"Be calm, Camille," said the planter, "we will immediately plan a pursuit and rescue her."
The overseer aroused the neighbors, but it was quite dark before they had gathered on the lawn in front of the mansion.
Twenty men, black and white, were chosen, and, with Mr. Tompkins at their head, they went down the road into the dark forest.
When morning dawned no trace of the missing girl had been found, and all the day passed in fruitless search.
The exhausted men were assembled in the road in front of Mr. Tompkins' house, arranging what should be done the next day, when down the hill came a troop of Union scouts, headed by no less a personage than Uncle Dan himself.
"Well, what's the matter here?" asked Uncle Dan in astonishment halting his party.
"Thunder! Jehoshaphat! Ye don't say so?" were the frequent interjections of the old scout during the brief narration.
"Well, if that don't beat all creation, you may call me a skunk," said the old man at the conclusion. "We chaps are jist after sich sorry cusses, as them what carried off the gal; but we are tired out, hevin' been in the saddle ever since daylight and two scrimmages throwed in; so, ye see, we'll have to camp for the night; but we'll have that gal afore the sun circles this earth again."
"There is plenty room for all in the house, and you are welcome to it," said Mr. Tompkins.
"We'd ruther hev yer barn," said Uncle Dan. "We don't care about sleeping in houses, seein' we don't seldom git to sleep in one, besides we'd rather be near our hosses."
The efficient aid of the old scout having been secured, Mr. Tompkins' party dispersed, and the scouts, forty-one in number, were soon in the barn, their horses being stabled with quantities of corn and hay before them; then bright camp-fires were built in the barn-yard. The planter told them to take whatever they required, and soldiers seldom need a second hint of that kind. That night they fared sumptuously.
This scouting party was under the immediate command of Uncle Dan. They were all experienced scouts, their rifles were of the very best make, and each was considered a marksman. Uncle Dan placed a careful guard about the premises, and then, while all the men not on duty lay wrapped in their blankets sleeping quietly on the fresh, sweet hay, he sat by the side of a smouldering camp-fire, under a large oak tree, smoking a short black pipe and wrapped in thought.