A SCRAP OF PAPER
The long, cold winter of 1870, which froze all the fowls except the six
sad roosters, and followed the failure of the potato and corn crops,
was also disastrous to the bees. The hives had increased to a fine
long row in the years that followed the capture of the first swarm
discovered by Tumbler, the bear, and the honey had been a welcome
addition to the soldiers' simple fare; but the cold weather had
destroyed every swarm, leaving only bee-bread and some half-consumed
old combs from which the dead bees had fallen in a dry mass upon the
bench below.
While Coleman and Bromley were engaged in planting, Philip was making
an effort to find a new bee-tree. He had noticed some bees buzzing
about the wild flowers on the ridge by the old flagging-station, and he
determined to "line" them by a method he had seen his uncle practise
when he was a boy in Ohio. He made a little box with a sliding cover,
into which he put a small honeycomb, and taking the old yellow rooster
under one arm for company,--or perhaps for luck,--he went over to where
the flowers grew near the northern end of the plateau. He set down the
old rooster on the ground, and opened the box on a stone in front of
him, and waited, watching his bait. It was something like fishing in
the old mill-pond, of which he had once been fond, and he found a
singular fascination about watching the opening in the box as he used
to watch his bobber. The June weather on the mountain was like May in
the Ohio valley, and the sweet smell of the flowers carried his mind
back to his old home. He had no longer to wait for the first nibble
than he had waited in the old days for the first stir of his cork and
the spreading ring on the water. A bee lighted on the lid and then
made his way down into the box. After loading his legs with honey, the
bee reappeared, and rising into the air, flew away to the south.
Philip followed the small insect with his eyes, and then, picking up
the old rooster, he came on for a hundred yards in the same direction,
and set his bait as before. This time he had two bees in his box, and
when they had loaded themselves they flew away in the same direction as
the first. They disappeared so soon above the tree-tops that he
thought the swarm was not far away; but every time he advanced, the
loaded bees continued to fly south, until he had moved the paralyzed
old rooster by easy stages the whole length of the plateau; and the
bees, which came in greater numbers now, rose into the air and flew in
a "bee-line" over the top of the southern cliff.
Philip was disgusted at this result of his bee-hunt, as any fisherman,
after wading to his middle in a cold river to humor a fine trout, might
be, to lose his victim at last in the foaming rapids; but he knew to a
certainty that there was a bee-tree somewhere beyond the thus far
unscalable southern cliff.
For the present the vision of honey was abandoned, and the economy of
the camp, where food was now alarmingly low, was cunningly exercised to
discover edible things in lieu of the corn, which, after the planting,
was all stored in the nine gunny-sacks which had fallen from the
balloon. The sacks were piled one upon another in a small heap behind
the hopper in the mill, and the six sad roosters had to shift for
themselves as best they could, except the old fellow who was paralyzed,
and for him they gathered grubs and worms, and saved the crumbs that
fell from the table.
It appeared possible to the minds of the soldiers that the
liver-colored slabs of fungus which grew out of the sides of the
chestnut-trees and the birches might be as palatable and nourishing as
mushrooms. They broke off one of these pieces one day, which was
shaped like the half of an inverted saucer, and was moist and clammy on
the under side. They had a suspicion that such things were poison.
They had never heard of any one eating the like, and after they had
stewed it in their camp-kettle, inviting as its odor was, they sniffed
and hesitated and feared to taste it. In the end they shook their
heads, and spilled the contents of the kettle on the ground, where as
soon as their backs were turned Tumbler and the five sad roosters fell
to devouring the rejected food.
When the soldiers discovered what their domestic animals were about,
the bear was licking his chops and the old roosters were waltzing about
in the grass picking up the last morsels of the feast. They regretted
their carelessness, and rather expected that before night the old
paralyzed rooster would be their only living companion on the mountain.
When, however, the bear and the five sad roosters survived the test,
and seemed rather to flourish on the new food, the soldiers took heart,
and found the fungus not only good, but so much like meat that it was
quite startling to their vegetarian palates.
After eating all of this peculiar food-product that grew on the
plateau, they gleaned the field above the deep gorge, and as a last
resort they made a hunting expedition to the half-acre of rocks and
brambles where they had found the mica. Terrible as the passage
through the cavern had at first seemed to the mind of Lieutenant
Coleman, the lapse of time and a better acquaintance with the interior
of the subterraneous tunnel made it but a commonplace covered way to
the field of mica. Not that the soldiers had any further use for the
mineral wealth which was so lavishly strewn among the rocks. It was as
valueless to them now as the button-hook found in the hand-bag of
alligator-skin. To go now and then through the underground passage,
however, if only for the purpose of looking at the world outside from
the view-point of their newest territorial possession, was a temptation
which no landed proprietors could resist. The little shelf afforded
them a glimpse to the south of the Cove road, which on account of
certain intervening trees was not to be had from the plateau above.
Several cabins could be seen smoking in the small clearings which
surrounded them, but since the telescope had gone into the avalanche
with Philip there was but poor satisfaction in looking at them.
They found a single piece of the liver-colored fungus growing on the
root of a half-decayed old chestnut, and even this they regarded as
well worth their journey. They spent some time wandering about the
mica shelf, and when Lieutenant Coleman and Philip were boring their
torches into the ground, one after the other, to rid them of the dead
coal, and getting ready for the start back, Bromley, who had been
poking about among the rocks, called to them in a tone of voice that
indicated a pretty important discovery in the stone line. He was down
on his hands and knees on the turf, boring his toes into the soil, and
as his comrades approached him, he exclaimed:
"I haven't touched it yet. Just come here and look!"
[Illustration: "HE WAS DOWN ON HIS HANDS AND KNEES UPON THE TURF."]
Naturally, Coleman and Philip thought he had found some curious
reptile. Instead, however, of this being the case, Bromley was
kneeling over a scrap of newspaper which was impaled on a dead twig
under the shelter of a rock where neither the sun nor the rain could
reach it. The torn fragment was scarcely larger than the palm of one's
hand, and snugly as it was now protected from the weather, it was
yellow from former exposure, and the print was much faded, so that
parts of it were illegible. It was possible, however, to decipher
enough of the small advertisements on the exposed side to show that it
was a Charleston paper, and they knew of course that it must have come
by the balloon almost a year before. Undoubtedly it had lain for a
long time on the plateau above, exposed to the storms, before the wind
had tossed it over the cliff and landed it in such a wonderful way on
the twig under the cover of the rock.
On the reverse side most of the print was fairly legible. The scrap
was torn from the top of the paper, and had on it a capital G, which
was the only letter left of the name of the paper. The line below
read: "September [date of month gone], 18-0." The center column was
headed:
"FOREIGN WORLD
"The Hon. Charles Snowden, M.P., goes down with his
yacht--Earthquake in Spain; four distinct shocks felt--No
dam----e done--Movement of specie
"London, September 4. The steam-yacht of the
Honorable Charles Snowden, M.P., which was wrecked
yesterday off the old Head of Kinsale on the south coast of
Ireland, was this morning looted by thieves. The ri----,
plate, carpets, upholstery, and fittings, as well as
quantity of storage, sails, and stores, were taken. Lights
were seen from the mainland at two o'clock this morning,
when a heavy sea was running.
"Later. The Hon. Charles Snowden and the first officer
of the boat lost their lives by the swamping of the
raft on which they had embarked.
"Madrid, September 4. Four distinct shocks of an
earthquake this morning were felt in the province
of Granada, in the south of Spain. Coming as t
shocks have, twenty-four hours later than the
ances reported on the coast of Italy by y
ws, would indicate that the disturbance
No damage is reported. In
from the vineyards."
What remained of the right-hand column bore, to the soldiers, these
surprising words, in sentences and parts of sentences:
"Local Happenings--Charleston--
R. E. Lee as General--Sherman at the War Office
"The controversy just concluded between the Couri
Mercury on the strategic merits of the two command
developed nothing new. The Sherman cam
ending at the city of Atlanta
ably discussed and with
justice to the dead comma
The great March to the Sea, b
More brilliant achievement
of the war and its
in another colum
South is satisfie
happy endin"
When Coleman and Philip caught the first glimpse of the scrap of paper,
tattered and yellow, they believed it to be some fragment of the Blue
Book which they themselves had discarded. The exposed surface was
almost as free of print as if it had been treated with potash, and
looked as insignificant as a dried leaf or a section of corn-husk.
Bromley, on the other hand, had examined it more closely, and just as
Coleman began to laugh at him, he put out his hand and removed the
scrap of paper from the twig which held it fast; and as he turned it
over to the light, he was nearly as much surprised as his companions.
The three were down on their knees in an instant, eagerly devouring the
words of the head-lines; and Philip being on the right, it happened
that his eyes were the first to fall on the name of General Sherman.
"'Sherman at the War Office'!" he cried. "What does that mean?"
"It means we have been deceived," said Coleman. "I--"
"Hurrah!" cried Philip, leaping up and dancing about until the rags of
his tattered clothing fluttered in the sunlight. "Hurrah! Uncle Billy
is alive! He never was killed at all! If that message was false, they
were all false--all lies! lies! What fools we have been! We must
leave the mountain to-morrow--to-night."
"We have been the victims of an infamous deception," exclaimed
Lieutenant Coleman. "Let us go back to the house at once, and
determine what is to be done."
Against this undue haste Bromley remonstrated feebly, for he himself
was laboring under unusual excitement. His eyes were so dimmed by a
suffusion of something very like tears--tears of anger--that he could
read no further for the moment, and he put the paper carefully into his
pocket, and picked up his torch and followed his comrades sulkily into
the cavern.
Upon Bromley's peculiar character this new revelation had a depressing
effect. He still entertained doubts. If the new hope was finally
realized, his joy would be as deep and sincere as that of the others.
For the present, the thought that they might have been deceived all
along angered him. He had an inclination to stop even then and examine
the paper more fully by torch-light; but the underground passage was
long, and the pine-knot he carried was burning low. He felt obliged to
hasten on after Coleman and Philip, who were now considerably in
advance. They were still in view, however, and as he held the torch to
one side that which he saw far up the narrowing cavern had a softening
effect on his conflicting emotions. He even laughed at the grotesque
exhibition; for the small figures of Coleman and Philip were dancing
and hugging each other and dashing their torches against the rocks in a
way that made them look like mad salamanders in the circling flames and
sparks.
Such reckless enthusiasm was a condition of mind which George could not
understand; but the possibility occurred to him that in their wild
excitement they might set fire to the house as a beacon-light to the
people in the valley; for they could never get away from the plateau
without help from beyond the deep gorge.
To prevent, if possible, any rash action on the part of his more
excited comrades, Bromley hurried his pace, and, in the effort to
overtake them, soon found himself leaping over obstacles and dodging
corners of the rocky wall in a wild race, which tended to excite even
his phlegmatic nature. As he ran on, that magical sentence, "Sherman
at the War Office," stood out in black letters before his eyes. What
war office? If the paper referred to the war office of the United
States, it certainly would have so designated a department of a foreign
government. If there were two governments, it would be necessary to
say which war office was meant. If the old government in whose
military service he had enlisted as a boy had regained its own, the
phrase "Sherman at the War Office" would be natural and correct; and
with this triumphant conviction he ran on the faster. On the other
hand, if the Confederacy had gained everything!--at the sickening
thought his feet became so heavy that his speed relapsed into a labored
walk, and the oppressive air of the cavern seemed to stifle him.
He would reach his companions as soon as possible, and compel them to
examine the scrap of paper and weigh its every word. It was beginning
to dawn upon Bromley that they had acted like children; and when he
finally came out at the entrance to the cave of the bats into the
subdued light under the dark pines, he found Philip and Coleman waiting
for him, and clamoring for another look at the scrap of paper.
There was not much to read in the fraction of a column that interested
them most, but Philip and Coleman were determined to twist the reading
to the support of their new hopes, and Bromley naturally took the
opposite view, heartily wishing, however, that the others might prove
him mistaken. There was something in the reading of the broken
sentences that tended to quiet the enthusiasm of Lieutenant Coleman,
and when Bromley could make himself heard, he called attention to the
second sentence, "The Sherman campaign ending at the ---- Atlanta, ably
discussed," and "Justice to the dead commander." What dead commander,
if not General Sherman? If he had lived his campaign would not have
ended at Atlanta. It was evident that there had been a newspaper
controversy in Charleston on the merits of two campaigns by Sherman and
Lee--the Atlanta campaign and the March to the Sea--whatever that might
be. The latter, Bromley thought, was clearly some achievement of
Lee's. And then he remembered his prophecy on the night when they had
changed the name of the plateau from Lincoln to Sherman Territory.
"It proves," cried Bromley, "just what I foresaw: that, after the
capture of Washington, Lee led his army across Maryland, Pennsylvania,
and New Jersey, living on the country, to meet the foreign allies of
the Confederacy in the harbor of New York. It was certainly a
brilliant military movement. Look," he cried, when the others were
silent, "'South is satisfied--happy ending--'"
"But," said Philip, still obstinate, "what do you make of those five
words, 'Sherman at the War Office'? How do you get around that?"
"Why, my dear boy," said Bromley, "this is only the heading of a
newspaper article. It does not mean that General Sherman was at the
war office in person. It simply refers to General Sherman's record in
the War Department."
After all their excitement, Coleman and Philip were obliged to give way
to the convincing evidence revealed in the broken sentences. They were
too tired by this time to consider the bits of foreign news, or notice
the dates, and it was quite dark when they reached the house and went
dejected and supperless to bed.
[Illustration: "THE SCRAP OF PAPER."]
The next morning they got down the map, and looked ruefully at the
States which Lee must have devastated in his triumphant march. With
the consent of the others, Bromley took a pen and traced the probable
route by Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Trenton to the Jersey coast of
New York harbor. Bromley was determined to lay out the line of march
by Harrisburg, and was restrained only by physical force, which
resulted in blotting the map at the point where his clumsy line was
arrested. They agreed, however, that Lee's victorious army had
undoubtedly camped on the lower bay and along the Raritan River, in the
country between Perth Amboy and the old battle-field of Monmouth. They
were convinced that the map was utterly wrong, for after such a march
it was doubtful if there were any United States at all. The disaster
appeared more overwhelming than ever, and they hung the map back on the
wall--in another place, however, for it was discovered that the rain
had beaten through the logs and run down across the Pacific side. Poor
as it was, they were determined to preserve it.
It was not until late in the afternoon of the day on which they had
altered the map that the three soldiers returned to the examination of
the scrap of paper which they had agreed from the first could have
reached the mountain-top only by falling from the balloon the year
before.
"How is this?" cried Coleman, pointing excitedly to the dates of the
foreign telegrams. "This piece of newspaper could not have come by the
balloon. The balloon passed over the mountain on September 5, having
left the city of Charleston, as declared by the tall aeronaut, at 3:30
o'clock of the afternoon before, which was the 4th of September. Look
at the dates for yourself," he continued, handing the paper to Bromley.
"Wasn't the Honorable M.P. drowned on the morning of September 4?
Can't you read there that the earthquake in Spain was on the 4th?"
"What of that?" said Bromley; "you can't make out the date of the
paper."
"I don't care what the date of publication was," replied Coleman. "If
it came by the balloon it was published before September 5. Now please
tell me how it could bring European news of the 4th."
"Hum!" said Bromley, somewhat puzzled. "If it had been published on
the 3d, it couldn't bring news of the 4th--that's certain."
"I have it," cried Philip; "Fred has got the dates of the diary more
than a week out of the way. We thought the balloon passed on September
5. It was nearer the 15th."
"No," exclaimed Coleman, glaring at Philip; "there is no mistake in the
record; not a date is omitted. Leap-year was added to the days in
February when it came around. _I_ make a mistake in the date! No,
sir! There is no mistake. Whatever happens, I will stand on the rec--"
"You are right, old man," cried Bromley, interrupting him; "and the
paper proves it. Don't you see the point? They have got the Atlantic
cable down at last, and working like a charm. The paper was published
on the 4th of September. It was an afternoon paper, and this piece
fell from the balloon on the 5th of September."
They agreed that this was wonderful as explaining without doubt what at
first seemed impossible, and at the same time verifying the accuracy of
the dates in the diary which Lieutenant Coleman had conducted for more
than six years at the time the balloon passed. Coleman and Bromley
remembered distinctly the unsuccessful attempts at laying the Atlantic
cable in the summer of 1858, and the fame of Cyrus Field as its
projector; and now by the discovery of this scrap of yellow and
tattered paper they were made aware that the great project had been
continued to a successful issue. Possibly they were the more keenly
interested in this evidence of progress in the world below from having
been themselves connected with telegraphing in a modest way. At all
events, they regarded the yellow messenger as one of their most
significant possessions, and skewered it against the chimney through
the very hole made by the dry twig which had held it so long under the
cover of the rock awaiting their inspection.
It was near the end of July now, and the spears of corn which had
thrust their tiny dark-green lances out of the mellow earth had first
turned yellow, and then withered and died. A few plants here and there
had escaped the ravages of the grubs, but the yield would be
insignificant, and they were good enough farmers by this time to know
that to plant more would be only a waste of the small store of food
they had left. If the lives of the fowls had been spared, it might
have been different. At the time the ground had been spaded the five
sad roosters had done all that lay in their power to exterminate the
grubs, but their capacity was not the capacity of the four hundred
fowls of the season before.
The potatoes had suffered, though in less degree, from the same hidden
enemy; and unless something could be done to increase their food-supply
the three soldiers would be reduced to the verge of starvation before
another winter came around. They might yet be forced to abandon their
vegetarian principles and to eat the bear and the six old roosters.
Rather than do anything so inhuman, they declared they would find some
way to open communication with the people in the valley. They might
easily have planted a larger area in former years, and stored up corn
against a failure in the crop, but of this they had never thought.
The morning after they had discovered the scrap of paper on the mica
shelf, they all went solemnly to the mill and watched Philip set the
machinery in motion and grind the first of the nine small sacks of
corn. The whir of the wheels and the hum of the stones in the midst of
the splashing of the water outside made the sweetest of music in their
ears, but the song of the mill was of brief duration. When the last
kernels began to dance on the old cavalry boot-leg in the bottom of the
hopper, the miller shut off the water, and in the silence that followed
the three soldiers looked ruefully at the small heap of yellow meal on
the floor of the dusty bin. It was not more than enough to keep
themselves and the paralyzed old rooster alive for a week. If they
relied upon the meal alone, in nine weeks they would be out of bread,
and the golden mill would be a useless possession.
Discovery was their only hope of further subsistence. They had made
some remarkable finds in the past, but at the beginning of their eighth
year on the mountain it would seem that no secrets of the plateau had
escaped the prying eyes of these enterprising young men. Philip
reminded his comrades of the bee-tree, which was undoubtedly stored
with honey, beyond the southern cliff, but this they had always
regarded as impassable. From the mica shelf they could see that it was
a narrow ledge, and not a higher level; and although the small shelf
extended a trifle beyond it, the soldiers had seen no way of scaling
the rocks which rose from the brambles and mica, so as to reach the
territory beyond the southern ledge.
They had never seen these rocks from above, nor any part of the brambly
half-acre, for the reason that the edge of the plateau shelved off in a
dangerous incline of smooth granite, which it was not possible to look
over. Otherwise they might have discovered the outside half-acre long
before they found the cavernous path which led to it. Bromley now
proposed to be lowered to the outer edge of the shelving rock by means
of the breeches-buoy which had lifted Philip from his perilous seat on
the avalanche. It was not at all a dangerous experiment, and as soon
as he was in a position to examine the rocks below the base of the
southern cliff, he saw a narrow ledge which would afford a sure
foothold, and which led away upward until it was lost behind the rocks.
Although invisible from below, it could be reached by their longest
ladder.
Whether the path along the ledge would enable them to reach the top of
the mountain to the south remained to be determined. They were all on
fire with the fever of exploration; and they had no doubt that the rich
bee-tree would reward their efforts with new stores of honey. That
night, by means of the canvas strap, they lowered their ladder over the
ledge until it rested on the mica shelf.
Next morning, bright and early, Philip got out his small honey-box, and
would have taken the old paralytic rooster along but for the implements
it was necessary to carry. Besides their torches, in passing through
the cavern their hands would be full with the ax and a pail for water,
and another in which to bring back the honey.
It was a clear July day, with a soft south wind breathing on the
mountain; and when the three soldiers arrived on their brambly
half-acre they found their ladder leaning safely against the rocks
where they had lowered it. After they had smothered their torches and
laid them by to await their return, they tried the ladder, which proved
to be too short by a couple of rungs to reach the path on the cliff.
At first they thought they should be obliged to return and make a
longer one, but Lieutenant Coleman was something of an engineer on
fortifications, and under his directions they fell to work building a
platform of stones and timber, which afforded the ladder a secure
foundation and raised it safely to the brow of the ledge.
Bromley went ahead with the ax, and Coleman and Philip followed with
the pails. The soldiers had brought along their overcoats for the
fight with the bees; and when they put them on after the rough exercise
of handling the stones, they found them rather oppressive to their
brown shoulders, whose summer costume usually consisted of one
suspender. Bromley was very red in the face as he pushed along on the
rocky path, cutting away a root or an overhanging limb which obstructed
their passage.