by Oliver Optic
CHAPTER XXVI
FOUR FUGITIVES FROM THE BATTLE-FIELD
The whinnying of a horse near the two wanderers attracted theirattention, and Fronklyn went over to look at the animal. He found fourof them hitched to the trees, all of them wearing cavalry saddles. Thesergeant still had his carbine slung at his back. He unslung thefirearm, thinking he might have occasion to use it. He knew thelieutenant had reloaded his revolver after making with it the holesacross the board which had proved so serviceable to them.
In his report to the Confederate authorities at Richmond, GeneralCrittenden alludes to a battalion of cavalry, of which some officersand privates were absent on furloughs, and of which all but abouttwenty-five ran away. It is possible that the four troopers who weretrying to force the negro to ferry them over the river belonged to thenumber.
"Cavalry," said the sergeant as he returned to the lieutenant.
"They have threatened to shoot the negro if he don't ferry them over toRobertsport," added Deck, who had remained at the window of the shanty."They called him Cuffy; and when they threatened to kill him, he rushedout of the house. I saw him go into the barn or outhouse in the rear.The men lost sight of him when they followed him out, and perhapsthinking he had gone to his boat, they went off in that direction. Letus find the negro."
They went to the shanty, which did duty as a barn; but Cuffy hadconcealed himself, and they could not find him. Deck called him by nameseveral times; and if the ferryman was not extremely stupid, he couldunderstand that neither his voice nor his speech was that of thetroopers.
"Who's dar?" responded the negro, after a long delay.
"Come out here, and we will help you out of your trouble," added Deck.
"Who be you uns?" inquired Cuffy, which proved later to be his realsurname.
"We are your friends."
"Whar dem sogers now?" asked the terrified ferryman.
"They moved off towards the river."
"Den dey done gone to steal my boat!" groaned the negro, coming out ofhis hiding-place with a gun in his hand.
As the wanderers followed him out of the barn, they saw in the darknessthat his head was thickly covered with white wool, and he must havebeen well along in years. He evidently kept his gun and ammunition inthis out-building, for he had a powder-horn and shot-bag suspended fromhis shoulders.
"What are you going to do with that gun, Cuffy?" asked Deck, who wasrather astonished to see him armed.
"I's gwine to shoot one of dose men if dey try to kill me, as dey donesworn dey would," replied the ferryman.
"Better not do anything of that kind, Cuffy," said Deck. "We will standby you, and we can fire shots enough to kill the whole of them."
"Who be you uns, Mars'r?" asked the ferryman, gazing at them, andtrying to make them out in the darkness.
"We are Union soldiers, just escaped from the enemy," answered Deck.
"Bress de Lo'd!" exclaimed the negro. "Dem men was Seceshers, and isgwine to steal my boat. It's all I have to make a little money for decontribution-box, and ef I lose it I'm done ruinged."
"Never mind the boat, Cuffy," continued Deck, as he led the way to thefour horses; for he had seen the Southrons go off on foot, and knewthey had not taken them. "Mount one of these animals, Ben."
He led out one of them, and put himself in the saddle, while thesergeant did the same with another.
"Can you ride a horse, Cuffy?" asked the lieutenant.
"I done ride 'em all my life."
"Get one of the others, then. Can we get to the ferry on horseback?"
"For sartin, Mars'r; some folks goes down to de boat on hosses, and weswim 'em ober de riber," replied Cuffy, as he mounted the animal he hadchosen. "My son comes ober dat way."
"Now lead the way to the ferry. Do they know where you keep your boat?"
"Dunno, Mars'r; but I reckon dey find it."
Cuffy conducted the wanderers nearly to the Harrison road, and thentook a path towards the river, arriving in a few minutes at the head ofthe descent to the flat below.
"Not too far, Cuffy; fall back a little, where the men cannot see you,"said Deck in a low tone.
"But I's gwine to shoot 'em if dey touch my boat," said the owner, hisdetermination indicated in his tones.
"Don't do it, and don't let them see you," added Deck in a low tone,but with energy enough to impress the negro.
"Dey gwine to steal my boat!" groaned Cuffy; and his agony seemed to beintense. "Den whar I git any money for de missions?"
"Never mind your boat, man. I saw it down below; it is not worth much,and I wouldn't give two dollars for it," said Deck somewhatimpatiently.
"I takes folks ober de riber in it, and some days I makes twenty centswid it. Can't affode to lose it, Mars'r," protested Cuffy.
"If you lose it, I will give you another."
"Dat so? Whar's yo' boat?"
"It is down below there, and you will not have to wait a single hourfor it."
"Whar you git dat boat, Mars'r?"
"No matter about that now; I will tell you when we have more time,"replied Deck, as he rode his horse to a tree, followed by both of hiscompanions, and secured him to the sapling, as did the others.
Returning to the bank, they lay down upon the ground, where they couldsee the four troopers without being seen. They had found the negro'sflatboat, and carried it to the stream. This was done, perhaps, half amile above where the wanderers had landed, and the current was not soviolent as it was where the water concentrated all its force againstthe lofty bluff.
The Southrons put the boat into the water after they had tipped itover, and emptied out the leakage or the rain which it contained. Thenthey seated themselves equidistant fore and aft in the rickety craft,and pushed off.
"I knowed dey was gwine to steal my boat," groaned Cuffy again, as theskiff receded from the shore.
"Don't say that again!" said Deck, disgusted with the ferryman. "If youdo, I won't give you any boat for the one you lose!"
"I lub dat boat, Mars'r. Berry ole friend ob mine," pleaded Cuffy.
"Say no more about it; perhaps you will get it again, for those menonly wish to get across the river," added Deck in a milder tone. "Youwould not take them over, and they intend to ferry themselves across."
"I can't ferry dem ober in de night, when de riber is ragin' like aroarin' lion seekin' wem he mout devour. No, sar; ef Mars'r looks longenough, he's see dem men all devoured like as ef de ragin' lion had 'emin his gills," said Cuffy very impressively, as though he was withinhail of a funeral. "Don't b'lebe dey done been converted."
Two of the troopers had paddles, or something that was a cross betweena paddle and an oar; for the wanderers had seen them in the boat in thedarkness. They forced the skiff out into the current, headed directlyfor the opposite shore. They did very well so far; but in a few momentsmore the full strength of the stream struck them, and the flimsy craftwas carried down the stream at a rapid rate. They were farther out thanthe keel-boat had been; and the rushing water, lifted into waves by itsown force, began to tumble about as it would have done in the wilderrapids of Niagara.
None of the four were skilful boatmen, and there seemed to be no one inparticular in the skiff to take the lead. As usually happens on suchoccasions, the two men without paddles were frightened, and stood up,which was the worst possible thing they could do. The two who weremanaging the boat did not agree as to the method of handling it, andeach wanted his own way of doing it. Each of them was sure he could doit, and that the other could not.
The couple with the paddles could not use them; and the skiff whirledas it mounted the waves, and then it heeled over from one side to theother. The two men who were standing up jumped from one side to theother; then one of them lost his balance, and tumbled overboard. Thesecond tried to save him, and one of the two with the paddles went tohis assistance, the result of this, throwing the weight nearly over onone side, capsized the boat, and the next instant all four of them werefloundering in the uneasy tide.
> "De boat done tip over!" exclaimed Cuffy, as though his companions onthe bluff could not see for themselves what had happened.
"Perhaps we can save the men!" said Deck, as he rose from the groundand ran with all his might to the path leading down to the landing ofthe ferry, closely followed by the sergeant.
"Sabe de boat!" shouted Cuffy, trying to keep up with them, though hesoon fell far behind them.
The lieutenant was first to reach the foot of the path, and saw thefour unfortunates whirling through the agitated current, directlytowards the bluff where the keel-boat had been thrown on the flat. Theywere too far out for him to reach them, and he could do nothing. It wasplain that not one of them could swim, and if they had been able to doso at all they could have done nothing in the boiling flow of the rapidcurrent. They were swept down the stream, and being farther out fromthe shore than the other boat had been they were not dashed upon theflat.
Deck and Fronklyn watched them till they disappeared behind the bend,though one was seen to go down before he reached it, and the othersmust soon have followed him. The skiff had gone on ahead of them, andwas the first to pass beyond the view of the observers. The lieutenant,with the hope that he might save the men if they were thrown on theflat in an exhausted condition, had nearly reached the high bluff. Thesergeant had ceased to hurry when he realized that nothing could bedone for the doomed troopers. They had to pay the penalty of their ownfolly.
Fronklyn and Cuffy soon joined Deck, the negro putting all his strengthinto his lamentations for the loss of his boat. He did not seem torealize that four men had just passed into eternity; but Deck had morecharity for him after he said he loved the flimsy craft, and reproachedhim no more.
"Your boat is gone for the present, but you may find it again," saidDeck with an effort to comfort him. "It will be cast ashore by thecurrent, or be drawn into some eddy. When the river gets quiet again,you can go down stream and find it in some place where the logs gatheron the shoal places."
"I dunno, Mars'r; how kin I go down de riber when I done lose my boat?"demanded Cuffy.
"Come with me," said Deck, as he led the way to the rock behind whichthey had left the steamer's tender. "There is a boat you can use tillsome one claims it."
"Glory Hallelujah!" exclaimed the negro, when he saw the keel-boat; andhe was skilled enough to perceive even in the darkness, that it was avastly better one than the skiff he had lost.
"Whar you git dat boat, Mars'r?" asked Cuffy, disturbed by thesuggestion that some one might claim it.
"Can you keep a secret, Cuffy?" asked Deck.
"Kin keep a hund'ed on 'em."
"That's too many for one man to keep," replied the lieutenant, whodecided not to admit, as he had before intended to do, in what mannerthey had escaped from the enemy's camp. "This boat belongs to thesteamboat up by Mill Springs; we have no further use for it, and weshall leave it here. But you haven't lost anything of any valueto-night. We shall want two of the men's horses, as they have nofurther use for them, and you can keep the other two, Cuffy. You cansell them for money enough to make you rich."
"Bress de Lo'd!" cried the ferryman.
"Come along now, and we will go back to your shanty," said Deck, as heled the way to the tree where the horses had been secured. They allmounted, and rode back to the cabin, where the tired trooper and hisofficer went to bed in the barn on some straw they found there.