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

“I’ve got you, ain’t I?” said Dan, who hardly knew whether he stood on his head or his heels. “Now, what are you going to do about it?”

“I don’t see that I can do anything,” said Leon, wondering if he was to give up and remain a prisoner in the hands of this man. “You can do what you please with me.”

307“And it pleases me to take you down to Mobile and give you up to our folks,” said Dan. “Mebbe they’ll think that my company is in a condition for me to command it. It ain’t often that a man can get the son of a Secretary of War prisoner, is it?”

Leon did not care to talk any longer. He knew what Dan was going to do with him, and he did not feel much elated over it. He sat there in silence and watched Dan, who was grinning all over and hardly knew whether or not his good fortune had stood him so well in stead or not. He wanted to be sure about it, and so began a conversation with Leon; or rather, he talked and Leon listened. He examined his revolver repeatedly, took aim at certain spots on the trees, and acted for all the world like one who was bereft of his senses. Having spent an hour in this way, and being at last satisfied that Mr. Sprague had looked around the house without being able to find him, Dan thought he would go home and hold a short consultation with his father.

“The old man will be dreadful glad I’ve 308got you,” said Dan, wondering how he was going to leave Leon so that he wouldn’t arouse the whole neighborhood by his yelling, “and perhaps he’ll think I had better do something else with you. I want to go home and get a shirt, too, for these nights are mighty damp.”

“Does the old man believe as you do?” asked Leon. He thought it would be policy to learn all he could concerning the belief of the squatter’s family, for he did not expect to remain a prisoner all his life. When he returned he would know how to go to work. The first thing he did would be to put all that family under arrest.

“Of course the old man believes as I do,” said Dan. “The South is going to send men enough in here to whip you. I tell you, Leon, you fellows are crazy.”

“What are you going to do with that?” asked Leon, referring to a piece of shirt which Dan was carefully folding.

“I am going to use it as a gag,” said Dan. “You must think that I am a pretty smart man to go away and leave you with your mouth wide open. Now, I guess this will do.”

309“I assure you that I won’t halloo,” exclaimed Leon, who did not like to have any of Dan’s clothing in his mouth. “Try me and see.”

“No, I reckon I’d best be on the safe side. If you will let this go into your mouth, well and good; if not, it will have to go in anyway,” said Dan, picking up his revolver.

There was but one course open to Leon, and he submitted to have a wad of shirt tucked into his mouth that almost made him sick. It was tied hard and fast, too, so that he could not get rid of it. Dan next turned his attention to his feet, which he bound with another piece of shirt, and fastened them to a tree so that he could not get up. Then he looked at the way his hands were fastened and got up, shoving the revolver into his pocket.

“I won’t be gone but a little while,” said Dan, straightening up the thicket in which Leon lay. “I reckon I’ll bring the old man back here with me. You will be glad to see him, I know. My father might have been top-notch in this county if it hadn’t been for your old man. But no, they wouldn’t have him for 310Secretary of War, and now they see what they made by it.”

Dan took one more look at his prisoner to see that his bonds were all safe, and then went away. He was hardly out of sight before Leon began tugging and twisting at his fastenings in the hope of being able to get rid of some of them; but the harder he worked the more he exhausted himself. Dan had done his work well, and finally Leon gave it up as a bad job. Dan was gone fully an hour, and when he came back Leon noticed that he didn’t have a shirt on. He noticed, too, that he was in pretty bad humor.

“They have got two sentries up there to the house, dog-gone them, and I guess they must be waiting for me,” said Dan, as he began to undo the fastenings that confined Leon’s mouth. “They think I’ll come back after awhile, but they don’t know Dan Newman.”

When Leon felt the gag removed from his mouth he coughed once or twice and acted as if he was about to expel the contents of his stomach; but after awhile he was able to reply to Dan’s question.

311“It makes you sick, don’t it?” asked Dan.

“Yes, and that shirt would make anybody sick. I suppose they have got the sentries there in order to catch you when you come back.”

“But I say they don’t know me,” retorted Dan. “I didn’t go near the house till I had looked around a bit, and then I saw those men there and I came away. They won’t let me get even a shirt. I wonder if they have got Cale?”

“Where was Cale when the men came up to capture you?”

“He was in the house and fast asleep.”

“Then of course they have got him. He didn’t come out of the front door or I would have seen them. It rather bothers a man to be up all night, don’t it?”

“Who said I was up all night?” asked Dan.

“I do. You were up all night, and held a conference with that rebel captain.”

“Who’s got a better right? You fellows here in this county won’t give me anything, and I have a right to go where I can get to be a captain.”

312“Well, untie my feet, will you?” said Leon, who didn’t seemseem disposed to discuss this matter with Dan. “You have got them fastened to that sapling until they hurt me.”

Dan was accommodating enough to untie his feet, but he didn’t make any move towards untying his hands. After that he sat down and held a long talk with his prisoner, who, considering the situation in which he was placed, took the matter very coolly. He knew he couldn’t get away, but there would come other times, he thought, when his hands would be at liberty, and then he would try his best at escape. They passed the afternoon in this way, and finally it began to grow dark. Leon was getting hungry, and he knew that Dan was bothered the same way, and consequently he was relieved when his captor said he would try and reach home again and get something.

“But first I must tie you up,” said he.

“Now, what’s the use of going to all that trouble?” said Leon, who couldn’t bear the thought of having that shirt thrust into his mouth for the second time. “I didn’t halloo before.”

313“No, of course you didn’t,” said Dan, with a laugh. “’Cause why, the gag wouldn’t let you. I won’t be gone but a little while, and then I will untie you.”

Leon yielded with a very bad grace while Dan was placing the gag in his mouth; and well he might, for there was the revolver, lying within easy reach of his captor’s hand. He was tied up just as he was before, and Dan, after a few parting words, disappeared in the darkness.

“Oh,“Oh, how I wish Tom Howe knew where I was!” panted Leon, after he had tried in vain to get rid of some of his bonds. “I’ll bet you that I wouldn’t be here much longer. Now, what will be done with me if I am given up to the rebels? Beyond a doubt I’ll be hanged, for of course they will take revenge on my father through me. Well, if I go up there will be one less to fight them.”

Dan was gone longer than he was before, and when he came back Leon was surprised to hear him talking to somebody. Of course, it was so dark that he couldn’t see anything, but as his captor drew near he began to recognize 314Cale Newman’s voice. Leon was thunderstruck. He did not know where Cale had been confined, but by some inadvertence on the part of his jailers he had got away. Leon was impatient to hear Cale’s version of it.