Just then the sound of a distant bugle came in at the window, and Steve rose and walked to the door of his office. The doors of several other offices were filled about the same moment. Steve walked down to the fence in front of the court green, and stood leaning against it listlessly, watching as the company came up the road, with bugle blowing, dust rising, and a crowd of young negroes running beside them.
“Halt!” The Captain, a stout, red-faced man, turned his horse, and waved his sword to the negroes in the road. “Pull that fence down.” He indicated the panel where Steve stood, adding a string of oaths to stir the negroes from their dulness. A dozen men jumped toward the fence. Steve never budged an inch. With his arms resting on the rail, he looked the Captain in the eye calmly, then looked at the negroes before him, and kept his place. Except for a slight dilatation of the nostrils he might not have known that there was a soldier within a hundred miles. The men hesitated a second, then, just as the Captain began to swear again, ran to the next panel and tore it down even with the ground, dragging the posts out of their holes, and making a wide breach through which the company passed into the court-yard to the old camp which Middleton’s company had occupied.
As Steve turned away he said to a man near him:
“Seventy-nine negroes, and three white men. We can manage them. Jerry, saddle my horse, and find out when Leech is coming back—and where Captain McRaffle is.”
“Yes, suh,” and Jerry, with a shrewd look, disappeared.
When Jerry returned, his master was writing, and as he did not look up, Jerry went into the inner room, and shortly brought out a pair of saddle-bags, and a pair of pistols.
Steve had just finished his letters, and was sealing them. Jerry gave his report.
“Nor, suh, he ain’ come yet; but dee’s ’spectin’ of him, de Cap’n says. Cap’n McRaffle, he’s away, too.”
“I thought as much. Take this letter over to the General. These two are for Mr. Hurley and Mr. Garden. If I’m not here, come up to Dr. Cary’s to-morrow morning.”
“Yes, suh—yo’ horse is in de stable. I’ll take de saddle bags over dyah.”