Leon at once stepped out at his old pace, and Ballard kept close behind him. The woods were so thick that they couldn’t stop to do much talking, and by the time it began to grow dark they were on the banks of the creek.
“Now, we are half way home,” said Leon. “I would like to know just how that cavalry came out in attacking our men. I’ve listened every once in a while, but I didn’t hear any sound of rifles or carbines.”
“Probably they are too far away for us to hear them,” said Ballard. “If your men will fight—”
“Oh, they will fight, and there are some of them with us who have repeatedly declared that they won’t take any prisoners. If they drive our men back to the swamp they are whipped, sure. By gracious! what’s that? It sounds like a couple of horses coming through the woods.”
Ballard took his horse by the bridle to hold his head down in case he wanted to call to them and listened intently. Soon the measured tread of the horses could be heard coming through the woods, and in a few minutes a couple of rebels appeared on the opposite bank of the creek and but a short distance above them. One of the Confederates had no hat on, his left arm was hanging loose by his side and his companion was holding him on his horse. They paused for a few moments, as if they didn’t know what to do with the creek in front of them, and then the uninjured one urged the horses in, and in a few strokes of the hoofs they were safe across.
“I’ll tell you what’s the matter with our side,” said Ballard, as soon as the two rebels had disappeared in the bushes. “We have been whipped!”
“Do you mean to say that our fellows have whipped the cavalry?” inquired Leon, and he was surprised and delighted to hear it.
“That is just what I mean. If the cavalry had been successful they would have kept to the road and taken some prisoners with them; but their being scattered in this way makes me think that they have been worsted. You saw that man who was being held on his horse? Well, he was wounded.”
“We have got to swim the creek before we can get over,” said Leon. “I am impatient to see how my father came out. Take off your clothes and hold them above your head. I’ll carry your carbine for you.”
Leon worked in earnest now, for his father had been in danger and he was not there to share it. In hardly less time than it takes to tell it he was on the other side of the bayou and pulling on his clothes. Ballard was not very far behind him, and seeing how impatient Leon was he donned his uniform with all possible haste, after which they struck out for Ellisville.