“I know I should never have seen Marcy again if it hadn’t been for you, because he told me so, and you are more than welcome to a share in everything the war has left us. Now I must tear myself away for a few minutes, for I have work to do. Don’t let Marcy talk; he is too weak.”
So saying Rodney hastened from the room to order Colonel Grierson’s breakfast, and to write a short note to his mother, requesting that the only doctor in the country for miles around who had been able to keep out of the army might be sent to his plantation as soon as he could be found, to prescribe for Marcy Gray, who had come to him in a most remarkable manner. He didn’t stop to explain how, for he hadn’t time; but he made his mother understand that Marcy was in need of prompt medical attention. Rodney knew that his father would at once answer the note in person, and when he arrived he could tell him as much of his cousin’s story as he knew himself.
The note was sent off by one of the negroes, who was quickly summoned from the field to take it; and after Rodney had satisfied himself that the colonel’s breakfast was coming on as well as he could desire, and had given instructions regarding a second meal that was to be made ready for the conscripts and their guards, he went back to Marcy.
CHAPTER X.
MARK GOODWIN’S PLAN.
Matters could not have worked more to Rodney Gray’s satisfaction if he had had the planning of them himself. The hasty note he wrote to his mother brought Mr. Gray to the plantation within an hour, and with him came the doctor, who, for a wonder, was found at home by the messenger whom Mrs. Gray had despatched to bring him. He lanced Marcy’s hands, which had not received the least medical attention since the day they were wounded by the cruel cord that held him suspended in the air so that his toes barely touched the ground, bandaged them in good shape, and gave him some medicine; and all the time Mr. Gray stood in an adjoining room listening, while his eyes grew moist, to Rodney’s hurried description of the events of the morning. Before he had time to ask many questions the bars rattled again, and the hounds gave tongue as Colonel Grierson and two or three of his officers rode into the yard. His weary, travel-stained soldiers were close behind, but the most of them kept on down the road, while only a small body-guard remained to watch over the safety of the commanding officer. Rodney’s friend the corporal came into the yard with the colonel, and winked and nodded in a way that was very encouraging. Rodney stood on the veranda and saluted, while the two troopers seized their carbines and presented arms.
“Come right in, sir,” said the boy. “I have been waiting for you.”
“Thank you. The corporal promised us a breakfast if we would stop here, and so we thought it advisable to stop. I hope you’ll not object if we sit down just as we are,” said the colonel, who was as dirty and ragged as any of his men, “for we have scant time to stand on ceremony. Are these the guards that were left with the conscripts? Forbes, step in and see if they are the ones you picked up at Enterprise.”
Forbes was the captain who had been sent with a squad of thirty-five men to perform the perilous duty of cutting the telegraph-wires north of Macon, and the gallant and daring exploit by which he saved his small force from falling into the clutches of three thousand rebels we have yet to describe. He recognized Marcy and his friend Bowen as the conscripts who had surrendered themselves to him at Enterprise, shook hands with one, patted the other on the head and said he guessed it was all right, and that they could remain with Rodney as long as they pleased.
“There,” said the doctor. “Those words will do the patient more good than all the medicine I could give him. Homesickness is what troubles him more than anything else, but now that he is safe among his relatives he will soon get over that.”
Captain Forbes replied that he hoped so, and went out to join the colonel at the table, while Rodney made haste to serve up the breakfast that had been prepared for the two conscripts and their guards. Of course the corporal was not forgotten, and he said he had been living on army bacon and hard-tack just long enough to give him a sharp appetite for the chicken and corn bread with which his plate was filled. When Rodney went into the hall to see if his other guests were well served, Captain Forbes cheered his heart by remarking that, as the conscripts were not prisoners, they were at liberty to do as they pleased about going or staying.