“You’re right, Malachi. I was with him at Donelson and Shiloh and that’s the way he did.”
“I reckon it’s the right way. Is it true, colonel, that he taps the ba’el?”
“Taps the barrel? What do you mean, Malachi?”
White put his hands hollowed out like a scoop to his mouth and turned up his face.
“I see,” said Colonel Winchester, “and I’m glad to say no, Malachi. If he takes anything he takes water just like the rest of us.”
“Pow’ful glad to heah it, but it ain’t easy to get too much good watah this yeah. Nevah knowed such a dry season befoah, an’ I was fifty-two yeahs old, three weeks an’ one day ago yestuhday.”
“Thank you, Malachi, for your warning. We’ll be doubly careful, because of it, and I hope after this war is over to share your fine hospitality once more.”
“You’ll sho’ly be welcome an’ ev’y man an’ boy with you will be welcome, too. Fuhthah on, ’bout foah hund’ed yahds, you’ll come to a path leadin’ into the woods. You take that path, colonel. It’ll be sundown soon, an’ you follow it th’ough the night.”
The two men shook hands again, and then the soldiers rode on at a brisk trot. Malachi White sat on the fence, looking at them from under the brim of his old straw hat, until they came to the path that he had indicated and disappeared in the woods. Then he sighed and walked back slowly to his house in the cornfield. Malachi White had no education, but he had much judgment and he was a philosopher.
But Dick and the others rode on through the forest, penetrating into the high and rough hills which were sparsely inhabited. The nights, as it was now October, were cool, despite the heat and dust of the day, and they rode in a grateful silence. It was more than an hour after dark when Powell, one of the Frankforters, spoke:
“We can hit the old town by midnight easy enough,” he said. “Unless they’ve stretched pretty wide lines of pickets I can lead you, sir, within four hundred yards of Frankfort, where you can stay under cover yourself and look right down into it. I guess by this good moonlight I could point out old Bragg himself, if he should be up and walking around the streets.”
“That suits us, Powell,” said Colonel Winchester. “You and May lead the way.”
May was the other Frankforter and they took the task eagerly. They were about to look down upon home after an absence of more than a year, a year that was more than a normal ten. They were both young, not over twenty, and after a while they turned out of the path and led into the deep woods.
“It’s open forest through here, no underbrush, colonel,” said Powell, “and it makes easy riding. Besides, about a mile on there’s a creek running down to the Kentucky that will have deep water in it, no matter how dry the season has been. Tom May and I have swum in it many a time, and I reckon our horses need water, colonel.”
“So they do, and so do we. We’ll stop a bit at this creek of yours, Powell.”
The creek was all that the two Frankfort lads had claimed for it. It was two feet deep, clear, cold and swift, shadowed by great primeval trees. Men and horses drank eagerly, and at last Colonel Winchester, feeling that there was neither danger nor the need of hurry, permitted them to undress and take a quick bath, which was a heavenly relief and stimulant, allowing them to get clear of the dust and dirt of the day.
“It’s a beauty of a creek,” said Powell to Dick. “About a half mile further down the stream is a tremendous tree on which is cut with a penknife, ‘Dan’l Boone killed a bar here, June 26, 1781.’ I found it myself, and I cut away enough of the bark growth with a penknife for it to show clearly. I imagine the great Daniel and Simon Kenton and Harrod and the rest killed lots of bears in these hills.”