There was something in his look when he returned mine that made me think he wanted to speak to me. Every time he passed I thought I saw his eyes growing more and more wistful under their drooping lids.
Without seeming to notice him I moved about the room until I got to a window which was in the line of his restless beat. I stood there, my back turned to him, apparently looking out of the window, until I disarmed the suspicion of the guard. Then I settled down into a seat, my side to the window, my back to the guard, my face to the prisoner when the turn in his beat brought him toward me. A swift glance showed him that I was on the alert. Not a muscle of his face changed--he was facing the guard--but when he turned and came back, as he passed me he dropped these words.
He walked to the end of the room and turned. Coming back, he faced me and the guard. As he passed I said:
When he came back, he said--always with his head drooped and speaking below his breath and so that his lips could hardly be seen to move:
Returning: “Get word to Governor Vance of North Carolina----”
To the end of his beat, turning and passing again in silence, then as he walked with his back to the guard:
To the end of beat one way, to the end another, and back again:
“Prisoner--captured in fight yesterday----”
Several beats back and forth in silence, then:
This was the last he had opportunity to say. I saw the orderly coming in. Before Lieutenant Vance was near enough to catch another word from me, the orderly stood before me, a telegram in his hand. It was from General Fish to General Kelly:
“The ladies were sent south at their own request. I decline further connection with the matter.”
“Why--why,” I cried in desperation, “we can’t go south, we can’t go north, and we can’t stay here!”
There was a pert little Yankee in the room who had been watching us for some time. He, like everybody else around us, understood by this time our dilemma.
“I’ll tell you how to get sent on, if you will listen,” he said.
“I will,” I said clearly and firmly, and looking straight into the eyes of Lieutenant Vance, who was then passing close by me.
The little Yankee was staggered by the unnecessary amount of resolution expressed in my reply. I kept my eyes focused on the spot where Mr. Vance had been for some seconds after he had passed. Then I turned to my little Yankee. I had snubbed him severely heretofore, but I was humbled by extremity, and willing enough now to listen if he could tell us how to get away from this place.