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

Leon was glad that he had such a reputation. He was able to sleep warm for one night at least. His clothing was comfortable, and his coat being buttoned up to the chin, and being protected from the keen wind by the thicket in which he was placed, he slept as warm as he would if he had been at home. The only thing was, his hands hurt him. He knew it would be of no use to appeal to Dan, so he gritted his teeth and said nothing. When Leon awoke it was broad daylight. 319Both his captors were asleep. The revolver that Cale threatened him with was lying by his side, and all he needed was his hands at liberty to turn the tables on them in good shape.

“By gracious!” muttered Leon; and once more he began trying the effect of Dan’s knots. But they were there to stay. He could not move his hands at all. “Halloo! here,” he added aloud. “Do you want to go to sleep and let me run off? I am cold, and it is time I was moving.”

“Well, now, I’ll be shot!” said Dan, opening his eyes and rubbing them, while Cale made a clutch for the revolver. “It was good of you not to go away.”

“You can thank yourself for it,” said Leon. “If I could have got away I’d had my revolver in my hands, and then you would have gone to Ellisville.”

“Yes; and what would we be doing all that time?” said Cale.

“You shut up!” answered Dan. “You said you could watch him, and so you did. You went fast asleep watching him.”

320“I only just closed my eyes, that’s all,” protested Cale. “If he’d a-made any move—”

“Oh, shut up, and let’s be moving,” interrupted Dan. “The sooner we get him where our officers are, the sooner we’ll be rid of him and get something to eat.”

Leon found that he was somewhat stiff when he came to get upon his feet, but before they had gone half a mile he stepped off with his accustomed free stride. Dan led the way with the revolver in his hand, and he was considerate enough to keep the bushes from striking his prisoner in the face. Leon knew how far it was to the river, but the distance seemed to lengthen out wonderfully since he last passed that way. He kept a bright look-out in the hope that he would meet some of the Union men, but in this he was disappointed.

“Now, right up that way, not more than a mile, is a company of your fellows stationed there to watch the bridge,” said Dan, stopping at length. “How much would you give to holler and bring them down here?”

“Don’t talk to him that way,” exclaimed 321Cale, disturbed by the thought. “The first thing you know he will holler.”

“Then this revolver will settle his hash,” said Dan, savagely. “Let him holler, if he wants to.”

A little further on came the river, whereupon Dan backed off for a few feet and told Cale to undo the prisoner’s hands. Cale was prompt to obey, and the first thing that Leon did when he felt his arms free was to stretch them above his head, as if he enjoyed having them at liberty once more. He did not make a motion to escape, for there was the revolver looking him in the face.

“Now take off your clothes, you two, and be ready to swim the river,” said Dan.

“Am I going over there with him?” asked Cale, and he was thoroughly frightened at the prospect.

“You go first, and when you get over there you can pick up a club. I’ll keep his clothes behind with me, and the revolver, too, and if he wants to run off naked let him go. I bet you he’ll be glad to have his clothes again.”

The two boys lost no time in taking off 322their clothes, and there was one thing that Leon didn’t like pretty well. He would lose his shirt by the operation; but there was no help for it that he could see. In due time the boys were all over, and Leon saw his shirt go upon the back of Dan Newman.

“There, now, I feel like myself again,” exclaimed Dan. “I can go among our officers now and have a shirt on. Button your coat up tight, Leon, and no wind can get in. Now you must have your hands tied again.”

This much being accomplished, the prisoner and his captors went ahead at a more rapid pace, the woods being more open, and they held their course parallel with the main road. Their object was to get below the bend, where they would be out of sight of the sentries. At the end of half an hour they emerged from the woods, and striking the road went on their way with increased speed.

“Don’t you know some place along here where you can go and get something to eat?” asked Leon. “I could travel twice as fast if I had something on my stomach.”

“I was just thinking of that thing myself,” 323answered Dan. “I am going to stop at the first house I meet. And remember, Leon, no trying to get away,” he added, showing the revolver he still carried in his hand.

Leon didn’t make any reply. He knew now that he was beyond all reach of help, and after he got something to eat—that was the first thing on the programme—he must make up his mind to face “our officers,” who wouldn’t be apt to treat him any too well. But first one house was passed and then another, and as neither Dan nor Cale had the courage to go in and beg something to eat, Leon finally gave it up as a bad job, and thought he would have to go on to Mobile before he could get a mouthful to stay his appetite. At last they came along to a place that Leon remembered. The first time he saw it there was a pleasant farm-house, and corn-cribs and negro quarters in abundance; but now everything had been given up to the flames, and some of the ruins were still smoking.

“Well, I declare, somebody has been burned out, here!” said Dan. “Is this the place where you came last night, Leon?”

324“I was around here somewhere,” replied Leon.

“Then here’s where that rebel fellow lives,” continued Dan. “It serves him just right. Before I take an oath to support a government and then go back on it I would deserve to be burned out myself.”

Leon did not make any reply to this, for he thought that Dan might be burned out and still not lose a great deal by it; but he did not want to say so for fear of making him angry. His captors had treated him all right so far, but he knew what the consequences would be if he got them down on him. While he was thinking about it, and wondering how Tom Howe and young Dawson would look upon his absence—they certainly would know he had been captured—they came suddenly around another bend in the road, and saw before them a long line of horsemen who were travelling as though they had some place to reach before night. He took a second glance at them, and saw that they were all dressed in Confederate uniform.

“There’s some of our men now!” exclaimed 325Dan, so overjoyed that he took off his hat and waved it to them. “But, Cale, that ain’t our captain in front, is it? He was a big man, and this is a little one. There must be a whole regiment of them, and if that is the case they are going up to whip the Union men.”

Leon’s heart fairly came up into his mouth. He would know soon what the rebels were going to do with him. The Confederates discovered them as soon as they came around the bend, and they kept a close watch of them until they came up. The man in front certainly was not a captain. He had a mark on his collar that no one had ever seen before.

“Well, boys, where are you going?” inquired the man; and they found out before the interview was over that his men called him colonel. Of course, Dan looked at him with a great deal of respect after he found out what his rank was.

“Yes, we’ve got a Yankee prisoner here,” said Dan, who was expected to do all the talking. “He is the son of the Secretary of War up in Jones county.”

326“He is, hey?” exclaimed the colonel, beginning to show some interest in the matter. “Well, we’ll send him right down to Mobile the first thing we do. Are you from Jones county?”

Dan replied that he was.

“Then you must know all about the men up there,” said the colonel. “How many have they got, anyway?”

“A thousand fighting men,” replied Dan. “And I tell you, you will want more men than you have got here to whip them.”

“I don’t know about that. We have got a thousand men here in this regiment, and they are all disciplined, and when they draw up against your crowd of bushwhackers you will see some scattering. Now, we want to get across that bridge; how far is it from here?”

“You will find it right straight up this road about twenty miles. You want to be careful, because they have got ten men hidden up there, and they are all good shots.”

“We will take care of them, don’t you fear. Now, after we get across the bridge we must deploy in line of battle; how far will we have to go before we can strike their main line?”

327“It is ten miles from the bridge to Ellisville, and when you get there you will find all the men you want.”

“Well, now, see here: suppose you go with me? You know all the crooks and turns of the road that leads—”

“But, Captain,” began Dan.

“This gentleman is a colonel,” interrupted the man who rode by his commanding officer’s side.

“A colonel!” exclaimed Dan, somewhat surprised to find that he had found the man who held the position his father was working for. “Colonel, I am glad to meet you,” he added, advancing and thrusting out a dirty, begrimed hand to the man, who merely reached down and touched the tips of it with his fingers. “My father calculates to hold the position of colonel when he has delivered up all the head men of the county into your hands. But, Colonel, I want to see this man located in Mobile. I had a heap of trouble to gobble him, and I don’t want to lose him.”

But that wasn’t the principal reason why Dan did not want to go back. Some of the 328men at the bridge would be certain to recognize him, and if he escaped the bullets which they would send after him he would not dare go home.

“We’ll take care of him,” said the colonel. “The son of the Secretary of War is too valuable to lose.”

“What do you reckon you will do with him, Colonel?”

“Hang him, probably.”

Leon heard the words, and looked around at Dan and Cale. Dan smiled upon him as if he had just heard a glorious piece of news, but Cale was grinning with delight. He said to himself: “If Leon is going to be hung I’ll have his horse.”

“Adjutant, pick out a good, trusty man to march this fellow to Mobile,” said the colonel. “A faithful fellow, mind you.”

“Captain Cullom, have you such a man in your company?” said the adjutant, turning to the officer who commanded the advance of the line.

“Yes, sir. Ballard, step out here!”

The man referred to, who was one of the 329leading fours of his company, urged his horse to the front and brought his hand to his hat with a military salute. Then he slung his carbine upon his shoulder and drew his revolver from his belt. Leon looked at him, and he told himself that if he had been a rebel he would have trusted that man with his life. He was young, not more than twenty-four, but he was from Texas, and had been a cowboy all his life; consequently he was a little better clad than the majority of his comrades.

“Ballard, you take this man before General Lowery and tell him that I sent him,” said the colonel. “Tell him that he is the son of a high-up man of Jones county, and let him do what he pleases with him.”

“Very good, sir,” answered Ballard.

“I wouldn’t untie his hands,” continued the colonel, “but you have got your revolver in your hands and can easily stop him in case he runs for the woods.”

“Very good, sir,” replied Ballard. “Forward, march! Go off at one side of the road so as