message. He looked at Shorty, but Shorty's face was as blank of
explanation as his own. He fumbled around in his blouse pocket, drew
forth the combs, and handed them to the woman. Her dull face lighted up
visibly. She examined the combs carefully, as if fitting them to a
description, and, reaching in her bosom, pulled out another letter and
handed it to Si.
When this was opened Si read:
"Dear Boys: Now you will understand the comb business. I wanted to make
sure that my letter reached the right men, and the combs were the only
things I could think of at the moment. Mrs. B. will prize them, though
she will never think of using them, either on herself or one of her
shock-headed brats. I want you to play it on her as far as your
consciences will allow. Pretend that you are awful sick of this
Abolition war, and tired fighting for the nigger, and all that stuff.
Make her the happiest184 woman in Tennessee by giving her all the coffee
you can spare. That will fetch her quicker and surer than anything else.
Like most Southern women, she is a coffee-drinker first and a rebel
afterward, and if some preacher would tell her that heaven is a place
where she will get all the Yankee coffee she can drink, she would go to
church regularly for the rest of her life. Tell her a lot of news—as
much of it true as you can and think best; as much of it otherwise as
you can invent. Follow her cautiously when she leaves camp. Don't let
her see you do so. You will find that she will lead you to a nest of
spies, and the place where all the whisky is furnished to sell in camp.
I write you thus freely because I am certain that this will get in your
hands. I know that your regiment is out here, because I have been
watching it for a week, with reference to its being attacked. It won't
be for at least awhile, for there's another hen on. But make up to the
old lady as much as your consciences and stomachs will allow you. It
will be for the best interests of the service.
"Sincerely your friend, Levi Rosenbaum."
"I wonder what game Levi is up to?" Si said, as he stood with the letter
in his hand and looked at the woman. "I'll give her all the coffee I can
and be very civil to her, but that's as far as I'll go. The old rebel
cat. I'll not lie to her for 40 Levi Rosenbaums."
"Well, I will," said Shorty. "You fix her up with the coffee, and leave
the rest to me. I always had a fancy for queer animals, and run off from
home once to travel with a menagerie. I'd like to take her up185 North
and start a side-show with her. 'The Queen o' the Raccoon Mountains,' or
the 'Champion Snuff-Dipper o' the Sequatchie Valley.' How'd that do for
a sign?"
"Well, go ahead," said Si. "But expect no help from me."
"Mr. Klegg, when I want your help in courtin' a lady I'll let you know,"
said Shorty with dignity. Si went back to the tent to see about getting
the coffee, and Shorty approached Mrs. Bolster with an engaging
expression on his countenance. She was knocking the ashes out of her
pipe.
"Let me fill your pipe up again. Madam, with something very choice,"
said he, pulling out a plug of bright natural leaf. "Here's some
terbacker the like o' which you never see in all your born days. It was
raised from seed stole from the private stock of the High-muk-a-muk o'
Turkey, brung acrost the ocean in a silver terbacker box for the use o'
President Buchanan, and planted in the new o' the moon on a piece o'
ground that never before had raised nothin' but roses and sweet-
williams. My oldest brother, who is a Senator from Oshkosh, got just one
plug of it, which he divided with me."
"O, my! is that true?" she gurgled.
"It's as true as that you are a remarkably fine lookin' woman," he said
with unblushing countenance, as he began whittling off some of the
tobacco to fill her pipe. "I was struck by your appearance as soon as I
saw you. I always was very fond of the Southern ladies."
"Sakes alive, air y'?" she asked; "then what air yo'uns down here
foutin' we'uns fur?"186
"That's a long story, m'm," answered Shorty. "It was a trick o' the
Abolition politicians that got us into it. I'm awful sick o' the war
(that we hain't gone ahead and knocked the heads offen this whole crowd
instead o' layin' 'round here in camp for months)" he added as a mental
reservation, "and wisht I was out of it (after we've hung Jeff Davis on
a sour-apple tree). Then I might settle down here and marry some nice
woman. You're a widder, I believe you said."
"Yes, I'm a widder," she answered, taking her pipe from her mouth and
giving him what she intended for a languishing smile, but which Shorty
afterward said reminded him of a sun-crack in a mud fence. "Yes, I'm a
widder. Bin so for gwine on six months. Sakes alive, but ye do talk
nice. You air the best-lookin' Yankee I've ever seed." "Nothin'
painfully bashful about her," thought Shorty. "But I must be careful not
to let her get me near a Justice of the Peace. She'd marry me before I
could ketch my breath. Madam," he continued aloud.
"Yo' may call me Sophrony," she said, with another cavernous smile.
"Well, Sophrony, let me present you with half o' this plug o' famous
terbacker." He drew his jackknife and sliced the plug in two. "Take it,
with my warmest respects. Here comes my partner with some coffee I've
sent him for, and which I want you to have. It is not as much as I'd
like to give you, but it's all that I have. Some other day you shall
have much more."
"Law's sakes." she bubbled, as the fragrant odor187 of the coffee
reached her nose, and she hefted the package. "Yo' air jest the nicest
man I ever did see in all my born days. I didn't s'pose thar wuz so nice
a man, or sich a good-lookin' one, in the hull Yankee army, or in the
oonfederit either, fur that matter. But, then, yo' ain't no real blue-
bellied Yankee."
"No, indeed, Sophrony. I never saw New England in all my life, nor did
any o' my people. They wuz from Virginny (about 500 miles, as near as I
kin calculate)" he added to himself as a mental poultice.
"Say, Mister, why don't you leave the Yankee army?"
"Can't," said Shorty, despairingly. "If I tried to git back home the
Provos 'll ketch me. If I go the other way the rebel's ketch me. I'm
betwixt the devil and the deep sea."
She sat and smoked for several minutes in semblance of deep thought, and
spat with careful aim at one after another of the prominent weeds
around. Then she said:
"If yo' want t' splice with me, I kin take keer o' yo'. I've helped run
off several o' the boys who wuz sick o' this Abolition war. Thar's two
o' them now with Bill Phillips's gang makin' it hot for the Yankee
trains and camps. They're makin' more'n they ever did soljerin', an'
havin' a much better time, for they take whatever they want, no matter
who it belongs to. D' yo' know Groundhog, a teamster? He's in cahoots
with us."
"Oh!" said Shorty to himself. "Here's another lay altogether. Guess it's
my duty to work it for all that it's worth."188
"Is it a bargain?" she said suddenly, stretching out her long, skinny
hand.
"Sophrony," said Shorty, taking her hand, "this is so sudden. I never
thought o' marryin'—at least till this cruel war is over. I don't know
what kind of a husband I'd make. I don't know whether I could fill the
place o' your late husband!"
"Yo're not gwine t' sneak out," she said, with a fierce flash in her
gray eyes. "If yo' do I'll have yo' pizened."
"Now, who's talkin' about backin' out?" said Shorty in a fever of
placation, for he was afraid that some of the other boys would overhear
the conversation. "Don't talk so loud. Come, let's walk on toward your
home. We kin talk on the way."
The proposition appeared reasonable. She took the bridle of her horse in
her arm, and together they walked out through the guard-line. The
sentries gave Shorty a deep, knowing wink as he passed. He went the more
willingly, as he was anxious to find out more about the woman, and the
operations of the gang with which she was connected. She had already
said enough to explain several mysterious things of recent occurrence.
Night came down and as her ungainliness was not thrust upon him as it
was in the broad glare of day, he felt less difficulty in professing a
deep attachment for her. He even took her hand. On her part she grew
more open and communicative at every step, and Shorty had no difficulty
in understanding that there was gathered around her a gang that was
practicing about everything detrimental to the army. They were by turns
spies, robbers, murderers, whisky189 smugglers, horse-thieves, and
anything else that promised a benefit to themselves. Ostensibly they
were rebels, but this did not prevent their preying upon the rebels when
occasion offered. Some were deserters from the rebel army, some were
evading the conscript laws, two or three were deserters from our army.
Shorty and the woman had reached a point nearly a half-mile outside of
the guard-line when he stopped and said:
"I can't go no farther now. I must go back." "Why must yo' go back?" she
demanded, with a190 sudden angry suspicion. "I thought yo' wuz gwine
right along with me."
"Why, no. I never thought o' that. I must go back and get my things
before I go with you," said Shorty, as the readiest way of putting her
off.
"Plague take y'r things," she said. "Let 'em go. Yo' kin git plenty more
jest as good from the next Yankee camp. Yo' slip back some night with
the boys an' git yo'r own things, if y'r so dratted stuck on 'em. Come
along now."
She took hold of his wrist with a grip like iron. Shorty had no idea
that a woman could have such strength.
"I want to go back and git my partner," said Shorty. "Me and him 've bin
together all the time we've bin in the army. He'll go along with me, I'm
sure. Me and him thinks alike on everything, and what one starts the
other jines in. I want to go back an' git him."
"I don't like that partner o' your'n. I don't want him. I'll be a better
partner t' yo' than ever he was. Yo' mustn't think more o' him than yo'
do o' me."
"Look here, Sophrony," said Shorty desperately, "I cannot an' will not
go with you to-night. I'm expectin' important letters from home to-
morrow, and I must go back an' git 'em. I've a thousand things to do
before I go away. Have some sense. This thing's bin sprung on me so
suddenly that it ketches me unawares."
With the quickness of a flash she whipped out a long knife from
somewhere, and raised it, and then hesitated a second.
She Whipped out a Long Knife. 189
"I believe yo're foolin' me, and if I wuz shore I'd191 stick yo'. But
I'm gwine t' give yo' a chance. Yo' kin go back now, an' I'll come for
yo' ter-morrer. If you go back on me hit'll be a mouty sorry day for
yo'. Mind that now."
Shorty gallantly helped her mount, and then hurried back to camp.
CHAPTER XIV. SHORTY HAS AN ADVENTURE WITH SI HE GOES OUT TO VISIT MRS.
BOLSTER.
SHORTY sauntered thoughtfully back to the tent, and on the way decided
to tell Si the whole occurrence, not even omitting the deceit practiced.
He had to admit to himself that he was unaccountably shaken up by the
affair.
Si was so deeply interested in the revelations that he forgot to blame
Shorty's double-dealing.
"Never had my nerve so strained before," Shorty frankly admitted. "At
their best, women are curiouser than transmogrified hullaloos, and when
a real cute one sets out to hornswoggle a man he might as well lay down
and give right up, for he hain't no earthly show. She gits away with him
every time, and one to spare. That there woman's got the devil in her
bigger'n a sheep, and she come nigher makin' putty o' your Uncle Ephraim
than I ever dreamed of before. It makes me shivery to think about it."
"I don't care if she's more devils in her than the Gadarene swine, she
must be stopped at once," said Si, his patriotic zeal flaming up. "She's
doin' more mischief than a whole regiment o' rebels, and must be busted
immediately. We've got to stop193 her."
"But just how are we goin' to stop her?" Shorty asked. There was a weak
unreadiness in Shorty's tones that made Si look at him in surprise.
Never before, in any emergency, had there been the slightest shade of
such a thing in his bold, self-reliant partner's voice.
"I'd rather tackle any two men there are in the Southern Confederacy
than that woman," said Shorty. "I believe she put a spell on me."
"Le's go up and talk to Capt. McGillicuddy about it," said Si.
Ordinarily, this was the last thing that either of them would have
thought of doing. Their usual disposition was to go ahead and settle the
problem before them in their own way, and report about it afterward. But
Shorty was clearly demoralized.
Capt. McGillicuddy listened very gravely to their story.
"Evidently that old hen has a nest of bad, dangerous men, which has to
be broken up," he said. "We can get the whole raft if we go about it in
the right way, but we've got to be mighty smart in dealing with them, or
they'll fly the coop, and leave the laugh on us. You say she's coming
back to-morrow?"
"Yes," said Shorty, with a perceptible shiver.
"Well, I want you to fall right in with all her plans—both of you.
Pretend to be anxious to desert, or anything else that she may propose.
Go back home with her. I shall watch you carefully, but without seeming
to, and follow you with a squad big enough to take care of anything that
may be out there. Go back to your tent now, and think it194 all over,
and arrange some signal to let me know when you want me to jump the
outfit."
The boys went back to their tent, and spent an hour in anxious
consideration of their plans. Si saw the opportunity to render a great
service, and was eager to perform it, but he firmly refused to tell any
lies to the woman or those around her. He would not say that he was
tired of the service and wanted to desert; he would not pretend liking
for the Southern Confederacy or the rebels, nor hatred to his own
people. He would do nothing but go along, share all the dangers with
Shorty, and be ready at the moment to co-operate in breaking up the
gang.
"Some folks's so durned straight that they lean over backwards," said
Shorty impatiently. "What in thunder does it amount to what you tell
these onery gallinippers? They'll lie to you as fast as a hoss kin trot.
There's no devilment they won't do, and there kin be nothin' wrong in
anything you kin do and say to them."
"Everybody settles some things for himself," said the unchangeable Si.
"I believe them folks are as bad as they kin be made. I believe every
one o' 'em ought to be killed, and if it wuz orders to kill 'em I'd kill
without turnin' a hair. But I jest simply won't lie to nobody, I don't
care who he is. I'll stand by you until the last drop; you kin tell 'em
what you please, but I won't tell 'em nothin', except that they're a
pizen gang, and ought t've bin roastin' in brimstone long ago."
"But," expostulated Shorty, "if you only go along with me you're actin'
a lie. If you go out o' camp with mo you'll pretend to bo desertin' and
j'inin' in195 with 'em. Seems to me that's jest as bad as tellin' a lie
straight out."
"Well," said the immovable Si, "I draw the line there. I'll go along
with you, and they kin think what they like. But if I say anything to
'em, they'll git it mighty straight."
"Well, I don't know but, after all, we kin better arrange it that way,"
said Shorty, after he had thought it over in silence for some time. "I'm
sure that if you'd talk you'd give us dead away. That clumsy basswood
tongue o' your'n hain't any suppleness, and you'd be sure to blurt out
something that'd jest ruin us. An idee occurs to me. You jest go along,
look sour and say nothin'. I'll tell 'em you ketched cold the other
night and lost your speech. It'll give me a turn o' extra dooty talkin'
for two, but I guess I kin do it."
"All right," agreed Si. "Let it go that way."
"Now, look here, Si," said Shorty, in a low, mysterious tone, "I'm goin'
to tell you somethin' that I hadn't intended to. I'm scared to death
lest that old hag'll git the drop on me some way and marry me right out
of hand. I tell you, she jest frightens the life out o' me. That worries
me more'n all the rest put together. I expect I ought t 'v' told you so
at the very first."
"Nonsense," said Si contemptuously. "The idee o' you're being afeared o'
such a thing."
"It's all very well for you to snort and laugh, Si Klegg," persisted
Shorty. "You don't know her. I sneered at her, too, at first, but when I
was left alone with her she seemed to mesmerize me. I found myself
talkin' about marryin' her before I knowed196 it, and the next thing I
was on the p'int o' actually marryin' her. I believe that if she'd got
me to walk a half-mile further with her she'd a run me up agin a Justice
o' the Peace and married me in spite of all that I could do. I'd much
ruther have my head blowed off than married to that old catamount.
"Bah, you can't marry folks unless both are willin'," insisted Si. "A
man can't have a marriage rung in on him willy-nilly."
"There's just where you're shootin' off your mouth without any sense.
You don't know what you're talkin' about. Men are lassoed every day and
married to women that they'd run away from like a dog from a porcupine,
if they could. You jest look around among the married folks you know,
and see how many there are that wouldn't have married one another if
they'd bin in their senses."
"Well, I don't think o' many," said Si, whose remembrances were that the
people in Posey County seemed generally well-mated.
"Well, there mayn't be many, but there's some, and I don't propose to be
one of 'em. There's some spell or witchcraft about it. I've read in
books about things that gave a woman power to marry any man she wanted
to, and he couldn't help himself. That woman's got something o' that
kind, and she's set her eye on me. I'm goin' to meet her, and I want to
help break up her gang, but I'd a great deal rather tackle old Bragg and
his entire army. I want you to stay right by me every minnit, and keep
your eye on me when she's near me."197
"All right," said Si sleepily, as he crawled into bed.
The next morning, as they were discussing the question of signals, they
happened to pass the Sutler's, and Si caught a glimpse of packages of
firecrackers, which the regimental purveyor had, for some inscrutable
reason, thought he might sell. An idea occurred to Si, and he bought a
couple of packages, and stowed them away in his blouse pocket and told
the Captain that their firing would be the signal, unless a musket-shot
should come first.
It was yet early in the forenoon as they walked on the less-frequented
side of the camp. Shorty gave a start, and gasped:
"Jewhilikins, there she is already."
Si looked, and saw Mrs. Bolster striding toward them. Shorty hung back
instinctively for an instant, and then braced up and bade her good
morning.
She grunted an acknowledgment, and said rather imperiously:
"Y're a-gwine, air yo'?"
"Certainly," answered Shorty.
"And yo'?" she inquired, looking at Si.
"He's a-goin', too," answered Shorty. "Mustn't expect him to talk. He's
short on tongue this mornin'. Ketched a bad cold night before last.
Settled on his word-mill. Unjinted his clapper. Can't speak a word.
Doctor says it will last several days. Not a great affliction. Couldn't
've lost anything o' less account."
"Must've bin an orful cold," said she, taking her pipe from her mouth
and eyeing Si suspiciously.198
"Never knowed a cold to shut off any one's gab afore. Seems t' me that
hit makes people talk more. But these Yankees air different. Whar air
yer things? Did yo' bring plenty o' coffee?'
"We've got 'em hid down here in the brush," said Shorty. "We'll git 'em
when we're ready to start."
"We're ready now," she answered. "Come along."
"But we hain't no passes," objected Shorty. "We must go to the Captain
and git passes."
"Yo' won't need no passes," she said impatiently. "Foller me."
Shorty had expected to make the pretext about the passes serve for
informing Capt. McGillicuddy of the presence of the woman in the camp.
He looked quickly around and saw the Captain sauntering carelessly at a
little distance, so that any notification was unnecessary. He turned and
followed Mrs. Bolster's long strides, with Si bringing up the rear.
They went to the clump of brush where they had hidden their haversacks
and guns. Mrs. Bolster eagerly examined the precious package of coffee.
"I'll take keer o' this myself," she said, stowing it away about her
lanky person. "I can't afford to take no resks as to hit."
Si and Shorty had thought themselves very familiar with the campground,
but they were astonished to find themselves led outside the line without
passing under the eye of a single guard. Si looked at Shorty in
amazement, and Shorty remarked:
"Well, I'll be durned."
The woman noticed and understood. "Yo' Yanks,"199 she said scornfully,
"think yourselves moughty smart with all your book-larnin', and yo'uns
put on heaps o' airs over po' folks what hain't no eddication; but what
you don't know about Tennessee woods would make a bigger book than ever
was printed."
"I believe you," said Shorty fervently. His superstition in regard to
her was rapidly augmenting to that point where he believed her capable
of anything. He was alarmed a'bout Capt. McGillicuddy's being able to
follow their mysterious movements. But they soon came to the road, and
looking back from the top of a hill, Shorty's heart lightened as he saw
a squad moving out which he was confident was led by Capt. McGillicuddy.
But little had been said so far. At a turn of the road they came upon a
gray-bearded man, wearing a battered silk hat and spectacles, whom Mrs.
Bolster greeted as "'Squire."
The word seemed to send all the blood from Shorty's face, and he looked
appealingly to Si as if the crisis had come.
The newcomer looked them over sharply and inquired:
"Who are these men, Mrs. Bolster?"
"They'uns 's all right. They'uns 's had enough o' Abolition doin's, and
hev come over whar they'uns allers rayly belonged. This one is a
partickler friend o' mine," and she leered at Shorty in a way that made
his blood run cold.
"Hain't yo' time t' stop a minute, 'Squire?" she asked appealingly, as
the newcomer turned his horse's head to renew his journey.200
"Not now; not now," answered the 'Squire, digging his heels into his
steed's side. "I want to talk t' yo' and these 'ere men 'bout what's
gwine on in the Lincoln camps, but I must hurry on now to meet Capt.
Solomon at the Winding Blades. I'll come over to your house this
evening," he called back.
"Don't fail, 'Squire," she answered, "fur I've got a little job for yo',
an' I want hit partickerly done this very evenin'. Hit can't wait."
"I'll be there without fail," he assured her.
"Capt. Solomon's the man what sent the letter to you," she explained,
which somewhat raised Shorty's depressed heart, for he began to have
hopes that Rosenbaum might rescue him if Capt. McGillicuddy should be
behind time.
As they jogged onward farther from camp Mrs. Bolster's saturnine
earnestness began to be succeeded by what were intended to be
demonstrations of playful affection for her future husband, whom she now
began to regard as securely hers. She would draw Shorty into the path a
little ahead of Si, and walk alongside of him, pinching his arm and
jabbering incoherent words which were meant for terms of endearment.
When the narrowness of the road made them walk in single file she would
come up from time to time alongside with cuffs intended for playful
love-taps.
At each of these Shorty would cast such a look of wretchedness at Si
that the latter had difficulty in preserving his steadfast silence and
rigidity of countenance.
But the woman's chief affection seemed to be called forth by the package
of coffee. She would201 stop in the midst of any demonstration to pull
out the bag containing the fragrant berry, and lovingly inhale its odor.
It was long past noon when she announced: "Thar's my house right ahead."
She followed this up with a ringing whoopee, which made the tumbledown
cabin suddenly swarm with animation. A legion of loud-mouthed dogs
charged down toward the road. Children of various ages, but of no
variety in their rags and unkempt wildness, followed the dogs, or
perched upon the fence-corners and stumps, and three or four shambling,
evil-faced mountaineers lunged forward, guns in hand, with eyes fiercer
than the dogs, as they looked over the two armed soldiers.
"They'uns is all right, boys," exclaimed the woman. "They'uns 's plum
sick o' doggin' hit for Abe Lincoln an' quit."
"Let 'em gin up thar guns, then," said the foremost man, who had but one
eye, reaching for Shorty's musket. "I'll take this one. I've been
longin' for a good Yankee gun for a plum month to reach them Yankee
pickets on Duck River."
Though Shorty and Si had schooled themselves in the part they were to
play, the repugnant thought of giving up their arms to the rebels
threatened to overset everything. Instinctively they threw up their guns
to knock over the impudent guerrillas. The woman strode between them and
the others, and caught hold of their muskets.
"Don't be fools. Let 'em have your guns," she said, and she caught Si's
with such quick unexpectedness that she wrenched it from his grasp and
flung202 it to the man who wanted Shorty's. She threw one arm around
Shorty's neck, with a hug so muscular that his breath failed, and she
wrenched his gun away. She kept this in her hand, however.
"Now, I want these 'ere men treated right," she announced to the others,
"and I'm a-gwine to have 'em treated right, or I'll bust somebody's
skillet. They'uns is my takings, and I'm a-gwine to have all the say
'bout 'em. I've never interfered with any Yankees any o' yo'uns have
brung in. Yo've done with them as you pleased, an' I'm a-gwine to do
with these jest as I please, and yo'uns that don't like hit kin jest
lump hit, that's all."
Take Your Arm from Around That Yank's Neck 203
"'Frony Bolster, I want yo' to take yo'r arms from around that Yank's
neck," said the man who had tried to take Shorty's gun. "I won't 'low
yo' to put yo'r arm 'round another man's neck as long's I'm alive to
stop it."
"Ye won't, Jeff Hackberry," she sneered. "Jealous, air ye? You've got no
bizniss o' bein'. Done tole ye 'long ago I'd never marry yo', so long as
I could find a man who has two good eyes and a 'spectable character.
I've done found him. Here he is, and 'Squire Corson 'll splice us to-
night."
How much of each of the emotions of jealousy, disappointment, hurt
vanity, and rebel antagonism went into the howl that Mr. Jeff Hackberry
set up at this announcement will never be known. He made a rush with
clenched fists at Shorty.
A better description could be given of the operations of the center of a
tornado than of the events of the next few minutes. Shorty and Hackberry
grappled fiercely. Mrs. Bolster mixed in to stop the fight and save
Shorty. Si and the other three rebels flung themselves into the
whirlpool of strikes, kicks, and grapples. The delighted children came
rushing in, and eagerly joined the fray, striking with charming
impartiality at every opportunity to get a lick in anywhere on anybody;
and finally the legion of dogs, to whom such scenes seemed familiar and
gladsome, rushed in with an ear-splitting clamor, and jumped and bit at
the arms and legs that went flying around.204
This was too violent to last long. Everybody and everything had to stop
from sheer exhaustion. But when the stop came Mrs. Bolster was sitting
on the prostrate form of Jeff Hackberry. The others were disentangling
themselves from one another, the children and the dogs, and apparently
trying to get themselves into relation with the points of the compass
and understand what had been happening.
"Have yo' had enough, Jeff Hackberry," inquired Mrs. Bolster, "or will
yo' obleege me to gouge yer other eye out afore yo' come to yer senses?"
"Le' me up, 'Frony," pleaded the man, "an' then we kin talk this thing
over."
CHAPTER XV. SHORTY NEARLY GOT MARRIED BREAKING UP A BAD REBEL NEST IS NO
PICNIC.
WHEN physical exhaustion called a halt in the fracas, Mrs. Bolster was
seated on Jeff Hackberry's breast with her sinewy hands clutching his
long hair, and her thumb, with a cruel, long nail, pressing the ball of
his one good eye. Shorty was holding down one of the guerrillas who had
tried to climb on his back when he was grappling with Hackberry. Si had
knocked one guerrilla senseless with his gun-barrel, and now came to a
breathless standstill in a struggle with another for the possession of
his gun. The children and dogs had broken up into several smaller
stormcenters, in each of which a vicious fight was going on. In some it
was dog and dog; in some child and child, and in others dogs and
children mixed.
Then they all halted to observe the outcome of the discussion between
Mrs. Bolster and Jeff Hackberry.
"Holler 'nuff, Jeff, or out goes yer last light," commanded Mrs.
Bolster, emphasizing her words by rising a little, and then settling
down on Jeff's breast with a force that drove near every spoonful of
breath out of him.
"'Frony, le' me up," he begged in gasps.206
"Mrs. Bolster," she reminded him, with another jounce upon his chest.
"Mrs. Bolster, le' me up. I'd 'a' got away with that 'ere Yank ef ye'
hedn't tripped me with them long legs o' your'n."
"I'm right smart on the trip, aint I," she grinned. "I never seed a man
yit that I couldn't throw in any sort of a rastle."
"Le' me up, Mrs. Bolster, an le's begin over agin, an' yo' keep out,"
begged Hackberry.
"Not much I won't. I ain't that kind of a chicken," she asserted with
another jounce. "When I down a man I down him fer good, an' he never
gits up agin 'till he caves entirely. If I let yo' up, will yo' swar to
quite down peaceable as a lamb, an' make the rest do the same?"
"Never," asserted Hackberry. "I'm ergwine to have it out with that
Yank."
"No you haint," she replied with a still more emphatic jounce that made
Hackberry use all the breath left him to groan.
"I'll quit," he said, with his next instalment of atmosphere.
"Will yo' agree t' let me marry this Yank, an' t' give me away as my
oldest friend, nearest o' kin, an' best man?" she inquired, rising
sufficiently to let him take in a full breath and give a free, unforced
answer.
"Nary a time," he shrieked. "I'll die fust, afore I'll 'low yo' t' marry
ary other man but me."
"Then you'll lose yor bClinker, yo' pigheaded, likker-guzzling', ornery,
no-account sand-hill crane," she said, viciously coming down on his
chest with207 her full weight and sticking the point of hei nail against
his eye. "I wouldn't marry yo' if ye wuz the last nubbin' in the Lord
A'mighty's crib, and thar'd never be another crap o' men. Ye'll never
git no chance to make me yer slave, and beat me and starve me t' death
as yo' did Nance Brill. I ain't gwine t' fool with yer pervarsity nary a
minnit longer. Say this instant whether yo'll do as I say with a
freewill and good heart, or out goes yer peeper." "I promise," groaned
Jeff.208
"Yo' sw'ar hit?" she demanded.
"Yes, I sw'ar hit," answered Jeff.
Mrs. Bolster rose, and confirmed the contract by giving him a kick in
the side with her heavy brogan.
"That's jest a lovetap," she remarked, "'t let yo' know t' le' me alone
hereafter. Now, le's straighten things around here fer a pleasant time."
She initiated her proposed era of good feeling by a sounding kick in the
ribs of the most obstreperous of the dogs, and a slap on the face of a
12-year-old girl, who was the noisest and most pugnacious of the lot.
Each of these set up a howl, but there was a general acquiescence in her
assertion of authority.
Jeff Sat up and Rubbed Himself 208
Jeff Hackberry sat up, scratched and rubbed himself, seemed to be trying
to once more get a full supply of air in his lungs, and turned a one-
eyed glare on his surroundings. The guerrilla whom Si had knocked down
began to show signs of returning consciousness, but no one paid any
attention to him. One of the other two pulled out a piece of tobacco,
split it in two, put the bigger half in his mouth and handed the
remainder to his partner. Both began chewing meditatively and looking
with vacant eyes for the next act in the drama. Shorty regained his gun,
and he and Si looked inquiringly at one another and the mistress of the
ranch.
"Come on up t' the house," she said, starting in that direction. The
rest followed, with Si and Shorty in the lead.
The boys gazed around them with strong curiosity. The interior was like
that of the other log cabins they had seen—a rough puncheon floor for
the single room, a fireplace as big as a barn door, built of rough209
stones, with a hearth of undressed flat stones, upon which sat a few
clumsy cooking utensils of heavy cast-iron, three-legged stools for
chairs, a table of rough whip-sawed boards held together by wooden pins.
In two of the corners were beds made of a layer of poles resting upon a
stick supported at one end upon a log in the wall and at the other end a
forked stick driven between the puncheons into the ground below. Upon
this was a pile of beech leaves doing duty as a mattress. The bed-
clothes were a mass of ragged fabrics, sheepskins, etc., used in the
daytime for saddle-blankets and at night upon the bed. There had been
added to them, however, looking particularly good and rich in contrast
with their squalor, several blankets with "U. S." marked upon them.
Around the room were canteens, shoes, and other soldier belongings.
"Have they killed and robbed the men to whom these belonged, or merely
traded whisky for them?" was the thought that instantly flashed through
Si's and Shorty's minds. The answer seemed to be favorable to murder and
robbery. "Set down an' make yourselves at home. I'll git yo' out suthin'
t' wet yer whistles," said Mrs. Bolster, wreathing as much graciousness
as she could into her weathered-wood countenance. She apparently kicked
at the same instant a stool toward them with her left foot, and a dog
out of the way with her right, a performance that excited Shorty's
admiration.
"When I see a woman kick in different directions with both feet at the
same time, I understood how dangerous her trip would be in a rastle," he
said afterward.210
Si and Shorty shoved two of the stools so that they could sit with their
backs to the wall, still holding their guns.
The guerrillas came filing in, with an expectant look on their faces.
Even Jeff Hackberry looked more thirstily longing than wrathful. The man
who had fallen under Si's gunbarrel had gotten able to walk, was rubbing
his head and moaning with the design of attracting attention and
sympathy.
Mrs. Bolster produced a key from her pocket. The others understood what
this meant. They lifted aside some sacks of meal and shelled corn, and
revealed a puncheon which had been cut in two, and the short piece was
garnished by rude iron hinges and hasp, all probably taken from some
burned barn. The hasp was locked into the staple by one of the heavy
padlocks customary on the plantations, and this Mr. Bolster proceeded to
open with her key. When the puncheon was turned up it revealed a pit
beneath, from which she lifted a large jug of whisky. She poured some
out in a tin cup and handed it to Shorty.
"Take a big swig," she said; "hit's mouty good stuff—ole Jeff Thompson's
brewin' from yaller corn raised on rich bottom land."
Si trembled as he saw his partner take the cup. Shorty smelled it
appreciatively. "That is good stuff," he said. "Roses ain't nowhere
alongside."
He put the cup to his lips and took a sip.
"Tastes as good as it smells," he said, heartily, while the mouths of
the guerrillas were watering. He put the cup again to his lips, as if to
take a deep draft. Then came a short cough and a tremendous211 sputter,
followed by more painful coughing and strangling.
"Jest my infernal luck," gasped Shorty. "I would talk, an' I got some
down the wrong way.
"Lord, it's burnin' my lights out. Gi' me a drink o' water, somebody."
One of the children handed him a gourdful of water, while he continued
to cough and sputter and blame himself for talking when he was drinking.
The woman handed the cup to Si, who feared that the liquor might be
poisoned or drugged. He made a pretense of drinking, and then handed the
cup back, making motions that his throat was so sore that he could not
drink much. Mrs. Bolster looked at him suspiciously, but the clamor of
the guerillas distracted her attention, and she turned to supply them.
"No, Jeff Hackberry," she said firmly, "yo' can't have more'n two
fingers. I know yo' of old, an' jest how much yo' orter tote. Two
fingers'll make yo' comfortable an' sociable; three'll raise the devil
in yo,' an' four'll make yo' dancin' drunk, when yo'll have t' be held
down. Yo'll have jest two fingers, an' not a drap more."
"Jest another finger, 'Frony. Remember, yo've bin orful rough on me, an'
I need more. I'll promise t' be good," pleaded Hackberry.
"No, not a drap more'n two fingers now. If yo' behave yo'self I'll give
yo' another two fingers by-an'-by."
"Hackberry swallowed his portion at a thirsty gulp and sat down on the
door-sill to let it do its invigorating work. The other two guerrillas
were212 given each two fingers, and the man whom Si knocked down had his
moanings rewarded by three fingers and a liberal application in addition
to the wound on his head, which he declared was much relieved by it.
"Set your guns up agin the wall an' ack nacherul," commanded Mrs.
Bolster. "Nobody's a-gwine to hurt yo'. The 'Squire'll be here soon,
we'll git spliced, an' have a good time all around."
The noisy barking of the dogs announced the approach of someone.
"Lord, I hope that's 'Squire Corson," said Mrs. Bolster, running eagerly
to the door. "If hit's him, we kin go right ahead with the weddin'."
"If that's the 'Squire," said Shorty, in a low whisper, without turning
his head, "we'll grab our guns and fight to the death. We may clean out
this gang."
Si's attention had been in the meanwhile attracted to some boxes
concealed under the beds, and his curiosity was aroused as to what such
unusual things in a cabin might contain.
"No; hit's Capt. Sol. Simmons," said she in a tone of disappointment
mixed with active displeasure. "Now, he'll be cavortin' and tearin'
around, and wantin' t' kill somebody. I wish he wuz whar hit's a good
deal hotter."
She came over to where the boys were sitting, and said in a low tone:
"This man's allers makin' trouble, an' he's bad from his boots up. Keep
a stiff upper lip, both on yo', an' we'll try t' manage him. Don't
weaken. Hit'll do no good. He'll be wuss'n ever then."213
Si and Shorty instinctively felt for the revolvers in their pockets.
The newcomer tied his horse to a sapling and strode into the house. The
guerrillas seemed rather more fearful than otherwise to see him, but met
him with manners that were ranged from respectful by Jeff Hackberry to
absolute servility by the others. He was a burly, black-bearded man,
wearing a fairly-good uniform of a rebel Captain. His face showed that
he was a bully, and a cruel one.
He acknowledged in an overbearing way the greetings of the others, and
called out imperiously:
"'Frony, gi' me a stiff dram o' yer best at wunst. My throat's drier'n a
lime-kiln. Bin ridin' all mornin'."
"Folks wantin' likker don't say must t' me, but will yo', an' please,"
she answered sulkily.
"'Must,' 'please,' yo' hag," he said savagely. "Talk that a-way to me.
I'll 'please' yo'. I've killed two Yankees this mornin', an' I'm not in
the humor to fool around with an old pennyroyal huzzy like yo'. Gi' me
some whisky at wunst, or I'll baste yo'."
If ever Mrs. Bolster had been favorably disposed to him, she could not
endure to have him treat her this way before Shorty. She would assert
herself before him if ever.
She put her arms akimbo and retorted vigorously:
"Nary drap o' likker yo'll git from me, Sol. Simmons. Go and git yer
likker whar y're welcome. Y're not welcome here. I don't keer if yo'
have killed two Yankees or 20 Yankees. Y're allers talkin' about killin'
Yankees, but nobody never sees none that y've killed. I'm a better
Confederit than yo'214 ever dared be. I'm doin' more for the Southern
Confedrisy. Y're allers a-blowin' while I'm allers adoin.' Everybody
knows that. Talk about the two Yankees y've killed, an' which nobody's
seed, here I've brung two Yankees right outen their camps, an' have 'em
to show. More'n that, they're gwine to jine we'uns."
She indicated the two boys with a wave of her hand. Simmons seemed to
see them for the first time.
"Yankees here, an' yo' haint killed 'em," he yelled. He put his hand to
his revolver and stepped forward. The two boys jumped up and snatched
their guns, but before another move could be made Mrs. Bolster's
unfailing trip brought Simmons heavily to the floor, with his revolver
half out the holster. In an instant she sat down heavily upon him, and
laid her brawny hand upon his pistol. The dogs and children gathered
around in joyous expectation of a renewal of general hostilities. But
the dogs broke away at the scent or sight of someone approaching.
"Mebbe that's 'Squire Corson,'" said Mrs. Bolster with a renewed flush
of pleasant anticipation.
Instead, a rather, good-looking young rebel officer wearing a Major's
silver stars dismounted from his horse and, followed by two men, entered
the cabin.
"Hello, Simmons," said the Major in a tone of strong rebuke as soon as
he entered. "What in the world are you doing here? Is this the way you
carry out the General's orders? You're at your old tricks again. You
were sent out here early this morning, to capture or drive away that
Yankee picket at Raccoon Ford, so as to let Capt. Gillen come through215
with his pack-mules. I expected to meet him here and go on with him.
Your men have been waiting at the crossroads for you since daylight,
while you've been loitering around the rear. I ought to have you shot,
and you would be if I reported this to the General. You skulking whelp,
you ought to be shot. But I'll give you one more chance. It may not be
too late yet. Break for your place as fast as you can, and take these
whelps with you. I'll wait here till sundown for you. If you don't
report back to me by that time you'd better make your will. Jump now."
Mrs. Bolster had let go of Simmons as this exordium proceeded, as she
felt that he was in good hands.
As they disappeared the Major turned to Mrs. Bolster and inquired:
"Did Capt. Gillen get through with that quinine and guncaps?"
"They're thar," she said, pointing to the boxes under the beds.
"Very good. I've brought some men to take them away. We need them very
badly. Who are these men?"
Mrs. Bolster told her story about how they were tired of the Abolition
war, and had yielded to her persuasions to join the Southern army.
The Major looked them over sharply, and began a close cross-questioning
as to where they were born, what regiment they belonged to, how long
they had been in the service, what battles they had been engaged in and
on what part of the field, where their regiment now was, its brigade,
division and corps, commanders, etc., etc.216
As Shorty did not see any present occasion for lying, he had no trouble
in telling a convincing straightforward story. Si successfully worked
the loss-of-voice racket, and left the burden of conversation to his
partner.
The Major seemed satisfied, and said at the conclusion:
"Very good. I'll take you back with me when I return, and place you in a
good regiment."
This was a new and startling prospect, which was almost too much for
Shorty's self-control. For a minute he had wild thoughts of
assassinating the Major then and there, and making a run for life. But
he decided to wait a little longer and see what would develop.
If Mrs. Bolster's hue had permitted she would have turned pale at this
threatened loss of a husband and upsetting of all her plans. She merely
gulped down a lump in her throat and seemed to be thinking.
She became very attentive to the Major, and brought for his edification
a private bottle of fine old whisky. She set about preparing something
for them to eat.
Again the dogs barked, and in walked a man dressed in the fatigue
uniform of a Union soldier with the chevrons of a Sergeant. The boys
gave a start of surprise, and a great one when they saw on his cap:
A 200 Ind. Vols.
Si would have sprung up to greet him, but Shorty laid a restraining
hand, and whispered:217
"He don't belong to our regiment."
A second glance satisfied Si of this. While it is hardly possibly for a
man to know every other man in his regiment, yet in a little while there
comes something which enables him to know whether any man he meets does
or does not belong to his regiment.
The Major and Mrs. Bolster instantly recognized the newcomer.
"Awful glad to see you, Tuggers," said the Major, rising and shaking his
hand. "Did you get through without any trouble?"
"Not a bit o' trouble, thanks to you and Mrs. Bolster here. She got me
this uniform and this cap," said Tuggers, taking off the latter article
and scanning the lettering. "Rather more brass than I'm in the habit of
carrying on top of my head, no matter how much I have in my face. I got
your not giving me the positions of the Yankee regiments, for which I
suppose we must also thank Mrs. Bolster. I found them all correct. As
the 200th Ind. was the farthest out, I had no difficulty getting through
the rest of them by saying that I was on my way to my regiment. Of
course, I didn't come through the camp of the 200th Ind., but modestly
sought a byroad which Mrs. Bolster had put me onto. I've got a lot of
important letters from the mail in Nashville, among which are some
letters for the General, which I am told are highly important. I'm
mighty glad to be able to place them in your hands, and relieve myself
of the responsibility. Here they are. Thanks, I don't care if I do,
since you press me so hard,"218 said he, without change of voice, as he
handed over the letters and picked up the bottle and tin cup.
"Excuse me, Tuggers, for not asking you before," said the Major. "I was
so interested in you and your letters I forgot for the moment that you
might be thirsty. Help yourself."
"I didn't forget it," said Tuggers, pouring out a liberal dram. "Here's
to our deserving selves and our glorious Cause."
A shy girl of about eight had responded to Si's persistent
encouragement, and sidled up to him, examining his buttons and
accouterments. Si gave her some buttons he had in his pocket, and showed
her his knife and other trinkets in his pockets. The other children
began to gather around, much interested in the elaborate dumb show he
was making of his inability to speak.
Again the dogs barked. Mrs. Bolster ran to the door. "Hit's 'Squire
Corson," she exclaimed joyously, and hustled around to make extra
preparations for his entertainment.
The 'Squire entered, mopping his face with his bandana, and moving with
the deliberation and dignity consistent with his official position.
He looked at the boys with a severe, judicial eye, and gave the ominous
little cough with which he was wont to precede sentences. But he
recognized the Major and Tuggers, and immediately his attention was
centered in them. They were connected with Army Headquarters; they were
repositories of news which he could spread among his constituents. He
greeted them effusively, and was only too glad to accept their
invitation to sit down and drink. But219 he suggested, with official
prudence, that they go out in front and sit under a tree where they
could converse wore at liberty.
"Afore you go out, 'Squire," said Mrs. Bolster, with an attempt at
coyness, "I want yo' t' do a little job fer me."
Shorty's hair tried to stand on end.
"Jest wait a little, my good woman," said the 'Squire patronizingly. "I
want to talk to these gentlemen first; I kin 'tend to your matter any
time."
They lighted their pipes, and talked and talked, while Mrs. Bolster
fidgeted around in growing anxiety. Finally, as the sun was going down,
she could stand it no longer, and approached the group.
"'Squire," she said, "I'm orferly anxious to have a little job o' mine
done. 'Twon't take yo' five minits. Please 'tend to it right away."
"What is it she wants?" inquired the Major.
"I think she wants me to marry her to a Yankee deserter in there. She
whispered suthin' o' that kind to me awhile ago."
"That reminds me," said the Major; "I want you to swear those two men
into the service of the Southern Confederacy. You might as well do it
now, if you please, for I want to take them back with me and put them
into a regiment."
"That won't give much of a honeymoon to Mrs. Bolster," grinned the
'Squire.
"Well, we've all got to make sacrifices for the Cause," said the Major;
"her honeymoon'll be the sweeter for being postponed. I've had to
postpone mine."
"Well, bring the men out," said the 'Squire, pouring himself out another
drink.220
Si and Shorty had moved to the front door when Mrs. Bolster went out,
and could hear the whole conversation. They looked at one another. Their
faces were whiter than they had ever been on the field of battle.
"Take the oath of allegiance to the Southern Confederacy? Die right here
a hundred times," surged through both their hearts.
Si pulled the bunches of firecrackers from his pocket, undid them before
the children's wondering eyes. He went through a pantomime to tell them
to take a coal from the fire, run out back with them, and touch it to
the fuses.
"Take a coal, run back, and tech it to them strings," said Shorty,
forgetting himself in his excitement. "It'll be the greatest fun ye ever
saw."
"What's that y're sayin'?" said Mrs. Bolster.
"Jest talkin' to the children," said Shorty, seeing with relief the
children bolt out of the back door. He slipped his hand on his revolver,
determined to kill the 'Squire, the Major, and the other three men
before he would take a syllable of the oath.
"Come out here, men," said the Major authoritatively. Si slipped his
hand into his pocket, grasped his revolver, and walked forward very
slowly.
"Ahem," said the 'Squire, with an official cough. "Raise yer right
hands, and repeat these words after me, givin' your own names."
The other rebels took off their hats.
The dogs raised a clamor, which directed all eyes to the road. Sol
Simmons and the rest could be seen coming on a dead run.
"What does that mean?" said the Major anxiously.221
At the same instant there was a series of crashes behind the house; the
firecrackers were going off like a volley of rifle-shots. The Major
whirled around to see what that meant, and looked into the muzzle of
Shorty's revolver.
"Surrender, or I'll kill you," shouted Shorty desperately. "Don't stop a
minit. Throw up your hands, I tell you."
Si was making a similar demand on Tuggers, while the 'Squire was
standing, open-mouthed, with the first word of the oath apparently still
on his tongue.
The Major sprang at Shorty, whose bullet cut his hair. The next bullet
caught the officer in the shoulder, and he reeled and went down. Si was
not so fortunate with Tuggers, who succeeded in grappling him. Simmons
dashed by and struck Si, in passing, with his fist, which sent him to
the ground, with Tuggers on top.
The next minute the 'Squire, who was the only one who had any
opportunity to look, saw Yankees pop out of the brush and jump the
fences in a long, irregular line which immediately surrounded the house.
Capt. McGillicuddy cut down Simmons with his sword, and the rest
incontinently surrendered.
"We had got tired of waiting, and were on the point of dashing in,
anyhow, when we heard the firecrackers," said Capt. McGillicuddy, after
the prisoners had been secured and things quieted down. "That feller
that I cut down was out there with a squad and caught sight of us, and
started back this way, and I concluded to follow him up and jump the
house. Neither of you hurt, are you?"222
"Not hurt a mite," answered Shorty cheerfully, "but it's the closest
squeak I ever had. Wouldn't go through it agin for a pile o' greenbacks
big as a cornshock. Say, Cap., you've made a ten-strike today that ought
to make you a Major. That house's plum full o' contraband, and there's a
lot o' important letters there. But, say, Cap., I want you to either
kill that 'Squire or git him as fur away as possible. I ain't safe a
minnit as long as him and that woman's a-nigh me."
CHAPTER XVI. AN UNEXPECTED MARRIAGE THE BOYS CAPTURE REBELS AND
ADMINISTER THE OATH.
THE REBEL Major accepted the unexpected turn of events with soldierly
philosophy. Tuggers, captured in a blue uniform, saw the ignominious
fate of a spy loom up before his eyes. His face grew very white and set.
He sat down on a log, looked far away, and seemed oblivious to
everything around him.
Jeff Hackberry and Sol Simmons were frightened into nerveless terror,
and occasionally sighed and groaned audibly. Their men huddled together
like frightened sheep, and looked anxiously at every move of their
captors.
'Squire Corson had ventured two or three remarks in a judicial and
advisory way, but had been ordered by Capt. McGillicuddy to sit down and
keep quiet. He took a seat on a stump, pulled a large bandana out of his
beaver crowned hat, wiped his bald head, and anxiously surveyed the
scene as if looking for an opportunity when the power and dignity of the
State of Tennessee might be invoked to advantage.
Only Mrs. Bolster retained her aggressiveness and her tongue. If
anything, she seemed to be more savage and virulent than ever. She was
wild that she had been outwitted, and particularly by Si, whose fluent
speech had returned the moment the224 firecrackers went oif. She poured
out volleys of scorching epithets on all the Yankees from President
Lincoln down to Corp'l Si Klegg, and fervently invoked for them speedy
death and eternal torment where the worm dieth not and the fire is not
quenched.
Capt. McGillicuddy rounded up his prisoners, took arms from those who
still retained them, had Si and Shorty do what they could toward
dressing the Major's wound, and then began an examination of the house.
He found abundant evidence of all that he, Si and Shorty had believed of
it. It was a rendezvous for spies, both great and small—both those, like
Mrs. Bolster, who infested our camps, and got news of whatever was going
on there, and those who operated on a larger scale, passing directly
from the Headquarters of the rebels to the Headquarters of ours, and to
the rear, and the sources of information at Nashville and Louisville. It
was an important station on the route for smuggling gun-caps, quinine,
medicines and other contraband from the North. Quantities of these were
there waiting to be forwarded. As the source of the fighting whisky
introduced into the camp of the 200th Ind. too much was known of it to
require any further information. And it was more than probable that it
was the scene of darker crimes—Union soldiers lured thither under some
pretext, murdered and robbed.
"How in the world am I going to break this infernal nest up?" said Capt.
McGillicuddy, with a puzzled air, after he had ordered the whisky
destroyed and the other things gotten in shape to send225 back to camp.
"By rights, I ought to burn that house down, but that would leave all
these children without shelter. By the same token, I ought to shoot or
at least send off to prison that old she-catamount, but that would mean
starving the children to death. I declare, I don't know what to do."
He had drawn apart a little with Si and Shorty, to whom he spoke
confidentially, while casting his eyes about him as if seeking some
solution of the problem.
"If you'll allow me. Captain," said Shorty, "I've an idee. Now that
we've got the trap, let's set it agin, and see if we can't ketch some
more."
"Splendid idea. Shorty," said the Captain, catching on at once.
"And my idee," said Shorty, emboldened by the reception of his first
suggestion, "is that you take all the company but me and Si and four or
fire of the boys back to camp, leavin' us here until to-morrow at least.
There'll probably some very interestin' men happen along here to-night,
not knowing what's happened, and we'll jest quietly yank 'em in."
"That's good," assented the Captain.
"In the meantime," continued Shorty, "you kin be considerin' what you'll
do with the house. It may be best to let it stand, and watch it. That's
a good way to do with a bee-tree or a woodchuck hole.
"I believe you are right. I'll do as you say. Si, you and Shorty pick
out as many men as you want to stay with you. I'll leave one of these
horses with you. If you should happen to need any more, mount one of the
boys and send him back for help. I'll come out with the whole
company."226
Shorty and Si consulted together for a few minutes, picked out their
men, gave their names to the Captain, and received his assent to the
selection. Then Shorty said:
"Captain, you don't want to take that old woman, the 'Squire and that
skunk they call Jeff Hackberry back to camp with you, do you? Leave 'em
here with us. I've got a little scheme."
"The old woman and the 'Squire you can take and welcome," answered the
Captain. "I'll be glad to have them oif my hands. But Hackberry is a
rebel soldier. I don't know about giving him up."
"Leave him with us, then. We'll turn him back to you all right, and the
old woman and the 'Squire, too, if you want 'em."
"No," said the Captain, with an impatient wave of his hand. "Keep them,
do what you please with them. If you should accidentally kill the old
woman I should not be unduly distressed. But don't let Hackberry get
away from you. I'll take the rest back to camp, and I must start at
once, for it's getting late, and we didn't bring any rations with us. Do
you suppose you can find enough around the house to keep you till
morning?"
"O, yes," said Si. "There's a sack of meal in there and some side-meat.
We gave the old woman a lot of coffee. We'll make out all right."
The prisoners had been watching the Captain and his men with greatest
anxiety. They now saw Si with his squad take the 'Squire. Mrs. Bolster
and Hackberry off to one side, while the Captain placed the remainder of
the prisoners in the center of his company and started back to camp with
them.227
There was something in this separation that terrified even Mrs. Bolster,
who stopped railing and began to look frightened.
"What are yo'uns goin' to do with we'uns?" she inquired hoarsely of Si.
"You'll find out soon enough," said Si significantly. "Set down there on
that log and think about what you deserve. You might put in any spare
time you have in doing some big repentin'."
Hackberry began to whine and beg for mercy, but Shorty ordered him to
keep silent.
"I want you to understand," said the 'Squire, "that I'm a regerlarly
elected and qualified Magistrate o' the State o' Tennessee; that I'm not
subjeck to military laws, and if any harm comes to me you'll have to
answer for it to the State o' Tennessee."
"Blast the State o' Tennessee," said Shorty contemptuously. "When we git
through there won't be no State o' Tennessee. It'll be roasting in the
same logheap with South Caroliny and Virginny, with Jeff Davis brilin'
in the middle."
"Boys," ordered Si, "a couple of you look around the house and see if
you can't find a mattock and shovel."
Terrible fears assailed the three unhappy prisoners at this. What could
a mattock and shovel be wanted for but to dig their graves?
Shorty stepped over a little distance to a large clump of "red-sticks."
These grow in long wands of brilliant red, as straight as a corn-stalk,
and slenderer. They are much used about the farms of the South for rods
for rough measurement. He cut one off about six feet long and stripped
off its leaves.228
The anxious eyes of the prisoners followed every movement.
Two of the boys appeared with an old mattock and shovel.
"Guess you'd better dig right over there," said Si, indicating a little
bare knoll.
"Nothin' else's ever bin planted there. At least nothin's ever come up.
The chances are agin their comin' up if we plant 'em there."
"Stand up," said Shorty, approaching Hackberry with the bright crimson
rod in his hand. "I'm goin' to measure you for a grass-green suit
that'll last you till Gabriel blows his horn."
Hackberry gave a howl of terror. The 'Squire and Mrs. Bolster began a
clamor of protests.
"Don't fuss," said Shorty calmly to them, as he took Hackberry's
dimensions. "I ain't goin' to show no partiality. I'll serve you both
the same way. Your turns 'll come after his'n."
The children, aware that something unusual was going on, yet unable to
comprehend what it was, stood silently around, their fingers in their
mouths and their vacant eyes fixed in the stolid stare of the
mountaineer youth. Even the dogs were quiet, and seemed watching the
scene with more understanding than the children.
Mrs. Bolster's mood suddenly changed from bitter vituperation. She
actually burst into tears, and began pleading for her life, and making
earnest promises as to better conduct in the future. The 'Squire and
Hackberry followed suit, and blubbered like schoolboys. Mrs. Bolster
reminded Si and Shorty how she had saved them from being killed by
the229 fierce Hackberry and the still fiercer Simmons. This seemed to
move them. She tried a ghastly travesty of feminine blandishments by
telling Shorty how handsome she had thought him, and had fallen in love
with him at first sight. Shorty gave a grimace at this. He and Si
stepped back a little for consultation.
When they came back Shorty said oracularly:
"Our orders is strict, and we should've carried 'em out at once. But,
talkin' with my partner here, we're reminded o' somethin'. We believe
it's the law that when a man or woman is sentenced to death the
execution kin be put off if they kin find anybody to marry 'em. Is that
good law, 'Squire?"
"H-m-m," answered the Magistrate, resuming his judicial manner at once;
"that is a general belief, and I've heard o' some instances of it. But
before sayin' positively, I should like to examine the authorities an'
hear argument."
"Well, there hain't goin' to be no continuance in this case for you to
look up authorities and hear arguments," said Shorty decisively. "We're
the higher court in this case, and we decided that the law's good enough
for it. We've settled that if Mrs. Bolster 'll marry Hackberry, and
Hackberry 'll marry Mrs. Bolster, and you'll marry 'em both, we'll grant
a stay o' proceedings in the matter o' the execution o' the sentence o'
death until we kin be advised by the higher authorities."
"I'll do anything. Mister," blubbered Hackberry. "I'll marry her this
minnit. Say the words, 'Squire."
"I've said I'd rather die 10 times over than marry yo', Jeff Hackberry,"
murmured Mrs. Bolster. "I've280 bin the wife o' one ornery snipe of a
whisky-sucking sand-digger, and when the Lord freed me from him I said
I'd never git yoked with another. But I s'pose I've got to live for my
children, though the Lord knows the yaller-headed brats hain't wuth hit.
They're everyone of 'em their dad over agin—all Bolsters, and not wuth
the powder to blow 'em to kingdom come. I'd a heap ruther marry Jeff
Hackberry to make sure o' havin' him shot than to save him from
shootin'."
"You hain't no choice, Madam," said Shorty severely. "Law and orders is
strict on that pint."
"Well, then," said she, "since hit's a ch'ice betwixt death and Jeff
Hackberry, I'll take Jeff Hackberry, though I wouldn't take him on no
other terms, and I'm afeared I'm makin' a mistake as hit is."
"What do you say, 'Squire?" asked Shorty.
"I've bin studyin' on jest whar I come in," answered the Magistrate.
"These two save their necks by marryin', but do you understand that the
law says that the Magistrate who marries 'em gits his neck saved?"
"The court is not clear on that as a p'int o' law," said Shorty; "but in
the present case it'll hold that the 'Squire who does the splicin' gets
as much of a rake-off as the rest. This is not to be considered a
precedent, however."
"All right," assented the 'Squire; "let the couple jine hands."
With an air of glad relief, Hackberry sprang up and put out his hand.
Mrs. Bolster came up more slowly and reluctantly grasped his hairy fist
in her231 large, skinny hand. The 'Squire stood up before them in his
most impressive attitude.
"Hold on," suddenly called out Tom Welch, who was the "guard-house
lawyer" of Co. Q, and constantly drawing the "Regulations," the
"Tactics," and the "Constitution and Laws of the United States," in
which he was sharply proficient, upon the members of the regiment. "I
raise the point that the 'Squire can't officiate until he has taken the
oath of allegiance to the United States."
Si and Shorty looked at one another.
"That's a good point," said Si. "He's got to take the oath of
allegiance."
"Never," shouted the 'Squire, who had begun to recover his self-
confidence. "Never, as long as I live. I've sworn allegiance to the
Southern Confederacy, and won't take no other oath."
"Grave for one!" called out Shorty to the boys with the pick and shovel,
as if he were giving an order in a restaurant. "Full size, and hurry up
with it."
He picked up his measuring rod and started to take the 'Squire's
dimensions.
The 'Squire wilted at once. "I s'pose I've got to yield to force," he
muttered. "I'll take the oath."
"Who knows the oath?" inquired Si. "Do you, Tom?"
"Not exactly," replied Tom, non-plused for once. "But I know the oath we
took when mustered in. That ought to do. What's good enough for us is
good enough for him."
"Go ahead," ordered Si.
"We ought to have a Bible by rights," said Tom.232
"Where kin we find your Bible, Mrs. Bolster, asked Si.
"We'uns air done clean out o' Bibles," she said, rather shamefacedly.
"Thar hain't nary one in the house. I allers said we orter have a Bible.
Hit looked 'spectable to have one in the house. But Andy allers wanted
every cent to guzzle on."
"Here's a Testament. That'll do," said Tom, handing Si one which some of
the boys had about him. "Le's make 'em all take the oath while we're at
it."
"You'll all raise your right hands," said Si, opening the book. "Place
your left on this book, and repeat the words after that man there,
givin' your own names." Si was as solemn about it as he believed
everyone should be at such a ceremony. Hackberry and Mrs. Bolster were
not sure which were their right hands, but Si finally got them started,
and Tom Welch repeated slowly and impressively:
"You do solemnly swear to support the Constitution and laws of the
United States, and all laws made in pursuance thereof, against all
enemies and opposers whatsoever, whether foreign or domestic, and to
obey the orders of all officers duly appointed over you. So help you
God, and kiss this book."
"And to quit liquor selling, smuggling, spying and giving aid and
comfort to the enemy," added Shorty, and this was joined to the rest of
the oath.
"I ought to have added that they wash their faces once a day, and put
more shortenin' and fillin' in Mrs. Bolster's pies," said Shorty in an
undertone to233 Si. "But I suppose we oughtn't to ask impossible
things."
"Now go ahead with the wedding ceremony," ordered Si.
Again the 'Squire commanded them to join hands, and after mumbling over
the fateful words, pronounced Thomas Jefferson Hackberry and Mrs.
Sophronia Bolster man and wife.
"Now," said Shorty, who felt at last fully insured against a great
danger, "I believe it's the law and custom for all the witnesses to a
weddin' to see the bride and bridegroom in bed together. You'll go
inside the house and take one of them beds, and after we've seen you
there we'll consider your cases further. You're all right, anyway, until
we hear from camp to-morrow."
Amid the grins of the rest the boys conducted the newly-weds into the
house.
He and Si brought out the sack of meal, a few cooking utensils, a side
of bacon, and the package of coffee, which they gave to the other boys
to get supper with. They closed the door behind them, excluding the
children and dogs, and left the pair to their own reflections.
"Gentlemen, what air you gwine to do with me?" asked the 'Squire. "I'd
powerful like to git on home, if you've no further use for me."
"We hain't decided what to do with you, you old fomenter o' rebellion,"
said Si. "We ought to shoot you for what you've done in stirring up
these men to fight us. We'll settle your case to-morrow. You'll stay
with us till then. We'll give you your234 supper, and after awhile you
kin go in and sleep in that other bed, with the children."
The 'Squire gave a dismal groan at the prospect, which was lost on the
boys, who were very hungry and hurrying around helping to get supper.
They built a fine fire and cooked a bountiful meal, of which all,
including the 'Squire and children, partook heartily. A liberal portion,
with big cups of strong coffee, were sent into the bridal couple. As
bed-time drew near, they sent the 'Squire and the children into the
house, and divided themselves up into reliefs to watch during the night.
CHAPTER XVII. GATHERING INFORMATION SI AND SHORTY WORK A TRAP AND LAND
SOME PRISONERS.
THE boys were sitting around having another smoke before crawling into
their blankets, spread under the shade of the scraggly locusts and mangy
cedars, when the dogs raised an alarm.
"Get back under the shadow of the trees, boys, and keep quiet," said Si.
"Hello, the house!" came out of the darkness at the foot of the hill.
"Hello, thar' yourself," answered Shorty, imitating Mrs. Bolster's
voice.
"Hit's me—Brad Tingle. Don't yo' know my voice? Call off yer dogs.
They'll eat me up."
"Hullo, Brad; is that yo'? Whar'd yo' come from? Git out, thar, Watch!
Lay down, Tige! Begone, Bones! Come on up, Brad."
Shorty's imitations of Mrs. Bolster's voice and manner were so good as
to deceive even the dogs, who changed their attitude of shrill defiance
to one of fawning welcome.
"Whar'd yo' come from, Brad?" repeated Shorty as the newcomer made his
way up the narrow, stony path.
"Jest from the Yankee camps," answered the newcomer. "Me an' Jim Wyatt's
bin over thar by that236 Hoosier camp tryin' to git the drop on their
Kurnel as he was gwine t' Brigade Headquarters. We a'most had him when a
company o' Yankees that'd bin out in the country for something a'most
run over us. They'uns wuz a-nigh on top o' we'uns afore we seed
they'uns, an' then we'uns had t' scatter. Jim run one way an' me
another. I come back here t' see ef yo' had any o' the boys here. I
hearn tell that a passel o' Yankee ossifers is at a dance over at the
Widder Brewster's an' I thought we'uns might done gether they'uns in ef
we'uns went about it right."
"So you kin—so you kin," said Shorty, reaching out from behind the
bushes and catching him by the collar. "And to show you how, I'll jest
gether you in."
A harsh, prolonged, sibilant, far-reaching hiss came from the door of
the cabin, but came too late to warn Brad Tingle of the trap into which
he was walking.
Shorty understood it at once. He jerked Tingle forward into Si's strong
clutch, and then walked toward the cabin, singing out angrily:
"Jeff Hackberry, I want you to make that wife o' your'n mind her own
bisness, and let other people's alone. You and her've got quite enough
to do to tend to your honeymoon, without mixing into things that don't
concern you. Take her back to bed and keep her there."
He went back to where Si was disarming and searching Tingle. The
prisoner had a United States musket, cartridge-box, canteen, and a new
haversack, all of which excited Shorty's ire.237
"You hound, you," he said, taking him by the throat with a fierce grasp,
"you've bin bushwhacking, and got these things off some soldier you
sneaked onto and killed. We ought to kill you right now, like we would a
dog."
"No, Mister, I haint killed nobody; I swar t' God I haint," gurgled the
prisoner, trying to release his throat from Shorty's grip.
"Where'd you git these things?" demanded Shorty.
"Mrs. Bolster gi' me the gun an' cartridge-box; I done found the canteen
in the road, an' the poke with the letters in hit the Yank had done laid
down beside him when he stopped t' git a drink, an' me an' Jim crep' up
on him an' ordered him to surrender. He jumped an' run, an' we wuz af
eared to shoot least we bring the rest o' the Yanks down onto us."
At the mention of letters Si began eagerly examining the contents of the
haversack. He held some of them down to the light of the fire, and then
exclaimed excitedly:
"Why, boys, this is our mail. It was Will Gobright they were after."
A sudden change came over Shorty. He took the prisoner by the back of
the neck and ran him up to the door of the house and flung him inside.
Then he hastened back to the fire and said:
"Le's see them letters."
A pine-knot had been thrown on the fire to make a bright blaze, by the
light of which Si was laboriously fumbling over the letters. Even by the
flaring, uncertain glare it could be seen that a ruddy hue came into his
face as he came across one with a gorgeous flag on one end of the
envelope, and directed in a238 pinched, labored hand on straight lines
scratched by a pin. He tried to slip the letter unseen by the rest into
his blouse pocket, but fumbled it so badly that he dropped the rest in a
heap at the edge of the fire.
"Look out, Si," said Shorty crossly, and hastily snatching the letters
away from the fire. "You'll burn up somebody's letters, and then
there'll be no end o' trouble. You're clumsier'n a foundered horse. Your
fingers are all thumbs."
"Handle them yourself, if you think you kin do any better," said Si,
who, having got all that he wanted, lost interest in the rest. If Si's
fingers were all thumbs. Shorty's seemed all fists. Besides, his reading
of handwriting was about as laborious as climbing a ladder. He tackled
the lot bravely, though, and laboriously spelled out and guessed one
address after another, until suddenly his eye was glued on a postmark
that differed from the others. "Wis." first caught his glance, and he
turned the envelope around until he had spelled out "Bad Ax" as the rest
of the imprint. This was enough. Nobody else in the regiment got letters
from Bad Ax, Wis. He fumbled the letter into his blouse pocket, and in
turn dropped the rest at the edge of the fire, arousing protests from
the other boys.
"Well, if any o' you think you kin do better'n I kin, take 'em up. There
they are," said he. "You go over 'em, Tom Welch. I must look around a
little."
Shorty secretly caressed the precious envelope in his pocket with his
great, strong fingers, and pondered as to how he was going to get an
opportunity to read the letter before daylight. It was too sacred239 and
too sweet to be opened and read before the eyes of his unsympathetic,
teasing comrades, and yet it seemed an eternity to wait till morning. He
stole a glance out of the corner of his eye at Si, who was going through
the same process, as he stood with abstracted air on the other side of
the fire. The sudden clamor of the dogs recalled them to present duties.
"Hullo, the house!" came out of the darkness.
"Hullo, yourself!" replied Shorty, in Mrs. Bolster's tones.
"It's me—Groundhog. Call off yer dogs."
Si and Shorty looked startled, and exchanged significant glances.
"Needn't 've told it was him," said Shorty. "I could smell his breath
even this far. Hullo, Groundhog," he continued in loud tones. "Come on
up. Git out, Watch! Lay down, Tige! Begone, Bones! Come on up,
Groundhog. What's the news?"
A louder, longer, more penetrating hiss than ever sounded from the
house. Shorty looked around angrily. Si made a break for the door.
"No, I can't come up now," said Groundhog; "I jest come by to see if
things wuz all right. A company went out o' camp this mornin' for some
place that I couldn't find out. I couldn't git word t' you, an' I've bin
anxious 'bout whether it come this way."
"Never tetched us," answered Shorty, in perfect reproduction of Mrs.
Bolster's accents. "We'uns is all right."
The hissing from the cabin became so loud that it seemed impossible for
Groundhog not to hear it.240
"Blast it, Si, can't you gag that old guinea-hen," said Shorty, in a
savage undertone.
Si was in the meanwhile muttering all sorts of savage threats at Mrs.
Bolster, the least of which was to go in and choke the life out of her
if she did not stop her signalling.
"Glad t' hear it," said Groundhog. "I was a leetle skeery all day about
it, an' come out as soon's I could. Have yo' seed Brad Tingle?"
"Yes; seen him to-day."
"D' yo' know whar he is? Kin yo' git word to him quick?"
"Yes, indeed; right off."
"Well, send word to him as soon as you kin, that I've got the mules
ready for stampedin' an' runnin' off at any time, an' waitin' for him.
The sooner he kin jump the corral the better. To-night, if he kin, but
suttinly not later'n to-morrer night. Be sure and git word to him by
early to-morrer mornin' at the furthest."
"I'll be sure t' git word t' him this very night," answered the
fictitious Mrs. Bolster.
"Well, good-night. I must hurry along, an' git back afore the second
relief goes off. All my friends air on it. See yo' ter-morrer, if I
kin."
"You jest bet you'll see me to-morrow," said Shorty grimly, as he heard
Groundhog's mule clatter away. "If you don't see me the disappointment
'll come nigh breaking my heart. Now I'll go in and learn Mr. and Mrs.
Hackberry how to spend the first night o' their wedded lives."
"I don't keer ef yo' do shoot me. I'd a heap ruther be shot than not,"
she was saying to Si as Shorty241 came up. "I've changed my mind sence
I've bin put in here. I'd a heap ruther die than live with Jeff
Hackberry."
"Never knowed married folks to git tired o' one another so soon,"
commented Shorty. "But I should've thought that Jeff' d got tired first.
But this it no time to fool around with fambly jars. Look here, Jeff
Hackberry, you must make that wife o' yourn keep quiet. If she tries to
give another signal we'll tie you up by the thumbs now, besides shoot
you in the mornin'."
"What kin I do with her?" whined Jeff.
"Do with her? You kin make her mind. That's your duty. You're the head
o' the fambly."
"Head o' the fambly?" groaned Jeff, in mournful sarcasm. "Mister, you
don't seem to be acquainted with 'Frony.
"Head o' the fambly," sneered his wife. "He aint the head o' nothin'.
Not the head o' a pin. He haint no more head'n a fishworm."
"Look here, woman," said Shorty, "didn't you promise to love, honor and
obey him?"
"No, I didn't nuther. I said I'd shove, hammer an' belay him. Hit's none
o' yer bizniss, nohow, yo' sneakin' Yankee' what I do to him. You hain't
no call t' mix betwixt him an' me. An' my mouth's my own. I'll use hit
jest as I please, in spite o' yo' an' him, an' 40 others like yo'. Hear
that?"
"Well, you git back into that bed, an' stay there, and don't you dare
give another signal, or I'll buck-and-gag you on your wedding-night."
"Don't you dar tetch me," she said menacingly.
"I aint goin' to tech you. I'm too careful what I242 touch. But I'll tie
you to that bed and gag you, if you don't do as I say. Get back into bed
at once."
"I ain't gwine t', and yo' can't make me," she said defiantly.
"Take hold of her, Jeff," said Shorty, pulling out his bayonet and
giving that worthy a little prod.
Jeff hesitated until Shorty gave him a more earnest prod, when he
advanced toward his wife, but, as he attempted to lay his hands on her
shoulders, she caught him, gave him a quick twist and a trip, and down
he went; but he had clutched her to save himself from falling, and
brought her down with him. Shorty caught her elbows and called to Si to
bring him a piece of cord, with which he tied her arms. Another piece
bound her ankles. She lay on the floor and railed with all the vehemence
of her vicious tongue.
"Pick her up and lay her on the bed there," Shorty ordered Jeff. Jeff
found some difficulty in lifting the tall, bony frame, but Shorty gave
him a little help with the ponderous but agile feet, and the woman was
finally gotten on the bed.
"Now, we'll gag you next, if you make any more trouble," threatened
Shorty. "We don't allow no woman to interfere with military operations."
They had scarcely finished this when the dogs began barking again, and
Si and Shorty hurried out. The operations in the house had rather heated
them, the evening was warm, and Shorty had taken off his blouse and
drawn it up inside of his belt, in the rear.
The noise of the dogs betokened the approach of something more than
usual visitors. Through the clamor the boys' quick ears could detect the
clatter243 of an ominous number of hoofs. The other boys heard it, too,
and were standing around, gun in hand, waiting developments.
"Hullo, dere, de house!" came in a voice Si and Shorty dimly recognized
having heard somewhere before.
"Hullo, yourself," answered Shorty. "Who air yo?"243
"I'm Capt. Littles," came back above the noise of barking. "Call off
your togs. I'm all righdt. Is it all right up dere?"
"Yes. Lay down. Watch! Git out, Tige!" Shorty started to answer, when he
was interrupted by the apparition of Mrs. Bolster-Hackberry flying out
of the door, and yelling at the top of her voice:
"No, hit ain't all right at all. Captain. The Yankees 've got us. Thar's
a right smart passel o' 'em here, with we'uns prisoners. Jump 'em, if
you' kin. If yo' can't, skeet out an' git enough t' down 'em an' git us
out."
Si and Shorty recognized that the time for words was passed. They
snatched up their guns and fired in the direction of the hail. The other
boys did the same. There was a patter of replying shots, aimed at the
fire around which they had been standing, but had moved away from.
Apparently, Capt. Littles thought the Yankees were in too great force
for him to attack, for his horses could be heard moving away. The boys
followed them with shots aimed at the sound. Si and Shorty ran down
forward a little ways, hoping to get a better sight. The rebels halted,
apparently244 dis mounted, got behind a fence and began firing back at
intervals.
Si and Shorty fired from the point they had gained, and drew upon
themselves quite a storm of shots.
"Things look bad," said Si to Shorty. "They've halted there to hold us
while they send for reinforcements. We'd better go back to the boys and
get things in shape. Mebbe we'd better send back to camp for help."
"We'll wait till we find out more about 'em," said Shorty, as they moved
back. They had to cross the road, upon the white surface of which they
stood out in bold contrast and drew some shots which came uncomfortably
close.
The other boys, after a severe struggle, had caught Mrs. Bolster-
Hackberry and put her back in the cabin. After a brief consultation, it
was decided to hold their ground until daylight. They could get into the
cabin, and by using it as a fortification, stand off a big crowd of
enemies. The rest of the boys were sent inside to punch out loop-holes
between the logs, and make the place as defensible as possible. Si and
Shorty were to stay outside and observe.
"I've got an idee how to fix that old woman," said Shorty suddenly.
"Buck-and-gag her?" inquired Si.
"No; we'll go in there and chuck her down that hole where she kept her
whisky, and fasten the hasp in the staple."
"Good idee, if the hole will hold her."
"It's got to hold her. We can't have her245 rampaging round during the
fight. I'd rather have a whole company o' rebels on my back."
They did not waste any words with the old woman, but despite her yells
and protests Si took hold of one shoulder Shorty the other, and forced
her down in the pit and closed the puncheon above her.
They went out again to reconnoiter. The enemy was quiet, apparently
waiting. Only one shot, fired in the direction of the fire, showed that
they were still there.
Shorty suddenly bethought him of his blouse, in the pocket of which was
the precious letter. He felt for it. It was gone. He was stunned.
"I remember, now," he said to himself, "it was working out as I ran, and
it slipped down as I climbed the fence."
He said aloud:
"Si, I've lost my blouse. I dropped it down there jest before we crossed
the road. I'm goin' to get it."
"Blast the blouse," said Si; "let it be till mornin'. You need something
worse'n a blouse to-night. You'll ketch a bullet sure's you're alive if
you try to go acrost that road agin. They rake it."
"I don't care if they do," said Shorty desperately. "I'd go down there
if a battery raked it. There's a letter in the pocket that I must have."
Si instinctively felt for the letter in his own pocket. "Very well," he
said, "if you feel as if you must go I'll go along."
"No, you sha'n't. You stay here in command; it's your duty. You can't
help if you do go. I'll go alone. I'll tell you what you might do,
though. You might go over there to the left and fire on 'em, as if246 we
wuz feelin' around that way. That'll draw some o' their attention."
Si did as suggested.
Shorty crept back to the point they had before occupied. The rebels saw
him coming over a httle knoll, and fired at him. He ran for the fence.
He looked over at the road, and thought he saw the blouse lying in the
ditch on the opposite side. He sprang over the fence and ran across the
road. The rebels had anticipated this and sent a volley into the road.
One bullet struck a small stone, which flew up and smote Shorty's cheek
so sharply that he reeled. But he went on across, picked up the blouse,
found the dear letter, and deliberately stopped in the road until he
transferred it to the breast of his shirt. Then he sprang back over the
fence, and stopped there a moment to rest. He could hear the rebel
Captain talking to his men, and every moment the accents of the voice
became more familiar.
"Don't vaste your shods," he was saying. "Don'd vire undil you sees
somedings to shood ad, unt den vire to hid. See how many shods you haf
alretty vired mitout doing no goot. You must dink dat ammunition's as
blenty as vater in de Southern Confederacy. If you hat as much druble as
I haf to ket cartridges you vould pe more garcful of dem."
Capt. Littles was Rosenbaum, the Jew spy, masquerading in a new role.
Shorty's heart leaped. Instantly he thought of a way to let Rosenbaum
know whom he had run up against.
"Corporal Si Klogg!" he called out in his loudest tones.
"What is it, Shorty?" answered the wondering Si.247
"Don't let any more o' the boys shoot over there to the left. That's the
way Capt. McGillicuddy's a-comin' in with Co. Q. I think I kin see him
now jest raisin' the hill. Yes, I'm sure it's him."
The next instant he heard the rebel Captain saying to his men:
"Boys, dey're goming up in our rear. Dey're de men ve saw a liddle vhile
ago. De only vay is to mount unt make a rush past de house. All mount
unt vollow me as vast as dey gan."
There was a gallop of horsemen up the road, and they passed by like the
wind, while Si and Shorty fired as fast as they could load—Shorty over
their heads. Si at the noise. Just opposite the house the Captain's
horse stumbled, and his rider went over his head into a bank of weeds.
The rest swept on, not heeding the mishap.
"Surrender, Levi," said Shorty, running up.
"Certainly, my tear poy," said Rosenbaum. "Anyding dat you vant. How are
you, any vay? Say, dat vas a nead drick, vasn't it? Haf your horse
sdumble unt trow you jest ad de righd dime unt place? It dook me a long
dime to deach my horse dot. I'm mighty glat to see you."
248
CHAPTER XVIII. THE JEW SPY AGAIN MR. ROSENBAUM RECITES A THRILLING
EXPERIENCE.
"HIST, boys, don't talk friendly to me out loud," said the prudent
Rosenbaum. "What's happened? I know you have got the house. I have been
expecting for a long time that there would be a raid made upon it. What
the devil is that saying you have: 'It's a long worm that don't have a
turn.' No; that isn't it. 'It's an ill lane that blows nobody no good.'
No; that's not it, neither. Well, anyway, Mrs. Sophronia unt her crowd
got entirely too bold. They played too open, unt I knew they'd soon get
ketched. Who did you get in the house?"
Si started to call over the names, and to recite the circumstances, but
as he reached that of Brad Tingle, Rosenbaum clutched him by the arm and
said earnestly:
"Hold on. Tell me the rest after a while. I'm afraid of that man. He's
come pretty near getting on to me several times already. He's listening
now, unt he'll be sure to suspect something if he don't hear you
treating me as you did the others. Begin swearing at me as you did at
the rest."
Si instantly took the hint.
"I'll stand no more foolishness," he called out249 angrily. "If you
don't surrender at once I'll blow your rebel head off."
"I have to give up," Rosenbaum replied in an accent of pain, "for I
believe I broke my leg when I fell. I find I can't stand up."
"Give up your arms, then, and we'll help you up to the fire, and see how
badly you're hurt," said Si.
Rosenbaum gave groans of anguish as Si and Shorty picked him up and
carried him over to the fire.
"Now we're out of ear-shot o' the house," said Si, as they deposited him
on the opposite side, and somewhat behind a thicket of raspberries, "and
we can talk. Where did you come from this time, Levi?"
"Straight from General Bragg's Headquarters at Tullahoma, and I have got
information that will make General Rosecrans's heart jump for joy. I
have got the news he has been waiting for all these weeks to move his
army. I have got the number of Bragg's men, just where they are
stationed, and how many is at each place. I'm crazy to get to General
Rosecrans with the news. I have been cavorting around the country all
day trying some way to get in, unt at my wits' ent, for some of the men
with me had their suspicions of me, unt wouldn't have hesitated to shoot
me, if they didn't like the way I was acting. To tell the truth, it's
been getting pretty hot for me over there in the rebel lines. Too many
men have seen me in Yankee camps. This man. Brad Tingle, has seen me
twice at General Rosecrans's Headquarters, unt has told a lot of stories
that made much trouble. I think that this is the last250 visit I'll pay
General Bragg. I'm fond of visiting, but it rather discourages me to be
so that I can't look at a limb running out from a tree without thinking
that it may be where they will hang me."
"Excuse me from any such visitin'," said Si sympathetically. "I'd much
rather stay at home. I've had 12 or 15 hours inside the enemy's lines,
playin' off deserter, and I've had enough to last me my three years.
I'll take any day o' the battle o' Stone River in preference. I ain't
built for the spy business in any shape or form. I'm plain, out-and-out
Wabash prairie style—everything above ground and in sight."
"Well, I'm different from you," said Shorty. "I own up that I'm awfully
fond o' a game o' hocuspocus with the rebels, and tryin' to see which
kin thimble-rig the other. It's mighty excitin' gamblin' when your own
head's the stake, an' beats poker an' faro all holler. But I want the
women ruled out o' the game. Never saw a game yit that a woman wouldn't
spile if she got her finger in."
"Mrs. Bolster came mighty near marrying him, and he's pale yet from the
scare," Si explained.
"Yes," said Shorty frankly. "You'll see I'm still while all around the
gills. Never wuz so rattled in my life. That woman's a witch. You could
only kill her by shooting her with a silver bullet. She put a spell on
me, sure's you're a foot high. Lord, wouldn't I like to be able to
manage her. I'd set her up with a faro-bank or a sweat-board, and she'd
win all the money in the army in a month."
"Yes, she's a terror," accorded Rosenbaum. "She251 made up her mind to
marry me when I first come down here. I was awfully scared, for I was
sure she saw through me sharper than the men did, and would marry me or
expose me. But I got some points on her about poisoning a neighboring
woman that she hated unt was jealous of, unt then I played an immediate
order from General Bragg to me to report to his Headquarters. But it
took all the brains I had to keep her off me."
"She's safe now from marryin' anybody for awhile," said Shorty, and he
related the story of her nuptials, which amused Rosenbaum greatly.
"But you have signed Jeff Hackberry's death warrant," he said. "If he
tries to live with her she'll feed him wild parsnip, unt he'll get a
house of red clay, that you put the roof on with a shovel. It'll be no
great loss. Jeff ain't worth in a year the bread he'll eat in a day."
"She may be smothered in that hole," Shorty bethought himself. "I guess
we'd better let her out for awhile."
"Yes," said Rosenbaum. "She can't do no harm now. Nobody else will come
this way to-night. The men that were with me will scatter the news that
the house is in Yankee hands. They think there's a big force here, unt
so we won't be disturbed till morning."
"Then I'll go in and let her out," said Shorty.
The other inmates of the cabin were asleep when he entered, but they
waked up, and begged him not to let the woman out until morning.
"Keep her in there till daylight," said 'Squire Corson, "and then
restore me to my home and functions,252 and I'll call out a posse
comitatus, and have her publicly ducked, according to the laws of the
land, as a common scold. I've never heard such vile language as she
applied to me when I gave her the advice it was my duty to give to live
in peace and quietness with her husband. That there woman's a Niagary of
cuss words and abuse."
"If yo' let her out, take me outside with yo'," begged Jeff Hackberry.
"She'll kill me, sho', if I've to stay in here till mornin' with her.
She begun by flingin' a bag o' red pepper in my face, and set us all to
sneezin' until I thought the 'Squire'd sneeze his durned head off. Then
she jobbed me with a bayonet, and acted as no woman orter act toward her
lawful husband, no matter how long they'd bin married, let alone their
weddin' night."
"Sorry, but it's agin all my principles to separate man and wife," said
Shorty, as he moved to the puncheon trap-door and undid the hasp. "You
took her for better or worse, and it's too early in the game to complain
that you found her a blamed sight worse than you took her for. You're
one now, you know, and must stay that way until death do you part."
Shorty lifted up the trap-door, and Si helped the woman out with some
difficulty. They expected a torrent of abuse, but she seemed limp and
silent, and sank down on the floor. The boys picked her up and laid her
on the bed beside Jeff Hackberry. "She's fainted; she's dead. She's bin
sufferkated in that hole," said Jeff.
"No, yo' punkin-headed fool," she gasped. "I hain't dead, nor I hain't
fainted, nor I hain't253 sufferkated. Yo'll find out when I git my wind
back a little, I'm so full o' mad an' spite that I'm done tuckered clean
out. I'm clean beat, so clean beat that I hain't no words to fit the
'casion. I've got t' lay still an' think an' gether up some."
"She's comin' to, Shorty," said Si. "It'll be pleasanter outside."
"You say you have been having unusually exciting times," said Si to
Rosenbaum, as the boys again seated themselves by the fire.
"Veil, I should say so," replied Rosenbaum with emphasis. "Do you know
that General Bragg is the very worst man that ever lived?"
"All rebels are bad," said Shorty oracularly. "But I suppose that some
are much worse than others. I know that the private soldiers are awful,
and I suppose the higher you go the wuss they are. The Corporals are
cussider than the privates, the Sergeants can give the Corporals points
in devilishness, and so it goes on up until the General commanding an
army must be one of the devil's favorite imps, while Jeff Davis is Old
Horney's junior partner."
"No; it isn't that," said Rosenbaum. "I've known a good many rebel
Generals, unt some of them ain't really bad fellers, outside of their
rebelness. But old Bragg is a born devil. He has no more heart than a
rattlesnake. He actually loves cruelty. He'd rather kill men than not.
I've seen plenty of officers who were entirely too willing to shoot men
for little or nothing. General Bragg is the only man I ever saw who
would shoot men for nothing at all—just 'for example,' as he says, unt
to make the others254 afraid unt ready to obey him. He coolly calculates
to shoot so many every month. If they've done anything to deserve it,
all right. If they hain't, he shoots them all the same, just to
'preserve discipline.'"
Si and Shorty uttered exclamations of surprise at this cold-blooded
cruelty.
"I know it's hard to believe," said Rosenbaum, "but it's true all the
same, as anybody around his Headquarters will tell you. Jeff Davis knows
it unt approves it. He is the same kind of a man as General Bragg—no
more heart than a tiger, I have seen a good deal of the inside of the
rebel army, unt General Bragg is the coldest-blooded, cruelest man in it
or in the whole world. It's true that the men he orders shot are
generally of no account, like our man Jeff Hackberry—but it's the
principle of the thing that shocks me. He just takes a dislike to the
way a man looks or acts, or the way he parts his hair, looks at him with
his steely-gray eyes, unt says coldly: 'Put him in the bull-pen.' In the
bullpen the poor devil goes, unt the next time General Bragg gets an
idea that the discipline of the army is running down, unt he must
stiffen it up with a few executions, he orders all the men that happen
to be in the bull-pen taken out unt shot."
"Without any trial, any court-martial, any evidence against them?"
gasped Si.
"Absolutely without anything but General Bragg's orders. It is like you
read of in the books about those Eastern countries where the Sultan or
other High-muk-a-muk says, 'Cut that man's head off,' unt the man's head
is cut off, unt no questions asked.255 unt no funeral ceremonies except
washing up the blood."
"Lucky for you, Levi," said Shorty, "that he didn't have any of the
common prejudices against Jews, and slap you in the bull-pen."
"O, but he did," said Rosenbaum. "He hated a Jew worse than any man I
ever met. Unt it brought me so near death that I actually watched them
digging my grave.
"While I had my ups unt downs, unt some very narrow escapes," continued
Rosenbaum, "when I first went inside Bragg's lines, I got along very
well generally. I played the peddler unt smuggler for the Southern
Confederacy in great shape, unt run them through a lot of gun-caps,
quinine, medicines, unt so so on, unt brought in a great deal of
information which they found to be true. Some of dis General Rosecrans
gave me himself, for he is smart enough to know that if he wants his
Secret Service men to succeed he must give them straight goods to carry
to the enemy.
"I brought in exact statements of what divisions, brigades unt regiments
were at this place unt that place, how many men was in them, who their
commanders were, unt so on. General Rosecrans would have these given me.
It helped him in his plans to know just what information was reaching
the enemy, for he knew just how old Bragg would act when he had certain
knowledge. If he knew that Sheridan with 6,000 men was at this place,
with Tom Wood 10 miles away with 6,000 more, he would do a certain
thing, unt Rosecrans would provide for it. The news that I brought in
the rebels could test by256 the reports they got from others, unt they
always found mine correct.
"My work pleased the rebel Generals so well that they made me a Captain
in their army, transferred me from Brigade Headquarters to Division, unt
then to Corps Headquarters. I was given command of squads of scouts. I
can draw very well, unt I made good maps of the country unt the roads,
with the positions of Yankee unt rebel forces. This was something that
the other rebel spies could not do, unt it helped me lots. I was careful
to make copies of all these maps, unt they got to General Rosecrans's
Headquarters.
"The other rebel spies got very jealous of me because I was promoted
over them, unt they laid all sorts of plans to trip me up. They came
awful near catching me several times, but I was too smart for them, unt
could outwit them whenever I got a pointer as to what they were up to.
Once they watched me go to a hollow sycamore tree, which I used as a
postoffice for Jim Jones to get the things I wanted to send to General
Rosecrans. They found there maps I had made at Shelbyville, with the
positions of the rebel un Yankee forces unt the fortifications all
shown.
"That was an awful close call, unt I could feel the rope tightening
around my neck. But I kept my nerve, unt told a straight story. I said
that that tree was my regular office where I kept lots of things that I
was afraid to carry around with me when I was in danger of falling into
the Yankee hands, as I was every day when I was scouting. Luckily for me
I had some other private things unt a lot of257 Confederate money hid
there, too, which I showed them. They didn't more than half believe my
story, but they led me off, probably because they needed me so bad.
"I saw that the thing was only skimmed over, unt was ready to break out
again any minute worse than ever, unt I kept my eyes peeled all the
time. That's one reason why you have not seen me for so long. I didn't
dare send General Rosecrans anything or go near outside the rebel lines.
I had to play very good, but I kept gathering up information for the day
when I should make a final break unt leave the rebels for good.
"A week ago I was ordered to go up to General Bragg's Headquarters to
help them with their maps unt reports. They had nobody there that could
do the work, unt Jeff Davis, who always wants to know everything about
the armies, was bunching them up savagely for full information. He
wanted accurate statements about the Yankee strength unt positions, unt
about the rebel strength unt positions, to see if he couldn't do
something to pull the Yankees off of Pemberton at Vicksburg. Bragg's
Adjutant-General sent word through all the army for to find good rapid
penmen unt map-makers, unt I was sent up.
"The Adjutant-General set me to work under a fly near Headquarters, unt
he was tickled almost to death with the way I did my work. Old Bragg
himself used to walk up unt down near, growling unt cussing unt swearing
at everything unt everybody. Once or twice the Adjutant-General called
his attention to my work. Old Bragg just looked it over, grunted, unt
bored me through unt through with258 those sharp, cold, gray eyes of
his. But I thought I was safe so long as I was at Headquarters, unt I
gave a great stiff to other Secret Service men who had been trying to
down me.
Old Bragg Used to Walk up Unt Down, Growling Unt Cussing. 259
"One morning old Bragg was in an awful temper—the worst I had ever seen.
Every word unt order was a cruelty to somebody. Finally, up comes this
Brad Tingle that you have inside. He is a sort of a half-spy—not brains
enough to be a real one, but with a good deal of courage unt activity to
do small work. He had been sent by General Cheatham to carry some papers
unt make a report. Whatever it was, it put old Bragg in a worse temper
than ever. Brad Tingle happened to catch sight of me, unt he said in a
surprised way:
"'Why, there's that Jew I saw sitting in General Rosecrans's tent
talking to him, when I was playing off refugee Tennesseean in the Yankee
camps.'
"'What's that? What's that, my man?' said old Bragg, who happened to
overhear him.
"Brad Tingle told all he knew about me. Old Bragg turned toward me unt
give me such a look. I could feel those cold, cruel eyes boring straight
through me.
"'Certainly he is a Jew, unt one of old Rosecrans's best spies,' he
said. 'Old Rosecrans is a Jew, a Dutch Jew, himself. I knowed him well
in the old army. He's got a regular Jew face. He plays off Catholic, but
that is to hide his Jewishness. He can't do it. That hook nose'd give
him away if nothing else did, unt he has got enough else. He likes to
have Jews about him, because he understands them better than he does
white people, unt259 particularly he is fond of Jew spies. He can trust
them where nobody else can. They'll be true to him because he is a Jew.
Put that man in the bull-pen, unt shoot him with the rest to-morrow
morning.' "'Heavens,' gasped the Adjutant-General; 'he is260 by far the
best man I ever had. I can't get along without him.'
"'You must get along without him,' said old Bragg. 'I'm astonished at
you having such a man around. Where in the world did you pick him up?
But it's just like you. How in God's name Jeff Davis expects me to
command an army with such makeshifts of staff officers as he sends me, I
don't know. He keeps the best for old Lee unt sends me what nobody
else'll have, unt then expects me to win battles against a better army
than the Army of the Potomac. I never got a staff officer that had
brains once.'
"A Sergeant of the Provost Guard, who was a natural beast, unt was kept
by old Bragg because he was glad to carry out orders to murder men,
caught hold of me by my shoulder unt run me down to the bull-pen,
leaving the Adjutant-General with forty expressions on his angry face.
"My goodness, my heart sunk worse than ever before when I heard the door
shut behind me. There were 30 or 40 others in the bull-pen. They were
all lying around—dull, stupid, sullen, silent, unt hopeless. They hardly
paid any attention to me. I sat down on a log, unt my heart seemed to
sink clear out of me. For the first time in my life I couldn't see the
slightest ray of hope. Through the cracks in the bull-pen I could see
the fresh graves of the men who had already been shot, unt while I
looked I saw a squad of niggers come out unt begin digging the graves of
those who were to be shot to-morrow. I could see rebel soldiers unt
officers passing by, stop unt look a moment at the graves, shrug
their261 shoulders, unt go on. It froze my blood to think that tomorrow
they would be looking at my grave that way. After a while a man came in
unt gave each one of us a piece of cornbread unt meat. The others ate
theirs greedily, but I could not touch it. Night came on, unt still I
sat there. Suddenly the door opened, unt the Adjutant-General came in
with a man about my size and dressed something like me. As he passed he
caught hold of my arm in a sort of way that made me understand to get up
unt follow behind him, I did so at once without saying a word. I walked
behind him around the bull-pen until we came back to the door, when the
guard presented arms, unt he walked out, with me still behind him,
leaving the other man inside. After we had gone a little way he stopped
unt whispered to me:
"'The General had to go off in a hurry toward War Trace this afternoon.
He took the Provost-Sergeant unt part of his staff with him, but I had
to be left behind to finish up this work. I can't get anybody else to do
it but you. I'm going to take you over to a cabin, where you'll be out
of sight. I want you to rush that work through as fast as the Lord'll
let you. After you get it done you can go where you damned please, so
long as you don't let the General set eyes on you. I've saved your life,
unt I'm going to trust to your honor to play fair with me. Help me out,
do your work right, unt then never let me see you again.'
"Of course, I played fair. I asked no questions, you bet, about the poor
devil he had put in my place. I worked all that night unt all the next
day getting his papers in the best possible shape, unt in making262
copies of them for General Rosecrans, which I stuck behind the chimney
in the cabin. Along in the morning I heard the drums beating as the men
were marched out to witness the execution. It made my heart thump a
little, but I kept on scratching away with my pen for hfe unt death.
Then the drums stopped beating for a while, unt then they begun again.
Then I heard a volley that made me shiver all over. Then the drums beat
as the men were marched back to their camps. If I had had time to think
I should have fainted. Towards evening I had got everything in first-
class shape. The Adjutant-General came in. He looked over the papers in
a very satisfied way, folded them up, checked off from a list a
memorandum of the papers he had given me to copy unt compile, unt saw
that I had given them all back to him. Then he looked me straight in the
eye unt said:
"'Now, Jew, there's no use of my saying anything to you. You heard that
volley this morning, unt understood it. Never let me or the General lay
eyes on you again. You have done your part all right, unt I mine. Good-
by.'
"He took his papers unt walked out of the cabin. As soon as he was gone
I snatched the copies that I had hidden behind the chimney, stuck them
here unt there in my clothes, unt started for the outer lines.
"I made my way to a house where I knew I'd find some men who had scouted
with me before. I knew they might be suspicious of me, but I could get
them to go along by pretending to have orders from Headquarters for a
scout. I got to the house by morning, found some of them there, gathered
up some more263 unt have been riding around all day, looking at the
Yankee lines, unt trying to find some way to get inside. I'm nearly dead
for sleep, but I must have these papers in General Rosecrans's hands
before I close my eyes."
"Your horse is all right, isn't he?" asked Shorty.
"Yes, I think so," answered Rosenbaum.
"Well, we have a good horse here. I'll mount him and go with you to
camp, leaving Si and the rest of the boys here. I can get back to them
by daylight."
So it was agreed upon.
Day was just breaking when Shorty came galloping back.
"Turn out, boys!" he shouted. "Pack up, and start back for camp as quick
as you kin. The whole army's on the move."
"What's happened, Shorty?" inquired Si, as they all roused themselves
and gathered around.
"Well," answered Shorty, rather swelling with the importance of that
which he had to communicate, "all I know is that we got into camp a
little after midnight, and went direct to Gen. Rosecrans's Headquarters.
Of course, the old man was up; I don't believe that old hook-nosed
duffer ever sleeps. He was awful glad to see Rosenbaum, and gave us both
great big horns o' whisky, which Rosenbaum certainly needed, if I
didn't, for he was dead tired, and almost flopped down after he handed
his papers to the General. But the General wanted him to stay awake, and
kept plying him with whisky whenever he would begin to sink, and, my
goodness, the questions he did put at that poor Jew.264
"I thought we knowed something o' the country out here around us, but,
Jerusalem, all that we know wouldn't make a primer to Rosecrans's Fifth
Reader. How were the bridges on this road? Where did that road lead to?
How deep was the water in this creek? How many rebels were out there?
Where was Bragg's cavalry? Where's his reserve artillery? And so on,
until I thought he'd run a seine through every water-hole in that Jew's
mind and dragged out the last minner in it. I never heard the sharpest
lawyer put a man through such a cross-examination.
"Rosenbaum was equal to everything asked him, but it seemed to me that
Gen. Rosecrans knowed a great deal more about what was inside the rebel
lines than Rosenbaum did. All this time they was goin' over the papers
that Rosenbaum brung, and Old Rosey seemed tickled to death to git 'em.
He told Rosenbaum he'd done the greatest day's work o' his life and made
his fortune.
"In the meantime the whole staff had waked up and gathered in the tents,
and while the General was pumpin' Rosenbaum he was sending orders to
this General and that General, and stirrin' things up from Dan to
Beersheba. Lord, you ought t've seen that army wake up. I wouldn't 've
missed it for a farm. Everything is on the move—right on the jump. We're
goin' for old Bragg for every cent we're worth, and we want to git back
to the regiment as quick as our leg'll carry us. Hustle around, now."
"But what'er we goin' to do with our prisoners?" asked Si.
"Blast the prisoners!" answered Shorty with profane emphasis. "Let 'em
go to blue blazes, for all265 that we care. We're after bigger game than
a handful o' measly pennyroyal sang-diggers. We hain't no time to fool
with polecats when we're huntin' bears. Go off and leave 'em here."
"That's all right," said Si, to whom an idea occurred. "Hustle around,
boys, but don't make no noise. We'll march off so quietly that they
won't know that we're gone, and it'll be lots o' fun thinking what
they'll do when they wake up and begin clapper-clawin' one another and
wonderin' what their fate'll be."
END BOOK THREE
SI KLEGG EXPERIENCES OF SI AND SHORTY ON THE GREAT TULLAHOMA CAMPAIGN.
By John McElroy
Book Four
Published By
The National Tribune Co.,
Washington, D. C.
Second Edition
Copyright 1910
THE SIX VOLUMES SI KLEGG, Book I, Transformation From a Raw Recruit SI
KLEGG, Book II, Through the Stone River Campaign SI KLEGG, Book III,
Meets Mr. Rosenbaum, the Spy SI KLEGG, Book IV, On The Great Tullahoma
Campaign SI KLEGG, Book V, Deacon's Adventures At Chattanooga SI KLEGG,
Book VI, Enter On The Atlanta Campaign
'don't Call Me Your Gran'pap.' 37
frontispiece (95K)
titlepage (45K)
CONTENTS
PREFACE
SI KLEGG
CHAPTER I. THE TULLAHOMA CAMPAIGN ON TO DUCK RIVER
CHAPTER II. THE BALKY MULES
CHAPTER III. THIRD DAY OF THE DELUGE
CHAPTER IV. THE FOURTH DAY OF THE TULLAHOMA CAMPAIGN
CHAPTER V. AFLOAT ON A LOG
CHAPTER VI. DISTRESSING ENEMIES
CHAPTER VII. THE EXCITING ADVANCE TULLAHOMA
CHAPTER VIII. THE GLORIOUS FOURTH INDEPENDENCE DAY FUN
CHAPTER IX. A LITTLE EPISODE OVER LOVE LETTERS
CHAPTER X. AFTER BRAGG AGAIN
CHAPTER XI. THE MOUNTAIN FOLK
CHAPTER XII. SI AND SHORTY IN LUCK
CHAPTER XIII. MANY HAPPY EVENTS
CHAPTER XIV. THE FRISKY YOUNGSTERS
CHAPTER XV. KEYED UP FOR ACTION
CHAPTER XVI. THE TERRIFIC STRUGGLE
CHAPTER XVII. IN THE HOSPITAL
CHAPTER XVIII. A DISTURBING MESSAGE
CHAPTER XIX. TEDIOUS CONVALESCENCE
CHAPTER XX. STEWED CHICKEN
List of Illustrations
During the Halt for Dinner. 20
'Don't Call Me Your Gran'pap.' 35
Here Goes, Mebbe to Libbey Prison. 55
I'm All on Fire 77
Si and Shorty Were the First to Mount The Parapet. 91
The Bluff Worked 107
She Ran Like a Deer, But si Cut Her off 123
You Must'nt Kill a Wounded Man 143
"Father, There's a Couple of Soldiers out There." 159
The First Wad Came out Easily and All Right. 165
'Annabel, How Purty You Look.' 173
The Recruits Lined up on the Platform. 186
They Posted the Men Behind The Trees. 197
They Had a Delirious Remembrance of the Mad Whirl. 211
The Dead Being Collected After the Battle. 220
"Pap, is That You?" Said a Weak Voice. 238
"He Took Another Look at his Heavy Revolver." 254