“That’s a lucky shot,” thought the boy.
His companion was not so lucky; he had fired and missed his opponent, who rode forward with drawn sword evidently resolved on cutting him down.
Rodney seized his pistol by the barrel and hurled it straight for the trooper’s head and hit the mark squarely, the man pitching out of his saddle like a log! Not in vain had been those hours the boy had spent with Conrad learning to throw the tomahawk.
“I’ll buy you the finest pistols in Norfolk if we ever get there,” said Lawrence, thus expressing the gratitude he felt.
Having distanced their pursuers, the remainder of their journey was without incident; but from report of conditions in Norfolk, where Dunmore had seized Mr. Holt’s printing press and was enforcing martial law so far as he could, they decided it was not a safe place for them to visit and turned aside to join the volunteers 190 they heard were approaching under command of Colonel Woodford, who had done such good service at Hampton.
Dunmore also had heard of the approach of the Culpeper men, and resolved to keep them at a distance from Norfolk.
Knowing that they would have to cross what was known as Great Bridge, about nine miles from Norfolk, he forwarded troops under Captains Fordyce and Leslie to check the Virginians at the bridge.
The British had thrown up earthworks at the Norfolk end of the bridge when the Americans arrived. The latter built an entrenchment at their end of the bridge. Lieutenant Travis with nearly one hundred men occupied this, while Woodford, with the remainder of the Virginian forces, was stationed at a church about four hundred yards distant, when the British came across the bridge to make an attack. The British fired as they approached, while their two field pieces in the rear kept up a cannonade.
Travis ordered his men to withhold their fire until the enemy should almost reach the entrenchments. Captain Fordyce took this to mean that the Americans had deserted the breastworks and waved his hat in anticipation of victory. Then the Americans, who had been lying down, rose and poured a deadly fire into the ranks of the enemy, and Fordyce was among the first to fall.
Captain Leslie now came to the support of Fordyce’s men, and Colonel Woodford led his men forward to 191 support Travis, while Colonel Stevens led a body of men, with whom were Enderwood and Allison, to attack the British on the flank.