by Oliver Optic
CHAPTER XXIII
THE SKIRMISH ON THE HILL ROAD
Brown Kipps leaped over the seat, and acted as though he was in a hurryto reach Deck Lyon, after he had explained the desperate deed he hadcontemplated; and the latter thought the movement indicated violence onthe part of the foreman.
"Halt where you are, Kipps! Don't come any nearer!" exclaimed Deck; andthe revolver in his hand enforced his command.
"Don't shoot, sonny! I only wanted to catch you by the hand, and shakeit with right good will," replied Kipps, as he halted where the carbineand sabre of the young cavalryman were lying between his two feet. "Ib'lieve what you been tellin' on us; and I reckon it's right lucky someon us on this front seat ain't all ready to be put in the ground."
"Halt where you are, Kipps!"]
"I assure you that I have told you the exact truth," said Deck, as hedropped his revolver to his side.
The moment he did so Kipps stooped as quick as a flash and picked up thecarbine.
"Don't shoot, little one!" he continued, as the prisoner raised hisweapon again, ready to meet this new combination in front of him.
Deck realized that he must act quick, and he was in the very act offiring at the foreman when he spoke. He looked his opponent in the eye;but the bridge-burner did not bring the carbine to his shoulder. He hadgrasped it near the muzzle, and he held it with the stock hanging down;but he proceeded no farther than this, and the revolver pointed at thehead of Kipps, ready to fire if he elevated the piece. He was in doubt.The words of the foreman did not indicate that he meant violence; hefelt that he had chance enough to save himself by shooting his opponentbefore he could bring the carbine to bear upon him. But perhaps this wasthe most exciting moment in the lifetime of the young soldier.
"Don't shoot, sonny!" repeated Kipps, still holding the carbine in aposition that rendered it entirely useless; and as he spoke he advancedtowards his prisoner.
"Don't come any nearer, Kipps, or there will be a breathless body inthis wagon!" exclaimed Deck, with vim enough to convince the other thathe was in dead earnest.
"I won't come no nearer, if you say so, Lyons. I was only go'n' to bringthis shootin'-iron and give it back to you, jest to show you that I wasright friendly-like to you; and I wanted to catch you by the hand,'cause I believe you could 'a' killed some or all on us if you'd had amind to. I reckon we won't quarrel after you've held up when you mou'thave stuck some on us."
"Drop that carbine, Kipps, and then I can better understand what youmean," replied Deck.
"That's what's the matter, is it? I was only go'n' to give it back toyou," protested the foreman, as he let go of the piece; and it droppedupon the loading of the wagon.
Deck lowered his revolver to his side; and Kipps climbed over thebundles, boxes, tools, and cans, till he was within reach of his lateprisoner, for he seemed no longer to regard him as such. He extended hisbig hand to the cavalryman, whose right still firmly held his weapon,and he took the hand of the other with his left.
"That's a right-down honest Tennessee fist, Lyons, and the gizzardalways goes with it," said he, as he squeezed the hand of Deck till hewas on the point of crying out with the pain of the cracking bones."There's that cheese-knife and shooter of yourn, and you can take 'em assoon as you get ready. You're a Yankee; but you've sunthin' more'n arock for a gizzard."
"There's my hand in yours, Kipps; it's the left, but that is nearest tothe heart," replied Deck, now fully trusting the Tennesseean, as hethrust the revolver into his pocket, satisfied that he should have nofurther use for it at present.
"You've got a rayle Tennessee gizzard in your bowels, Lyons, and I likeyou. If anybody wants to do you an ill turn, he's got to fight BrownKipps, sure," added the foreman.
"And the rest on us," put in Tom Lobkill.
"That's so," chimed in Lank Rablan. "We ain't none on us gone dead yet;and if you hadn't got a gizzard tucked away somewhar in your bowels,some on us mou't 'a' been on t'other side o' Jordan's swellin' flood."
"Here's your tools, Lyons," continued Kipps, as he brought the sabre andcarbine to Deck. "Here's the trimmin's that goes along with 'em, and youcan rig yourself out jest as you was when I fust laid eyes on you."
As he spoke he took from his pockets the belt, sling, and other articlesbelonging to his equipment. Deck seated himself on the box again, and,after he had adjusted them, he put them on. He turned his back to hiscompanions in the wagon, and restored his revolver to the hook where hecarried it; for he did not care to show them where it had beenconcealed.
"I suppose you don't intend to carry me any farther, Kipps," said Deck,when he had fully accoutred himself for a march; and he hoped to be inthe ranks of his company within a couple of hours.
With his companions, he believed the bridge had been destroyed, and thathis father had failed in the principal object of his mission, though hehad defeated the enemy in every engagement in which he had met them.
"I reckon you can go jest where you like, and kerry that gizzard o'yourn with you," replied Kipps. "I'm only sorry you're a Yankee, foryou've behaved handsome enough to be a Tennesseean."
"I am equally sorry you are not all four Union soldiers, standing uplike true men for your country and its government," replied Deck.
"I reckon we'd better not talk on that subject, for we can't agree,nohow," answered the foreman, as he went to the front of the wagon. "Nowyou can git out at this end, for t'other's locked."
This was a happy conclusion of the whole matter; and Deck realized thathe had accomplished more by the course he had adopted than if he hadcarried out his cold-blooded intention to shoot his custodians. He wentto the front, and Kipps assisted him to alight; for his weaponsinterfered with his movements in descent.
"Where are we now, my friends?" asked Deck, as he looked about him.
"I don't know, no more'n a goose in a poke," replied Kipps. "We've comesome miles, more or less, from the railroad; and this is the road wecome down on. Where are we, Jube?" he demanded of the negro driver.
"I reckon we's here, Mars'r Kipps," replied the driver with a grin fromear to ear.
"I reckon so too; but whar's here, Jupiter?"
"Donno whar you be, Mars'r!" exclaimed the negro, who seemed to thinkthe foreman was joking with him.
"I don't know whar I am, Jube; do you?" replied Kipps, looking about himto identify anything in the surroundings.
"I know for sartin; we done come dis way befo', Mars'r. Dis is jest deplace whar we done struck in de field to find de roleraid," replied thedriver confidently. "Dis wot de fo'kes here call de hill road."
"But we didn't come over that log before."
"No, sar; dis nigger runn'd ag'in it, and twis' it round."
"I reckon we'd better camp here for the night, and wait for orders,"said Kipps, "You can go the way you come, Lyons."
"I don't know that I can find my way," replied Deck. "I have been shutup in your wagon all the way, so that I could see nothing."
"You can foller the wagon-track, and that will fotch you out all right,"added Lank.
But Deck was in doubt about returning to the railroad. He knew thatLieutenant Belthorpe had been sent over to the railroad, and he had seenthe troopers ride up the embankment. He thought it strange that he hadnot encountered his force; and he proceeded, Indian fashion, to examinethe road for horse-tracks in the sand. The sod was so tough that it boreno indentation inside of the log; but in the road he found plenty ofhorseshoe marks, and he proceeded to study them.
They all indicated that the riders were headed to the south, or in thedirection of the east road, the latter of which led to the camp andcross-roads. Was it possible that Belthorpe had returned to the camp?This was what the marks suggested. Deck then walked by the log, andfound the track extended towards the north. He followed them for about aquarter of a mile, and then he found where they began on the road.
At this point he found the fence had been thrown down, and there wereplenty of horse-tracks in the cornfield which it surrounded. T
hese ledup from the direction of the railroad. In the soft ground he found, onthe left of the great body of the marks, which indicated that thedetachment had marched by fours, the print of a bar shoe, often called around shoe. He was aware that Tom Belthorpe rode a horse shod in thismanner, for the steed had belonged in the stable of the planter ofRiverlawn.
His investigation proved that not only a company of cavalry had come upfrom the railroad to the highway, but that it was the force undercommand of the first lieutenant of the first company. He returned to thehighway, wondering what had become of this detachment. But Deck did notknow that a portion of the Texan Rangers had come down the hill road, asreported by the scouts of the squadron. He hastened back to the placewhere he had left the wagon. As he approached it he saw two mountedRangers talking with the bridge-burners, or rather with the foreman ofthem; and the other three were helping the driver to hitch on his mules,for they had begun their preparations to camp there for the night.
The two scouts turned their horses and rode away in the direction fromwhich they had come. Deck had halted when he saw them, and put himselfbehind a big tree at the side of the road. But as soon as they rode offat a gallop, as though they were in a hurry, he advanced. Thebridge-burners were all busy in getting the mules ready for a start.
"You better make tracks with all your legs towards the railroad, sonny,"said Kipps earnestly.
"What has turned up now?" asked Deck with interest.
"Them men was the scouts of our company, and we are ordered to move tothe north with all the speed we can get out of the mules," continuedKipps. "Our company, or a part on't, will be here soon; and I don't want'em to ketch you, Lyons, for I can't do nuthin' for you if they get holdon you."
"All right, Kipps; and I am very much obliged to you for your kindservice. But where are you going?" asked Deck.
"I don't know no more'n the dead. I'm to foller this road, and I hain'tthe leastest idee whar it'll fetch out," replied the foreman, as he tookhis place on the front seat, and Jube started the unwilling team.
The driver plied his whip with cruel vigor, and the wagon soondisappeared. Deck was perplexed. Belthorpe had marched up the hill road,as indicated by the tracks of the horses, and the Rangers were marchingdown the same road. How did it happen that they had not met, and a fighthad not ensued? He could not explain it. Just above him was a grove, ora field covered with sparsely scattered trees.
Deck was very anxious to ascertain the situation of affairs in thissection, and he hoped to be able to give his father some importantinformation when he met him. He placed himself behind a tree in thegrove. He had hardly secured his position before he heard the clatter ofhorses' hoofs and the clangor of sabres in the road above him. In aminute he obtained a view of them, and they were Rangers. They werehurrying their horses as though they were engaged in some importantmovement.
The troops had not come abreast of the observer before he heard afurious yell in the grove not far from him. The shout of "Riverlawn!"was heard, with other yells; and a body of the Union cavalry dashed intothe road, and fired a volley from their carbines.
"Sling carbines! Draw sabres!" shouted an officer; and Deck recognizedthe well-known voice of Tom Belthorpe. Then they charged into the enemywith a fury that promised to annihilate them in a very short time.
Deck belonged in this portion of the first company; but he had no horse,and he could not join in the charge; but he began to use his carbine.The Texans fought bravely and desperately, and the two forces seemed tobe about equal. The interested observer saw one of his company toppleover from his horse, and the excited animal dragged him, with one foot,in the stirrup, off the field. Deck caught the horse, and reduced him tosubjection with a vigorous arm. He released the soldier, who wasinsensible, and placed him under a tree. Then he mounted the steed, anddashed into the fight.
He had hardly struck a blow with his sabre before he heard the clangingof sabres some distance in the rear. At the head of it was the officerin command, with one arm in a sling, and his head tied up with bandages.They were Texan cavalry, without a doubt; and Deck called the attentionof the lieutenant to the fact.