t was as follows:--

"Confederate force, horses, and prisoners have utterly disappeared. No
buildings or woods for them to hide in. Cannot guess what has become of
them. Looks as if the earth had swallowed them up, but the quicksands
are not quite bad enough for that. Will keep our eyes wide open, but
that is all we can do."

Without delay Deck, accompanied by Major Belthorpe, rode forward to
investigate.

CHAPTER XIX

IN WHICH THE RIVERLAWNS ARE CAUGHT IN A TRAP

To have a body of the enemy disappear utterly from view when there were
no hills or woods in which they might hide, was a new experience to
Major Lyon, and it was small wonder, therefore, that his brow contracted
into a frown as he urged Ceph ahead at topmost speed.

"What do you make of this, Tom?" he questioned, of the major of the
second battalion.

"Hang me if I know what to make," was the answer. "Captain Ripley must
be losing his eyesight if he can't keep forty or fifty men and nearly a
hundred horses in sight."

"Then his whole command must be losing their eyesight, for the enemy is
gone, and nobody can even guess where to."

"We'll solve the mystery somehow, Deck. But we ought to beware that we
don't fall into some trap."

It took but a few minutes to reach Captain Ripley's advance guard,
consisting of one-third of the eighth company. The captain himself had
the blankest look on his face Deck had ever beheld.

"It gets me, Major; never heard of such a thing in all my born days,"
declared the captain. "We saw them as plain as day, riding behind yonder
hedge. They didn't come out at the other end, and so I and three of the
others climbed into the trees, only to find the vicinity of the brush
deserted. Reckon the earth has swallowed 'em up."

"Well, Ripley, they have gone somewhere, that's as sure as guns," was
the answer of the young major. "Move a portion of your men to the upper
end of the brushwood, and another portion to the other side, and we'll
endeavor to get to the bottom of this mystery."

The command was obeyed, and meanwhile Deck sent back word to Major
Truman to bring up the regiment and scatter it in a huge circle around
the vicinity. "Unless they have slipped on ahead, we are bound to get
them," he said to Tom Belthorpe.

Captain Ripley had gone with six men to the upper end of the brush,
Belthorpe remained with six others where the first stand had been taken,
while Deck, with the remaining cavalrymen present, made