Under Fire: A Tale of the Shenandoah Valley — page 182: what you’re looking at

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

NED BRIGHT’S WORK. 175 It was a folded note, with “Colonel Trafton’’ hastily scrawled on the back. Opening it, thisis what the colonel, by brevet, read : ‘““COLONEL TRAFTON:—You will come with your command to my headquarters at once. This is impera- tive. If Captain Chetwood is still in your hands, turn — him over with guard to bearer of this, who will see that he is taken care of, You will lose no time in com- plying with this order. JUBAL EARLY.”’ A frown darkened the face of Colonel Trafton when © he read this strange missive. But that it came from the general he could not doubt. Some grave need there was for his presence at headquarters. ‘He did not stop to question how the Confederate commander came to know that a Union captain by the name of Chetwood was in his possession. Per- haps some one who had witnessed the capture and had heard the captain’s name had given the informa- tion. The execution was at once staid. It would be dangerous now to go forward with this order from his superior officer in his hands, and with deep regret the colonel prepared to obey the wishes of the commander-in-chief. He detailed six men to accompany the prisoner and ~ the young messenger. ‘Vou have a respite for the present, Captain Chet- wood, but it will be for but a short time. I will see you again later. In the meantime, I have instructed these men to shoot you down on the first sign of an- attempt to escape.’ is “Thank you, colonel; I shall not attempt to es- cape.’ Once more one of the Confederate horses was made to rele) m comicbooks —