"But your hand, my boy. Let me send one of the boys with the news."
"No, no!" cried Harry. "I must see McNeil. The wound is nothing. It is nothing but a scratch."
Harry took a horse from one of the troop, and accompanied by the lieutenant and three men rode post-haste for Monticello, leaving the troop to come more leisurely.
General McNeil was greatly surprised by the news. He had supposed Porter's band to be entirely dispersed.
"You say the garrison did not surrender?" asked McNeil.
"No, but Porter plundered the town and took every Union man in the place prisoner. From what I could see he paroled all, or most of them."
"God help Andrew Allsman if they captured him," exclaimed McNeil; "but if Porter dares—" The General said no more, but his jaws came together with a snap.
Harry now told the whole story and ended with: "General, they are to rendezvous at Whaley's Mill. You can catch them if you act promptly. It's not much farther to Whaley's Mill from here than it is from Palmyra; and Porter has no idea you can get there nearly as quickly as he."
McNeil lost no time. Fortunately there was a battalion of the Merrill Horse at Monticello, and he could muster five hundred men for the pursuit.
"I wish you could be with us," said the General to Harry.