Si Klegg, Book 3

by John McElroy

  CHAPTER IV. A SPY'S EXPERIENCES

  MR. ROSENBAUM TELLS THE BOYS MORE OF HIS ADVENTURES.

  MR. ROSENBAUM became a frequent visitor to the Hoosier's Rest,and generally greatly interested Si and Shorty with his stories ofadventure.

  "How did you happen to come into the Army of the Cumberland?" asked Si."I'd a-thought you'd staid where you knowed the country and the people."

  "That was just the trouble," replied Rosenbaum. "I got to know them verywell, but they got to know me a confounded sight better. When I was inthe clothing pizniss in St. Louis I tried to have everybody know me. Iadvertised. I wanted to be a great big sunflower that everybody noticed.But when I got to be a spy I wanted to be a modest little violet thathid under the leaves, unt nobody saw. Then every man what knew me becomea danger, unt it got so that I shuddered every time that I see a limbrunning out from a tree, for I didn't know how soon I might be hung fromit. I had some awful narrow escapes, I tell you.

  "But what decided me to leave the country unt skip over de MississippiRiver was something that happened down in the Boston Mountains justbefore the battle of Pea Ridge. I was down there watching Van Dorn untBen McCullough for General Curtis, unt{54} was getting along all right.I was still playing the old racket about buying up Mexican silverdollars to buy ammunition. One night I was sitting at a campfire withtwo or three others, when a crowd of Texans come up. They was just drunkenough to be devilish, unt had a rope with a noose on the end, whichI noticed first thing. I had begun to keep a sharp lookout for suchthings. My flesh creeped when I saw them. I tried to think what hadstirred them up all at once, but couldn't for my life recollect, foreverything had been going on all right for several days. The man withthe rope--a big, ugly brute, with red hair unt one eye--says:

  "'You're a Jew, ain't you?'

  "'Yes,' says I; 'I was born that way.'

  "'Well,' says he, 'we're going to hang you right off.' Unt he put thenoose around my neck unt began trying to throw the other end over alimb."

  CLOSE CALL FOR ROSENBAUM. 54]

  "'What for?' I yelled, trying to pull the rope off my neck. 'I ain'tdone nothing.'

  "'Hain't eh?' said the man with one eye. 'You hook-nosed Jews crucifiedour Savior.'

  "'Why, you red-headed fool,' said I, catching hold of the rope with bothhands, 'that happened more as 1,800 years ago. Let me go.'

  "'I don't care if it did,' said the one-eyed man, getting the end of therope over the limb, 'we didn't hear about it till the Chaplain told usthis morning, unt then the boys said we'd kill every Jew we come across.Catch hold of the end here, Bowers.'

  "The other fellers around me laughed at the Texans so that they finallyagreed to let me go if I'd promise not to do it again, holler for JeffDavis, unt treat all around. It was a fool thing, but it scared meworse'n anything else, unt I resolved to get out of there unt go wherethe people read their Bibles unt the newspapers."

  "How did you manage to keep Gen. Curtis posted as to the number ofrebels in front of him?" asked Si. "You couldn't always be running backand forth from one army to the other."

  "O, that was easy enough. You see. General{56} Curtis was advancing, untthe rebels falling back most of the time. There was cabins every littleways along the road. All these have great big fireplaces, built ofsmooth rocks, which they pick up out of the creek unt wherever they canfind them.

  "I'd go into these houses unt talk with the people unt play with thechildren. I'd sit by the fire unt pick up a dead coal unt mark on thesesmooth rocks. Sometimes I'd draw horses unt wagons unt men to amuse thechildren. Sometimes I'd talk to the old folks about how long they'd beenin the country, how many bears unt deers the man had killed, how far itwas to the next place, how the roads run, unt so on, unt I'd make markson the jam of the fireplace to help me understand.

  "The next day our scouts would come in unt see the marks unt understandthem just as well as if I'd wrote them a letter. I fixed it all up withthem before I left camp. I kin draw very well with a piece of charcoal.I'd make pictures of men what would make the children unt old folks opentheir eyes. Our scouts would understand which one meant Ben McCullough,which one Van Dorn, which one Pap Price, unt so on. Other marks wouldshow which way each one was going unt how many men he hat with him. Therebels never dropt on to it, but they came so close to it once or twicethat my hair stood on end."

  "That curly mop of yours'd have a time standing on end," venturedShorty. "I should think it'd twist your neck off tryin' to."

  "Well, something gave me a queer feeling about the throat one day whenI saw a rebel Colonel stop{57} unt look very hard at a long letter whichI'd wrote this way on a rock.

  "'Who done that?' he asked.

  "'This man here,' says the old woman, 'He done it while he was gassingwith the old man unt fooling with the children. Lot o' pesky nonsense,marking up de walls dat a-way.'

  "'Looks like very systematic nonsense,' said the Colonel very stern untsour. 'There may be something in it. Did you do this?' said he, turningto me.

  "'Yes, sir,' said I, 'I have a bad habit of marking when I'm talking. Ialways done it, even when I was a child. My mother used to often slap mefor spoiling the walls, but she could never break me of it.'

  "'Humph,' said he, not at all satisfied with my story, unt looking atthe scratches harder than ever. 'Who are you, unt what are you doinghere?'

  "I told him my story about buying Mexican silver dollars, unt showed hima lot of the dollars I'd bought.

  "'Your story ain't reasonable,' said he. 'You haven't done biznissenough to pay you for all the time you've spent around the army. I'llput you under guard till I can look into your case.'

  "He called to the Sergeant of the Guard, unt ordered him to take chargeof me. The Sergeant was that same dirty loafer. Bob Smiles, that I hadthe trouble with by Wilson's Creek. He kicked me unt pounded me, unt putme on my horse, with my hands tied behind me, unt my feet tied under thehorse's belly. I was almost dead by night, when we reached Headquarters.They gave me something to{58} eat, unt I laid down on the floor of thecabin, wishing I was Pontius Pilate, so that I could crucify every manin the Southern Confedrisy, especially Bob Smiles. An hour or two laterI heard Bob Smiles swearing again."

  THE SPY IN CUSTODY. 58]

  "'Make out the names of all the prisoners I have,' he was saying, 'withwhere they belong unt the charges against them. I can't. Do they takeme for a counter-jumping clerk? I didn't come into the army to be awhite-faced bookkeeper, I sprained{59} my thumb the other day, unt Ican't write even a Httle bit. What am I to do?'

  "That was all moonshine about his spraining his thumb. He vas ignorantas a jackass. If he had 40 thumbs he couldn't write even his own nameso's anybody could read it.

  "'I don't believe these's a man in a mile of here that can make outsuch a list,' he went on. They're all a set of hominy-eating blockheads.Perhaps that hook-nosed Jew might. He's the man. I'll make him do it, orbreak his swindling head.'

  "He come in, kicked me, unt made me get up, unt then took me out unt setme down at a table, where he had paper, pen unt ink, unt ordered me totake down the names of the prisoners as he brought them up. He'd lookover my shoulder as I wrote, as if he was reading what I set down, butI knowed that he couldn't make out a letter. I was tempted to write allsorts of things about him, but I didn't, for I was in enough troublealready. When I come to my own name, he said:

  "'Make de charge a spy, a thief, unt a Dutch traitor to the SouthernConfedrisy.'

  "I just wrote: 'Levi Rosenbaum, Memphis, Tenn. Merchant. No charge.'

  "He scowled very wisely at it, unt pretended to read it, unt said:

  "'It's lucky for you that you wrote it just as I told you. I'd 'a' brokeevery bone in your body if you hadn't.'

  "I'd just got done when an officer come down from Headquarters for it.He looked it over unt said:

  "'Who made this out?'

  "'Why, I made it out,' said Bob Smiles, bold as brass.

  "'But who wrote it?" said de officer.

  "'O, I
sprained my thumb, so I couldn't write very well, unt I made aJew prisoner copy it,' said Bob Smiles.

  "'It's the best writing I have seen,' said the officer. 'I want the manwhat wrote it to go with me to Headquarters at once. I have some copyingthere to be done at once, unt not one of them corn-crackers that I haveup there can write anything fit to read. Bring that man out here unt Iwill take him with me."

  "Bob Smiles hated to let me go, but he couldn't help himself, unt I wentwith the officer. I was so tired I could hardly move a step, unt I feltI could not write a word. But I seemed to see a chance at Headquarters,unt I determined to make every effort to do something. They gave me astiff horn of whisky unt set me to work. They wanted me to make out untcopy a consolidated report of the army.

  "I almost forgot I was tired when I found out what they wanted, for Isaw a chance to get something of great value. They'd been trying to makeup a report from all sorts of scraps unt sheets of paper sent in fromthe different Headquarters, unt they had spoiled a half-dozen big sheetsof paper after they'd got them partly done. If I do say it myself, I canwrite better and faster and figure quicker than most any man you eversaw. Those rebels thought they had got hold of a wonder--a{61} lightningcalculator unt lightning penman together.

  "As fast as I could copy one paper, unt it would prove to be all right,I would fold it up unt stick it into a big yaller envelope. I alsofolded up the spoiled reports, unt stuck them in the envelope, sayingthat I wanted to get rid of them--put them where seeing them wouldn'tbother me. I carefully slipped the envelope under the edge of a pileof papers near the edge of the table. I had another big yaller envelopethat looked just like it lying in the middle of the table, into which Istuck papers that didn't amount to nothing. I was very slick about it,unt didn't let them see that I had two envelopes.

  "It was past midnight when I got the consolidated report made out, untthe rebels was tickled to death with it. They'd never seen anything sowell done before. They wanted a copy made to keep, unt I said I'dmake one, though I was nearly dead for sleep. I really wasn't, for theexcitement made me forget all about being tired.

  "I was determined, before I slept, to have that yellow envelope, withall those papers, in General Curtis's hands, though he was 40 milesaway. How in the world I was going to do it I could not think, but Iwas going to do it, if I died a trying. The first thing was to get thatenvelope off the table into my clothes; the next, to get out of thatcabin, away from Bob Smiles unt his guards, through the rebel lines, untover the mountains to General Curtis's camp. It was a dark, windy night,unt things were in confusion about the camp--just the kind of a timewhen{62} anybody might kill a Jew pedler, unt no questions would beasked.

  "I had got the last copy finished, unt the officers was going over it.They had their heads together, not 18 inches from me, across the table.I had my fingers on the envelope, but I didn't dare slip it out,though my fingers itched. I was in hopes that they'd turn around, or dosomething that'd give me a chance.

  "Suddenly Bob Smiles opened the door wide, unt walked in, with adispatch in his hand. The wind swept in, blew the candles out, unt sentde papers flying about the room. Some went into the fire. The officersyelled unt swore at him, unt he shut the door, but I had the envelope inmy breast-pocket.

  "Then to get away. How in the name of Moses unt the ten commandments wasI to do that?

  "One of the officers said to Bob Smiles: 'Take this man away unt takegood care of him until to-morrow. We'll want him again. Give him a goodbed, unt plenty to eat, unt treat him well. We'll need him to-morrow.'

  "'Come on, you pork-hating Jew,' said Bob Smiles crabbedly. 'I'll giveyou a mess of spare-ribs unt corn-dodgers for supper.'

  "'You'll do nothing of the kind,' said the officer. 'I told you to treathim well, unt if you don't treat him well, I'll see about it. Give him abed in that house where de orderlies stay.'

  "Bob Smiles grumbled unt swore at me, unt we vent out, but there wasnothing to do but to obey orders. He give me a good place, unt somecoffee unt bread, unt I lay down pretending to go to sleep.{63}

  "I snored away like a good feller, unt presently I heard some one comein. I looked a little out the corner of my eye, unt see by the light ofthe fire that Bob Smiles was sneaking back. He watched me for a minute,unt then put his hand on me.

  "I was scared as I never was, for I thought he vas after my preciousyaller envelope. But I thought of my bowie knife, which I always carriedout of sight in my bosom, unt resolved dat I vould stick it in hisheart, if he tried to take away my papers. But I never moved. He feltover me until he come to de pocket where I had the silver dollars, untthen slipped his fingers in, unt pulled them out one by one, just asgently as if he vas smoothing the hair of a cat. I let him take themall, without moving a muscle. I was glad to haf him take them. I knowedthat he was playing poker somewhere, unt had run out of cash, unt wouldtake my money unt go back to his game.

  "As soon as I heard his footsteps disappear in the distance, I got upunt sneaked down to where the Headquarters horses were tied. I must geta fresh one, because my own vas played nearly out. He would never do tocarry me over the rough roads I must ride before morning. But when Igot there I saw a guard pacing up unt down in front of them. I had notcounted on this, unt for a minit my heart stood still. There were noother horses anywheres around.

  "I hesitated, looked up at Headquarters, unt saw de lights stillburning, unt made up my mind at once to risk everything on one desperatechance. I remembered that I had put in my envelope some{64} blank sheetsof paper, with Headquarters, Army of the Frontier,' unt a rebel flag ondem. There was a big fire burning ofer to the right mit no one near. Iwent up in de shadow of a tree, where I could see by the firelight, tookout one of the sheets of paper unt wrote on it an order to have a horsesaddled for me at once. Then I slipped back so that it would look as ifI was coming straight from Headquarters, unt walked up to the guard unthanded him the order. He couldn't read a word, but he recognized theheading on the paper, unt I told him the rest. He thought there wasnothing for him to do but obey.

  "While he was getting the horse I wrote out, by the fire, a pass formyself through the guards. I was in a hurry, you bet, unt it was alldone mighty quick, unt I was on the horse's back unt started. I had lostall direction, but I knowed that I had to go generally to the northeastto get to General Curtis. But I got confused again, unt found I wasriding around unt around the camp without getting out at all. I evencome up again near the big fire, just where I wrote out the pass.

  "Just then what should I hear but Bob Smiles's voice. He had lost allhis money--all my money--at poker, unt was damning the fellers he hadbeen playing with as cheats. He was not in a temper to meet, unt Iknowed he would see me if I went by the big fire; but I was desperate,unt I stuck the spurs into my horse unt he shot ahead. I heard BobSmiles yell:

  "'There is that Jew. Where is he going? Halt, there! Stop him!'{65}

  "I knowed that if I stopped now I would be hung sure. The only safetywas to go as fast as I could. I dashed away, where, I didn't know.Directly a guard halted me, but I showed him my pass, unt he let me goon. While he was looking at it I strained my ears, unt could hear horsesgalloping my way. I knowed it was Bob Smiles after me. My horse was agood one, unt I determined to get on the main road unt go as fast as Icould. I could see by the campfires that I was now getting away fromthe army, unt I began to hope that I was going north. I kept my horserunning.

  "Pretty soon the pickets halted me, but I didn't stop to answer them. Ijust bolted ahead. The chances of their shooting me wasn't as dreadfulas of Bob Smiles catching me. They fired at me, but I galloped rightthrough them, unt through a rain of bullets that they sent after me. Ifelt better then, for I was confident I was out in the open country, butI kept my horse on the run. It seemed to me that I went a hundred miles.

  "Just as the day was breaking in the east, I heard a voice, with astrong German accent call out the brush:

  "'Halt! Who comes there?'

  ROSENBAUM RUNS INTO SIGEL'S PICKETS. 6
6]

  "I was so glad that I almost fainted, for I knowed that I'd reachedGeneral Sigel's pickets. I couldn't get my lips to answer.

  "There came a lot of shots, unt one of them struck my horse in the head,unt he fell in the road, throwing me over his head. The pickets run outunt picked me up. The German language sounded the sweetest I ever heardit.{66}

  "As soon as I could make myself talk, I answered them in German, unttold them who I was. Then they couldn't do enough for me. They helpedme back to where they could get an ambulance, in which they sent me toHeadquarters, for I was top weak to ride or walk a step. I handed myyellow envelope to General Curtis, got a dram of whisky to keep me upwhile I answered his questions, unt then went to{67} sleep, unt sleptthrough the whole battle of Pea Ridge.

  "After the battle, General Curtis wanted to know how much he ought topay me, but I told him that all I wanted was to serve the country, unt Iwas already paid many times over, by helping him win a victory.

  "But I concluded that there was too much Bob Smiles in that country forme, unt I had better leave for some parts where I was not likely to meethim. So I crossed the Mississippi River, unt joined General Rosecrans'sHeadquarters."