had the men composing the brigade all been akin to me they could not have shown greater kindness, nor done more to soothe my grief, than they did during the brief time before the march toward the tory encampment was really commenced.
one found immediately a better steed; another brought assurances from captain mouzon that i was not to think for a single instant of the loss of his horses, since it was only the fortunes of war, which must be expected. a third would have pressed food upon me; but i could not have swallowed a single morsel unless, perchance, life itself might have depended upon the act.
my uncle, major james, said very little [97] after hearing the story we had gotten from sam lee.
at first i attributed his silence to the apprehensions which had come upon him with the knowledge that general gates had been overwhelmed; but later i had good reason to believe it arose solely from anxiety concerning my brother.
"you shall ride by my side, lad, until we have settled this affair, and when it is done neither you nor i will have cause to reproach ourselves for not having ventured enough."
such a promise from such a man was sufficient to tell me that while he and i remained alive, we would struggle as men do who have no fear of death, until the dear lad was rescued, or we borne down by press of numbers.
at this day it seems singular to me that i heard no one speak of the great disaster which had come upon the colonists at camden.
i can only explain it by the supposition [98] that each man saw in the adventure before us an opportunity to do somewhat by way of retaliation, and set all his thoughts on that purpose.
we were halted, after my rejoining the brigade, twenty minutes or more, and then the word to advance was given; but not in such fashion as i had supposed from what general marion said, on his learning of the disaster which had come upon percy.
my idea was, and in my ignorance i saw no other method of procedure, that the little troop would ride into barfield's tories even as they had among those commanded by major gainey, and that we should profit by the surprise.
this could not be done, as i afterward came to realize.
the capture of percy, and what sam lee could tell, would be sufficient to prevent us from coming upon them unexpectedly.
when the tory lad should inform the commander that two of major james' [99] nephews were in that vicinity, it would be immediately known that our uncle, with a goodly following, was somewhere nearabout.
the tories would be prepared, and those who had suffered defeat that morning must have, by this time, a very good idea of our strength.
general marion, as i afterward came to know full well, was not the man to neglect any precaution, and while he counted on making an attack despite the difference in numbers, it was his intention to do so in such manner as would come nearest to guaranteeing success.
fifty of the best mounted men were detached and sent straight toward dubose ferry, while the remainder of the brigade rode off at right angles, in such direction as would bring us to the timber lands eastward of the road leading to indian village.
it was this last portion of the force which my uncle and i accompanied, and i, surprised [100] that a part of the brigade rode at full speed, while we loitered, as it were, asked the reason.
"those in advance are mounted in such fashion that they may easily outrun the enemy, and it is the plan that they appear before barfield's force as if intending to make an attack," my uncle replied. "after thus showing themselves the squad will beat a retreat, causing it to appear as if they were surprised by seeing so large a force. then, unless the tories are quicker witted than i give them credit for being, a goodly portion of the band will be led into ambush."
it was the indian's favorite method of warfare, and, cruel though i had ever considered it, at this moment it gave me most intense pleasure.
i had said to myself that we could hope to do little less than die in the vain attempt to rescue percy; but now it seemed as if, should our lives be demanded as a sacrifice, we might sell them dearly. [101]
well, all went as our commander had counted upon.
we hid ourselves in the thicket either side the road, three hundred and fifty horsemen, with not a man dismounted, for we counted upon riding the tories down when they should retreat after the first volley had warned them that they had been led into a trap.
there we waited upwards of an hour, no man venturing to so much as speak, and each looking well after his steed lest one of the animals whinny at the supreme moment, thus giving the enemy a clew, before they were fairly within our grasp, of what awaited them.
during that hour i resolutely kept my thoughts on trifles, such as caring for the animal i bestrode, making certain i was in such position that it would be possible to get out of the wood with the least possible delay when the enemy was thrown into confusion, and by these and other means prevented myself from dwelling upon percy's fate. [102]
then came that sound for which we had waited—the thunder of horses' feet upon the beaten road.
we heard cries of fear, which were uttered by our decoys to entice the tories into yet hotter pursuit, and far in the distance could be distinguished the crack of rifles and the rattle of muskets.
at that time, with the blood literally boiling in my veins and my heart beating like the blows of a hammer, i never stopped to question how many of ours might be killed in this attempt to deal out punishment to the enemies of the colonies; but realized only that now was come the moment when i could strike a blow in defense of my brother.
nearer and nearer came the horsemen, until through the trees we saw the williamsburg men riding madly down, not a saddle emptied, and before one could count twenty the advance of the tories came in sight.
a whispered word went around among [103] us to "hold ready," although every man was on the alert, and when the road in front of us appeared to be one dense mass of horses, and men wearing red uniforms, my uncle gave the signal for which we waited:
"fire, boys, and at them!"
from each side the road rang out reports of rifles which had been leveled in deadly aim, for at such short range each could pick his man and make certain of bringing him down.
instantly the ranks were broken; the redcoated horsemen reined in their steeds as the squad they had been pursuing halted and fired their volley, and then came a scramble and retreat when we dashed among them.
twice i loaded and discharged my rifle, and then it seemed to me as if such work was all too slow.
using the weapon as a club, i rode by my uncle's side into the very midst of that scrambling, terrified mass of human beings, [104] and cried aloud with savage joy when i struck one of the frightened villains down.
as was afterward learned, there were no less than one thousand men who had set out in pursuit of our decoys, and yet after our first attack not one of them remained to hold us in check.
had they been only so many sheep, we could not have found them easier prey.
the major, my uncle, had said i should ride by his side, and so i did, down the road at the heels of the tory scoundrels, ever as we had done the night previous. then on, and on, striking down a foe here and there until we were come, nearly the whole brigade, into that encampment which gavin witherspoon and i had looked upon, believing it could not be taken by such a force as ours.
out of all those scoundrels who had so lately held the place, believing that those true to the cause had been virtually crushed by the defeat of general gates, [105] only two men came forth to meet us, and those two, my brother and gavin witherspoon.
is there any need i should say how warm was the greeting between us two lads when i threw myself from the horse and clasped to my heart the dear boy whom i had thought never to see again in this life?
it needed no more than an hundred words for him to tell his story.
while he remained in the thicket guarding sam lee a body of men, who had lately served under major gainey, came upon them by chance, and, as a matter of course, he was at once taken prisoner, sam lee immediately telling the story of his own capture.
then it was the tory sam who became the jailer, and percy the prisoner.
my brother was conducted to barfield's camp, and there kept under guard of sam, who did all that lay in his power, save by way of personal violence, to pay off old scores. [106]
gavin witherspoon, wily as an indian, had crept up to the very edge of the encampment, and was lying there in the vain hope that some opportunity would come for the rescue, when our force, sent as a decoy, appeared.
an hundred or more men were left to guard the encampment, and gavin hoped the moment had come when he might be of service to the lad.
believing that the tories would be victorious in the chase, because of superior numbers, he ventured too near percy, and was himself captured.
an hour later the first of the terrified fugitives burst into the encampment, riding straight through it in their wild terror, thus causing a panic among the guard who might even then, because of their intrenched position, have held us in check.
in a twinkling percy and gavin were free; but in imminent danger of being ridden down by the panic-stricken.
crouching behind trees, or at the stronger [107] portions of the intrenchments, they awaited our coming, and when we rode into camp came forth to greet us as i have said.
our force remained in the captured quarters until next morning, and during the evening gavin witherspoon, percy and myself had much to talk about.
my brother and i were come by this time to look upon the old man as a comrade, and well we might, after the friend he had proven himself to be.
while we talked only concerning ourselves, and looked after our own welfare, general marion and the officers of the command spent the time discussing how it might be possible for so small a force to uphold the cause in the carolinas, for since the defeat of gates ours was the only body of men in the colony to oppose the foe.
it was as if the king's troops had indeed crushed what they were pleased to term "rebellion," and more than one man in the brigade whose fidelity to the cause could [108] not be questioned, asked his comrade if it were wise to longer remain in arms when we were virtually whipped.
the outlook was gloomy indeed for those who had hoped to be freed from the burdens the king had put upon them; but, fortunately for the cause, general marion and major james were not the men to give in beaten so long as life remained.
even while some among us were making ready to say openly that the time had come when we must submit, those two gallant gentlemen were planning for the future—planning as to how four hundred or less might best oppose ten times their number of trained soldiers.
gavin witherspoon, percy and myself, while listening to the faint-hearted ones or discussing the situation between ourselves, hoped that the general would call upon us for some especial mission, even as he had when we were sent to spy out barfield's camp; but the time was not come when we were needed for a venture of any [109] moment, as we learned an hour before daybreak next morning.
then the men were aroused with orders to breakfast from the tories' provisions as hurriedly as might be, and make ready for the forced march.
among those with whom i talked, when in the gray light we made our preparations for the march, not a man believed there was the slightest question we should continue upon the offensive.
all understood that we could not in safety remain much longer in the tory camp, for unless those whom we had routed were greater cowards than was generally believed, they would soon recover from the panic into which we had driven them, and return to make an attack.
therefore it was that we set out believing the move was made simply for the purpose of changing quarters, and when orders were given that each man take from the tory stores so much of provisions for himself, or provender for his horse as could be [110] carried conveniently behind him, we fancied it was the general's purpose to so outfit the brigade that it might lay in hiding two or three days without being forced to venture forth in search of food.
before noon came, however, all understood that some maneuver was in progress.
instead of riding rapidly, as would have been the case had we counted on simply exchanging one encampment for another, we went forward at a leisurely pace, making no halt until the sun was high in the heavens, when we were come to the ford on black river, half a dozen miles or more south of kingstree.
then the men and horses were allowed a rest of an hour, after which we bore nearly due west until we struck the road leading from georgetown to nelson's ferry, and the word was whispered from man to man that the commander had it in mind to strike yet another blow at the red-coated enemy before we laid down our arms. [111]
it is well known, as a matter of course, that the "war-path" from charleston to camden crosses santee river at nelson's ferry, and here, above all other places, would one who was eager for fighting be likely to get his fill.
more than once during the day had we learned from planters, who were true to the cause, additional particulars concerning the blunder of general gates, and before nightfall we understood beyond a peradventure that the story told by sam lee was only untrue in so far as it did not contain all the disasters which had befallen the american arms.
now we knew how many prisoners had been taken, and, what was more to the purpose, learned that our unfortunate countrymen were being sent as rapidly as possible from the scene of the one-sided conflict to charleston.
it was an hour before sunset, and we were holding the same pace at which we started, with no evidence of going into [112] camp, when gavin witherspoon said bitterly, as if the thought had just seized him:
"lads, if it so be you have any curiosity concerning this long march of ours, during which we have traversed the williamsburg district apparently for no other purpose than to come upon an enemy who may crush us with but little trouble, i can satisfy you."
"have you been getting some special information?" percy asked with a laugh.
"aye, lad, that i have, and you may count upon its being true, although i got it only from my own head."
"then you are guessing as to where we are going?" i said with no great show of enthusiasm, for i was weary to the verge of exhaustion with long remaining in the saddle.
"it is more than guessing, lad. it is what has been learned from observation, and that is the most reliable information a man can obtain. we are heading for nelson's ferry." [113]
"if that is all your observation has taught you, it would seem as if much time had been wasted," percy replied laughingly. "every man in the brigade has known as much since noon."
"true, lad, but that is not the sum of the information i am willing to give. it has been told us that the american prisoners which lord cornwallis took are being sent to charleston as rapidly as possible, and you will admit with me that all must pass through this same place toward which we are bound. it is general marion's purpose to strike another blow, if no more, at the enemy, and in so doing set free some of those who were made prisoners through their general's stupidity."
there was much of sound common sense in gavin witherspoon's reasoning, and straightway the truth of it came into my mind, all sense of fatigue was lost sight of in the relief which was mine at knowing we would not yet submit to the britishers, [114] even though it seemed as if we were already driven to the last extremity.
a moment before the old man gave words to his thoughts, i would have said that both the animal i bestrode and myself were so near to exhaustion that we could not hold the pace an hour longer; but now it was as if i had enjoyed a long time of repose, and action was absolutely necessary, lest i grow rusty with much idleness.
we three discussed the possibility of the future as if all gavin witherspoon had suggested was known to be true, until one of the general's aides came riding down the line, drawing rein in front of us, as he said curtly:
"the general would speak with you."
"we have not been forgotten," percy cried gleefully, "and now has come our time to render some immediate service."
"or fall into the hands of the enemy," gavin witherspoon added with a smile. "these special missions are not the safest, and sometimes he who sets out on them [115] with the idea of making his name famous, comes to grief."
"as i did yesterday," percy replied, still laughing. "when i have as comrades you and bob, it matters little how much of unpleasant adventure i see, save for the discomfort of the moment."
then the dear lad spurred his horse onward, and we two followed, gavin witherspoon wearing a serious countenance, while i was in much perplexity as to whether two lads like percy and myself should be trusted with work such as old soldiers oftentimes fail at doing successfully.
arriving at the head of the line we found the general and major james riding side by side.
both returned our salute, but neither slackened speed, and we rode alongside of the general, percy and i, while gavin remained slightly in the rear.
"we should be within twenty miles of nelson's ferry," the commander said, speaking as if we were eager for such [116] information. "it is certain that portions of cornwallis's force guarding american prisoners will pass there from time to time within the next eight and forty hours. it is my desire that we have early information of such coming and going, and to that end i have sent for you, lads."
he paused for an instant as if debating in his mind what to say next, and gavin witherspoon rode up that he might attract the general's attention, when the latter said with a smile:
"i am speaking to you two lads and the old man who is so eager to participate in venturesome missions. any force coming from camden will halt over night, at least, nearabout the ferry. by riding up the river ten miles or more you should be able to give me timely information of their coming. within an hour we shall halt, and then it is you who must push forward so far as the animals can go. continue on until having come to a point ten or twelve miles above the ferry. there remain, in [117] whatsoever fashion may please you, until you hear of the enemy's approach. then wait only so long as may be necessary to learn how strong he is in numbers, after which you will ride without delay to taw caw creek, on the bank of which we shall be encamped."
having said this he saluted, as did my uncle, and we three, understanding that this was the signal for dismissal, reined in our steeds until we were fallen back to our proper place in the line.
the knowledge that we were to perform some especial work which bid fair to be of service to the cause, heartened us wonderfully, and indeed we had need of something to raise our courage, for much talking about the disasters which had overtaken the american troops caused it to seem as if the so-called rebellion was well-nigh come to an end.
"it may be our last chance of striking a blow at those who represent the king, lads," gavin witherspoon said cheerily. [118] "mayhap we shall be fortunate if a british bullet finds lodgment in our bodies with sufficient force to wipe us out of existence, for such a death as that is preferable to hanging, and that is what awaits us of williamsburg who defy his majesty, after my lord clinton's second proclamation."
"it is a doleful way you have of preparing one for venturesome work," percy said, with a laugh which told that he claimed little share in these forebodings. "if to be shot is good fortune, then we may rejoice, for i doubt not but that there are hundreds of the king's servants who will readily grant such a favor."
"i am not minded to dishearten you," gavin said in a kindly tone; "but the straits into which the cause has fallen are so sore and desperate now, that to an old man like me who has ventured all, it would seem as if a soldier's death, coming before the last blow to the colonies had been struck, was a kindly thing. however, we are like to go ten miles above nelson's [119] ferry and back, without falling into more harm than was brought about by the capture of sam lee, and i venture to say we shall report in proper form and due time such information as the general desires."
then we fell silent, each intent on his own thoughts, and at that moment i was thinking far more of my mother than of the cause, for gavin witherspoon's words had depressed me until it began to appear as if i might never see her dear face again.
from this pleasant but yet painful reverie i was roused by the halting of the command, and percy said, seizing me by the arm as if believing i had fallen asleep:
"the time has come for us to push forward alone, bob, and we must make as many miles 'twixt now and dark as can be forced out of these jaded steeds."
