“I am quite certain of that, and I am half suspicious that you are out on a wild goose chase if you are after guerillas,” laughed Colonel Rosenthal.
“Not quite so fast. You have accounted satisfactorily for the Free Sword and for Goldsborough. But here is Monck suddenly sprung up with all his band from Heaven knows where. And they are ravaging the country right and left. It is after Monck especially, and not after the other two, that we are sent out,” said Major O’Neale.
“Monck, I think, will be found somewhere in the neighborhood of the Black Bear’s Pass, where he is expected to combine with Goldsborough and Corsoni for a new raid on an extensive scale. Thanks to the courage and discretion of my young orderly here, whom I sent as a spy into the camp of the Free Sword, I am in possession of all their plans, which I intend to reveal to General W. as soon as I get into the town.”
Major O’Neale deigned to turn his eyes for a moment upon the young orderly whom Col. Rosenthal had praised; but the question of the guerrillas was of too absorbing interest to admit of a moment’s wandering from the subject, and so he replied:
“Your information, obtained by so much courage and tact, and at so great a risk, may be very correct. I have no doubt that Corsoni and Goldsborough may both be at the Black Bear’s Pass, and that Monck may be on his way to join them; but, in the meantime, it is certain that he is ravaging the country about here. I suppose a score of fugitives have rushed into W. within the last twelve hours with tales of Monck’s burnings and wastings.”
“Then there can be no mistake about his near neighborhood.”
“None in the world. But the question is, where did his band spring from? One would think that they had sprung full grown, armed and equipped, out of the ground, like the myrmidons of classic story.”
“These vast forests afford too good a cover for these bandits. They should all be levelled,” said Colonel Rosenthal.
“But what a Herculean labor. And think how many of them have been levelled——But you, Colonel, you are going on to W.?”
“Of course.”