The blow to all was a bitter one, but now was no time to think about it. “We can weep afterwards,” said one of the older men of the Goreville Volunteers. “Now it is use your legs or go to a rebel prison,” and off he stalked, with Captain Paulding, Louis, Harry Bingham, Moses Blackwell, and a dozen others beside him. The captain tried to preserve order, but this was impossible, for men on foot and men on horseback were rushing hither and thither, trying to find their commands or, at least, a friend or two. Less than half a mile had been covered, when a firing upon the road caused the volunteers to halt. Then came a rush, and a band of the Confederate cavalry swept by. As they did so the volunteers stepped into the shelter of the woods beside the turnpike. They were about to emerge when Louis felt himself jerked violently to the ground. He had been pulled down by a fellow concealed in the long grass. As he tumbled headlong he caught sight of the man’s face. It was Sam Jacks! CHAPTER XI LOUIS’S PERILOUS ESCAPE To be pulled down in such an unceremonious fashion was a surprise in itself, but to find himself face to face with his enemy, the mountaineer, astonished Louis beyond measure. For the instant he could do nothing but stare at his assailant. Then came the realization of his position--that Jacks was not only his personal enemy, but that the man likewise belonged to the Confederate forces, and as Captain Paulding and the others moved off on the double-quick he endeavored to pull himself away to go with them. “No, yer don’t!” hissed rather than exclaimed the mountaineer. “I’ve got yer an’ I’m goin’ ter hold yer!” His face, generally far from clean, was now covered with thick dirt, and over one cheek flowed a small stream of blood, for he had been wounded, not by a shot from the enemy, but from a tumble in the woods in which he had been hiding. As he spoke so vindictively he hauled Louis closely to him. “Let me go!” panted the young Union soldier, and struggled to free himself. “Captain Paulding! Harry! Hel--” The words died upon his lips as Sam Jacks clapped a dirty hand over his mouth. Then commenced a fierce struggle, and both rolled over and over in the tall grass, until, coming to the edge of a gully, both dropped a distance of six or eight feet, to bring up on a pile of damp leaves and dead tree branches. Louis came down on top, and with such force that the mountaineer’s wind was for the moment knocked completely out of him. He uttered a grunt and a gasp, and ere he could recover Louis was on his feet and making for a spot where the side of the gully sloped upward.