"Really," said Sprowl, chuckling as he thought of it, "'twill be better for our plans to have him out of the way."

"Yes," said Bythewood; "the girls will need protectors, and your wife will welcome you back again."

"And Virginia," added Sprowl, "will perhaps look a little more favorably on a rich, handsome, influential fellow like you! I see! I see!"

There was another who saw too,--a sudden flash of light, as it were, revealing to Penn all the heartless, scheming villany of the friendly-seeming Augustus. He grasped the Stackridge pistol; his eyes, glaring in the dark, were fixed in righteous fury on the elegant curly head.

"If I am discovered, I will surely shoot him!" he said within himself.

"The old man," suggested Sprowl, "won't live long in jail."

"Very well," said Bythewood. "If the girls come to terms, why, we will secure their everlasting grat.i.tude by helping him out. If they won't, we will merely promise to do everything we can for him--and do nothing."

"And the property?" said Lysander, somewhat anxiously.

"You shall have what you can get of it,--I don't care for the property!"

replied Bythewood, with haughty contempt. "I believe the old man, foreseeing these troubles, has been converting his available means into Ohio railroad stock. If so, there won't be much for you to lay hold of until we have whipped the north."

"That we'll do fast enough," said Lysander, confidently.

"Well, I must be travelling," said Augustus.

"And I must be looking for that miserable schoolmaster."

So saying the young men arose from their cool seats on the stones,--Lysander placing his hand, to steady himself, on the edge of the butment within an inch of Penn's leg.

Darkness, however, favored the fugitive; and they pa.s.sed out from the shadow of the bridge without suspecting that they had held confidential discourse within arms' length of the man they were seeking to destroy.

They ascended the bank, mounted their horses, and took leave of each other,--Bythewood and his black man riding north, while Sprowl hastened to rejoin his companions in the search for the schoolmaster.

XXI.

_THE RETURN INTO DANGER._

Trembling with excitement Penn got down from the butment, and peering over the bank, saw his enemies in the distance.

What was to be done? Had he thought only of his own safety, his way would have been clear. But could he abandon his friends? forsake Virginia and her father when the toils of villany were tightening around them? leave Stackridge and his compatriots to their fate, when it might be in his power to forewarn and save them?

How he, alone, suspected, pursued, and sorely in need of a.s.sistance himself, was to render a.s.sistance to others, he did not know. He did not pause to consider. He put his faith in the overruling providence of G.o.d.

"With G.o.d's aid," he said, "I will save them or sacrifice myself."

As for fighting, should fighting prove necessary, his mind was made up.

The conversation of the villains under the bridge had settled that question.

Instead, therefore, of waiting for the friend who was to help him on his journey, he leaped up from under the bridge, and set out at a fast walk to follow his pursuers back to town.

He had travelled but a mile or two when he saw the farmer driving towards him in a wagon.

"Are you lost? are you crazy?" cried the astonished old man. "You are going in the wrong direction! The men have been to my house, searched it, and pa.s.sed on. Get in! get in!"

"I will," said Penn; "but, Mr. Ellerton, you must turn back."

He briefly related his adventure under the bridge. The old man listened with increasing amazement.

"You are right! you are right!" he said. "We must get word to Stackridge, somehow!" And turning his wagon about, he drove back over the road as fast as his horse could carry them.

It was sunset when they reached his house. There they unharnessed his horse and saddled him. The old man mounted.

"I'll do my best," he said, "to see Stackridge, or some of them, in season. If I fail, may be you will succeed. But you'd better keep in the woods till dark."

Ellerton rode off at a fast trot. Penn hastened to the woods, where Stackridge's horse was still concealed. The animal had been recently fed and watered, and was ready for a hard ride. The bridle was soon on his head, and Penn on his back, and he was making his way through the woods again towards home.

As soon as it was dark, Penn came out into the open road; nor did he turn aside into the bridle-path when he reached it, because he wished to avoid travelling in company with Ellerton, who was to take that route.

He also supposed that Sprowl's party would be returning that way. In this he was mistaken. Riding at a gallop through the darkness, his heart beating anxiously as the first twinkling lights of the town began to appear, he suddenly became aware of three hors.e.m.e.n riding but a short distance before him. They had evidently been drinking something stronger than water at the house of some good secessionist on the road, perhaps to console themselves for the loss of the schoolmaster,--for these were the excellent friends who were so eager to meet with him again! They were merry and talkative, and Penn, not ambitious of cultivating their acquaintance, checked his horse.

It was too late. They had already perceived his approach, and hailed him.

What should he do? To wheel about and flee would certainly excite their suspicions; they would be sure to pursue him; and though he might escape, his arrival in town would be thus perhaps fatally delayed. The arrests might be even at that moment taking place.

He reflected, "There are but three of them; I may fight my way through, if it comes to that."

Accordingly he rode boldly up to the a.s.sa.s.sins, and in a counterfeit voice, answered their hail. He was but little known to either of them, and there was a chance that, in the darkness, they might fail to recognize him.

"Where you from?" demanded Sprowl.

"From a little this side of Bald Mountain," said Penn,--which was true enough.

"Where bound?"

"Can't you see for yourself?" said Penn, a.s.suming a reckless, independent air. "I am following my horse's nose, and that is going pretty straight into Curryville."

"Glad of your company," said Sprowl, riding gayly alongside. "What's your business in town, stranger?"

"Well," replied Penn, "I don't mind telling you that my business is to see if I and my horse can find something to do for old Tennessee."

"Ah! cavalry?" suggested Lysander, well pleased.

"I should prefer cavalry service to any other," answered Penn.

"There's where you right," said Sprowl; and he proceeded to enlighten Penn on the prospects of raising a cavalry company in Curryville.

"Did you meet any person on the road, travelling north?"

"What sort of a person?"