A SUSPICIOUS OCCURRENCE.
When Sam had finished his despatch he quietly aroused Bob Sharp and
Sidney Russell, and entered into conversation with them.
"Sid," he said, "I have a prisoner and a despatch of very great
importance to send to General Jackson. You must take the despatch and
leave as soon as possible, with the prisoner, who is a deserter and
who must be got away from here before daylight. Bob, I want you to
give Sid as good directions as you can, as you've been over the route
twice."
"Yes an' I've sort o' blazed it too, and picked out all sorts o'
land-marks to steer by, but I don't knows I can make any body else
understand 'em. Are you in a big hurry with the despatch?"
"Yes, the biggest kind. It's of the utmost importance, and time is
every thing. A single hour lost may lose Mobile or a battle."
"Then maybe Sid an' me'd both better go,--Sid to do the fast running
an' me to show him the way."
"There's no use of both of you going," replied Sam, "but if you had
had a couple of days rest I would send you instead of Sid, because you
know the way, and I don't believe anybody can make the distance any
quicker than you have done it."
"I know a feller that kin," replied Bob.
"Who is it?" asked Sam.
"Me."
"You? How do you mean?"
"I mean that I kin go to Mobile most a day quicker 'n I dun it before.
I got into a lot o' tangles before that I know how to keep out of
now."
"Yes, but you can't start back again without at least a day's rest."
"Can't I though? I'm as fresh as an Irish potato without salt, an' if
you just say the word, I'll be off the minute you git your papers
ready. The boys have got somethin' cooked I reckon."
Sam complimented Bob upon his vigor and readiness, and accepted his
offer. Ten minutes sufficed for all necessary preparations, and Bob
was about starting with his prisoner, when Sid Russell spoke.
"I say, Sam, did you say this 'ere feller's a deserter?"
"Yes. What of it?"
"Nothing only there's a camp o' British an' Injuns back there a little
ways, an' if Bob don't look out he'll run right into it."
"A camp? Where?" asked Sam.
"Right in rear of us, not three hundred yards away."
"When was it established there?"
"To-night, just after you went away in the boat."
"All right," replied Sam. "Jump into the boat, Bob, and we'll sail
down below and you can start from there."
It was easy enough to carry Bob and the deserter down to a point below
the camp, but Sam was not at all pleased to find the British so near
him. He feared already that he was suspected, and he was not sure that
this placing of troops near him was not a preparation for something
else. At all events, it was very embarrassing, for the reason that it
would prevent him from withdrawing his party suddenly to the woods on
their retreat, if anything should happen, and this made Sam uneasy. He
returned to camp, after parting with Bob and the deserter, and sat for
an hour revolving matters in his mind.
At first he was disposed to wake the boys and quietly withdraw by
water to a point lower down, but upon reflection he was convinced that
his removal by night immediately after the troops had been stationed
near him, would only tend to excite suspicion. He thought, too, that
he must have been wrong in supposing that the camp had been
established in rear of him with any reference to him or his party.
"If they suspected us in the least, they would arrest us without
waiting to make sure of their suspicions," he thought; nevertheless,
it was awkward to be shut in and cut off from the easy retreat which
he had planned, as a means of escape, in the event of necessity, and
he determined to seek an excuse for removing within a day or two from
his present camping place to one which would leave him freer in his
movements. He was so troubled that he could not sleep, and the
flickering blaze of the dying camp fire annoyed him. He got up,
therefore, from his seat on a log and went to the boat and sat down in
the stern sheets to think.
He had no fear of danger for himself, or rather, he was prepared to
encounter, without flinching, any danger into which his duty might
lead him; but I have not succeeded very well in making my readers
acquainted with Sam Hardwicke's character, if they do not know that he
was a thoroughly conscientious boy, and from the beginning of this
expedition until now, he had never once forgotten that his authority,
as its commander, involved with it a heavy responsibility.
"These boys," he frequently said to himself, "are subject to my
command. They must go where I lead them, and have no chance to use
their own judgments. I decide where they shall go and what they shall
do, and I am responsible for the consequences to them."
Feeling his responsibility thus deeply, he was troubled now lest any
mistake of his should lead them into unnecessary danger. He carefully
weighed every circumstance which could possibly affect his decision,
and his judgment was that his duty required him to remain yet a day or
two in the neighborhood of Pensacola, and that it would only tend to
awaken suspicion if he should remove his camp to any other point on
the shores of the bay. He must stay where he was, and risk the
consequences. If ill should befall the boys it would be an unavoidable
ill, incurred in the discharge of duty, and he would have no reason,
he thought, to reproach himself.
Just as he reached this conclusion, Thlucco came from somewhere out of
the darkness, and stepping into the boat took a seat just in front of
Sam, facing him.
"Why, Thlucco," exclaimed Sam, "where did you come from?"
"Sh--sh--," said Thlucco. "Injun know. Injun no fool. Injun want
Sam."
"What do you want with Sam?"
"Sam git caught! Injun no fool. Injun see."
"What do you mean, Thlucco? Speak out. If there is any danger, I want
to know it."
"Ugh! Injun know Jake Elliott!"
"What about Jake?" asked Sam.
"Um, Jake Elliott _devil_. Jake hate Sam. Jake hate General Jackson.
Injun no fool. Injun see."
Sam was interested now, but it was not easy to draw anything like
detailed information out of Thlucco.
"What makes you think that, Thlucco? What have you seen or heard?"
"Um. Injun see. Injun know. Injun no fool. Jake cuss Sam. Jake cuss
Jackson. Injun hear."
"When did you hear him curse me or General Jackson, Thlucco?" asked
Sam.
"Um. To-day! 'Nother day, too! 'Nother day 'fore that."
"What did he say?"
"Um. Jake _cuss_. Um. Jake gone."
"What!" exclaimed Sam. "Gone! where?"
"Um. Injun don't know. Injun know Jake gone."
"When did he leave camp?"
"Um. When Sam go 'way Jake go too! Injun follow Jake. Jake cuss Injun.
Injun come back."
"Is that all you know, Thlucco?"
"Um. That's all. That's 'nough. Jake gone 'way."
Sam jumped out of the boat and waked the boys.
"Where did Jake Elliott go to-night?" he asked.
None of the boys knew.
"Did any one of you see him leave camp?"
"Yes," answered Billy Bowlegs, "but we didn't pay much attention to
him. He's been so glum lately that we've been glad to have him out of
sight."
"Has he ever gone away before?" asked Sam.
"No, only he never stays right in camp. He sleeps over there by them
trees," said Billy Bowlegs, pointing to a clump of trees about forty
or fifty yards away, "an' I guess he's only gone over there. He never
stays with us when you're not here."
Sam strode over to the trees indicated, and searched carefully, but
could find no trace of Jake there. Returning to the camp he asked:--
"Did any of you observe which way he went when he went away?"
"Yes," answered Sid Russell, "he went toward his trees."
"That is toward the town," answered Sam.
"Yes, so it is."
"Have you observed anything peculiar about his conduct lately?"
"No," replied Billy Bowlegs, "only that he's been a gettin' glummer
an' glummer. I'll tell you what it is, Captain Sam, I'll bet a big
button he's deserted an' gone home. He's a coward and he's been scared
ever since he found out that you wa'n't foolin' about this bein' a
genu-_ine_, dangerous piece of work, an' I'll bet he's cut his lucky,
an' gone home, an' if ever I get back there I'll pull his nose for a
sneak, you just see if I don't."
"Very well," said Sam, "go to sleep again, then. If he has gone home
it is a good riddance of very bad rubbish."
Sam was not by any means satisfied that Jake had gone home, however.
Indeed he was pretty well convinced that he had done nothing of the
sort, and he wished for a chance to think, so that he might determine
what was best to be done. He believed Jake would not dare to go home
as a deserter, knowing very well what reputation he would have to bear
ever afterward, in a community in which personal courage was held to
be the first of the virtues, and the lack of it the worst possible
vice. Where had he gone, then, and for what? Sam did not know, but he
had an opinion on the subject which grew stronger and stronger the
more he revolved the matter in his mind.
Jake Elliott, he knew, had a personal grudge against him, and no very
kindly feeling for the other boys. He was confessedly afraid to
continue in the service in which he was engaged, and it was not easy
for him to quit it. There was just one safe way out of it; and that
offered, not safety only, but revenge of precisely the kind that Jake
Elliott was likely to take. Sam knew very well that, notwithstanding
his magnanimity, Jake still bitterly hated him, and still cherished
the design of wreaking his vengeance upon him at the first
opportunity.
"What is more probable, then," he asked himself, "than that Jake is
trying to betray us into the hands of the enemy to die as spies? He is
abundantly capable of the treachery and the meanness, and his
desertion of the camp to-night strongly confirms the suspicion."
This much being decided, it was necessary for Sam to determine what
should be done in the circumstances. If there had been no camp in his
rear, he would have withdrawn his command through the woods at once.
As it was, he must find some other way. It was clearly his duty to
escape with his boys, if he could, and to lose no time in attempting
it. The danger was now too near at hand, and too positive to be
ignored, and there was really very little more for him to do here. He
must escape at once.
But could he escape?
That was a question which the event would have to answer, as Sam could
not do it. Unluckily, it was already beginning to grow light, and he
would not have the shelter of darkness.
He aroused the boys again, before they had had time to get to sleep,
and quietly began his preparations.
"Make no noise," he said, "but put what provisions you have, and all
your things into the boat. _Don't forget the guns and the ammunition._
Sid! take our little water keg and run and fill it with fresh water."
The boys set about their preparations hurriedly, although they but
dimly guessed the meaning of Sam's singular orders.
At that moment Jake Elliott shuffled into the camp.