He had been thinking of trying a little shy at the four-spot himself, as he had noticed that it had never won, and two or three times he had looked for it before the dice were put in the box, and had seen the "banker" turn it down on the board before picking the dice up. A thought flashed into his mind.
The "banker" picked up the dice with seeming carelessness, dropped them into the box, gave them a little shake, and rolled them out. Two threes and a six came up. The "banker"s" face lighted up with triumph, and Shorty"s deadened into acute despair.
"I guess that little change is mine," said the "banker" reaching for the pile.
"Hold on a minnit. Mister," said Si, covering the pile with his ma.s.sive hands. "Shorty, look at them dice. He"s got mola.s.ses on one side. You kin see there where the flies are eatin" it."
Shorty s.n.a.t.c.hed up the dice, felt them and touched his tongue to one side. "That"s so, sure"s you"re a foot high," said he sententiously.
Just then someone yelled:
"Scatter! Here come the guards!"{51}
All looked up. A company coming at the doublequick was almost upon them.
The "banker" made a final desperate claw for the money, but was met by the heavy fist of Shorty and knocked on his back. Shorty grabbed what money there was on the board, and he and Si made a burst of speed which took them out of reach of the "provos" in a few seconds. Looking back from a safe distance they could see the "bankers" and a lot of the more luckless ones being gathered together to march to the guard-house.
"Another detachment of h.o.r.n.y-handed laborers for the fortifications,"
said Shorty grimly, as he{52} recovered his breath, watched them, and sent up a yell of triumph and derision. "Another contribution to the charity fund," he continued, looking down at the bunch of bills and fractional currency in his hands.
[Ill.u.s.tration: SHORTY SETTLES WITH THE BANKER. 51]
"Shorty," said Si earnestly, "promise me solemnly that you"ll never bet at chuck-a-luck agin as long as you live."
"Si, don"t ask me impossibilities. But I want you to take every cent o" this money and keep it. Don"t you ever give me more"n $5 at a time, under any consideration. Don"t you do it, if I git down on my knees and ask for it. Lord, how nigh I come to losin" that $50 o" your father"s."
CHAPTER IV. A SPY"S EXPERIENCES
MR. ROSENBAUM TELLS THE BOYS MORE OF HIS ADVENTURES.
MR. ROSENBAUM became a frequent visitor to the Hoosier"s Rest, and generally greatly interested Si and Shorty with his stories of adventure.
"How did you happen to come into the Army of the c.u.mberland?" asked Si.
"I"d a-thought you"d staid where you knowed the country and the people."
"That was just the trouble," replied Rosenbaum. "I got to know them very well, but they got to know me a confounded sight better. When I was in the clothing pizniss in St. Louis I tried to have everybody know me. I advertised. I wanted to be a great big sunflower that everybody noticed.
But when I got to be a spy I wanted to be a modest little violet that hid under the leaves, unt n.o.body saw. Then every man what knew me become a danger, unt it got so that I shuddered every time that I see a limb running out from a tree, for I didn"t know how soon I might be hung from it. I had some awful narrow escapes, I tell you.
"But what decided me to leave the country unt skip over de Mississippi River was something that happened down in the Boston Mountains just before the battle of Pea Ridge. I was down there watching Van Dorn unt Ben McCullough for General Curtis, unt{54} was getting along all right.
I was still playing the old racket about buying up Mexican silver dollars to buy ammunition. One night I was sitting at a campfire with two or three others, when a crowd of Texans come up. They was just drunk enough to be devilish, unt had a rope with a noose on the end, which I noticed first thing. I had begun to keep a sharp lookout for such things. My flesh creeped when I saw them. I tried to think what had stirred them up all at once, but couldn"t for my life recollect, for everything had been going on all right for several days. The man with the rope--a big, ugly brute, with red hair unt one eye--says:
""You"re a Jew, ain"t you?"
""Yes," says I; "I was born that way."
""Well," says he, "we"re going to hang you right off." Unt he put the noose around my neck unt began trying to throw the other end over a limb."
[Ill.u.s.tration: CLOSE CALL FOR ROSENBAUM. 54]
""What for?" I yelled, trying to pull the rope off my neck. "I ain"t done nothing."
""Hain"t eh?" said the man with one eye. "You hook-nosed Jews crucified our Savior."
""Why, you red-headed fool," said I, catching hold of the rope with both hands, "that happened more as 1,800 years ago. Let me go."
""I don"t care if it did," said the one-eyed man, getting the end of the rope over the limb, "we didn"t hear about it till the Chaplain told us this morning, unt then the boys said we"d kill every Jew we come across.
Catch hold of the end here, Bowers."
"The other fellers around me laughed at the Texans so that they finally agreed to let me go if I"d promise not to do it again, holler for Jeff Davis, unt treat all around. It was a fool thing, but it scared me worse"n anything else, unt I resolved to get out of there unt go where the people read their Bibles unt the newspapers."
"How did you manage to keep Gen. Curtis posted as to the number of rebels in front of him?" asked Si. "You couldn"t always be running back and forth from one army to the other."
"O, that was easy enough. You see. General{56} Curtis was advancing, unt the rebels falling back most of the time. There was cabins every little ways along the road. All these have great big fireplaces, built of smooth rocks, which they pick up out of the creek unt wherever they can find them.
"I"d go into these houses unt talk with the people unt play with the children. I"d sit by the fire unt pick up a dead coal unt mark on these smooth rocks. Sometimes I"d draw horses unt wagons unt men to amuse the children. Sometimes I"d talk to the old folks about how long they"d been in the country, how many bears unt deers the man had killed, how far it was to the next place, how the roads run, unt so on, unt I"d make marks on the jam of the fireplace to help me understand.
"The next day our scouts would come in unt see the marks unt understand them just as well as if I"d wrote them a letter. I fixed it all up with them before I left camp. I kin draw very well with a piece of charcoal.
I"d make pictures of men what would make the children unt old folks open their eyes. Our scouts would understand which one meant Ben McCullough, which one Van Dorn, which one Pap Price, unt so on. Other marks would show which way each one was going unt how many men he hat with him. The rebels never dropt on to it, but they came so close to it once or twice that my hair stood on end."
"That curly mop of yours"d have a time standing on end," ventured Shorty. "I should think it"d twist your neck off tryin" to."
"Well, something gave me a queer feeling about the throat one day when I saw a rebel Colonel stop{57} unt look very hard at a long letter which I"d wrote this way on a rock.
""Who done that?" he asked.
""This man here," says the old woman, "He done it while he was ga.s.sing with the old man unt fooling with the children. Lot o" pesky nonsense, marking up de walls dat a-way."
""Looks like very systematic nonsense," said the Colonel very stern unt sour. "There may be something in it. Did you do this?" said he, turning to me.
""Yes, sir," said I, "I have a bad habit of marking when I"m talking. I always done it, even when I was a child. My mother used to often slap me for spoiling the walls, but she could never break me of it."
""Humph," said he, not at all satisfied with my story, unt looking at the scratches harder than ever. "Who are you, unt what are you doing here?"
"I told him my story about buying Mexican silver dollars, unt showed him a lot of the dollars I"d bought.
""Your story ain"t reasonable," said he. "You haven"t done bizniss enough to pay you for all the time you"ve spent around the army. I"ll put you under guard till I can look into your case."
"He called to the Sergeant of the Guard, unt ordered him to take charge of me. The Sergeant was that same dirty loafer. Bob Smiles, that I had the trouble with by Wilson"s Creek. He kicked me unt pounded me, unt put me on my horse, with my hands tied behind me, unt my feet tied under the horse"s belly. I was almost dead by night, when we reached Headquarters.
They gave me something to{58} eat, unt I laid down on the floor of the cabin, wishing I was Pontius Pilate, so that I could crucify every man in the Southern Confedrisy, especially Bob Smiles. An hour or two later I heard Bob Smiles swearing again."
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE SPY IN CUSTODY. 58]
""Make out the names of all the prisoners I have," he was saying, "with where they belong unt the charges against them. I can"t. Do they take me for a counter-jumping clerk? I didn"t come into the army to be a white-faced bookkeeper, I sprained{59} my thumb the other day, unt I can"t write even a Httle bit. What am I to do?"
"That was all moonshine about his spraining his thumb. He vas ignorant as a jacka.s.s. If he had 40 thumbs he couldn"t write even his own name so"s anybody could read it.
""I don"t believe these"s a man in a mile of here that can make out such a list," he went on. They"re all a set of hominy-eating blockheads.
Perhaps that hook-nosed Jew might. He"s the man. I"ll make him do it, or break his swindling head."