The Blue Balloon: A Tale of the Shenandoah ValleyHorsley, Reginald
History
The Blue Balloon: A Tale of the Shenandoah Valley
Horsley, Reginald
Adventure stories; Balloons -- Fiction; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Fiction
Tearing himself free from the man upon the ground, he leaped to his
feet, and running a few paces, still towards the advancing crowd,
wheeled round suddenly, and with a loud shout of ‘This way! Over here!’
rushed back by the way he had come, only at a much slower pace.
Fortunate it was for him that it was so dark. Guided by his voice, the
soldiers hurried after him, surrounded him, noted him running in their
midst in the same direction as themselves, and—passed him by.
Still Lucius held on, slowing down at every stride, till the last man of
the supports, puffing and blowing, shot ahead of him, and then he turned
in his tracks once more, and sped like a deer towards the Confederate
lines.
He took a diagonal path, making by instinct for the corner of the wood,
which more than once that day had been their means of salvation, and
reaching it after a tearing run of nearly a mile, plunged just inside
its border and flung himself face downwards to recover his wind.
All at once, as he lay, a sharp pang shot through him. The Grizzly!
Where was he? Was he, too, running for his life in the open? Had he
reached the wood? Or, bitter thought, had he been captured after all?
The bare possibility stung Lucius into action, and he leaped again to
his feet, glaring wildly round him in the dark.
What would they do with him if he were taken? Would they shoot him then
and there? Or would they take him back to the camp, and after a mere
formality of a trial, hang him like a dog? Lucius strained his ears
until they pained him, listening for the fatal shot. But he heard
nothing. ‘Oh, Grizzly,’ he thought bitterly, ‘if you are taken, if you
are shot, and I have run away and left you to your fate!’
He was hardly fair to himself in his sharp self-upbraiding. To run had
been the Grizzly’s own command, and he had obeyed implicitly. He began
to take a little comfort. Perhaps they had only missed one another in
the dark. Perhaps the Grizzly was even now in safety, waiting
opportunity to make a dash for the Confederate lines. He would go on.
Then again the cruel thought, ‘What if he be a captive while I am free?’
‘Go on and save yourself, at all events,’ whispered self-preservation.
‘It is what he himself would have you do.’
‘And just because it is what he would have me do,’ answered the spirit
of manliness in the boy’s breast, ‘I will not do it. I will go back and
find him, if I have to march right into the Federal camp.’
He was almost beside himself with pain and grief, but the one idea took
possession of him, and in his brain the words repeated themselves over
and over again: ‘Go back and find him! Go back and find him!’
‘Oh, if I had but a gun!’ he sighed, ‘I would make somebody pay for
this.’
His hands struck against his cartridge belt. ‘Pah!’ he said in disgust,
opening the pouch. ‘What is the use of you without a gun?’ Then a gasp
of astonishment escaped him. His fingers, idly groping in the pouch, had
encountered a piece of folded paper—two pieces.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account