Books: The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come
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John Fox, Jr. >> The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come
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"Oh! no, Colonel--not on that ground."
Her eyes danced, she flushed curiously, as she held out her hand, and the
Colonel's brave heart quickened. Straightway he began to wonder--but a quick
shadow in Margaret's face checked him.
"But where's Dan? Where is Dan?" she repeated, impatiently.
Richard Hunt looked puzzled. He had just joined his command and something must
have gone wrong with Dan. So he lied swiftly.
"Dan is out on a scout. I don't think he has got back yet. I'll find out."
Margaret watched him ride to where Morgan stood with his mother in the midst
of a joyous group of neighbors and friends, and, a moment later, the two
officers came toward her on foot.
"Don't worry, Miss Margaret," said Morgan, with a smile. "The Yankees have got
Dan and have taken him away as prisoner--but don't worry, we'll get him
exchanged in a week. I'll give three brigadier-generals for him."
Tears came to the girl's eyes, but she smiled through them bravely.
"I must go back and tell mother," she said, brokenly. "I hoped--"
"Don't worry, little girl," said Morgan again. "I'll have him if I have to
capture the whole State of Ohio."
Again Margaret smiled, but her heart was heavy, and Richard Hunt was unhappy.
He hung around her phaeton all the while she was in town. He went home with
her, cheering her on the way and telling her of the Confederate triumph that
was at hand. He comforted Mrs. Dean over Dan's capture, and he rode back to
town slowly, with his hands on his saddle-bow--wondering again. Perhaps
Margaret had gotten over her feeling for that mountain boy--that Yankee--and
there Richard Hunt checked his own thoughts, for that mountain boy, he had
discovered, was a brave and chivalrous enemy, and to such, his own high
chivalry gave salute always.
He was very thoughtful when he reached camp. He had an unusual desire to be
alone, and that night, he looked long at the stars, thinking of the girl whom
he had known since her babyhood-- knowing that he would never think of her
except as a woman again.
So the Confederates waited now in the Union hour of darkness for Bragg to
strike his blow. He did strike it, but it was at the heart of the South. He
stunned the Confederacy by giving way before Buell. He brought hope back with
the bloody battle of Perryville. Again he faced Buell at Harrodsburg, and then
he wrought broadcast despair by falling back without battle, dividing his
forces and retreating into Tennessee. The dream of a battle-line along the
Ohio with a hundred thousand more men behind it was gone and the last and best
chance to win the war was lost forever. Morgan, furious with disappointment,
left Lexington. Kentucky fell under Federal control once more; and Major
Buford, dazed, dismayed, unnerved, hopeless, brought the news out to the
Deans.
"They'll get me again, I suppose, and I can't leave home on account of Lucy."
"Please do, Major," said Mrs. Dean. "Send Miss Lucy over here and make your
escape. We will take care of her." The Major shook his head sadly and rode
away.
Next day Margaret sat on the stile and saw the Yankees coming back to
Lexington. On one side of her the Stars and Bars were fixed to the fence from
which they had floated since the day she had waved the flag at them as they
fled. She saw the advance guard come over the hill and jog down the slope and
then the regiment slowly following after. In the rear she could see two men,
riding unarmed. Suddenly three cavalrymen spurred forward at a gallop and
turned in at her gate. The soldier in advance was an officer, and he pulled
out a handkerchief, waved it once, and, with a gesture to his companions, came
on alone. She knew the horse even before she recognized the rider, and her
cheeks flushed, her lips were set, and her nostrils began to dilate. The
horseman reined in and took off his cap.
"I come under a flag of truce," he said, gravely, "to ask this garrison to haul
down its colors-- and--to save useless effusion of blood," he added, still
more gravely.
"Your war on women has begun, then?"
"I am obeying orders--no more, no less."
"I congratulate you on your luck or your good judgment always to be on hand
when disagreeable duties are to be done."
Chad flushed.
"Won't you take the flag down?"
"No, make your attack. You will have one of your usual victories--with
overwhelming numbers--and it will be safe and bloodless. There are only two
negroes defending this garrison. They will not fight, nor will we."
"Won't you take the flag down?"
"No!"
Chad lifted his cap and wheeled. The Colonel was watching at the gate.
"Well, sir" he asked, frowning.
"I shall need help, sir, to take that flag down," said Chad.
"What do you mean, sir?"
"A woman is defending it."
"What!" shouted the Colonel.
"That is my sister, Colonel," said Harry Dean. The Colonel smiled and then
grew grave.
"You should warn her not to provoke the authorities. The Government is
advising very strict measures now with rebel sympathizers." Then he smiled
again.
"Fours! Left wheel! Halt! Present--sabres!"
A line of sabres flashed in the sun, and Margaret, not understanding, snatched
the flag from the fence and waved it back in answer. The Colonel laughed
aloud. The column moved on, and each captain, following, caught the humor of
the situation and each company flashed its sabres as it went by, while
Margaret stood motionless.
In the rear rode those two unarmed prisoners. She could see now that their
uniforms were gray and she knew that they were prisoners, but she little
dreamed that they were her brother Dan and Rebel Jerry Dillon, nor did Chad
Buford or Harry Dean dream of the purpose for which, just at that time, they
were being brought back to Lexington. Perhaps one man who saw them did know:
for Jerome Conners, from the woods opposite, watched the prisoners ride by
with a malicious smile that nothing but impending danger to an enemy could
ever bring to his face; and with the same smile he watched Margaret go slowly
back to the house, while her flag still fluttered from the stile.
The high tide of Confederate hopes was fast receding now. The army of the
Potomac, after Antietam, which overthrew the first Confederate aggressive
campaign at the East, was retreating into its Southern stronghold, as was the
army of the West after Bragg's abandonment of Mumfordsville, and the rebel
retirement had given the provost-marshals in Kentucky full sway. Two hundred
Southern sympathizers, under arrest, had been sent into exile north of the
Ohio, and large sums of money were levied for guerilla outrages here and
there--a heavy sum falling on Major Buford for a vicious murder done in his
neighborhood by Daws Dillon and his band on the night of the capture of Daniel
Dean and Rebel Jerry. The Major paid the levy with the first mortgage he had
ever given in his life, and straightway Jerome Conners, who had been dealing
in mules and other Government supplies, took an attitude that was little short
of insolence toward his old master, whose farm was passing into the overseer's
clutches at last. Only two nights before, another band of guerillas had burned
a farm-house, killed a Unionist, and fled to the hills before the incoming
Yankees, and the Kentucky Commandant had sworn vengeance after the old Mosaic
way on victims already within his power.
That night Chad and Harry were summoned before General Ward. They found him
seated with his chin in his hand, looking out the window at the moonlit
campus. Without moving, he held out a dirty piece of paper to Chad.
"Read that," he said.
"YOU HAVE KETCHED TWO OF MY MEN AND I HEAR AS HOW YOU MEAN TO HANG 'EM. IF
YOU
HANG THEM TWO MEN, I'M A-GOIN' TO HANG EVERY MAN OF YOURS I CAN GIT MY
HANDS
ON.
DAWS DILLON--Captain.
Chad gave a low laugh and Harry smiled, but the General kept grave.
"You know, of course, that your brother belongs to Morgan's command?"
"I do, sir," said Harry, wonderingly.
"Do you know that his companion--the man Dillon--Jerry Dillon--does?"
"I do not, sir."
"They were captured by a squad that was fighting Daws Dillon. This Jerry
Dillon has the same name and you found the two together at General Dean's."
"But they had both just left General Morgan's command," said Harry,
indignantly.
"That may be true, but this Daws Dillon has sent a similar message to the
Commandant, and he has just been in here again and committed two wanton
outrages night before last. The Commandant is enraged and has issued orders
for stern retaliation."
"It's a trick of Daws Dillon," said Chad, hotly, "an infamous trick. He hates
his Cousin Jerry, he hates me, and he hates the Deans, because they were
friends of mine." General Ward looked troubled.
"The Commandant says he has been positively informed that both the men joined
Daws Dillon in the fight that night. He has issued orders that not only every
guerilla captured shall be hung, but that, whenever a Union citizen has been
killed by one of them, four of such marauders are to be taken to the spot and
shot in retaliation. It is the only means left, he says."
There was a long silence. The faces of both the lads had turned white as each
saw the drift of the General's meaning, and Harry strode forward to his desk.
"Do you mean to say, General Ward--"
The General wheeled in his chair and pointed silently to an order that lay on
the desk, and as Harry started to read it, his voice broke. Daniel Dean and
Rebel Jerry were to be shot next morning at sunrise.
. . . . . .
The General spoke very kindly to Harry.
"I have known this all day, but I did not wish to tell you until I had done
everything I could. I did not think it would be necessary to tell you at all,
for I thought there would be no trouble. I telegraphed the Commandant,
but"--he turned again to the window--"I have not been able to get them a trial
by court-martial, or even a stay in the execution. You'd better go see your
brother--he knows now--and you'd better send word to your mother and sister."
Harry shook his head. His face was so drawn and ghastly as he stood leaning
heavily against the table that Chad moved unconsciously to his side.
"Where is the Commandant?" he asked.
"In Frankfort," said the General. Chad's eyes kindled.
"Will you let me go see him to-night?"
"Certainly, and I will give you a message to him. Perhaps you can yet save the
boy, but there is no chance for the man Dillon." The General took up a pen.
Harry seemed to sway as he turned to go, and Chad put one arm around him and
went with him to the door.
"There have been some surprising desertions from the Confederate ranks," said
the General, as he wrote. "That's the trouble." he looked at his watch as he
handed the message over his shoulder to Chad. "You have ten hours before
sunrise and it is nearly sixty miles there and back If you are not here with a
stay of execution both will be shot. Do you think that you can make it? Of
course you need not bring the message back yourself. You can get the
Commandant to telegraph--" The slam of a door interrupted him--Chad was gone.
Harry was holding Dixie's bridle when he reached the street and Chad swung
into the saddle.
"Don't tell them at home," he said. "I'll be back here on time, or I'll be
dead."
The two grasped hands. Harry nodded dumbly and Dixie's feet beat the rhythm of
her matchless gallop down the quiet street. The sensitive little mare seemed
to catch at once the spirit of her rider. Her haunches quivered. She tossed
her head and champed her bit, but not a pound did she pull as she settled into
an easy lope that told how well she knew that the ride before her was long and
hard. Out they went past the old cemetery, past the shaft to Clay rising from
it, silvered with moonlight, out where the picket fires gleamed and converging
on toward the Capital, unchallenged for the moon showed the blue of Chad's
uniform and his face gave sign that no trivial business, that night, was his.
Over quiet fields and into the aisles of sleeping woods beat that musical
rhythm ceaselessly, awakening drowsy birds by the wayside, making bridges
thunder, beating on and on up hill and down until picket fires shone on the
hills that guard the Capital. Through them, with but one challenge, Chad went,
down the big hill, past the Armory, and into the town--pulling panting Dixie
up before a wondering sentinel who guarded the Commandant's sleeping quarters.
"The Commandant is asleep."
"Wake him up," said Chad, sharply. A staff-officer appeared at the door in
answer to the sentinel's knock.
"What is your business?"
"A message from General Ward."
"The Commandant gave orders that he was not to be disturbed."
"He must be," said Chad. "It is a matter of life and death."
Above him a window was suddenly raised and the Commandant's own head was
thrust out.
"Stop that noise," he thundered. Chad told his mission and the Commandant
straightway was furious.
"How dare General Ward broach that matter again? My orders are given and they
will not be changed." As he started to pull the window down, Chad cried:
"But, General--" and at the same time a voice called down the street:
"General!" Two men appeared under the gaslight--one was a sergeant and the
other a frightened negro.
"Here is a message, General."
The sash went down, a light appeared behind it, and soon the Commandant, in
trousers and slippers, was at the door. He read the note with a frown.
"Where did you get this?"
"A sojer come to my house out on the edge o' town, suh, and said he'd kill me
to-morrow if I didn't hand dis note to you pussonally."
The Commandant turned to Chad. Somehow his manner seemed suddenly changed.
"Do you know that these men belonged to Morgan's command?"
"I know that Daniel Dean did and that the man Dillon was with him when
captured."
Still frowning savagely, the Commandant turned inside to his desk and a moment
later the staff-officer brought out a telegram and gave it to Chad.
"You can take this to the telegraph office yourself. It is a stay of
execution."
"Thank you."
Chad drew a long breath of relief and gladness and patted Dixie on the neck as
he rode slowly toward the low building where he had missed the train on his
first trip to the Capital. The telegraph operator dashed to the door as Chad
drew up in front of it. He looked pale and excited.
"Send this telegram at once," said Chad.
The operator looked at it.
"Not in that direction to-night," he said, with a strained laugh, "the wires
are cut."
Chad almost reeled in his saddle--then the paper was whisked from the
astonished operator's hand and horse and rider clattered up the hill.
. . . . . .
At head-quarters the Commandant was handing the negro's note to a
staff-officer. It read:
"YOU HANG THOSE TWO MEN AT SUNRISE TO-MORROW, AND I'LL HANG YOU AT
SUNDOWN."
It was signed "John Morgan," and the signature was Morgan's own.
"I gave the order only last night. How could Morgan have heard of it so soon,
and how could he have got this note to me? Could he have come back?"
"Impossible," said the staff-officer. "He wouldn't dare come back now."
The Commandant shook his head doubtfully, and just then there was a knock at
the door and the operator, still pale and excited, spoke his message:
"General, the wires are cut."
The two officers stared at each other in silence.
. . . . . .
Twenty-seven miles to go and less than three hours before sunrise. There was a
race yet for the life of Daniel Dean. The gallant little mare could cover the
stretch with nearly an hour to spare, and Chad, thrilled in every nerve, but
with calm confidence, raced against the coming dawn.
"The wires are cut."
Who had cut them and where and when and why? No matter--Chad had the paper in
his pocket that would save two lives and he would be on time even if Dixie
broke her noble heart, but he could not get the words out of his brain--even
Dixie's hoofs beat them out ceaselessly:
"The wires are cut--the wires are cut!"
The mystery would have been clear, had Chad known the message that lay on the
Commandant's desk back at the Capital, for the boy knew Morgan, and that
Morgan's lips never opened for an idle threat. He would have ridden just as
hard, had he known, but a different purpose would have been his.
An hour more and there was still no light in the East. An hour more and one
red streak had shot upward; then ahead of him gleamed a picket fire --a fire
that seemed farther from town than any post he had seen on his way down to the
Capital --but he galloped on. Within fifty yards a cry came:
"Halt! Who comes there?"
"Friend," he shouted, reining in. A bullet whizzed past his head as he pulled
up outside the edge of the fire and Chad shouted indignantly:
"Don't shoot, you fool! I have a message for General Ward!"
"Oh! All right! Come on!" said the sentinel, but his hesitation and the tone
of his voice made the boy alert with suspicion. The other pickets about the
fire had risen and grasped their muskets. The wind flared the flames just then
and in the leaping light Chad saw that their uniforms were gray.
The boy almost gasped. There was need for quick thought and quick action now.
"Lower that blunderbuss," he called out, jestingly, and kicking loose from one
stirrup, he touched Dixie with the spur and pulled her up with an impatient
"Whoa," as though he were trying to replace his foot.
"You come on!" said the sentinel, but he dropped his musket to the hollow of
his arm, and, before he could throw it to his shoulder again, fire flashed
under Dixie's feet and the astonished rebel saw horse and rider rise over the
pike-fence. His bullet went overhead as Dixie landed on the other side, and
the pickets at the fire joined in a fusillade at the dark shapes speeding
across the bluegrass field. A moment later Chad's mocking yell rang from the
edge of the woods beyond and the disgusted sentinel split the night with
oaths.
"That beats the devil. We never touched him I swear, I believe that hoss had
wings."
Morgan! The flash of that name across his brain cleared the mystery for Chad
like magic. Nobody but Morgan and his daredevils could rise out of the ground
like that in the very midst of enemies when they were supposed to be hundreds
of mlles away in Tennessee. Morgan had cut those wires. Morgan had every road
around Lexington guarded, no doubt, and was at that hour hemming in Chad's
unsuspicious regiment, whose camp was on the other side of town, and unless he
could give warning, Morgan would drop like a thunderbolt on it, asleep. He
must circle the town now to get around the rebel posts, and that meant several
miles more for Dixie.
He stopped and reached down to feel the little mare's flanks. Dixie drew a
long breath and dropped her muzzle to tear up a rich mouthful of bluegrass.
"Oh, you beauty!" said the boy, "you wonder!" And on he went, through woodland
and field, over gully, log, and fence, bullets ringing after him from nearly
every road he crossed.
Morgan was near. In disguise, when Bragg retreated, he had got permission to
leave Kentucky in his own way. That meant wheeling and making straight back to
Lexington to surprise the Fourth Ohio Cavalry; representing himself on the
way, one night, as his old enemy Wolford, and being guided a short cut through
the edge of the Bluegrass by an ardent admirer of the Yankee Colonel--the said
admirer giving Morgan the worst tirade possible, meanwhile, and nearly
tumbling from his horse when Morgan told him who he was and sarcastically
advised him to make sure next time to whom he paid his compliments.
So that while Chad, with the precious message under his jacket, and Dixie were
lightly thundering along the road, Morgan's Men were gobbling up pickets
around Lexington and making ready for an attack on the sleeping camp at dawn.
The dawn was nearly breaking now, and Harry Dean was pacing to and fro before
the old CourtHouse where Dan and Rebel Jerry lay under guard --pacing to and
fro and waiting for his mother and sister to come to say the last good-by to
the boy--for Harry had given up hope and had sent for them. At that very hour
Richard Hunt was leading his regiment around the Ashland woods where the enemy
lay; another regiment was taking its place between the camp and the town, and
gray figures were slipping noiselessly on the provost-guard that watched the
rebel prisoners who were waiting for death at sunrise. As the dawn broke, the
dash came, and Harry Dean was sick at heart as he sharply rallied the startled
guard to prevent the rescue of his own brother and straightway delirious with
joy when he saw the gray mass sweeping on him and knew that he would fail. A
few shots rang out; the far rattle of musketry rose between the camp and town;
the thunder of the "Bull Pups" saluted the coming light, and Dan and Rebel
Jerry had suddenly--instead of death--life, liberty, arms, a horse each, and
the sudden pursuit of happiness in a wild dash toward the Yankee camp, while
in a dew-drenched meadow two miles away Chad Buford drew Dixie in to listen.
The fight was on.
If the rebels won, Dan Dean would be safe; if the Yankees--then there would
still be need of him and the paper over his heart. He was too late to warn,
but not, maybe, to fight--so he galloped on.
But the end came as he galloped. The amazed Fourth Ohio threw down its arms at
once, and Richard Hunt and his men, as they sat on their horses outside the
camp picking up stragglers, saw a lone scout coming at a gallop across the
still, gray fields. His horse was black and his uniform was blue, but he came
straight on, apparently not seeing the rebels behind the ragged hedge along
the road. When within thirty yards, Richard Hunt rode through a roadside gate
to meet him and saluted.
"You are my prisoner," he said, courteously.
The Yankee never stopped, but wheeled, almost brushing the hedge as he turned.
"Prisoner--hell!" he said, clearly, and like a bird was skimming away while
the men behind the hedge, paralyzed by his daring, fired not a shot. Only Dan
Dean started through the gate in pursuit.
"I want him," he said, savagely.
"Who's that?" asked Morgan, who had ridden up.
"That's a Yankee," laughed Colonel Hunt.
"Why didn't you shoot him?" The Colonel laughed again.
"I don't know," he said, looking around at his men, who, too, were smiling.
"That's the fellow who gave us so much trouble in the Green River Country,"
said a soldier. "It's Chad Buford."
"Well, I'm glad we didn't shoot him," said Colonel Hunt, thinking of Margaret.
That was not the way he liked to dispose of a rival.
"Dan will catch him," said an officer. "He wants him bad, and I don't wonder."
Just then Chad lifted Dixie over a fence.
"Not much," said Morgan. "I'd rather you'd shot him than that horse."
Dan was gaining now, and Chad, in the middle of the field beyond the fence,
turned his head and saw the lone rebel in pursuit. Deliberately he pulled
weary Dixie in, faced about, and waited. He drew his pistol, raised it, saw
that the rebel was Daniel Dean, and dropped it again to his side. Verily the
fortune of that war was strange. Dan's horse refused the fence and the boy, in
a rage, lifted his pistol and fired. Again Chad raised his own pistol and
again he lowered it just as Dan fired again. This time Chad lurched in his
saddle, but recovering himself, turned and galloped slowly away, while
Dan--his pistol hanging at his side--stared after him, and the wondering
rebels behind the hedge stared hard at Dan.
. . . . . .
All was over. The Fourth Ohio Cavalry was in rebel hands, and a few minutes
later Dan rode with General Morgan and Colonel Hunt toward the Yankee camp.
There had been many blunders in the fight. Regiments had fired into each other
in the confusion and the "Bull Pups" had kept on pounding the Yankee camp even
while the rebels were taking possession of it. On the way they met Renfrew,
the Silent, in his brilliant Zouave jacket.
"Colonel," he said, indignantly--and it was the first time many had ever heard
him open his lips --"some officer over there deliberately fired twice at me,
though I was holding my arms over my head."
"It was dark," said Colonel Hunt, soothingly. "He didn't know you."
"Ah, Colonel, he might not have known me-- but he must have known this
jacket."
On the outskirts of one group of prisoners was a tall, slender young
lieutenant with a streak of blood across one cheek. Dan pulled in his horse
and the two met each other's eyes silently. Dan threw himself from his horse.
"Are you hurt, Harry?"
"It's nothing--but you've got me, Dan."
"Why, Harry!" said Morgan. "Is that you? You are paroled, my boy," he added,
kindly. "Go home and stay until you are exchanged."
So, Harry, as a prisoner, did what he had not done before--he went home
immediately. And home with him went Dan and Colonel Hunt, while they could,
for the Yankees would soon be after them from the north, east, south and west.
Behind them trotted Rebel Jerry. On the edge of town they saw a negro lashing
a pair of horses along the turnpike toward them. Two white faced women were
seated in a carriage behind him, and in a moment Dan was in the arms of his
mother and sister and both women were looking, through tears, their speechless
gratitude to Richard Hunt.
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