CHAPTER VIII. THE SHOVEL OR THE RIFLE ?

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 392, 10 August 1889, Page 4

CHAPTER VIII. THE SHOVEL OR THE RIFLE ?

j ' Chuck that corpse into a waggon !' The voice seemed familiar, but I wis so sick, so dizzy, and such burning pains \shob through my head* that I was unable to ! speak. \ i ' Pitch thafc corpse into a waggon, I say, quick!' I The voice seemed very familiar to me. \ I I felt myself thrown into something in a very I unceremonious manner,, and gave a gvoarA

• Hello ! By Jove he's a tough one !' was the next remark, and in fche tones I recognised the voice of Peter Bassett. ' Smoked and poled, and knocked over the head with a belaying pin by a British skipper until he is nearly a mummy, and still alive ! I have half a mind to let him die, for the mean trick he played on me, but I reckon I had better fulfil my orders and get him back into a breathing condition if possible.' With that I felt my jaws forced open, and something trickled down my throat that seemed liquid fire, but apparently gave renewed life and vigour to my limbs, though my head still ached as though it would bur&t. ' What are you doing to me ?' I gasped. 'Giving you brandy, firstly, and carrying you back to the provost marshal at Wilmington, secondly. You are the slipperiest customer I ever tackled.' 1 Where am I ?' I muttered, dreamily. 1 Just being toted on the ambulance through the streets of Wilmington, North Carolina. The British skipper was so cursed mad at your hallooing to the Yanks that he had not more than cast anchor before his boat brought you ashore and turned you i over. He swears that after his hospitality to you, you are the most ungrateful cuss that ever trod his deck. If, from your desperation, he had not supposed we would shoot you a3 soon as we got hold oi you, I reckon he would have tossed you overboard to the sharks.' All this came to me in a dreamy way. The throbbing in my brain was so severe that I did not care very much at that moment what was happening to me. A few minutes after I found myself in the temporary Confederate prison at Wilmington. A surgeon attended me.and said that in a week I would be fit to travel. I did not pay much attention to this, but being carefully attended, and the young j doctor being a man of skill, I in a few days became convalescent enough to think, and with thought came almost despair. [ During my attempted escape from the Confederacy, I had been too excited to give much thought to anything but my movements. I had had no time for reflection. Now I began to think of the sweetheart I had lost, and loved, and for whom I had sacrificed so much. I knew I could expect little mercy from the Confederate Government — that my chances of getting north were now px*actically nothing ; that I would be either forced into the Confederate service to fight against the cause I regarded as right, or drag out the length of the war in some Confederate military prison. All that, however, seemed but little to me, now that I had once more got my thoughts upon JLaura Peyton. I fell to dreaming about her in a desperate, sullen sort of manner. I believe I should have died of despair had I not heard the surgeon say, one day, that as soon as I was well enough for him to certify my ability to travel, I was to be send to Charleston. To Charleston ! 1 was going nearer to the girl from whom I had fled, but whose image had never left my mind, even in the excitement of the extraordinary adventures, uncertainties, and trials through which I had passed. I asked the surgeon if he could tell me from where the orders had come for my removal. ' I believe they were brought here by the detective who caused your arrest.' This of course meant my friend Mr Bassett. If I could but discover under whose instructions he was acting, or by what influence he had been detailed to prevent my escape from the Confederacy, I might be able to form an idea of my future fate. Two days afterward I left Wilmington upon the train in the custody of the detective, and, weak as I was, proceeded to pump him as to the influence that had brought me to the condition I was now in. I had not been robbed of my money when arrested. Bassett, for a detective, was honest ; consequently, by means of my Federal greenbacks, that weie as potent in the Confederacy as they were north of Mason and Dixon's line, I soon had Mr Bassett in a sufficiently communicative mood for him to tell me he reckoned I had some powerful enemy among the high government officials. 'Do you mean Confederate army officials ?' 1 asked. ' Oh, no ; they are too busy fighting ; but it is somebody who has a big pull in Richmond.' ' You don't know his name ?' I inquired. 'No ; and if 1 did I would not tell you ; but he is a big 'un, you can reckon on that.' The only enemy I had of such influence was Mr Amos Pierson. The poorer the Confederacy grew, the richer he had become, and the army contractor had now even greater power than at the beginning of the war. Amos Pierson had had me arrested ! Amos Pierson bad prevented my escape north ! And fool that he was, Amos Pierson was bringing me nearer and nearer with each revolution of the car wheels to the girl I loved ! I felt happy in the thought that in my forlorn condition my luck was ; that after all it was fated I should not leave South Carolina until I had made her my bride. When youth and hope pull the same way, the result is almost a certainty. In the two days that Mr Bassett and I took to reach Charleston, health had again come to inc. My spirits, before broken down, were elastic and buoyant. My body, that had been debilitated and enervated by disappointment and confinement, was rapidly regaining the elasticity and strength that should be in a man of twenty-eight who has not destroyed his vitality by disease, dissipation, nor luxury. I was strong enough to fight the battle of life and love once more as we ran into Charleston. We arrived at this place about April 17th, nearly two weeks after the decisive repulse of the Federal monitors in their attack upon and bombardment of Fort Sumter and the neighbouring batteries. The town, as I looked at it in the brighti soft spring air of that April morning, would have seemed to me the Charleston I had known before the war, had it not been for its hurrying troops, the new batteries in connection with Moultrie to the left, the long lines of earthworks to the right, on the shores of Morris and James islands, ending in Battery Wagner ; between these Fort Sumter, sitting upon its granite rocks in the middle of the passage, the key to the defence of Charleston. I had not much time for reflection, for I was immediately placed in charge of the provost guard by Mr Bassett, and hurried through > the streets to the Charleston gaol in the south-eastern portion of fche city. A few Federal prisoners of war were in the gaol yard at the time, though it was by no means crowded ; as ifc was some months afterward, when a number of Union captives, officers and men, were brought in from Andersonville and other j prisons, in a vain attempt to prevent the i> United States batteries on Morris Island from bombarding the town. To my astonishment I was placed in the i fourth storey of the gaol building — a portion *that was entirely devoted to the incarceraion of. deserters from the Confederate rmy. I protested against this, telling the fficer in charge that I was no deserter, and asking to be confined with the civil prisoners on the ground floor

This, however, was immediately; denied me. * I had to make myself as comfortable as possible where I was placed, fhis I did , by means of some of bhe greenbacks I still had with me. « I asked bhe officer in command of the guard if I could be permitted to communicate with Colonel Bee, of the AdjutantGeneral's department. After some hesitation, he refused to • carry dr send any note, bub informed mo* that he would notify Colonel Bee that I • was in the prison, and in case that officer wanted to see me, he presumed I would know.it. That was all that I wished. Bee was the last man to burn his back upon a friend when in distress or trouble. Agreeoble to my expectations, about an hour after this Stuart Bee passed the guard and came up to sco me. He was looking very well, with the exception of a slight paleness, caused by loss of blood, and carried his left arm in a sling. Noticing my look of anxiety, he gave a slight laugh and said : * Bryant,a little present from your friends, the Yanks. I got it afc Fort Sumter about two weeks ago. If ifc had not been for that, you would hardly have seen me so soon ; but I am at present, fortunately for you, off active duty on account of this. However, I will be shortly in condition to return this compliment.' And he touched his bandaged arm. I expressed my concern at his wound. ' Pooh ! pooh ! It is nothing ! Your case is a greab deal worse. Now,' he said, taking me aside, ' unless you do somethingforyourself, I can do very little for you, Bryant, old fellow. You did not take my advice, and report for service as ordered, but attempted to escape. At all event 3, that is what Bassett reports of your movements. Now that you are here, unless you do as I advise you, the chances are you will have, during this summer, a pretty warm time of it.' ' What do you advise me to do ?' I asked. 'Do what you are commanded. You will join the Confederate service. I believe I have influence enough to get you a staff appointment, as I promised you. Your engineering ability is well known, and can be made use of here in building fortifications. You will probably have no active fighting to do against our enemies the Yanks.' ' And if I refuse to fight " our enemies " the Yanks ?' said I. * Then all I can do is to make your lot as a prisoner as comfortable as possible. We are suffering, ourselves, for want of provisions and many comforts of life ; you, as a prisoner, will scarcely receive as much, and will be, comparatively, badly off. Think of this matter. I will contrive to postpone your examination until to-morrow. Do as I ask you. It is the easiest way out of the scrape, old fellow. Meantime 1 will try to make your quarters more comfortable.' With this he left me. Half an hour afterward I had evidence of Bee's not having forgotten his promise. I was removed to the second floor of the building where the Confederate officers and soldiers accused of military offences were imprisoned. There I had a small room by myself, which had clean linen upon its bed. Soon after a good meal of corn bread, fresh, beef, and coffee made from parched corn, showed me that as far as it was possible in a country that was slowly bub surely losing all the comforts of lite, my welfare had been taken care of by the generous Georgian. The next morning Bee called again, and added to his arguments of the day before the following one, which caused me much mental anguish, though it did not shake the resolution I had made and kept for three years. ' I have been inquiring about 3 our affair, Bryant,' he said, 'and it is rumoured that the reason you remained south was because of your engagement to Judge Peyton's daughter. You stayed here to win her, but her southern sentiments prevented your success, even though she loved you. From all I can find out, [ am inclined to think she loves you still. If you join us, old boy, she'll adore you, and we will soon have a wedding. I'll be your best man — for even in these unhappy days we soldiers steal some time from Mars to devote to Cupid. You might just as well be happy and free as an officer of the Confederate army, and gain the woman you love, as to be a prisoner until the close of the war and lose her. Your examination will take place in about half an hour. Don't make a fool of yourself ! Let love aid common sense !' The time left me for reflection did nofc change my resolution. I had made up my mind how I must act. Duty and honour said one thing. Love might cry out bhe other as loud as it liked ; my resolution was unchanged. My interview with the Confederate pro" vost marshal was very short, but by no means sweet. That officer said: 'Mr Bryant, I know everything in regai'd to your matter. We have a high respect for your ability as an engineer. You can be very useful to us. You were ordered to report at Charleston on the 10th of April. Seven days afterward you were brought here, having attempted to leave the Confederate lines without a passport, and under circumstances that indicated you intended to go north. ' Your resignation to the railroad company shows that you expected bo leave the South." Here he handed me bhe document that hadbeen delivered by Caucus, asl instructed him, to the officials of the South Carolina Railway. ' What have you to say it V ' Nothing !' replied I, * you are entirely correct in your surmise. I did intend to leave bhe Confederacy, because I do nob wish to take service in any capacity against the government of the United States.' 'Very well,' continued he, * you area deserter from our service. If you accept an appointment under the Confederacy, and take the oath of allegiance to our government, you will be put upon active duty in the army. Do you accept bhe same V 'No!' I answered. « I will nob enlist in the Confaderate army.' ' Very well. I shall report the case as it stands to the general in command.' And with that he dismissed me under care of the guard to my prison. A week after this I was summoned before him once more. ' We have received orders from Richmond with regard to you,' he said, { and I am sorry, Mr Bryant, that they are of a kind that will be as unpleasant for me to carry out as they will be for you to endure. You refuse to enter the Confederate army, once more ?' ' Yes !' I replied, * as firmly as I did two days ago, but I am very much obliged to you, colonel. I . see you wish to give me a chance to escape sqme unpleasant position.' ' You are entirely right, Mr Bryant,' he said, ' but since you will nob accept it, my orders are to imprison you here and place you, as a criminal labourer, under military guard upon bhe fortifications of this place.' • A criminal ?' gasped I. c Yes, such are my orders. " Deserters are criminals." Since the planters refuse to let us have all the negroes needed to complete the necessary fortifications, we want shovels as well as rifles to* defend Charleston. You refuse to carry the rifle. You shall carry bhe shovel. - Good{To be Continued.)