SCOUTING SERVICE
soundly. Then I crept silently forth from the cleft where we were resting, to where I could gaze down again into the quiet valley. Some strange impulse drew me toward the distant house; it may have been the memory of Jean Denslow, yet I persuaded myself it was hope of learning there something of the whereabouts of this Big Donald for whom we were searching. I even drove the girl from my thoughts, striving thus to concentrate my mind more clearly upon the one important duty confronting me as a scout. There would be blacks yonder in sympathy with the Union army; and if I could gain a moment's conversation with one such, it might save us another entire night of fruitless search. Sand Creek, skirting the orchard and grapery, was sufficiently bordered by trees to offer protection almost to the cabins, and I would certainly run but little risk of discovery if I advanced that tar. The result might not be much, yet any real effort was better than lying around and accomplishing nothing.
I started off in that spirit, following the course of the stream down into the valley, at first keeping well concealed behind the banks, and later dodging carefully along under protection of trees and underbrush. Half way across the valley I came upon a well-beaten foot-path, where the narrow stream had been bridged by a sturdy log, and followed this with increased caution, as it wound in and out among the trees, and through great patches of concealing weeds. A rail fence enclosed the orchard, but the heavy, gnarled limbs of the old apple trees grew low, and concealed my movements from the house, so that I crawled through, and advanced to where
[ 115 ]
