"Why don"t you ask us to come in?" inquired Cole.
"Because we have given you something to do first. Pull down that flag and run the banner of the Confederacy up in its place, and then you may come as often as you please."
"Well, shall I tell Marcy to keep his distance until he has made up his mind to hoist the right sort of colors?" said Rodney.
"By no means. We must have a talk with him, and if we fail to win him over, we shall know how to punish him."
"That was rather a snub for you, old fellow," said Billings, as the boys raised their caps to the girls and once more turned toward the post-office. "They are sweet on Marcy, and don"t mean to throw him over just because you have taken a sudden dislike to him."
"It was a snub for Cole as well," replied Rodney, hotly. "He will never see the inside of Mr. Taylor"s house again, for those girls have imposed upon him a task that is quite beyond his powers. Couldn"t you get along without wagging your jaw so freely?" he demanded, turning fiercely upon d.i.c.k Graham. "For two cents you and I would mix up right here in the street."
"Why, what in the world did I say?" asked d.i.c.k, in reply.
"You disgraced the school by telling those girls, almost as plainly as you could speak it, that we Southerners are in the minority there."
"If she got that impression, she got a wrong one," said d.i.c.k quietly. "I said that the defenders of the flag were too many and too strong for you fellows who tried to haul it down, and that"s the truth. I stood up for Marcy because I am his friend, and you ought to be."
"I am a friend to no boy, cousin or no cousin, who talks as he does," said Rodney spitefully. "I despise a traitor, and the fellow who sticks up for him-"
d.i.c.k stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, rested his clenched hands upon his hips, and waited for Rodney to finish the sentence. For a second or so it looked as though the two boys were going to "mix up" directly; but Cole and Billings interposed.
"This will never do," said the latter. "If you are determined to have a fight, hurry and get your mail, and then we"ll go back to the academy and fight the Yankees and their sympathizers. That"s what we"ve got to do tomorrow, if we run that new flag up on the tower, and we might as well get our hands in first as last. Cole, you go on with d.i.c.k, and Rodney and I will follow."
d.i.c.k laughingly declared that as he was not spoiling for a fight he could get on very well without an escort, but still he did not raise any objection when Cole took him by the arm and led him away. Rodney slowly followed, with Billings for a companion, the latter using his best arguments to make the stubborn Rodney see that he could not hope to gain anything by showing so much hostility toward his cousin, who was popular both at the academy and in the town, and that the Taylor girls, from whom they had just parted, didn"t think any the more of him for what he had said. Rodney saw that plainly, and it was another thing that made him angry; but he was careful not to let Billings know it. He took no little pride in his horsemanship, and was confident that he made a very fine looking sergeant of artillery; but none of the girls had ever told him so, and he couldn"t bear to hear Marcy praised either. He was envious, as well as jealous, and when Rodney got that way, he was in the right humor to do something desperate.
"That new law will fix him and Graham, too," he said to himself. "I"ll take pains to call their attention to it the minute I get back to the academy, and if they don"t take the hint and make themselves scarce about here, I will set somebody on their track. There are a good many traitors in and around Barrington, and I wonder that they haven"t been driven out before this time. I"ll rid the school of those two, I bet you; but before they go I"ll pick a quarrel with them and whip them out of their boots."
This confident a.s.sertion recalls to mind something that was said by the Confederate General Rosser on the morning of the 9th of October, 1864, just previous to the beginning of the fight known in history as "Woodstock Races." Having formed his line of battle, Rosser sat on his horse watching the movements of his old schoolmate, General Custer, who was busy getting his own forces in shape to attack him. Finally Rosser turned to his staff and said:
"You see that officer down there? That is General Custer, of whom the Yanks are so proud, and I intend to give him the best whipping to-day he ever got; see if I don"t."
When Custer was ready to fight he made his charge; the valiant Rosser fled before it, and never but once stopped running until he reached Mount Jackson, twenty-six miles away. It was a trial of speed, rather than a battle, and that is the reason the engagement is called "Woodstock Races." The Confederates lost everything they had that was carried on wheels, and the Union loss was but sixty killed and wounded. Rodney Gray was not as much of a braggart as Rosser was, but if he had tried to carry his threat into execution he might have been as badly whipped.
CHAPTER III.
CHEERS FOR "THE STARS AND BARS."
If any boy who reads this series of books believes that secession was the result of a sudden impulse on the part of the Southern people, he has but to look into his history to find that he is mistaken. They had not only been thinking about it for a long time, but, aided by some of Buchanan"s treacherous cabinet officers, they had been preparing for it. The Secretary of the Navy ordered the best vessels in our little fleet to distant stations, so that they could not be called upon to help the government when the insurgents seized the forts that were scattered along the coast; and the Secretary of War took nearly a hundred and fifty thousand stand of arms out of Northern a.r.s.enals and sent them to the South. He did it openly and without any attempt at concealment, and the Southern papers publicly thanked him for so doing. The Mobile Register said, in so many words, that they were much obliged to Mr. Floyd for "disarming the North and equipping the South."
After such acts as these on the part of government officials, it is not surprising that private citizens began to take their local affairs into their own hands. A regular system of espionage and ostracism was established all over the South. Everybody who was known or suspected of being opposed to slavery and disunion was not only closely watched, but was denied admission to homes in which he had always been a welcome visitor. Free negroes were given to understand that they could either clear out, or remain and be sold into bondage. Northern men-even those who had long been engaged in business in the South, and whose interests were centered there-were looked upon and treated with contempt, and their lives were made miserable in every way that the exasperated and unreasonable people around them could think of.
But, of course, things did not stop here. These suspected persons very soon became the victims of open violence. Some were taken out of their houses at night and whipped; others were tarred and feathered; and more were hanged by self-appointed vigilance committees, or killed in personal encounters. Up to the time of which we write there had been none of this violence in and around Barrington, but it was coming now. Almost the first thing that attracted the attention of Rodney Gray and his companions when they went into the post-office was a notice that had been fastened upon the bulletin board. It took them a minute or two to elbow their way through the crowd of men and boys who were gathered in front of it, reading and commenting upon the startling intelligence it contained, and when they succeeded they read as follows:
IMPORTANT NOTICE.
At a meeting of the citizens and voters of Barrington, held this day, March 9, 1861, it was unanimously Resolved: That the excitement at present existing among the people renders it prudent for us to appoint a committee of the citizens of Barrington to recommend what measures (if any) should be adopted for the purpose of suppressing any unlawful or riotous outbreak in the town; and that the following named are hereby appointed a "Committee of Safety" who are respectfully requested to adopt such measures, or to recommend any measures for adoption by the citizens generally, as may seem to them proper and necessary for the preservation of good order.
Then followed a long list, containing the names of nearly all the prominent and wealthy men of the place.
"Humph!" exclaimed d.i.c.k Graham, contemptuously. "The fellows who got this up wasted time and ink to no purpose. There has been no outbreak in Barrington, and none threatened."
"How does it come that you are so well posted, d.i.c.k?" said a friendly voice at his elbow; and when he faced about d.i.c.k"s eyes met those of Mr. Riley, one of the men whose names appeared on the list. "The gentlemen who framed that resolution did not mean to convey the impression that there had been any riotous proceedings in and around Barrington," he continued. "But if they had desired to create an uproar and excite the fears of the women and children, they might have said that there has been an outbreak threatened; and it would have been nothing but the truth. You boys, who are all the while shut up in the academy, can not be expected to know all that is going on in the country."
"Who has threatened any outbreak?" inquired d.i.c.k incredulously. "And when is it coming off?"
"Look here," said Mr. Riley, lowering his voice. "You remember the John Brown raid, don"t you?"
"Seems to me I have heard something about it. But you are not afraid of him, are you?"
"I am not joking," replied Mr. Riley earnestly. "Brown laid out a regular campaign before he started in at Harper"s Ferry. He had a map, and on it had marked several localities in which the negroes were greatly in excess of the whites. Those towns and villages were to be destroyed, after the blacks had been coaxed or forced into his army, and Barrington was one of them."
"Well, what of it?" exclaimed d.i.c.k. "He didn"t get here, did he?"
"Of course he didn"t; but he spread such a spirit of discontent among the n.i.g.g.e.rs that we have been shaky ever since. And the events of the last few weeks do not tend to quiet our fears, I a.s.sure you."
"When is this insurrection, or whatever you call it, coming off?"
"We don"t know when to expect it, but we mean to be ready for it at any hour of the day or night. We have positive evidence that there are about half a dozen too many Abolitionists, and altogether too many free n.i.g.g.e.rs, in and around Barrington."
"When did you find it out?"
"We"ve always known it; but we never felt so very much afraid of them before. I don"t mind telling you, although I should not want to post it on the town pump, that we have had spies out for the last three or four days."
"That"s what I thought you were getting at. But who are they?"
"There"s Bud Goble, for one."
"Aw, Great Scott!" exclaimed d.i.c.k, and even Rodney looked disgusted. "I hope you haven"t put the least faith in anything that lazy, worthless fellow has said to you."
"He may be too lazy to earn an honest living, but he is far from worthless in an emergency like the present," replied the committeeman. "He is with us all over, and has been very active since these troubles began."
"I don"t see why he should be so very active. He never owned the price of a pickaninny in his life. But I"ll tell you what"s a fact, Mr. Riley: Bud Goble has got something against every Northern man in Barrington and for miles outside of it, and he will do anything or swear to any number of lies-"
"Don"t you give the Committee of Safety any credit for common-sense or prudence?" demanded Rodney, who, although he appeared to be listening to the conversation, was busy thinking over a project that had suddenly suggested itself to him. "You don"t suppose that anything will be done to these suspected men until they have had a fair trial, do you?"
"That"s the idea," said Mr. Riley, with a smile. "Rodney, you have your share of common-sense, whether the committee have or not."
"A fair trial?" repeated d.i.c.k, who was like Marcy Gray in that he never "pulled in his shingle one inch"; in other words, never backed down from his principles, no matter who might hear what he had to say about them. "Who"ll try these suspected men? Judge Lynch; who will order them to be strung up before they can say a word in their own defense. I tell you such work is all wrong."
"Don"t let your excitement run away with your reason, d.i.c.k," said Mr. Riley soothingly. "There"s been no innocent person harmed yet, and, moreover, such a thing never happened in this county."
"No, but it is going on all over the South; and I tell you that there are plenty of people of the Bud Goble stamp who would do the same thing right here if they were not afraid," said d.i.c.k earnestly.
"Put him out! He"s a traitor!" cried one of the academy boys; and "put him out," was echoed from all parts of the post-office. But the boys who uttered the words were all d.i.c.k Graham"s friends, and an attempt to put him out would certainly have resulted disastrously to somebody.
"Of course I understand that this is all sport," said Mr. Riley. "But seriously, d.i.c.k, the time may come when it will be anything but safe for you to express your sentiments with so much freedom."
"I a.s.sure you I appreciate your kindness in giving me a friendly word of caution, and thank you for it," replied the boy, "but this is a free country, and I shall say what I think, regardless of consequences. Wait till the time for fighting comes and see-"