train escort touched his cap
to his senior in rank, and reported that the wagons had all been hauled
to the woods, and were in the by-road.

"How many men have you, Lieutenant?" asked the captain.

The chief of the escort looked at Deck, and did not answer at once.

CHAPTER XIX

THE RIVERLAWN CAVALRY ON THE FLANK

The aide-de-camp was a stranger to Lieutenant Sterling, who therefore
hesitated to answer such a question; but Deck immediately introduced
him to the staff-officer, adding that he had saved the wagon-train from
the enemy by taking to the meadow, and had brought it over a mile
through the mire.

"You have done well, Lieutenant Sterling, and I will mention the matter
to the general," said the captain.

"Thank you, Captain Woodbine. I have forty men, besides the
quartermaster-sergeant and thirteen mule-drivers," added the chief of
the escort very respectfully.

"You are a commissioned officer?"

"I am, Captain."

"You may retire, but remain within call."

"The presence of this officer solves the difficulty," continued the
aide-de-camp. "He has to conduct his wagons within our lines, and he
can take charge of the prisoners after you have disarmed them. They do
not seem to be disposed to fight, and the escort is sufficient. They
will be here in a very short time. Lieutenant Sterling!" he called.

This officer hastened back to the point, and saluted the captain; and
this time he noticed the gold cord of a staff-officer on the sides of
his trousers, which had been concealed before by a clump of bushes in
which he stood. He had been an officer in the regular army, a West
Pointer, who had resigned in "piping times of peace."

"I have to assign you to an important duty in addition to your present
service, and I have no doubt you will perform it as well as you have
the conduct of the wagon-train," said Captain Woodbine.

"I should certainly have been captured if Lieutenant Lyon had not
fought and beaten the enemy's cavalry," replied the chief of the
escort.

"It would not have been your fault if you had been. What is left of the
enemy will be placed in your charge, and you will march them to our
lines beyond Jamestown. They will be disarmed as soon as they come in,"
said the captain.

Lieutenant Sterling was then sent over to the road with a message to
Life Knox to march the cavalry, dismounted, to the point, and to bring
over his own men, except a guard for the wagons and the horses. They