"Halt! who comes there?" rang out sharp and stern the challenge of the sentinel on the outskirts of General Brooke's camp, followed quickly by the startling words, as the rider drew rein suddenly:
"Hold! don't fire, sentinel! I am a woman and bear dispatches to General Brooke from Colonel Crandall."
"A woman, and bearing dispatches? What does this mean!" and the officer of the day advanced quickly, while riding into the glare of a camp-fire Emma Foshay slipped from her saddle and sprang toward an officer, who was advancing.
"Father!"
"Emma! my child! what does this mean?" cried the startled cavalry captain.
In a few terse words the young girl explained all that had occurred, and she was taken at once to her father's quarters, while the dispatches and the tidings she brought were placed before the general.
"Order out two troops at once, adjutant, to go to the rescue of that gallant fellow, Carey—if not too late," said the general, quickly.
"It shall not be too late to avenge him if he has fallen," sternly said Captain Foshay, whose troop was ordered at once to mount and away.
Off dashed the gallant troopers in the darkness, Captain Foshay in command, and they had gone but half a dozen miles from camp when in a voice that brought them to a sudden halt, came the challenge: