In a second the world may be changed--in a second the world was changed. I saw my captor's gun drop from his hands; I saw his hands go up. I looked round; in the road behind me--blessed sight--were two Union soldiers with their muskets levelled at the man in gray.
"Take me at once to General Franklin."
Again I was thunderstruck--two voices had shouted the same words!
The revulsion turned me stomach-sick; the rider of the black horse was a Federal in disguise!
General Franklin advanced, and met the enemy advancing. For no error on my part, my mission was a failure.
"How could you know the road so well for the last ten miles of it?" I asked of Jones, the rider of the black horse.
"That horse was going home!"
"A horse captured from the rebels?"
"No; impressed only yesterday from a farmer near the landing. You see he had already made that road and was not in the best condition to make it again so soon; then I had to turn about more than once. I suppose that horse must have made nearly a hundred miles in twenty-four hours."