Shorty kept hold of his gun and started with the rest to the supper-room.
"Here, Injianny," called out the Sergeant, "stack your gun here with the rest."
"Don"t want to ain"t goin" to," answered Shorty.
"What"s the reason you ain"t?" asked the Sergeant, catching hold of the gun. "n.o.body"s going to take it, and if they did, you can pick up another. Plenty of "em, jest as good as that, all around here."
"Don"t care. This is my own gun. I think more of it than any gun ever made, and I ain"t goin" to take any chance of losin" it."
"Well, then, you"ll take a chance of losing your supper," answered the Sergeant, "or rather you"ll be certain of it, for the orders are strict against taking guns into the supper-room. Too many accidents have happened."
"Well, then," said Shorty stoutly, "I"ll do without my supper, though I"m hungrier than a wolf at the end of a long Winter."
"Well, if you"re so infernal pig-headed, you"ve got to," answered the Sergeant, nettled at Shorty"s obstinacy. "Go back beyond the gunstack, and stay there. Don"t you come nearer the door than the other side of the stack."
Shorty"s dander rose up at once. At any other time he would have conclusions with the Sergeant then and there. But the remembrance of his charge laid a repressive hand upon his quick choler, and reminded him that any kind of a row would probably mean a night in the guard-house, his gun in some other man"s hands, probably lost forever, and so on. He decided to defer thrashing the Sergeant until his return, when he would give it to him with interest. He shouldered his gun, paced up and down, watching with watering mouth the rest luxuriating in a hot supper with fragrant coffee and appetizing viands, to which his mouth had been a stranger for many long months. It cost a severe struggle, but he triumphed.
Si, in his own hungry eagerness, had not missed him, until his own appet.i.te began to be appeased by the vigorous onslaught he made on the eatables. Then he looked around for his partner, and was horrified not to find him by his side.
"Where"s Shorty," he anxiously inquired.
Each looked at the other in surprise, and asked:
"Why, ain"t he here?"
"No, confound it; he ain"t here," said Si, excitedly springing to his feet; "he has been knocked down and robbed."
Si bolted out, followed by the rest. They saw Shorty marching up and down as a sentinel sternly military, and holding his Springfield as rigidly correct as if in front of the Colonel"s quarters.
"What"s the matter with you, Shorty? Why don"t you come in to supper?"
called out Si. "It"s a mighty good square meal. Come on in."
"Can"t do it. Don"t want no supper. Ain"t hungry. Got business out here," answered Shorty, who had gotten one of his rare fits of considering himself a martyr.
"Nonsense," said Si. "Put your gun in the stack and come in. It"s a bully supper. Best we"ve had for a year."
"Well, eat it, then," answered Shorty crustily. "I"ve got something more important to think of than good suppers."
"O, rats! It"s as safe in there as out here. Set your gun down and come on in."
"This gun shall not leave my side till we"re home," said Shorty in a tone that would have become the Roman sentinel at Pompeii.
"O, I forgot," said Si. "Well, bring it in with you."
"Can"t do it. Strictly agin orders to take any guns inside. But leave me alone. Go back and finish your gorge. I kin manage to hold out somehow,"
answered Shorty in a tone of deep resignation that made Si want to box his ears.
"That"s too bad. But I"ll tell you what we can do. I"ve had a purty good feed already enough to last me to Looeyville. Let me take your gun. I"ll carry it while you go in and fill up. We hain"t much time left."
The fragrance of the coffee, the smell of the fried ham smote Shorty"s olfactories with almost irresistible force. He wavered just a little--.
"Si, I"d trust you as I would no other man in Co. Q or the regiment.
I"ll--"
Then his Spartan virtue rea.s.serted itself:
"No, Si; you"re too young and skittish. You mean well, but you have spells, when--"
"Fall in, men," said Lieut. Bowersox, bustling out from a good meal in the officers" room. "Fall in promptly. We must hurry up to catch the Looeyville train."
The car for Louisville was filled with characters as to whom there was entirely too much ground for fear--gamblers, "skin-game" men, thieves, and all the human vermin that hang around the rear of a great army.
Neither of the boys allowed themselves a wink of sleep, but sat bolt upright the entire night, watching everyone with steady, stern eyes.
They recognized all the rascals they had seen "running games" around the camps at Murfreesboro, and who had been time and again chased out of camp even the whisky seller with whom Si"s father had the adventure.
The Provost-Guard had been making one of its periodical cleaning-ups of Nashville, and driving out the obnoxious characters. Several of these had tried to renew their acquaintance by offering drinks from well-filled bottles, but they were sternly repulsed, and Shorty quietly knocked one persistent fellow down with a quick whirl of his gun-barrel.
When Shorty was hungry it was dangerous to trifle with him.
They arrived at Louisville late in the morning, and were hurried across the river to Jeffersonville. Fortunately they were able to find there an eating-room where guns were not barred, and Shorty made amends for the past by ravaging as far as his arms could reach, holding his precious gun firmly between his knees.
"Say, pardner," said the man who ran the establishment, "I"d much rather board you for a day than a week. Rebels must"ve cut off the supply-trains where you"ve bin. You"re not comin" this way agin soon, air you? I"m afraid I won"t make "nough this month to pay my rent."
Lieut. Bowersox came in with a telegram in his hand.
"We won"t go on to Indianapolis," he said. "I"m ordered to wait here for our squad, which will probably get here by to-morrow evening."
A wild hope flashed up in Si"s mind.
"Lieutenant," he said, "we live right over there in Posey County. Can"t you let us go home? We can make it, and be back here before to-morrow night."
"I don"t know," said the Lieutenant doubtfully, as he mentally calculated the distance to Posey County. "I hadn"t ought to let you go.
Then, you can"t have more than an hour or two at home."
"O," goodness; just think o" havin" one hour at home," e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Si.
"It seems too bad," continued the Lieutenant, moved by Si"s earnestness, "to bring you this near, and not let you have a chance to see your folks.
"It"ll be a risk for me, and there are not many men in the regiment I"d take it for, but I"ll let you go.
"Remember, it"ll make a whole lot of trouble for me if you"re not here by to-morrow evening."
"We"ll be here by to-morrow evening, if alive," he pledged himself.
"Well, then, go," said the Lieutenant.
Si"s head fairly swam, and he and Shorty ran so fast to make sure of the train that there was a suspicion in the minds of some of the citizens that they were escaping from their officers.
Si"s heart was in a tumult as the engine-bell rang its final warning and the engine moved out with increasing speed. Every roll of the swift wheels was carrying him nearer the dearest ones on earth. The landscape seemed to smile at him as he sped past.
"Isn"t this the grandest country on earth, Shorty?" he bubbled over.