"Stay!" cried Oleah. "By heavens, if you know anything of her, I will not wait, I will know it now."
He sprang through the door after the mulatto, but the Summer house was vacant. The strange musician had disappeared as suddenly as if he had sank into the earth. After searching vainly through the grounds Oleah returned to the house. The other musicians (all colored) knew the "yaller man who played first fiddle," but, as "he lived no where particularly, but about in spots," no one could tell where he would most likely be found.
It was late that night before Lieutenant Tompkins sought his tent, and sleep came not to his eyes until nearly daylight. When he did sleep, the strange mulatto was constantly before his eyes—his yellow skin, his yellow teeth, and yellow eyes all gleaming.
CHAPTER XV. MR. DIGGS AGAIN IN TROUBLE.
McClellan, in the meanwhile, had been sweeping the Western portion of Virginia. On the 11th of July, he gained a victory over the unorganized or at most half organized Confederates under Colonel Pegram at Rich Mountain, which was at no great distance from the Widow Juniper's.
Colonel Scrabble then endeavored to reinforce General Garnett at Laurel Hill, but the latter was on his retreat toward the Shenandoah to join Johnston's army, when Scrabble and eight hundred men, three hundred of which were cavalry, came up with him.
The fight at Rich Mountain had taken place just two days after Mrs. Juniper's reception, and it was partly this reception that had delayed Scrabble, for, by forced marches, he might have reached Pegram before his defeat. While he and his officers were basking in the smiles of the ladies of West Virginia, General McClellan, under the excellent guidance of Uncle Dan, had slipped in between the two forces and defeated the larger. Having been thus reinforced and, seeing escape almost impossible, General Garnett resolved to make one more stand against the enemy. At Carrick's Ford, on Cheat river, is a small winding stream, flowing through the central part northward of what is now West Virginia. It has its foundation-head near Rich Mountain, and the towns of Philippi, Grafton, and Beverly are on its banks.
The main army, under General Garnett, took position near the road on a bluff eighty feet high, where he planted his cannon. Colonel Scrabble, with his eight hundred troops, was on a bluff covered with thick almost impenetrable forest trees.