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Page 45
"She nodded at him coolly. 'All right. Shut the door, Uncle Ebenezer,'
said she, and he went out and shut it.
"And before I could say Jack Robinson she was dragging me into the next
room, and pushing me out of a door at the back.
"'Go--hurry up--oh, go!' she begged. 'I won't let them take you.'
"Well, I didn't like to leave her suddenly like that, so I said, said I:
'What's the hurry? I want to tell you something.'
"'_No_,' she shot at me. 'You can't. Go--won't you, please go?' Then I
picked up a little hand and hold it against my coat. I knew by now just
how she would catch her breath when I did it."
At about this point the General forgot me. Such good comrades we were
that my presence did not trouble him, but as for telling the story to
me, that was past--he was living it over, to himself alone, with every
nerve in action.
"'Look here,' said I, 'I don't believe a thing like this ever happened
on the globe before, but this has. It's so--I love you, and I believe
you love me, and I'm not going till you tell me so.'
"By that time she was in a fit. 'They'll be here in two minutes; they're
Confederate officers. Oh, and you mustn't cross at Kelly's Ford--take
the ford above it'--and she thumped me excitedly with the hand I held.
I laughed, and she burst out again: 'They'll take you--oh, please go!'
"'Tell me, then,' said I, and she stopped half a second, and gasped
again, and looked up in my eyes and said it. 'I love you,' said she. And
she meant it.
"'Give me a kiss,' said I, and I leaned close to her, but she pulled
away.
"'Oh, no--oh, please go now,' she begged.
"'All right,' said I, 'but you don't know what you're missing,' and I
slid out of the back door at the second the Southerners came in at the
front.
"There were bushes back there, and I crawled behind them and looked
through into the window, and what do you suppose I saw? I saw the
biggest and best-looking man of the three walk up to the girl who'd just
told me she loved me, and I saw her put up her face and give him the
kiss she wouldn't give me. Well, I went smashing down to the woods,
making such a rumpus that if those officers had been half awake they'd
have been after me twice over. I was so maddened at the sight of that
kiss that I didn't realize what I was doing or that I was endangering
the lives of my men. 'Of course,' said I to myself, 'it's her brother or
her cousin,' but I knew it was a hundred to one that it wasn't, and I
was in a mighty bad temper.
"I got my men away from the neighborhood quietly, and we rode pretty
cautiously all that afternoon, I knew the road leading to Kelly's Ford,
and I bore to the north, away from there, for I trusted the girl and
believed I'd be safe if I followed her orders. She'd saved my life twice
that day, so I had reason to trust her. But all the time as I jogged
along I was wondering about that man, and wondering what the dickens she
was up to, anyway, and why she was travelling in the same direction that
I was, and where she was going--and over and over I wondered if I'd over
see her again. I felt sure I would, though--I couldn't imagine not
seeing her, after what she'd said. I didn't even know her name, except
that the old negro had called her 'Miss Lindy.' I said that a lot of
times to myself as I rode, with the men's bits jingling at my buck and
their horses' hoofs thud-thudding. 'Lindy--Miss Lindy--Linda--my
Linda--I said it half aloud. It kept first-rate time to the
hoof-beats--'Lindy--Miss Lindy.'
"I wondered, too, why she wouldn't let me cross the Rappahannock by
Kelly's Ford, for I had reason to think there'd be a Union post on the
east side of the river there, but there was a sense of brains and
capability about the girl, as well as charm--in fact, that's likely to
be a large part of any real charm--and so I trusted to her.
[Illustration: "I got behind a turn and fired as a man came on alone."]
"Well, late in the afternoon we were trotting along, feeling pretty
secure. I'd left the Kelly's Ford road at the last turn, and was
beginning to think that we ought to be within a few miles of the river,
when all of a sudden, coming out of some woods into a small clearing
with a farmhouse about the centre of it, we rode on a strong outpost of
the enemy, infantry and cavalry both. We were in the open before I saw
them, so there was nothing to do but make a dash for it and rush past
the cabin before they could reach their arms, and we drew our revolvers
and put the spurs in deep and flew past with a fire that settled some
of them. But a surprise of this sort doesn't last long, and it was only
a few minutes before they were after us--and with fresh mounts. Then it
was a horse-race for the river, and I wasn't certain of the roads.
However, I knew a trick or two about this business, and I was sure some
of the pursuers would forge ahead; so three times I got behind a turn
and fired as a man came on alone. I dismounted several that way. This
relieved the strain enough so that I got within sight of the river with
all my men. It was a quarter of a mile away when I saw it, and at that
point the road split, and which branch led to the ford for the life of
me I didn't know. There wasn't time for meditation, however, so I shot
down the turn to the left, on the gamble, and sure enough there was the
ford--only it wasn't any ford. The Rappahannock was full to the banks
and perhaps two hundred yards across. The Confederates were within
rifle-shot, so there were exactly two things to do--surrender or swim. I
gave my men the choice--to follow me or be captured--and I plunged in,
without any of them."
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