We want you to make your way over the hills tonight
to General Beauregard's army and bring aid. Even should five be
captured or slain the sixth may get through. Lieutenant Kenton, you
will go first. You will recall that the horses of the officers were
left on the crest of the mountain with a small guard. They may be there
yet, and if you can secure a mount, so much the better. But the moment
you leave this fort you must rely absolutely upon your own skill and
judgment."
Harry bowed. It was a great trust and he felt elation because he had
been chosen first. He was again a courier, and he would do his best.
"I should advise you not to take either a rifle or a sword," said
Colonel Talbot, "as they will be in the way of speed. But you'd better
have two pistols. Now, go! I send you upon a dangerous errand, but I
hope that the son of George Kenton, my old friend, will succeed. Hark!
There is Carrington again! How strangely this war arrays comrades
against one another!"
A shell burst almost at the center of the fort, and, for a few moments,
the air was full of earth and flying fragments of steel. But in another
minute Harry made his preparations, dropped over the rear earthwork and
crouched for a little while against it.
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