CHAPTER VI

A STRUGGLE IN THE DARK


I have seldom been more deeply embarrassed than at that moment. I knew
not what to say or how best to approach this young woman left so
strangely to my protection. The very fact, which I now realized, that
she was both young and fair added some indefinite burden and
complicated the delicate situation. I saw no safety for us but in
careful hiding until Craig could return, a squad of hard-riding
troopers at his back. To permit the girl to venture forward alone
through the desolate country we were in, overrun as I knew it to be by
irregular bands whose sole purpose was plunder, and whose treatment of
women had made my blood run cold as I listened to its recital, was not
to be so much as thought of. Even if, by rare good fortune, she should
succeed in safely reaching the Federal picket post in our front, the
men on duty there were just as likely as not to prove of the same
desperate stamp, and every indignity might be offered her were she to
appear alone. Nor could I venture to accompany her on such a trip, for
to do so would but assure my own capture, and involve months of
confinement in Northern prisons, even were I fortunate enough to escape
with life. Wearing as I did the full field uniform of my rank, it was
hardly probable that regular troops would treat me as a spy, even
though caught within their lines; but if we fell into the hands of
guerillas it would be a short shrift indeed.

There was no help for it, and but one way out, disagreeable as that
might prove to my lady. She stood there before me, motionless and