"Aaron Goldschmidt," he whispered, as we descended3 into a dry, tangled4 swamp. In the depths of this wild, beside a roofed pen of logs stored with half a dozen bales of cotton, we were presently in the company of a very small man who tossed a hand in token of great amusement.
"Hello, Ned!" he whispered in antic irony5; "what an accident is dat, meeding so! Whoever is expecting someding like dis!"
"Well, I hope nobody, Isidore; I hardly expected it myself, your father set those candles so close the one behind the other."
Isidore doubled with mirth and as suddenly straightened. "Your horse is here since yesterday. She left him--by my father. She didn't t'ink t'e Yankees is going to push away out here to-night. But he is a pusher, t'at Grierson! You want him to-night, t'at horse? He is here by me, but I t'ink you best not take him, hmm? To cross t'e creek6 and go round t'e ot'er way take you more as all night; and to go back t'is same way you come, even if I wrap him up in piece paper you haven't got a lawch insite pocket you can carry him?" He laughed silently and the next instant was more in earnest than ever.
"She is in a tight place! She hires my mother's pony7 to ride in to headquarters." He called them hatekvartuss, but we need not. "I t'ink she is not a prisoner--unless--she wants to come back." He doubled again. "Anyhow, I wish you can see her to-night; she got another doll-baby for t'e gildren, and she give you waluable informations by de hatfull.... Find her? I tell you how you find her in finfty-nine minutes--vedder permitting, t'at is."
The last phrase was fitted to a listening pose, and the first mutter of the pending8 thunder-storm came out of the northwest. Then Isidore hastened through the practical details of his proposition. Ferry drew a breath of enthusiasm. "Can I have my horse, bridled9 and saddled, in three minutes?"
"I pring um in two!" said Isidore, and vanished. Ferry turned with an overmastering joy in every note of his whispered utterance10. "After all!" he said, and I could have thrown my arms around him in pure delight to hear duty and heart's desire striking twelve together.
"Smith," he asked, "can you start back without me? Then go at once; I shall overtake you on my horse."
I stole through the cornfield safely; the frequent lightnings were still so well below the zenith as to hide me in a broad confusion of monstrous11 shadows. But when I came to cross the road no crouching12 or gliding13 would do. I must go erect14 and only at the speed of some ordinary official errand. So I did, at a point between two opposite fence-gaps, closely after an electric gleam, and I was rejoicing in the thick darkness that followed, when all at once the whole landscape shone like day and I stood in the middle of the road, in point-blank view of a small squad15, a "visiting patrol". They were trotting16 toward me in the highway, hardly a hundred yards off. As the darkness came again and the thunder crashed like falling timbers, I started into the cotton-field at an easy double-quick. The hoofs17 of one horse quickened to a gallop18. A strong wind swept over, big rain-drops tapped me on the shoulder and pattered on the cotton-plants, the sound of the horse's galloping19 ceased as he turned after me in the soft field, and presently came the quiet call "Halt, there, you on foot." I went faster. I knew by my pursuer's coming alone that he did not take me for a Confederate, and that the worst I should get, to begin with, would be the flat of his sabre. Shrewdly loading my tongue with that hard northern r which I hated more than all unrighteousness, I called back "Oh, I'm under orders! go halt some fool who's got time to halt!"
I obliqued20 as if bound for the headquarters fire where we had seen the singers, the lightning branched over the black sky like tree-roots, the thunder crashed and pounded again, the wind stopped in mid-career, and the rain came straight down in sheets. "Halt!" yelled the horseman. He lifted his blade, but I darted21 aside and doubled, and as he whirled around after me, another rider, meeting him and reining22 in at such close quarters that the mud flew over all three of us, lifted his hand and said--
"He is right, sergeant23, he is carrying out my orders." Ferry's black silk handkerchief about his neck covered his Confederate bars of rank, and the Federal may or may not have noted24 the absence of shoulder-straps; our arms remained undrawn; and so the sergeant, catching25 a breath or two of disconcertion, caught nothing else. While Ferry spoke26 on for another instant I showed my heels; then he left the dripping Yankee mouthing an angry question and loped after me, and over the low fence went the two of us almost together.
Kendall was not there, the Federal camp-makers had tardily27 repaired their blunder by posting guards; but these were not looking for their enemies from the side of their own camp, and as we cleared the fence in the full blaze of a lightning flash, only two or three wild shots sang after us. In the black downpour Ferry reached me an invisible hand. I leapt astride his horse's croup, and trusting the good beast to pick his way among the trees himself, we sped away. Soon we came upon our three men waiting with the horses, and no great while afterward28 the five of us rejoined our command. The storm lulled29 to mild glimmerings and a gentle shower, and the whole company, in one long single file, began to sweep hurriedly, stealthily, and on a wide circuit of obscurest byways, deeper than ever into the enemy's lines.
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1
molestation
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| n.骚扰，干扰，调戏；折磨 | |
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2
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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5
irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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creek
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| n.小溪，小河，小湾 | |
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pony
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| adj.小型的；n.小马 | |
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8
pending
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| prep.直到，等待…期间；adj.待定的；迫近的 | |
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9
bridled
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| 给…套龙头( bridle的过去式和过去分词 )； 控制； 昂首表示轻蔑（或怨忿等）； 动怒，生气 | |
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utterance
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| n.用言语表达，话语，言语 | |
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monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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12
crouching
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
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13
gliding
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| v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的 | |
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14
erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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15
squad
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| n.班，小队，小团体；vt.把…编成班或小组 | |
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16
trotting
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| 小跑，急走( trot的现在分词 )； 匆匆忙忙地走 | |
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17
hoofs
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| n.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的名词复数 )v.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的第三人称单数 ) | |
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18
gallop
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| v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔；飞速发展 | |
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19
galloping
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| adj. 飞驰的, 急性的 动词gallop的现在分词形式 | |
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20
obliqued
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| v.歪的( oblique的过去式和过去分词 )；倾斜的；拐弯抹角的；间接的 | |
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21
darted
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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22
reining
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| 勒缰绳使（马）停步( rein的现在分词 )； 驾驭； 严格控制； 加强管理 | |
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23
sergeant
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| n.警官，中士 | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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26
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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tardily
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| adv.缓慢 | |
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afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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lulled
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| vt.使镇静，使安静（lull的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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