NO. XX. COMPANY D OF THE ‘TRAILING TERRORS.’
‘Ha!’ exclaimed the foremost of the three officers, who wore the uniform
of a general, ‘I don’t know about you, gentlemen, but I am quite ready
for my breakfast.—Eh! What! Who? The dickens!—Here, sergeant!
Orderly-sergeant Cox!’
‘Sir!’ answered the orderly-sergeant, dashing into the hut at the loud,
imperative summons.
‘What is the meaning of this?’ demanded General Shields, for it was he.
‘What is the meaning of it, sir?’ he thundered, as Sergeant Cox simply
stared at him without attempting to reply.
‘Meaning, sir? Meaning of what, sir?’ stammered the bewildered orderly
at last.
‘Of this,’ vociferated the general, pointing to the table. ‘Look at that
ham! Look at those crackers! Observe the jam! Where is the milk?’
‘Ham, sir! Yes, sir. Jam, sir! No, sir. Milk—crackers, sir,’ stuttered
the unfortunate Cox, ruefully regarding the denuded table, the lacerated
ham, and the empty mugs, which but a few moments before he had himself
seen filled with rich creamy milk.
A loud snort burst from Lucius, who, between the angry face of the
general and the utter amazement of the orderly, found the situation too
much for him, and would simply have suffocated had not this timely
explosion of mirth suddenly relieved him. Fortunately the sound was
swallowed up in the shout of laughter which, at the same moment, broke
from the other two officers, in the midst of which Ephraim found time to
whisper hurriedly:
‘It’s too funny, Luce. But hold up. Don’t ye do that agen, or we’re
ruined shore and certain.’
‘Ha! ha! ha!’ roared one of the officers, a stout, good-humoured-looking
brigadier. ‘Evidently a foraging party has been beforehand with us. By
George! general, it’s a mercy they left us so much as a single cracker.
You had better have taken my advice and had breakfast outside,
notwithstanding the tendency of the bugs to drop uninvited into the
coffee. Ha! ha!’
The angry look died out of General Shields’s eyes, the wrinkles at the
root of his nose smoothened out again, and after a momentary struggle he
gave way and joined heartily in the laughter of his subordinates. ‘Well,
well, it can’t be helped now,’ he said—‘it is the fortune of war; but if
I can lay hands on the rascal who has played us this trick, I’ll—I’ll
feed him on jam till he’s so sick of it, he won’t be in a hurry to
plunder his general again.’ He broke into fresh laughter, till,
remembering the presence of the orderly, he restrained himself, and
inquired sharply, ‘What are you doing there?’
Orderly-sergeant Cox, who, now that his terror and confusion had been
sent to the right-about by the hilarity of the officers, would have
given a good deal to be able to express his own feelings in the same
way, saluted silently, swung on his heel, and made for the door.
‘Stop!’ ordered the general, and Cox swung round again, managing by a
violent effort to dismiss the grin which he had allowed to overspread
his features the moment he had turned his back.
‘Any news of Colonel Spriggs?’ asked General Shields.
‘Can’t say, sir.’
‘Very good. My compliments to him, when he returns, if he returns, and I
wish to see him at once.’
‘Here, sir?’
‘Anywhere. Wherever I happen to be. I can be found, I suppose.’
‘Very well, sir,’ and with another salute Orderly-sergeant Cox withdrew.
‘I believe that beggar knows more of this than he cares to say,’
observed General Shields, mournfully regarding the remains of the ham.
‘Oh, not he,’ laughed the fat brigadier; ‘I never saw a fellow look so
utterly flabbergasted. No, no, general, your thieves have come and gone
through this window. See, here are some of the spoils dropped both
inside and out.’
Ephraim nudged Lucius gently, as much as to say: ‘Now you see my object
in scattering the crackers there. It was to distract attention from our
hiding-place.’ And Lucius answered by a responsive nudge, which
signified comprehension.
‘There are the thieves, or I am much mistaken,’ continued the brigadier,
as his eye fell on the soldiers who were resting on their arms at the
edge of the wood. ‘But I imagine it would be hopeless to try and get an
admission out of them.’
‘Better make the best of what is left,’ said General Shields. ‘Fall to,
gentlemen. It is half-past six now, and news from the bridge should soon
reach us.’
Only half-past six! The boys heard this announcement with surprise.
True, they had dropped from the clouds very shortly after daybreak; but
the long light of the summer morning, and the crowding of so many events
into a short space, had confused their sense of time, and they had
imagined it to be much later.
The day had begun early for more than Lucius and Ephraim. Movements were
afoot which were destined to bring about very important results, and the
news from the bridge, which the Federal general so calmly anticipated,
was likely, when it arrived, to disturb his equilibrium a good deal more
than the loss of his breakfast.
For the last four and thirty days, Stonewall Jackson had been making
matters very lively for the northern invaders. He was considerably
outnumbered, but with such consummate skill did he handle his forces,
that he was able to attack and beat the Federal generals in detail, one
after another; nor, chase him up and down as they would, could they ever
succeed in effecting a combination of their entire armies against him.
Indeed, the rapidity of Jackson’s movements astounded the Federals, for
scarcely did they receive reliable news of him in one place than he was
upon them in another, and considering the number and vigour of their
marvellous forced marches, it is no wonder that his brigades proudly
christened themselves ‘Stonewall Jackson’s Foot Cavalry.’
After defeating Milroy, Jackson had rushed through the valley to
Winchester, where he fell upon General Banks so fiercely and suddenly
that the latter was driven in the wildest confusion clear across the
Potomac. The dashing Confederate leader then retreated up the valley by
the great turnpike, hotly pursued by Frémont, who could not, however,
succeed in bringing him to bay. Shields, meanwhile, had moved up the
south-eastern bank of the Shenandoah, and, by co-operation with him,
Frémont thought at last to crush the daring rebel. But by a
master-stroke Jackson burned the bridge at the mouth of Elk Run Valley,
over which Shields would have led his troops—for owing to heavy rains
the Shenandoah was not fordable—and took up his position at Port
Republic, a little village situated on the south fork of the river.
Shields, therefore, advanced to Lewiston, the farm of a General Lewis,
and there awaited instructions from Frémont, who was but a few miles off
at Harrisonburg. But he might as well have been a thousand miles away,
for between the two generals rolled the impassable Shenandoah, and the
building of bridges in face of an enemy so vigilant and daring as
Stonewall Jackson was a proposition that could not be seriously
considered. Nevertheless, communication had been somehow effected, and
it so happened that, on the very night that Ephraim and Lucius left
Staunton in the balloon, the Federal generals had arranged a combined
attack upon the restless Jackson for the next day. Frémont was to
advance from Harrisonburg to Cross Keys and engage the Confederate left
under Ewell, while at the same moment Shields, by a successful dash
across the bridge at Port Republic, was to carry the little town and
crumple up the rebel right. But Jackson’s cool head and war-trained mind
had foreseen this combination, and his own plans had been formed to keep
Shields just where he was on the south-eastern bank of the river until
Frémont had been disposed of. When therefore the boys took refuge in the
loft, and the Federal officers turned their attention to their
desecrated breakfast, Frémont and Ewell were already confronting one
another at Cross Keys, while Shields’s cavalry were on their way to rush
the bridge at Port Republic and clear the road for the passage of the
infantry and artillery. For some time the officers devoted themselves
exclusively to their breakfast, but at last General Shields broke the
silence by observing, ‘I think we shall fix Jackson this bout.’
‘If the bridge at Port Republic can be carried,’ agreed the brigadier
cautiously.
‘If!’ repeated Shields with some irritation. ‘There is no _if_ about it,
sir. It must be carried. It cannot fail to be. The whole attention of
the enemy will be by this time centred on their left to repulse
Frémont’s demonstration at Cross Keys. By ten o’clock my headquarters
will be at Port Republic.’
The brigadier did not answer, but he thought his own thoughts. He was
not above learning a lesson, even from an enemy, and his experience of
Stonewall Jackson as a leader and strategist led him to believe that
this confident, even boastful tone was not justified in the face of
recent happenings in the valley. However, he was silent in the presence
of his commanding officer.
‘Jackson will not expect an attack on the bridge,’ went on Shields,
enclosing a slice of ham between two biscuits. ‘He will know nothing of
the movement until he finds himself driven out of Port Republic, and
then it will be too late.—By the way,’ he broke off, ‘that
reconnaissance yesterday was shamefully muddled.’
‘It was,’ agreed the brigadier; ‘and if you will excuse my saying so, I
thought it rather an error of judgment to entrust it to Colonel Spriggs.
You remember his appearance at Bull Run.’
‘His disappearance, you mean,’ corrected General Shields with a grim
smile. ‘Well, perhaps it was; but I couldn’t well help myself.’
‘I am at a loss to know why we are bothered with such a fellow,’ put in
the third officer, a staff colonel.
‘Yes, heartily confound all these political generals and colonels,’ said
Shields. ‘If those meddling carpet warriors would only mind their own
business, and leave us to manage ours in the field, instead of
incessantly pulling the ropes, we should have another story to tell.
This fellow Spriggs and others like him are pitched into colonelcies and
even higher commands by their friends the politicians, while the real
soldiers go begging for a place, or, rather than do nothing, serve their
country unostentatiously in the ranks.’
‘He has good stuff in his regiment, too,’ said the brigadier. ‘The
“Trailing Terrors,” or whatever ridiculous name he calls them by, are
stark fighters when they get a chance, or are properly led.’
‘Which they never will be, so long as Spriggs is in command of them,’
answered Shields testily. ‘I’ve made the most urgent representations
about the fellow, and no notice has been taken. I daren’t relieve him of
his command on my own responsibility, though I am supposed to be at the
head of this army.’ He laughed rather bitterly.
‘Such a fellow is a disgrace to us all,’ remarked the brigadier
emphatically. ‘A bully, a fire-eater, and a’——
‘A dirty coward,’ finished Shields for him. ‘You may as well say it at
once. I agree with you. He is a disgrace to us—he and a few more like
him—a discredit to the whole North. The actions of the ruffianly crew of
whom he is a most admirable example do more to inflame the South against
us than anything else. Confound them!’ he fumed; ‘it is beyond their
comprehension that even war may be waged in a gentlemanly fashion.’
‘You’ve got to start with a gentleman, though, you must remember,’
laughed the brigadier.
‘I know,’ said Shields discontentedly. ‘Oh, hang him! I wish I were well
rid of him. He is reported missing since last night, and it may be that
some obliging rebel has done what I have not the power to do—relieved
him of his command by a timely and well-aimed bullet.’
‘Not while there was a tree between him and Johnny Reb,’ chuckled the
brigadier. ‘I am afraid you must not look forward to any such easy
solution of your difficulties with him.’
‘Pah!’ ejaculated General Shields in deep disgust. ‘I’——
The sentence was never finished, for at that moment the door was flung
open, and Orderly-sergeant Cox, advancing into the hut and saluting,
announced:
‘Colonel Spriggs!’
Closely following on the orderly’s heels came the subject of the above
instructive conversation, and it was with something like a thrill of
dismay that the watchers in the loft recognised in him the red-faced
tyrant from whose clutches they had so recently escaped. Ephraim gave
Luce’s arm a warning squeeze, and if they had been quiet before, they
lay doubly still now.
General Shields returned the colonel’s salute with exceeding stiffness
and the scantiest courtesy. ‘You were reported missing, sir,’ he
observed drily. ‘I congratulate you on your reappearance after the
fight.’ At which the brigadier put up his hand to his mouth to conceal a
smile.
Colonel Spriggs, however, did not appear to perceive the sarcasm. ‘Yes,
general,’ he replied, ‘it was pretty warm work while it lasted. The Rebs
got us in a tight place, and I fear that a considerable number of my
poor lads have stayed behind on the field. But no matter, sir. The
“Trailing Terrors,” with Josiah B. Spriggs ahead, will go on till the
last man is annihilated.’
‘I wish you might be annihilated to start with,’ thought General Shields
within himself. Aloud he said: ‘Your reconnaissance was a complete
failure, colonel.’
‘It was, sir,’ acknowledged the colonel. ‘I admit it. But it was not my
fault. I made the most superhuman efforts to induce the men to advance
in the face of the most withering musketry fire it has ever been my lot
to stand up to. But they refused.’
‘I thought you said they would follow you anywhere,’ remarked General
Shields caustically.
‘Oh! Ah! yes, certainly; so I did,’ answered Spriggs, a little
flustered. ‘But the circumstances were exceptional. All that men could
do they did. I myself’——
‘I see,’ interrupted the general. ‘How many men do you suppose you
lost?’
‘Company D was pretty well cut to pieces, and of the rest—but really at
present I cannot give you accurate information. In leading a charge
through the woods I was struck by a spent ball, which yet had sufficient
force to stun me. My men passed over me as I lay, and when I came to
myself I was alone. What came of that charge I cannot tell you; but,
doubtless, the men, deprived of their leader, and convinced already of
the desperate nature of the enterprise, would naturally fall back.’
‘No doubt,’ acquiesced General Shields; ‘and, no doubt also, your
failure to rejoin your regiment completed the disaster, while at the
same time it gave rise to the report that you had been killed.—And may I
be forgiven for devoutly wishing you had been,’ he added mentally.
‘My failure to rejoin my regiment was due to the fact that I could not
find it, sir,’ answered the colonel with some heat, for thick-skinned as
he was, he could not fail at last to detect the undertone of contempt in
the general’s voice. ‘Am I to understand, sir, that you imply that I
have in any way failed in my duty?’
‘I imply nothing, colonel,’ replied General Shields. ‘I may be permitted
to say this, though, that I wish most earnestly that your “Trailing
Terrors,” as I understand you call your men, would now and again trail
in the direction of the enemy instead of so persistently keeping their
backs turned to them.’
‘General,’ began Spriggs, but General Shields held up his hand.
‘And I am not to be taken as implying,’ he went on, ‘that your men are
any less courageous than others under my command. Bad soldiers, properly
led, may win a battle. Good soldiers, improperly led, will very usually
lose one.’
At this stinging speech Colonel Spriggs’s red, bloated face became
purple. Here was an implication with a vengeance, and there was but one
inference to be drawn from it. Moreover, Spriggs dared not attempt to
reply, for he knew well enough that General Shields detested him, and
only waited for the opportunity of direct and irrefragable proof of his
cowardice to make short work of him. Therefore he swallowed his wrath
and merely mumbled something about having done his best. But he
registered a vow in his heart that four and twenty hours should not pass
without a letter from him to his friends the politicians, in which
General Shield’s name should figure with a very black mark indeed
against it.
‘I do not doubt that you do your best, sir,’ returned the general; ‘I do
not doubt it at all.’
The irony of the tone was sharp almost to fierceness, and Colonel
Spriggs judged it wiser to give the conversation a rapid turn. It was
with something like humility that he remarked:
‘I have a report to make, general, concerning an incident that occurred
as I was making my way back to the lines this morning.’
‘Proceed, sir,’ said the general stiffly.
‘I had fallen in with some of our fellows,’ began the colonel, ‘not my
own men, and we were just casting about for some means to provide
ourselves with some breakfast—which I may tell you we did not succeed in
getting,’ he added, casting a longing look at the table.
‘Help yourself, sir,’ said General Shields with cold courtesy. Spriggs
did not require any urging, but rapidly made an attack upon the remains
of the feast, talking as he ate.
‘We had approached one edge of a clearing on the other side of these
woods,’ resumed Spriggs, ‘when an exclamation from one of the men called
my attention to a singular, I may say, a phenomenal sight. It was
nothing less than a balloon, descending into the clearing.’
‘A balloon!’ echoed the three officers.
‘Yes, gentlemen, a balloon. It instantly became clear to me that this
was a device of the enemy for the purpose of reconnoitring the position
of the national forces, and I thanked my stars that I was on the spot
with a handful of brave men to stop their treasonable devices.’
The brigadier’s hand again went up to his mouth, and General Shields
inquired in a dry voice: ‘Am I to understand, colonel, that what you saw
was a species of air galley, filled with desperate rebels?’
‘Ah! no,’ replied the colonel, considerably taken aback; ‘I told you it
was a balloon. Its occupants were two in number.’
‘Two!’ interjected General Shields. ‘You and your brave handful would
make short work of them, eh?’
‘We did, sir,’ answered Spriggs with a ferocious grin. ‘No sooner had
they landed than I rushed up to them, and after a determined struggle,
during which I was once thrown to the ground, succeeded in overpowering
them.’
At this extraordinary farrago of truth and lies, the two boys
interchanged nudges.
‘The ruffians were armed to the teeth,’ went on Spriggs, ‘and in the
balloon car we found a perfect armament. They had evidently meant
mischief. I had them searched, and on the person of one of them were
found plans of our positions, and papers loaded with accurate statistics
of the number and disposition of our forces.’
Ephraim’s mouth pursed up as though he were about to whistle, so great
was his amazement; and as the colonel paused to take a drink of coffee,
General Shields said interrogatively: ‘You doubtless have those papers
with you now?’
‘Ah! no,’ answered Spriggs in some confusion. ‘I destroyed them at once,
lest by any inadvertence they should fall into the hands of the enemy.’
‘You did wrong, sir,’ said General Shields with asperity. ‘Those papers
should have been brought to camp and handed to the provost-marshal.
Well, go on with your story.’
‘It is finished in a word,’ resumed Spriggs. ‘I regret to say that owing
to the extreme carelessness of the men, the two prisoners took to their
heels and escaped into the woods, while I was absorbed in the contents
of the papers.’
General Shields gave vent to an exclamation of impatience. This man
tried him almost beyond his powers of endurance.
‘Of course I sent the men in pursuit of the spies,’ said the colonel,
concluding his surprising statement. ‘They did not belong to my
regiment, and they did not reappear; so I finally made my way to the
camp to report the circumstances to you.’
General Shields thought for a moment. Then he said brusquely: ‘Thank
you. I do not think there is any more to be said. If you have finished
your breakfast, you will oblige me by joining the remains of your
command, which you will find some two miles to the rear of Lewiston.’
Spriggs rose and saluted. ‘General,’ he said, ‘I do not like to admit
myself beaten. The woods are full of our men, and it is well-nigh
impossible that those two spies should have passed our pickets. With
your permission I will take half a company and thoroughly beat the
woods. As likely as not I shall run them down.’
‘Certainly, colonel, you have my full permission,’ answered General
Shields with great alacrity. ‘You have probably heard,’ he added, with
curling lip, ‘that an advance on Port Republic is just now in progress.
But I will not allow a little thing like that to interfere with your
laudable desire to volunteer for a dangerous service.’
Colonel Spriggs bit his lip, and down went another black mark against
General Shields. But his desire for revenge, and a chance to exhibit his
petty tyranny, assisted him to accept the snub in silence, and he simply
replied: ‘I am obliged to you, sir. I will start as soon as possible.’
‘By the way, what did you do with the balloon?’ inquired Shields.
‘Left it where it was,’ answered the colonel. ‘I could not very well do
otherwise.’
‘Hm!’ said Shields. ‘Well, I’ll see about it later. Good-morning, sir.’
Spriggs saluted again, but at the door he turned. ‘I suppose, general,’
he inquired, ‘that if I come up with those two spies, you give me full
discretionary powers?’
General Shields, who was already deep in thought, heard the question
without grasping its significance, and muttered absently, ‘Yes, oh yes,
of course,’ whereupon Spriggs immediately left the hut.
Three or four minutes later, the general, coming out of his reverie, and
having still the sound of the question in his ears, exclaimed suddenly:
‘Discretionary powers! What do you mean by that?’
‘It is very evident,’ answered the brigadier. ‘And you have given him
full permission to hang the two fellows out of hand.’
‘Confound the man!’ muttered the general, walking quickly to the door.
But Spriggs was already out of sight. ‘Well,’ he said, returning, ‘it
does not matter much, for after all they are spies, and it is a hundred
to one that he never finds them.’
To the two listeners in the loft it mattered a good deal, but
unfortunately their position made protest out of the question.
‘The sight of that red-faced bully always sets my right foot tingling,
so great is my desire to kick him,’ went on the general, irritably.
‘His incompetence is on a par with his cowardice. Imagine now his
allowing those two men to escape.’
‘His anxiety to retake them was very genuine,’ said the brigadier. ‘It
seems to me,’ he commented shrewdly, ‘that there is a personal motive
underlying his zeal, though what, or why, it is difficult to say.—What
are you staring at, general?’ he broke off. ‘Why, good gracious!’
Alas and alas! From the loft was proceeding a most singular shower.
Plop! Plop! Plop! Plop! one after another in regular succession, a
cascade of biscuits descended from the planking to the floor, each as it
fell shivering into fragments after the fashion of the renowned Humpty
Dumpty. No wonder that the general stared.
‘Ha! ha! ha! ho! ho! ho!’ roared the jovial brigadier. ‘I never thought
of that. That is where your breakfast vanished to, general. And where
the crackers are, there also is the ham, I’ll bet a trifle.’
‘Come out of that, whoever you are!’ ordered the general sternly. ‘Come
out of that at once.’
This denouement was due to the unfortunate Lucius, who, in wriggling
into a more comfortable position, had burst open the front of his tunic,
in which a quantity of biscuits had been bestowed. As the first of these
touched the floor, Ephraim grasped his comrade by the back of the neck
and pinned him down as in a vice. Then as the general’s loud command
rang out, he put his mouth close to Luce’s ear, and just breathed into
it: ‘Lie low, Luce, lie low. I see a way out er this muss. Don’t move
now for the life of ye, whatever ye see me do.’
‘Come out of that, I say,’ repeated the general. ‘Do you want me to come
and fetch you?’
This being the very last thing that Ephraim desired, he slowly uncoiled
his long length, and swinging upon the rafter, dropped to the floor,
where he stood the very picture of sheepishness, his mouth wide open,
and a most comical expression—half-humorous, half-terrified appeal in
his big gray eyes. But he took care to leave the piece of ham behind
him.
The fat brigadier retreated to the wall of the hut, and laughed till the
tears ran down his cheeks.
‘Well, if this doesn’t beat everything I ever saw or heard of!’ he
gasped. ‘What will you do with him, general? Shall I take him to the
provost-marshal for a round dozen, or will you have him shot right away?
For my part, I think he deserves the rest of the breakfast for his
impudence.’
‘Silence!’ said the general severely, though his eyes twinkled.—’ What
were you doing there?’ he demanded of Ephraim.
The Grizzly drew himself up and saluted. ‘I beg yewr parding, ginrul,’
he answered in a weak, whining tone; ‘I war jest parsing the windy, and
when I looked in and see that right down, first-clarse spread, I tell
yew I jest felt I had ter hev some.’
Lucius quivered with amazement. The Grizzly was coming out in a new
line. The soft Southern voice with its clipped syllables was gone, and
in its place was the slow drawl and marked nasal twang of the New
Englander. The very expression of the face was changed, though this
Lucius could not see. The natural shrewdness was gone out of it, and
only good-humoured, dull vacancy reigned in its stead.
‘Upon my word, you are a nice young man,’ said the general, smiling in
spite of himself at Ephraim’s ridiculous appearance. ‘What do you mean,
sir, by making free with my breakfast? Don’t you know I could have you
court-martialed and shot for this?’
‘Oh lordy, lordy! don’t you do that, ginrul,’ whined Ephraim, seemingly
in a paroxysm of terror. ‘I’ll never dew it again. Yew don’t know how
hungry I war. Lemme off, ginrul! Lemme off!’ He clasped his hands
supplicatingly.
The brigadier exploded again, and Shields, with a good-natured laugh,
said: ‘Well, we’ll consider what is to be done with you. Who are you,
and to what regiment do you belong?’
‘Number twenty, Company D, the “Trailing Terrors,”’ drawled Ephraim.
‘What! You are one of Spriggs’s “Trailing Terrors,” are you? By Jove!
you look it. Why did you not come out just now when your commanding
officer was here?’
‘Bekase he war telling lies!’ boldly answered Ephraim to the supreme
astonishment of Lucius; ‘and I never could abide lies.’
‘Lies!’ echoed General Shields. ‘What do you mean, sir? Are you aware
that you are speaking of your superior officer?’
‘I know that, ginrul,’ replied Ephraim, adding with a subdued grin: ‘I
ain’t saying nuthing worse about him than I’ve heard this morning. All
the same, he war telling lies about that balloon. I war thar, so I guess
I should know.’
‘You were there!’ repeated General Shields. ‘I understood the colonel to
say that none of his men were on hand.’
[Illustration:
‘Upon my word, you are a nice young man,’ said the general.
]
‘Waal, I war thar, whether he saw me or not,’ insisted Ephraim.
‘Well, what happened?’ asked the general, interested.
‘Part of what he said, a good deal he didn’t say, and a heap less than
he did say,’ returned Ephraim oracularly. ‘The balloon came down right
enuff, and thar war two folk in it. They got out and were surrounded
instanter. They never raised a finger tew resist. How could they when
there war ba’nets agin their chests, and they war nuthing but a couple
of boys.’
‘Boys!’ exclaimed the general in a tone of incredulity. ‘What could boys
be doing sailing about in a balloon?’
‘I guess that’s their business,’ answered Ephraim. ‘Anyhow, thar they
war, and what they said and what they stuck tew war that they had made a
balloon, and jest came out fer a bit of a spree.’
‘But the arms and the plans?’ interrogated the general.
‘Waal, I allow they had a leetle gun and a pepperbox; but who wouldn’t
these days?’ said Ephraim. ‘And as tew the plans, they warn’t nuthing
but a road map of the valley and a small bit of paper with the news of
the war so far as it’s got. I saw that, so I know.’
‘But what about the struggle?’ put in the brigadier.
‘I’m coming tew that. Ye see, the kernel he questioned the two boys, he
did. One of them war about nineteen and the other sixteen, I should say,
or tharabouts. Fact is, they told him so; but he could git nuthing out
of ’em but that they war jest out fer a spree. The leetle one up and
told him straight, says he: “Southern gentlemen don’t lie.” That’s what
he said.’
The officers all smiled. ‘Well?’ said the general as Ephraim paused.
‘Waal, sir, he wouldn’t begin tew believe ’em, and because he couldn’t
find out nuthing agin ’em, he says: “Cut a couple of ropes from that
balloon and string these cubs up tew the nighest tree.” That’s what he
said.’
‘What!’ vociferated the general. ‘Do you mean to tell me he gave orders
for them to be hanged?’
‘Jest that,’ nodded Ephraim; ‘and they war nuthing but boys, I let yew
know. Waal, the men didn’t like the job, and thar war some hanging back
instead of hanging up; and the kernel he got madder than ever, and when
the older boy up and arsked him ter let ’em orf, he up and kicked him.’
‘The brute!’ interjected the general, and Ephraim went on:
‘With that the leetler boy got mad, and he runs up tew the kernel and
ketches him one, two, right in the face, and before he could turn, the
other boy grabbed him round the legs and laid him on his back; and
before yew could say “Abe Lincoln,” the two of ’em war off tew the
woods.’
‘Bravo!’ exclaimed the brigadier. ‘I am glad of it. Were they followed?’
‘They war,’ replied Ephraim; ‘but I guess the men didn’t want tew ketch
them, for they got clean off.’
‘That is a very different story,’ commented General Shields, when
Ephraim had brought his narrative to a close. ‘Still, there are some
things to be explained. The presence of the balloon is itself
suspicious, and it is incredible that they should have made it
themselves.’
‘That’s what they said, anyhow,’ remarked Ephraim.
‘Quite so; I understand that,’ said the general. ‘I suppose,’ he added
after a pause, ‘you would have no objection to repeat your story if
brought face to face with Colonel Spriggs?’
‘Nary a objection,’ replied Ephraim with alacrity; ‘if ye fetch him
back, I’ll say it all over agen.’ For, seeing the general’s mood, and
having heard his avowed detestation of Spriggs, he began to wish that he
had thrown himself upon the former’s generosity to start with. However,
he thought within himself that there would be no difficulty about that
when the time came.
General Shields scribbled a few lines in his pocket-book and tore out
the leaf: ‘Colonel Spriggs, if you come up with the two men who escaped
from the balloon this morning,’ he read out to his officers, ‘you will
detain them as prisoners and bring them before me, without taking
further action.’
‘I’ll send that on to him in the first instance,’ he said, signing the
paper.—‘Orderly!’ But there was no answer. Cox had, for the time being,
disappeared.
‘Confound the fellow!’ said the general. ‘What does he mean by going out
of call?—No matter,’ he continued to Ephraim, ‘you can take the note
yourself. Your regiment—what is left of it—is a couple of miles in rear
of Lewiston. It will not be in action to-day.—Well, why don’t you go?’
as Ephraim took the note, but made no effort to depart.
‘Ef ye please, ginrul,’ replied the Grizzly with his most sheepish air,
‘I’d be obleeged tew ye, if ye’d let me take the ham. I guess you won’t
want it now, and I left it up thar.’ He pointed to the roof.
General Shields burst out laughing. ‘Well, you are a “Terror,” indeed,’
he said. ‘Take your ham, by all means. I don’t want it, as you say.’
Ephraim instantly swung himself up on the rafter, and while making a
great clattering among the planks, as though looking for his ham,
contrived to whisper: ‘Lie low, Luce. I’ll come back fer ye, wanst they
go away. We’re close ter our own lines.’ Then he dropped down again, and
with his precious burden hugged close to his breast, saluted awkwardly
and turned to the door.
‘Stay!’ cried the general. ‘Before you go, perhaps you can give me your
version of yesterday’s skirmish, in which the “Trailing Terrors” were so
knocked about.’
‘Waal, I didn’t see much of it,’ drawled Ephraim with perfect truth. ‘Ye
onderstand’——
What he would have said was interrupted by a loud clatter of hoofs
outside. A horse was pulled up short, and a courier, hot and perspiring,
rushed into the hut.
‘General!’ he panted. ‘The advance has begun. The cavalry are forward,
as well as the two batteries. The cavalry have reached the fords without
serious opposition.’
‘Orderly!’ shouted General Shields, scribbling again in his pocket-book.
‘Sir,’ answered Cox, stepping inside.
‘Send that note to General Tyler.—My horse outside?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Good! Come, gentlemen. If all goes well, we shall sup with Frémont
to-night. If not, we have a strong position at Lewiston, and there we
will await the attack which is sure to be made to-morrow, if we fail in
our plans to-day. Come!’
Without another word to or thought of Ephraim, he dashed out of the hut.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]