Mississippi Raider (22 page)

Because of the care that was
taken in selecting the route they traveled, Belle and her escort
had made good time and remained unseen until they were on the last
few miles from their destination. From the beginning, she had taken
a liking to the two Texans. In return, they had very quickly gained
respect for her having sufficient ability as a horsewoman to ensure
that she did not slow them down. Although she had not
been able to show
how well she could shoot, as doing so might be heard and
investigated, their admiration had grown after having seen a
demonstration of her skill at wielding the
epee de combat
on the first night after they
had made camp. Stone had said that he and his sergeant had been
told of her abilities and achievements when asked to volunteer for
the escort duty, but admitted they had felt some misgivings over a
young woman being in command of such a potentially dangerous
assignment. However, both of them had stated they now believed
there was no need for concern on that account.

On hearing from Waggles that there were the
three Yankee cavalrymen approaching and were so near, Belle and
Stone had decided against taking cover. It was felt advisable that
she should rely upon her disguise and let herself be seen at such
close quarters, but if the subterfuge was detected, it might not be
possible to silence all three without shooting, and there was no
way of knowing how many other members of the Union Army or even
civilians who were almost certain to have Northern sympathies were
within hearing distance to be attracted by it. Therefore, she had
proposed another means of coping with the situation. Agreeing that
it stood a good chance of working and having the means to do so,
the preparations had been carried out swiftly. Then the Texans had
ridden into view and, at least until the conversation was
commenced, there was nothing to indicate that they were suspected
of being other than they appeared.

That desirable state of affairs was brought
to an end.

“
Hey!”
the shorter of the enlisted men yelled, making a grab at the closed
flap of his holster. “You sound like Johnny Rebs!”

“
Hold
hard there, soldier!” Stone thundered, without offering to
duplicate the action of the Yankee soldier where arming himself was
concerned. “God damn it, I’m getting sick of being told
that.
We hail from
North
Texas, so why the
hell wouldn’t we sound like Johnny Rebs?”

“
Show him them fancy
papers we’ve been give’, Sto—
Sergei,”
Waggles suggested with a similar
appearance of wrath. “Happen he can’t read, I reckon the corp’
there does ’n’ can tell him what they say.”

“
What
papers’re those?” the corporal asked, showing suspicion without
making a move toward the holster on his weapon belt.

“
Here,” Stone growled, drawing the appropriate document from
the inside jacket of his tunic and holding it forward while
wondering how its contents would be received.

Accepting the sheet of paper
and opening it out, silently mouthing some of the longer words, the
corporal began to read what was printed on it. It stated that
Jethro Hart of Clarksville, Red River County, North Texas, had
sworn allegiance to the Union and enrolled in the Third New Mexico
Hussars. Although he had never heard of such a regiment, he saw
nothing in the other
’s appearance to make him doubt its existence.

Being a long-serving member of the regular
Army, the corporal had little other than contempt for volunteer
outfits, and the one named looked as if it was just about the same
as all the rest. However, he was aware that most of their noncoms
were very rank conscious, and he was too wise to express or even
let his true feelings become obvious. The three-bar looked as
though he could be a mean son of a bitch if riled, and the enlisted
man would probably prove no easy mark should there be trouble. What
was more, seeing as the corporal and his companions were headed to
Washington for a furlough, the last thing he wanted was for
anything to delay their getting there. With that in mind, he folded
the paper.

“
That’s what she says, Serge,” the noncom declared, handing
back the document. “No offense tooken, I hope.”

“
Nary
an offense,” Stone asserted, and having replaced the paper, reached
back to take a bottle filled with brown liquid from the pouch of
his McClellan saddle. As was the case with much of their equipment,
the South had obtained enough of these now-becoming-standard-issue
U.S. Army rigs for there being nothing untoward in he and his
companion using one apiece. Drawing the cork, he held it forward.
“Here, to show it, you boys all take yourselves a good pull of this
sippin’ whiskey. It’s good stuff, snuck from Major Backstead. He
pays for it with money saved from buying those goddamned plugs we
gets for hosses.”

Watching what happened, Waggles reached in
what appeared to be a casual gesture until able to thumb open the
flap of his holster. If the offer was not accepted, another means
would have to be found to deal with the contingency. It was very
soon apparent that the need would not arise. Taking the bottle, the
corporal did as was requested. After having taken a long and
appreciative pull at the contents, he passed it to the taller
enlisted man. Showing no greater reluctance, the recipient drank
just as deeply. Then, as if wanting to make up for the suspicions
he had aroused about the Texans, the last of the trio duplicated
the actions of his companions.

Also keeping the men under observation,
Belle soon decided that de-Farge had not been exaggerating when
speaking of how quickly the powerful opiate took effect. Before the
last of the three had handed the bottle back to Stone, the corporal
swayed and slid limply sideways from his horse. The taller of the
enlisted men following him down a moment later and the shorter
joined them on the ground. Once there, they lay breathing heavily
without any other movement than the steady rise and fall of their
chests. Grinning broadly, Waggles prevented their horses from
moving away on being so suddenly deprived of riders.

“
I
never yet saw a Yankee who could take his liquor,” Stone declared
in his normal voice as his sergeant completed the task and he waved
for the girl to come out of her place of concealment. When she
arrived, he went on, “That stuff sure worked like you said it
would. Not that I even for a moment thought it
wouldn’t.”

“
Or
me,” Belle stated cheerfully. “I hoped there would be a chance for
me to try it out on somebody, though. I didn’t have the heart to do
it on any of my friends.”

“
Well,
I’d say you’ve for sure got ‘round to doing it, and that stuff
certainly works fast,” the captain drawled. “How long will they be
under?”

“
A
couple of hours at least, Anatol de-Farge claimed, with the amount
I used,” the girl replied. “And he’s been right for the rest of
what he told me. They didn’t show any sign of having been able to
taste it, and the last one went down before he could even realize,
much less take warning from, what was happening to the other
two.”

“
Then
we’ll get them and their horses in a clearing back there to sleep
it out like we planned,” Stone said. “I’m willing to bet that when
they wake up and find their horses hobbled there and all their
money still on them, they’ll head for Washington and their furlough
instead of coming to Glissade to look for us.”

“
Well,
it seems that you
called the play right, Stone,” Belle Boyd remarked with
satisfaction. “Those three will have recovered long before this and
Waggles hasn’t seen them coming back to the regiment to tell what
happened to them.”

With the unconscious Yankee soldiers
disposed of as was planned, the trio had continued their
interrupted journey. They had covered the remaining distance until
arriving at their present location without seeing any further signs
of human beings. Once among an area of woodland about half a mile
away from the small town of Glissade that the girl remembered from
her previous visit, they had halted to await sundown. The last time
she had gone to see Doctor Fritz Conried, she had ridden up through
the darkness dressed in masculine civilian attire. However,
although there had been no problems caused by her doing so, he had
said he would prefer for any further visits she paid to be made in
a less noticeable fashion. Accepting that he knew what was best for
his own and her safety, she had kept the suggestion in mind when
making preparations for calling again.

The girl had just rejoined Captain Stone
Hart and Sergeant Waggles Harrison where they were waiting with the
horses in a clearing. While she was absent, she had donned the
items of feminine attire chosen for making contact with, which had
brought in one of the panniers carried by the packhorse. With her
recollection of the precaution requested during the previous visit
and the need to limit the weight carried by the animal, she had
accepted the need to restrict the clothing to what she felt would
be best suited for her purposes. Over a different kind of masculine
garments, which served to show off her slenderly curvaceous,
all-too-obviously female bodily contours far more than those worn
during the journey through Union territory, she had on a black
blouse and matching skirt that gave the appearance of being a
single dress of the kind generally supplied as working attire for
one kind of domestic servant. To add to the suggestion of such
employment, her black hair—which she kept cut short to allow the
wearing of one of the wigs she used even when in the safety of
Richmond society to prevent its condition arousing speculation—was
concealed beneath a white cotton mobcap that was in keeping with
the rest of her outer costume.

There was, Belle had explained to the
Texans, a good reason for her to adopt such garb that would also
have been used if the need arose during the journey through Union
territory on the way to Glissade. It was intended to give the
appearance of being a maid while walking through the town just
after night had fallen. The regiment of regular Union Cavalry to
which the three soldiers they had left drugged belonged were camped
on the outskirts at the west side and another to the north of the
town. Based upon his own experiences as an officer in the Union
Army prior to returning to serve the South, Stone had agreed with
her observation that the wives of particularly the senior officers
would have such servants and, unlike in the South, few would be
Negresses. Therefore, her arrival in such a guise would arouse less
curiosity and speculation over a stranger walking through the
streets, since the local population were likely to assume she was
just a maid from the camp carrying out a task for her mistress.

When making the explanation,
the girl had not said whom she was going to meet in Glissade. Nor,
as the Texans had realized why this was, had either of them asked
about it. Instead, the arrangement was for them to remain where
they were until she returned. Or, should they hear the kind of
disturbance that would indicate she had either been captured or
killed, they were to assume the same applied to the man she visited
and go straight back to Richmond with the news. The same would
apply if she failed to rejoin them by sunrise, since this would
mean that she had been taken by the Yankees in some way that
prevented her from making any noise to warn them of what had
happened. There must
not,
she insisted, emphasizing the word of denial, be
any attempt to find out her fate, much less a rescue should she
have been taken alive. Regardless of how they might feel, she must
be regarded as expendable. That was, she had said without any
suggestion of being dramatic, one of the penalties to be accepted
serving as a spy.

“
I
reckon I just about ought to know how soldiers think by now,” Stone
replied to the comment about the behavior of the three Union
cavalrymen when recovering from the effects of the drugged drink.
Then a note of concern came into his voice: “But will you be safe
going into town dressed like that?”

“
Of
course I will,” Belle declared, and went on with the kind of humor
her companions often employed and, she felt, would enjoy now.
“I’m
absolutely,
positively
certain
—I think.”

For all the levity, Belle was
taking precautions for her protection should some emergency arise.
Aware that there was no way she could have either her Colt or
particularly the
epee de combat
with her—the unconventional design of the latter
being certain to arouse curiosity if seen even in poor lighting
conditions—she was going to leave them with the Texans. Instead,
having put on her outer garments, she had donned her razor-edged
bracelet. In addition, its canopy having been replaced by one of
cheap black material such as might be expected in the possession of
the kind of person she was pretending to be, she would also be
carrying the parasol with the telescopic coil-spring-powered billy
as a further means of defense.

As was the case with all of the
girl
’s other
feminine clothing, none of which she had with her, the skirt of her
attire was modified to allow easy removal. However, instead of the
brief pantalets and black stockings that had diverted Jacques and
Hunt to her advantage in Atlanta, she had a man’s figure-hugging
open-necked thin black shirt and equally snugly conforming matching
riding breeches underneath. These were to serve as the kind of
distraction provided by the sensual undergarment worn at the
gambling house should the need arise. Because they, too, would be
concealed by the skirt, she was wearing the black riding boots,
which she felt confident would once again prove most efficacious if
an attack
a
la savate
was called for.