"The wagons of the enemy have halted in the road, and there seems to be half-a-dozen men or more in charge of them," said Deck.
"I will send a squad to bring them in," replied the captain, as he called a sergeant near him, and directed him to take ten men and perform this duty. "You will go with Sergeant Langford, boys, and I think you will be all right."
"Have you any message for the major, Captain?" asked Deck.
"You have seen the skirmish yourselves, and you can report it as it was. We were fired upon smartly for a time; but the muskets of the enemy were of all sorts and kinds, and most of them good for nothing. We have eight men wounded, two of them badly, and the rest slightly. Sergeant Langford has just reported to me that the enemy lost eight men killed, and fifteen wounded, some of them fatally. The rest of the command are prisoners."
Sergeant Langford appeared with his ten men, and the boys went with him on their return to their company. It was not yet sunrise, and the principal task of the morning had been accomplished; for the action had lasted hardly more than a quarter of an hour. Lieutenant Blenks was compelling the Guards to pick up and care for their own wounded, and to bury their dead. The men were sulky, and the cavalrymen were compelled to drive them to this duty.
"It was sharp work for a few minutes," said Langford to the boys, after he had called them to his side.
"It was; but the thing was very handsomely done," replied Deck. "I think these ruffians have had quite enough of it."
"They are as sulky as a bear that has lost her cubs. They were not willing to pick up their own dead and wounded, and wanted our boys to do it for them; but a few slaps with the flat of the sabres brought them to the point," added the sergeant. "I suppose the work in this quarter is done now."
"I think not. I doubt whether we have finished," replied Deck; but he said nothing about the Texan Rangers, for he did not feel at liberty to use the information he had obtained as a messenger.
The wagons of the enemy had halted where the men in charge of them could see what had happened at the bridge; but when the sergeant's squad approached them, they brought their muskets to their shoulders, as though they intended to defend their property.