You need not fear that your honor will suffer by it, for if
I am stopped I shall confess that I took it from her. Think no more of
me, Clarence, but only of yourself. You are in danger."
He crushed the letter in his hand.
"Tell me," he said in a fierce whisper, seizing her arm, "and speak low.
When did you leave her?"
"Sho'ly just now!" gasped the frightened woman.
He flung her aside. There might be still time to overtake and save her
before she reached the picket lines. He ran up the gully, and out on to
the slope towards the first guard-post. But a familiar challenge reached
his ear, and his heart stopped beating.
"Who goes there?"
There was a pause, a rattle of arms voices--another pause--and Brant
stood breathlessly listening. Then the voice rose again slowly and
clearly: "Pass the mulatto woman!"
Thank God! she was saved! But the thought had scarcely crossed his mind
before it seemed to him that a blinding crackle of sparks burst out
along the whole slope below the wall, a characteristic yell which he
knew too well rang in his ears, and an undulating line of dusty figures
came leaping like gray wolves out of the mist upon his pickets. He heard
the shouts of his men falling back as they fired; the harsh commands
of a few officers hurrying to their posts, and knew that he had been
hopelessly surprised and surrounded!
He ran forward among his disorganized men.
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