Escape from Helmira_The Great Civil War Prison Escape by Fred Holmes

Author:Fred Holmes [Holmes, Fred]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kamel Press, LLC
Published: 2018-11-13T00:00:00+00:00

* * * * *

Crawford put the oars in the oarlocks and guided the skiff into the mainstream. He let the oars rest on the gunwales as the current pulled them away from the two figures rapidly receding from view.

“Did you hit them, James?” Rummy asked.

“I think I hit the girl. He pulled her out of the water, but the last I could see she wasn’t moving. I mighta killed her. I didn’t mean to … I just wanted to scare them away.”

“I don’t rightly know why they’re after us,” Traweek said. “But if they’re Union, they’re probably trying to capture us. Say, where’s the shotgun?”

“Could be bounty hunters. And I dropped the shotgun in the river. We were out of shells.”

“I dunno. I don’t think Feds would have a bounty up that fast. We’ve only been out of Elmira, what? Maybe three days, now. That’d be pretty fast, and who would they decide to go after? We got at least four other pairs of prisoners all going in different directions. And then, there’s the girl. She ain’t no bounty hunter. What do you think, James?”

“I think they’re after Rummy. Back there in the water, they were definitely after him. Come clean Rummy. What do you say about that?”

Rummy knew he wasn’t going to get away with stories about spells and magic. He had to give them something solid they could believe in, something appropriate to 1864.

“Well, I guess you got me there,” said Rummy. “I never fought with the Stonewall Brigade. I was working as a courier, or smuggler if you wish, for Southern Express. Not many knew it, but Southern was owned, partly at least, by Adams Express Company. Adams accused me of embezzling fifty thousand dollars, which I didn’t. But I had smuggled some cash through the Yankee lines to deliver to Southern. That’s when I got caught by those Pinkerton detectives. They stuck me in Elmira until they could make arrangements to get me in court. They probably had their hands full and figured I wasn’t going anyplace. They must have decided they could leave me in that hell hole until they could find time to take me back North.

“Then, when I escaped, Adams Express again put the Pinkertons on me.”

“Yeah, but that don’t explain that girl. She wasn’t no Pinkerton.”

“You don’t know that. I worked around many Pinkertons, and they were starting to hire quite a few women. Started with Kate Warne. She was successful and could go places men couldn’t, so they hired more. I expect the woman chasing us is a Pinkerton.”

Crawford asked, “Where could a woman go a man couldn’t?”

“For one, she could go on the arm of a Confederate Officer to a fancy ball, and you know how women like to talk. All she’d have to do was keep her mouth shut and her ears open. Yep, a woman can go places a man can’t. You’ve heard of the Yellow Rose of Texas? She had Santa Anna between the sheets when the Texas boys attacked.

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