A STARTLING REPORT.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 15, Issue 2011, 6 December 1870, Page 3

A STARTLING REPORT.

. [From "All teoTear-Bound*- foiwA.agutt.]; •>■;_"- - A siNGUtAB adventure befel .me -\fW n !S\l the late American war. \ I was witlyxe* : neral Blenerhassefc during the early, part of his triumphant march through .Georgia, but falling sick at Penaquoday, and being: unable any longer to sit on my horse; I and a young German lieutenant; named Eabenstein, who had been wounded infhe leg, were left behind : about forty-miles north of Savannah, at a small ArnV bouse belonging to au old Beb farmer.---" ~> >;: We both felt down-hearted ehoughj/yon. may imagine, as we heard tlurlast buglecall of our regiment die away in- the distance, and felt that there we jrere lying behind in the backwater, while the. sturdier rowers were pulling in for the winning " Vas ist dis for a voonder ?" said Ha* benstein, tapping his pipe viciously oirthe sill of the farm-house window. VJeotz hoondred tausend and a sandbag orer, ve shan't see old Jeft make his last bow now. I could knock out my brains with iny crutcb to think of it. Sapperment, everybody has the luck but me. KoTOrmmd— there's one good thing — . : They'll hang up Jeff on a sour aj»ple-trea when they go marching home. .. . . —No one to talk to here but the old man and his frow, and that sulky nigger.; I shall go in and hurry up the tea-fixings. ' So saying, he began to pound afc the bolted door by no means in the sweetest of tempers, for his leg pained him a good deal at times. "If Id only got my -nistol," 'said he, "I be darned if I wouldn't blow in this verdammter door." _.'--.• : # " The old man's coming, I hear him shuffling," I said, listening. .."Hare a little patience, Eabenstein ; the old couple are deaf, you know. It is our interest to keep.them civil. Doucement, mon gargon, doucement." : . "You are too civil to them by- half, cap," said my young lieutenant ; " I don't like these darned Eebs, and I wouldn't trust them an inch from mein nose." . (Then, he turned and looked regretfully up the road.) " Ja, and there go our brave Ha* saren immer forwarts. Aeb, mein Gbtt 1" " I hear him shuffling," I said, listening at the keyhole. "Shuffle, shuffle— that's what all th© darned Eebs do. Here, open thou the door, old fool !" and he shouted loud enough, to wake the Seven Sleepers* " Why, I declare I hear a horse's hoofs>'* I said, listening again. " That's some Eeb trick-^get your pistol out, cap. They've got some one hidden there." From the very beginning we had both entertained a strange suspicion of the place. At that moment the door of the farmhouse flew open, and a rough-looking man in a workman's dress came out, leading a horse. He had saddle-bags very full of something, he carried a pistol in hi? belt, and a horn was slung round him. He scowled at us as he lenped on his horse. " What have you in those bags?" said Eabensteiu. " What's that to you, Dutchman P" said the man, looking down at bis pistols in what I almost thought was a menacing manner. "Who chose you president of these regions ?" And as he said this he struck spurs in his horse, blew his horn loudly, and dashed down tho road leading to Penaquoddy. " A Eeb, a verdammter Eeb, as sure as a pig likes peaches ; but what could I do ?" said Eabenstein. " I couldn't stop him without my six-shooter ; ach fur meine tapf're Husaren !" Just then the farmer, a low-looking, sour old man, with a week's beard on his chin, earno past us, and shielding his eyes from the sun, stood staring down the road. " Who are you looking forP" I said: " are you expecting anybody P" The old man's eyes twinkled with sly malice as he turned slowly round and replied, " Looking to see if my friends are coming." "Darn him, he means the Eebs ; we shall be cut into mincemeat," said Eabenstein. " Now, look here, old skunk," he said, turning sharp on the astonished old man, and laying his rough brown hand on his shoulder, "we are officers of the United States army, and wo insist on knowing who that man was who has just on a big bony horse trotted off so schnell ?" " That man with the saddle-bags ?" "Yes." " That smart fellow with the brown coat and blue-peaked eap ?" ■"Yes, old coon." " What he that blew the horn P" "Yes." " What the fellow who dame out just before me P" " Yes, yes, old Dickeikopf ; come, no more sliding about — answer." "That? Why that's the Penaquoddy postman, said the old man, exploding in a cackling vexatious laugh ; " Wai ! I reckon you are the queerest Dutchman I ever saw in these parts." . - ; " What, and carries pistols P" " Yes, 'bliged ; the roads are so full now with these all-fired thieves, who* pretend to belong to your army, and do nothing but rob, and steal, and molest honest people— hang them !" " Look here, old cuss," said Eabenstein, " you keep a civil tongue in your old shaky head, or I'll send for a guard of meine tapfre Husaren, meine wilde jager, and have an eighteen-pound shot tied to your leg. Put a handle to my name, if you. please; my name is Lieutenant Eabenstein." I somehow caught the infection from Eabenstoin, and began to regard the old couple with extreme suspicion. That night when we went to bed (we slept in the same room) Eabenstein broke out again. All at once ho limped out of bed. " Storm and wetter," said he. " Cap, I can't sleep here, nohow, No, nohow I can't fix it. There's some mischief up ; that old coon is too silient. Look at these verdammter cans (here he kicked a row of cans at one end of the room) who knows what they are, perhaps mtro-glycerine, or picrate of potash, or some verdammter thing to burn and blow us to the moou. Then look at this big cupboard here by my bed, of course locked by the Seven Sleepers of Cordova, who knows what it is— suppose it leads to some devil's trap or other, or to some back stairs to let the Eebs in on us to cut our throats ven ve schlafen. Oh vere are my tapfre Husaren ?" "Don't make a row with those cans, now, at this time of night," said I. " Oh, no ; and be burnt in our beds. Zat is goot." .. " They are only oil- jars." "Yes; and what iced fire better: than oil?" "Well, if you will bo unreasonable, throw them out of the window at once, nnd let me go to sleep, there's a good fellow." . . " I've a good mind to set the place alight as a warniug to Eebs how tobehare another time ; that's me, cap." " Eabensteiu, I shall let you do nothing, half so rash and cruel. You must first prove the oil was put here for the purpose of basting us." ; - But it was all no use. Eabenstein was half mad with suspicion and anger. ~ -\ Opening the window my irascible and suspicious lieutenant took two dr thnse /of the cans and. tossed them into':'"tKefcjaurt;;^ ; yard below. It was no use my -trying- to restrain him. ;•/-' .>V?£V:K cj": i Presently a window -below opened, Bn4^ the old mau looked out andßhofuted^igiS: us to stop. " Here I eay, strangera^fi<|;^

jr^i^^nopb of those trick s : you are spil- . f j-^S alVfbe .paraffin? oil, the carrier left ; ;hero J fpr Mr." ' Jackson's stores at Pena- • : qu6ddy, and I'm answerable for it." ■; i t "J? idn't : I; tell. ;youi"" said Rabenstein, :.ji; r * u ) rn w?^P, rne > then throwing out another to the place, '; s an3itliis is to make '"'it so easy. Ho sent ; :>r J'Xoplc here, iiftenanfc," shouted the old / man; .'-if. you'll /only, let me and my missus \F>:djjessi welcome at once and move those •^oil-jars, asTthey seeni to. kinder rile you." . -f/cJQonten ted "with this diplomatic arrangeJnenijf Eabenstein yielded, and presently ; out the oil-cans i: were* carried; by the old Ctiiar.merj;his;wife,:and'his old negro. : ''•;jv:V So !"> said GRabenstein, with fine Ger- : / inaii emphasis, as the last oil-can was taken • :3b f wtf-staif3, 3 arid the .doqr closed upon us. ri;-*. l^%Vertuelessl sliajl not sleep unless you >^W^chi'da^wd'll^alce itby turns." r The njext day after breakfast a sullen • r ; i6l3 U&gro, ' who kept slouching about with : ~''&ffeh6rfc r axeih liis'lia'nd, oh'ee more aroused ■ *' ■'OSabensfeih's suspicions. ;:i\i / s«'First'««gri lie* makes I'll make the • ? tallest of that verdannnter ; tiijggeriverstehfin sie?" "-. l •\ li' r %We\Were btitftliat afternoon sitting on - tb&gfiisS ifn th#oroHfird beyond tho garden smoking our cigarsV when all at once we sawitf the distance the old farmer lighting a weed fire, the blue sinpke of which soon *;' roscrWoi ,?i»oVe itherbolFof the farm-house. -': Babehstein instantly seized his crutches , 'Sua^fitfrned to the spot. : '. -' -V'": ; V. Bbblrhere', thou'bld coon," he shouted, **;I*y^^ttfc v ?nt"tupt 'fire; 1 0^1*11 tie you to ; ;i one, of 1 these tipple-trees, r-and "leave you : '?^he.r% t Mll^ig|jt. -il and the cap here won't *"' hlttvs slghttl9 Iniade to 1 Reb bush-whackers, _ nohowi ■"■yerstehen" sie?" " *"\Jtm; Q '^ u?^ meSn'a'ny harm, gentlemen," ■-. SiuJ.tJiejoltl farmer, reluctantly raking out ; '^ r th6 s flPe. v '•' rnarit to go , on smoothly : we V^ aWt-airthieVes down : here"- in' Georgia, -^"tlioi't^t'n-ff may-prefer Jeff Davis to your . ojd r,«ilspli|ter." ... . •'"•*;! ;'f'All l l'Bay is, you put out that fire," v %as liabenstein's only answer; " wo won't' ~ : ljateit/yerstehen s'eP' 1 " '; / : \^" c dozing off* after our pipe "-• ! ;an<i aglass of told monohgahela, when a ' ; noise aroused us. It was a clatter as of "a .hundred watchmen springing their ? i4 rattlfes at bnceV : ' /, "That's another signal," said Eaben■<■;^Btein.j! " come, cap, draw your sword, and I*l letV liavje a "shy at the Eebs. If we don't ; frighten tliem : 'a bit in this darucd place .vre shall be/made mineenient of, I know, before another sundown, verstehen sie — ■-.-[. acfa fur.meirie alte Hiisaren— wo sind, sie, s M^veKneger^' .?;, .". . , ; Jy s ! ' Aydash 1 over a hedge soon brought us *;* ! jnfd Ja'^ecbnd brchard, and a. little gap }•'_' front that led into a corn-field, from whence the noise proceeded. ":^" T^"^! c^' threes about," said Eabenstein; "noyr/c'ap, we'll just drop down on their 'sentinel before the others come up." '. ; : We'were quickly-round the corner of a ;^ : sWeki and there w<s found the enemy ; a ' little;brovFn, ; ; sly urchin, who was eating : a\ slice" of yellow pumpkin-pie with one hand, : while; with the other he sprang a r . great, flapping, bird-minder's wooden hV./ £ * : . but Eabenstein was angry * ;attheni(i.stak'o. Ho gave the boy a box ""•}' .■.■?£ tti'b ears and confiscated his rattle. ' ;*■ /That evening, at tea, over our johnny- ;_ r cakesari;dhy son, the old farmer and his 'wife vrerb most indignant at our behaviour, ."."■P-PS. suspicions, and moro especially our "t^ea{ni'ent of their grandchild, the valorous o-.^M^d-minder. TJiey wanted to be civil, 'T," : '-* n ?y'Baid,;anil make the best of the reverses of war, yet wo still remained suspi---..-^H?.>nd tyrannical. ]If Ifc was to be like y^is^.ey would give up the house to us, " 1 fixings "and all, and go right away to their 'jna'rried daughter at Penaquoddy. ; interrupted them by drawing liis six-shooter. ..." I don't mean no harm," -. ;, ne s said,," bid folks, but if that nigger of yours keeps loafiug about behind my chair ; with that hatchet of hi 3 , I'll put a bullet iff mm sure as there's scales on an alli- , gator; verstehen, sie?" / J^Tha^night we went to bed fay no means ;;» reassured. ,T^e'remained for an hour talk- ; ing, for, theharyest moon was glowing like ; ayjellow lainp over the corn-fields, and tlie ... ■windows bad rib blinds. We discussed our r danger; and resohed, if surprised, to die / : Jawing^/or^Uh Eabenstein lame, and ■ igysflf f t'U worse, escape on foot was inipossible., /'And if the time does come, I'll just keep r my last barrel for that old skunk > ,^elp^,"rsajdjEabenstein. ■. : "~"-P "-My sleep was first, and aboutfonro'cloek I awoke nnd took rtiy place in an old bee-hive-chair, by the window, near my bed, and opposite, the locked cupboard which i ,.jhad. r air.eady Roused -my comrade's suspicions. i . cv Sapperment," he said, drowsily, as he turned in between the sheets, " wie heiss -I e f,»s^ as '^ d * s for thoonder, versk-hen ''f'^'-M 1 "* minute or two after his -.':. P^P? 4 r °PP^- C r P' n h »s "louth on the floor, i ,$ nd < h^ftyi asleep murmuring his favourite lamentation, "Wo siud die tapfre Husaren!"'. , . v., "..-. i ;:, .?%?? was thunder in the air, and the - ; . n !f Mt wa ? oppressively, hot, the sky black, - o;; Stt »j e n», «V»d starless. I. opened the window :--■•■ *JJ?-l]s.tene_d.;. uo sound but a distant, uneasy muttering. It must have been near .; 4 a yP r eak that, overcome with fatigue and -..the. tli under heat, I fell, asleep. My eama rWere unpleasant. ,1 dreamt the ; floor^suddenly broke into a binze under >^y- fpet,; andtbat thrpugh the flames 1 saw i of* 1 ? rifles of a whole rebel regiment pointed .•■.'/?J;9 s r^hile.thooid farmer sniggered in a corner at our discomfiture. I awoke once, ;;n,?Pd thought I.heard. the sound of hoofs, iic^laaQiediSomeoftheEeb cavalry had .already got iipon our track.- Then I dreamt ; : v JhaJ^neiOld. couple. hadpoisohed us, and as y:' ;^f i feF;?ithin.g and helpless in the agonies VI 9%£sMmthey came; to, our bedside, and Lwitttnidepus faces, distorted by malice and . ./T!9venge,jtaunted us with .being so easily : deceived; .-,.-*-.-'.,., Tho^sharp, clear report of a pistol awoke *■■ .??e.;. : In..a moment I had seized my sword /i, .andirpjused E^benstein. My flrst thought -„, „-,W,as that the old man had murdered the !; ; young German as he slept, and that the -j rtjj nex> (barreLwas to seal my fate. But I I : S v.m» mistaken 5 the shofc, I felt, directly I I T jiwa^qH%i awake, must have been fired . through the open window at one of us. -.^uqlbwasjightenoufiihtosee everything in >„f theroonii and as we stared at each other, , , unc^rtaiiiifrom whence an assailant might »!' spriflgcßpon us, Eabenstein, with a ghostly look of pxed horror that seemed to turn into stone, pointed to the cupllf^pOardidoor.", 3Tes, there from : beneath it f!sfy»* : *reepingiout ; a ; winding stream of crimson blood, which, in a moment, : < widened over, the floor almost to Our very . • ->-:-■ "Some one has been murdered there," I .^6pi|iranid:-Iflew;at.tlie^d and tried to '^-$W&pl^i}op6i^ith. niy heavy cavalry sabre. i of some one :; ; r}failJipJ^^^.3io reply to our cries. . Eaben:Wi^^M^^Mf'^ o^ e hot and excitable than "->®^^|^^cd ; theiquestion in a prompt Uo^^^f^^lpS;^ 8 revolver to the keyhole, with' a; single shot, : o^^'^m^o^meai^yfe dragged^ down the J4^^ra^|^^ftl?beheld,.iidt a man^weltering in g^s§|§|;u^3^l).ut a> great broken? bottle of . 'currantßj which, newly |.^^|k^^pdjformenfed; with' the heat, and j^^^^'S^fli^fed^jii'iith'e'tijlarmmg manner I |^^^^^^||r^ie"d.f 5. The -flowing .» red juice alarmed per■^^^^^^^^t^ißiifOßpn -to-be suspicious than Ea- ; : p>Aing ;

among the bottle of preserves with the point of his sword. We got rarely laughed at when we told the story the next morning to the old farmer and his wife, and from that time till the day we left, about three weeks afterwards, to join our regiment, we lived in great harmony with the old couple, whom we found, the moment our suspicions were dispelled, and we could see facts by the clear light of common sense, to be the most harmless people in the world.