Shorty crept back to the point they had before occupied. The rebels saw him coming over a httle knoll, and fired at him. He ran for the fence.
He looked over at the road, and thought he saw the blouse lying in the ditch on the opposite side. He sprang over the fence and ran across the road. The rebels had antic.i.p.ated this and sent a volley into the road.
One bullet struck a small stone, which flew up and smote Shorty"s cheek so sharply that he reeled. But he went on across, picked up the blouse, found the dear letter, and deliberately stopped in the road until he transferred it to the breast of his shirt. Then he sprang back over the fence, and stopped there a moment to rest. He could hear the rebel Captain talking to his men, and every moment the accents of the voice became more familiar.
"Don"t vaste your shods," he was saying. "Don"d vire undil you sees somedings to shood ad, unt den vire to hid. See how many shods you haf alretty vired mitout doing no goot. You must d.i.n.k dat ammunition"s as blenty as vater in de Southern Confederacy. If you hat as much druble as I haf to ket cartridges you vould pe more garcful of dem."
Capt. Littles was Rosenbaum, the Jew spy, masquerading in a new role.
Shorty"s heart leaped. Instantly he thought of a way to let Rosenbaum know whom he had run up against.
"Corporal Si Klogg!" he called out in his loudest tones.
"What is it, Shorty?" answered the wondering Si.{247}
"Don"t let any more o" the boys shoot over there to the left. That"s the way Capt. McGillicuddy"s a-comin" in with Co. Q. I think I kin see him now jest raisin" the hill. Yes, I"m sure it"s him."
The next instant he heard the rebel Captain saying to his men:
"Boys, dey"re goming up in our rear. Dey"re de men ve saw a liddle vhile ago. De only vay is to mount unt make a rush past de house. All mount unt vollow me as vast as dey gan."
There was a gallop of hors.e.m.e.n up the road, and they pa.s.sed by like the wind, while Si and Shorty fired as fast as they could load--Shorty over their heads. Si at the noise. Just opposite the house the Captain"s horse stumbled, and his rider went over his head into a bank of weeds.
The rest swept on, not heeding the mishap.
"Surrender, Levi," said Shorty, running up.
"Certainly, my tear poy," said Rosenbaum. "Anyding dat you vant. How are you, any vay? Say, dat vas a nead drick, vasn"t it? Haf your horse sdumble unt trow you jest ad de righd dime unt place? It dook me a long dime to deach my horse dot. I"m mighty glat to see you."
{248}
CHAPTER XVIII. THE JEW SPY AGAIN
MR. ROSENBAUM RECITES A THRILLING EXPERIENCE.
"HIST, boys, don"t talk friendly to me out loud," said the prudent Rosenbaum. "What"s happened? I know you have got the house. I have been expecting for a long time that there would be a raid made upon it. What the devil is that saying you have: "It"s a long worm that don"t have a turn." No; that isn"t it. "It"s an ill lane that blows n.o.body no good."
No; that"s not it, neither. Well, anyway, Mrs. Sophronia unt her crowd got entirely too bold. They played too open, unt I knew they"d soon get ketched. Who did you get in the house?"
Si started to call over the names, and to recite the circ.u.mstances, but as he reached that of Brad Tingle, Rosenbaum clutched him by the arm and said earnestly:
"Hold on. Tell me the rest after a while. I"m afraid of that man. He"s come pretty near getting on to me several times already. He"s listening now, unt he"ll be sure to suspect something if he don"t hear you treating me as you did the others. Begin swearing at me as you did at the rest."
Si instantly took the hint.
"I"ll stand no more foolishness," he called out{249} angrily. "If you don"t surrender at once I"ll blow your rebel head off."
"I have to give up," Rosenbaum replied in an accent of pain, "for I believe I broke my leg when I fell. I find I can"t stand up."
"Give up your arms, then, and we"ll help you up to the fire, and see how badly you"re hurt," said Si.
Rosenbaum gave groans of anguish as Si and Shorty picked him up and carried him over to the fire.
"Now we"re out of ear-shot o" the house," said Si, as they deposited him on the opposite side, and somewhat behind a thicket of raspberries, "and we can talk. Where did you come from this time, Levi?"
"Straight from General Bragg"s Headquarters at Tullahoma, and I have got information that will make General Rosecrans"s heart jump for joy.
I have got the news he has been waiting for all these weeks to move his army. I have got the number of Bragg"s men, just where they are stationed, and how many is at each place. I"m crazy to get to General Rosecrans with the news. I have been cavorting around the country all day trying some way to get in, unt at my wits" ent, for some of the men with me had their suspicions of me, unt wouldn"t have hesitated to shoot me, if they didn"t like the way I was acting. To tell the truth, it"s been getting pretty hot for me over there in the rebel lines. Too many men have seen me in Yankee camps. This man. Brad Tingle, has seen me twice at General Rosecrans"s Headquarters, unt has told a lot of stories that made much trouble. I think that this is the last{250} visit I"ll pay General Bragg. I"m fond of visiting, but it rather discourages me to be so that I can"t look at a limb running out from a tree without thinking that it may be where they will hang me."
"Excuse me from any such visitin"," said Si sympathetically. "I"d much rather stay at home. I"ve had 12 or 15 hours inside the enemy"s lines, playin" off deserter, and I"ve had enough to last me my three years.
I"ll take any day o" the battle o" Stone River in preference. I ain"t built for the spy business in any shape or form. I"m plain, out-and-out Wabash prairie style--everything above ground and in sight."
"Well, I"m different from you," said Shorty. "I own up that I"m awfully fond o" a game o" hocuspocus with the rebels, and tryin" to see which kin thimble-rig the other. It"s mighty excitin" gamblin" when your own head"s the stake, an" beats poker an" faro all holler. But I want the women ruled out o" the game. Never saw a game yit that a woman wouldn"t spile if she got her finger in."
"Mrs. Bolster came mighty near marrying him, and he"s pale yet from the scare," Si explained.
"Yes," said Shorty frankly. "You"ll see I"m still while all around the gills. Never wuz so rattled in my life. That woman"s a witch. You could only kill her by shooting her with a silver bullet. She put a spell on me, sure"s you"re a foot high. Lord, wouldn"t I like to be able to manage her. I"d set her up with a faro-bank or a sweat-board, and she"d win all the money in the army in a month."
"Yes, she"s a terror," accorded Rosenbaum. "She{251} made up her mind to marry me when I first come down here. I was awfully scared, for I was sure she saw through me sharper than the men did, and would marry me or expose me. But I got some points on her about poisoning a neighboring woman that she hated unt was jealous of, unt then I played an immediate order from General Bragg to me to report to his Headquarters. But it took all the brains I had to keep her off me."
"She"s safe now from marryin" anybody for awhile," said Shorty, and he related the story of her nuptials, which amused Rosenbaum greatly.
"But you have signed Jeff Hackberry"s death warrant," he said. "If he tries to live with her she"ll feed him wild parsnip, unt he"ll get a house of red clay, that you put the roof on with a shovel. It"ll be no great loss. Jeff ain"t worth in a year the bread he"ll eat in a day."
"She may be smothered in that hole," Shorty bethought himself. "I guess we"d better let her out for awhile."
"Yes," said Rosenbaum. "She can"t do no harm now. n.o.body else will come this way to-night. The men that were with me will scatter the news that the house is in Yankee hands. They think there"s a big force here, unt so we won"t be disturbed till morning."
"Then I"ll go in and let her out," said Shorty.
The other inmates of the cabin were asleep when he entered, but they waked up, and begged him not to let the woman out until morning.
"Keep her in there till daylight," said "Squire Corson, "and then restore me to my home and functions,{252} and I"ll call out a posse comitatus, and have her publicly ducked, according to the laws of the land, as a common scold. I"ve never heard such vile language as she applied to me when I gave her the advice it was my duty to give to live in peace and quietness with her husband. That there woman"s a Niagary of cuss words and abuse."
"If yo" let her out, take me outside with yo"," begged Jeff Hackberry.
"She"ll kill me, sho", if I"ve to stay in here till mornin" with her.
She begun by flingin" a bag o" red pepper in my face, and set us all to sneezin" until I thought the "Squire"d sneeze his durned head off. Then she jobbed me with a bayonet, and acted as no woman orter act toward her lawful husband, no matter how long they"d bin married, let alone their weddin" night."
"Sorry, but it"s agin all my principles to separate man and wife," said Shorty, as he moved to the puncheon trap-door and undid the hasp. "You took her for better or worse, and it"s too early in the game to complain that you found her a blamed sight worse than you took her for. You"re one now, you know, and must stay that way until death do you part."
Shorty lifted up the trap-door, and Si helped the woman out with some difficulty. They expected a torrent of abuse, but she seemed limp and silent, and sank down on the floor. The boys picked her up and laid her on the bed beside Jeff Hackberry. "She"s fainted; she"s dead. She"s bin sufferkated in that hole," said Jeff.
"No, yo" punkin-headed fool," she gasped. "I hain"t dead, nor I hain"t fainted, nor I hain"t{253} sufferkated. Yo"ll find out when I git my wind back a little, I"m so full o" mad an" spite that I"m done tuckered clean out. I"m clean beat, so clean beat that I hain"t no words to fit the "casion. I"ve got t" lay still an" think an" gether up some."
"She"s comin" to, Shorty," said Si. "It"ll be pleasanter outside."
"You say you have been having unusually exciting times," said Si to Rosenbaum, as the boys again seated themselves by the fire.
"Veil, I should say so," replied Rosenbaum with emphasis. "Do you know that General Bragg is the very worst man that ever lived?"
"All rebels are bad," said Shorty oracularly. "But I suppose that some are much worse than others. I know that the private soldiers are awful, and I suppose the higher you go the wuss they are. The Corporals are cussider than the privates, the Sergeants can give the Corporals points in devilishness, and so it goes on up until the General commanding an army must be one of the devil"s favorite imps, while Jeff Davis is Old Horney"s junior partner."