The Lost Dispatch by Anonymous

Author:Anonymous [Anonymous]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, History
ISBN: 4064066137014
Publisher: Good Press
Published: 2021-05-19T04:00:00+00:00

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CHAPTER VII.

Table of Contents

Weary as I was I yet had something to do before I could take the needed rest, which every atom in my jaded frame was loudly demanding.

The time had come to test the feasibility of the plan which had flashed into my mind as I sat in General Foster's tent, and which I had thought over and elaborated along the way.

When the idea first entered my head that I could personate my cousin Salome, enter the enemy's lines, meet her Rebel lover, and from him learn what the enemy were going to do, and by my own eyes determine the strength and position of their forces, I had only thought what a huge joke it would be. Had General Foster returned at once the idea might have died without further growth, but in the time of waiting I had idly thought over and over how easily it could be done, and planned this and that detail until finally the project seized a firm hold of me, and I had determined, hazardous as it was, to attempt it.

None knew better than I the dangers surrounding such a trip, but I realized our need of reliable information to take the place of the flying rumors that could not be trusted, and well I knew that I would stand every chance of succeeding where others had failed. My love of adventure, my ambition, my duty to my country, all urged me on. There was nothing to weigh against the last.

I was acquainted with every inch of the country. I had gone more times than I can number up and down both sides the river, to and from Washington and places in the vicinity. I was almost as much at home at several places near Hagerstown and Frederick as I was at S——, and every inch of the country between was familiar to me. I had hunted over it and knew every cross road and rabbit path, every short cut and ford, and I was well aware that I could baffle pursuit from an enemy not so entirely familiar with the country.

I had no fear but what I could successfully personate my cousin. My cousin Salome and I were within a few months of the same age. She had but one sister and I was an only child. We had been together so much that we quite looked on ourselves as brother and sister, and I think our affection was strengthened by the exceedingly strong likeness we bore each other. So strong was the resemblance that when children we were constantly taken by strangers not only for brother and sister, but for twins. One of the favorite pranks of my boyhood had been to don one of Salome's dresses, and answering the first call made for her, deceive even her own mother, until a closer view proved the fraud.

Since Salome had grown to the dignity of long dresses and done up hair, and I to long tailed coats, the

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