"But what would we do?"
"Live in the quarter, as Elder Bowen and the other Union men in Barrington did after their houses were destroyed. And if they burned the servants" homes as well as our own, We"d throw up a shelter of some sort in the woods. I don"t reckon that Julius and I have forgotten how to handle axes and build log cabins. The practice we have had in building turkey traps would stand---- Say," whispered Marcy suddenly, at the same time putting his arm around his mother"s neck and speaking the words close to her ear, "if a mob should come here to-night and go over the house, we"d be ruined. There are those Union flags, you know."
"I never once thought of them," was the frightened answer. "Suppose I had had a mob for visitors while you were at sea? Our home would be in ashes now. Those flags are dangerous things, and must be disposed of without loss of time. I am sorry you brought them home with you. Don"t you think you had better destroy them while you have them in mind?"
"Of course I will do it if you say so, and think it will make you feel any safer; but I was intending--you see----"
His countenance fell, and his mother was quick to notice it. "What did you intend to do with them?" she asked.
"One of them used to float over the academy," replied Marcy. "d.i.c.k Graham, a Missouri boy, than whom a better fellow never lived, stole it out of the colonel"s room one night because he did not want to see it insulted and destroyed, as it would have been if Rodney and his friends could have got their hands upon it. He gave it to me because he knew it would some day be something to feel proud over, and said he hoped to hear that it had been run up again."
"But, Marcy, you dare not hoist it here," exclaimed Mrs. Gray.
"Not now; but there may come a time when I shall dare do it. The other flag--well, the other was made by a Union girl in Barrington, who had to work on it by stealth, because her sister, and every other member of her family except her father, were the worst kind of secesh. Rodney thought sure he was going to put the Stars and Bars on the tower when the Union colors were stolen, but our fellows got mine up first, and would have kept it there if they had had to fight to do it. But I"ll put them in the stove if you think best."
"You need not do anything of the kind," said Mrs. Gray, whose patriotism had been awakened by the simple narrative. "I shall not permit a party of beardless boys to show more loyalty than I am willing to show myself."
"Bully for you, mother!" cried Marcy. "We"ll see both of them in the air before many months more have pa.s.sed over our heads. Now, think of some good hiding place for them, and I"ll put them there right away. Not in the ground, you know, for if the Union troops should ever come marching through here, we should want to get them out in a hurry."
"How would it do to sew them up in a bed-quilt?" said Mrs. Gray, suggesting the first "good hiding place" that came into her mind.
"That"s the very spot," replied Marcy. "Put them in one of mine, and then I shall have the old flag over me every night."
No time was lost in carrying out this decision, and in a few minutes mother and son were locked in the boy"s room, and busy st.i.tching the precious pieces of bunting into one of the quilts. It never occurred to them to ask what they would do or how they would feel if some half-clad, shivering rebel should find his way into the room and walk off with that quilt without so much as saying "by your leave." Probably they never dreamed that the soldiers of the Confederacy would be reduced to such straits.
CHAPTER III.
BEARDSLEY BETRAYS HIMSELF.
Never before had the hours hung as heavily upon Marcy Gray"s hands as they did at the period of which we write. There was literally nothing he could do--at least that he _wanted_ to do. He did not care to read anything except the newspapers, and they came only once a day; he had never learned how to lounge around and let the hours drag themselves away; he very soon grew weary of sailing about the sound in the _Fairy Belle_ with the boy Julius for a companion; and so he spent a little of his time in visiting among the neighboring planters, and a good deal more in "pottering" among his mother"s flower beds. Visiting was the hardest work he had ever done; but he knew he couldn"t shirk it without exciting talk, and there was talk enough about him in the settlement already.
To a stranger it would have looked as though he had nothing to complain of. He was cordially received wherever he went, often heard himself spoken of as "one of our brave boys" (although what he had done that was so very brave Marcy himself could not understand), and visitors at Mrs. Gray"s house were as numerous as they ever had been; but Marcy and his mother were people who could not be easily deceived by such a show of friendship. Some of it, as they afterward learned, was genuine; while the rest was a.s.sumed for the purpose of leading them on to "declare"
themselves. It was a mean thing for neighbors to be guilty of, but you must remember that, like Rodney Gray when he wrote that mischievous letter to Bud Goble, they did not know all the time what they were doing. Of course the high-spirited Marcy grew restive under such treatment; and when, after long waiting, the postmaster handed him a letter from Captain Beardsley, ordering him to report on board the _Osprey_ without loss of time, he did not feel as badly over it as he once thought he should. On the contrary, he appeared to be very jubilant when he showed the letter to Allison and half a score of other young rebels who were always to be found loafing around the post-office at mail time.
"I"m off to sea again," said he. "Now the Yankees had better look out."
"It must be an enjoyable life, Marcy," replied Allison. "You see any amount of fun and excitement, draw big prize-money in addition to your regular wages, and, better than all, you run no sort of risk. It may surprise you to know that I have been turning the matter over in my mind a good deal of late, and have come to the conclusion that I should enjoy being one of a privateer"s crew. What do you think about it?"
"I am not acquainted with a single fellow who would enjoy it more,"
answered Marcy, who told himself that Allison was just coward enough to engage in some such disreputable business. "You are just the lad for it.
It is such fun to bring a swift vessel to and haul down the old flag in the face of men who are powerless to defend it."
Sharp as Marcy Gray was, his strong love for the Union and his intense hatred for the business in which he was perforce engaged, sometimes led him to come dangerously near to betraying himself. Allison looked sharply at him, but there was nothing in Marcy"s face to indicate that he did not mean every word he said.
"I am heartily glad I am going to sea again," continued the latter; and he told nothing but the truth. The companionship of the ignorant foreigners who composed the _Osprey"s_ crew was more to his liking than daily intercourse with pretended friends who were constantly watching for a chance to get him into trouble.
"Do you think I could get on with Captain Beardsley?" inquired Allison.
"You might. The crew was full when I left the schooner, but I will speak to the captain, if you would like to have me."
"I really wish you would, for I am anxious to do something for the glorious cause of Southern independence. When do you sail?"
"I don"t know. About all the captain says in his letter is that he wants me to report immediately."
"Does he say whether or not the _Hollins_ has been sold yet?"
"Oh, yes; he speaks of that, and congratulates me on the fact that I have eight hundred and seventy-live dollars more to my credit on the schooner"s books than I did when I left her at Newbern."
"W-h-e-w!" whistled Allison. "How long did it take you to make the capture?"
"Four or five hours, I should say."
"Eight hundred and seventy-five dollars for four or five hours" work!
Marcy, you have struck a gold mine. You will be as rich as Julius Caesar in less than a year."
"How long do you suppose Uncle Sam will allow such--such work to be kept up?" exclaimed Marcy.
"Oh, no doubt he would be glad to stop it now if he could; but when he tries it, he will find that he"s got the hardest job on his hands he ever undertook. There never was a better place for carrying on such business than the waters of North Carolina. Our little inlets are too shallow to float a heavy man-of-war."
"No matter how big the job may be, you will find that these small-fry privateers" (it was right on the end of Marcy"s tongue to say "pirates") "will be swept from the face of the earth in less than a year; so that I shall have no chance to get rich. But I"ll have to be going, for I must start for Newbern this very night. I suppose you will all be in the army by the time I get back, so good-by."
Allison and his friends shook hands with him, wished him another successful voyage, and Marcy mounted and rode away, his filly never breaking her lope until she turned through the gate into the yard, and drew up before the steps that led to the porch. His mother met him at the door and knew as soon as she looked at him that he had news for her.
"Yes, I"ve got orders from Beardsley," said the boy, without waiting to be questioned. "And if Jack were only here, and I was about to engage in some honorable business, I should be glad to go. Mother, on the day we captured the _Hollins_ we robbed somebody of fifty-six thousand dollars."
"Oh, Marcy, is it not dreadful!" said Mrs. Gray.
"It is, for a fact. We"re having a bully time now, but the day will come when we"ll have to settle with the fiddler. You will see. Yes, the vessel and her cargo sold for fifty-six thousand dollars. Half of it went to the government, and half of the remainder was divided among the three officers, Beardsley getting the lion"s share, I bet you. The sixteen members of the crew get an equal share of the other fourteen thousand, the difference in rank between the petty officers and foremast hands being so slight that Beardsley did not think it worth while to give one more than another; but he hints that he has got something laid by for me."
"My son, it will burn your fingers," said Mrs. Gray.
"I can"t help it if it does. I"ll have to take all he offers me, but, of course, I don"t expect to keep it. Now, mother, please help me get off.
The longer I fool around home the harder it will be to make a start."
Marcy wanted to caution his mother to look out for Hanson while he was gone; but he did not do it, for he well knew that she had enough to trouble her already, and that the mention of the overseer"s name would awaken all her old fears of spies and organized bands of robbers. He sent word to Morris, the coachman, to have the carriage brought to the door, loitered about doing nothing while his mother packed his valise, and in twenty minutes more was on his way to Newbern, which he reached without any mishap, not forgetting, however, to send a telegram on from Boydtown informing Beardsley that his orders had been received, and that the pilot was on his way to join the _Osprey_.
"And I wish I might find her sunk at her dock, and so badly smashed that she never could be raised and repaired," was what he thought every time he looked out of the car window and ran his eyes over the crowds of excited people that were gathered upon the platforms of all the depots they pa.s.sed. "But, after all, what difference does it make? If I don"t go to sea I shall have to live among secret enemies, and I don"t know but one thing is about as bad as the other. If any poor mortal ever lived this way before, I am sorry for him."
Although Marcy was almost a stranger in Newbern, he had no difficulty in finding his vessel when he got out of the cars. He walked straight to her, and while he was yet half a block away, the sight of her masts told him that she was still on top of the water. She would soon be ready to sail, too, for her crew were rushing her stores aboard, while Captain Beardsley walked his quarter-deck smoking a cigar and looking on. His face seemed to say that he was a little surprised to see his pilot; but if he was he did not show it in his greeting.
"Well, there, you did come back, didn"t yon?" said he, extending his hand.
"Of course I came back," replied Marcy. "What else did yon expect me to do? I was on the road in less than two hours after your order came to hand."
"That"s prompt and businesslike," said the captain approvingly. "But I didn"t look for you to appear quite so soon. How"s everybody to home?"