Then there was a commotion, which was produced by the discovery of what had taken place in the apartment. There was nothing but a board partition between Somers and the interior of the room, and he could distinctly hear everything that was said. Maud told, in few words, what had happened in the room; that Major Riggleston had been shot in the head in his attempt to capture two prisoners, and that the men who had done the foul deed had escaped. From what was said it was evident that one of the officers was a person high in command—a general of division, if not Stonewall Jackson himself. The others called him simply “general,” and Somers could not determine who he was. The officers with him were probably members of his staff.
The general immediately despatched one of his officers to institute a strict search for the spies who had done this terrible work. He regretted that it had not been discovered before; for the miscreants, as he called them, in the most complimentary terms, were probably a good distance from the house by this time.
“I know which way they went, general,” said Maud, eagerly. “They went to the north of the house.”
“To the north, general,” added the wounded soldier; for both of them had carefully treasured up this information, dropped hastily from the mouths of the scouts, for future use, as Somers intended they should.
“Very well; pursue them towards the north, colonel,” resumed the general. “But don’t say a word about what has happened in this house till morning. It will help us in the search.”
The speaker proceeded to give very careful directions for the pursuit and the search, to all of which Somers listened with the deepest interest. The colonel who had been charged with the duty, departed.
“What do you think of him, doctor?” asked Maud, revealing to the listener the fact that one of the officers was a surgeon.
She was sad and depressed, and asked the question with trembling tones, which betrayed her solicitude for the wounded major.
“I don’t think he is very badly wounded. The ball has passed through his head; but worse cases than this have occurred, and the patients are alive and well to-day,” replied the surgeon.
The wounded man was taken up and borne to a bed in the chamber with Maud’s other patients; after which the soldiers received some attention.