“That must be the reason,” replied Somers, in a loud tone; and then, dropping his voice to a whisper, he added, “I am going to escape to-day.”
“I have been quite sick,” continued the major, aloud. “I am on parole”—in a whisper.
“Are you better?”
“Much better; I feel pretty well now,” said the major. “Wait half an hour for me in the woods.”
“I will,” replied Somers, as he moved on.
De Banyan soon joined him. At his own request the surgeon had discharged him, and he had taken up his parole. With a basket of vials, which he found in an ante-room of the hospital, he walked boldly through the guards, who, believing him still to be a paroled prisoner, permitted him to pass. During his convalescence, he had been employed in various light duties connected with the hospital, and had had frequent occasion to pass the sentries, so that no suspicion attached to him after he had been relieved from his parole.
With Somers he walked to the woods, and with him chopped and gathered sticks. At a point near the centre of the space surrounded by the sentinels, they found a pine tree, whose dense foliage promised to afford them the shelter they required. At a favorable moment Somers sprang up into the tree, and the major followed him a few minutes later. Of course they were seen by their fellow-prisoners, and they were obliged to run the risk of being exposed by any one of them who was vile enough to do such a mean act. Men have been known at Andersonville, Columbia, and other prison camps, to stoop to the contemptible and cowardly meanness of betraying a comrade under such circumstances; but with only a few rare exceptions, the prisoners were too manly and noble to be guilty of such a base act.
They had escaped the observation of the soldiers, who were too indolent, or too far off, to notice what took place within their line. The only duty they were called upon to perform, as they seemed to regard it, was to prevent any of the prisoners from passing beyond the bounds allotted to them. The two hours in which the men were allowed to gather wood expired soon after Somers and De Banyan ascended the tree.
“Good by, Captain; report me at home, if you get through,” said a Massachusetts officer, who stood at the foot of the tree when the prisoners were ordered back to the camp.
“I will,” replied Somers, who knew the officer’s address.