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"They tuk a short cut through the Cove they warn't in it a haffen hour," stipulated the prudent miller. "They came an' went like a flash. Nobody seen 'em 'cept the Brusies, kase they went by thar house an' ef they hed hed a guide, old Randal Brusie would hev named it." "Ackert 'lows he'll hang the guide ef he ketches him," said the blacksmith, in a tone of awe.
So whenst the guerilla war sure he hed escaped by ways unknownst he set out ter race him down ter the Cohutty Mountings. But Tolhurst had j'ined the main body o' the Federal Army, an' now Ackert is showing a clean pair o' heels comin' back. But he be goin' ter take time ter raid the Cove his hurry will wait fur that!
"Cap'n Cap'n bear with us we-uns don't know!" Ackert stared in snorting amaze, a flush of anger dyeing his red cheeks a yet deeper red. Of all the subterfuges that he had expected, he had never divined this.
Success would have meant more to Ackert than the value of the service to the cause, than the tumultuous afflatus of victory, than the spirit of strife to the born soldier. There had been kindled in his heart a great and fiery ambition; he was one of the examples of an untaught military genius of which the Civil War elicited a few notable and amazing instances.
It was a long moment before they were still again perhaps, indeed, it was the necessity of guarding her balance on the fiery steed, a new cause of apprehension, that paradoxically steadied Ethelinda's nerves. Ackert had dismounted, throwing the reins over his arm.
To remonstrate with a whirlwind, to explain to a flash of lightning, to soothe and propitiate the fury of a conflagration the task before the primitive and inexpert Cove-dwellers seemed to partake of this nature. "Cap'n ef ye'd listen ter what I gotter say," began the miller. "I'll listen arterward!" exclaimed Ackert, in his clarion voice.
And now suddenly this light was dimmed; his laurels were wilting. What prestige would the capture of Tolhurst have conferred! Never had a golden opportunity like this been lost by what uncovenanted chance had Tolhurst escaped! "He must have had a guide! Right here in the Cove!" Ackert exclaimed. "Nobody outside would know a hole in the ground, a cave, a water-gap, a tunnel like that!
"And so he went plumb through the cave?" "An' all the troop they kindled pine-knots fur torches." He glanced about him at the convenient growths. "And they came out all safe in Greenbrier!" He winced. How the lost opportunity hurt him! "Yessir. In Greenbrier Cove." "Did he pay you in gold?" sneered Ackert. "Or in greenbacks? Or mebbe in Cornfed money?" "I wouldn't hev his gold."
An' that guerilla, Ackert, hed been ridin' a hundred mile at a hand-gallop ter overhaul him, an' knowin' thar warn't but one outlet to Tanglefoot Cove, he expected ter capshur the Feds as they kem out agin. So he sot himself ter ambush Tolhurst, an' waited fur him up thar amongst the pines an' the laurel an' he waited an' waited! But Tolhurst never came!
It had been a running fight, for Tolhurst had orders, as Ackert had found means of knowing, to join the main body without delay, and his chief aim was to shake off this persistent pursuit with which a far inferior force had harassed his march.
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