They retired, and the travelers of to-morrow are soon lost in sweet slumbers, which are made a little sweeter by pleasant dreams, in which the name of "Lieutenant H." escapes the lips of both the fair sleepers in low murmuring tones. Each hears the gentle murmur from the other, but is unknowing of her own; and each buries the secret in her heart, resolved that what has passed the portals of the ear shall not command the tongue for revelation on the house-top, nor to private ears, not even their own, unless, perchance, the mischievous little deity that presides over the heart destinies of most people, shall, for the sake of diversion, so far awaken curiosity as to force out the secret.
The morning light breaks in the east, and throws increasing strength upon the darkness of slumbering night. Awake, yes, wide awake. They arise, and perform in thoughtful silence, and with unusual care, their morning toilet. The morning repast is hurried through. The ambulance is at the door, and Lew, at seven o'clock, is loading and strapping on the trunks, with other necessary traveling equippage. The morning is beautiful, and the glorious sun has nearly reached the score of eight in the heavens, when Lieutenant H. suddenly appears, with smiling politeness, as bright as the sunny morning, and exclaims, "All ready, I see, and so am I; shall we be off?"
The family adieus are said. Lewis is on the front seat, with lines in hand. The Lieutenant hands the ladies in, Emma beside her brother. Just then Mrs. E. remarks, "I suppose, Lieutenant, you will occupy the seat beside your prisoner, to prevent her escape into the deep, tangled wild wood, when passing through the dark 'bottoms' of the Brazos? We shall soon be there."
"Thank you, Madam, that would seem entirely proper, and perhaps necessary; at least the situation is not repulsive." So saying, he became seated with a satisfied air, and Emma gave a stolen glance back over her shoulder at the double situation, first of officer and prisoner, and then of friends. She denied to herself thinking she would be willing to exchange seats with Mrs. E., as she caught sight of the Lieutenant's handsome face smiling under the starlight of his brilliant eyes. She felt a little uneasiness on her own seat, and imagined it was not as easy as the back seat would be; still she comforted herself into a tolerable degree of contentment, though it was far from being a continual feast. She thought, and admitted to herself, that the arrangement of seats was entirely natural, and to introduce any change would be rude. So she would endure what had no cure, and bide her time. These reflections came and went in her mind, but if some invisible hand had written them down over her signature, she would have denied the authorship of them.
An hour or more had passed, and Lew had been giving strict attention to his handsome mulos, and on the level road had allowed them willing speed, and now they descend quite a hill, and enter the four-mile 'bottoms' of the Brazos. The way was a narrow forest arcade. The giants locked arms one and two hundred feet above their heads, festooned with vines, mingled with the deep hanging moss, which fringed the trees here and there, and everywhere vailing from view the face of the sky, and holding back the sun's rays, which penetrate not that dark passage, for full eight months of the year. Strange sounds here fall upon the ear, reminding one that half the zoological collections of Noah's ark could be found here, both of bird and beast. A half shuddering fear came over the ladies in that partial night, and each one leans a little nearer her companion. They have penetrated the dark way half a mile or more, when suddenly the mules stop, affrighted, and begin to back. Emma screams, and half swoons on her brother's arm. "What's the matter?" exclaim the others. Lew is some excited, but keeps cool from necessity. It was indeed a startling sight. An immense panther had just leaped across the archway, from tree to tree, forty to fifty feet above, and a few rods ahead, as though preparing for a leap upon the unwary travelers. At the moment of alarm, the Lieutenant had clutched his trusty rifle by his side, and the next instant all four saw the cause of alarm. The brave officer was instantly on the ground, with rifle in hand, and already drawing a bead on the gentleman in the trees. "Take care of the team and ladies, Lew, and I will soon make him sick," said he, but the animal was leaping from tree to tree, making off into the deeper forest, and was out of sight at two or three bounds, screaming as he went. But the Lieutenant gave him a parting salute, on a shadowy glimpse of him, at the sixth bound. The animal gave an unearthly scream, that sent a million echo thrills through the dark woods, and then a heavy ground fall. "I've brought him," exclaimed the officer. Reloading his gun, though he had one load yet in the other barrel, he ventured carefully into the thicket against the earnest remonstrance of the ladies, and found the game in the last muscular struggles of death, as he expected, having luckily struck him in the heart. Drawing his tape on him, he measured nine feet from tip to tip. Leaving his dead carcass to be food for buzzards, and returning to the ambulance, they moved on again through the dark tunnel, while the Lieutenant held his finger on the trigger, keeping an eye out for further intruders.
They had driven a mile farther, when the mules again pricked up their long ears, and this time a small pack of wolves crossed the road twenty rods in front, in a hurry, as if pursued or pursuing. They stopped not, nor so much as looked at the travelers, and were lost to view in an instant or so.
The Lieutenant here mischievously inquired, "Mrs. E., is it here you would like to escape from me 'into the deep tangled wildwood?'" That lady only answered with a shudder. Misfortunes, on dit, never come single; so with frights. They had now reached the muddy malarious Brazos, and ferried across by virtue of a military pass, and had gone a full mile beyond. The pressure of fear had begun to yield as they saw open daylight through the tunnel, a quarter mile in the distance, but now again the mulos suddenly halt in a fright, and this time with snorting fear, snuffing danger near!
"Look there ahead in the track! See that awful snake coiled there!" exclaimed Emma. Again the Lieutenant was on the ground, gun in hand; and again the fair ones object. But he was not deterred from the purpose of bruising the serpent's head. Providing himself with a dead limb that had fallen from the trees above, he went bravely to the attack; first firing a bullet at his snakeship's head as it stood raised in arched defiance over the complex coils, ready for the springing bite of death! The bullet carried away the crest of the head, which threw the reptile into fearful contortions, and then, with terrific blows from the limb of the tree, he soon brought it to a quiet quivering rattle! It was a fearfully large spotted wood rattlesnake, and by the tape measured eight feet three inches in length, and had seventeen rattles. Relieving the highway of its presence, and casting it into the brush by the wayside, they passed on, querrying, "What next in the line of sensation?" and thinking, that for the first half day, and the first ten miles, the events of the morning would suffice all fancy for that class of romance.
Again the cruel Lieutenant asks something about escaping "into the deep tangled wildwood." But Mrs. E. extorts a promise from him of silence on that subject in the future; at least till they get out of the woods.
No more disturbing events occurred that day, but the feast of heart and soul was rich and racy. They were out of the fearful "bottoms" and rising to the clear and balmy atmosphere of the beautiful upland prairies. How different from the humid, pestiferous breath of the low, dark regions of an hour ago! They breathed free again. It was high noon, and they saw, two or three miles ahead, a beautiful grove, where they agreed to go into midday camp. On nearing it at one o'clock, their advance guard of two ambulances and the "six in gray," were coming out. The hailing sign to halt was given by the Lieutenant, and driving up, a few words were exchanged, and orders given about the route and where to camp that night, and then the advance drove on, leaving the officer and his company in the leafy grove by the cooling spring, enjoying their noon refreshments. No fire was struck, no coffee made, but a basket of native claret was opened, a bottle broke, and the nectar of the gods was sipped from silver goblets by the joyous four.