Christmas Eve on Lonesome and Other Stories

head bare, and bowed in thought. The Kentuckians were on their way-at that moment they might be riding full speed toward the mouth of Pigeon, where floated the flag. They might gobble hi

ith a rope, and let him drop. That was enough. Lieutenant Boggs

d, "so them Kanetuckians can't ketch

of the Callahan at the mouth of the Gap, and waited restlessly Captain Wells at the door of his tent, and Flitter Bill on the stoop of his store-waited everybody but Tallow Dick, who, i

ld have

Lieutenant Skaggs feared that Boggs had been captured without the firing of a single shot-but the flag was floating s

yo'

the Gap toward freedom, and picking it with stealthy caution, foot by foot; for up there, to this day, big loose rocks mount halfway to the jagged points of the black cliffs, and a careless step would have detached one and sent an avalanche of rumbling stones down to betray him. A single sh

uckians! The wild, long-ha

ls sprang i

hey've got

crack of rifle, the hoarse cough of

g-bing! Bang-bang! Boo

reserves heard the beat of

reserve rushed after him as he fled. The

led Skaggs,"

o the river, the rumble of mule wagons, yells of terror, swift flying shapes thr

d Flitter Bill, and he, too, fl

eutenant Boggs, whose feet were the swiftest in the hills, outstripped his devoted band. Lieutenant Skaggs, being fat and slow, fell far behind his reserve, and dropped exhausted on a rock for a moment to get his breath. As he rose, panting,

ou, Jim

ou, Tom

red him in-one by the waist, the other about the neck, and, for a moment, the terrible Kentuckian-it could be none other-swung the two clea

and at the sound of his voice both men ceased to stru

kly, "take yo' thumb out o' my mouth. Lieute

-" said a

into the brush behind them-the distant beat of the army's feet ge

-sh

Flitter Bill's store, a gaping crowd about him, and the shattered remnants of the ar

Uncle Jim Richmond was sick. I hear you had some trouble l

w the army had fallen back again just when the Kentuckians were running like sheep, and how he himself had stayed in the rear with Lieutenant Boggs and Lieutenant Skaggs, "to cover their retreat, suh," and how the purveyor, if he would just go up through the Gap, wo

Hence, simply, and Flitter Bill glared, and without a word

rted his tale again, and with every pause t

in the Gap you'll find a cannon, captured,

"Speak up, nigger!" And Ta

one

houted Fl

oose climbin' over

yhall paled and stared. The crowd roared, the Army of th

ole Mayhall Wells, I'll see you o

e rod