"We'll put you down and feed you mud, if you say another word. Won't we,
Wilson!"
"If we don't starve to death first," Wilson replied.
"Good-by, food," Shadrack wailed again. He picked up a stick from the roadside and commenced to gnaw it; then, surprised because the others were not eating, he broke the stick in three parts, and said: "Do have some of the nice tender steak, Mr. Burns and Mr. Wilson." They threw the sticks at him. He ran ahead of them. They finished the bombardment with hunks of mud, and chased after him, slipping and splashing along the road.
Andrews had dismounted, and they saw him leave the road, leading his horse. They followed, and found him standing at the horse's head, waiting for them.
"How did you fare, men?" he asked. After they had told him of their adventures, he continued: "This rain is bad. I'm afraid of it. If it keeps up, General Mitchel will be delayed one day, perhaps two days. It will be impossible for him to reach Huntsville in time—impossible."
He appeared to be thinking aloud, rather than talking to them. His head was bowed, and he stroked the horse's neck mechanically.
"I dare not go back now in hopes of getting into communication with General
Mitchel. It would never do to leave my men scattered about the country,
waiting for me to return. Do you men, from your experience, think that the
General can reach Huntsville on Friday?"
Wilson was first to answer. "I don't think so," he said. "Some of the forces might reach there in time, but I don't think the General can concentrate at Huntsville for an attack before Saturday. Not with this mud to wade through."
"I agree with Wilson, sir," said Shadrack.
The three men turned to Tom. He felt suddenly embarrassed. Three veterans asking him, a soldier of one day's campaigning, for an opinion! "From what I've heard of General Mitchel," he said, "I think he will do whatever he says he will do—even if he has to attack Beauregard's army single handed." Then he added, as though to explain away what he had said: "But that is nothing more than my opinion of the man. I … I enlisted just yesterday."