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

The man was a long time in sitting down. He seemed to think that Smith had some other terms to disclose which would lead him into his scheme, whether he wanted to or not.

“I will give you five thousand dollars,” said Smith, in an earnest undertone. “Just think of that! Here you will be as poor as Job’s turkey, and that amount of money will easily set you on your feet.”

“I don’t care if it’s ten thousand. I won’t do it.”

“Well, Coleman, I was only just fooling you,” said Smith, and in order to give color to his words he leaned back and laughed heartily. “You will do to tie to.”

“Yes?” said Coleman, and he laughed, too, but it was a different sort of laugh. “You have an awful funny way of fooling a fellow, I must say. If you were not in earnest when you sat down here I shall miss my guess.”

401Coleman got upon his feet again, and Smith was so angry that he let him go without compelling him to promise over again that he would not tell anybody of the scheme that had been proposed to him. He laid down on his bed and filled his pipe, but he rolled over to see where Smith went.

“That fellow is a-going to get himself in a power of disturbance the first thing he knows,” said he to his wife, as he saw Smith moving down toward Mr. Sprague’s end of the street. “He is fixing himself to get hung.”

“Good land! How is that?” exclaimed the woman.

In spite of the fact that he had promised Smith that he would not say a word about it, it did not take Coleman long to go over his interview with him, and when he told of the amount of money that had been offered him his wife fairly gasped for breath.

“I know that is a big sum,” continued Coleman, “but just think of the danger there will be. If Leon gets off in the woods and don’t come back they will hunt high and low for him, and it won’t take them long to determine 402who it was that had a hand in his taking off. If they make-believe they were going to hang him, why, of course,course, he will know who it was and he’ll tell of it when he comes back. I think I was pretty smart in keeping out of it. There goes Smith off toward the boats. Now I believe I’ll go and see Leon.”

Smith had evidently missed his guess by a long ways when he selected Coleman to assist him. He had never known anything against this man’s honesty. He supposed, of course, that a fellow who hated to work as bad as he did, and who was content to lay around home all the time in company with the dogs and the children in preference to handling an axe, ought to be willing to engage in anything that he thought would bring him money; but as it happened, there were some honest men in that party, although they did wear ragged jackets. Without further thought Coleman arose and sauntered off toward Mr. Sprague’s end of the street, and when he came opposite their lean-to he found the boy he wanted to see, talking with his mother.

“Well, Caleb, what can I do for you to-day?” 403asked Mr. Sprague, who still occupied his old position in the door of the lean-to.

“Not a thing,” replied Coleman. “But I want to see Leon for about five minutes.”

“Do you want him to go out in the woods with you?” said Mr. Sprague, with a wink that spoke volumes.

“Eh? No; but I want to tell him to keep away from the woods,” replied Coleman, who wondered if Mr. Sprague knew all about it.

“Well, you might just as well come in here and tell it,” said Mr. Sprague, taking Coleman by the arm. “There are no secrets between us.”

Coleman went, and in a few minutes was seated on a trunk revealing the scheme that had been proposed to him. Leon and his father exchanged significant glances, and the boy thought how wise Mr. Sprague had been when he advised him to stick closely by his side and to let nothing draw him away.

“I did say that I wouldn’t tell this to anybody,” said Coleman, in conclusion. “And I won’t tell it to any one except you-uns, who are so deeply interested in it. You won’t tell on me?”

404“Did he say how much he was going to get?” asked Leon, after his father had made the required promise.

Coleman replied that he thought he was going to get twenty-five or thirty thousand dollars, and this proved that Mr. Smith did not know anything of the value of the deceased man’s legacy.

“That’s a heap of money,” said Leon. “And now, Coleman, I’ll tell you what we will do with you. If you will stay around with Smith and learn all you can in regard to his plans you shall not lose anything by it. I want to find out if he gets somebody else to assist him.”

Coleman promised, and having had his talk out went away.

“I can easily give him a thousand dollars to pay him for the trouble he has taken,” said Leon.

“But you must remember that you haven’t got the money yet,” said his father.

“Oh, I know I shall have some trouble in getting it,” said Leon, while that firm expression settled about his mouth. “When this 405trouble is over that fellow is going to camp on the place, and just as likely as not he will shoot down everybody who goes anywhere near the money.”

“Leon, I am afraid to have you go there,” said Mrs. Sprague.

“But think of the money! I tell you that will set us up. Then I can get an education. That’s one thing I will never have if I stay down here.”

The matter was settled for the time being by Mrs. Sprague’s putting the will into her bosom and pinning it fast; then Leon went out and mingled with his fellow-refugees. But his feelings were very different from those which he had experienced when he followed his father into the lean-to. When he came to think of what the will bequeathed him it fairly took his breath away. It would get them a little home somewhere, his mother would be obliged to do no more work, and, better than all, he would have money enough left to send him to school.

“Well, Leon, you seem to be particularly happy, and so am I,” said Mr. Giddings, as 406he took his seat near the door of his lean-to, pulled off his hat and wiped the big drops of perspiration from his forehead. “Or rather, I should be happy if my brothers were out of prison. I expect they have been executed by this time.”

“If I thought that, it would make me shoot to kill,” said Leon.

“Oh, won’t I, when I get the chance!” replied Mr. Giddings, with so much excitement that Leon was glad he was not a rebel. “I am waiting for the colonel to say the word and get me down there where I will have full swing at them, and then every one that I pull on goes up. I tell you, you don’t know anything about rebellion down here.”

This started Mr. Giddings on his favorite subject of conversation, and Leon sat there and listened to him until they were called to supper.