The Devil Gun Read Online Free Page B

and started to rise.
    ‘Listen to me, Miss Dodd!’ Marsden put in, almost spilling the plate of stew as he tried to reach out and catch her arm. ‘Please listen!’
    The girl had started to draw back, but something in Marsden’s voice halted her and turned her eyes from the Tranter at the tent’s door to his face once more.
    ‘I’ll listen, but I’m not saying I’ll believe a word of it.’
    ‘I’m not denying that I’m a Union officer and that I’m loyal to the North. But I learned something important and I must tell it to a Confederate Army officer.’
    ‘What did you learn?’ asked the girl.
    ‘Two members of my regiment have a—’ Suddenly the girl swung her head towards the door, turned back to Marsden and said, ‘You start eating, mister.’
    Before Marsden could make a reply, the tent’s flap lifted and Ashley peered in suspiciously.
    ‘You’re taking long enough, Jill,’ he said.
    ‘Maybe you’d like to feed him,’ the girl answered.
    ‘What was you talking about?’
    ‘Feller reckons he has something real important to tell, something that might save a lot of our folks.’
    ‘Has, huh?’ grunted Ashley. ‘What is it, Yankee?’ Marsden thought fast and knew that he must not speak of his knowledge to the bushwhacker. Not even the dreadful meaning of the scheme would change Ashley’s attitude and knowing of it would give the bushwhacker something of saleable value. Maybe Ashley could evaluate the true worth, offered in the right place of Marsden’s knowledge. Colonel Stedloe might pay well to have word of the scheme suppressed until after its successful completion and would not want too close an investigation into Marsden’s desertion. No, it would never do to let Ashley learn what brought him over the Ouachita.
    ‘Come on, mister,’ the girl said. ‘Tell us about it.’
    ‘Well—It’s—I——’ Marsden forced himself to stutter and fumble like a man caught unaware or detected in a lie. ‘It’s real important.’
    ‘I just bet it is,’ boomed Ashley. ‘So important that you reckoned Jill might set you free to slip away.’
    ‘You lousy, stinking Yankee!’ Jill spat out, catching up the coffee mug and hurling its contents into Marsden’s face.
    While not boiling, the coffee proved hot enough to make Marsden rear up and tip over backwards. The plate of stew tipped from his knees and fell to the ground as he went. Jill turned and stormed out of the tent, scooping up her Tranter in passing and without a backward glance.
    Bending down, a grinning Ashley helped Marsden sit up. ‘You shouldn’t’ve tried that, soldier-boy. Jill’s a smart gal, but she could fall for a good-looking feller like you. Only she’d blow your head off as soon as look at you for wearing a Yankee uniform. Like to tell me what did bring you over here?’
    ‘I’m on a scouting mission,’ answered Marsden, trying a bluff. It missed by a good country mile.
    ‘In full dress and alone?’ grinned Ashley. ‘Naw, I don’t reckon so. You’re on something important, just like you told Jill.’
    ‘Maybe I just got tired of fighting and want to surrender.’
    ‘Can’t say as I go a lot on that, boy.’
    ‘You could find out by handing me over to the Confederate Army. After all, you are fighting on their side.’
    ‘Sure I am,’ replied Ashley. ‘Only I’m fighting for me. I don’t give a damn whether they free the slaves or keep ‘em as they are. Made good money before the War both running slaves to the North and setting ‘em free, and sending ‘em back to their owners for the reward. Only reason I support the South’s so that if they win I’ll be able to go on making money the old way.’
    ‘How do your men feel about that?’
    ‘ ‘Bout the same as me. They’d rather ride with me and make money than be in some army outfit.’
    ‘And Jill Dodd?’
    A cold, warning scowl came to Ashley’s face. ‘Jill hates you Yankees for what you did to her brother. If some reb regiment’d have