"I am overjoyed at meeting with you, sir," he said, in a voice choked
with emotion. "Perhaps I owe you an apology; but you will acknowledge
that it is best to be on the safe side."
"Certainly it is," answered the man. "I should have done exactly as
you did, if I had been in your place. But where are you travelling
to?"
"I want to reach Red River, as soon as possible."
"So do we! But we have lost our reckoning, and don't know which way to
go."
"I do," said Frank. "This path leads directly to it."
They did not linger long to converse--time was too precious for
that--but immediately struck into the path, Frank leading the way.
He soon learned that the names of his newly-found friends were Major
Williams and Captain Schmidt. They had been captured, with two hundred
others, at the battle of Vicksburg, and had escaped while being taken
into Texas. They had accomplished, perhaps, half a dozen miles from
the place where they met, when the breeze bore to their ears a sound
that made Frank turn as pale as death, and tremble as though suddenly
seized with a fit of the ague.
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