A STRATEGIC MOVEMENT.

“Shall the balance of Tommy’s quorum go over to-night, or to-morrow? That’s the question,” said Briscoe, as I joined him at the bridge.

“I don’t want to go to-night,” added Bowles.

“Why not?”

“I want to see the fun.”

“You can see just as well from the other side of the chasm,” I suggested. “Besides, you may be able to serve us better there than here.”

“What can I do?” asked Bowles. “If I can be of any use over there to our party, I am willing to go.”

“You can,” said Briscoe. “We only intend to obtain our arms to-night--that’s all. We desire to have the election go on just as though the whole crowd were there. We intend to be present at the right time. You know where we are going to operate, and you must serve us on the bluff, as you see opportunity to do so, only don’t be too zealous.”

“I’ll go, and do the best I can,” replied Bowles.

He called up the nine who were to go with him, and planned the matter to suit himself. Conducting them towards the chasm, he was soon joined by Hacker; and all of them disappeared in the woods. I was very curious to know how the party was to be transferred to High Bluff; but I was soon satisfied that it was not by crossing the gully. Briscoe and I had agreed to keep the rest of our fellows back, for Bowles had gone off with great pretensions to secrecy, as though he were veritably deserting with his followers. I crept over to the rocks near the fishing raft, and soon discovered that the party were there. They were in the act of embarking in a large boat, which I concluded, belonged to the raft, and was the property of the hotel-keeper. They pushed off, and disappeared in the darkness. It was evident, therefore, that there was some way of reaching the summit of the bluff from the lake side.

The coast was clear now, and our fellows were silently led to the raft by Briscoe. Those who were to assist me pulled up the plank, and, having secured one of the ropes with which the raft was moored, we carried it to the road near the point where the bridge had been removed.

“Now we want to know whether there are any sentinels on this side of the bluff,” said I to Sergeant Langdon.

“I don’t see any.”

“Go to the chasm, and make a slight noise. If there is any one there, it will start him up.”

Langdon soon reported that he could discover no one. I had not seen any guard in this direction since dark. Tommy was doubtless satisfied that a chasm twenty-four feet wide, with perpendicular sides, could not be passed by any of our party. It had been arranged between Briscoe and myself that his party should make noise enough to engage the attention of all on the bluff, while mine were bridging the gully. As I was attaching the rope to one end of the plank, I heard the shouts of our co-laborers beyond the promontory. They had pushed the raft into position beneath the bluff and now waked the echoes of the night with their yells.

The alarm was promptly given in the camp. We saw the garrison rush to the place where the arms were stacked, and we lay low until they had left for the point of danger. There was evidently a great deal of excitement among Tommy’s adherents. Perhaps they expected a violent assault upon their works.

“Now, lively, fellows!” I called to my party, as they picked up the plank and bore it to the chasm.

The end to which I had fastened the rope was dropped into the abyss, so that it rested upon a rock which I had before selected. With a couple of the hoop-holes we pushed the upper end over to the other side of the gully, where it was to rest as part of the bridge. By the rope attached to the lower end we pulled it up, and placed it on the rock. The experiment was a complete success and I was very well pleased with my first attempt at engineering. It was a very simple experiment, after all; and though satisfied, I was not vain of the result.

I was the first to cross the plank; but my fellows all followed me. Taking six or seven muskets apiece, we soon placed them on the right side of the gully, and our work was accomplished. Briscoe’s forces were still shouting as though their salvation depended upon the amount of noise they could make. If there were any night voyagers on the lake in that vicinity, they must have suspected that the demons of this wild region were engaged in an hilarious frolic; but I think there was no one within hearing of our voices.

“I say, captain, we might as well finish the job, now we are here,” said Langdon, after we had stacked the arms by the side of the road.

“How finish it?”

“Wouldn’t it be better to have the bridge material on this side of the gully?” suggested the sergeant.

“I don’t know that it would.”

“We could hold Tommy and his party as prisoners then.”

“Possibly it would be a good move; but when we go over to-morrow, we must do it with a rush, after the balloting has begun.”

We decided to transfer the bridge materials to our side of the chasm. Perhaps it was just as well, so far as Tommy was concerned; for I did not believe, after I had looked at the heavy timbers which comprised the string-pieces, that he had the engineering skill to reconstruct the bridge. We completed our work in a very short time, and without any interruption from the valiant garrison which defended the place. Having finished the job, we placed the plank on six sticks, and with one boy at each end of them, conveyed it back to the lake as we had brought it up. Briscoe’s party were still demonstrating under the high cliff of the island. Langdon, who could whistle like a locomotive through his fingers, made the signal we had agreed upon that our work was finished.

By this time most of us were thoroughly fatigued, and I felt that a bed of pine furze in the grove would be as good as a downy couch for me. We had worked off the effects of the potations of strong coffee, and some of us were so sleepy that we could hardly keep our eyes open. One of the cooks lighted a match, so that I could see the face of my watch, and I found that it was almost midnight. But we had to wait nearly an hour before Briscoe’s fellows could work the raft back, for it was a clumsy thing to handle in deep water. When they came in sight, they were towing it with the large boat in which Hacker had conveyed his recruits to the fortress. Without it I doubt whether they could ever have brought the raft back to its moorings. We were too tired to put the raft in position as we had found it, and, making it fast to the shore, returned to our camp.

We were a sorry set when we turned in at about one o’clock that night; and if we had taken a vote on the question, I think we should have decided unanimously that campaigning after dark, and especially after midnight, was anything but fun. The weather was so warm that we did not need fires; and wrapping our blankets around us, we lay down without troubling ourselves to post a single sentinel to watch over the camp while we slumbered. There was no danger of an assault from Tommy’s forces, for we had them bottled up in their strong fortress. Briscoe’s party had brought away the boat in which Sergeant Hacker had made his visit to our camp, and there was now no possible way for any of the enemy to reach us.

The garrison on High Bluff were as much fatigued as we were, and were as little disposed to make an assault as we were to repel one. I cannot speak for others, except to say that no one disturbed us; and I slept like a rock upon my hard bed. It was after eight in the morning when I waked; but not a single soul seemed to be stirring. I was in no hurry; so I turned over and went to sleep again as all my companions were still slumbering.

“Hallo, Skotchley!”

I opened my eyes. It was Briscoe.

“We are sleeping all day,” said he.

“What’s the odds? We have nothing to do but eat breakfast until noon. We may as well rest ourselves while we have the chance.”

“But it is after nine o’clock,” laughed he.

“I think I have slept enough, then,” I replied, springing to my feet, well satisfied that no rheumatism had found a lurking-place in any of my joints.

Some of the fellows were already up, and among them Fryes, who was directed to blow a blast on his bugle to wake the slumberers. In a few minutes we had them all on their feet. I went to the rushing brook, and took an eye opener in the shape of a splendid wash in the clear, cold waters, which made me feel like a new man, fit for the great enterprise of the day. Frying bacon without a frying-pan was declared by the cooks to be a difficult achievement; but an iron kettle was a tolerable substitute. We boiled half a bushel of potatoes, and by ten o’clock we were ready for our morning meal. As an expedient for plates, we used smooth, flat stones, taken from a slate ledge a few rods from the camp. The breakfast was eminently satisfactory.

“Where is Jed?” asked Briscoe, as we rose from the ground when the repast was finished. “He has not come yet.”

“I think he will come,” I replied.

“Suppose he should not come?” suggested the senior captain.

“Then we must get along without him.”

“I don’t see how we can.”

“My party took the precaution last night to bring the bridge materials over to this side of the gully, we can put the bridge up when we want it, though it will take some time to do the job.”

Briscoe laughed heartily as I explained to him that Major Tommy and his forces were actually prisoners on High Bluff, and would have to stay there until we permitted them to leave. As we intended to turn the tables upon our gallant commander-in-chief, I hoped that our precautions would not prove to be useless. It was possible that Jed might not be able to come, however good his intentions might be; and I walked down to the place where we had stored the bridge stuff, accompanied by my working party, in order to make preparations for crossing at this point if Jed should fail us. I simply fixed upon a plan for doing the work; and, after examination, I was satisfied that the method by which we had laid down the plank the night before was the best one. I then went with Briscoe’s party to the fishing raft, where, in a few moments, we put everything just as we had found it.

While we were thus engaged, Jed arrived, and we all hastened to the camp to complete the grand _coup de main_ of the day.