At the bottom of the hill a creek crossing the road made a deep, wide quagmire. The rebels were in too much hurry to pick out whatever road there might have been through it. Their leaders plunged in, their horses sank nearly to the knees, and the whole party bunched up.
"Surrender, you rebel galoots." yelled Si reining up at a little distance, and bringing his gun to bear.{117}
"Surrender, you off-scourings of secession," added Shorty.
[Ill.u.s.tration: SI AND SHORTY AS MOUNTED INFANTRY 117]
The rebels looked back, held up their hands, and said imploringly:
"Don"t shoot, Mister. We"uns give up. We"uns air taylored."
"Come back up here, one by one," commanded Si,{118} "and go to our rear.
Hold on to your guns. Don"t throw "em away. We ain"t afraid of "em."
One by one the rebels extricated their horses from the mire with more or less difficulty and filed back. Si kept his gun on those in the quagmire, while Shorty attended to the others as they came back. Co. Q was coming to his a.s.sistance as fast as the boys could march.
What was the delight of the boys to recognize in their captives the squad which had captured them. The sanguinary Bushrod was the first to come back, and Si had to restrain a violent impulse to knock him off his horse with his gun-barrel. But he decided to settle with him when through with the present business.
By the time the rebels were all up, Co. Q had arrived on the scene. As the prisoners were being disarmed and put under guard, Si called out to Capt. McGillicuddy:
"Captain, one o" these men is my partickler meat. I want to "tend to him."
"All right. Corporal," responded the Captain, "attend to him, but don"t be too rough on him. Remember that he is an unarmed prisoner."
Si and Shorty got down off their horses, and approached Bushrod, who turned white as death, trembled violently, and began to beg.
"Gentlemen, don"t kill me," he whined. "I"m a poor man, an" have a fambly to support. I didn"t mean nothin" by what I said. I sw"ar"t" Lord A"mighty I didn"t."
"Jest wanted to hear yourself talk--jest practicin" your voice," said Shorty sarcastically, as he took the{119} man by the shoulder and pulled him off into the bush by the roadside. "Jest wanted to skeer us, and see how fast we could run. Pleasant little pastime, eh?" "And them things you said about a young lady up in Injianny," said Si, clutching him by the throat.
[Ill.u.s.tration: BUSHROD PRAYS FOR HIS LIFE 119]
"I want to wring your neck jest like a chicken"s. What"d you do with her picture and letters?"
Si thrust his hand unceremoniously into Bushrod"s pocket and found the ambrotype of Annabel. A brief glance showed him that it was all right, and he gave a sigh of satisfaction, which showed some amelioration of temper toward the captive.{120 }
"What"d you do with them letters?" Si demanded fiercely.
"Ike has "em," said Bushrod.
"You"ve got my shoes on, you brindle whelp," said Shorty, giving him a cuff in bitter remembrance of his own smarting feet.
"If we"re goin" to shoot him, let"s do it right off," said Si, looking at the cap on his gun. "The company"s gittin" ready to start back."
"All right," said Shorty, with cheerful alacrity. "Johnny, your ticket for a brimstone supper"s made out. How"d you rather be shot--standin" or kneelin"?"
"O, gentlemen, don"t kill be. Ye hadn"t orter. Why do ye pick me out to kill? I wuzzent no wuss"n the others. I wuzzent rayly half ez bad. I didn"t rayly mean t" harm ye. I only talked. I had t" talk that-a-way, for I alluz was a Union man, and had t" make a show for the others. I don"t want t" be shot at all."
"You ain"t answerin" my question," said Shorty coolly and inexorably. "I asked you how you preferred to be shot. These other things you mention hain"t nothin" to do with my question."
He leveled his gun at the unhappy man and took a deliberate sight.
"O, for the Lord A"mighty"s sake, don"t shoot me down like a dog,"
screamed Bushrod. "Le"me have a chance to pray, an" make my peace with my Maker."
"All right," conceded Shorty, "go and kneel down there by that cottonwood, and do the fastest prayin* you ever did in all your born days, for you have need of it. We"ll shoot when I count three. You"d{121} better make a clean breast of all your sins and transgressions before you go. You"ll git a cooler place in the camp down below."
Unseen, the rest of Co. Q were peeping through the bushes and enjoying the scene.
Bushrod knelt down with his face toward the Cottonwood, and began an agonized prayer, mingled with confessions of crimes and malefactions, some flagrant, some which brought a grin of amus.e.m.e.nt to the faces of Co. Q.
"One!" called out Shorty in stentorian tones.
"O, for the love o" G.o.d, Mister, don"t shoot me," yelled Bushrod, whirling around, with uplifted arms. "I"m too wicked to die, an" I"ve got a fambly dependin" on me."
"Turn around there, and finish your prayin"," sternly commanded Shorty, with his and Si"s faces down to the stocks of their muskets, in the act of taking deliberate aim.
Bushrod flopped around, threw increased vehemence into his prayer, and resumed his recital of his misdeeds.
"Two!" counted Shorty.
Again Bushrod whirled around with uplifted hands and begged for mercy.
"Nary mercy," said Shorty. "You wouldn"t give it to us, and you hain"t given it to many others, according to your own account. Your light"s flickerin", and we"ll blow it out at the next count. Turn around, there."
Bushrod made the woods ring this time with his fervent, tearful appeals to the Throne of Grace. He was so wrought up by his impending death that he{122} did not hear Co. Q quietly move away, at a sign from the Captain, with Si and Shorty mounting their horses and riding off noiselessly over the sod.
For long minutes Bushrod continued his impa.s.sioned appeals at the top of his voice, expecting every instant to have the Yankee bullets crash through his brain. At length he had to stop from lack of breath.
Everything was very quiet--deathly so, it seemed to him. He stole a furtive glance around. No Yankees could be seen out of the tail of his eye on either side. Then he looked squarely around. None was visible anywhere. He jumped up, began cursing savagely, ran into the road, and started for home. He had gone but a few steps when he came squarely in front of the musket of the Orderly-Sergeant of Co. Q, who had placed himself in concealment to see the end of the play and bring him along.
"Halt, there," commanded the Orderly-Sergeant; "face the other way and trot. We must catch up with the company."
Si and Shorty felt that they had redeemed themselves, and returned to camp in such good humor with each other, and everybody else, that they forgot that their feet were almost as bad as ever.
They went into the house and began cooking their supper together again.
Shorty picked up the coffeecan and said:
"Si Klegg, you"re a gentleman all through, if you was born on the Wabash. A genuine gentleman is knowed by his never bein" no hog under no circ.u.mstances. I watched you when you looked into this coffee-can, and mad as I was at you, I said you was a thorobred when you left it all to me."
{123}
CHAPTER IX. SHORTY GETS A LETTER
BECOMES ENTANGLED IN A HIGHLY IMPORTANT CORRESPONDENCE.
A LIGHT spring wagon, inscribed "United States Sanitary Commission,"
drove through the camp of the 200th Ind., under the charge of a dignified man with a clerical cast of countenance, who walked alongside, looking at the soldiers and into the tents, and stopping from time to time to hand a can of condensed milk to this one, a jar of jam to another, and bunches of tracts to whomsoever would take them.