The Drummer Boy Part 36

It was a moment of unspeakable satisfaction to the drummer boy when he had brought his prisoner through all the difficulties of the way to the road. There he had him safe.

He was now in the midst of shocking and terrible scenes, but he heeded them not as much as he would have heeded the smallest accident to a fellow-creature a few hours before. Already he seemed familiar with battles and all their horrors. Men were hurrying by with medical stores.

The wounded were pa.s.sing, on stretchers, or in the arms of their friends, or limping painfully, ghastly, bleeding, but heroic still. They smiled as they showed their frightful hurts. One poor fellow had had his arm torn off by a cannon ball: the flesh hung in strings. Some lay by the roadside, faint from the loss of blood. And all the time the deadly, deafening tumult of the battle went on.

To guard his prisoner securely was Frank's first thought. But greater, more absorbing even than that, was the wild wish to see the enemies of his country defeated, and to share in the glorious victory.

"Frank Manly! what sort of a beast have you got there?" cried a soldier, returning from the action with a slight wound.

Frank recognized a member of another company in the same regiment to which he belonged.

"I've got a sharpshooter that I've taken prisoner." And he briefly related his adventure, every word of which the rebel, who rather admired his youthful captor, voluntarily confirmed.

"It's just as he tells you," he said, a.s.suming a candid, reckless air. "I am well enough satisfied. If your men are equal to your boys, I shall have plenty of company before night."

"You think we shall have you all prisoners?" inquired Frank, eagerly.

"This island," replied the rebel, "is a perfect trap. I've known it from the beginning. You outnumber us two to one, and if the fight goes against us, we've no possible chance of escape. We've five thousand men on the island, and if we're whipped you'll make a pretty respectable bag. But you never can conquer us,"--he hastened to add, fearing lest he was conceding too much.

"Can't, eh?" laughed Frank. "Where's the last ditch?"

"Never mind about that," said the prisoner, with a peculiar grin.

By this time several other stragglers had gathered around them, eager to hear the story of the drummer boy's exploit.

The rebel had looked curiously at his youthful captor ever since he had heard him called by name. At length he said:--

"Have you got a brother in the confederate army?"

Frank changed color. "Why do you ask that?"

"Because we have a Captain Manly, from the north somewhere, who looks enough like you to be a pretty near relation."

Frank trembled with interest as he inquired, "What is his given name?"

"Captain--Captain _George_ Manly, I'm pretty sure."

"Yes, sir,"--and sorry tears came into Frank's eyes as he spoke,--"I suppose I must own he is my brother."

"Well, you've a smart chance of meeting him, I reckon,--if, as I said, your men are equal to your boys. For he's fighting against you to-day, and he's one of the pluckiest, and he won't run."

x.x.x.

THE BOYS MEET AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE.

Frank was anxious to inquire further concerning his apostate brother; but at this moment one of Foster's aids came up, and saw the prisoner.

"Where did you find that fellow?" The story was quickly told. "Well,"

said the officer, "you've taken the first prisoner to-day."

He then turned to question the captive, who seemed inclined to talk freely about the position and force of the confederates.

"I'll take this fellow in charge," he said, perceiving that it was in his power to give valuable information. "Come, too, if you like."

"I thank you; I want to join my company," said Frank.

"You'd rather do that than come and see the general?"

"I can see him any time when he wants me, but we don't have a fight every day, sir."

"Well, he shall hear of you. Can I do any thing for you?"

"If you please, you may take this gun that I have captured; one is enough for me."

The officer took it, saying, as he turned to go,--

"A spirited boy, and as modest as he is brave!"

In the mean time Frank's comrades in the fight were cutting their way through a thick swampy jungle in the direction of the enemy's left flank.

Relieved of his prisoner, his ardor inflamed rather than quenched by the evil tidings he had heard of his brother, he followed in their track, pa.s.sing directly across the fire of the battery.

The hurricane of destruction swept howling over him. The atmosphere was thick with smoke. Grape-shot whizzed through the bushes. The scream of rifled shot seemed to fill the very air with terror and shuddering. Right before him a sh.e.l.l struck a forest tree, s.h.i.+vering limbs and trunk in an instant, as if a bolt from heaven had fallen upon it. He felt that at any moment his tender body too might be torn in pieces; but he believed G.o.d's arm was about him, and that he would be preserved. Deep and solemn, happy even, was that conviction. A sense of the grand and terrible filled him; the whole soul of the boy was aroused. He was not afraid of any thing. He felt ready for any thing, even death, in his country's service.

The mud was deep, and savage the entanglement of bushes on every side.

But the troops, breaking through, had made the way comparatively easy to follow, and Frank soon overtook the regiment.

Great was Captain Edney's surprise at sight of him, with a gun in his hand and with the glow of youthful heroism in his face.

"What are you here for?"

"To beg permission to take Winch's place in the ranks."

"Your place is with the ambulance corps."

"I got excused from that, sir. I am not strong enough to carry heavy men through the swamps," said Frank, with a smile.

"But strong enough to take a man's place in the ranks!" said Captain Edney.

"I would like to have you try me, sir."

You may know that Captain Edney loved the boy to whom he gave so many words and such serious thought at a time of action and peril. Perhaps he had heard of Winch's pusillanimity, and understood the spirit which prompted Frank to fill his place. Certain it is he saw in the lad's eye the guarantee that, if permitted, he would give no cowardly account of himself that day. So, reluctantly, dreading lest evil might happen to him, he granted his request; and with a thrill of joy, Frank sprang to At.w.a.ter's side.

"I'm here, old Abe!"