Page:Randall Parrish--My Lady of the South.djvu/96

MY LADY OF THE SOUTH after midnight there was not a Confederate company left on duty east of Salter's Creek. A few men may have been detailed to keep the fires going, but their regiments were certainly already on the march westward."

Rosecrans was leaning stiffly back in his chair, tapping on the table with the blunt end of a pencil, his keen eyes constantly studying my face. Suddenly he glanced over toward the group of officers standing clustered in the doorway.

"Captain Geer, were any of your scouts across the river last night?"

"Daniels, sir."

"Bring him in."

He arrived shortly, still rubbing his eyes, as though just awakened from sleep, as odd-appearing a specimen of the typical mountain white as ever I saw,—long, loosely jointed limbs, narrow, stooped shoulders, bushily whiskered face intensely solemn in expression and strangely wrinkled, yet ornamented with keen blue eyes containing some shrewd humor in their depths. His clothes were as nondescript as his appearance, and he came slouching forward carelessly, his gaze wandering over the group gathered in the room.

"Daniels," and the General's stern voice instantly commanded his attention, "Captain Geer tells me you were across the river during the night. What did you discover?"

"Wal, Gin'ral," he piped out in a mere squeak of a voice, which sounded funny enough, although no one laughed, "I reckon I did n't pick up nothin' worth talkin' [ 86 ]