Under Fire: A Tale of the Shenandoah Valley — page 160: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

IN THE ENEMY’S HANDS. | 153 Of course, the captain suffered himself to be dis- armed without resistance, | ‘‘Now then, them boots. My ‘Sit down, ‘Yank, we've got ter hev ther boots.’ pet this is outrageous, ’? protested Captain Chet- woo ‘‘No back talk, young feller. We ’uns is runnin’ this affair. ’? The captain sat upon the body of his horse and suffered his boots to be drawn from his feet. ‘‘Pretty good suit 0’ clo’s; guess we’ll take ’em.”’ In spite of the captain’s ill-concealed wrath, his uni- form, even to his pantaloons, was stripped from his person. The blue clothes were distributed among the gray- coats, and their cast-off garments flung at the captain. If ever a man was indignant that man was ie peers Chetwood at that moment. ‘‘Dress up, cap, ef yer don’t want ter go naked.”’ ‘You insolent dog! Your commander shall hear of this!’ cried the Union captain, exploding with. rage. This outburst was met with a sneering laugh. The captain found that threats of reporting the men only provoked laughter, so that he finally con- cluded to make the best of a bad bargain, and donned i the cast-off garments. Thus rigged out, he presented the appearance of a good-looking Confederate soldier. — After a little thought, the prisoner concluded that the exchange had not been a bad one after all, as in his present guise, he might be able to make his es- cape, whereas, in Union blue, he would stand little show. While he was debating the situation and looking down at his bare feet—for the soldiers had taken his stockings as well as boots—a single horeman dashed from a clump of trees near, and rode up to the group (Eo) Gomicbooks m