I had no idea of using the papers unless I should fail in all efforts to find Captain DeLacy. I told Ned not to refer to them in any way or to our encounter, while he should be separated from me, and impressed on him that he was not to get out of the buggy if he could help it, or leave the horses one moment unless dragged away by force. I regretted that we had run into the camp, for it took valuable time, and it did not make me feel any better about it to know that it had happened through my own carelessness. If I had been watching out, as I ought to have been, I would have noticed the fires in time to have avoided them by making a detour, and I believed that I could have gotten later the valuable bit of information the talkative officer had given me.
CHAPTER XI.
The encounter had one good result, however. It got us over our stage fright, as it were, and rather raised us up to the grand climax.
We had driven nearly three miles farther before we ran into the Rebel camp again. When we finally found ourselves making our way under guard to General Dare's headquarters, we were far more composed than we could possibly have been had we not already had some experience.
When stopped, I had insisted on being allowed to proceed, but as I expected and desired, the simple privilege of following my own way was denied me. My statements regarding my identity were received with incredulity. I insisted on the truth of my story, and I demanded that I be taken to headquarters at once. After some parley, my request was acceded to and a couple of soldiers took their places at the horses' heads and slowly led them forward, while a guard walked at the side of the buggy until we reached a cluster of tents pitched somewhat apart, in front of which stood four or five officers conversing.
The officer who had brought us in advanced to the group, and I could hear him reporting the circumstances of our arrest. A handsome subaltern came forward to assist me from the buggy, and I was soon answering the curtly-put inquiries of the middle aged officer to whom I had been conducted. I repeated my story. He questioned and cross-questioned me severely, but I was too entirely familiar with my ground to be caught tripping. I felt a good deal as if I were an actor in a play, and while I must say that I did not particularly admire the setting, I began to have an intense interest in rendering my part well and having all go off smoothly.
Ned was seated in the buggy within hearing distance and I saw he had assumed, or was really feeling, about the right amount of anxiety, and that no one seemed to be paying any attention whatever to him.