e to look out for the
women and children, and to raise food for the army and the people,"
replied the colonel with a smile, as he began to fathom the idea of the
questioner.

"It seems to me that Colonel Halliburn is right in the main, though he
might be able to spare a portion of his men," added the major.

"I might as well let it all out at once as do it in driblets," said
Captain Gordon. "I should like to enlist your forty-two sharpshooters
as the nucleus of a company of mounted riflemen, to be armed as
cavalry, except that the rifle shall take the place of the carbine, the
men to serve mounted or dismounted, as occasion may require; not a very
radical idea, for cavalry are not infrequently called upon to serve on
foot, as we have an instance this very day."

"I like the idea very much," returned the colonel.

"I will talk about the matter with my riflemen, and let you know what
they think of it at once," said Ripley; and he hastened to his command,
who were still eating their dinner.

The plan was talked over by the riflemen, and Lieutenant Ripley
heartily approved the scheme, but thought that he might be too old to
enlist, though he was still a healthy and vigorous citizen. The plan
was not entirely new; for steps had been taken, and perhaps
successfully, to organize "mounted infantry" in various places, and the
command of Lieutenant Ripley did not essentially differ from such a
force.

CHAPTER XIII

A NIGHT IN A JAIL AT JAMESTOWN

Lieutenant Ripley returned from the conference with the riflemen, and
reported that thirty of them were willing to enlist in such an
organization as that proposed; the others were unable to reply until
they had been home to their families. The lieutenant was confident that
he could raise the sixty proposed as a beginning within a reasonable
time, and the colonel had a similar confidence in the patriotism of the
loyal Kentuckians in that part of the State.

The men had finished their dinners, the prisoners had been paroled with
the approval of Major Lyon, who was beginning to be in a hurry to march
back to Jamestown as soon as the first company had rested from the hard
work of the day; and there had been much more of it than could be
indicated in the narrative of the principal events.

"I am sorry that we cannot take with us even a small company of those
riflemen, for I think they would be very useful in the course of a few
days," said Captain Gordon, after the major