Shaking off the dim sense of foreboding, I gave my thoughts entirely to the task before me. I had decided to make my way down the side of the river I was then on. From what I had learned of the position of the enemy, I knew the risk would be no greater than if I crossed to the opposite shore, and I hoped to save many weary miles of travel. Being well aware of the extreme caution shown on our side, I thought the chances were that our army would be yet in the neighborhood of the place where I left them, and I aimed for that point.

I told Ned that I had secured a paper of the utmost importance, and that if I were shot and he escaped, he was to take the paper from its place of concealment and carry it on.

We turned to the left, down the first road we came to, after parting with Captain DeLacy and his men. Just before we reached it, we were stopped by a small party of Confederates on horseback. I offered my passes. Striking a match, an officer read them, and after a few questions, allowed us to go on. That was the only time the passes were of use to us, for as soon as I parted with my disguise they were, of course, worthless.

In order to make the best time possible, and avail ourselves of short cuts and bridle paths, it was necessary to leave the buggy and return to horseback. That we did at the earliest practical moment. As soon as we came to a rough bit of road, after our first turn, Ned drove the buggy to one side, and, knocking off a wheel, left it to its fate. When I was again in my own clothes, we made the harness and my disguise into several bundles, which Ned weighted and dropped into the first creek we came to.

That done, we hurried on. The night had turned cloudy and dark while we had been in the Confederate camp. It did not rain, but before long we struck a place where it had very recently, and our horses for a short distance were obliged to plough through slippery clay. Frequently we would see the fires of some outpost, and often a picket shot, sometimes startlingly near, would ring out on the murky night.

Well as I knew the country, I finally made a false turn in the confusing darkness, and approached the river when I thought we were still several miles away from it and following its course.

Leaving Ned in safe hiding, I crept forward to reconnoiter. I made for a rock overhanging the water, at the head of a bend in the river, from the edge of which I hoped to be able to tell if the fires opposite were repeated down the side I was on.

As I gained a sheltered place near the top and in the rear of the rock, I heard a boat grate on the pebbles beneath, and two men ascended to the very spot I had started for. I lay low behind the scanty bushes, while they sat down near me. From what they said, I gathered that they had crossed from the Rebel camp over the river to investigate the bank up stream for some purpose, but not liking the looks of something that had attracted their notice, they had stopped there to decide what they should do.

I was too near to move away without them hearing me. I was caught in a trap. Chaffing at a delay, when every moment was precious, and fearing that Ned, alarmed at my protracted absence, might come to look for me, I was obliged to crouch, motionless in my hiding place, while the two men so near me idly discussed topics relating to everything but the duty they were on. While I waited, the clouds began to break away, and once or twice the moonlight shone out full and strong, leaving me with little to shield me, had they chanced to turn around.

Finally, after what seemed hours to me, one decided to go over for re-enforcements and descended to the boat. Cautiously rising, as the other advanced to the extreme edge of the rock, I saw that his back was toward me and that he was intently watching the progress of the boat, then in mid-stream.

It was possible then for me to have slipped away unnoticed, but I was exasperated beyond endurance. An uncontrollable impulse seized me. Even if I had been sure that the whole Confederate army would have started to his rescue, I could not have helped pushing that man into the water. Moving noiselessly behind him, with the end of my revolver I gave him a sharp punch in the middle of the back. Taken completely off his guard, without a word, but with a wild whirl of arms and legs, he went straight down into the deep water beneath. I have wondered hundreds of times since, what that man thought was the matter with him. If he has lived to read this, he knows now.