Part 36 (2/2)

”What are you doing here?” demanded Somers in the same low voice, with commendable desire to obtain further knowledge of the dark subject beneath him.

”I don't want nothin' of you; so yer kin let me alone. If yer don't let me alone, I'll be dog derned if I don't ketch hold of yer legs, and pull yer down chimley.”

”Hus.h.!.+” said Somers in warning tones. ”They will hear you, if you speak so loud.”

The man was a rebel, or at least a Southerner; and it pa.s.sed our hero's comprehension to determine what he was doing in such a place.

”Hush yerself!” snarled the disconcerted rebel. ”What yer want o' me? I ain't done nothin' to you.”

”I don't want anything of you; but, if you don't keep still, I'll drop a stone on your head,” replied Somers, irritated by the fellow's stupidity.

”Will yer?”

”Not if you keep still. Don't you see we are in the same box? I don't want to be caught, any more than you do.”

”Who be yer?” asked the man, a little mollified by this conciliatory remark.

”Never mind who I am now. The soldiers are in the house looking for us; and, if you make a noise, they will hear you.”

”What regiment do yer belong ter?” said the lower occupant of the chimney in a whisper.

”Forty-first,” replied Somers at a venture, willing to obtain the advantage of the fellow's silence.

”Did yer run away?”

”No. Did you?”

”What yer in here fur, if yer didn't run away, then?” asked the deserter from the rebel army, which it was now sufficiently evident was his character.

”Keep still!” replied Somers, regretting that he had not given a different answer.

”I know yer!” exclaimed the rebel, making a movement farther down the chimney, thereby detaching sundry pieces of stone and mortar, which thundered down upon the hearth below with a din louder, as it seemed to Somers in his nervousness, than all the batteries of the Army of the Potomac. ”Yer come to ketch me in a trap. Scotch me if I don't blow yer up so high 'twill take yer six months ter come down ag'in!”

”Keep still!” pleaded Somers, in despair at the unreasonableness of the rebel. ”The soldiers are after me; and, if they catch me, they will catch you. 1 don't want to hurt you. If you will only keep still, I will help you out of the sc.r.a.pe.”

”You go to Babylon! Yer can't fool me! What yer doin' in the chimley?”

If Somers could quietly have put a bullet through the fellow's head, and thus have punished him for the crime of desertion, he might have promoted his own cause; but the bullet would not do its work without powder, and powder was noisy; and therefore the remedy was as bad as the disorder, to say nothing of a.s.suming to himself the duty of a rebel provost-marshal.

”Yer can't fool me!” repeated the fellow, after Somers had tried for a moment the effect of silence upon him.

It was unnecessary to fool such an idiot; for Nature had effectually done the job without human intervention. It was useless to waste words upon him; and Somers crept cautiously up out of his reach, and out of his hearing, unless he yelled out his insane speeches. Every moment he stopped to listen for sounds within the house; but he could hear none, either because the pursuers had abandoned the search, or because the double thickness of wood and stone shut out the noise.

The rebel deserter, for a wonder, kept quiet when Somers retreated from him, evidently believing that actions spoke louder than words. From his lower position in the flue, he could look up into the light, and observe the movements of him whom he regarded as an enemy. He seemed to have discretion enough to keep still, so long as no direct attack was made upon him; and to be content to wait for a direct a.s.sault before he attempted to repel it; which was certainly more than Somers expected of him, after what had transpired.

Carefully and noiselessly our fugitive made his way to the top of the chimney for the purpose of ascertaining the position of the pursuers, as well as to remove all ground of controversy with the intractable deserter. On reaching the top, he heard the voice of the sergeant at the window, who had probably just reached this point in his investigations.

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