A Rebellion in Dixie by Harry Castlemon (best books to read in life .TXT) 📕

didn’t care where they went or what they did while they were gone. All he thought of was the carrying out of Dan’s proposition to surrender the head men of the Jones-County Confederacy into the hands of the enemy. It looked like a very small piece of business for a father to put this into his sons’ hands, but Mr. Newman thought he was acting just right. The boys were gone half an hour or more, and came back in time to get something to eat. They sat down to their supper in silence, and when they had got through they put on their hats and left the house. They didn’t take their dogs with them, and that proved that they were not going after wild hogs.

212“You just let those boys alone,” said Mr. Newman, looking down the path along which they had gone with some satisfaction. “They are going to get whatever they go for.”

“I think it would have been some honor to you if you had gone in their place,” said his wife. “Somehow it don’t seem right to leave the capturing of so many men to boys.”

“Yes, and run the risk of stretching hemp,” replied Mr. Newman, indignantly. “Those boys can be away from home as much as they are a-mind to and nobody will say a word; but if I go down to where the men are and find out something about them they would know in a minute if I wasn’t at home, like I had oughter be. And I don’t want them to ask that question. Let the boys go on. We’ll have some of them men arrested the first thing you know.”

“But how are they going to arrest them? Are they going to come here and take them?”

“No; it will be in a fight, likely.”

“And where will you be when the fight comes off?”

“Oh, I’ll be around somewhere. You look 213out for yourself and let your husband look out for himself. That’s the way to do it.”

“I wish we had a muel to ride,” said Dan, as they trudged through the woods toward the creek. “Somehow it puts me on nettles to walk. Now that Tom Howe has got a muel I don’t see why we can’t have one. We ought to have gone with them men that captured that train.”

“But we had no guns,” said Cale.

“No, but we would soon have had them. There’s lots of guns in the President’s headquarters that haven’t got any owners. Tom didn’t have a muel, and now he’s got one.”

“And that’s what comes of touching his hat to those civilians,” said Cale, in disgust. “I bet you I wouldn’t do it. Why didn’t they give father a position like he ought to have had? We would have had muels by this time.”

“It’s my opinion that father has got his foot in it,” said Dan, with a knowing shake of his head. “He has said all along that the South was going to whip, and old Sprague and the other men don’t like it. I’llI’ll bet 214you that if the truth was known half of them are on our side.”

This was the substance of the conversation that passed between Dan and Cale on their way to the creek. Boys as they were, they had every reason to believe that one county could not stand against the whole Southern Confederacy, that the Union men in the county were going to be easily whipped out, and they wanted to be on the winning side. Perhaps there was a little hope of plunder mixed in with it, as Cale finally said:

“I’ll tell you what, Dan: I don’t like the way that young Sprague had of throwing on style to-day. He rode up on that colt of his and saluted the old man as if he were the owner of the State. I’d like to have him go afoot for awhile and let me ride on that horse.”

“Well, he’ll have to do it,” returned Dan. “But he’s got some other things that I’d like to have—his revolver, for instance.”

Before long it began to grow dark, but the gloom that settled over the woods did not interfere with the movements of these backwoodsmen. 215They kept straight ahead as though it had been broad daylight, and finally arrived on the banks of the creek. Without saying a word they threw off their clothes and prepared to plunge into the stream. If they had known as much as Leon did they would have looked for that ford which was but a short distance from the place where they swam the creek. The water was somewhat cold, but they took it bravely, and in a few minutes more stood on the opposite side.

“That Leon is going to have a colder place than this,” said Dan, as he shiveringly put on his clothes. “I do wish they would turn him and Tom over to us.”

“What would you do with him?”

“I’d make him swim this creek.”

“Perhaps he wouldn’t do it.”

“He wouldn’t, eh? Wait until he sees his revolver looking him squarely in the face. I bet you he would go. Now, we want to be still, for we don’t know how close those sentries are to us. We must keep mum and make as little noise as possible in going through the woods until we find out where they are.”

216Cale was now perfectly willing that Dan should take the lead, for as they were getting pretty close to armed men he did not want to be the first to draw their fire; so he gradually fell behind, while Dan made his way through the bushes with an ease and celerity that was astonishing. He scarcely caused a twig to rustle. The experience which the boys had in hunting wild hogs stood them well in stead. Finally Dan pushed aside the bushes and saw the road fairly before him. There was nothing on it as far as he could see, and the bridge seemed to be empty.

“Somebody has been fooled in regard to those sentinels,” said Dan.

“Go out in the road,” said Cale. “You can’t see anything from here.”

Dan went, but had scarcely got clear of the bushes when a voice called out, in a surprised tone:

“Halt!”

“By gum, I guess you found something,” whispered Cale. “You had better be gettinggetting out of there.”

217Dan waited to hear no more. He drew a bee-line for the bushes, and in a moment more was threading his way noisely through them. When he had gone a little ways he stopped and said to his brother:

“I didn’t see anybody there.”

“No, but they are there, and they saw you,” said Cale, who was greatly excited. “Now, what’s to be done? I wish that cavalry would come along now, and we would have those sentinels took in out of the wet. I hope they did not see you.”

“Nor me. I wouldn’t dare go back home again. Let’s sit down here a spell.”

“I—I believe I would rather go a little further away,” said Cale. “Suppose some officer should come along the road?”

Dan answered this question by seating himself on the nearest log and resting his chin on his hands. He wasn’t going any further, and Cale, rather than be left alone in the woods, took a place by his side. They stayed there for a quarter of an hour without saying a word, except Cale, who wished they had a gun, so that they could tumble the officer 218over when he came along to see where they went, and then they heard another challenge to halt from the sentinel on the bridge.

“There, now, I’ll bet there is somebody else coming,” said Cale, his excitement and fear increasing tenfold.

“Well, he didn’t come by here,” said Dan, who sat where he could see everybody who passed along the road.

“No, but he came from Ellisville. Who knows but there was someone there watching our house, and who saw us when we came away?”

“That’s so,” said Dan, but he didn’t seem to be much worried by it.

“Well, now, I say let’s go a little further back.”

But Dan kept his seat with his eyes fixed upon the road, and while his brother was trying to make up his mind whether or not he ought to leave him they heard the clatter of horses’ hoofs on the bridge, and even Dan began to prick his ears. It was a small party of horsemen who were coming directly along the road of which he kept watch. They 219were walking their horses, and that made the spies eager to escape observation. Dan stretched himself out at full length in the bushes, his example being promptly followed by Cale, and in a few minutes the horsemen rode by; but they saw nothing to excite their suspicions, and in a few seconds more they passed out of hearing.

“Don’t I wish I had a gun!” exclaimed Dan, raising himself on his knees and going through all the motions he would make in covering the horsemen.

“Who was it?” asked Cale.

“It was Leon, that worthless Tom Howe, and that rebel fellow that they have been running with since yesterday,” said Dan. “Now I wish your squad of cavalry would come along. But you see we hain’t got no guns, and each one of them has got a six-shooter.”

Cale had never been more astonished in his life.