tion>Harold Frederic
The Deserter, and Other Stories: A Book of Two Wars
Published by Good Press, 2019
EAN 4064066250157
Table of Contents
CHAPTER I. DISCOVERIES IN THE BARN.
CHAPTER II. A SUDDEN DEPARTURE.
CHAPTER IV. THE "MEANEST WORD."
CHAPTER V. THE DEPUTY MARSHAL.
CHAPTER VI. A HOME IN THE WOODS.
CHAPTER VII. ANOTHER CHASE AFTER MOSE.
CHAPTER I. THE VALLEY OF DEATH.
CHAPTER II. LAFE RECONNOITRES THE VALLEY.
CHAPTER III. THE BOUNTY-JUMPER.
CHAPTER IV. RED PETE IN CAPTIVITY.
CHAPTER V. LAFE RESCUES AN OFFICER, AND FINDS HIS COUSIN.
CHAPTER I. THE MAKING OF A SOLDIER.
CHAPTER II. A BURST FOR FREEDOM.
CHAPTER III. A STRANGE CHRISTMAS EVE.
CHAPTER II. SIR HEREWARD'S RING.
CHAPTER III. HOW HUGH MET THE PRINCE.
ILLUSTRATIONS.
| "'I'll unlock it bimeby—maybe'" | Frontispiece |
| PAGE | |
| "'Sh-h! Talk Lower!'" | 27 |
| "'Gimme that Gun!'" | 61 |
| "'Drop it—you!'" | 175 |
| Lafe and the Bounty-Jumper | 195 |
| "'I'm Steve Hornbeck's Son!'" | 231 |
| "Sir Watty came stalking down" | 249 |
| "'Whose Blood is this?'" | 285 |
| "He advanced and kissed the Lady's Hand" | 357 |
| "Two Dozen Pike-Heads clashed down as by a Single Touch" | 385 |
THE DESERTER.
CHAPTER I.
DISCOVERIES IN THE BARN.
It was the coldest morning of the winter, thus far, and winter is no joke on those northern tablelands, where the streams still run black in token of their forest origin, and old men remember how the deer used to be driven to their clearings for food, when the snow had piled itself breast high through the fastnesses of the Adirondacks. The wilderness had been chopped and burned backward out of sight since their pioneer days, but this change, if anything, served only to add greater bitterness to the winter's cold.
Certainly it seemed to Job Parshall that this was the coldest morning he had ever known. It would be bad enough when daylight came, but the darkness of this early hour made it almost too much for flesh and blood to bear. There had been a stray star or two visible overhead when he first came out-of-doors at half-past four, but even these were missing now.
The crusted snow in the barnyard did throw up a wee, faint light of its own, for all the blackness of the sky, but Job carried, besides a bucket, a lantern to help him in his impending struggle with the pump. This ancient contrivance had been ice-bound every morning for a fortnight past, and one needn't be the son of a prophet to foresee that this morning it would be frozen as stiff as a rock.
It
