Capt. McGillicuddy listened very gravely to their story.
"Evidently that old hen has a nest of bad, dangerous men, which has to be broken up," he said. "We can get the whole raft if we go about it in the right way, but we"ve got to be mighty smart in dealing with them, or they"ll fly the coop, and leave the laugh on us. You say she"s coming back to-morrow?"
"Yes," said Shorty, with a perceptible shiver.
"Well, I want you to fall right in with all her plans--both of you.
Pretend to be anxious to desert, or anything else that she may propose.
Go back home with her. I shall watch you carefully, but without seeming to, and follow you with a squad big enough to take care of anything that may be out there. Go back to your tent now, and think it{194} all over, and arrange some signal to let me know when you want me to jump the outfit."
The boys went back to their tent, and spent an hour in anxious consideration of their plans. Si saw the opportunity to render a great service, and was eager to perform it, but he firmly refused to tell any lies to the woman or those around her. He would not say that he was tired of the service and wanted to desert; he would not pretend liking for the Southern Confederacy or the rebels, nor hatred to his own people. He would do nothing but go along, share all the dangers with Shorty, and be ready at the moment to co-operate in breaking up the gang.
"Some folks"s so durned straight that they lean over backwards," said Shorty impatiently. "What in thunder does it amount to what you tell these onery gallinippers? They"ll lie to you as fast as a hoss kin trot.
There"s no devilment they won"t do, and there kin be nothin" wrong in anything you kin do and say to them."
"Everybody settles some things for himself," said the unchangeable Si.
"I believe them folks are as bad as they kin be made. I believe every one o" "em ought to be killed, and if it wuz orders to kill "em I"d kill without turnin" a hair. But I jest simply won"t lie to n.o.body, I don"t care who he is. I"ll stand by you until the last drop; you kin tell "em what you please, but I won"t tell "em nothin", except that they"re a pizen gang, and ought t"ve bin roastin" in brimstone long ago."
"But," expostulated Shorty, "if you only go along with me you"re actin"
a lie. If you go out o" camp with mo you"ll pretend to bo desertin" and j"inin" in{195} with "em. Seems to me that"s jest as bad as tellin" a lie straight out."
"Well," said the immovable Si, "I draw the line there. I"ll go along with you, and they kin think what they like. But if I say anything to "em, they"ll git it mighty straight."
"Well, I don"t know but, after all, we kin better arrange it that way,"
said Shorty, after he had thought it over in silence for some time. "I"m sure that if you"d talk you"d give us dead away. That clumsy ba.s.swood tongue o" your"n hain"t any suppleness, and you"d be sure to blurt out something that"d jest ruin us. An idee occurs to me. You jest go along, look sour and say nothin". I"ll tell "em you ketched cold the other night and lost your speech. It"ll give me a turn o" extra dooty talkin"
for two, but I guess I kin do it."
"All right," agreed Si. "Let it go that way."
"Now, look here, Si," said Shorty, in a low, mysterious tone, "I"m goin"
to tell you somethin" that I hadn"t intended to. I"m scared to death lest that old hag"ll git the drop on me some way and marry me right out of hand. I tell you, she jest frightens the life out o" me. That worries me more"n all the rest put together. I expect I ought t "v" told you so at the very first."
"Nonsense," said Si contemptuously. "The idee o" you"re being afeared o"
such a thing."
"It"s all very well for you to snort and laugh, Si Klegg," persisted Shorty. "You don"t know her. I sneered at her, too, at first, but when I was left alone with her she seemed to mesmerize me. I found myself talkin" about marryin" her before I knowed{196} it, and the next thing I was on the p"int o" actually marryin" her. I believe that if she"d got me to walk a half-mile further with her she"d a run me up agin a Justice o" the Peace and married me in spite of all that I could do. I"d much ruther have my head blowed off than married to that old catamount.
"Bah, you can"t marry folks unless both are willin"," insisted Si. "A man can"t have a marriage rung in on him w.i.l.l.y-nilly."
"There"s just where you"re shootin" off your mouth without any sense.
You don"t know what you"re talkin" about. Men are la.s.soed every day and married to women that they"d run away from like a dog from a porcupine, if they could. You jest look around among the married folks you know, and see how many there are that wouldn"t have married one another if they"d bin in their senses."
"Well, I don"t think o" many," said Si, whose remembrances were that the people in Posey County seemed generally well-mated.
"Well, there mayn"t be many, but there"s some, and I don"t propose to be one of "em. There"s some spell or witchcraft about it. I"ve read in books about things that gave a woman power to marry any man she wanted to, and he couldn"t help himself. That woman"s got something o" that kind, and she"s set her eye on me. I"m goin" to meet her, and I want to help break up her gang, but I"d a great deal rather tackle old Bragg and his entire army. I want you to stay right by me every minnit, and keep your eye on me when she"s near me."{197}
"All right," said Si sleepily, as he crawled into bed.
The next morning, as they were discussing the question of signals, they happened to pa.s.s the Sutler"s, and Si caught a glimpse of packages of firecrackers, which the regimental purveyor had, for some inscrutable reason, thought he might sell. An idea occurred to Si, and he bought a couple of packages, and stowed them away in his blouse pocket and told the Captain that their firing would be the signal, unless a musket-shot should come first.
It was yet early in the forenoon as they walked on the less-frequented side of the camp. Shorty gave a start, and gasped:
"Jewhilikins, there she is already."
Si looked, and saw Mrs. Bolster striding toward them. Shorty hung back instinctively for an instant, and then braced up and bade her good morning.
She grunted an acknowledgment, and said rather imperiously:
"Y"re a-gwine, air yo"?"
"Certainly," answered Shorty.
"And yo"?" she inquired, looking at Si.
"He"s a-goin", too," answered Shorty. "Mustn"t expect him to talk. He"s short on tongue this mornin". Ketched a bad cold night before last.
Settled on his word-mill. Unjinted his clapper. Can"t speak a word.
Doctor says it will last several days. Not a great affliction. Couldn"t "ve lost anything o" less account."
"Must"ve bin an orful cold," said she, taking her pipe from her mouth and eyeing Si suspiciously.{198}
"Never knowed a cold to shut off any one"s gab afore. Seems t" me that hit makes people talk more. But these Yankees air different. Whar air yer things? Did yo" bring plenty o" coffee?"
"We"ve got "em hid down here in the brush," said Shorty. "We"ll git "em when we"re ready to start."
"We"re ready now," she answered. "Come along."
"But we hain"t no pa.s.ses," objected Shorty. "We must go to the Captain and git pa.s.ses."
"Yo" won"t need no pa.s.ses," she said impatiently. "Foller me."
Shorty had expected to make the pretext about the pa.s.ses serve for informing Capt. McGillicuddy of the presence of the woman in the camp.
He looked quickly around and saw the Captain sauntering carelessly at a little distance, so that any notification was unnecessary. He turned and followed Mrs. Bolster"s long strides, with Si bringing up the rear.
They went to the clump of brush where they had hidden their haversacks and guns. Mrs. Bolster eagerly examined the precious package of coffee.
"I"ll take keer o" this myself," she said, stowing it away about her lanky person. "I can"t afford to take no resks as to hit."
Si and Shorty had thought themselves very familiar with the campground, but they were astonished to find themselves led outside the line without pa.s.sing under the eye of a single guard. Si looked at Shorty in amazement, and Shorty remarked:
"Well, I"ll be durned."
The woman noticed and understood. "Yo" Yanks,"{199} she said scornfully, "think yourselves moughty smart with all your book-larnin", and yo"uns put on heaps o" airs over po" folks what hain"t no eddication; but what you don"t know about Tennessee woods would make a bigger book than ever was printed."
"I believe you," said Shorty fervently. His superst.i.tion in regard to her was rapidly augmenting to that point where he believed her capable of anything. He was alarmed a"bout Capt. McGillicuddy"s being able to follow their mysterious movements. But they soon came to the road, and looking back from the top of a hill, Shorty"s heart lightened as he saw a squad moving out which he was confident was led by Capt. McGillicuddy.
But little had been said so far. At a turn of the road they came upon a gray-bearded man, wearing a battered silk hat and spectacles, whom Mrs.
Bolster greeted as ""Squire."
The word seemed to send all the blood from Shorty"s face, and he looked appealingly to Si as if the crisis had come.