Page:Randall Parrish--My Lady of the South.djvu/101

WE FIND THE COURIER two men appeared similarly attired. Yet they had a sturdy and resolute fighting appearance which pleased me, and had all, without doubt, proved their value in hazardous service.

Perhaps a dozen were unmistakably of the mountain white type,—gaunt, unshaven, slow of speech, their keen, restless eyes searching every covert for a possible enemy in ambush; the others were mostly young, reckless-looking fellows, picked from the ranks of various organizations because too restless for the discipline of regular command. Someway they appealed to me, and I felt a hope that I might be retained in command, and thus given opportunity to test their mettle. Back of Daniels, who slouched carelessly in the saddle peering out suspiciously from under the broad flapping brim of his hat, rode a red-headed, freckle-faced boy of eighteen, his eyes dancing with the merriment of unrestrained dare-deviltry evidently from his dress originally a trooper. Beside him was a pudgy, broad-shouldered, round-faced man of thirty whose previous life had apparently been that of the farm with large black eyes glowing feverishly beneath his cap visor. The faces were principally American, yet of greatly varying types, one or two aristocratic enough to win a second glance, but all bronzed by exposure, and marked by that alertness born of individual action. They rode in open order, careless as to military form, scarcely exchanging words, yet leaving upon my mind an impression that they were prepared at any time to try me out and would obey my orders only so far as I made good according to their rough and ready standards. The [ 91 ]