CHAPTER XXIX
_A Puzzling Situation_
No sooner was the action over and the wounded men attended to than thelieutenant again talked with the revenue officer. That person was morehalting and irresolute than ever. He had hidden, in a crouching positionbehind the barrier during the fight, and Jack, seeing him thus screened,had said to him:
"Perhaps you now begin to understand why we needed our protective work;"but the man made no answer. The lieutenant said to him after the melee:
"Now that I have two of my own men and three of the mountaineersseverely wounded, I cannot march down the mountain. I shall stay hereand answer any duty call you may make upon me. But I must have food formy men and for your prisoners. Are you going to provide it or are younot?"
The man who was not only irresolute but an arrant coward as well,hesitated. He pleaded for "time to think."
"But while you are thinking," answered the soldier, "we'll all starve.Are you ready to send one of your men down the mountain under escort orare you not? Yes or no, and I'll act accordingly."
"Well, you see, this fuss will bring all the moonshiners in themountains down upon us," answered the man, "and really, Lieutenant, Idon't think it would be prudent just now, to weaken your force bydetaching any of your men. We might all be butchered here at anymoment."
The military officer was exasperated almost beyond endurance by themanifest cowardice and obstinacy of the revenue agent. He was on thepoint of breaking out into denunciation, but he restrained himself andcalled to a sentinel instead. When the sentinel came he said to him:
"Tell Sergeant Malby to report to me," and when the sergeant touched hishat and stood "at attention," the lieutenant said:
"Go at once and make out a requisition for one month's supplies for allthe troops and all the prisoners, and for pack mules enough to bring thestuff up the mountain. Order Corporal Jenkins to report to me with adetail of four men, equipped for active work, immediately."
Then borrowing writing materials from the boys, he wrote a hurried noteto his commandant below, relating the events that had occurred andsetting forth the circumstances in which he was placed. By the time thatthis was done, the sergeant returned with the requisition ready forsignature, and the corporal reported with his squad. With a few hurriedinstructions to the corporal, the lieutenant sent him down the mountain,specially charging him to hurry both going and coming. "You see we'vegot all these prisoners to feed--seven of them, not counting thewounded--as well as ourselves. We'll all be starving in anothertwenty-four hours. So make all haste."
Then the lieutenant sought out the boys, who had gone to work at theirchopping--all of them except the Doctor, who was still busy over thewounded men,--for Ed was now well enough to do a little work each day,under orders to avoid severe strains and heavy lifting.
When the officer sought out Jack and asked him for a conference, Jackcalled the other boys about him, explaining:
"Our camp is sort of a republic, Lieutenant, in which all have an equalvoice, while each does the thing that he can do better than anybody elsecan. So with your permission I will call all the boys together for ourtalk."
The lieutenant assented and all sat down on the logs that were lyingabout.
"We're in a rather awkward position," said the military man. "Thatrevenue agent asked our commandant for some soldiers to protect him inraiding a still up here. He gave us the impression that it would takeone day to come up here and do the work, and one day for our return. SoI was ordered to take half a company, with three days' cooked rations,and accompany the revenue officers. They knew just where your camp was,and they thought they knew that it was the still they wanted.
"Now the irresolute--Well never mind that. The revenue agent insistsupon staying in the mountains for an indefinite time, and now that twoof my men and three of our prisoners are severely wounded and in thehands of your good young Doctor, I am not reluctant to stay. But we musthave food, and that sublimated idiot has provided none and is afraideven to send after any. So I have myself sent a squad down the mountainwith a requisition. They will return just as quickly as possible, but Idon't see how it will be possible for them to get back under two, ormore--probably three days. So I want to ask you to lend us someprovisions, which I will return the moment the caravan gets here."
"But we have no provisions!" said Jack, in consternation. "Our totalsupply consists of less than two bags of meal and perhaps half a dozensquirrels and rabbits. That wouldn't go far among so many."
"I'll tell you what," broke in Tom. "If the lieutenant will lend me twomen to help carry, I'll go foraging and see what I can bring in in theway of game."
Jack explained to the military man that Tom had been from the first thecamp's reliance for meat supplies, and that incidentally he had securedall the meal that was then in camp.
"Excellent!" exclaimed the lieutenant. "We have more bread than anythingelse, and we needn't borrow any of your meal. But if your brother--bythe way, it was you who stood by me in the fight out there this morning,wasn't it? Are you much hurt?"
"Oh, no," answered Tom. "One of those moonshiners thought I ought towear earrings, and so he pierced my left ear with a bullet, that's all,"said Tom, whose ear the Doctor had carefully disinfected and bandaged.
"But why aren't you at West Point?" again asked the officer. "I neversaw a cooler hand or a boy that the army so clearly needed. Why aren'tyou at West Point?"
"Because I can't get an appointment," said Tom.
"Why can't you get an appointment?"
"Because I have no political influence. You see my father, while helived, was very active in politics, and he belonged to a party just theopposite of the one our present Congressman belongs to."
"Would you like to go?" asked the lieutenant.
"Very much, indeed," answered Tom. "I want just the sort of educationthey give there."
"Could you stand the entrance examinations--say a year hence?"
"Yes. I could stand them now. I went all over that ground when I firsttried to get an appointment."
"Well now," broke in Jack, "this isn't getting meat. Tom, go huntingimmediately, and keep on going hunting till the famine in this camp isover. I haven't a doubt the lieutenant will lend you the men you want tohelp carry game."
"Certainly!" answered the lieutenant, beckoning to a sentinel to come tohim.
"Tell Sergeant Malby to send me two strong men instantly."
Tom took two guns with him, requiring one of the soldiers to carry therifle, while he carried the shot gun, double loaded, for big or littlegame. It was now about noon, and the hunting party did not return tillafter dark. When they did they brought with them as the spoil of ouryoung Nimrod's guns, a half grown bear, a deer weighing perhaps ahundred and fifty pounds, three wild turkeys and a big string of haresand squirrels. Besides these Tom was laboriously dragging by a string abig wild boar.
"That boar's a disputed bird," he said. "This soldier, Johnson, and Ifired at him at the same instant. He set out to rip Johnson open withhis tusks, like a vest with no buttons on it, and Johnson fired toprotect himself. At the same moment I fired a charge of buckshot intothe beast. Johnson's bullet struck him in the neck, just about where Ifondly imagine the jugular vein or something else of that sort to be,while my nine buckshot striking him just behind the left fore leg, wentthrough him about where his heart ought to be if it's in the rightplace. Anyhow the animal gave up the ghost in an astonishing hurry, andpossibly the Doctor might find out, by a post mortem examination, whichshot killed him. But in my humble opinion the time necessary for thatcan be better spent in preparing the gentleman for the table. I movethat we roast him whole and invite the soldiers to dine with us! He'sbig enough to go round."
It did not take long to carry that motion or to begin carrying it intoeffect. The lieutenant ordered the company cook to assist Ed inpreparing the wild boar and roasting him. Ed carefully saved the"giblets" for future use, a proceeding which gave the company cook atotally new economic suggestion in t
he use of animals killed for food.Then the two required the other soldiers to build a great fireout-of-doors, and to erect a pole frame work near it, from which theyhung the boar to roast. Ed gave the cook still another good suggestionby thrusting a dripping pan under the hog and catching all he could ofthe fat that fell from the animal.
"What do you do that for?" asked the company cook.
"For two reasons," answered Ed. "First, because I want all this fat tocook with and to use as butter hereafter. You've no idea how far it goeswhen people are on short rations. Secondly, because if all this fat fellupon these glowing coals it would blaze up and our hog would be scorchedand burned. You are a company cook and I never was anything of the sort.But I honestly believe I could teach you some things about cooking."
"Of course you could," said the soldier. "And perhaps I could teach yousome also. I could show you how to bake bread on a barrel head, or evenon a ramrod, only we don't have ramrods since these new-fangledbreech-loading guns came into use."
Two or three hours later, at ten o'clock, the big porker was roasted "toa turn," and Jack, recognizing the necessity of maintaining militarydistinctions in all that related to association in military life,invited the lieutenant to take the night dinner with him and hiscompanions inside the house, leaving the soldiers to dine out of doors,in accordance with their custom. So Jack asked Ed to cut off a ham andsome other choice parts of the wild boar and send them into the hut.There the boys and the lieutenant dined together, with the three revenueofficers for additional guests.
The lieutenant had no very kindly feelings for the chief revenueofficer, because he had discovered him to be a coward, and a brave mannever likes to touch elbows with a coward, at dinner or any where else.On the other hand the chief revenue officer had no very kindly feelingsfor the lieutenant, because he knew that the lieutenant had found himout for the coward and incapable that he was, and it is not in humannature for any man to feel kindly toward another who has found him outto that extent.
Nevertheless the dinner passed off pleasantly enough until thelieutenant, at its end, asked of the revenue agent:
"Are you going to raid any stills to-night?"
"No!" angrily answered the officer. "Why do you keep on asking me thatquestion?"
"Only that I may make my dispositions accordingly," calmly answered thelieutenant. "You forget that I am here in an entirely subordinatecapacity. I am under no orders to raid stills. I am here only to supportyou in any raids you may make. You represent the civil arm, I themilitary, and the military arm is always subordinate to the civil. It isnot for me to suggest that you might successfully raid half a dozenstills to-night. It is my duty simply to offer my services and those ofmy men in aid of any plans you may have formed. And, as it is my duty toconsult the comfort of my men, so far as that is possible, I naturallyask whether you want them on marching duty to-night or whether I mayorder them to make themselves as comfortable as they can in bivouac. AsI now understand that you do not contemplate any active operationsto-night, I will make my dispositions accordingly. Sentinel!"
This last was a summons to the soldier who always stands guard justoutside the door of any house or tent in which a commanding officer maybe. The sentinel entered immediately and saluted.
"Call the corporal of the guard," commanded the lieutenant, "and bidhim report to me for instructions."
In half a minute the corporal came. The only instructions he receivedwere these:
"Bid the sergeant report to me here." Thus in military life iseverything done "decently and in order." The sentinel could not havesummoned the sergeant without quitting his post; but he could summon thecorporal by a simple guard call, and the corporal could go to thesergeant and summon him to the lieutenant's presence. When he appearedand deferentially saluted, the lieutenant said to him:
"We shall remain where we are till further orders. Dispose the men inthe best way you can to make them comfortable and let them buildcamp-fires. Throw out six pickets up the mountain on the south, onebelow here on the north, one on the east and one on the west. Send themen on the south as far up the mountain as where the enemy wasencountered this morning. Then charge the sentries who are guarding ourprisoners to be on the alert and serve as camp guards as well. They areto listen for shots from any of the pickets and report to me as soon asone is heard from any direction. I shall sleep under the bluff, near thespring. The watchword is 'alert;' the countersign 'attention.'"
"But, lieutenant," said Jack, when the sergeant had taken his leave,"why will you not accept our hospitality? Why will you not sleep here inour house? We have five wounded men here, it is true, but there is onespare bunk and you are more than welcome to it."
"I am very grateful, I am sure," said the lieutenant, "but it is therule of my life that whenever I am in command and my men have to sleepin the open, I also sleep in the open. I have lived up to that rule evenin a blizzard on the plains. Besides, this--well, this revenueofficer--has done just enough to provoke the moonshiners and theirfriends, and not half enough to intimidate them. That is why I orderedour pickets thrown so far out to-night. There is a half sunken roadrunning across the ridge up there. They had it for a breastwork thismorning. I mean to have it next time. But what I was going to say isthis: A man sleeping in a house sleeps soundly; a man sleeping in theopen sleeps very lightly. As it is my purpose to visit all my pickets atleast three times to-night, I want to sleep very lightly; so with allthanks for your courteous hospitality, I will sleep out under the bluffto-night, and now I must say good night."