The Big Gun (Dusty Fog's Civil War Book 3) (14 page)

Having taken the last point into
consideration, Harry realized that flight would avail them little
or nothing. The horses she and Eric were riding had been pushed
hard since leaving Perryville. Those of the two soldiers looked
fresh and in the peak of physical condition. From the easy, relaxed
way the men sat their saddles, they were probably far better
riders, too. Even if they were not, she suspected that they were
sufficiently skilled with their rifles to render any attempts at
escape dangerous, if not fatal.

The pair
’s appearances—apart from the
sergeant’s menacing face—were another point Harry noticed. They
looked fairly neat and tidy, which suggested that they were not
deserters. If they had been, the girl would have been very worried.
Deserters had built up an ugly reputation during the War years.
Maybe the sergeant looked as mean as all hell, but there was an
amiable, perky, almost disarmingly friendly air about the
white-haired corporal.

Lastly, the girl noticed that the soldiers
seemed surprised and puzzled by seeing her. Certainly they gave no
hint of having been searching for her and Eric.

‘
Wait!’ Harry decided. ‘They may not be looking for us and
we might learn where Poppa is.’

With that, the girl brought her horse to a
stop. Eric reined in slightly behind her There was, he conceded, no
hope of dashing by the soldiers or turning around to run away.
Already the men had reached the valley bottom and were approaching,
spreading apart, along it.

‘
Howdy, you-all,’ greeted the corporal, halting his
wolf-gray
bayo-lobo
gelding about ten yards ahead of the couple. ‘Real pleasant
afternoon.’

At the
corporal
’s
side, the dark-featured sergeant said nothing. Instead he studied
Harry with cold, wary eyes.

For her part, Harry stiffened
slightly. The old timer
’s accent was that of a Texan. While the Lone Star
State was part of the Confederacy some of its people had elected to
fight for the North. So the discovery did not raise any hope in her
breast.

‘
Howdy
fellers,’ the girl replied disturbed by the sergeant’s continued
scrutiny but forcing herself to adopt a husky and—she
hoped—masculine timbre in her voice. ‘It sure is.’

In addition to trying to sound
like a boy, Harry hoped that the combination of the broad-brimmed
hat
—under
which she had tucked all her hair—wolf skin jacket, boy’s shirt,
trousers and riding boots would prevent her real sex from being
discovered. However, in case the soldiers meant mischief, she
slipped her right hand casually into the jacket’s pocket and closed
it around the butt of the Colt Pocket Pistol.

‘
Mind
if I asks where you’re going, young feller?’ the corporal went on
and the girl’s relief at apparently having succeeded in her attempt
at deception was lessened by the sergeant’s continued, silent
examination. Not that his face offered her any clue to his
feelings. There was an almost apologetic note in the old timer’s
voice as he continued, ‘It ain’t none of my never-mind, I’ll grant
you, but when you gets to my age, you’re entitled to act all
nosey.’

‘
Eric
and me,’ Harry replied, continuing to use her ‘male’ voice, ‘we’re
looking to enlist and fight the Rebs. Reckon your outfit’d take us
on?’

‘
I
dunno about that, young
feller.
’
answered the corporal, laying a little emphasis on the last
word. ‘But I’d admire to see you take your hand out of the pocket.
When you gets to my age, you’re kind of nervous about folks’s
finger guns when they’re talking to you.’

‘
When
you gets to your age, I’d say your eyes start to go bad on you,
Vern,’ the sergeant put in and, although harsh and somewhat
guttural, he too spoke with a pronounced Texas drawl. ‘That “young
feller” is a gal.’

‘
I
knowed
that
all along, ye danged whipper-snapper!’ the corporal yelped,
bristling with indignation yet maintaining his vigilance. ‘Only I
thought’s how the young lady was trying to make us think otherwise,
us being Texas gentlemen—leastways,
one
of us be—we should reckon we’d been
fooled.’

‘
Likely,’ grunted the sergeant and his cold eyes seemed to
be boring into Harry’s head. ‘’Cepting he talks a heap too much,
ma’am, Vern had him a right smart point. I’d admire to see
an
empty
hand come out of that pocket right now.’

‘
All
right,’ the girl sighed, yielding to the inevitable and complying
with what had clearly been a demand rather than a request.
Realizing the deception had failed, she reverted to her normal
manner of speaking.

‘
That’s a heap more neighborly,’ commented the corporal. ‘So
you’re looking to enlist in the Yankee Army, huh?’

‘
You
two did,’ Harry countered, although she was starting to have doubts
on that point.

‘
Well
now, I’ll tell you, ma’am,’ the old timer answered, contriving to
look and sound as if he was thoroughly ashamed of what he was about
to confess. ‘We ain’t
exactly
in the
Yankee
Army. Fact being, there’s some’s might say we was
out-’n’-out “imposters”.’

‘
Who
are you?’ Harry asked, guessing the man had meant ‘impostors’. ‘And
what are you doing out here?’

‘
Names’re Vern Hassle, which’s me,’ the corporal introduced,
‘’n’ Kiowa Cotton. Ranks’re right, but we belongs to Company C, of
the Texas Light Cavalry, ma’am. Like I said, there’s some might
call us “imposters”. And, from the way you’re dressed and’ve been
talking, I’d be just a leetle mite inclined to say we’re not the
only ones.’

‘
That’s true,’ Harry conceded, but she did not know whether
to be pleased or distressed by meeting two members of the
Confederate States’ Army.

Although
nothing showed on Sergeant
Kiowa Cotton’s face, he was very interested. From the first moment
he and Corporal Hassle had discovered that Harry was a girl, before
they had shown themselves, they had been puzzled by her presence.
Wanting to learn more about her—and being confident that there were
no Yankee soldiers in the vicinity—they had decided to announce
their true identity and see what response that brought. Kiowa had
guessed that they had made the right decision when he heard her
speaking with the accent of a well-bred Southron.

‘
I’m
not nosey, like some, ma’am,’ Kiowa remarked, favoring his ancient
companion with a cold glare. ‘But Cap’n Fog, him being our
Company’s commanding officer, he’s going to want to know who you
are and why you’re fixing to enlist in the Yankee Army.’

‘
We’re
riding scout for Company C, ma’am,’ Hassle continued. ‘And, like
Kiowa said, Cap’n Fog’s going to want to talk to you. So, happen
you’ve no objections, you’d best come along and meet
him.’

‘
I’ve
no objections,’ Harry smiled, sensing that she could trust the two
soldiers and would be safe in their company. There was, however,
something that she felt must be settled. ‘Eric’s a free man. Poppa
set his folks free long before the War.’

‘
We’ll
mind it, ma’am,’ Kiowa promised, knowing that such had frequently
been done even by people who were now supporting the Confederate
cause. ‘Happen you reckon you can find the way. Vern, being so
damned old an’ all, you’d
best take them. I’ll keep looking for that blasted
big gun.’

‘
Big
gun!’ Harry repeated, throwing a glance at Eric, then trying to
compose her features into an expression of merely casual inquiry.
‘Is that what you’re looking for?’

‘
Yes’m,’ Hassle confirmed, watching her with what might have
been no more than ordinary interest. ‘That’s just what we’re after.
You wouldn’t’ve seen the son-of-a-bit— consarned and blasted thing,
now would you?’

‘
No,’
Harry was forced to admit, in what she hoped would be tones of mere
curiosity.

She felt that it was advisable
to refrain from mentioning her connection with the big gun until
after she had met the soldiers
’ commanding officer. After all, she had only
their unsupported words regarding their true status.

‘
I
didn’t reckon we’d be
that
lucky,’ Hassle sighed, glancing at his companion.
‘Don’t you go letting them blasted Yankee catch you,
Kiowa.’

‘
I’ll
do what I can to stop ’em,’ the sergeant promised and, nodding to
the girl, set his big roan gelding into motion. ‘See you later,
Vern. Unless you up and die of old age afore I get
back.’

‘
When
you get’s old’s me, it could happen,’ the corporal pointed out to
Kiowa’s departing back. Then he turned his attention to the girl.
‘We’ll sort of keep to the low ground and sneak about kind of
careful, if that be all right with you, ma’am. I know I’m dressed
like a Yankee, but seeing you two along could make any of ’em’s
happened to see us mighty suspicious.’

‘
We’re
in your hands,’ Harry confirmed, having taken a liking to the old
timer and concluded that he was anything but as decrepit as he
liked to suggest.

Taking the precautions
suggested by Hassle, the girl and the Negro accompanied him. They
traversed almost two mile
s without seeing anything to alarm them. Little
was said as they rode along. The girl was wondering what the
corporal had made of finding her travelling alone except for Eric,
but his leathery old face had not given her a hint as to his
thoughts. There was another item which insisted on passing through
her head. She had only Hassle’s word that he
did not belong to the United
States’ Army. Perhaps he had been lying and was merely escorting
her into captivity.

If Harry had known it, Hassle was more
concerned at that time with keeping a watch for Yankee patrols. Who
she was and what she might be doing could, in his considered
opinion, be settled more satisfactorily and safely after they had
rejoined Company C.

‘
Won’t
be long now, ma’am,’ Hassle commented at last, having given the
surrounding terrain an even more thorough and careful scrutiny, as
they approached a stretch of woodland. ‘The Company’s hid away in
there. You see, we’re not exactly in Confederate territory and
Yankees ain’t noted for Southron hospitality. So Cap’n Fog allowed
we shouldn’t let ’em know we’re around.’

‘
This
Captain Fog sounds a right smart man,’ Harry remarked with a smile,
for she had noticed the sound of respect which had accompanied
every mention of the officer’s name made by the two soldiers. Her
situation would be greatly helped if she had fallen in with a
capable officer, one who could understand the full significance of
her position.

‘
He’s
all of that, ma’am,’ the corporal confirmed.

On reaching the first of the
trees, Harry saw an alert, watchful sentry behind the trunk of an
oak. He wore the uniform of the Confederate
States
’
Cavalry and his kepi carried the badge which she identified as
being of the Texas Light Cavalry. Giving a cheery wave as they rode
by, he turned his attention once more to gazing at the land before
him.

Going deeper into the woodland, the girl
came upon hobbled horses, watched over by more members of the Texas
Light Cavalry. However, the main body of Company C appeared to be
sleeping. They lay, rolled in their blankets and using their
saddles for pillows, in whatever cover or shelter they had
found.

‘
Some
folks’ve all the danged luck,’ Hassle complained and, disregarding
the fact that he had volunteered for the assignment, went on,
‘Sending a poor, wored-out old cuss like me to do the dirty work
while they lies sleeping.’

‘
It’s
a sin and shame!’ Harry declared indignantly, her compassion
aroused by what appeared to be a genuine, heart-felt
protestation.

‘
Anyways, none of us got any sleep last night and young ’n’s
need it more ’n’ old timers like me,’ Hassle grinned and heard the
girl give an annoyed snort as she realized she had been tricked.
‘There’s Cap’n Fog.’

Turning in the direction indicated by her
escort, Harry saw a small, blond officer throwing aside his
blankets and rising. For a moment, she wondered if the corporal had
made a mistake, or if she was looking the wrong way. She had
expected Captain Fog to be a much older, more impressive man. Yet
there did not appear to be another officer present. However, not
far away, a tall, gangling, mournful-faced sergeant major had also
woken and was rising.

‘
Don’t
tell me you’ve found the big gun already, Vern?’ Captain Dusty Fog
inquired, throwing a quick look at the girl and the Negro but
dealing with what he regarded as the more important matter
first.