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THE WAR LIBRARY
‘
“Itisafalse alarm,’’ the men said to one
another, at length.
“But the pistol shot?”
*““Somebo was up yonder when it was
fired—that’s certain, Carl. It is probable
that that person killed the picket.”
The mountain scout did not reply.
The Unionists crouched or stood among
the shadowsin front of the hut, momentari-
ly expecting an attack.
If the pistol shot had served for a signal,
the enemy was slow to take advantage of it
ifthe dry leaves in the bridle paths were
criterions for judgment.
“This mystery must be solved in some
manner,” suddenly exclaimed the Union
scout. ‘Come, Weldon, you and I.”
Ths man called Weldon advanced to the
scout’s side.
He was a tall and resolute looking young
man, of three-and-twenty, with the eye of
an eagle and the strength of a lion.
“Tf there is danger, I will signal you,”
Carl said, in low tones, to his men. “If I
should advise you to fly, you will know
where to go. Don’t bother yourselves about
us. Weldon andI are ableto take care of
ourselves. Kate will go with you.”
As Mountain Carl turned to depart, his
hand stole to the girl’s waist, and for a
second his lips were murmuring something
at her ear.
Then the two men disappeared, and the
little band of Unionists were without a
leader?
What! without a leader?
We shall see.
Ten minutes later Mountain Carl and his
eompanion found themselves on a lonely
ath not far from, but nearly one hundred
Reet above the cabin.
“Hark!” ejaculated the scout, touching
Weldon’sarm. “IfI am not mistaken, we
are near a body of guerrillas.”
It is needless to say that the two men lis-
tened with bated breath.
They crouched like specters in the gloom,
with their revolvers cocked, ready for in-
stant service.
The sharp ears of the loyal scout had
caught the hum of voices, and he doubted
not that they had approached to within a
few yards of a body of the euemy, probably
apart of theforce by which the cabin was
supposed to be surrounded. .
Rtter listening awhile, without being able
to distinguish any words, the pair crept for-
ward again.
They proceeded inch by inch with every
sense on the alert.
“That picket didn’t get far, major,” sud-
denly said a gruff voice. ‘I missed my cal-
culations when I jumped upon him, but I
: bbed him all the same. e gods! what a
ussle we had; but I was forced to knife
him, though I wanted to capture him ac-
cordin’ to instructions. He gasped, fell,
then got up again, and went off like a deer
willdo sometimes when mortally wounded.
I didn’t foller him because I know he fell
dead a little piece off.”
It was a guerrilla’s report of what he had
done.
George! Dick, I wish you had cap-
tured the fellow,’ exclaimed the man to
whom the report had been made. ‘ We've
made two blunders to-night. Your failure
to take the picket alive was one, the other
was the accidental discharge of Ferguson’s
pistol. It must have warned every Unionist
within a mile of here. Curse it! I was
born to such infernal luck, I guess.”’
Mountain Carl and his comrade heard the
foregoing words with much distinctness.
If the sky had not been obscured over-
head, they could have seen the speakers,
“T’ve heard enough,” muttered the scout,
“Major Ferguson and his devils are here.
We may not be surrounded yet. Theavyenue
of escape may still be open. I will tell the
boys.”
fle glided from Weldon’s side, and a min-
ute later the cry of the mountain night-
hawk, thrice repeated at_natural intervals,
cut the frosty air, and died away in the little
valleys below.”
Then he came back and crouched once
more at Weldon’s side.
“Did they suspicion anything, Weldon?”
“T think not. I nope
The young Unionis paused abruptly, for
startling words had fallen from the lips of
one of the unseen men of Ferguson's band.
“That was no hawk, boys!’ heexclaimed.
“They can’t fool me in that manner. Didn't
Ihear that call more’n_ once last summer
when we were chasing Mountain Carl from
pillar to post? That is his old call. The
game is nearer than.we think. You want
the Unionist, major.
go to work.”
A smile flitted across the scout’s face.
“A man is never hanged before. he’s
caught, eh, Weldon?” he said. “I think 1
recognize the voice that has just given me
away, but never mind, we’ll attend to its
possessor one of these days.”’
The man’s explanation of the hawk-cries
burst upon Ferguson’s mind like a startling
revelation.
The two Unionists heard the oath that fell
from his lips.
‘*Mountain Carl near?” he cried. ‘I would
sooner see him than see Hood in Nashville.
You men, who know this country, lead the
way.
We can get him if we
Mountain Carl sprung up and darted away
followed by Weldon, who kept at his heels.
They went down a bridle-path which led
to the valley below, but they had not pro-
ceeded far when they halt suddenly and
recoiled.
‘* More rebels!”’ said the scout.
At the same time a loud voice in their
front rang out:
‘“*Who comes there?”
The Unionists made no reply.
** Boys, we have Yankees in our front.
Aim low—fire!”
The flash that lit up the defile almost
blinded the two men for a moment; but
having taken advantage of the words, “aim
1 y throwing themselves on the ground.
they were not harmed—the bullets of the
guerrillas whistled bloodlessly over their
eads.
“Now, charge! Hurrah for the Confeder-
acy in Tennessee!”’
he following moment the guerrillas who
were mount ashed down the pass, but
Carl and Weldon threw themselves out of
their way, and the troopers thundered by at
full speed.
It was a narrow escape!
‘“*Hold on!’ said Weldon, as the scout was
about to spring back into the path. ‘“ An-
other band of men willsoon be here. Char-
ley was not mistaken when he said that the
mountains were full of guerrillas to-night.”
It was true that more horsemen were ap-
proaching from the direction opposite to
he one taken by the charging squad. The
Unionists could hear the clinking? of their
accouterments, and their rough voices.
“We've got here too late!” exclaimed the
leader of the new band, as the entire detach-
ment halted so near the Unionists that the
latter could see the collective outlines of
men and steeds. ‘‘ What's the use of hunt-
ing Ferguson any longer? We might as well
go on with the hemp stretching. We'll have
work of another kind to do to-morrow.”
“* Yes, pull up the prisoners and let us turn
back.”
Other voices seconded this proposition,
and the man who had first spoken gave
orders for a torch to be lighted so they could
see what they were doing.
“Those devils are going to string up some
Union men, Weldon,” Mountain Car said,
all the lion in his nature aroused by the
thought. ‘I: you will stand by me they
shall never commit the deed. The rope has
worked woe enough in Tennessee. God for-
bid that another Unionist should perish in
the noose.”
“IT am with you, Carl,’ was the reply.
“We serve our country when we rescue a
loyal man or woman from rebel hands.”
At that instant a match flickered down
the pass, then a growing flame leaped up,
and presently a flaring torch revealed a
scene that made the loyal scouts start.
About sixty feet away were five-and-
twenty Toughly dressed and flerce-looking
men. Some satin their saddles while others
stood on the ground under a tree over whose
largest limb two ropes had been thrown.
Some of the men wore the semblance of a
grayish uniform, but the greater number
were clad in garments more to their liking.
All were armed with carbinesand revolvers,
and afew carried sabers in addition to their
complement of shooting weapons.
“Look! do you see that man yonder,
Carl?” suddenly asked Weldon as he pointed
from their retreat toward the guerrilla cap-
ain.
.“*Tsee him; it is Captain Busby!”
““The man who hung my brother because
he would not betray my hiding place,”
grated Weldon, as his eyes blazed and his
ands clinched. ‘‘He’s the devil I have
longed to encounter ever since that accursed
night. I sent him word that I would get
even one of these times, Thank'Heaven! that
time has come!”
While the tall scout was giving vent to his
vengeance, Mountain Carl was searching the
guerrilla band for the prisoners for whom
the ropes were intended. .
“Great heavens! Webster and Noah!”
he suddenly exclaimed.
oP
**Look and see.”
Weldon’s face grew pale when he saw the
two men who had been led to the dangling
cords.
The torch established their identity. .
They were the two hunted Unionists who
had made their escape from Kate King-
ford’s cabin! -
In some manner, not known to Mountain
Carl and his companion, the fugitives °
had fallen into Captain Busby's hands.
They might as well have fallen into a nest
of pythons.
he face of Webster was pale, but his
countenance was determination itself.
“The old man won’t falter now,” said
Mountain Carl. ‘ He has resolved that his
family shall not be disgraced by his death.”
‘“Noose them!’ roared the guerrilla cap-
tain at this moment. “We can’tlet them
pray all night. You’re ready, ain’t you,
major ?”’
“ A Union man is always ready,” was the
quick reply, as the speaker's eye encount-
ered the guerrilla’s triumphantglare. ‘‘ You
may hang from sunrise to sunset, but you
can't crush out loyalty in Tennessee. Cap-
tain Busby, I can’t speak for Noah here, but
Iam proud tosay, as one who said died by
the rope long ago, that I regret I have but
one life to give for my country.”
Brave man! .
“And I, sir,” said Noah, “leave behind
me the same regret. We will not live to see
the end of the struggle, but it will be a com-
plete vindication of the principles for which
we die.”
Busby turned his head with an oath.
“Pull ’em up!” he shouted to the man
who held the ropes. ‘ We'll give the moun-
ain buzzards a feast to-morrow.”
“Now!” whispered Mountain Carl to
Weldon. “It all has to be done ina min-
ute. I'll take the man with the torch.
Select your victim; I suppose he will be the
captain himself.”
“No; I have a different fate in store for
thatdemon. Were I to shoot him now, he
would not know by whose hand he died. I
am ready, Carl; I have picked out my
ma
n.
“Ready!” said the Union scout, stepping
out into the path. ‘We shoot and rush for-
ward to the rescue. ” .
The ropes were lifting the doomed Union-
ists from the ground when the monosyllabic
command dropped from Mountain Carl’s ,
lips.
The following instant the rescuers’ pistols
cracked. .
The torch-bearer dropped his light and
pitched forward dead, and one of the men
at the nearest rope reeled away shot through
the brain.
“Forward!” shouted Carl aloud, as though
addressing a body of men. ‘ Men of Ten-
nessee, the despoilers of your_homes are
before you. Do your duty! Hurrah for
the old flag!” .
Men sprung to their horses amid much
confusion as the two scouts dashed forward,
firing again and again into the writhing
mass.
“Shoot the prisoners!” yelled the guerrilla
captain, trying to bring order out of chaos.
“ though I commanded men, but——”
“You never did, devil!’ exclaimed a
voice, and the next instant a man sprung up
from the ground and grasped his_throat.
“fen would never beled by you! Ha! you
don’t know me, eh? Iam Weldon Drake!
A half suppressed ejaculation of horror
welled from the guerrilla’s throat as he was
jerked from the saddle.
His men had fied from the field, firmly be- |
lieving that they were attacked by an over-
whelming force of avenging Unionists—men
whose families they_had_ insulted, whose -
hearthstones they had rendered desolate. '
Meantime, Mountain Carl had rescued the
captives.
his had proved merely the work ofa
moment.
The flight of the guerrillas was genuine,
and their defeat had been complete.
Captain Busby found himself covered by
Weldon’s revolver.
His eye quailed before the glance of the
avenging brother. .
“Tm not going to hang you here, Captain
Busby,” said the young Tennessean. ‘* You
are but a mile from the cabin you have ren-
dered desolate. You have to swing from
the same limb to which you hanged my
!
‘
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