Love under Fire

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Love under Fire

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Love Under Fire, by Randall Parrish
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Title: Love Under Fire
Author: Randall Parrish
Release Date: April 14, 2004 [EBook #12015]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOVE
UNDER FIRE ***

Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Charlie Kirschner and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team.

Love Under Fire
by RANDALL PARRISH

AUTHOR OF MY LADY OF THE SOUTH;
KEITH OF THE BORDER ETC.
WITH FIVE
ILLUSTRATIONS IN FULL COLOR
by ALONZO KIMBALL
1911

CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I
BETWEEN THE LINES. II AFTER THE DESPATCH-BEARER. III
A FRIEND RATHER THAN AN ENEMY. IV THE COMING OF
DAWN. V ACQUAINTANCES, NOT FRIENDS. VI A BOLD
FRONT. VII A WOMAN'S PRISONER. VIII THE COMING OF THE
ENEMY. IX IMPORTANT NEWS. X MISS WILLIFRED
INTERVENES. XI THE RETURN OF LE GAIRE. XII AN
ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. XIII I MEET LE GAIRE. XIV ACROSS
THE RIVER. XV I MEET AN EX-SLAVE. XVI A CALL TO DUTY.
XVII BEGINNING THE NIGHT ADVENTURE. XVIII
OVERHEARD CONVERSATION. XIX LE GAIRE FORCES A
DECISION. XX WE ARRIVE AT A CRISIS. XXI WE CAPTURE
THE HOUSE. XXII MISS WILLIFRED DECLARES HERSELF.
XXIII THE CHALLENGE. XXIV I BECOME A FAMOUS
SWORDSMAN. XXV THE END OF THE DUEL. XXVI MISS
WILLIFRED SURPRISES US. XXVII THE BODY OF LE GAIRE.
XXVIII I FORCE BILLIE TO LISTEN. XXIX THE MYSTERY
DEEPENS. XXX UNDER NEW ORDERS. XXXI THE
DISAPPEARANCE OF BILLIE. XXXII WE REPULSE THE
ENEMY. XXXIII MISS BILLIE REAPPEARS. XXXIV HER STORY.

XXXV THE DEAD MAN. XXXVI THE LAST STAND. XXXVII
THE MYSTERY SOLVED. XXXVIII THE COMING OF THE
NIGHT.

ILLUSTRATIONS
She paused in the doorway, an exceedingly pretty picture.
"I won't stand this! You're hiding something. Is this Yank anything to
you?"
I forced the door shut, and stood with my back against it, the black
muzzle of my Colt staring them in the eyes.
"I--I will listen," she said falteringly, "to all you have to say".
We worked like fiends, firing as rapidly as we could lay hands to
weapons.

LOVE UNDER FIRE
CHAPTER I
BETWEEN THE LINES
I had drifted slowly across the river, clinging with one arm thrown over
a log, expecting each moment the musket of some startled picket would
spit red through the dark, and scarcely daring to guide my unwieldy
support by the slightest movement of hand in the water. The splash of
motion might mean death in an instant, for keen eyes, sharpened by
long night vigils, were on the stream, and those who had ventured the
deed before me had failed utterly. Yet the southern bank remained
silent, so black I could scarcely discern its vaguest outlines, while, by
good fortune, the sweep of the current served me almost as well as a
pair of oars. Thus, trusting to luck, and without exerting a muscle, I

finally came to a full stop on a narrow spit of sand, so far out in the
stream I could scarcely touch bottom, until the sweep of the current
drifted my log inward, and thus left me flat on the wet sand facing the
bank, the wood-covered crest, as revealed dimly against the slightly
lighter sky, appearing almost to overhang the water.
This shadow served me well, yet did not invite to recklessness. There
were surely pickets posted along here, because the gleam of camp-fires
had been plainly visible during the early evening from the bluffs
opposite, but there was nothing observable from where I lay, my head
cautiously uplifted, peering across the log. It was several minutes
before I even ventured to creep up the sand-spit into the denser
blackness of the over-hanging bank, but, once there safely, I discovered
the drift had landed me at the mouth of a narrow gully, apparently a
mere crevice in the rocky shore-line. It was the occasional downpour of
water after rain which had caused the accumulation of debris on which
my log had grounded. At times the dry gulch would hold a roaring
torrent, although now it was no more than a gash in the bank.
I was not altogether certain within half a mile of where I was, but this
made small difference, so far as my present purpose was concerned.
The lines of the enemy were extended from the upper ford east as far as
Sailor Springs, and I was certainly well within those limits, probably
somewhat to the right of the centre. However, that was a