“We must keep together, Dick!” shouted Warner.  “Here are Pennington and Sergeant Whitley, and there’s Colonel Winchester.  I fancy that if we can get off with a part of our men we’ll be doing well.”

Pennington’s horse, shot through the head, dropped like a stone to the ground, but the deft youth, used to riding the wild mustangs of the prairie, leaped clear, seized another which was galloping about riderless, and at one bound sprang into the saddle.

“Good boy!” shouted Dick with admiration, but the next moment the horsemen of Forrest were rushing upon them anew.  More men were killed, many were taken, and Colonel Winchester, seeing the futility of further resistance, gathered together those who were left and took flight through the forest.

Tears of mortification came to Dick’s eyes, but Sergeant Whitley, who rode on his right hand, said: 

“It’s the only thing to do.  Remember that however bad your position may be it can always be worse.  It’s better for some of us to escape than for all of us to be down or be taken.”

Dick knew that his logic was good, but the mortification nevertheless remained a long time.  There was some consolation, however, in the fact that his own particular friends had neither fallen nor been taken.

They still heard the shouts of pursuing horsemen, and shots rattled about them, but now the covering darkness was their friend.  They drew slowly away from all pursuit.  The shouts and the sounds of trampling hoofs died behind them, and after two hours of hard riding Colonel Winchester drew rein and ordered a halt.

It was a disordered and downcast company of about fifty who were left.  A few of these were wounded, but not badly enough to be disabled.  Colonel Winchester’s own head had been grazed, but he had bound a handkerchief about it, and sat very quiet in his saddle.

“My lads,” he said, and his tone was sharp with the note of defiance.  “We have been surprised by a force greatly superior to our own, and scarcely a sixth of us are left.  But it was my fault.  I take the blame.  For the present, at least, we are safe from the enemy, and I intend to continue with our errand.  We were to scout the country all the way to Nashville.  It is also possible that we will meet the division of General Buell advancing to that city.  Now, lads, I hope that you all will be willing to go on with me.  Are you?”

“We are!” roared fifty together, and a smile passed over the wan face of the colonel.  But he said no more then.  Instead he turned his head toward the capital city of the state, and rode until dawn, his men following close behind him.  The boys were weary.  In truth, all of them were, but no one spoke of halting or complained in any manner.

At sunrise they stopped in dense forest at the banks of a creek, and watered their horses.  They cooked what food they had left, and after eating rested for several hours on the ground, most of them going to sleep, while a few men kept a vigilant watch.