"What do you think is going to happen to us?"
"That's not easy to tell. There have been so many men trying to get away that I'm afraid that it will go hard with us."
Noel was listening intently to the conversation, but its effect upon him was not so marked as it was upon Dennis. The fear in the heart of the young Irishman was great, if it could be estimated by the expression which appeared upon his face.
CHAPTER XXIV
A FRUITLESS INTERVIEW
As conversation ceased for a time Noel and Dennis withdrew to a part of the tent where they were by themselves. The face of every man in the tent betrayed his feeling of anxiety. Even Noel, the youngest of the soldiers, was becoming alarmed at the outlook. Far removed from his own regiment, among those who were strangers to him and who knew nothing of his record or even of his presence in the army, the young soldier desperately tried to think of some one to whom he might appeal for aid.
If he had been left free to follow his own wishes he would immediately have sought the colonel and stated his case to that officer. As it was, however, he was not only prevented from seeing the leader, but also was in a position in which his statements would not be accepted without further proof. His anger at the little sutler, who had brought the trouble upon him, became keener, but his very helplessness tended only to increase his anxiety.
The anxiety of the young prisoners would have been much greater if they had known that at this very time Harper's Ferry was about to be taken and the soldiers of the garrison made prisoners. The two great divisions of the Southern army, as we know, had been planning to cross the mountains and reunite at Hagerstown or Boonesborough.
General Jackson, energetic and prompt, successfully carried out the task which had been assigned to him. Indeed, he was as prompt in his actions as was his great commander. On the first day of his advance he marched fourteen miles and that same night decided to cross the Potomac River. The following day he was only four miles west of Martinsburg, and in the morning when he moved upon the little place, to his surprise he found that the garrison already had abandoned the post.