Spake As a Dragon (39 page)

“
No sir, I don’t have a
rifle in my wagon, but I have a Colt .44 in this gun holster I’m
wearing.”

“
Hand it over to me,
slowly now, General Lee might ’of give up, but we didn’t. We jest
found out it’s easier to rob Yankee folks like you travelin’
through these parts.”

“
Major, you’re just an
outlaw, robbing folks just because there are more of you fellers
and you got guns just isn’t right.”

“
Oh, we do more than jest
rob, we are goin’ to kill you too. We don’t leave any
witnesses.”

“
Major, please reconsider
what you are doing – you have survived the War and are alive. Why
would you all want to go get yourselves killed today, now that the
War is over!”

One of the Major’s men rides behind
Luke’s wagon, “I think you got it wrong Yank you’s the one that’s
gonna get kilt,” he said starting to poke his rifle into the rear
of Luke’s wagon.

Before he has a chance to see inside
Nate from his wagon, grabs his fully loaded Spencer, fires from the
hip and punches a .56 caliber hole clean through the renegade
soldier, knocking the rider over his horse’s flank onto the muddy
road. Sam grabs his Spencer and begins firing too. Luke, has the
Colt in his hand, the butt toward the Major, suddenly flips in into
firing position and shoots the Major twice in the chest before the
ex-soldier has a chance to respond.

It was all over in a matter of seconds
– the Major and all four of his men lay bleeding and dying in the
trail. Luke steps down from the wagon approaches the dying Major,
who’s gasping for breath, but manages to mumble, “I thought you
said you didn’t have a rifle in your wagon!”

Luke squats down beside the dying man,
“I didn’t, but my two friends in the back wagon did. They had a
couple of seven shot Spencers. Oh, sorry, did I forget to mention
that? I guess you and your friends now know what them rifles can
do, when fired up close and personal, huh?

“
I suppose you should have
taken my advice Major and gone on home. Now you’re just going to be
dead, laying here in this slimy Georgia mud because we’re moving
on. Maybe someone will come by directly and bury y’all’s sorry
souls, otherwise the buzzards are fixin’ to have a fine meal. Oh,
Major do I sound bitter? You’re darn right I do, I didn’t lie, I
am
a Southerner and men like you cheapen the South’s whole
War effort.” Luke reaches over and removes the “CSA” emblem from
the Major’s muddy cap and tosses the piece of metal into the woods.
“You don’t deserve to be wearing this!” Luke touched his own hat in
a half-hearted salute, “So long Major, I believe this just hasn’t
been your day!”

Chapter
Forty-Nine

EARLIER THAT
AFTERNOON

Luke climbs back upon his wagon.
Catherine is beside herself, she doesn’t know whether to cry or
faint. “Luke, I was so terrified, I thought those men were going to
kill us.”

Luke grins, as he urges his mules
forward, “I believe they thought so too, but I had to change their
minds! Some people you can talk too, others just have to be
shown.”

“
But, Luke aren’t you
going to give those men a proper burial?”

“
What they got is as
proper as they deserve, gitty up there mules, we got things to do
and places to go.”

Sam speaking to Nate as they ride
toward Scarlettsville, “I believe Luke is a man of few
words.”

“
Yeah, he shore is! And
them fellows should’ve been listenin’ to the few ones he
said!”

“
How much further do you
think it is to Scarlettsville, Nate?”

“
Doesn’t know for certain
Sam, but we should be there sometimes tomorrow, if these scoundrels
will leave us be.”

Pouring the remains of his coffee into
the fire that night Luke tells them to expect to be at Scarlett
around noon tomorrow. “You know,” he said, “I’ve lived around these
wagons and slept beside this campfire so long, I believe I’m going
to miss this.”

Nate rubs his backside, “I’m for one
ain’t gonna miss that wagon seat that’s for shore, and I believes I
won’t never been able to sleep in a nuther soft bed!”

SCARLETT
PLANTATION

Sitting at the front gate Luke is
bewildered. The plantation house is gone! Doc Crawford only spoke
of something happening to Isaac, his uncle, but he didn’t say
anything about the big house being burned. If the house is gone
Luke figures his family must be staying in the guesthouse, if they
are here.

Heading up the driveway Luke pulls the
.44 and fires off a couple of rounds to announce their arrival. By
the time, they arrive at the house the entire family is assembled
awaiting the two wagons. Malinda recognizes Luke as the wagon turns
the last bend in the driveway – she cannot wait. Running down the
drive, she can only yell, “Luke! Luke!”

Sary sees Nate and throws her hands
into the air, “Glory be to God! Thanks you oh Lord! Thank
you.”

Everyone has been introduced to
Catherine and all are sitting around on the porch. Refreshing
drinks have been served, but Luke cannot wait, he must know what
has happened. Levi tells the whole story of the Union deserters and
the shoot-out. Choking back tears Levi tells of his uncle Isaac’s
heroic attempt to stop the bandits, but how he got killed for his
efforts. His aunt Amanda was killed in the shoot-out too. After
plundering the main house, they set it ablaze. The only place they
now have to live is in this guesthouse. He explains the farm has no
money, no one to work and nothing to work with. All the livestock
has been stolen or confiscated by the army, both North and South,
he doesn’t know what they are going to do.

Later everyone has gone to bed except
Luke who sits on the porch steps; Kentuck lies beside him, both
watch the moon slowly rising over the trees toward the east. The
scene is so tranquil with the moonlight reflecting off Scarlett’s
lily pond. Malinda quietly opens the screen door walks across the
porch and sits down beside her son. She wraps her arm around Luke’s
and says, “I’m so glad to get you home Luke.”

Patting her on the hand, “I’m glad to
be home Mother.”

Malinda asked why in all the years he
has been gone he never posted a letter to her or why did she not
hear from his father and brother Matthew? Luke looked at her in
amazement, he explained he had written dozens of times, but he
never received a letter from her or from anyone back home. He told
her he knew his father and Matthew had been sending posts regularly
too, but they had never received an answer either.

“
Luke, I have been dying
every since you arrived to ask: what about your father and Matthew?
If it’s bad, I want to know anyway. You don’t know what it has been
like for the past three years without a word from you three. I have
almost gone out of my mind.”

Luke takes his mother’s hand, “The
last time I saw Father or Matthew Mother was during the Battle of
Gettysburg. That was back in July of ’63. We were all together on
the first day.”

“
Wait Luke, I thought
Matthew was with General Jackson’s as an aide or
something.”

“
He was Mother, but after
the General was killed Matthew requested a transfer to be with me
and Father. Like I said, on the first day of the fight at
Gettysburg we were together, but we didn’t see much action that
first day. They moved our outfit, the 48
^th
Alabama on
the 2
^nd
day to a place known as the Devil’s Den. We were
supposed to take a hill called Little Round Top. The area at the
foot of the hill, Mother, is covered with huge boulders, some must
weigh tons. During the initial charge, we all made it from the
cornfield to the large rocks, but a Yankee stabbed Father in the
chest with a bayonet during the Yanks counter attack. I worked my
way over to him, and he was bleeding pretty badly. About this time,
Matthew came rushing out of the corn and I left Father with him
while I went to find some of the medical people.”

“
Did you get help and get
back to Robert?”

Luke related to her how he found a
couple of litter bearers, but the battle was raging so hot and
furious he could not return to the spot where his father was
wounded. Malinda asked about Matthew.

“
Mother, the next day I
returned to our company and found Matthew, he said the last time he
saw Father two litter bearers were carrying him away. Matthew did
not know is he was still alive or not. Matthew and I did not have
much time to talk since we were getting ready to mount an assault
on the Yankee line who was dug in on a hill about a mile away, they
called it the Cemetery Ridge. They sure named it right, because we
sure left a lot of dead fellows up there.”

Luke described Pickett’s assault
across the field and how Matthew was right beside him, step for
step, as they ran toward the split-rail fence. Tears began to form
in his eyes as he told his mother how Matthew was shot trying to
climb over the fence, but he could not stop and help. He explained
the bullets flying around sounded like a nest of hornets had gotten
loose. Luke said after he had run a few yards toward the rock fence
on Cemetery Ridge, he turned to see if he could see Matthew;
however, the smoke was so dense he was unable to see the fence.
Finally, he advanced to meet the Yankees in hand-to-hand fighting,
but the re-enforced Yankees overcame his South’s forces. He then
went on to tell her the whole story from his capture to the very
minute they were sitting on the porch. By then it was close to
mid-night.

They sit for a few minutes listening
to the crickets and tree frogs – off in the distance they hear the
cooing of a mourning dove. “Luke,” Malinda said solemnly, “I must
ask: do you think your father and brother were killed?”

“
Mother, honestly, I do
not know – I know both were still alive when I last saw them, but I
wish I knew what happened to them later. I tried to find out, but I
just do not have the answers Mother.”

“
Luke, son, I’ve never
asked you much, but now I’m asking, what do you really
think?”

“
Mother, I cannot lie to
you – I would say they did not make it! I think they are both
dead.”

The next morning at breakfast, Ora Lee
tells Luke she is glad that he and his new wife Catherine, along
with Nate and Sam, have joined them at Scarlett, but she is ashamed
she has nothing to offer them, she is practically
destitute.

Luke thinks for a moment, then
replies, “We have a wagon full of rifles, pistols and ammunition. I
believe I can go into Scarlettsville and sell them for enough money
to get the spring planting started.”

“
But, Luke we have no
hands to help!”

“
Well now, there’s me,
Nate and Sam. We may not be good farmers, but I believe we’ll do
for a start.”

“
Don’t forget me Luke, I
can help too,” chimed in Catherine.

From across the table Malinda asks,
“Once the spring planting is finished, I ask one favor?”

“
Certainly Mother,
anything.”

“
Luke I want you to take a
journey with me.”

“
Yes, Mother of course,
where do you want to go.”

“
Son, I want to go to the
battlefield of Gettysburg. I want to see for myself where Robert
and Matthew were shot. I want to see if there are graves for them.
I want to talk to the local people and see if any might remember
them. I don’t know Luke, I must go there.”

Luke knows it is of no use to argue
says, ‘I understand Mother, I promise you here and now, I will do
as you say.”

Catherine sets her cup down, “And I
will consider it an honor if you allow me to accompany you Mrs.
Scarburg.”

Malinda turns to Catherine, “My dear,
you can go if you accept one condition.”

“
Certainly, Mrs. Scarburg,
what is it?”

“
Please dear, call me
Malinda, Mrs. Scarburg makes me feel too old,’ she said
smiling.

Sam and Nate both voice their desire
to go to Gettysburg too, but Luke says someone must stay and
oversee the plantation. Besides he says, they have to get the Mill
back up and running too.

Chapter Fifty

THE MILL

After breakfast Luke and Sam, hitch up
the wagon and go into Scarlettsville to the Mill. Riding into the
open expanse of ground in front of Scarburg Mill Luke can see three
men sitting on the bench underneath the giant oak tree. He stops
for a moment and looks at the magnificent old oak. Even though, it
is three-quarters of a century older, it is the same tree the
British used to hang his great-grandfather. It is still a glorious
sight to behold. Driving the wagon closer to the wooden bench,
although, it had been a long time, he recognizes Jethro, Rubin and
Daniel. Three of Uncle Isaac’s hired hands, which have helped run
the mill.

“
Howdy, Jethro, Rube,
Dan,” Luke said. “It’s been quite a spell since I’ve seen you
three. It’s me Luke Scarburg.”

“
Why,” said Jethro
turning, “who done said that? Is that you Luke Scarburg, well I’ll
be it is, it is you ain’t it Luke Scarburg? Yeah, it’s been a long
time Luke.” The three men stood and walked to Luke as he steps from
the wagon. “Good to see you Luke, somebody had done told your uncle
Isaac that they though you, Robert and Matthew had been kilt in the
War.”