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THH WAR LIBRARY.
; 3
backward several steps as if shot, then, re-
covering herself, he made for cover.
In the next second Uarla understood what
it meant.
Forward suddenly came a number of Con-
federate soldiers. t
A remnant of Ewell’s corps that had no
long since arrived, and began to expand
from ridge to ridge as they advanced toward
Gettysburg.
Sight of the sutler wagon was welcome to
them at that time with its store of luxuries
such as are in demand among soldiers; and
they had not even stopped to inquire
whether it was the property of a Yank, for
sticking out at the tail-board, unfortunately
for Dullam, was a large bunting of stars and
stripes. .
While some were busy pillaging the wagon
others had started to find the owner, and at
sight of him, one of the. more brutal had
discharged his musket at the approaching
sutler.
Uarla awaited the advance of the Confed-
erates calmly.
It was at this juncture that the battery of
Hall began the thunder of an increasing
action, and the musketry of. Meredith’s men
began belching their volleys into the Con-
federate’s right below the Chambersburg
The vicinity of the opening incident of our
story was rapidly filling with the onsweep-
ing columus of gray, and fast was the battle
of Willoughby Run getting under way.
The gray host had found a stern front
awaiting them. .
* Hello, sis!” cried one of the Johnnies, as
he came on ahead of his companions.
“What're you doin’ here? Air youa Yank?
We jest sent a pill into your old man, I guess,
Wat air you an’ he doin’ round here, say?”
Uarla did something which very much
surprised the soldier.
Quietly she drew a revolver from her bo-
som and proceeded to examine it, to see that
there should be no miss-fire if she pulled
trigger on the loud mouthed fellow who ad-
dressed her.
“What air you going to do with that pis-
tol, sis ?’””
“Blow your brains out, if it becomes
necessary.’’
“You don’t mean it?” in huge surprise.
“ e.” .
And she asked :
“ Have you killed my father?”
“Was that Yank your father?”
*Do you know who he was, my valiant
knight?”
“F No.”
“Then I'll tell you. The man you hayo
shot was Dorn Dullam, the most valuable
gatherer of news for General Lee sinee he
entered Pennsylvania. If General Lee hears
of this, you will find that it will cost you
something.”
“But there was a Yankee flag into his
} ’
waggin—”
“And [tell you that Dorn Dullam was a
spy for your army in the Federal lines, in
the guise of a sutler.”
The soldiers, who were really straggling—
shirking duty would be the better word—
had found in the wagon a small barrel
labeled alcohol, for medicinal use.
The head was broken in immediately, and
then ensued an orgie over the property of
the man _ they had, as they thought, so
deliberately killed that they nfight the more
easily rob him.
The sight seemed to arouse an uncontrolla-
ble anger in the bosom of the girl.
Suddenly cocking her revolver, she dug
the spur into the side of her horse and dash-
ed forward, discharging the weapon into
the midst of the rioters.
Crack, crack! spoke the gleaming tube,
though its sound was nearly drowned by the
din of the increasing conflict off at right and
left, and which seemed to be spreading and
drawing closer with every passing moment.
Whiz, whiz! the little bullets.
And yells that followed the shots told
that she was firing in earnest to hit and to
kill.
A girl of nerve was Uarla Dullam.
So wholly unexpected was her action, and
so swiftly bounded the faithful animal she
rode, that she had sent wounds and disma
into theassembled Johnnies and was speed~
ing safely away ere they could make a
movement to intercept her or retaliate.
Then in their mingled curses was a volley
from their guns after the receding figure.
But the slugs hummed harmlessly, for
around another bend in that road over the
range she disappeared.
ever had veteran cavalryman performed
.adeed more neatly, : ,
"2
On the ground lay three of the Confeder-
ates—one of them dead outright, and the
other two howling a string of invectives
wrought from sinarting wounds.
A few started in pursuit.
But therapid clatter of horse-hoofs told
them that they could not overtake her.
n, on she galloped, going further and
further in the rear of Rhodes’ division.
Her destination was 2 hut at the fork from
Willoughby Run.
“They did not kill Dorn Dullam,” she
murmured, as she urged the horse onward.
** And Dorn Dullam must not die now, not
die before Ihave learned the mystery that
is between him and that white-haired sol-
dier who calls himself Captain Raymond.”
CHAPTER III.
A TERRIBLE SIGHT.
Louder was the din in the plain between
the ridges.
Musket and great gun both were heaving
theiriron and lead-laden breaths from foe
to fee.
Billows of smoke were rising or floating
through the adjacent dells, as the grim_ bri-
gade of Mississippians pushed onward in the
tace of heavy fire, to flank the brigade of
Cutler—on, with shot and shout, while the
Confederate brigade of Archer was coming
likea horde of yelling demons to cross the
run. .
Then the cheers of the Second Wisconsin
regiment arose on Archer's flank, and
then—
A new, 2 deadly roar, as the savage com-
batants came together ut the skirt of the
woods.
Brave Reynolds watched the gallant
charge that was to result in the defeat and
capture of Arthur; and there, in the morn-
ning’s carnage, while his lips were openin
thesmile of satisfaction at the promise of the
movement. he had so carefully directed in
person, suddenly a shot struek him,
A 1 shot, for Reynolds breathed no
more.
Hotter grew the work of death.
Hall's battery was booming on unsupport-
ed, for Cutler, outflanked, wis retiring.
Onward were sweeping the thirsty enemy
who were confident of crushing out the
army of blue before them.
To and _ fro, amid shot and steel, amid
smoke and roar, here massed and moved the
opposing fronts.
The air of that July was filling with a
warmer breath, filling with shrieks and the
burst of guns, the yells, the cheers, the un-
heard groans of wounded and dying men.
Now forward ata critical time the regi-
ments of New York and Wisconsin.
Forward into the maelstrom of death and
in.
The front of the blue and the gray was ex-
panding.
Outward, to the right and the left of the
road, further stretched the aspect of the
conflict.
Fresh forces had arrived on both sides.
The musketry of the First corps began to
volley back at the artillery of the enemy
which then held them under a severe fire,
and like images of indestructibility they met
the booming artillery.
Though they perished in scores like
scythed wheat, there rung along the battle
array acry that said:
“Wo have come to stay !’”
But, hark!
Another sound.
Up from the extreme right of the Federal
army there burst the dissonance of fresher
guns, :
Guns that hurled death again into the sur-
prised army of the North.
Fresh troops in gray had come from the
direction of Carlisle.
Ewell was there.
Then began another scene of noise and
blood on the Musmasburg Road, where
Cutler, Baxterand Paul met the swarming
reziments of Carolinians,
While the battle raged—raged flercer as
the hours advanced—onward along that
course near the fork of Willoughby Run
galloped Uarla,
he had observed that the man who was
supposed to be her father could not be seri-
ous ¥ Wounded by the shot from the pillag-
ing band of Confederates, for he ran into
the woods and disappeared with an agility
that no badly hurt may could haye ex-
hibited. oes
There was not, therefore, at ey prehen-
sion in her mind regarding him?
Andasfor the wagon, with its st@tres, she
was really glad that it was now lost to Dorn
Dullam, for long had she despised the busi- nee
nes3 pursued by him, which brought her in
contact with an element of the army which
is naturally abhorant tothe refined tastes of
woman—the whisky drinking portion, whom
Dullam had managed to supply, despite the
rigorous orders to exclude the stuff from
the camps. : if
On, toward the hut, as has been said—:
little one-roomed affair near the verge of the
branching stream. . .
**Dorn Dullam must have seen the way I
have come,’’ were her thoughts. ** He will
follow me to the cabin of old Chloris.” _.
When she reached the cabin, it had all the
appearance of being entirely deserted. ‘
The windows were closed; the surround-
ingsjlooked asif everything had been left in
the moment ofa hasty flight. y
But though the windows were: closed,.
there was one that was not fastened.
“Strange that. Chloris should have run».
away,’’ she mused, as she halted her horse at-
lastand tied him to one of the rails of the~
broken down fence. ‘I heard her tell Dorn-
Dullam that she would never leave here--
abouts untilshe went with him. And there-
is now another thing—the mystery of the In—
timacy between Dorn Dullam and_ this:
woman, old Chloris, of whom I never heard
until we came into the vicinity of Gettys-
burg. Ah! here is a window that she has
neglected to fasten, when she left—that is,
if she has indeed left.”
Stepping to the window with its heavy
wooden and battened shutter, she reached to
pull the shutter aside to peer in, :
And asshe did so, she half recoiled, for it
was a remarkable sight which at once greet-
ed her. .
Because the windows, all save one, were
closed, the room within was in a gloom in
which it was scarcely possible to distinguish
more than the mere outline of things,
The secant light through this, however,
showed her a woman of about fifty years in
a terrible danger.
On the bare board flooring was a broad
plank.
Strapped down to the plank was the wom-
an’s form, in such a manner that she was
powerless to move.
Her feet projected slightly over the lower
end of the plank. °
Above her were threo savage looking men,
who glowered down like beasts that are
about to devour or rend in pieces, with the
worst possible expression of rage in their
ces,
Each had a cocked revolver in one hand.
Uarla had recoiled from the erack of the
shutter ere touching it, so great was her sur-
prise, and had not yet been observed. ‘
nthe hearthstone there had been kin-
dled a fire. The logs were crackling and
spitting.
The woman lay with her exposed foot
soles toward the fire and within a few feet
of it.
Rough voices that were sounding could be
heard dully by the watching girl.
“Now then, old woman, we'll give youa
last chance. Where is it?”
**Yas, whar’s the money at? Iseen aman
when I was a lookin’ in at that windy three ~
nights gone, give you a lot o’ gol’ pieces, an’
Iswore then ‘at I'd have’em. Whar air
they at, I say—come now.”
“Give it out,” chimed in the third ruffian,
with a coarse oath. “If you ain’t ina
mighty hurry about it, into the fire you go.
My pard saysa white-haired man in blue
soldier clo’es was here an’ giv’ peu the
money. An’ we're boun’ to haveit!”
‘““A white-haired man in blue — soldier
clothes,” repeated Uarla, in an undertone,
to herself, “Ah! that must be the mys-
terious Captain Raymond who has followed
me so persistently ever since that day at
Fredericksburg. What can there be’ be-
tween him and this old Chloris—hetween
whom and the man who asserts himself to
be ‘my father, there is also another mys-
tery.’
The woman inside was then replying to
the threateniug and swearin,; scoundrels
who were there to rob her,
“IfLThave money, it is not for you, you
curs! Taman old thing, itis true,and weak
in your brutal hands; but you will find that
what wy arms lack in strength is made up
in the toughness of my heart. I will not
give up that which is my own, and not for
robbers.”
h “ We'll find away to make you, then, you
ag. .
“Yes, yes,’”’ the others cried in chorus.
Two of the desperadoes stooped and gare
the plank a shove nenrer to the fire,
Uarla saw that they had removed her