The girl's pretty,
and ought to be growing up now."
But haply at this point the sergeant stopped further raillery by
reporting the detachment ready; and drawing his sword, Calvert,
with a confused head, a remorseful heart, but an unfaltering step,
marched off his men on his delicate mission.
It was four o'clock when he entered Jonesville. Following a
matter-of-fact idea of his own, he had brought his men the greater
distance by a circuitous route through the woods, thus avoiding the
ostentatious exposure of his party on the open bay in a well-manned
boat to an extended view from the three leagues of shore and marsh
opposite. Crossing the stream, which here separated him from the
Dedlow Marsh by the common ferry, he had thus been enabled to halt
unperceived below the settlement and occupy the two roads by which
the fugitives could escape inland. He had deemed it not impossible
that, after the previous visit of the sergeant, the deserters
hidden in the vicinity might return to Jonesville in the belief
that the visit would not be repeated so soon. Leaving a part of
his small force to patrol the road and another to deploy over the
upland meadows, he entered the village. By the exercise of some
boyish diplomacy and a certain prepossessing grace, which he knew
when and how to employ, he became satisfied that the objects of his
quest were not THERE--however, their whereabouts might have been
known to the people.
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