Part 16 (1/2)
”Where in the world did you get it?” demanded Tom, who was greatly astonished. ”Man alive, he's my father.”
”So I supposed. It was given to me by Captain Howard whose acquaintance I made aboard the Mollie Able, and he got it from a friend of his.”
”My limited knowledge of the English language will not permit me to do this subject justice,” declared Tom. He looked around for something to sit down on, and then leaned against the wall for support. ”My father has heard of you and would have helped you at the risk of his life. He wouldn't go back on a Barrington boy any more than I would; but if you should be searched by rebels anywhere between here and Springfield, that letter would hang you. Burn it before you take the road to-morrow.”
”If your father is so well known, I don't see why his neighbors haven't hung him before this time,” said Rodney.
”It's safer to try the bushwhacking game, and he has been shot at three times already. He doesn't expect to live to see the end of these troubles, but he is like your cousin Marcy Gray-he doesn't haul in his s.h.i.+ngle one inch. Burn that letter, I tell you.”
”I didn't intend to present it unless I had to,” replied Rodney. ”Now, then, what brought you here? I thought you were hidden in the swamp along with some other refugees.”
”So I was; but I came back on purpose to see if Merrick had heard anything from you. I was on my way to the house when I thought I would stop and look in here. I was hidden in the bushes when those Emergency men rode down the road. Of course they are going to the swamp, and I don't know whether I can get back there to-night or not. I wonder how they got on to my track so quick.”
Rodney said that Merrick thought it was through old man Swanson. Tom replied that he had never heard of such a man, and Rodney went on to tell of his accidental meeting with him at the cross-roads, adding:
”Mr. Westall told him that I and my horse were all right, and not to be interfered with, and that he would make something by keeping a bright lookout for a boy without any boots on, and a roan colt. One of the party also told him that you were unarmed, but Swanson didn't take much stock in that. He declared that there were plenty of people in the country who would be mean enough to give you clothes and weapons for the asking, and I reckon he was about right. I gave you a revolver and I see some one else has furnished you with a pair of boots. Now, didn't you know, when you ran off with my horse, leaving yours for me to ride, that every man I met would take me for you?”
”That's a fact,” replied Tom, ”but I never thought of it before. But I couldn't get my horse out of the yard without scaring the others, and so I had to do the best I could. Now that I think of it, perhaps we had better let the trade stand a little while longer.”
”Oh, do you?” exclaimed Rodney. ”You have good cheek I must say.”
”It isn't cheek at all, but a desire to keep you out of trouble as long as I can,” answered Tom.
”Making me ride a horse that has been advertised all through the country as stolen property is a good way to keep me out of trouble, isn't it now?” said Rodney. ”I never should have thought of it if you hadn't mentioned it.”
”Hold on a bit,” replied Tom. ”No one in this section is looking for you now. You can take the road and keep it, and the horse you ride will not bring you into trouble; but if that roan colt shows his nose where anybody can see it, he'll be nabbed quicker'n a flash, and his rider too. See? As I am a little more experienced in dodging about in the bushes than you are, you had better let me take the risk.”
”I never could look a white man in the face again if I should do that,” answered Rodney. ”Don't you know what will be done with you if you are caught?”
”I shan't run anymore risk than you did when you helped me get out of that corncrib,” said Tom, reaching for his schoolmate's hand in the dark and giving it a hearty squeeze. ”Don't you know what would be done to you if you were caught with that roan colt in your possession? You would be taken back to Mr. Westall's settlement, and when he saw that you were riding the same horse you rode when you came to Cedar Bluff landing, wouldn't he want to know where you got him? Can you think of any answers you could give that would satisfy him? I'll trade revolvers, if you want yours back (I know you've got one, for I heard you c.o.c.k it when I came to the door), but I really think you had better let me keep your horse a little while longer. I hear somebody coming,” he added, stepping to the nearest crack and looking out. ”It's Merrick. I can see his white s.h.i.+rt.”
A moment later the owner of the stable came in, and was not a little surprised when he heard himself addressed by the boy whom he supposed to be snugly hidden in the deepest and darkest nook of the swamp. Tom told him why he had come back instead of keeping out of sight, and asked what had become of the squad of men he saw riding along the road a while before.
”They kept on as far as I could hear 'em,” replied the farmer, ”and if they left any one behind to watch the house, they were so sly about it that I never seen it.”
”Of course it was broad daylight when Tom came to your house,” said Rodney. ”Well, how do you know but that man Swanson saw him when he went in?”
”I don't know it,” replied Merrick. ”But even if he did see Percival go in, these 'Mergency men won't never say a word to me about it, kase they know well enough that if they should hurt a hair of my head, some of my friends would bushwhack 'em to pay for it. They would send word over into the next county, and some fellers from there would ride over some dark night and set my buildings a-going, or pop me over as quick as they would a squirrel, if they could get a chance at me. That's the way we do business nowadays, and that's the reason we don't never go to the door when somebody rides up and hails the house after dark.”
”Why, I wouldn't live in such a country,” said Rodney.
”What would you do, if everything you had in the world was right here and you couldn't sell it and get out?” replied the farmer. ”You'd stay and look out for it, I reckon, and make it as hot as you could for any one who tried to drive you away. But driving is a game two can play at,” added Merrick, with a low chuckle; and Rodney noticed that he ceased speaking once in a while and turned his head on one side as if he were listening for suspicious sounds. ”I don't say I have rode around of nights myself and I don't say I aint; but I do say for a fact that if you go over into the next county, you won't find so many men there who make a business of shooting Union folks as there used to be. Some parts of the kentry t'other side the ridge looks as though they had been struck by a harrycane that had blew away all the men and big boys.”
This was what Captain Howard must have meant when he warned Rodney that every little community in the Southern part of the State was divided into two hostile camps. This was partisan warfare, and Rodney wanted to be a partisan.
”Is that the sort of partisan you are, Tom?” he inquired, when Merrick went out again to see if it would be safe for them to go into the kitchen and get supper. ”I wish I had had sense enough to stay at home.”
”I wish to goodness you had,” said Tom honestly. ”Not but that you've got as much sense as most boys of your age, but you know as well as I do that the Barrington fellows used to say you didn't always know what you were about. Why, when I heard you telling your story to Mr. Westall down there in Jeff's shanty, it was all I could do to keep from saying, right out loud, that such a piece of foolishness had never come under my notice before.”
”Where would you be at this moment if I hadn't been in Jeff's cabin last night?” retorted Rodney.
”Well, that's a fact,” said Tom thoughtfully. ”About the time I felt that stick and revolver in my hands, I was mighty glad you were around; but as soon as I had used them, I wished from the bottom of my heart that you were safe back in your own State. But since you are here, I am going to do my level best for you; and that's the reason I am going to keep your horse a little longer. If I don't give him back to you some day, you can keep mine to remember me by.”