”You know I didn’t mean to insult you, John; but less quit wasting time and git to work; what we’ve got to do is to creep up close and spring on ’em. When I take hold of one bridle you grab the other, and I’ll do the talkin’.”
Bending down almost to the ground, with panther-like tread we stole upon the unconscious pickets, while my hand was trembling and my heart beating audibly with excitement. Ben was perfectly cool and deliberate, for he was but reënacting, rather tamely he seemed to think, one of his many scouting adventures. We were now at their horses’ heels, and Ben, putting his mouth again to my ear, whispered, ”Be certain to go when I do, and keep your revolver in your right hand. Are you ready? Now!” and we both sprang to the heads of the horses and seized the reins. ”Surrender! or you are dead men. Steady, boys! do not fire till I give the word,” exclaimed Ben, in a loud clear voice, as we levelled our pistols on them.
They made no show of resistance, but cried out to us not to shoot—that they yielded themselves up; and when Ben approached to take their arms gave them up readily.
We made them dismount, and found that they had two strong, well built horses, of which we took immediate possession. In answer to our inquiries they told us that there had been a severe engagement near Bentonsville, and that Johnston was moving up toward Raleigh. They pointed toward his lines, which they said were not more than half a mile distant. Ben examined the horses’ heads, and finding a halter under each bridle, he took them off, and telling our prisoners that while he was obliged for their information, yet for their safety and our own he would have to tie them, he made them turn their backs to two small trees and lashed their hands around them. ”The relief’ll be along pretty soon,” he said, ”so you won’t git tired; and if you want to scratch your back, or wipe your nose, you’ll have to rub up and down, or twist your head. Good bye, and don’t forget to thank the Lord that we didn’t kill you, as we ought to do.”
Mounting our captured horses we again set out in the darkness, picking our way still cautiously, and halting ever and anon to listen and take our bearings, for we did not place that implicit confidence in the statements of our prisoners, regarding the position of our lines, that a charitable belief in the integrity of human nature would have encouraged us to do. But we had judged them wrongfully, for we had just passed through the open field at the edge of which we had left them, and struck another skirt of woods, when, directly in front of us, crack! went a rifle, and the ball whistled in uncomfortable proximity to our ears. The next moment we heard the gallop of the horse’s feet as the picket fell back to the reserve.
”Quick!” said Ben, spurring his horse forward; ”we must catch up with him and tell him we are friends, or we will be shot.”
But catching up was not so easy, for he heard our pursuit, and dashed through the brush and undergrowth as if he had a contract to clear up the land.
As our speed was a matter of equal necessity we kept close behind him, when suddenly his horse fell, and he rolled over in the darkness.
”I surrender,” he called out, as we rode up.
”What command do you belong to?” I asked.