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He was sitting on a piece of ice beside the trail. "Hop along, sister Mary," Shorty gaily greeted him. "Keep movin'. If you sit there you'll freeze stiff." The man made no response, and they stopped to investigate. "Stiff as a poker," was Shorty's verdict. "If you tumbled him over he'd break."
About 60,000 Union soldiers and 45,000 rebels struggled through the deluges of rain, the torrential streams and fathomless mud those June days, when it seemed that every water-gate of the heavens was wide open as it had never been before. The calamity that Si and Shorty had foreseen came about.
"Lay down, Yanks!" called out Shorty cheerily, dropping into the weeds. "Grab a root!" To the right of them they could see the rest of Co. Q going through similar performances. Si and Shorty pushed the weeds aside, crawled cautiously to the fence, and looked through. There was a road on the other side of the fence, and beyond it a grove of large beech trees extending to the bank of the river.
"Shorty, if you double your fist up at me," roared the irate Si, "I'll knock your head off in a holy minute." The boys of Co. Q were thunderstruck. It seemed as if their world was toppling when two such partners should disagree. They gathered around in voiceless sorrow and wonderment and watched, developments.
"Do you think there's any rebels around here?" said Si, the caution which experience had taught him making a temporary reassertion of itself. "Naw," said Shorty, contemtpuously, "there ain't no rebel this side o' the Duck River, unless some straggler, who'd run if he saw us. If we ketch sight o' one we'll take him into camp, jest to gratify you. But I ain't lookin' for none.
Si produced a piece of board, which had been painted white, and evidently done duty as part of the door of a house in Murfreesboro', looked at it critically, and then selected a piece of charcoal from the fire, and sat down with an air of studious purpose. "What are you up to now, Si?" asked Shorty curiously.
Half an hour later, the hill was climbed and the dogs unharnessed at the cabin door, the sixty stampeders grimly attendant. "Good-night, fellows," Smoke called, as he closed the door. In five minutes the candle was put out, but before half an hour had passed Smoke and Shorty emerged softly, and without lights began harnessing the dogs. "Hello, Smoke!"
He hastened forward to the fence, grabbed up Si's gun and handed it to him and then climbed into the other saddle. The rebels were now falling back rapidly before Co. Q's fire. A small part detached itself and started down a side road. Si and Shorty gave a yell, and galloped toward them, in full sight of Co. Q. who raised a cheer. The rebels spurred their horses, but Si and Shorty gained on them.
I'm the real, bitter, stinging goods, and no scrub of a mountaineer can put anything over on me without getting it back compound. Now, you go ahead and set pace for half an hour. Do your worst, and when you're all in I'll go ahead and give you half an hour of the real worst." "Huh!" Shorty sneered genially. "An' him not dry behind the ears yet.
It's the stampin'-ground of trouble." Smoke made no reply, and for half an hour they toiled on in silence a silence that was again broken by Shorty. "She's a-workin'," he grumbled. "She's sure a-workin', an' I'll tell you if you're minded to hear an' listen." "Go on," Smoke answered.
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