Christmas Eve on Lonesome | Page 9

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 in the dust until they rolled into the moonlight and each looked the other in the face.
"That you, Jim Skaggs?"
"That you, Tom Boggs?"
Then the two lieutenants rose swiftly, but a third shape bounded into the road--a gigantic figure--Black Tom! With a startled yell they gathered him in--one by the waist, the other about the neck, and, for a moment, the terrible Kentuckian--it could be none other--swung the two clear of the ground, but the doughty lieutenants hung to him. Boggs trying to get his knife and Skaggs his pistol, and all went down in a heap.
"I surrender--I surrender!" It was the giant who spoke, and at the sound of his voice both men ceased to struggle, and, strange to say, no one of the three laughed.
"Lieutenant Boggs," said Captain Wells, thickly, "take yo' thumb out o' my mouth. Lieutenant Skaggs, leggo my leg an' stop bitin' me."
"Sh--sh--sh--" said all three.
The faint swish of bushes as Lieutenant Boggs's ten men scuttled into the brush behind them--the distant beat of the army's feet getting fainter ahead of them,