Page:Randall Parrish--My Lady of the South.djvu/37

A MILITARY SECRET through the night. largely by instinct, knowing almost nothing regarding roads, direction, or where Confederate pickets might be encountered. Still ordinary precaution ought to yield me passage, and the river itself would be a sufficient guide. If I only possessed some semblance of a Confederate uniform, the adventure would become much more simple, for in the confusion which must have followed the late engagement, there would be many scattered soldiers of all arms, wandering about. seeking their lost commands.

However, the first important and vital consideration was food, but that, as well as all else, must wait the coming of darkness. The sun had already disappeared behind the grove of trees in the west, and very soon, beneath the gathering gray of twilight, I ventured to creep forth from my covert and peer cautiously out through the partially opened door. There was a ﬁre burning in the kitchen of the big plantation house, a heavily built negress bustling about busily within, her robust shadow clearly revealed by the reflection of the flames. This was probably Diana, and her aﬂection for the Yankees was not apt to differ very widely from those of the others.

I must have watched her for fully ten minutes. unable to decide what I had better do, and becoming hungrier every second. The night shadows constantly deepened, and no alarming sound reached me from any direction. Finally Diana came forth on the back steps. holding a dish of something smoking hot in her hands. and began calling shrilly for Joe. There was no response. Muttering continually to herself, the negress passed across to the [ 29 ]