“Anything in reason,” said the lieutenant; “what is it?”
Then he told about the woman who had given them the milk and asked them to stay to dinner, and he described the house so that it could not be mistaken.
“Well, what about her?” asked the lieutenant, as Jack paused.
“Take her this,” said Jack, handing out a package containing half a pound of tea, which he had obtained from the colonel's servant while they were waiting the arrival of the lieutenant, after the boys had told their story. “Just leave it and say it is from friends; you need n't tell her anything more, and it isn't necessary for her to know. We feel rather guilty at having had her hospitality for nothing, and want to compensate her in some way.”
The lieutenant laughed as he tossed the package to his sergeant and gave the order to mount. In two minutes the party was off. It was accompanied by two Union men, natives in that region, who were to act as guides in designating the roads leading to the probable retreat of the captain with whom the youths had formed so brief an acquaintance.
The lieutenant carried out the request of the boys and left the woman a good deal puzzled over the affair. He did not stop five minutes at the house, and briefly told her that an old friend had sent her something he thought would be acceptable. As the boys could not in any sense be considered old friends, she never once thought of them, and especially as they had gone, as she supposed, to the South, and turned their backs altogether upon Rolla and the way the Yankees came from.
Let us follow the scouting party and see how it turned out.
About fifteen miles out from Rolla, and near the point where Jack and Harry turned back, the lieutenant halted his men and sought a place of concealment in the woods by the roadside, first putting out a picket to prevent any one passing in either direction. Then, as the Union guides were known, he had them change clothing and horses with two of the men, whom he sent forward to one of the secessionists whose name had been given by the rebel captain to the youths. For this work he selected two young and beardless men, on the chance that the captain had told the secessionist that the two youths might ask his whereabouts.
The lieutenant's calculations were correct. The resident readily told where the captain was to be found, and the men returned by a circuitous route to where the soldiers were waiting for the desired information. Then there was a change back again to clothing and horses as before, and the hunt for the human game was renewed.
So well was the affair managed that the whole band was captured without the shedding of a drop of blood.