Scio press., August 16, 1890, Image 1

VOL. 2
SCIO, OREGON, AUGUST 16, 1890
i me as 1 approached.
NO. 12
“Prove my whereabouts at tie time!” ing their side arms and standing at eagerness she ran- to meet me. She must
But when I saw
the beautiful, pale face and the expres­ ho ifejjeated. ‘ ‘Why, how could I bring parade rest. It Was my first experience have divined my message before I spoke,
sion of unutterable woe in her ¿eyes, I any of my men before a Yankee court- with a military execution, but I did not for her’ white face flushed **and the
forgot the dignity I had promised my­ martial to prove an alibi?”
need, to be told that those men; were hunted expression fled her eyes. Cry?-
“But, are there no Union troops who the death- Watch and that they or their I ing out: “Thank GodJor the good news!”
self, forgot the indignity with' which
she had dismissed me, and feeling only might have been aware of your vicinity? relief would remain with the condemned she tuiC w her arms about my'neck, and
that on my side at least, the love of It is your custom to let your where­ man till he stood on the scaffold and the our lips met in forgiveness and rejoic­
ing.
; qur early association had survived the abouts be known,” I said.
trap was. sprung.
Frank Brent rose and began pacing
At teh o’clock that morning the troop
parting, I reached out both hands and
A dim lamp, suspended from {he heavy,*
the floor, while he stroked his soft, rough-hewn cross-beams, revealed the wagons were ready to draw out, and my
said, huskily:
*‘I got your letter, Carrie, and I have brown beard in a perplexed way. Sud­ prisoner and his sister seated beneath men stood by their horses impatient for
denly coming to a halt before me, he it, while in front of them stood tho old, the order to mount/ I had bade Carrie
come.”
She gave me her right hand, and I fixed his eyes on' the floor and said:
white-baited post chaplain? himself a and her brother good-bye, and her last
“
There
is
one
1
of
your
men,
an
old
words were still ringing like music in
Kentuckian.’
bbuld see in the half-averted face
the struggle between pride and feel­ friend of yours, who is now in Libby
That picture impressed me;powerfully. my ears: “What you have done for me
ing. She made an effort to speak, but, prison, who, if he were here, could The rain came down on the shingled and mine, Harry Watts,- can never be
overcome by her emotions, sho dropped prove that on the very day John Hard­ roof with the rattle of a hundred minia­ forgotten.”’
Holding my hand, General Boyle said:
¿COPYRIGHT.
BY DACHELLIH A CO.)
into a chair and covered her face with ing was killed I was in Powell’s valley, ture drums to the accompaniment of
“Find out if Brent was in Powell’s
near Cumberland Gap.”
the
wind
’
s.shrill
fifing.
I
had
grown
fa-1
her
hands.
When it was found that Kentucky I
“Who is the man?” Tasked.
CHAPTER I.
miliar \Vith funeral dirges; and hurried Valley at the date he' claim's, and, if
I heard her low moaning, while her
“For God’s sake, dear Harry, borne td must take sides and that her valleys and slendeV form swaged as if she would ' “Howard Scott.”
burial services, and although I nOvei you can get evidence to corroborate his
“Howard Scott a prisoner?” I ex­ witnessed one unmoved,- the most sol­ statement, send it through by one of
me at once. Brother Frank was capt­ hills were to be battle-fields, Frank rock her agony to rest; this and the tears
ured by your people at Lebahon ten Brent and I parted in anger, he to go I pouring through her little white fingers claimed.
emn of them had never affected me as' your scouts at once. If this is not done,
“Yes, captured by me on the tenth did. the preparations for death going the postponement • which’ I have as­
days ago. He was charged with being a South with John Morgan and his “Lex­ and falling on her heaving1 breast un-
sumed may turn out to-be a great mis­
spy, taken to Camp Dick Robinson, and ington Rifles,” and I to don the blue and . nerved me more than the unexpected day of October—the day of the murder, on before my eyes;
fortune to all concerned.”
then, after a trial that must iiave been a yellow and fight under the old flag. He* ! 1 appearance of all Bragg’s army could mind you?—captured by me two hun­
Many
a
night
when
lying
near
the'
dred miles from the place where Hard­ mangled' dead and listening to: the'
The old soldier knew the secret of
judicial farce, he was; sentenced to had been recklessly bold in his coming , have done.
and his going, and, as a consequence, I
my
interest; I promoted to do all that
ing
’
s
body
was
found.
I
am
usually
death.
heart-rendini
ig
cries
of.
the
woúhded,.
A man never appreciates his want of
“Mother is so prostrated by the news he had brought on himself the capture, ' power or realizes how utterly helpless it well-mounted, but no horse could make Ihave curse« id the cruel barbarities' of lay in my power ‘then, with mutual
that she can not leave her bed and I which I regarded as inevitable from the ! is possible for him to become so much that distancé in a few hours,” said Frank war, and this feeling of loathing has prayers for th’o success of óur common
first, and he was now threatened with a
feel as if my senses were deserting me.
grown on me with the years. As I cause, I s^ung into the saddle, the
as when he tries to check the flow of a Brent, with a nervous laugh.
. “I shall not deny what you state,” looked in at the white face and loved I bugle sounded, and my troop rode out,
“If brother had fallen in battle, fight­ death which many believed he deserved. beautiful woman’s tears. By an effort
I said,, “but as you can not corroborate form of the woman dearer to me than of Camp Dick Robinson.
ing for the cause &o dear to him and to
of will, rather than because of my well- it,
CHAPTER II.
Oh the crer” of
wi^^
to
it does not help your case. As we life, I felt like shrieking out a protest
his family, the blow would have been still
’
meant
attempt
to
pacify
;
her,
Carrie
The following afternoon found me I
are not exchanging prisoners now, against the conditions that, without any the southeast, I turned, arid lifted my
hard to bear, but it would have been as , with
Brent
brushed
the
tears
from
her
cheeks,
my troop at camp Dick Robinson,
Heaven -compared with being hanged when I at once reported to the com­ and, springing to her feet, cried out in a Lieutenant Scott’s presence is out of deserving, had crushed her pure* brave hat, and, through the mist and storm, I
saw thé flutter of a white scarf,- like, an
the question, though I will confess x heart.
like a dog, and this for an offense of mandant, my old friend, General Boyle. voice full of pleading and.passion:
«
angel’s wing, and I felt that there was
that his evidence would save you.”
which he is entirely innocent.
After
a
few
words
of
exhortatiori
that
“
Oh,
Captain
Watts,
save
my
brother!
The General had known Frank Brent
He had evidently been thinking over • impressed me as being the very essence i one Union troop followed by the pray­
“I did not think during this struggle since that unfortunate young man’s Do not let your people become- his mur­
every chance to avert his sentence, for of heart-born eloquence, the old chap­ ers of a Confederate woman.
to ask a favor from any man. wearing a childhood, and I found him in sore dis­ derers!”
This was my second visit to Camp
he said quietly:
"blue uniform, nor should I do so under tress over the execution, which was to
lain began Tom Moore’s exquisite sa­
Feeling that it would be cruel to re-»
“General Boyle believes he can get cred song: “Come, yev disconsolate/ Dick Robinson. When heré before we
■any other circumstances. I am em­ take place before ten o’clock the follow­ peat to her what General Boyle had
were preparing under General Thomas
your President to postpone the date. If
boldened to appeal to you when I recall ing morning.
told me or to assure her of my own ina­ that is done, Scott can be paroled, spe­ where’er ye languish.” "During the sing­ to advance against Zollicoffer, whose
that your family and mine were neigh­
ing,
in
which
the
prisoner
and
his
sis
­
“I am powerless to help Frank,” said bility to assist her, I said, vaguely:
cially exchanged, or his evidence, taken ter joined, I went in and sat down be­ host, untrained and boastful, was raid­
bors, s|^ce long before we were born, the General, after we had beeji talking
“For your sake and your mother’^, as
that you and Frank were playmates in a few minutes, “for the evidence is all well as in the interest of humanity^ you in Richmond can be sent through under side her, and with a broken voice I tried, ing the shores of the Cumberland. War
boyhood, and that you were classmates against him. It was any other man—if may depend on my doing every thing in a flag of truce. He does not like me, as did tho stolid guards^ to give empha­ seemed a grand thing to me in those,
at Center College when the war burst I had not known him since he was a my power for your brother.. But I should and there is no love lost between us, sis to the closing line: “Earth hritlr ho days, ' when nearly every regiment
marched to tlio stirring strains of its
upon us; nor can I forget that there was child and his mother since she was a like to ask what you know about his but he is a brave man and he would not sorrow that Heaven can not heal.”
lie, not even to- get square with me for
a time when I held more than a sister’s schoôl-girl I should say without hésita- case.”
Promising to call again before day?- own brass b,a‘nd, and when every private
the trick that led to his capture.”
:place in your heart. By the memory of ; tion that he richly deserved his fate.”
light, the chaplain * went out about had more impediments than a Major-
“I can tell you Frank’s story as he
I did not ask what this trick was, twelve o’clock, and the fury of the storm General carried now. Then the trap­
ibe happy past, I invoke your aid in j • Recalling the fact that men on our
told it to me, and I never knew him to nor did I drcam that I was shortly to seemed to be intensified by tho silence. pings of the horses were regal in their
Ibis tho hour of our sore distress.”
side as well as on that of the South
hear the infamous story from the lips I made an effort to’ speak, but realizing splendor and the officers were moving
I was in command of a troop of caval­ often had to disguise themselves in or­ lie,” she replied.
“Is it not true that Frank was in cit­ of the man in question.
ry and was on my way to join Burnside der to get tnrough to see their friends
how weak words were fof my purpose, pictures framed in blue and gold, and
izen’s drees when captured?” I asked.
“Every thing,” I said, “depends on I whispered to Carrie that I would go shoulder-straps were so beautiful and
at Knoxville. For two months we had when on leave or furlough, I said:
“It is; but you should know how dif­ the outcome of General Boyle’s efforts down to the telegraph office and find out novel that it was said some of the
been hunting “Tinker Dave Beatty”
“Under the circumstances, it seems
^•nd his bushwhackers in the Cumber- pretty hard to charge a Kentuckian with ficult—how even impossible—it is for with the President. If there is a re­ if a message had been received from younger men wore them when in bed.
Confederate soldiers to secure proper prieve, and I sincerely hope there will Washington.
The regimental banners, aside from
la d mountains in my native state, being a spy.”
uniforms,
Go to camp Chase, or look at be, we may get Lieutenant Scott’s evi­
what they symbolized, were things of
Kentucky, and wore glad of the recall ! “Do you know the circumstances?”
“
No
word
yet,
sir,
”
replied
the
opera
­
i
the prisoners recently brought here, and dence in time to save you. Meanwhile, tor to my inquiry; “and,” he added, as shiminering, silken beauty; now they
to a more* congenial field.
j asked the General.
you will see that, although captured in keep a stiff upper iip, and command my he bent his oar over the receiving instru­ were shredded and fiddled, and blood­
Wo wore encamped on the old battle
“Only in a general way,” I replied.
battle, not one-half of them are in uni­ purse and my time, I shall be here till ment, “I’m afraid we can get no news stained, but those very rents had be­
field of Mill Springs, tho first complete
“He was capturéd in citizen’s dress
noon to-morrow.”
come eloquent with . memories that
Umon victory of the war, when a black near Lebanon,” ' explained General form,” she said.
from Washington to-night.”
thrilled us as the new flags never did.
I was forced to confess that if I had
I rose to go, and again gave him my
“
Why
not?
”
I
asked.
Boyle; “but we might overlook that been on the court-martial I should not hand. Still holding it, he looked about
“The storm covers a wide area,” said Our officers carried no insignia to dis­
wore it not for the fact that on the trial have paid much heed to the dress worn
tinguish them from the men. The trap­
it was proved conclusively that Frank by the prisoner at the time of his capt­
the operator, “and I fear our communi­ pings of the horses were rusty and
Brent, a few weeks before his arrest^ ure; and although I did not tell her so,
cation with the North will be shut off cracked; our uniforms were faded and
wantonly murdered an old .and re- I was very sure that" the officers who
some of them rdely patched; our car­
before morning.”
spected Union citizen over on Chaplin tried Frank Brent were not influenced
bines had lost the gloss of finish; our
“Has this happened before?”.
creek, near Perryville. He had a fair in their verdict by the fact of his not
troop guidon was a tattered, faded rag,
“Yes; several times.”
trial, and there is no getting away from being in uniform.
“And how long before repairs were and the scabbards of our sabers were
the evidence.”
“His command,” I said, “is reported
dented and worn. The cheer, the song
made?”
“And has he offered no defense?” I to be down near Cumberland Gap. How
“The shortest time was twenty-four and the wild halloo of Oxultant youth
asked.
does he explain his being two hundred
were no longer heard in camp or on the
hours,” said the operator.
“He made a statement, but there was ’miles away from it and within our lines
- Feeling that even the elements were march. On the faces of the ■ yohngest,
nothing to confirm it.”
when captured?”
arrayed against the unfortunate pris­ and the oldest man in that 'troop was
“Then thero is no hope for him?”
“I .will concede that, he was rash in
oner, I made my way back to the log not twenty-seven, there were set lines
“I fear not,” said the General, com­ coming into this part of the State as be
that
made
them
stern,
lines
house.
pressing his lips and shaking his head. did,” she answered promptly; “but his
Carrie gave me a quick, searching that had been burned deep in the fur­
“But,” he added, after a pause, “lam purpose was' not to play the spy.”
look, but she asked no questions; she nace heat of battle. But though not so
making an effort to get the date of the
“What then was his purpos#?'”
knew as well as if I had told her that fair to the eye, each one of these men
Bentence postponed.”
“You know Miss Mattie Vernon and
no word of. comiort naa been received was wortn ten oi tne volunteers of the
“ What have you done?”
early war.
her family at Versailles?”
from Washington.
“I have telegraphed the President and , “Y6s, very well.”
I suggested'to Frank to lie down, but
Oùr march to Cumberland Gap was
am expecting a reply at any moment.”
“And you may have heard that since
he shook his head and said, grimly: over the route taken by Bragg’s army a
C.Wj>
“And if a favorable answer does not even before the trouble Frank has been
“The time is too short to spend it in year before, when, after the fierce fight
come by to-morrow morning?”
devoted to her?”
sleep. When the end has come one can at Perryville, they fell leisurely back,
‘ the boy was well mounted ,
lade"ri with the rich spoils of Central
I had heard something of this, but
rest through eternity.”
“Then,” said the General solemnly,
It seemed as if the sun had gone down Kentucky,* while the tardy Union
boy Came to my quarters with the letter “I must do my duty as a soldier; in­ I also knew that Miss Vernon and her
for the last time, so long was tbe night. ^legions made only a show of pursuit.
from which the foregoing is an extract. deed, I am powerless to stay the execu­ family were in favor of the Union and
that it was generally believed that sho
Just before daylight the chaplain re­ Still, the track of that unhurried retreat
The boy was well mounted, and his tion.”
was engaged to Howard Scott, a young
turned, and, thankful for the excuse his was visible through every defile of the
“And Miss-Brent is here?”
spattered difess and the flanks of the
presence gavé me, I again sought the tempest-tossed Cumberland range.
^iYes, poor girl. I have given her my Kentuckian then on General Carter’s
animal, which were covered with crim­
WAN MS YOUB KNIFE.
The log cabins, clinging like odd bird’s
telegraph office. There I found General
son foam, told how hard he had ridden. private quarters. You will find her staff; so I simply nodded in response to
Boyle, and he did not need to tell me nests to the mountain ledges, were
Carrie
’
s
question.
there
or
at
the
prison,
”
replied,
the
Gen
­
Jessamine County, seventy miles to
“Learning that Mattie Vernon was ; to make sure that he could not be over­ that he had not closed his eyes in sleep abandoned or inhabited only by women
the north, was my old home, and on the eral. •
and children. The fences that had in­
Feeling my helplessness more than very ill,” she continued. “Frank, in the i heard, then bent towards me and whis­ during the night.
other side of the Lexington pike from
In answer to my question, the operator closed their patches of potatoes and
Over, and dreading the meeting, which hope of seeing her, was making his way pered:
corn were gone; and the men who had
my fathers house was the fine blue I had recently been so anxious to bring through to Versailles when he was capt- .
“They have taken away my knife; said:
• “The direct lines working west from built them were in the "field or sleeping
grass farm of the Widow. Brent, the about, I went to the General’s quarters, ured; then, to make sure of convicting loan me yours. ”
on it. Along thé hard, rutty \ trail lay
black boy’s mistress and the mother of whither the boy, Ike, had preceded me. him, they charged him with a murder
I was in the aci of ptitting ffiy hand Washington arc down«”
“Then,” I gasped, “you can not com­ Scattered the debris of vfrar’s flood;
Miss Carrie Brent, whose remarkable
I will confess to having tumbled and that was committed when he was away into my pocket, when his purpose
broken wagons, the skeletons of mules
letter I had just read.
municate with the Capital?”
. felt nervous when in thé past I heard with his command in East Tonnessee.” struck me, and I withdrew it.
“Yes, Cincinnati has just said that and horses, and ash spots, marking the
“It is against the rules” I said, “for
This, of course, was her brother’s
“Have you como straight from Nich­ the irregular rattle of rifles along the '
olasville, Ike?’* I asked the boy, after I skirmish line, that always im presse« story, and she, at least, believed it as if you to have a knife; you cannot expect thoy were about tooperatepver the long site of old camps; here and' there a
circuit by way of Cleveland, Buffalo, grave; and over all the naked crests and
me as a good soldier to violate them.”
had directed an orderly to have the horse me like a prelude to the opera of doath: it were Holy Writ.
but such experiences were calmness
“But I will not hang!” he said, with New York and south along the coast, rain-washed valleys the spirit of silence
cared for,
Asking her to remain where sho was
“I Came ovab from Nicholasville last itself compared with my sensations on for the present, I secured a pass from an oath. “There is a way—some way, but as the storm is moving rapidly in and desolation.
Now and then we caught
a
nigh', sah, wid Miss Carrie, an’ I done once more standing in the presence of the provost marshal and went down to to avoid that, and my sister will help that direction, I should not be surprised
to find all communication shut off be­ horseman far off from the line of marcii,
left her dis early mawnin’ wid Massa the girl, who, from the hour of our the inclosure within which was tho log me, if you do not!”
and the fact t2*at he kept out of ro.ip.ch
I made up mind to prevent his suicide. fore ten o’clock,” said the operator;
Frank at camp Dick Robinson, whar dey cruel parting under the locust and tulip house in which the condemned man was -
While we stood bending over the in­ convinced us that he was one of the en­
I tried to soothe him, but was not disap­
tolo her so how you Was jes’ ’bout ovah trees before her mother’s house, had confined.
pointed at my failure. A man with a strument on whose mysterious ticking emy’s scouts, from whom we had noth­
<
heab; so she tolo me to fine you an’ gib never been out of my heart. “
It is not love that leads me to extol
rope about his neck and the gallows in so much depended, the gray dawn of a ing to fear« Now and then a puff of
CHAPTER III.
you do lettah,-” said the boy.
I must confess to having often felt an sight is in no mood to listen to plati­ stormy •morning’ stole in the room, and smoke could be seen spurting out- from
I ordered my cook to give Ike some­ Carrie Brent; for in a land fame^ for the
tho reveille went ringing through the some cliff,- far overhead, and the crack
thing to eat, and then I took a turn beauty of its women she was an ap- intense desire to capuure Frank Brent, tudes.
of a bushwhacker’s rifle would follow. If
Promising to spend the night with camp.
and on his part he had boasted, with
•about the camp to think over the situa­
I looked at my watch; it was ten min­ no harm was done, we passed on un­
something of an Indian’s ferocity, that him I wont out to attend to tho duties
tion.
he would wear my scalp at his belt be­ that had been my excuse for coming to utes to six. In four hours Frank Brent heeding; if aman was shot, wé encircled
It was early November, 1863, and word
fore the ivar was over. But the joy I camp Dick Robinson. Every few min­ would be standing in the place of exe­ the mountain, and never returned with
had come North that Longstreet was
bad anticipated in his humiliation was utes I dropped into the telegraph office cution, from the direction of which I a prisoner. And so for six days we
hard pressing Burnside at Knoxville.
not mine when in the dusk of that at headquarters in the hope of hearing could hear the hammering of the men pushed our way through to Cumberland
Troops were being hurried South, by
that a favorable answer had been re­ making the scaffold ready.
Gap-
H
stormy
evening we stood face to face.
■way of Cumberland Gap, to the help of
I was about to wai1’: out with the Gen­
When I last saw Frank Brent he was ceived from Mr. Lincoln; but ten
the Ninth Corps, and as the rest of my
as handsome a youth as could be found o’clock came, with increased wind and eral when the clicking increased in a fe­
regiment wa's in East Tennesseeffcmy
in all the Blue Grass country, but the rain, without a word that might give • verish way, and the operator called out:
CHAPTER VI.
•orders were to push through and join it
“Wait, gentlemen, I think there is
two
years of strife and privation had hope to the condemned man.
On the evening of the sevehth day we
without any unnecessary delay.
something coming soon!”
told on him—this and the terrible or­
went into camp not far from Claiborne
If I had not received this letter I
We turned back and bent over him, creek and well below the Gap. Since
deal he was then undergoing. His fine,
should have been riding for the South­
CHAPTER IV; ’
reading
the
words
as
they
came
from
his
tall form was still erect, and his bearing
noon we had been hearing tue hoarse
east wi+hin an hour; but I was suddenly
I had no appetite for my supper with
half defiant, but the ashy pallor of his General Boyle,. We left the food un­ pencil:
booming of guns coming from the South.
reminded that we needed a larger supply
“W ashington , D. 0., N ov . 10,1863. Longstreet was making his last fierce
cheeks, the haunted expression in his tasted, while we discussed Frank
of ammunition for our recently-received
— General J. Boyle, Comman*^.x**t assault on Fort Saunders, sixty miles
dark eyes, and the nervous twitching of Brent’s chances.
^Spencers, ail'd that time would be gained
Camp Dick Robinson, Ky.:—The Pres­
the lips told how keenly he felt the sit­
hy going to Camp Dick Robinson to get
“Thero are two Kentuckians in Wash­ ident directs me to say that after an in­ away, but the conformation of the val­
uation.
leys carried the sound without break,
fresh mounts for about half my men. It
ington,” I said, “who should have
I gave him my hand, and said, as I . weight with the President if they w«re terview with Messrs. Speéd and Holt he till even to trained- ears the fighting
was not a violation of orders to go
deems
it
best
for
the
interest
of
thé
led him to a seat:
seemed less than an nbur’s hot ride be­
“by this route, arid after I had rdade up
to intercede. I am sure they know
“Frank, I am mighty sorry to find you Frank’s kinsmen, if they do not know service to—
low.
my mind^ which did not take me many
Then the writing stopped and the
in this fix.”
Our proximity to Longstreet’s corps
minutes, I tried to make myself believe j
him.”
clicking died out.while the. operator and Wharton’s ubiquitous rangers did
“I have no fault to find with my be­
“Who are they?” asked tho General.
that the hope of again meeting Carrie
nervously
worked
’
the
switcubtfard
key,
not increase our vi-51anccr tbyt l?a?.
“Tom Speed and J udge-Advocate Gen­ but without making a sound.
Brent hRd nothing to do with my change knowledged belle« Two years had ing a prisoner, for that is the fortune of
never been abated. TiiO hope Ct sO'o'n
of plans; but looking back after the passed since last we mety years of march war,” he said, with a nonchalant air. eral Holt.”
“What is up?” asked the General, his
lapse of these many years, I am confix and battle, that had solaced and aged “As good or even better men than my­
“By Jove, Captafn, I did not think of strong face twitching with excitement. rejoining my regiment cheered my men
dent I could have reached East Tennes­ me, and changed my character from a self have had to submit to capture. But them!” exclaimed th©.old man, as ho “The lines are down to the North; ^e who now began to speculate as to the
see without fresh horses or more am­ light-hearted boy to that ’of a bronzed I do object to being convicted of a crime started to his feet. “Join mein a tele­ are shut off from Washington, aqd we old friends they should find lef¡b to greet
them, for on the march we learned that
munition.
graph and we will sond it at once.”
and bearded man whose soul was aflame which I am incapable of committing.”
must remain so at least for the day,” our boys had been badly cut up at Camp­
“But there must have been evidence
(N. B.—At this» time, the word “tele­ said the man.
I loved Carrie Brent as heartily as with a sense of duty and a desire to
bell’s station while trying to check
I disliked her brother, • but my dis­ bring about peace with Union—that or against you?” I said, quietly.
gram” had not come into use.)
Longstreet’s advance from before Chat­
“So there was!” he exclaimed, “but
We hurried into the telegraph office,
like for Frank was not because h& was a an eternity of war.
< CHAPTER V.
Confederate; for many of my dearest
I had macle up my mind to stand on my from first to last the condemnatory part and within ten minutes the message was
The General picked up the paper, and tanooga.
While I did not permit my love for
being flashed to Washing^p, tlier&
kinsmen and friends had enrolled them­ dignity. I recall the last words I had was perjured.”
after
reading over the few words in Carrie Brent to blind me to the interests
“You refer to the murder of John be duplicated and copies'’seffbf-td"®
selves under the same banner. Captain heard from her lips, words that cut me
three
different
ways
he
exclaimed:
of the cause in which I was enlisted,
Speed and General Holt«
Brent—I doubt if he was regularly com- and pained me more cruelly than the Harding, near Perryville?”
“I think I have enough to act on!”
still she was never out of my mind, and
“Yes, that’s it, Captain. Harding wad
As a drowning man is said to clutch
missioned-^-commanded, before his ar­ shell, which subsequently at Benton­
“And you will postpone the execu­ besides this, I felt that it was my duty
rest, an irregular troop who had given ville tore off my right arm; “Go, Harry killed, how or by whom I know notrffedt at a straw, so I drew comfort from what tion?” I asked.
I
do
know
that
at
the
date
of
the
mur
­
as a man and a soldier to save her broth­
wo had done and at once went down to
themselves the name “Partisan Rang­ Watts, and join the Lincoln hirelings if
“Yes, I feel justified in doing so till I er if I could. We were now on the
ers.” These men had shown themselves you will,! but after you have taken that der I was still < with my command, two the prison to communicate the fact to hear further from Washington.”
ground where Frank claimed to have
to be experts in gathering up horses, step I wish never to see your face hundred miles away,” said Frank, with ' Carrie Brent and her brother.
Without waiting to hear more 1 fair­ been when John Harding was killed
a fierce earnestness that convinced me I I passed the guards about the enclos­
while they were cruel in their treat- i again.”
ly
flew
down
to
the
military
prison.
It
near Perryville, and I determined to so-
ure; passed the guard pacing before the
ment of the non-combatant Union men ‘ I repeated these words to myself, as I he was telling the truth.
“But could you not prove your where- ' door, and .came to a halt on the thres­ was of Carrie I had been thinking, for. cure whatever evidence might bo in his
of the State. Unfortunately such con- ! neared the place where I knew I should
Carrie I had been hoping and praying.
hold. Witi&Ug'I saw ten Boldicrs wear- She saw me coming, and in her awful favor.
duct was not peculiar to the Southern | find Carrie, for she was beckoning to abouts at the time?” I asked.
[ to be continued ! ' "
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