We must git at 'em with all
our men afore they can git at us."
The illiterate mountaineer and stock driver had evolved exactly the same
principle of war that Napoleon used.
But Colonel Winchester and his comrades could only guess at what was
going on in Donelson, and a guess always remains to be proved. So they
must continue their perilous quest. Once they were hailed by a Southern
sentinel, but Colonel Winchester replied promptly that they belonged to
Buckner's Kentuckians and had been sent out to examine the Union camp.
He passed it off with such boldness and decision that they were gone
before the picket had time to express a doubt.
But as they came toward the center of the line, and drew nearer to the
fort itself, they met another picket, who was either more watchful or
more acute. He hailed them at a range of forty or fifty yards, and when
Colonel Winchester made the same reply he ordered them to halt and give
the countersign. When no answer came he fired instantly at the tall
figure of Colonel Winchester and uttered a loud cry of, "Yankees!"
Luckily the dim light was tricky and his bullet merely clipped the
colonel's hair. But there was nothing for the four to do now save to
run with all their undignified might for their own camp.
"Come on, lads!" shouted Colonel Winchester. "Our scouting is over for
the time!"
The region behind them contained patches of scrub oaks and bushes,
and with their aid and that of the darkness, it was not difficult to
escape; but Dick, while running just behind the others, stepped in a
hole and fell.
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