Christmas Eve on Lonesome | Page 9

opportunity to show yo'
profound knowledge of the ticktacks of war. You may now be guilty of
disobedience of ordahs, and I will not have you court-martialled for the
same. In other words, if, after a survey of the situation, you think

best--why," the captain's voice dropped to a hoarse whisper, "pull that
flag down, lieutenant Boggs, pull her down."

III
It was an hour by sun now. Lieutenant Boggs and his devoted band of
ten were making their way slowly and watchfully up the mighty
chasm--the lieutenant with his hand on his sword and his head bare,
and bowed in thought. The Kentuckians were on their way--at that
moment they might be riding full speed toward the mouth of Pigeon,
where floated the flag. They might gobble him and his command up
when they emerged from the Gap. Suppose they caught him up that tree.
His command might escape, but he would be up there, saving them the
trouble of stringing him up. All they would have to do would be to send
up after him a man with a rope, and let him drop. That was enough.
Lieutenant Boggs called a halt and explained the real purpose of the
expedition.
"We will wait here till dark," he said, "so them Kanetuckians can't
ketch us, whilst we are climbing that tree."
And so they waited opposite Bee Rock, which was making ready to
blossom with purple rhododendrons. And the reserve back in the Gap,
under Lieutenant Skaggs, waited. Waited, too, the Army of the
Callahan at the mouth of the Gap, and waited restlessly Captain Wells
at the door of his tent, and Flitter Bill on the stoop of his store--waited
everybody but Tallow Dick, who, in the general confusion, was
slipping through the rhododendrons along the bank of Roaring Fork,
until he could climb the mountain-side and slip through the Gap high
over the army's head.
What could have happened?
When dusk was falling, Captain Wells dispatched a messenger to
Lieutenant Skaggs and his reserve, and got an answer; Lieutenant
Skaggs feared that Boggs had been captured without the firing of a

single shot--but the flag was floating still. An hour later, Lieutenant
Skaggs sent another message--he could not see the flag. Captain Wells
answered, stoutly:
"Hold yo' own."
And so, as darkness fell, the Army of the Callahan waited in the strain
of mortal expectancy as one man; and Flitter Bill waited, with his horse
standing saddled in the barn, ready for swift flight. And, as darkness
fell, Tallow Dick was cautiously picking his way alongside the steep
wall of the Gap toward freedom, and picking it with stealthy caution,
foot by foot; for up there, to this day, big loose rocks mount halfway to
the jagged points of the black cliffs, and a careless step would have
detached one and sent an avalanche of rumbling stones down to betray
him. A single shot rang suddenly out far up through the Gap, and the
startled negro sprang forward, slipped, and, with a low, frightened oath,
lay still. Another shot followed, and another. Then a hoarse murmur
rose, loudened into thunder, and ended in a frightful--boom! One yell
rang from the army's throat:
"The Kentuckians! The Kentuckians! The wild, long-haired, terrible
Kentuckians!"
Captain Wells sprang into the air.
"My God, they've got a cannon!"
Then there was a martial chorus--the crack of rifle, the hoarse cough of
horse-pistol, the roar of old muskets.
"Bing! Bang! Boom! Bing--bing! Bang--bang! Boom--boom!
Bing--bang--boom!"
Lieutenant Skaggs and his reserves heard the beat of running feet down
the Gap.
"They've gobbled Boggs," he said, and the reserve rushed after him as
he fled. The army heard the beat of their coming feet.

"They've gobbled Skaggs," the army said.
Then was there bedlam as the army fled--a crashing through bushes--a
splashing into the river, the rumble of mule wagons, yells of terror,
swift flying shapes through the pale moonlight. Flitter Bill heard the
din as he stood by his barn door.
"They've gobbled the army," said Flitter Bill, and he, too, fled like a
shadow down the valley.
Nature never explodes such wild and senseless energy as when she lets
loose a mob in a panic. With the army, it was each man for himself and
devil take the hindmost; and the flight of the army was like a flight
from the very devil himself. Lieutenant Boggs, whose feet were the
swiftest in the hills, outstripped his devoted band. Lieutenant Skaggs,
being fat and slow, fell far behind his reserve, and dropped exhausted
on a rock for a moment to get his breath. As he rose, panting, to resume
flight, a figure bounded out of the darkness behind him, and he
gathered it in silently and went with it to the ground, where both fought
silently