Rodney The Partisan
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But they had already delayed their departure too long, as they discovered a moment later. When Tom ceased speaking he got upon his feet, and just then there was a slight commotion outside the house, and Mrs. Truman uttered an ejaculation of surprise and alarm as a couple of dark figures bounded up the steps and stood upon the gallery. At the same instant a back door opened and heavy boots pounded the kitchen floor. The house had been quietly surrounded, but by whom? It was too dark to see.
"Don't be frightened, Mrs. Truman," said one of the men at the door. "You know us, and you know that we wouldn't harm you. We want a word or two with those young fellows who have come here trying to impose upon you and all of us."
"Then why couldn't you come to the door and say so like a man, instead of sneaking up like a cowardly Secession bushwhacker?" demanded Mr. Truman, angrily. "Get out of the house and come in in the proper way."
"Softly, softly," said one of the three men who had entered by the kitchen door. "Harsh words butter no parsnips, and in times like these one can't stand upon too much ceremony. We don't mean to intrude, but we do mean to get hold of that Secesh and the other chap, who for some reason of his own, is befriending him. Strike a light, please."
"You have certainly made a mistake," said Mrs. Truman, going across the room to a table to find a match. "Our guests are both Union."
"Then there's no harm done," replied the man at the door. "We understand that one of them claims to be some relation to old Justus Percival. If he is, he can't have any objections to riding over to Pilot Knob with some of us and proving his claim."
The boys trembled when they heard these ominous works. A ride to Pilot Knob meant death to Tom Percival at any rate, and perhaps to his friend Rodney also. This was the darkest prospect yet, and it looked still darker when the lamp had, been lighted, and its rays fell upon the set, determined faces of the armed men who, with heavy shot-guns, covered all the avenues of escape. Rodney thought they must be men who had suffered at the hands of their secession neighbors, for they looked as savage as Mr. Truman had acted a while before.
"Which is the traitor?" demanded the largest man in the party, who seemed to be the leader.
"Neither one," replied Tom, settling back in the chair from which he had arisen when the men first appeared.
"Which one is Union then, if that suits you better?" was the next question.
"I say we both are," answered Tom. "I am Captain Percival, and I am now on my way home after having offered the services of myself and company to General Lyon. Justus Percival, of whom you spoke a moment since, is my uncle."
"And who is this friend of yours?"
"He is a schoolmate who left his own State because things didn't go to suit him, and who intends to enlist the first chance he gets."
"On which side?" inquired the leader, squinting up both his eyes and nodding at Tom as if to say that he had him there.
"Do you imagine that he would make a journey of almost a thousand miles for the sake of enlisting in the Confederate army when he might have done that at home?" asked Tom, in reply. "You must be crazy."
"Not so crazy as you may think," said the leader, who seemed to be sure of his ground. "We have the best of evidence that he is secesh."
"What sort of evidence?"
"His own word."
"Is the man who heard me say that outside?" asked Rodney, who thought by the way Mr. Truman and his wife looked at him that it was high time he was saying something for himself. "If he is, bring him in and let me face him. You have no right to condemn me until you let me see who my accuser is."
"That's the idea," said Tom. "Fetch him in."
The boys played their parts so well, in spite of the alarm they felt and the danger they knew they were in, and looked so honest and truthful that the leader was nonplussed, and Mr. Truman and his wife were firmly convinced that their visitors had made a mistake. There were reasons why the latter could not produce Rodney's accuser, and for a minute or two some of them acted as though they might be willing to let the matter drop right where it was. But there is always some "smart man" in every party who thinks he knows a little more than anybody else, and it was so in this case; and when he spoke, he "put his foot in it."
"Didn't you say to-day in the presence of – of – "
"Merrick's red-eyed nigger," Tom exclaimed, when the man paused and looked about as if afraid that he might have said more than he ought. "Why don't you speak it right out? What did I tell you, Mr. Truman? Didn't I say that boy would bear watching? Now, what I want to know of you is, are you going to take that darkey's word in preference to mine?"
This was bringing the matter right home to the visitors, every one of whom was a slaveholder, and would have taken it as an insult if any one had so much as hinted that their evidence was not as good as a black man's.
"Don't get huffy," said the smart man before alluded to. "We haven't played our best card yet. One of you two was riding a roan colt when you came to Merrick's, and there aint no such horse in Truman's stable."
"Did Merrick's nigger tell you that?" asked Tom.
His self-control was surprising. He sat up in his chair and boldly faced his questioner, while Rodney, wishing that the floor might open and let him down into the cellar, told himself more than once that he never would hear the last of that roan colt the longest day he lived.
"No matter who told us," was the reply. "We know it to be a fact. The roan was taken into Merrick's woods, and he wasn't brought out this morning. Did you make a trade with Merrick, or with some of Hobson's friends?"
"If you want to know you had better ask them," answered Tom.
"That's what we intend to do; and we intend, further, that you shall stay with us till we get to the bottom of this thing. There is something about you that isn't just right and we mean to find out what it is."
"I can tell you all about that horse," Rodney interposed.
"It isn't worth while for you to waste your breath, and besides this is a dangerous place to stay, with Price's men scouting around through the neighborhood," said the leader, who now showed a disposition to resume the management of affairs. "It won't take more than two or three days to ride back to Merrick's and from there to Pilot Knob, and straighten everything out in good shape."
"But we are in a hurry. We don't want to go back," exclaimed Tom; and it was plain to every one in the room that the bare proposition frightened him.
"I don't suppose you do want to go back," said the leader, in a significant tone, "but we can't help that. It's time you Secesh were taught that you can't go prowling about through the country imposing upon Union men whenever you feel like it. We have stood enough from such as you, and more than we ever will again, and I believe we should be justified in dealing with you here and now. As for you," he added, shaking his fist in Tom's face and fairly hissing out the words, "you are no more the man you claim to be than I am. You're traitors, the pair of you."
The man was working himself into a passion, and it behooved the boys to be careful what they said. He was in the right mood to do something desperate, for when he ceased speaking and stepped back, breathing hard from the excess of his fury, he worked the hammer of his gun back and forth in a way that was enough to chill one's blood.
"You'll be sorry for this and quite willing to acknowledge it," was what Tom said in reply. "We don't want to go back for we have had trouble enough getting here; but since we must, I hope – "
Tom did not have time to say what, for while everybody's gaze was directed toward him, and no one thought of giving a look outside to see that all was right there, a couple of new actors appeared upon the scene, glided into the room off the porch as quickly and almost as silently as spirits. They were Confederate officers in full uniform, and each one carried a drawn sword in his hand. At the same moment two windows on opposite sides of the room were shivered into fragments, the curtains were jerked down and the black muzzles of a dozen carbines were thrust in. It was like a thunder-bolt from a clear sky, and it was all done so quickly that no one had a chance to move. The five Union men were as powerless for resistance as though they had held straws instead of loaded guns in their hands.
"Don't move an eye-lash," said the older of the two officers, lifting his cap and bowing to Mrs. Truman. "No explanation is necessary, for we understand the situation perfectly." And to the infinite amazement of the two boys, though not much to the surprise of the other occupants of the room, the speaker, when he put his cap on his head again, turned toward Rodney and Tom and gave them a military salute.
"What do you think of that, Mr. Truman?" said the leader of the Union men, whose courage did not desert him even if his face did change color. "Are you satisfied now that these are not the Union boys they pretended to be?"
"I am," answered Mr. Truman, while his wife looked daggers at them. "If they are not Secesh, how does it come that their friends recognize them so quickly? I suppose you are Price's men?" he added, turning to the officer.
"Lieutenant, send in two or three fellows to take these guns and sound the prisoners. Yes, sir, we belong to Price."
"And you came here expecting to find these two boys?"
"Right again," answered the officer. "If we hadn't known they were here we shouldn't have come."
Of all the occupants of the room there were none so thoroughly bewildered and dazed as Tom and Rodney were. Was the officer telling the truth or cooking up a story for reasons of his own? If he really expected to find them in that house, he was certainly mistaken in supposing, as he evidently did, that they were both Confederates. Tom had never set eyes on him before, and hoped from the bottom of his heart that the officer did not know anybody in or around Springfield. He hoped, too, and trembled while the thought flitted through his mind, that no one in the room would speak his name, for it was his turn to sail under false colors now.
Having sent his subordinate after some soldiers to disarm the men of whom he had spoken as prisoners, the officer dropped the point of his sword to the floor, came to "parade rest," and looked about the room
"With such a face of Christian satisfactionAs good men wear, who have done a virtuous action."CHAPTER XIII
WITH PRICE'S MEN
In obedience to the order of his superior the lieutenant stepped upon the porch and beckoned to some of his men, who at once came in and began the work of disarming the citizens. Although the latter gave up their weapons without a show of resistance, they scowled when they did it in a way that impelled Tom to whisper to his friend:
"Their looks prove how desperate and savage they are, and we are lucky in getting out of their hands; but I don't know but I have jumped out of the frying-pan into the fire. Bear in mind that from this minute I go by my middle name – Barton. As you value my safety, don't say Percival once. I am not sure that these Confederates ever heard the name, but I mustn't run the slightest risk."
"Of course not," replied Rodney. "But how in the world do you suppose they found out that we were here?"
"It will be your place to ask them about that. You must do the talking now. Do you want our guns, lieutenant?"
The latter stood by his men while they were disarming the citizens, and in moving about the room came within reach of the two boys, who produced their revolvers and held them so that he could see them; but when he smiled and waved his hand as if to say "I don't want them," they put the weapons back in their places.
If it hadn't been for two things, Rodney Gray would have been as happy as a boy ever gets to be. He was among friends, the very ones, too, he wanted to find, and from that time on he could appear in his true character; but he trembled for his friend and for the safety of Mr. Truman's property. The latter, remembering the lights he had seen on the clouds the night before, and knowing how deadly was the enmity that existed between Union men and Confederates in his State, could hope for nothing but the worst, and Rodney thought from the expression on his face and his wife's, that they were endeavoring to nerve themselves for a most trying ordeal. Would he have to stand by and see their buildings go up in smoke? He hoped not, and when the officer commanding the squad came up and shook hands with him and Tom, Rodney was ready to say something in Mr. Truman's favor.
"You have been insulted, boys," said the officer, in a tone which implied that now was the time for them to take any revenge they wanted. "When I was surrounding the house I heard one of these Yankee sympathizers using rather strong language, and denouncing you as Secessionists trying to impose upon Union men."
"I don't hold that against him, for to tell you the truth, that's just the way the thing stands," answered Rodney. "I have been playing Union man ever since I left Mr. Westall and his squad of Emergency men near Cedar Bluff landing. I had to, for somehow I didn't fall in with any but people of that stamp."
"That was all right," answered the officer. "You couldn't have got through any other way."
"So you see that Merrick's darkey told you nothing more than the plain truth," he added, addressing the citizen who had shaken a fist under his nose.
"I was sure of it, and I am not sorry for what I did or said," replied the Union man, boldly. "I am sorry that the thing happened in Truman's house, and I wish to assure you that he is in no way to blame for our being here. You've got the power on your side now, and I suppose you will use it; but whatever you do to us, I hope you will not harm Truman."
"I say that a man who can talk like that when he is in danger himself, has pluck," Rodney remarked, turning his back to the citizen and speaking so that no one but the officer and Tom could catch his words.
"Oh, they've all got pluck," replied the officer. "And they hang together like a lot of brothers."
"And I say further, that brave men ought not to be harmed when they are perfectly helpless, as these men are now," continued Rodney. "You haven't anything against them, have you, colonel?"
"Captain," corrected the latter, pointing to the insignia on his collar. "You'll soon learn how to tell one rank from another. N-o; I don't know that I have anything against them, except their principles; but some of their neighbors I saw to-night while I was coming here, declare that they are villains of the very worst sort."
"What else could you expect in a community like this where every man has turned against his best friend?" exclaimed Tom. "You are a Missourian and understand the situation as well as I do."
"I have been urged to burn their houses; and as I was sent out to harass the enemy as well as to pick up recruits, I don't know but I had better do it," replied the captain; and the boys saw plainly enough that having made up his mind to carry out his orders, he did not want to permit himself to be turned from his purpose.
"But Rodney and I have been well enough drilled in military law to know that an officer on detached service is allowed considerable latitude," chimed in Tom. "If you see any reason why you should not obey orders to the very letter, you are not expected to do it."
"And in this case I hope you won't do it," pleaded Rodney. "If those cowardly neighbors, who tried to set out against these Union men, want their property destroyed, let them do the dirty work themselves. I don't believe in making war on people who don't think as I do."
"I don't reckon there are any half-wild Unionists in your settlement," said the captain, with a smile.
"I know it. I am from Louisiana where Union men have to keep their tongues to themselves," replied Rodney; and then seeing that the captain looked surprised he hastened to add: "I came to Missouri to enlist under Price because I couldn't join a partisan company where I lived; and I was encouraged to come by a telegram I received from Dick Graham's father. Dick is one of Price's men and perhaps you know him."
"Do you?" inquired the lieutenant, who stood by listening.
"I ought to, and so had Tom, for we went to school with him, and belonged to his class and company."
"Where was that?"
"At the Barrington Military Academy. I am Rodney Gray and my friend is Tom Barton."
Rodney said all this at a venture and was overjoyed to hear the lieutenant say, as he thrust out his hand:
"Shake. I ought to know Rodney Gray, for I have often heard the sergeant speak of him as the hottest rebel in school; but I don't remember that I ever heard him mention Barton's name."
"He wasn't as intimate with Tom as he was with me," Rodney explained.
"There was a difference in their politics."
"That accounts for it. Graham was neutral until his State moved, and Barton here was an ardent Secessionist from the start. That's just the way my captain and I stand now. I began shouting for Southern rights as soon as Carolina went out, and he didn't."
"No, Dick held back," said Tom, "but Rodney did not. He was the first academy boy to hoist the Stars and Bars. But now, captain, say that you will not harm these folks. They haven't done anything, and as for the strong language they used toward us a while ago – we don't mind that."
"Who's your authority for saying that they haven't done anything?" demanded the captain. "You seem to think that they are the most innocent, inoffensive people in the world; but I know that is not characteristic of Unionists in this part of the country. How do you know but that they have ambushed scores of Confederates?"
"We don't know it; and seeing that you don't know it either, why not give them the benefit of the doubt and let their neighbors see that they get their deserts? Why not be satisfied with what you have already done? You burned two houses last night."
"I am aware of it. The men to whom they belonged are noted bushwhackers, and I went miles out of my way to teach them that they had better let our people alone – that burning and shooting are games that two can play at. But I have no heart for more work of that sort, and so I'll not trouble these men since you seem to be so tender-hearted toward them."
"Thank you, sir; thank you," replied Rodney, heartily. "Now will you pass us out, and send some men to the stable with us to get our horses?"
"I'll go with you myself," said the lieutenant; but as he was about to lead the way out of the house he stopped to hear what his captain had to say to Mr. and Mrs. Truman.
"We shall not touch your property, and you may thank these two 'traitors' for it," said the officer; and when he said "traitor," he waved his hand toward Rodney and Tom and paused to note the effect of his words.
The men, after the first shock of surprise had passed, seemed ready to drop, Mr. Truman leaned heavily against the nearest wall, and his wife, who had borne up as bravely as the best of them, behaved as women usually do under such circumstances. She buried her face in her handkerchief and sobbed violently.
"I hope you gentlemen will remember my forbearance and be equally lenient toward any Confederate who may chance to fall into your power," continued the captain, whose calm, steady voice had grown husky all on a sudden. "We are not a bad lot, but we are going to govern this State as we please, and you will save yourselves trouble if you will stop fighting against us. You'll have to do it sooner or later. Of course I shall be obliged to deprive you of your guns, for you might be tempted to shoot them at some loyal Jackson man when we are not here to protect him. I have saved these young gentlemen from your clutches, and as that was what I came for, I will bid you good-evening."
Rodney Gray did not hear much of this polite address for a new fear had taken possession of him, and he took the opportunity to say to his friend Tom:
"You go with the lieutenant after the horses, and I will stay with the captain to say a word in your defense in case any of these Union people happen to speak your name, or let out anything else you would rather keep hidden."
Tom thought this a good suggestion. It would certainly be disagreeable, and perhaps dangerous, to have the captain tell him when he returned with the horses that he wasn't Tom Barton at all – that his real name was Percival, that he was the commander of a company of Union men who had offered to help Lyon at St. Louis, and all that. While Tom did not think the captain would believe such a story if it were told him, it might suggest to him some leading questions that the boys would find it hard to answer. So he left Rodney to act as a sort of rear guard, and went off to the stable with the lieutenant.
"Did you really know that we were in the house?" Tom asked, when he was alone with the officer. "If you did, it can't be that Merrick's boy told you."
"Of course he didn't. He would have kept it from us if he could, but all the same the information came from him in the first place. The blacks in these parts are all Union – no one need waste his breath telling me different – and that scamp of a boy lost no time in spreading it among the Union men in the neighborhood that there were a couple of 'disguised rebels,' as he called you and Gray, putting up at Truman's house. That was the way those five fellows came to get on your trail; but, as good luck would have it, the darkey told the story to too many. Not being as well acquainted in this settlement as he probably is in his own, he told it to a Jackson man, who rode to our camp and told us of it. If it hadn't been for that we should be miles away now; but of course we couldn't think of going off and leaving some of our own people in the hands of the enemy."
"You rendered us a most important service," replied Tom; and he told nothing but the truth when he said it. "It is necessary that I should go home on business, but Rodney Gray wants to enlist in an independent command as soon as he can get the chance. Didn't you speak of Dick Graham as a sergeant?"
"May be so. That's what he is."
"Does he belong to your company?"
"No; but he belongs to our regiment, and that's how I came to get acquainted with him. He's got more friends than any other fellow I know of, and he will be glad to see an old schoolmate once more. I have heard him tell of Rodney Gray and the scrapes he got into by speaking his mind so freely, and I am not the only one in the regiment who thinks that the Barrington Military Academy is a disgrace to the town and State in which it is located. The citizens ought to have turned out some night and torn it up root and branch."
"They would have had a good time trying it," said Tom. "The boys punched one another's head on the parade ground now and then, but it wasn't safe for an outsider to interfere with our private affairs."
"Why, the Confederates wouldn't fight for the Union boys, would they?" exclaimed the lieutenant. "That's a little the strangest thing I ever heard of. We don't do business that way in Missouri, and I could see that our boys didn't like it when you and Gray stuck up for those Yankee sympathizers back there in the house."
Perhaps they wouldn't have liked it either, if they had known how Tom and Rodney had "stuck up" for each other ever since they met at Cedar Bluff landing. But that was a piece of news that Tom did not touch upon.
He intended to reserve it for Dick Graham's private ear.
"And in the meantime I mustn't neglect to ascertain just when and where the lieutenant expects to rejoin his regiment, so that I can take the first chance that offers to get away and strike out for home," thought Tom. "Dick wouldn't expect to see me in Rodney Gray's company, and might betray me before he knew what he was doing."
Having saddled and bridled the horses Tom and the lieutenant returned to the house, the former somewhat anxious to know if anything had been said during his absence that could be brought up against him. But a glance and a reassuring smile from Rodney were enough to show him that he had nothing to fear on that score. The guards stood at the windows watching the party inside, the horses had been brought into the yard in readiness for the squad to mount, and Rodney and the captain were sitting on the front steps. The prisoners, if such they could be called, were too sullen to exchange a word with the Confederates, and the captain thought it beneath his dignity to talk to Union men; and Rodney was glad to have it so.