram is.I've thought it all out. I must first prepare my friends for Sam'scoming. With your permission I'll take him with me to Willoughbyto-morrow."
"You are a wonderful woman!"
That is all that Stuart said, but it sufficiently suggested theadmiration he felt for her courage, her resourcefulness, and her womanlydevotion. Bidding her call upon him for any assistance she might need incarrying out her plans, he dismissed her for the night, ordering her togo to sleep precisely as he might have ordered a soldier to go to histent. But Agatha did not obey as the soldier would have done. She wentto bed, indeed, but she could not sleep. Her nerves were all a-quiver asthe result of the trying experiences to which she had been subjected,until now her excited brain simply would not sink into quietude. She layhour after hour staring into the darkness, thinking, thinking,thinking. She remembered the words that suffering on her account hadwrung from Baillie Pegram that morning at the bivouac, and she bitterlyreproached herself for having given him no worthier answer than acommand to forget what he had said. She knew now with what measure ofdevotion this man loved her, and she knew something else, too, as shelay there in the darkness face to face with her own soul. She knew nowthat she loved Baillie Pegram with all that was best in her proud andpassionate nature. That truth confronted her. It was "naked and notashamed." Her conscience scourged her for what she regarded as herheartlessness and frivolity in putting aside his declaration of lovewith the false pretence that it found no response in her own soul.
"I might at least have thanked him," she thought. "I might at least havesaid to him 'there is no longer war between me and thee.' And now helies dead perhaps, or on a bed of suffering,--a wounded prisoner in thehands of the enemy. All that I can now do is to search him out and sendSam to nurse and comfort him." Then a new thought came to her. "That is_not_ all that I can do. Shame upon me for thinking so, even for amoment. I can go to him myself, and I will, if God lets him live longenough. I'll take Sam with me. He can be very helpful in the search,with his sharp wits and the freedom from suspicion which his black facewill secure him."
The dawn was breaking now, and a score of bugles were musically soundingthe reveille in the camps round about. Agatha rose quickly, and withoutsummoning her weary maid, plunged her face into a basin of cold waterhalf a dozen times. Then seeing in her little mirror how hollow-eyed andhaggard she was, she wetted a towel and flagellated herself with it tillthe colour came back and her nerves lost their tremulousness.
So great a transformation did this treatment work, that Stuartcomplimented her upon her freshness of face when she appeared at thebreakfast-table. He had meanwhile secured for her definite informationas to the Federal command that had made Pegram prisoner. He had alsomanaged in some way to secure a side-saddle for her to ride upon, and asquad of cavalrymen, under command of a sergeant, was waiting outsideto be her escort on her journey.
"Thank you, General, for giving me so good a
mount," she said, glancingwith a practised eye at the lean but powerful animal provided for heruse.
"You should have a better one, if a better were to be had. You deserveit. By the way, you need not send the horse back by the escort. He willnot be needed here, for a time at least."
Agatha looked at him, and then at the animal again, this timerecognising it as the one that Baillie Pegram had ridden by her sidetwenty-four hours before.
"He belongs to Captain Pegram, I believe," she answered.
"Yes, his second horse, and he is specially careful of him."
"I'll see that the animal is well cared for," answered the girl,"until--"
She did not finish the sentence, and Stuart turned away, pretending notto see the tears that stood beneath her eyelids.