It was barely twelve o'clock when we started on our way. Ned rode the horse he had provided in anticipation of coming to me. The clothes had been done up into a compact roll, with the cloak outside, in order to look as much like a rolled-up blanket as possible, and I carried them like a huge rag baby on the saddle in front of me. I did not dare either trust them to Ned or fasten them to my saddle. I might have to part with either, or both negro and horse on any sudden emergency, but I was determined to hold onto and make use of my disguise unless death or capture prevented me.
For obvious reasons we avoided all well-traveled roads and made our way through fields, along lanes, and as much as possible in the shelter of the timber. Our route was through a well-settled country until we neared the river. We crossed it by a ford that was little known and seldom used, but at that time, I, like the illustrious Susan, did not care for a crowd.
CHAPTER IX.
It was nearly six o'clock when we finally reached the point where I thought I could safely commence my retrograde movement. As soon as I would turn to the right, the division of Luce's army I wanted to reach would lay directly between the place I would be then and the Potomac. During the last of our ride I had, by a bold move or two, managed to get very definite knowledge of the disposition of the Rebel troops in the vicinity, and by a lucky accident, during an enforced separation, Ned had discovered almost to a certainty that Captain DeLacy was where I had thought him. We had also in the middle of the afternoon each secured a fresh horse, and by far greater good fortune than I had dared hope for, they were fine, un-jaded animals. That we took them without leave or license troubled us not a bit.
Looking back now, it seems strange that we were able to make our way as rapidly as we did through that section, filled as it was with troops, without being taken prisoner, scientifically bushwhacked, or picked off by a sharpshooter.
A number of times we did barely escape encounters which would have cost us dear. About the middle of the afternoon we had come near running into a body of the Rebel troops. We were on a hill not far from a road running directly northwest, when through an opening in the trees there became visible a cloud of dust, which meant either sheep or Rebels. Taking into consideration time, place and circumstances, I knew the chances were that it meant Rebels. Dismounting I ordered Ned to take the horses and himself into concealment in an adjacent ravine, and I made my way to a large tree I had noticed for some time. It had been used by one side or the other as a signal station, and I thought it possible that it commanded a good view of the road along which the dust was advancing. It did, and I soon felt I was up a tree mentally, as well as physically.
The extent of the knowledge I gained was that a move of some kind was on foot, which I did not understand. I was near enough to have thrown a stone down on the moving column, and I could recognize General Middlesworth riding with his staff. Why he was angling away from the main part of Luce's army and toward the Potomac puzzled me, and at a time when I did not care to solve any more enigmas than absolutely necessary. What General Middlesworth's move meant occupied my thoughts off and on all afternoon, as none of the intelligence I managed to gather could be made to explain it, and I determined to find out all about it when in the Rebel camp if possible.