Among the Pines Part 30

"He's run away with my horse, Firefly--I thought he would have made for this station. At what time does the next train go up?"

"Wal, it's due half arter 'leven, but 'taint gin'rally 'long till nigh one."

The Colonel was turning to join me at the door, when a well-dressed young man of very unsteady movements, who was filling a gla.s.s at the counter, and staring at him with a sort of dreamy amazement, stammered out, "Moye--run--run a--way, zir! that--k--kant be--by G--. I know--him, zir--he's a--a friend of mine, and--I'm--I'm d----d if he ain't hon--honest."

"About as honest as the Yankees run," replied the Colonel, "he's a d----d thief, sir!"

"Look here--here, zir--don't--don't you--you zay any--thing 'gainst--the Yankees. D----d if--if I aint--one of 'em mezelf--zir," said the fellow staggering toward the Colonel.

"_I_ don't care _what_ you are; you're drunk."

"You lie--you--you d----d 'ris--'ristocrat," was the reply, as the inebriated gentleman aimed a blow, with all his unsteady might, at the Colonel's face.

The South Carolinian stepped quickly aside, and dexterously threw his foot before the other, who--his blow not meeting the expected resistance--was unable to recover himself, and fell headlong to the floor. The planter turned on his heel, and was walking quietly away, when the sharp report of a pistol sounded through the apartment, and a ball tore through the top of his boot, and lodged in the wall within two feet of where I was standing. With a spring, quick and sure as the tiger's, the Colonel was on the drunken man. Wrenching away the weapon, he seized the fellow by the neck-tie, and drawing him up to nearly his full height, dashed him at one throw to the other end of the room. Then raising the revolver he coolly levelled it to fire!

But a dozen strong men were on him. The pistol was out of his hand, and his arms were pinioned in an instant; while cries of "Fair play, sir!"

"He's drunk!" "Don't hit a man when he's down," and other like exclamations, came from all sides.

"Give _me_ fair play, you d----d North Carolina hounds," cried the Colonel, struggling violently to get away, "and I'll fight the whole posse of you."

"One's 'nuff for _you_, ye d----d fire-eatin' 'ristocrat;" said a long, lean, bushy-haired, be-whiskered individual, who was standing near the counter: "ef ye want to fight, _I'll_ 'tend to yer case to onst. Let him go, boys," he continued as he stepped toward the Colonel, and parted the crowd that had gathered around him: "give him the shootin'-iron, and let's see ef he'll take a man thet's sober."

I saw serious trouble was impending, and stepping forward, I said to the last speaker, "My friend, you have no quarrel with this gentleman. He has treated that man only as you would have done."

"P'raps thet's so; but he's a d----d hound of a Secesherner thet's draggin' us all to h--ll; it'll du the country good to git quit of one on 'em."

"Whatever his politics are, he's a gentleman, sir, and has done you no harm--let me beg of you to let him alone."

"Don't beg any thing for me, Mr. K----," growled the Colonel through his barred teeth, "I'll fight the d----d corn-cracker, and his whole race, at once."

"No you won't, my friend. For the sake of those at home you won't;" I said, taking him by the arm, and partly leading, partly forcing him, toward the door.

"And who in h--ll ar you?" asked the corn-cracker, planting himself squarely in my way.

"I'm on the same side of politics with you, Union to the core!" I replied.

"Ye ar! Union! Then give us yer fist," said he, grasping me by the hand; "by ---- it does a feller good to see a man dressed in yer cloes thet haint 'fraid to say he's Union, so close to South Car'lina, tu, as this ar! Come, hev a drink: come boys--all round--let's liquor!"

"Excuse me now, my dear fellow--some other time I'll be glad to join you."

"Jest as ye say, but thar's my fist, enyhow."

He gave me another hearty shake of the hand, and the crowd parting, I made my way with the Colonel out of the room. We were followed by Miles, the landlord, who, when we had reached the front of the entrance-way, said, "I'm right sorry for this row, gentlemen; the boys will hev a time when they gets together."

"Oh, never mind;" said the Colonel, who had recovered his coolness; "but why are all these people here?"

"Thar's a barbacue c.u.min' off to-morrer on the camp-ground, and the house is cram full."

"Is that so?" said the Colonel, then turning to me he added, "Moye has taken the railroad somewhere else; I must get to a telegraph office at once, to head him off. The nearest one is Wilmington. With all these rowdies here, it will not do to leave the horses alone--will you stay and keep an eye on them over to-morrow?"

"Yes, I will, cheerfully."

"Thar's a mighty hard set, round har now, Cunnel," said the landlord; "and the most peaceable get enter sc.r.a.pes ef they hain't no friends.

Hadn't ye better show the gentleman some of your'n, 'fore you go?"

"Yes, yes, I didn't think of that. Who is here?"

"Wal, thar's Cunnel Taylor, Bill Barnes, Sam Heddleson, Jo Shackelford, Andy Jones, Rob Brown, and lots of others."

"Where's Andy Jones?"

"Reckon he's turned in; I'll see."

As the landlord opened a door which led from the hall, the Colonel said to me, "Andy is a Union man; but he'd fight to the death for me."

"Sal!" called out the hotel keeper.

"Yas, ma.s.sa, I'se har," was the answer from a slatternly woman, awfully black in the face, who soon thrust her head from the door-way.

"Is Andy Jones har?" asked Miles.

"Yas, ma.s.sa, he'm turned in up thar on de table."

We followed the landlord into the apartment. It was the dining-room of the hotel, and by the dim light which came from a smoky fire on the hearth, I saw it contained about a hundred people, who, wrapped in blankets, bed-quilts and travelling-shawls, were disposed in all conceivable att.i.tudes, and scattered about on the hard floor and tables, sleeping soundly. The room was a long, low apartment--extending across the entire front of the house--and had a wretched, squalid look. The fire, which was tended by the negro-woman--(she had spread a blanket on the floor, and was keeping a drowsy watch over it for the night)--had been recently replenished with green wood, and was throwing out thick volumes of black smoke, which, mixing with the effluvia from the lungs of a hundred sleepers, made up an atmosphere next to impossible to breathe. Not a window was open, and not an aperture for ventilation could be seen!

Carefully avoiding the arms and legs of the rec.u.mbent chivalry, we picked our way, guided by the negro-girl, to the corner of the room where the Unionist was sleeping. Shaking him briskly by the shoulder, the Colonel called out: "Andy! Andy! wake up!"

"What--what the d----l is the matter?" stammered the sleeper, gradually opening his eyes, and raising himself on one elbow, "Lord bless you, Cunnel, is that you? what in ---- brought _you_ har?"

"Business, Andy. Come, get up, I want to see you, and I can't talk here."

The North Carolinian slowly rose, and throwing his blanket over his shoulders, followed us from the room. When we had reached the open air the Colonel introduced me to his friend, who expressed surprise, and a great deal of pleasure, at meeting a Northern Union man in the Colonel's company.

"Look after our horses, now, Miles; Andy and I want to talk," said the planter to the landlord, with about as little ceremony as he would have shown to a negro.

I thought the white man did not exactly relish the Colonel's manner, but saying, "All right, all right, sir," he took himself away.

The night was raw and cold, but as all the rooms of the hotel were occupied, either by sleepers or carousers, we had no other alternative than to hold our conference in the open air. Near the railway-track a light-wood fire was blazing, and, obeying the promptings of the frosty atmosphere, we made our way to it. Lying on the ground around it, divested of all clothing except a pair of linsey trousers and a flannel shirt, and with their naked feet close to its blaze--roasting at one extremity, and freezing at the other--were several blacks, the switch-tenders and woodmen of the Station--fast asleep. How human beings could sleep in such circ.u.mstances seemed a marvel, but further observation convinced me that the Southern negro has a natural apt.i.tude for that exercise, and will, indeed, bear more exposure than any other living thing. Nature in giving him such powers of endurance, appears to have specially fitted him for the life of hardship and privation to which he is born.

The fire-light enabled me to scan the appearance of my new acquaintance.

He was rather above the medium height, squarely and somewhat stoutly built, and had an easy and self-possessed, though rough and unpolished manner. His face, or so much of it as was visible from underneath a thick ma.s.s of reddish gray hair, denoted a firm, decided character; but there was a manly, open, honest expression about it that gained one's confidence in a moment. He wore a slouched hat and a suit of the ordinary "sheep's-grey," cut in the "sack" fashion, and hanging loosely about him. He seemed a man who had made his own way in the world, and I subsequently learned that appearances did not belie him. The son of a "poor white" man, with scarcely the first rudiments of book-education, he had, by sterling worth, natural ability, and great force of character, acc.u.mulated a handsome property, and acquired a leading position in his district. Though on "the wrong side of politics," his personal popularity was so great that for several successive years he had been elected to represent the county in the state legislature. The Colonel, though opposed to him in politics--and party feeling at the South runs so high that political opponents are seldom personal friends--had, in the early part of his career, aided him by his endors.e.m.e.nts; and Andy had not forgotten the service. It was easy to see that while two men could not be more unlike in character and appearance than my host and the North Carolinian, they were warm and intimate friends.

"So, Moye has been raising h--ll gin'rally, Colonel," said my new acquaintance after a time. "I'm not surprised. I never did b'lieve in Yankee n.i.g.g.e.r-drivers--sumhow it's agin natur' for a Northern man to go Southern principles quite so strong as Moye did."

"Which route do you think he has taken?" asked the Colonel.

"Wal, I reckon arter he tuk to the run, he made fur the mountings. He know'd you'd head him on the travelled routes; so he's put, I think, fur the Missussippe, where he'll sell the horse and make North."

"I'll follow him," said the Colonel, "to the ends of the earth. If it costs me five thousand dollars, I'll see him hung."