Under the Stars and Bars Read Free

anything like it!’ Huntspill replied, glaring as if mesmerised at the flames consuming the old side-wheeler.
    ‘I’d heard the Hale’s were an improvement on the old Congreve stick-stabilised rockets Jeb Stuart used one time,’ Dusty drawled. ‘But I didn’t know they were this effective.’
    ‘They’re deadly, huh?’
    ‘Deadly enough. Only there’s more to it than just that.’
    ‘How do you mean, Captain?’
    ‘Surprise,’ Dusty elaborated. ‘You mind what we thought when we first saw those jaspers riding up?’
    ‘That they were an ordinary cavalry patrol,’ Huntspill replied.
    ‘Sure,’ Dusty said soberly. ‘Take it this way. Some of our fellers see that battery riding along between five hundred yards and a mile away across the Ouachita or the Caddo. They reckon it’s just a bunch of Yankee fly-slicers out for a ride. Then they cut loose with those rockets. Either incendiary or high-explosive’d do. It’d throw our boys into confusion. If an attack was launched straight after that, with our folk set back on their heels and wondering what the hell’s hit them, it’d have a better than fair chance of succeeding.’
    Which just about confirmed Huntspill’s summation of the situation. He looked at the small, soft-spoken, almost insignificant young man by his side and was suddenly aware of Dusty’s strength of personality. That was no bald-faced stripling, placed in a position of trust through family influence, but a shrewd, discerning cavalry officer.
    ‘What’re you figuring on doing, Captain Fog?’ the spy asked, in a far more respectful tone than he had shown up to that moment.
    ‘I’m going to spread the word to our people,’ Dusty replied.
    ‘We can’t be sure where the Yankees’ll hit with those blasted rockets,’ Huntspill protested.
    ‘Then we’ll have to guess. Likely they’ll go for the targets that’ll do most damage first, before word gets out what they’re at.’
    ‘That’s likely enough. What do you reckon it’ll be?’
    ‘There’s three comes to mind,’ Dusty replied, looking pointedly at the burning sidewheeler. ‘Unce Devil’s navy.’
    ‘Those three “tin-clads” on the Ouachita?’ grinned Huntspill, with the cheerful contempt of a man who had handled the helm of a fast boat that ran along the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers.
    ‘They might not be Big Muddy mail packets, but they’ve got four Williams rapid-fire cannon and two twelve-pounder boat-howitzers mounted on each of ‘em,’ Dusty pointed out. ‘Which they’ve done a whole heap to help stop the Yankees crossing the Ouachita.’
    ‘I’m not gainsaying it,’ the spy said, thinking of the trio of small, lightly armoured—hence the name ‘tin-’ instead of ‘iron-clad’—steamboats. Their shallow draught, no more than two feet, made them useful vessels along the winding, narrow waters of the Ouachita River. ‘Trouble being we don’t know which the battery’ll try for first.’
    ‘That’s soon settled,’ Dusty stated. ‘We’ll warn all three.’
    ‘We—?’
    ‘Me and my men.’
    ‘There’re only three of you,’ Huntspill reminded Dusty.
    ‘Why sure,’ the small Texan agreed. ‘Your message said come fast and you can’t do that at Company strength. So I just brought along a couple of my men in case you needed them.’
    ‘Then how—?’ the spy began.
    ‘The Georgia works south out of Camden,’ Dusty explained. ‘I’ll send Kiowa there with the word. The Texarkana patrols between Camden and Vaden, up in Clark County, and the Skimmer runs between Vaden and Arkadelphia. So I’ll tell Vern Hassle to cut across to Arkadelphia; and call in at Vaden on my way to tell Uncle Devil about the rocket battery. It won’t take me far out of my way.’
    No matter how he looked at the matter, Huntspill could not find fault with Dusty’s arrangements. Earlier, the spy might have doubted the youngster’s ability to make the return journey unescorted. Such a doubt now never