F. J. Stimson

“ I gave my hand to Miss Jeanie and helped her up. Each black negro worked with a splendid mule; seventeen or eighteen hands high perhaps, dragging a curious sort of drag-spade, which the mule knew how to catch in the gravel, turn out full, drag the load evenly along, and then tip it out adroitly at the precise spot, a foot in front of the last dump; the negro hardly doing more than standing by to see the mule kept working; not, of course, working himself. Thus each man-laborer became an overseer, if only to a mule. ”

“ I looked at her; and went out upon the platform just in time to see the engine dash up, and a strange figure jump out of the cab.
"It's all right," he cried; "drop your iron. I've got a message from King Kelly." I observed the man had a blackened face and uncouth costume; he did not look like an engineer, though a negro fireman was on the smoking engine. The saturnine Raoul tore open the envelope, read the letter twice, and handed it to me with the nearest approach to a chuckle I had heard him give. ”

“ We rattled by, and on its rear platform, in the moonlight, I saw a tall frock-coated figure standing. I had hardly recognized it to be Kirk Bruce when Raoul threw up his rifle, and I saw a flash of fire from the platform of the side-tracked Mr. Bruce. The reports were quite simultaneous; but neither was hurt, for I saw Bruce leaning his head out of the shadow of the platform to look at us, while Raoul remarked, as we went back into the car, now jumping wildly on the down grade:
"He knew I was yere, and I knew he was thar. You'd hardly see worse rifle-practice in the North." ”

“ Man can be brutal at such times.
Mrs. Pennoyer came back and tried to move me. Who could, after Jeanie Bruce had failed? Moreover, I thought she thought she would have done like me.
I fear Jeanie cried most of that journey home. But I, as is the way of men, was happy. ”

“ Nothing a contractor dislikes so much as irregular labor."
"But it shows they have some good in them to be so devoted," said Miss Jeanie.
"We don't all of us have emotions stronger than money-getting," added I.
"I don't know about emotions," said Tim. "There's forty of their wives and eighteen hundred niggers, and every Saturday night they has a fight an a batch on 'em gets killed, an' I know it's terrible expensive on labor. Most as bad as moonshine."
"Have you got King Kelly, yet?" said Coe, in an undertone.
"Hush!" hissed Captain Healy, dramatically. ”

“ He may shoot before he stops the engine, lucky I've got a rifle. You go in and prepare the ladies. ... This is my quar'l," he added, impatiently, at my demur. "Besides you ain't got only that girl's popgun. Reckon you'll have a chance later, likely."
So I went in, and told the girls; and we woke up Mrs. Judge Pennoyer, who, I am bound to say, took it more calmly than might have been expected from a lady of her years. May was tearful; but Jeanie's eyes were very bright. All this time the rattle of the engine was growing louder down the grade.
"Haven't you kept that revolver I gave you?" ”

“ I think we had better keep on the Virginia side."
"How odd," said Jeanie, "to have a town divided against itself!"
"It is a great convenience," answered Mr. Raoul. "When my father and Colonel Carington had their dispute about the last constitutional convention, both were candidates for the governorship, my father in Tennessee and the colonel in Virginia. The constitution of Tennessee disqualified a man who fought a duel from holding office. So my father stood on the Virginia side of the street and the colonel in Tennessee. The distance between the sidewalks is just about right, as you see. ”

“ As we talked we had returned to the centre of the camp. There we found a picturesque scene. McBride and his men were seated in the glade of the live-oak forest, no longer disguised; around them stood or lounged some forty bearded mountaineers provided with long rifles. General McBride was sitting with King Kelly himself, amicably drinking his own "pine-top;" as we approached he rose to meet us and handed a telegram to Raoul, who cast his eyes over it and gave it to me, with the remark that it might assist my decision. It read:
"If cousins Miss Bruce are with you, detain them and escorts. ”

“ Just then I noticed a file of peculiarly idle negroes sauntering down the "right of way;" they had passed us once or twice before, and appeared to have no occupation. "See anythin' peculiar about them niggers?"
"They are very lazy," said Coe.
"They look like minstrels," said Miss May.
"By gracious!" cried Healy, slapping his thigh, "if she hasn't hit it!" We looked at him inquiringly; he dropped his voice to a stage whisper. "Come up here," and he started, dragging Mrs. Judge Pennoyer by one hand up the new gravel slope beside the line. Raoul followed, with Miss May ”

“ The only double mule team as ever goes through yer, is the month's pay, an hit's jest due this Saturday."
"Who is 'they'?" said I.
"Moonshiners. But they're all on em up to it. Hope you've got your shooters?"
By this time we had started, and were driving through the twilight of the forest over a trail hardly perceptible where the wood grew scantier.
"Not I," said I, "I never carry them."
"Nor I," said Coe, "I left 'em on the bureau at home."
"All right," said Tim, gloomily. "But most fellers like a shot of their own afore they turn their toes up." ”

“ Jeanie and I wandered down by the brook side before dinner, and afterward Raoul, Healy, Coe, and I sallied forth to "see the fun." We were let into the chief commissary's hut, the front of which, above a strong wooden bar, was open; and before it a great crowd of negroes, singing and dancing, and a hundred others, in a long queue, waiting for their pay. "You kin lie down on the floor ef they git to shootin'," said General McBride, whom we found there smoking placidly in a cane-seated chair. "Those revolvers won't carry through the boards." ”

“ The General and Kelly walked off in the direction of the wagon. The ladies followed. Raoul, Healy, Coe, and I followed the ladies. The undisguised United States marshals followed us, and the moonshiners followed the marshals. It was a large wagon with high wooden sides, bound with iron, and was used for bringing supplies to camp. A team of six of the biggest mules—some fully eighteen hands high—was already being harnessed to it.
"Reckon you can fix the ladies safely," said Kelly. "We are good shots on the mountain," he added, significantly, to McBride. ”

“ Jeanie blushed.
3. The United States marshals from New Orleans had kept rather quiet throughout the journey; but as we approached the city of Bagdad their spirits rose. The momentary interest caused by Mr. Raoul's and Cousin Kirk's shots had subsided when they learned there was nothing national or professional in the affair. Amateur shooting was always poor. But May Bruce was considered with more attention; and when their "special" of a "shirt-tail" engine and a caboose backed up to the Bagdad platform, they all requested to be presented to her. ”

“ And last week they killed the United States mail and Jim, the storekeeper of Section Fourteen."
I considered this to be a story for tenderfeet, so I mildly hinted that "they" would not attack so large a party. ”