Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1891-11-19

''Good night, Squire" and left
Hits mighty promisin," was Bells
whispered comment on this proceeding.
Our guard read, looked at his watch oc.
casionally, and to our great delight he
helped himself several times from the
decanter. Bell, who was nearest the lad.
der, began to snore about II o'clock,
and our guard laid aside his book and
paced the floor like man in profound
meditation After time he returned to
the box and sat down. He yawned.
stretched out his legs, got up, took an.
other drink, first holding the decanter
between his eyes and the lantern, ther
he sat down and rested his elbows on his
knees and his gray chin on his upturned
palm.
had fallen off into doze, when Bell
shook me and whispered, "Fasten yer
boots about yer neck and foller me-" He
had his knife between his teeth as he
went softly down the ladder, following
as silent as a shadow Justa as we reached
the foot of the ladder the rifle fell with O
bang and the guard started up. Before the
cry could burst from his lips Bell seized
him by the throat and felled him with a
powerful blow, then hissed, "By -, if
you uns holler I'll bury this knife in yer
hearth
With the hitching ropes hanging from
the pegs it did not take us many minutes
to bind and gag the man, using his own
powderhorn for the latter purpose. He
made no outcry, and | feared he was
dead; but we had no time to bother
about that. We extinguished the lam
tern, and again | had to beg Bell not te,
burden himself with rifle. and he
agreed, with surly oath.
There was no time for discussion, no
need to speak Barefooted, we hurried
from the stable and made for the north
west, and fortunately we were right as
to the direction. 1t was not till we had
gone about half mile from the house,
stopping now and then to listen. but
without hearing any alarm. that we
broke into a run 1t was not the fight
of men demoralized by fright. We
knew that everything depended on hus-
banding our strength and keeping on at
gait that. under the circumstances, we
could have maintained for day
\ 1t was about 10 o'clock when we left
| the stable, so that we had five hours of
\ darkness, and we determined to use it.
/ We overheard the men saying the even
4 ing before that the Home Guards were
patrolling the roads at night in that dis
trict, and this kept us in the fields or
woods We were in the foothills of the
/ Blue Ridge and the country was broken,
] making travel particularly trying in the
| darkness. added to this. creeks and
I streams beset our course every mile or
\ two. so that we were soon drenched, and
as Bell could not swim, | always entered
the water BY his side in a state Of alarm,
though fortunately that night was not
called on to help him. for we crossed NO
water that was not foriable.
! The sky, which had been overcast when
we started out, cleared off toward morn
/ ing, and we discovered that we were go
ing due south. AS the country grew
rougher in the direction we had been
going, and so would have bothered pur-
suing horsemen. we decided not to
I change, reeSenlrg tiast We sslslss 600H
reach the Savannah, which we had
made up our minds to recross into
Georgia
Just before daylight we came to a halt
on the banks Of a stream. which we
hoped was the Savannah, and waited fol
daylight When light came. the width
and character of the river convinced US
we were right but it needed no sound
ings to assure me that it could not be
forded at that point. We had to act
and think quickly We found a drift
log on the shore to which Bell could
cling, and without hesitation we
launched it and pushed out do moi
think ever met a man with more phys
ical courage than my companion, bui
| his ashy face and the awful look in his
eyes as he chung to that log. while
swan and pushed it along ! shall never
forget.
The undertaking was not difficult, bu
when reached a point where it wal
safe for my friend to drop down hi!
legs and abandon the log, we both sen
up fervent "Thank Godr The Geor-
gia shore -ras rocky and wooded, ant
! we at once hurried to a position from
which we could not be seen from the
South Carolina side. We wrung out ON
clothes, and after finding that the woods
afforded many places for concealmen
we decided to remain there till dark
As we were pretty well tagged out, anC
nothing was to be gained by standing
guard, we made couch Of boughs il
the midst of great pile Of rocks ant
slept till late in the afternoon, by which
time our fatigue had gone and we were
as hungry as wolves.
believed. from the time we left Mil
len, that Sherman's army should be oul
objective point. but Bells heart was Sc
on the mountains, and as he knew the
Blue Ridge as wells if he'd built hit.
yielded again, and we made up oul
minds to travel in the direction of sun
down.
The sun had set. and we had gone
about a mile. keeping the river on oul
right. when we came to IL clearing. ant
above the trees at the other side we saw
smoke pillar that indicated a house
Walking along the fence we came to ;
road leading toward the house. but th'
deep, bell-like baying Of dogs in the dis
tance sent our hearts into our mouths
and made us run back to the wood
again. After concluding that the dog
were not after us we moved on one,
more, and at length reached good
well beaten road that led in the righ
direction We met wagon and mum
ber of horselnen. but we took care tina
they did not see us.
II About midnight we met man ol
foot who was very drunk, and seemed Il
have lost his horse and his bearings. Fl
told rs that he had been Il soldier, 9TH
best sojer ever sent out BY this her
county of Ebert or the whole state o
Georgia. he declared He further in
formed US that if we kept straight OF
for about ten or fifteen miles we shoult
fetch up at Montevideo. but he proposes
that we should see him home, when h
would treat us like gentlemen and sen,
team with us as far as Hart on tn
morrow. We thankfully declined. an
left the gentleman singing "The South
ern Wagon" beside the road.
BY way Of appeasing our hunger W
drank at every stream we came to. an'
when the cocks began to crow Bell wa
sorely tempted to find their roostin
place. The dawn OF another day foun
no m, fha sauna rood with Z, rloa 20 !,