Mississippi Raider by J.T. Edson

Author:J.T. Edson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: adventure, mississippi, escapism, us civil war, westerns, jt edson, the confederates, the union
Publisher: Piccadilly Publishing

Chapter Eleven – There’s No Room In This Organization

“You know something, Miss Boyd?” Alfred Higgins said in the low tones they had employed all through JL the successful robbery they had just committed, as he and the slender, beautiful Southern girl were approaching the point on the rear wall of the house where the padded sack lay across its broken-glass-surmounted top. “I’ve heard Mrs. Crumb, as you reckon the skivvy ’n’ corporal calls her behind her back, has got some pretty good torn, none of it jar neither, and it’d make a nice tickle for us if we start working two-handed.”

“That’s a thoroughly immoral suggestion to make to a future member of the Confederate States Secret Service, sir,” Belle Boyd declared in mock horror. She had learned enough about the argot of London’s criminals to be aware that a “nice tickle” referred to a good quantity of loot, “torn” was an abbreviation of tomfoolery and Cockney rhyming slang for jewelry, while “jar” meant the items were made from a stone inferior to diamonds. “Anyway, as soon as he hears what’s happened, which he will even though I’ll have returned all we’re taking away, General Crumb will take precautions against another robbery happening.”

“He’s just sneaky enough to do it,” Higgins admitted with what appeared to be a heartfelt sigh and cast a glance redolent of disappointment at the building. “But, same’s I said, it’d’ve been a bloody nice tickle, just what me mum always wanted me to have when she sent me off at night to go on the climb back home.”

“I can always make it worth your whi—!” the girl began.

“Not on your Nellie, Miss Boyd!” the Cockney refused, vehemently and yet with a politeness that might have surprised some of his criminal acquaintances. “Thank you for offering again. But, like what I said before, what your dad done for me that night in des Boys Gilbert’s place’s all the paying I’ll ever need for helping you.”

‘Then we might as well take stoppo,” Belle suggested, employing another of the terms that had cropped up when she was listening to the anecdotes her companion had told her about his illicit activities before coming to America for reasons he had not disclosed nor had she questioned.

“Blimey, I hope not!” Higgins asserted. “That means we have to take our bleeding hook doing a lively, ’cause we’ve been lumbered ’n’ they’re after us.”

“Poppa always use to tell me that America and England were two nations divided by a common language,” the girl said with a smile, laying down the bundle containing the items she was removing from the headquarters of General Wilberforce-Crumley so she could play her part in the scaling of the wall surrounding the property. “And I’ve come to know just what he meant since meeting you.”

“Be fair, miss,” the Cockney protested, also grinning and thinking what a great pity he would never have such a partner with whom he would be willing to break his habit and work two-handed. “With all due respect to your dad, it was us who invented the bleeding language.

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