"I am very much obliged to you, marm; and I shall be glad to do as much for you, any time," said Tom, as he went towards the front door.
As he was about to open it, his ears were startled by an imperative knock on the outside. He stepped back to one of the two windows on the front of the house, where he discovered an officer and two "grayback" soldiers. The ghost of his grandmother would not have been half so appalling a sight, and he retreated to the back door with a very undignified haste.
"Gracious me!" exclaimed the lady of the house. "Who kin thet be?"
"An officer and two soldiers," replied Tom, hastily.
"Then they are arter my old man!" said she, dropping into the only chair the room contained.
"Don"t say I"m here, marm, and I"ll help your husband, if they catch him.
Tell them he has gone off to be absent a week."
"He"d be absent more"n thet if he knowed them fellers was arter him."
The woman moved towards the front door, and Tom through the back door; but as he was about to pa.s.s into the garden, he caught a glimpse of one of the graybacks in the rear of the house. For a moment his case seemed to be hopeless; but he retreated into the room again, just as the woman opened the front door to admit the officer. He could not escape from the house, and his only resource was to secure a hiding place within its walls. There were only two which seemed to be available; one of these was the bed, and the other the chimney. If any search was made, of course the soldiers would explore the bed first; and the chimney seemed the most practicable.
There was no time for consideration, for the woman had already opened the door, and was answering the questions of the Confederate officer; so Tom sprang into the fireplace, and, by the aid of the projecting stones, climbed up to a secure position. The chimney was large enough to accommodate half a dozen boys of Tom"s size. The fire had gone out, and though the stones were rather warm in the fireplace, he was not uncomfortable.
The fears of the lady of the house proved to be well grounded this time, for the party had actually come in search of her "old man;" and what was more, the officer announced his intention not to leave without him.
"He"s gone away fur a week, and he won"t be hum before the fust of August, no how," said the woman resolutely, and adopting Tom"s suggestion to the letter.
"All nonsense, woman! He is about here, somewhere, and we will find him."
"You may, if you kin."
The officer then went out at the back door, as Tom judged by his footsteps, and the woman asked one of the children what had become of the other soldier man. The boy said he was up chimney. She then told them not to tell the officer where he was.
"What sh.e.l.l I do?" said she, placing herself before the fireplace.
"Don"t be alarmed. He will keep out of their way," replied Tom.
"But the officer man said he was gwine to stay "bout yere till he gits hum," moaned the poor woman.
"He will not do any such thing. Your husband has the woods before him, and he won"t let them catch him."
"Deary me! I"m "feared they will."
"Where are they now?"
"They"re gone out to look for him."
The officer and his men returned in a few moments, having satisfied themselves that the proprietor of the place was not on the premises.
"Now we"ll search the house," said the officer; and Tom heard them walking about in the room.
Of course the militia man could not be found, and the officer used some very unbecoming language to express his disapprobation of the skulker, as he called him.
"Woman, if you don"t tell me where your husband is, I"ll have you arrested," said he, angrily.
"I don"t know myself. He"s gone off over the mountains to git some things.
Thet"s all I know about it, and if yer want to arrest me, yer kin."
But the officer concluded that she would be a poor subst.i.tute for an able bodied man, and he compromised the matter by leaving one of the privates, instructing him not to let the woman or the children leave the house, and to remain till the skulker returned.
This was not very pleasant information for Tom who perceived that he was likely to be shut up in the chimney for the rest of the day, and perhaps be smoked or roasted out at supper time. Climbing up to the top of his prison house, he looked over, and saw the officer and one private disappear in the woods which lay between the house and the railroad.
Looking over the other way, he saw the coveted recruit approaching the house from beyond the garden.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE REBEL SOLDIER.
Tom Somers was not very well satisfied with his situation, for the soldier who had been left in possession of the house was armed with a musket, and the prospect of escaping before night was not very flattering. The patriarch of the family, who had such a horror of recruiting officers, was approaching, and in a few moments there would be an exciting scene in the vicinity.
Independent of his promise made to the woman to help her husband, if she would not betray him, Tom deemed it his duty to prevent the so-called Confederate States of America from obtaining even a single additional recruit for the armies of rebellion and treason. Without having any personal feeling in the matter, therefore, he was disposed to do all he could to a.s.sist his host in "avoiding the draft." What would have been treason in New England was loyalty in Virginia.
The unfortunate subject of the Virginia militia law was unconsciously approaching the trap which had been set for him. He had, no doubt, come to the conclusion, by this time, that the hungry soldier boy was not a recruiting officer, or even the corporal of a guard sent to apprehend him, and he was returning with confidence to partake of his noonday meal. Tom, from his perch at the top of the chimney, watched him as he ambled along over the rough path with his eyes fixed upon the ground. There was something rather exciting in the situation of affairs, and he soon found himself deeply interested in the issue.
The unhappy citizen owing service to the Confederate States climbed over the zigzag fence that enclosed his garden, and continued to approach the rude dwelling which the law had defined to be his castle. Tom did not dare to speak in tones loud enough to be heard by the innocent victim of the officer"s conspiracy, for they would have betrayed his presence to the enemy. Sitting upon the top stones of the chimney, he gesticulated violently, hoping to attract his attention; but the man did not look up, and consequently could not see the signals.
He had approached within ten rods of the back door of the house, when Tom, fearing his footsteps might attract the attention of the soldier, ventured to give a low whistle. As this was not heeded, he repeated the signal when the man was within two or three rods of the house; but even this was not noticed, and throwing his head forward, so that the sound of his voice should not descend the chimney, he spoke.
"Halloo!" said he.
The man suddenly stopped, and looked up. Tom made signals with his hands for him to leave; but this mute language appeared not to be intelligible to him.
"Consarn yer picter, what are yer doin" up thar?" said the proprietor of the castle, in tones which seemed to Tom as loud as the roar of the cannon at Bull Run.
"Hush! Hush!" replied Tom, gesticulating with all his might, and using all his ingenuity to invent signs that would convey to the militiaman the idea that he was in imminent danger.
"You be scotched!" snarled the man. "What are yer doin"? What ails yer?"
"They are after you!" added Tom, in a hoa.r.s.e whisper.
The fellow most provokingly refused to hear him, and Tom thought his skull was amazingly thick, and his perceptions amazingly blunt.
"Now you come down from thar," said he, as he picked up a couple of stones. "You act like a monkey, and I s"pose yer be one. Now make tracks down that chimley."
But instead of doing this, Tom retreated into his sh.e.l.l, as a snail does when the moment of peril arrives. The soldier in the house was not deaf; and if he had been, he could hardly have helped hearing the stentorian tones of his victim. Instead of going out the back door, like a sensible man, he pa.s.sed out at the front door, and in a moment more Tom heard his voice just beneath him.
"Halt!" shouted the soldier, as he brought his musket to his shoulder.
"Your name is Joe Burnap."
"That"s my name, but I don"t want nothin" o" you," replied the embarra.s.sed militiaman, as he dropped the stones with which he had intended to a.s.sault Tom"s citadel.