Cousin Hicks was at home and greeted the boys with apparent heartiness.
To Barker he was friendly, but did not invite him to stay over night.
"You need not go to any trouble," the trapper told him. "We have had our
supper on the boat, and I will just spread my blanket on the floor for
the night. You know a seasoned trapper can sleep anywhere."
"Yes, do make yourself at home," Hicks said now. "I am glad you took the
boys with you to St. Paul. It is a bit lonesome for them here, and I
have to be away a good deal."
Next morning Hicks walked along the prairie road with Barker, and the
trapper knew that Hicks had something to say to him.
When they were no longer within sight of the shack, Hicks began:
"It would suit me just as well, Barker, if you wouldn't take those lads
away from my place. I'm their guardian and I reckon I can look after
them."
"I'm glad to hear you say that, Mr. Hicks. I always thought the boys
ought to have a guardian. But I want to tell you that, in my opinion,
you have done blessed little guarding."
"Just the same," Hicks replied, his Southern accent becoming more
pronounced, "it would suit me just as well if you and yours wouldn't
meddle in my business."
"Now look here, Hicks," the trapper turned on him with his gray eyes
flashing, "this isn't a matter of business at all. You claim to be the
friend or guardian of these two boys, and you not only neglect them, but
you expose them to great danger."
"Where's the danger, and what...?" Hicks started, his anger plainly
rising.
"Hicks," the trapper cut him short, "don't pretend to me that you don't
know. You know as well as I do that a storm is brewing here and that the
Indians may break into murder and war almost any day. It would not have
surprised me if they had broken out before the _Fanny Harris_ had
reached La Crosse."
"All the same," retorted Hicks, trying to straighten his lank and
stooped body, "you and yours will let those boys alone in the future."
Barker felt this was a threat. "Good," he replied. "If that's your trump
card, I'll play mine. Hicks, if any harm comes to those lads, I'll hunt
you down and make you pay for it. Remember that! Your duty is to take
those lads home to Vicksburg and you can come back with a load of rum,
if you want to. We're through. Good morning."
The two men stood facing each other a moment. A whirling gust blew off
the old gray hat of Hicks, and he hurriedly caught it and put it on
again. Then, without a word, he turned and with a slouching gait started
to go back.
Something about Hicks had startled Barker. For a moment he stood
thinking. Had he not seen this man years ago? Then he leaned against an
old gnarly bur-oak. Hicks turned as if he would come back, but when he
saw the trapper watching him, he changed his mind.
"No, Hicks," the trapper thought, "your game won't work on me. You can't
plug me in the back and bury me in the brush in the ravine."
But where had he met this man before? He lit his pipe and thought. Now
it flashed upon him. Ten years ago, when he had been trapping and
hunting wild turkeys in the valley of the Wabash, in Indiana, he had met
a man he had never forgotten. The man was under arrest for murder and
the sheriff stopped over night with him in Barker's cabin. The next day
he broke away and had never been heard from. He had black hair then,
dark eyes, and a small red scar stood out sharply on his white forehead.
"That man was Hicks!" the trapper exclaimed. "I never forgot that scar."
"Why has he brought those boys into the Indian Country?" Barker asked
himself. "How could any parents trust their boys to a man of his kind?"
But Hicks could be very pleasant, and he was a good talker. He had made
many friends among both Whites and Indians. He seemed to have some money
and was a liberal spender. Nevertheless, after turning over in his mind
all he knew about Hicks, Barker could not make up his mind why Hicks and
the boys were here and why Hicks so absolutely neglected the boys he had
evidently promised to look after.
A week later Barker met the boys at a slough, where both he and the lads
sometimes went for a mess of wild ducks and the trapper decided to see
what he could find out about Cousin Hicks. The boys being asked, told
freely what they knew.
Cousin Hicks was some distant relative of their mother. He had lived at
Vicksburg about a year and had often visited at their home and had sat
many hours chatting with their father in his little store. The boys had
gone north with him, so they could squat on some good land, and because
Tim was often sick at Vicksburg. As soon as their parents could sell
their store, they would also come north, because they had heard and read
about the boom in Minnesota lands and what big crops of wheat it would
raise. The boys liked it in Minnesota, only Tim got homesick at times.
Cousin Hicks was not mean to them, only he didn't work and didn't stay
at home, but he never worked much in Vicksburg, either.
There had been some trouble and a lawsuit between their two grandfathers
in Tennessee and the boys had never been to see them.
That was all the boys knew. It did not help Barker much, but he felt
more sure than ever that Hicks was playing some crooked game and he
decided to watch things, no matter what might be the outcome.
When fall came, the boys had eaten all the corn in their garden and in
order to have something to live on during the winter, they went to a
large slough to gather wild rice in the way they had learned of the
Indians.
As the winter passed, bad news came for the lads from the South. Their
father wrote that the war was getting worse and that on account of it he
could not hope to sell his store, but that the boys might as well stay
in Minnesota.
The war had indeed, by this time, assumed immense proportions, both in
the East and in the West near the Mississippi River. In the West, Grant
had captured the important points of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson and
had fought the terrible two days' battle of Shiloh. After this battle,
most Northerners became convinced that the Confederacy would not
suddenly collapse after one or two battles.
By the first of July, 1862, the land forces, under Grant and two fleets
of gunboats, the lower under Admiral Farragut, and the upper under
Commodore Henry Davis, had obtained control of the Mississippi River,
except for a stretch of river between Vicksburg and Port Hudson, a
distance of two hundred miles.
By far the most important and strongest point on the river still held by
the Confederates was Vicksburg. It is located on the east side of the
river on high land with wooded hills about two hundred feet high
directly to the east of the city. The cities of St. Louis, Cairo,
Memphis, and New Orleans were all held by the Union forces. It was of
great importance for the Union forces to capture Vicksburg, because the
capture of this city would give them complete control of the great river
and would cut the Confederacy in two, cutting off their supply of grain
and meat from Arkansas and Texas. If Vicksburg could be taken, the
Confederacy would be blockaded on the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, and
on the Mississippi.
The task of taking this important city fell to General Grant, and it
proved a most difficult undertaking. The heavy batteries of guns placed
in all favorable positions could not be silenced by the Federal
gunboats. The city was also defended by a garrison of several thousand
men, and on July 15th, the iron-clad Confederate ram, _Arkansas_, coming
out of the Yazoo River, just above Vicksburg, ran through and
practically defeated the whole fleet of Commodore Davis. For several
days this one Confederate gunboat held both Admiral Farragut's fleet and
the fleet of Commodore Davis at bay until both withdrew, one up, the
other down, the river.
The fight of the _Arkansas_ under its fearless Captain I. N. Brown, is
one of the most heroic chapters in naval warfare.
Why the Federals allowed this formidable ram six weeks to be completed
and armed at Yazoo City, within fifty miles of their own upper fleet,
has thus far remained a mystery. On the fifteenth of August, Bill and
Tim Ferguson, after an interval of several months, received the
following letter from their father at Vicksburg:
"_My dear boys:_
"You have probably read or heard about the fighting that has
been going on here. Your mother and I live in a cave now and we
are getting used to the screeching and bursting of shells, which
the Federal gunboats throw into the city. But now our one little
iron-clad _Arkansas_ has driven off both the upper and lower
Federal fleet. Think of that! and last night your mother and I
slept at home once more.
"You boys would like to see the _Arkansas_. She looks like a
scow with an iron house boat built on it. The house-boat part
has slanting sides in every direction. Captain Brown, her
commander, built her at Yazoo City; Brown had thousands of
railroad rails bent into shape and with these he completely
covered her sides and where he could not use rails, he used
boiler-plate. If we only had a few more Browns and _Arkansases_,
we would soon chase the whole Yankee fleet into the canebrakes.
"Most people here are still very hopeful that no serious attempt
will be made by Grant and the Northern fleet to take Vicksburg,
but I fear they are mistaken.
"Our fleet was so hopelessly smashed at Memphis that we have
only a few vessels left, while the Federals seem to have no end
of gunboats and transports. It may be that the Gibraltar of the
Great River can not be taken, but I feel sure that Grant and
Sherman and Admiral Porter now commanding the Federal fleet
above Vicksburg, are going to try it. When that time comes,
Vicksburg will be a bad place to live in.
"Mother would like to send you some turkeys and chickens, but as
that is impossible, she hopes that you may really enjoy the wild
ducks and geese that you have written about.
"We are very glad that you are far away from this fearful and
sad war and we wish you to stay north till peace has come
again."
The writer did not know that at the very time he wrote these words, two
thousand Sioux were encamped on the Minnesota River, within a few hours'
ride of his boys, and were ready at almost any moment to rush into a war
much more cruel than that being waged on the Great River, where only
armed men fought against armed men.