"Price will accept. Company officers and independent organization to remain the same."
"I tell you Missouri is the best State yet," said Rodney, handing the telegram over to Captain Hubbard. "This brings the matter squarely home to the boys, and they"ve got to decide upon something this very night."
And they did, but it was only after a stormy and even heated discussion. The captain and Rodney carried their point but it was by a very small majority of votes; and the former, believing it advisable to strike while the iron was hot, took one of his lieutenants and started for New Orleans to engage pa.s.sage for his company to Little Rock. It was at this juncture that Rodney wrote that letter to his cousin Marcy Gray, a portion of which we gave to the reader in the first volume of this series. You will remember that he spoke with enthusiasm of the "high old times" he expected to have "running the Yankees out of Missouri." Well, he had all the opportunities he wanted, but they were not brought about just as he thought they were going to be.
The captain and his lieutenant were gone two days, and came back to report that the steamers were all so busy with government business that it would be a week or more before they could get transportation; but the captain had left instructions with his cotton-factor who would keep his eyes open, and telegraph him when to expect a boat at Baton Rouge landing. In the meantime the harder they worked the less they would have to learn when they reached the Army of the West. That very afternoon they had a great surprise. The Rangers were going through a mounted drill, acquitting themselves very creditably they thought, when some one in the ranks became aware that they had a distinguished visitor in the person of the Governor of the State, who sat in a carriage looking on. Beside him was a little, dried-up, cross-looking man in fatigue cap and soiled linen duster, who kept making loud and unfavorable comments upon the drill, although he did not look as though he knew anything about it. As soon as Captain Hubbard learned that the Governor was among the spectators, he brought the Rangers into line and rode up to the carriage and saluted.
"Well, captain," said the Governor, nodding in response to the salute. "I am glad to see that you are hard at work and that your men are rapidly improving. Have you a copy of your muster-roll handy?"
The captain replied that he had and the Governor continued-
"Then be good enough to produce it and hand it to this officer who will muster you in. I am not going to let such a body of men as you are go out of the State if I can help it."
"Shall I dismount the men, sir?" asked the captain, addressing the cross-looking little man, who arose to his feet and shook himself together as if he were getting ready for business.
"No," was the surly reply. "We"ll drive up in front of the company and I can call the roll while standing in the carriage. It"ll not take ten minutes and then you can go on with your drill. I see you need it bad enough."
Captain Hubbard, who was so angry that he forgot to salute, wheeled his horse and rode back to the company.
"Orderly," said he, in an undertone. "Get a copy of your muster-roll and give it to that old curmudgeon in the carriage. He"s going to try to muster us in but I doubt if he knows enough. I am glad to see him, however, for when he gets through with us, we shall know right where we stand."
CHAPTER IV.
A SCHEME THAT DIDN"T WORK.
"Say," exclaimed Rodney Gray excitedly, as Captain Hubbard took his place on the right of the company and the orderly galloped off to his tent. "Who is that old party in the Governor"s carriage?"
"You can"t prove it by me," answered the captain. "I never saw him before, but I know he"s a mighty cross-grained old chap."
"May I leave the ranks a minute?" continued Rodney.
"Of course not. What would the Governor think?"
"I don"t care a picayune what he thinks," replied Rodney, his excitement increasing as the Governor"s carriage began to circle around toward the front and center of the company. "If that man in the fatigue cap and duster isn"t General Lacey, all the descriptions I have heard of him are very much at fault."
"And do you really believe," began the captain, who was profoundly astonished.
"I don"t believe, I know that he means to muster us into the Confederate service," interrupted Rodney. "Hold on a minute before you do a thing or let a man answer to his name. My father knows him by sight."
Without again asking permission to leave his place, Rodney put his horse in motion and rode over to the tree under whose friendly shade Mr. Gray was sitting while he watched the drill.
"Father," said he, speaking rapidly and panting as if he had been running instead of riding, "who is that in the carriage with the Governor? Is it General Lacey?"
Mr. Gray nodded and looked up at his son as if to ask him what he was going to do about it.
"Well, he has come here to muster us in, and the orderly has gone after the roll-book," continued Rodney. "The general is a Confederate officer, and if we let him muster us in, he will make Confederate soldiers of us, won"t he?"
"That"s the way it looks from where I sit," answered Mr. Gray.
"It"s the way it looks from where I sit too, and I just won"t have any such trick played upon me," said Rodney, hotly. "I know what I want and what I want to do; and as long as I am a free man, n.o.body shall make me do anything else."
"Are you going to back out?"
"I am. I"ll not answer to my name when it is called. I"ll go back and put the other fellows on their guard, and then I"ll fall out."
So saying Rodney wheeled his horse and returned to his company, which he found in a state of great excitement. The ranks were kept pretty well aligned (the horses knew enough to look out for that now), but the men were twisting about in their saddles, each one comparing notes with every one else whose ears he could reach. When Rodney rode up they all turned to look at him and listen to his report, regardless of the fact that the little man in the brown ulster was standing up in the Governor"s carriage shouting "Attention!" at the top of his wheezy little voice.
"Mind what you are doing, boys," said Rodney, as he rode slowly along the line behind the rear rank. "That"s General Lacey. Don"t answer to your names unless you want to be sworn into the Confederate service."
"But what shall we do?" inquired one or two of the timid members, who thought they might be obliged to answer whether they wanted to or not.
"Keep mum and say nothing," replied Rodney. "Watch me and do as I do. My name is second on the roll."
"Are you ever going to come to attention so that I can get through with my business and go back where I belong?" yelled the general, as soon as he could make himself heard. "A pretty lot of soldiers you are; but I warn you that you will have to mind better than this when you reach the camp of instruction, to which I shall immediately order you. Attention to roll-call! George Warren!"
"He-er-here!" replied the orderly, hesitatingly.
The Rangers were amazed, and Captain Hubbard glared at the frightened sergeant as though he had half a mind to knock him out of his saddle. The captain had told the man in the most emphatic language not to answer to his name, and yet he had gone and given away his liberty for the next twelve months. It served him right for being so stupid.
"You blockheads don"t seem to understand what I want and what I am trying to do," shouted the general, wrathfully. "All you who volunteer for the Confederate service answer to your names, and speak up so that I can hear you. I hope that is sufficiently plain. George Warren!"
The Rangers, one and all, drew a long breath of relief and felt like giving a hearty cheer. Their comrade had most unexpectedly been allowed a chance for escape, and he was sharp enough to take advantage of it. He kept his eyes straight to the front and said nothing. The general looked surprised, but as he was in a great hurry he pa.s.sed on to the next.
"Rodney Gray!"
This time there was no mistaking the answer. The sergeant moved from his place on the left of the line, rode to the center of the company, came to a front and saluted. The general opened his lips to tell him that he needn"t come to the front and center in order to answer to his name, but the Barrington boy was too quick for him.
"General," said he, while all the Rangers strained their ears to catch his words. "I am ready at any time to be sworn into the service of my State, but I do not wish to join the Confederate army. I am a Partisan Ranger."
"A-a-what?" vociferated the general, now thoroughly aroused. He was a Mexican veteran, a thorough soldier as well as a martinet, and he had never learned to recognize any organizations outside of the regular service.
"A Partisan Ranger," repeated Rodney, who was neither embarra.s.sed nor angered by the covert sneer contained in the general"s words.
"A Ranger!" exclaimed the general, raising his hands in the air and turning his eyes toward the clouds. "Shade of the great and good Washington! what are we coming to? A partisan! And are you all partisans?"
"Yes sir, we are; and until very recently we have been encouraged to believe that we could preserve our independent organization."
"You were, eh? Then you had better organize yourselves into Home Guards at once and I will go back to New Orleans. Partisan Rangers!" said the general, who seemed unable to get the obnoxious words out of his mind. "There"s your roll-book. Drive on, coachman."
The general flung the book on the ground at the feet of Rodney"s horse, threw himself back in his seat and the carriage moved rapidly away. The Rangers sat motionless in their saddles until it pa.s.sed through the gate and disappeared behind the trees in the grove, and then they turned and looked at one another.
"We know where we stand now at all events," said Captain Hubbard, riding up in front of the line, and throwing his right leg over the horn of his saddle in a position most unbecoming a commanding officer. "My commission will be taken from me, and you fellows will be reduced to plain, every-day citizens once more. We might as well quit this nonsense now, and I say, let"s pack up and go home."
"I"ll go, but I"ll not promise to stay there," said Rodney.
"Where will you go?"