The Shades of the Wilderness: A Story of Lee's Great StandAltsheler, Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander)
History
The Shades of the Wilderness: A Story of Lee's Great Stand
Altsheler, Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander)
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Juvenile fiction
Harry looked leisurely about the room, into which he had been wafted on
the magic carpet of the Arabian genii, so far as he knew. It was small
and without splendor and he knew at once from the character of its
belongings that it was a woman's room.
He sat up. His head throbbed, but touching it cautiously he knew that
he had sustained no serious injury. But he felt chagrin, and a lot of
it. Shepard had known that he was following him and had laid a trap,
into which he had walked without hesitation. The man, however, had
spared his life, although he could have killed him as easily as he had
stunned him. Then he laughed bitterly at himself. A duel between them,
he had called it! Shepard wouldn't regard it as much of a duel.
His head became so dizzy that he lay down again rather abruptly and
began to wonder. What was he doing in a woman's room, and who was the
woman and how had he got there? This would be a great joke for Dalton
and St. Clair and Happy Tom.
He was fully dressed, except for his boots, and he saw them standing on
the floor against the wall. He surveyed once more the immaculate
neatness of the room. It was certainly a woman's, and most likely that
of an old maid. He sat up again, but his head throbbed so fearfully
that he was compelled to lie down quickly. Shepard had certainly put a
lot in that right hand punch of his and he had obtained a considerable
percentage of revenge for his defeat in the river.
Then Harry forgot his pain in the intensity of his curiosity. He had
sustained a certain temporary numbing of the faculties from the blow
and his fancy, though vivid now, was vague. He was not at all sure
that he was still in Richmond. The window still showed that it was
night, and the rain was pouring so hard that he could hear it beating
against the walls. At all events, he thought whimsically, he had
secured shelter, though at an uncommon high price.
He heard a creak, and a door at the end of the room opened, revealing
the figure and the strong, haggard features of Henrietta Carden.
Evidently she had taken off a hood and cloak in an outer room, as there
were rain drops on her hair and her shoes were wet.
"How are you feeling, Mr. Kenton?" she asked.
"Full of aches and wonder."
"Both will pass."
She smiled, and, although she was not young, Harry thought her
distinctly handsome, when she smiled.
"I seem to have driven you out of your room and to have taken your bed
from you, Miss Carden," he said, "but I assure you it was
unintentional. I ran against something pretty hard, and since then I
haven't been exactly responsible for what I was doing."
She smiled again, and this time Harry found the smile positively
winning.
"I'm responsible for your being here," she said.
Then she went back to the door and said to some one waiting in the
outer room:
"You can come in, Lieutenant Dalton. He's all right except for his
headache, and an extraordinary spell of curiosity."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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