Many thin
columns of smoke lying blue against the silver sky told where farmhouses
stood, and hunger suddenly seized upon Harry again.
Hunger is natural to youth, and his severe exertions all through the
night had greatly increased it. It became both a pain and a weakness.
His shoulders drooped with fatigue, and he felt that he must have food
or faint by the way.
He was ashamed of his physical weakness, but he knew that unless he found
food his faintness would increase, and hunger alone would stop him,
where so able a man as Shepard could not. His uniform, faded anyhow,
was so permeated with the dried mud of the river that it would take a
keen eye to tell whether it was Federal or Confederate, and he need not
disclose his identity in this region, which was so strongly for the
Union. He made up his mind quickly and rode for the nearest farmhouse.
Harry knew that he was inviting risks. His pistols were still useless
but they would be handy for threats, and he should be able to take care
of himself at a farmhouse.
The house that he had chosen was only a few hundred yards away, its white
walls visible among trees, and the clatter of his horse's hoofs brought a
man from a barn in the rear. Harry noted him keenly.
Pages:
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113