I do not believe that any five boys in the world ever felt more astonished or elated over a stroke of good fortune than we did at the unexpected success that had attended our chase after Luke Redman.
The men in the settlement had spent a week in searching for this same robber and trying to recover General Mason’s money, and their efforts had amounted to nothing; but we had accomplished the work, and we had not been more than three hours in doing it, either.
The eight thousand dollars were safe, the thief was bound and helpless before us, and Black Bess was once more in my undisputed possession. I thought we had good reason to rejoice.
“I say, Mr. Redman!” exclaimed Herbert, who was the first to recover his breath, “you 147wouldn’t mind telling us how you managed to steal this money, and to get away with it without being discovered, would you?”
“I didn’t steal it!” growled Luke, in reply. “Mebbe you won’t b’lieve it,” he added, seeing that we smiled derisively, “but I can prove it.”
“Well, you stole Black Bess, didn’t you?”
“If I did, you’ve got her ag’in, an’ had oughter be satisfied.”
“Perhaps you know who set fire to our cotton-gin?” I observed.
“P’raps I do, an’ p’raps I don’t. But I’ll tell you one thing: You had better turn me loose, or it’ll be wuss for you!”
“Tell us another thing while you are about it,” said Mark. “How did you get out of that tree the other day? Did you jump into the water and swim over the falls, as I did?”
“I reckon that’s my own business, ain’t it?”
It was plain that Luke was not in a communicative mood. Some rogues, when they find themselves brought up with a round turn, become penitent, and are willing to relate all the circumstances attending the commission of 148their crime, but our prisoner did not belong to that class. He was sullen and morose, and had no doubt made up his mind that he would say nothing that could be used as evidence against him.
We were a great deal disappointed at this; for there were one or two incidents connected with the loss of the money and the disappearance of Black Bess that we should like to have had explained, but as Mr. Redman was not in the humor to gratify our curiosity, we were obliged to leave the unraveling of the mysteries to time and future events.
At this moment it seemed to strike the robber that he had been a prisoner long enough, and, having in some measure recovered from his fatigue, he began to test the strength of the straps with which he was confined.
He was a powerful man, and his struggles to free himself were furious and determined indeed. He rolled about on the ground, gnashing his teeth with rage, his face reddening with his exertions, and the muscles on his arms standing out like cords of steel.
149He threatened to take a most terrible vengeance on us when he succeeded in liberating himself; and as we stood watching his contortions, we trembled with the fear that some of the straps would slip or prove too weak to hold him. But, although we had done our work in great haste, we had done it well, and Luke was finally obliged to submit to his fate.
“Now, I’ll just tell you what’s the matter!” exclaimed Sandy, who had stood with his hat off and his sleeves pushed up, ready to pounce upon the prisoner the instant he saw the least probability of his freeing himself from his bonds; “give it up, don’t you? Them straps are purty strong, I reckon—hain’t they? You’re fast, an’ thar’s no use of wastin’ time in fussin’ about it.”
“What are you goin’ to do with me?” asked Luke Redman, in savage tones.
“We’re going to take you to the settlement, and put you where you’ll never have another chance to steal money and horses,” I answered.
“I’ll bet you somethin’ big that you don’t take me to the settlement. I’ve got friends 150clost by who won’t let harm come to me. If you expect to see daylight ag’in, you had better turn me loose. I’ll pay the hul lot on you fur this, mind that.”
We began to prick up our ears when we heard this, and to see the necessity of taking our prisoner to a place of safety with as little delay as possible. We did not really believe that he had companions in the neighborhood who would attempt to rescue him, but we did not like to run any risks.
The Swamp Dragoons were always prowling about in the woods, and turning up most unexpectedly, and how did we know but that some of them had witnessed all that had taken place at Dead Man’s Elbow? If that was the case, they would never permit Luke to be taken to the settlement if they could help it; and as they were a desperate lot of fellows, we did not care to come in contact with them.
I had another reason for wishing to start for home immediately. The cold, which had been intense in the morning, was increasing in severity, and some portions of my wet clothing were frozen stiff; and now that the excitement 151attending the chase and capture of the robber had somewhat abated, I found that I was chilled through, and so benumbed that I could scarcely stand.
More than that, the storm which had been threatening us for the last three days had set in, and the rain and sleet began to rattle through the leafless branches above our heads. It promised to be a dismal night, and we were twenty miles from home.
These same thoughts, or others very nearly akin to them, must have been passing through the minds of the rest of our fellows, for they looked anxiously at one another and at the lowering sky, and Herbert said:
“We’ve wasted too much time already. The sooner we start for home the better. Friend Redman, we are not playing with you, and if you want to save yourself some rough handling, you will be careful what you do. Let’s untie his feet, fellows, and put him on Joe’s extra horse.”
Our prisoner evidently thought it best to heed Herbert’s advice, for when the horse which I had ridden during the pursuit was 152brought up, and we lifted him from the ground, and placed him on the animal’s back, he did not offer the least resistance. He uttered terrible threats, however, but we paid no more attention to them than we did to the whistling of the wind.
As soon as we had gone through all his pockets, in search of the pistol with which he had threatened us (by the way, he didn’t have any thing about him more dangerous than a pocket-knife), we sprang into our saddles and set out for home; Duke heading the cavalcade, Mark following at his heels, leading the horse on which our captive was mounted, Herbert coming next with the valise, and Sandy and I bringing up the rear, keeping a close watch over Luke Redman, and holding ourselves in readiness to resist his first attempt at escape.
In this way we passed the five miles that lay between Dead Man’s Elbow and the bayou on the banks of which we had stopped to eat our dinner.
As we rode through the camp, Sandy dismounted long enough to secure possession of the squirrels he had shot a few hours before, 153and which still lay at the root of the tree where he had left them.
“Mebbe we won’t see home to-night,” said he, “so I’ll take these along; ’cause I know by experience that it is monstrous lonesome campin’ in the woods without nothing to eat.”
Luke Redman started when he heard this remark, and an expression of great satisfaction settled on his scowling face. I noticed, too, that after we left the bayou he began to cast stealthy glances around him, as if he were looking for some one; and once I saw his gaze fastened earnestly upon a cluster of bushes which grew on a neighboring ridge, running parallel with the one we were following.
I scrutinized the thicket closely, and would have been willing to declare that I saw a coonskin cap, under which were a pair of eyes regarding us intently. But the cap vanished at the very moment I caught sight of it, and believing that I had been mistaken, I said nothing about it to my companions.
In less than half an hour after we left our old camp, night began to settle down upon us, and before we had accomplished another mile, 154it was so dark that we could scarcely distinguish one another’s features.
The storm had all the while been increasing in fury, and now the rain and sleet came down in torrents, and it was not many minutes before we were all drenched to the skin. The cold and darkness grew more intense, and, to add to the unpleasantness of our situation, we reached the end of the ridge at last, and from that point our way lay across a bottom ten miles wide, which was covered with mud and ice, thickets of cane and blackberry briers, and studded with cypress knees, which rendered our progress slow and laborious.
“Duke,” said Sandy, at length—and I could tell by the tones of his voice that he was shaking with the cold—“strike up a whistle. It is so dark we can’t see to foller you.”
“I am too nearly frozen to whistle,” replied Duke. “It is all I can do to talk. That isn’t the worst of it, either. I am afraid we are lost.”
Now, getting lost was something that did not trouble us in the least, for a surer guide than Duke Hampton was not to be found in the 155country. His “bump of locality” was largely developed, and any place he had once visited he could find again on the darkest of nights. He sometimes laughingly said that he possessed owl’s eyes, and I have thought it was so, for it made not the slightest difference, as far as his traveling was concerned, whether it was high noon or midnight.
He once more urged his unwilling horse forward, and for two long, dreary hours we stumbled about in the darkness, the rain and sleet beating furiously in our faces, and every bone in our bodies aching with the cold.
During all this time no one spoke except Luke Redman, who abused and threatened us steadily for an hour, scarcely stopping to take breath; then, suddenly changing his tone, he entreated us to untie his hands, and, finding that we paid no attention to him, he solemnly declared that he was freezing to death, and relapsed into silence.
I began to think I was freezing also, and when I could no longer endure the cold, I proposed to our fellows to abandon the idea of riding to the settlement that night, and 156strike for our camp on Black Bayou—the one our negroes had built on the day we went into the woods to watch our turkey-trap.
There we would find warm, dry quarters, and materials with which to kindle a fire; and as Sandy had been thoughtful enough to bring the squirrels he had shot, we need not go supperless to bed.
This plan was hailed with delight by the others, and Duke at once turned his horse, and started off in a direction exactly at right angles with the one he had been pursuing.
If we had known all that was to happen to us before we saw the sun rise again, our camp on Black Bayou would have been the very last place in the world we should have thought of visiting.
How Duke knew what course to follow, was a mystery to all of us. I do not suppose he could have explained it himself, for the night was so dark that he could not see five feet in advance of him, and consequently he could not have had the assistance of any familiar landmarks.
He seemed to know ............