Dick noticed that while they talked one of the men never ceased to cover him with a rifle. They were good-humored and kindly, but he knew they would not relax an inch from their duty.
“All right,” he said, “go ahead. I’ll give you a good legal title to everything you may find.”
He knew that the letter was lying in the bushes within ten feet of them and he had a strong temptation to look in that direction and see if it were as securely hidden as he had thought, but he resisted the impulse.
Two of the men searched him rapidly and dexterously, and much to their disappointment found no dispatch.
“You ain’t got any writin’ on you, that’s shore,” said the spokesman. “I’d expected to find a paper, an’ I had a lingerin’ hope, too, that we might find a little terbacker on you ‘spite of what you said.”
“You don’t think I’d lie about the tobacco, would you?”
“Sonny, it ain’t no lyin’ in a big war to say you ain’t got no terbacker, when them that’s achin’ for it are standin’ by, ready to grab it. If you had a big diamond hid about you, an’ a robber was to ask you if you had it, you’d tell him no, of course.”
“I think,” said Dick, “that you must be from Kentucky. You’ve got our accent.”
“I shorely am, an’ I’m a longer way from it than I like. I noticed from the first that you talked like me, which is powerful flatterin’ to you. Ain’t you one of my brethren that the evil witches have made take up with the Yankees?”
“I’m from the same state,” replied Dick, who saw no reason to conceal his identity. “My name is Richard Mason, and I’m an aide on the staff of Colonel Arthur Winchester, who commands a Kentucky regiment in General Grant’s army.”
“I’ve heard of Colonel Winchester. The same that got a part of his regiment cut up so bad by Forrest.”
“Yes, we did get cut up. I was there,” confessed Dick a little reluctantly.
“Don’t feel bad about it. It’s likely to happen to any of you when Forrest is around. Now, since you’ve introduced yourself so nice I’ll introduce myself. I’m Sergeant Robertson, in the Orphan Brigade. It’s a Kentucky brigade, an’ it gets its nickname ’cause it’s made up of boys so young that they call me gran’pa, though I’m only forty-four. These other three are Bridge, Perkins, and Connor, just plain privates.”
The three “just plain privates” grinned.
“What are you going to do with me?” asked Dick.
“We’re goin’ to give you a pleasant little ride. We killed your hoss, for which I ‘pologize again, but I’ve got a good one of my own, and you’ll jump up behind me.”
A sudden spatter of rifle fire came from the direction of the Northern pickets.
“Them sentinels of yours have funny habits,” said Robertson grinning. “Just bound to hear their guns go off. They’re changin’ the guard now.”
“How do you know that?” asked Dick.
“Oh, I know a heap. I’m a terrible wise man, but bein’ so wise I don’t tell all I know or how I happen to know it. Hop up, sonny.”
“Don’t you think I’ll be a lot of trouble to you,” said Dick, “riding behind you thirty or forty miles to your camp?”
The four men exchanged glances, and no one answered. The boy felt a sudden chill, and his hair prickled at the roots. He did not know what had caused it, but surely it was a sign of some danger.
The night deepened steadily as they were talking. The twilight had gone long since. The last afterglow had faded. The darkness was heavy with warmth. The thick foliage of spring rustled gently. Dick’s sensation that something unusual was happening did not depart.
The four men, after looking at one another, looked fixedly at Dick.
“Sonny,” said Robertson, “you ain’t got no call to worry ’bout our troubles. As I said, this is a good, strong hoss of mine, an’ it will carry us just as far as we go an’ no further.”
It was an enigmatical reply, and Dick saw that it was useless to ask them questions. Robertson mounted, and Dick, without another word, sprang up behind him. Two of the privates rode up close, one on either side, and the other kept immediately behind. He happened to glance back and he saw that the man held a drawn pistol on his thigh. He wondered at such extreme precautions, and the ominous feeling increased.