Part 19 (2/2)
Of course this raised a laugh at Marcy's expense, but he didn't seem to mind it. He gave the postmaster Captain Beardsley's letter and asked for the mail in his mother's box.
”And of course when the brig escaped you yelled as loudly as any Yankee in the crew,” observed one of his auditors. ”I suppose you had to in order to keep out of trouble.”
”But I don't reckon he'll do it again in a hurry,” said another. ”When he brought that Yankee schooner into Newbern he proved to my satisfaction that he is as good a Confederate as any man in the State.
Why didn't you stay with her. Jack, and make yourself rich by running the blockade?”
”I had two reasons,” answered the sailor. ”In the first place I wanted to come home for awhile; and in the next, there is too much danger these times in cruising about on an unarmed vessel. The next time I s.h.i.+p it will be aboard of something that can fight.”
”Did you hear any talk of an ironclad that is being built in the river a few miles above Newbern?” asked a third.
Jack winked first one eye and then the other, looked sharply into the face of each member of the group around him, and then turned about and softly rapped the counter with his riding-whip.
”You needn't be afraid to speak freely,” said the postmaster, who knew what the sailor meant by this pantomime. ”There isn't a traitor within the hearing of your voice. We are all true blue.”
”One can't be too careful in times like these,” replied Jack, turning around again and facing the crowd. ”After I have been among you awhile, I shall know who my friends are. I did hear some talk of a heavy vessel that is to be added to the defensive force of the city, and which might some time go outside and scatter the blockading fleet, but I didn't go up to take a look at her. I couldn't spare the time. She'll need a crew when she is completed, and if I leave the settlement between two days--if I am here to-night and gone to-morrow morning--my friends needn't worry over me.”
”We understand. You'll be on board an armed vessel fighting for your principles.”
”You're right I will. Now, George,” he added, turning to the clerk and slamming his saddle-bags upon the counter, ”I want one of those pockets filled with plug tobacco, and the other stuffed with the gaudiest bandanas you've got in the store.”
The clerk took the saddle-bags, and when they were pa.s.sed back to their owner a few minutes later, they were so full that it was a matter of some difficulty to buckle the flaps. Then the boys said good-bye and left the store. They started off in a lope, but when they were a mile or so from the town and alone on the road, they drew their horses down to a walk, and Jack said:
”Do they take me for one of them or not?”
”They pretend to, but everybody is so sly and treacherous that you can't place reliance upon anything,” answered his brother. ”What you said about leaving home between two days was good. It will help me, for I can refer to it when you are gone. Now, Jack, you must put up that rebel flag the minute you get home. I told Allison about it, and if he should ride out some day and find the flag wasn't there, he would suspect that we are not just the sort of folks he has been led to believe.”
”All right! And our next hard work must be to hide your money and paint that schooner of yours. We'll go about it openly and above board. We'll say she is scaling,--if she isn't she ought to be, for it is a long time since she saw a brush,--and that she needs another coat of paint to protect her from the weather.”
This programme was duly carried out. Of course Mrs. Gray protested, mildly, when Jack brought down his rebel flag, and, after spreading it upon the floor so that his mother could have a good view of it, proceeded to hang it upon the sitting-room wall; but when the boys told her why they thought it best to place it there, she became silent and permitted them to do as they pleased. While they were putting the trophy in position, Jack found opportunity to whisper to his brother:
”Now, if any of our officious neighbors give the Confederate officers a hint that mother is keeping back money that she ought to turn into the treasury, and they come here to search the house, they'll take a look at this flag and go away without touching a thing. Mark what I tell you.”
”But suppose the Yankees come here and take a look at it; then what?”
whispered Marcy, in reply.
”Well, that will be a black horse of another color,” said Jack. ”They'll come here--don't you lose any sleep worrying about that; but when they come, you must see to it that this flag is out of sight. I'll say one thing for the rebels,” he said aloud, turning his head on one side and gazing critically at his prize, ”they've got good taste. I've seen the colors of all civilized nations, and that flag right there on the wall is the handsomest in the world, save one.”
”But think of the principles it represents,” exclaimed Mrs. Gray.
”Disunion and slavery.”
”Of course,” replied Jack. ”But when these fanatics have been soundly thrashed, there will be no such things as disunion and slavery. They will be buried out of sight. I was speaking of the rebel flag, which, next to our own, is the prettiest I ever saw. Their naval uniforms are handsome, too.”
Of course it soon became known among the servants that there was a Confederate banner displayed upon the walls of the ”great house,” and those who came into the room turned the whites of their eyes at it and then looked at Marcy and Jack in utter astonishment. But the boys did not appear to notice them nor did they volunteer any explanation--not even when old Morris came in to satisfy himself that the astounding news he had heard was really true. The sight of the emblem, which he knew was upheld by men who were fighting for the sole purpose of keeping him and his race in bondage, struck him dumb, and he left the room as silently as he had entered it. In less than half an hour the news reached Hanson's ears, and that worthy, astonished and perplexed, waited impatiently for night to come so that he could ride into town and tell Colonel Shelby about it.
CHAPTER XII.
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