I've
known it rise twenty feet in two hours, and once I was water-bound on
the other side for eleven days, unable to ford it. Emily would have gone
out of her mind with anxiety, for the country was very disturbed at the
time, only one of our neighbours, who saw me camping there, rode down to
the house, and told her where I was, but, all the same----Hold! what's
that?'
"I didn't scream; I couldn't, for my heart almost stopped beating with
terror.
"'Take the reins,' said Louis, in a quick whisper.
"I took hold of them as firmly as I could, but a pair of kittens could
have run away with us, my hands trembled so. Louis got out his revolver;
I heard click, click, click, in his hand, and then in the faint light I
saw the gleam of steel.
"'Halt! Who goes there?' called Louis, in a voice of thunder. I never
heard his soldier-voice before, for ordinarily he speaks in a melodious
baritone; and I then quite understood what Emily meant when she told me
how his voice was heard above the din of battle, cheering his men on for
the last charge at Gettysburg. I strained my eyes to see what it was,
and there in front of us, not fifteen yards away, on the side of the
road, I saw a man seated on horseback standing motionless, his right arm
stretching forward, aiming straight towards us.
[Sidenote: Two Pistol-shots]
"Two livid tongues of flame darted from beside me--two quick reports of
pistol-shots rang on the night air, then all was still.
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