Captain Wharton, I
claim your assistance as an aid-de-camp."
The youth shook his head in disapprobation of a movement which his good
sense taught him was rash, but prepared with alacrity to perform his
duty in the impending trial.
During this conversation, which was held at a small distance in advance
of the British column, and in full view of the Americans, Dunwoodie had
been collecting his scattered troops, securing his few prisoners, and
retiring to the ground where he had been posted at the first appearance
of his enemy. Satisfied with the success he had already obtained, and
believing the English too wary to give him an opportunity of harassing
them further, he was about to withdraw the guides; and, leaving a strong
party on the ground to watch the movements of the regulars, to fall back
a few miles, to a favorable place for taking up his quarters for the
night. Captain Lawton was reluctantly listening to the reasoning of his
commander, and had brought out his favorite glass, to see if no opening
could be found for an advantageous attack, when he suddenly exclaimed,--
"How's this! a bluecoat among those scarlet gentry? As I hope to live to
see old Virginia, it is my masquerading friend of the 6oth, the
handsome Captain Wharton, escaped from two of my best men!"
He had not done speaking when the survivor of these heroes joined his
troop, bringing with him his own horse and those of the Cowboys; he
reported the death of his comrade, and the escape of his prisoner.
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