Dusty Fog's Civil War 10 Read online

  “What’s in the wagons, Billy Jack?” Dusty called, leaving Benson.

  “Powder, lead, made bullets, linen cartridges for a starter, Cap’n Dusty,” answered the sergeant major, sounding as mournful as if they were the prisoners and about to lose the convoy. “General stores in the others.”

  “Take them when we pull out,” ordered Dusty. “Go through the Rocker ambulance and turn out the medical supplies. Take one third of them.”

  “A third?” Wormold could not stop himself saying.

  “We’re short on medical supplies too, Captain,” Dusty replied. “But I figure you have more casualties needing tending than we do.”

  Which, unpalatable as the thought might be, was perfectly true. Wormold felt a growing admiration for the small, young Texan and began to appreciate how Dusty won fame at an age when he should have just been starting in a military academy. The feeling did little to numb Wormold’s sense of failure, however. Dusty Fog could act with his usual chivalry; return a mother’s gift; prevent looting of personal property and abuse of captives; take only such medical supplies as his people needed; but he would leave Wormold’s command without weapons, horses or equipment when he pulled out.

  Already the disarmed Yankees had been allowed to sit up in lines, watched over by alert sentries. At the horse lines a sergeant and three men examined the Union mounts and exchanged laconic terms of Texas disgust when finding signs of inexperience-caused neglect. Born in a land where a horse was a way of life rather than a mere means of transport, they felt little but disgust for the Yankees from the industrial East, many of whom rode seriously for the first time on enlistment.

  Having faith in his men, Dusty left them to their duties with the minimum of supervision. While looking around the camp, his eyes came to rest on the small civilian who still sat on the wooden box and had apparently been overlooked by the Texans. Telling Wormold to join the other Yankee officers, Dusty turned and walked towards the small man.

  “I’m a civilian, not a soldier,” the man yelped as Dusty drew near. “Henry S. Oliver, clerk to the Baptist Mission for Indian Betterment.”

  “Some of them sure need bettering,” Dusty replied. ‘What’s in the box, Mr. Oliver?”

  “Religious tracts, The Good Book translated into the heathen Cherokee tongue so that the savages too may be shown the light.”

  “Mind if I take a look?”

  “Do officers of the Confederate States Army rob civilians and men of the church?” demanded Oliver hotly, coming to his feet and walking forward.

  “If tracts are all inside, they’ll not be touched,” Dusty promised. “Open it up, sir.”

  “Woe is the day when the work of the Lord shall be put down by the un-godly and His servants beset by evil-doers!” moaned Oliver. “Can’t you take my word as to the contents, brother?”

  “As a man, yes,” Dusty replied. “But as an officer with a duty to do, I’ll have to see inside the box,”

  “Very well then,” sighed Oliver resignedly and produced a key from his jacket pocket. “But I will not condone the Devil’s work by opening it.”

  “See to it, Billy Jack,” ordered Dusty and a faint smile flickered on his lips. “I reckon you’re sinful enough for this not to make any difference.”

  “Happen it does,” drawled the sergeant major, “I’ll certain sure let you know about it.”

  With that, Billy Jack took the key and walked towards the box.

  Two – A Box Full of Confederate Money

  “Hold it, Billy Jack!”

  The words cracked from Dusty’s lips and brought the sergeant major to an immediate halt. Turning, he looked at his commander and waited to be told what caused the change of plans.

  Almost three years of war and danger gave Dusty an instinct, or second sense which warned him of peril. Suddenly he became aware of the familiar sensations; something was wrong and he wondered what. Swiftly his mind ran through the sequence of events. He felt sure that the box contained articles more significant than mere religious tracts. If anything, Oliver spoke too glibly; and dressed wrongly for a member of an obscure church mission organization.

  When handing over the key to Billy Jack, Oliver for a moment lost his air of martyrdom. Only for a moment did it go, but during that time the man showed hate, disappointment and a little satisfaction. For some reason Oliver wanted them to undertake the actual opening of the box. In fact he had fallen back as Billy Jack approached it and stood so as to place Dusty between him and the sergeant major. All that had registered subconsciously to Dusty, triggering off his warning instincts and causing him to stop Billy Jack. Unless Dusty was sadly wrong, Billy Jack might regret opening the box should he do so.

  “What’s up, Cap’n Dusty?” Billy Jack asked.

  “Leave it,” Dusty replied. “We’ll take it back unopened.”

  “Let me do it for you,” Oliver offered, stepping by Dusty and speaking in a voice which sounded just a mite shaky.

  “Stop right there!” Dusty ordered. “I’m taking it back—”

  “All right,” answered Oliver and shrugged his shoulders.

  In doing so, he pressed his left elbow against his side in what appeared to be a casual manner. Almost immediately his cuff jerked in a peculiar manner and a Henry Derringer Pocket Pistol slid from the sleeve into his hand. Smoothly done, the move showed long practice in controlling the pistol and its holster, which was built on the same lines as a card hold-out device used by crooked gamblers. Most people would have been taken by surprise by the sudden appearance of the pistol.

  Dusty Fog proved to be an exception. Back home in the Rio Hondo country, he learned gun-handling from men well-versed in all its aspects. Part of his training covered concealment of weapons and the various methods by which a hidden pistol might be produced unexpectedly yet suddenly. Fortunately he had been watching the man, or he might have missed the elbow pressure required to set the hold-out’s springs working.

  Seeing the danger, a lesser person might easily have panicked, drawn, cut Oliver down and possibly have created a chain-reaction of shooting among the guards over the prisoners. Despite the urgency, Dusty realized the delicate nature of the situation and refrained from using his Colt as a means of rectifying it. All too well he could see the Yankee enlisted men’s reactions to the sight of a rebel officer shooting down a man of the church; as they imagined Oliver to be.

  Realizing that, Dusty acted accordingly. Even as he went into action, he became aware of Oliver’s peculiar behavior.

  At the sight of the pistol, Billy Jack discarded his pose of lackadaisical misery and showed himself to be a bone-tough Texas fighting man. Flinging himself to one side and down, he drew his right hand Colt while dropping to the ground. It appeared that he moved so fast, he caught Oliver unprepared. Certainly the small civilian made no attempt to correct his aim and continued to line the Derringer at the box. So Billy Jack held his fire. Being all too familiar with Dusty’s deadly speed, Billy Jack knew the small Texan could easily have drawn and shot Oliver. As he did not, Cap’n Dusty clearly required the man alive and Billy Jack respected his commanding officer’s wants.

  From where he stood, Dusty could follow the way in which Oliver lined the gun. The hesitation in following Billy Jack’s diving body did not go with the smooth manner by which Oliver produced the hide-out pistol. Nor did there appear to be any point in the man shooting Billy Jack after the sergeant major turned away from the box. To Dusty’s way of thinking, Oliver intended to hit the box—and a particular part of it at that.

  Having reached that conclusion in a flickering blur of thought, Dusty set about dealing with the matter. He acted with the kind of speed that would in the future gain him the name as the fastest gun in Texas.

  Out shot his hands, but he did not waste valuable time in trying to knock the gun from Oliver’s grasp. Catching the man’s right wrist between his hands, with the thumbs uppermost and fingers around the joint bones, Dusty pivoted to the left until standing almost with his b
ack to and behind Oliver. Then he drew the trapped arm until it was held before him and slid his left hand along to close over the pistol-filled fist. The action caused Oliver to lose his balance and stumble. Swiftly Dusty reversed the direction of the man by stepping back a pace and twisting on the wrist. Oliver went down on to his back, but the pain caused by his wrist and the momentum of his fall caused him to turn right over and land face down. Stepping around the man’s head, Dusty turned the pistol and drew it from the clutching fingers.

  As Oliver went over, he let out a screech far in excess of the pain he received. At the sound Benson began to rise, hot anger showing on his young face. Seeing an apparently unprovoked attack on the little civilian, he forgot all his previous thoughts on Dusty’s chivalry. An uneasy ripple of movement passed through the seated ranks of Yankee prisoners and the watching Texans hefted their weapons to a more convenient position ready for use.

  “Sit still!” ordered Red Blaze, twisting his right hand palm out and drawing the off-side Colt cavalry-style, to line it on Benson.

  “Do it, damn you!” snapped Wormold, alert to the danger his shavetail’s behavior threatened to create. “First sergeant, make the men stay still.” Then he glared at Red. “Does the Texas Light Cavalry make a habit of assaulting civilians, Mr. Blaze?”

  “Likely Dusty had good reason,” Red replied loyally. “Let’s wait and see, shall we?”

  “We’ll do that,” Wormold agreed, conscious that he could do no other.

  “Lemme up!” Oliver whined. “I’m through.”

  Releasing the man’s wrists, Dusty stepped clear. Already Billy Jack had regained his feet and stood looking at Dusty, wondering what the hell was going on. Moving slowly, as if hurt by his fall, Oliver raised himself on to hands and knees. Suddenly he flung himself forward, in the direction of the box. Out shot Billy Jack’s right arm, catching Oliver by the scruff of the neck as he passed and heaving him backwards. Even so, the small man lashed a kick at the box and his boot narrowly missed colliding with its lock. Then he went staggering backwards in Dusty’s direction.

  At the second attempt by Oliver to destroy the box—for Dusty felt sure that lay behind the civilian’s actions—the small Texan called off being gentle. As Oliver reeled towards him, Dusty struck in a certain way taught to him by his uncle, Ole Devil Hardin’s personal servant. Although many people thought Tommy Okasi was Chinese, he claimed to hail from the Japanese islands. Wherever he came from originally, Tommy possessed some mighty effective fighting tricks and taught them to the smallest member of the Hardin, Fog and Blaze clan. Using the ju-jitsu or karate techniques passed to him by Tommy Okasi, Dusty could handle bigger and stronger men with comparative ease. Nor did his knowledge hinder him in dealing with Oliver.

  Around lashed Dusty’s right arm, the hand held open with fingers together and thumb bent across the palm. Its heel chopped hard against the base of Oliver’s skull in the tegatana, hand-sword, of karate. While such a method looked awkward and might be judged unlikely to be effective by a man trained in Occidental fist-fighting. Dusty had no cause to complain. On receiving the blow, Oliver dropped like a head-shot rabbit and lay still.

  “Hawg-tie him, Billy Jack,” Dusty ordered.

  “Yo!” answered the sergeant major and looked around. “Hey, Tracey Prince, bring over some rope from that center wagon.”

  One of the troopers obeyed and Billy Jack swiftly secured Oliver. Dusty looked around the camp, seeing sullen resentment on Yankee faces and interest among his own men. However the Texans still had the situation well under control and Dusty aimed to keep it that way.

  “What in hell made him act that ways, Cap’n Dusty?” asked Billy Jack after completing his task.

  “Damned if I know,” Dusty replied. “Give me the key and I reckon I’ll find out about it.”

  Walking to the box, Dusty circled and studied it. By all outer appearances, Oliver took a lot of trouble and considerable risk for nothing. The box was maybe three foot long, by two high and deep, made of white pine, with a built-in lock to its hinged lid. Although Dusty held the key in his hand, he did not offer to use it. Unless he missed his guess, Oliver tried first to drive a bullet into the lock and then kick it. Not to jam its mechanism, for that would delay the opening only the few minutes required to smash through the lid.

  So why did Oliver chance being killed by trying to shoot at the lock?

  Slowly Dusty turned the box on end and examined its sides, but he saw nothing in their design of workmanship to interest him. Then he looked at the bottom. It had a stout framework screwed firmly around its edges to hold the base on to the sides.

  “Never saw a box with its bottom screwed on afore, Cap’n Dusty,” commented Billy Jack, standing behind the small Texan.

  “Likely there’s a good reason for it,” Dusty answered. “Guidon!” The company’s guidon-carrier came over from where he had stood awaiting orders. “Fetch me a screw-driver from one of the wagons.”

  “Yo!” answered the young man who carried the Company’s identifying pennant on the march, while attending to the commanding officer’s mount as required.

  While waiting for the screw-driver, Dusty collected Oliver’s Derringer from where it lay on the ground and walked over to the Union officers’ fire.

  “Why d’you reckon a man of the church carried a Derringer, Captain Wormold?” he asked, showing the small pistol to them.

  “You mean he tried to shoot you?” asked Wormold.

  “Something like that.”

  “He thought you meant to rob him,” suggested the first lieutenant.

  “That’d be a mighty Christian way to act, mister,” Dusty drawled. “Shooting a man down to save some religious tracts. Especially when I’d told him that we’d not take them were that all he carried.”

  “Did he know you’d keep your word?” asked the first lieutenant.

  “That depends on the kind of officers he’s come across on your side, mister,” Dusty answered. “And remember one thing, mister; when he made his move, he might easy have stirred up a mess that cost damned near all your men their lives.”

  “But Mr. Oliver’s a man of peace,” Benson put in. “He’d not know the danger, Captain Fog.”

  “I’ve got the screw-driver, Cap’n,” called the guidon-carrier.

  “Excuse me, gentlemen,” Dusty said and turned to walk back to the box.

  The short talk had been a waste of time in one respect, although it enabled Dusty to clarify his position over the incident. Despite having watched carefully, he failed to detect the slightest hint that the Yankee officers knew their passenger to be other than a member of the Baptist Mission For Indian Betterment.

  Taking the screw-driver, Dusty knelt by the box and went carefully to work. After removing the screws, he moved the framework and slid away the bottom board. Before his eyes lay proof that Oliver had good reason for not wanting the box open.

  “Whooee!” the guidon-carrier yelped, staring down with eyes bugged out like organ stops. “I never before saw that much money in all my life.”

  His comment was very apt. All the interior space of the box was filled with packs of new Confederate money. While the guidon-carrier looked down and saw no more than the bare sight of the money, Dusty stared and thought. The small Texan wondered why a Yankee civilian traveling on a Union Army supply convoy would be carrying a large sum of the enemy’s money.

  One answer sprang straight to mind. The U.S. Secret Service maintained spy-rings throughout Texas, Arkansas and the Indian Nations and its members needed rebel money for operating expenses. Most likely Oliver acted as pay-master for them. His actions earlier proved that he knew of the box’s contents and sought to destroy them before they fell into the rebels’ hands.

  In which case Oliver became a catch of major importance. Most likely the Confederate Secret Service would be only to pleased to have in their hands a man so high among their opposite numbers that he carried payments for Yankee spies. With any amount of luck, Company
‘C’ ought to return to the Regiment’s headquarters in time to hand over Oliver to a person who would know the best way to deal with him.

  While studying the money, Dusty became aware of the apparent thickness of the box’s walls. He took out three of the pads of money from level with the lock and looked into the space. It seemed that the inside of the box had been coated with a familiar-looking material. Unless Dusty missed his guess as he ran a finger over the box’s lining, the material was wet-stretched pig’s intestines coated with chemicals to make them inflammable and shellacked for a water-resistant finish. Self-consuming cartridges made of the same material sometimes came his way and he could not mistake the sight or touch of the lining. Nor did he feel the solid hardness of wood beneath the pig’s skin, instead it gave slightly as if some softer substance separated it from the pine.

  Dusty went no further with his experiments, preferring to leave the solving of the box’s mystery to hands trained in such work. He put the three pads he had taken into his pocket, then telling the guidon-carrier to secure the box’s base, Dusty called Red and Billy Jack to him. They saw enough of the contents to arouse their interest.

  “Could be the lil feller didn’t know what was inside,” Billy Jack commented.

  “Happen he thought it was the church funds,” Red went on with a grin.

  “You’re a big help,” Dusty answered. “This’s why he tried to put a bullet into the lock.”

  “That wouldn’t stop us opening the box for long,” Red said. ‘We could easy bust in the lid.”

  “Didn’t need to,” Billy Jack put in. “He’d already give me the key—”

  “And didn’t make his move until after I’d told you to leave opening it up,” Dusty pointed out. “I reckon we’ll let an armorer take a look at that box.”

  “If you’re thinking what I know you’re thinking,” Billy Jack said fervently. “Thanks for stopping me.”

  “It’s my pleasure,” Dusty assured him. “I’d rather have the devil I know than start getting a new sergeant major used to my ways. Get ready to pull out.”