Shoulder-Straps: A Novel of New York and the Army, 1862 Page 7

  CHAPTER VI.

  COLONEL EGBERT CRAWFORD AND BELL CRAWFORD--SOME SPECULATIONS ON THE SPYSYSTEM--JOSEPHINE HARRIS ON A RECONNOISSANCE, AND WHAT SHE SAW ANDHEARD.

  At any other time than the present, before proceeding with the relationof the events that transpired in the house on West 3-- Street after thearrival of Colonel Egbert Crawford and Miss Bell Crawford,--it might beboth proper and politic to indulge in a disquisition on the meanness ofpeeping and the general iniquity of the spy system. At any othertime--not now, when the country is deep in the horrors of a war thatprincipally seems to have been a failure on our side because we have not"peeped" and "spied" enough.[2] The rebels have had the advantage of usfrom the beginning,--not only because they were fighting comparativelyon their own ground and among a friendly population, but because they atonce applied the spy system when they began, and nosed out all oursecrets of army and cabinet, while we have neglected spying andscouting, and made every important military movement a plunge in thedark.

  [Footnote 2: December 15th, 1862.]

  Every military commander has blamed every other military commander forinefficiency in this respect, and when brought to the test he has showedthat he himself had a _terra incognita_ to go over in making his firstadvance. Quite a number of well-known people who were present mayremember a few words of conversation which took place on the UnionCourse at one of the contests there between Princess and Flora Temple(was it not?) in June, 1861. Schenck had just plunged a few regiments,huddled up in railroad cars, into the mouths of the rebel batteries atVienna, as if he had been taking a contract to feed some great militarymonster with victims as quickly and in as compact a form as possible.The country was horrified over the slaughter, Ball's Bluff andFredericksburgh not having yet offered up their holocausts to dwarf itby comparison. An officer of prominence under McDowell, then in commandof the Potomac Army under Scott, had come home on a furlough and waspresent. Many inquiries were made of him by acquaintances, as to theprogress and prospects of the war. Among other things, the Viennablunder was called to his attention.

  "Oh," said the officer--"that was one of the most stupid ofblunders--all owing to the fact that the ground had not been properlyreconnoitered beforehand! They seem to have had neither scouts norspies, and what else than failure _could_ be the result?"

  "True," said one of the bystanders. "And the Potomac army--that is goingto advance pretty soon, as I hear--is _that_ all right in the respectyou have named?"

  "What? _McDowell's_ army?" said the officer, contemptuously. "When youcatch _Irwin McDowell_ not knowing exactly what is ahead of him andaround him, you will catch a weasel asleep!"

  So all the bystanders believed, and were confident accordingly. Fourweeks afterwards Irwin McDowell fought the battle of Manassas, theresult of which showed the most utter ignorance of the opposingfortifications and forces in front, that had ever been recorded in anyhistory![3]

  [Footnote 3: December, 1862.]

  So much for the confidence that _one_ entertains, of being able to avoidthe blunders of the other! Not one of the predecessors of Scherazaide,it is probable, went to the marriage bed of the Sultan without believingthat _she_ could fix the wavering love of the tyrant and avoid the fatethreatened for the morrow! And yet some hundreds of fair white bosomsfurnished a morning banquet to the fishes, before Scherazaide the Wisesucceeded in entangling the Sultan in the meshes of her golden speech!

  It may be a little difficult to guess what this has to do with thenarration. Simply this--that one of the most amiable and fascinating ofwomen played what might have been called "a mean trick" on the occasion,and there has seemed to exist some occasion for making her excuse beforerelating the iniquity. Having settled that during the War for the Unionthere has not been half enough of "spying," on the side of right,--andhaving before us not only the examples of John Champe and Nathan Hale,beloved of Washington, but of the two estimable young men not longemerged from under the area steps in 5-- Street, let us dismiss thecontempt with which we have been wont to regard Paul Pry and Betty thehousemaid, listening at key-holes, in our favorite dramas, and lookmercifully upon the peccadilloes of Miss Josephine Harris.

  Colonel Egbert Crawford, who entered the room of the invalid on thatoccasion, was a tall and rather fine-looking man, with the least dash ofiron-gray in his hair and a decidedly soldierly bearing. He had darkeyes, a little too small and not always direct in their glance, but onlyclose observers would have been able to make the latter discovery. Hadhe been wise, he would have worn something more than the full moustacheand military side-whiskers, for the under lip and chin being closeshaven the play of the muscles of the lip, and its shape, were visible.The lip was heavy and sullen, if not cruel; and any one who watched himclosely enough (close as Josephine Harris had sometimes been watchinghim, say!) could see that the under lip had an almost constant twitchingmotion, and that the hands, when unoccupied, were always opening andshutting themselves much too often for a mind at ease. He was dressed inthe full regulation blue uniform, with fatigue-cap, in spite of the heatof the weather, and with the eagle on shoulder and the red belts andgilt hook at waist suggesting the sword that was to come some time orother.

  Miss Bell or Isabella Crawford, sister of Richard, who made herappearance with the Colonel after her more or less successful searchfor the peculiar shade of cerise ribbon,--demands a word of description,and only a word. She was of medium height, well formed and rather plump,with a pleasantly-moulded face and dark hair and eyes, undeniablyhandsome and ladylike, but with something weak and languid about themouth, and indefinably creating the impression of a woman incapable ofbeing quite content with affairs as they came, unless they came verypleasantly and fashionably, or of making any well-directed effort toimprove them. She was faultlessly dressed and irreproachably gloved, anda close observer would have judged, after a minute inspection, that shewould be better at home in the pleasant idleness of a ball or anopera-matinee than where she might be required either to do or to bear.

  "A nice couple and belong together! Neither one of them good foranything!" had more than once been Joe Harris' irreverent comment, whenlooking at them as they entered or left carriage or ball room, a littleearlier in her acquaintance and when she had not yet enjoyed so manyopportunities for studying the peculiar character of Col. EgbertCrawford. Just now she would have had her doubts about sacrificing eventhe useless Bell to a man whom she herself began to dislike so much.

  "How do you feel, brother?" asked the sister as she came in,--evidentlymore as a matter of duty than because she felt any peculiar interest inthe answer.

  "You look pale--your face is drawn--you seem to be in pain!" was theobservation of the Colonel, before the invalid could answer, and takingthe hand of the latter without seeming to notice the shudder with whichhis touch was met.

  "Perhaps so--cousin--Egbert--yes--I do _not_ feel quite so well as Ihave done," muttered the invalid, who seemed all the while to be makinga violent effort to command face and feeling. "There was music in thestreet, you know--I heard it and I suppose that it agitated me."

  "Sorry! tut! tut! tut! You ought to be getting better by this time, Ishould think!" said the Colonel, laying his finger on the pulse ofRichard and looking up at vacancy as a Doctor has the habit of doingwhen he performs that very imposing (imposing upon _whom_?) operation.What was there in his glance, that met the eye of Joe Harris, as he didso--and gave her so plain a confirmation of her worst suspicions? Whatpower is it that lets in the daylight on our darkest wishes and worstmotives, just at the moment when we flatter ourselves that we have themmore carefully hidden away in darkness than ever before? Joe was stillat the window, where she had been joined by Bell, the latter alreadyhalf-forgetful of her sick brother and eager to show some astoundingpurchase she had just made at one of the dry-goods palaces.

  "There--go away, girls; you bother poor Richard with your chatter!" saidColonel Egbert, affecting great cordiality and a little familiarity.(The fact was, as may have been noticed, that Bell had spoken
only fivewords aloud and Joe not a word, since the two had entered.) "Richard isnot so well, I am afraid. I will sit by him awhile and you may go awayand gabble to your heart's content."

  "Just as you like," answered Isabella, doubling up a half-unrolledlittle package and preparing to go. "I have some little things to lookafter up-stairs. Will you go with me, Joe? Of course you are not goingaway until after dinner?"

  "Humph! I do not know that I am going away at all!" said the wild girl,her words very different from her thought at the moment. "You are suchnice people, and Dick is such an interesting invalid, and whoknows--well, I will not speculate any more about that, _in public_, justyet! Yes, Bell, go up-stairs and attend to your finery; I am going downinto the basement to ask Norah for two slices of bread-and-butter andthe wing of a cold chicken!"

  And away through the noiseless glass door buzzed Josephine, on her wayto the basement, followed by Isabella on her way to the inner penetraliaof the second floor; while Col. Egbert Crawford shied his fatigue-cap atthe desk and drew up his chair to the side of the sofa occupied by theinvalid. Isabella really went up-stairs, and for the purpose designated.Shame for Joe Harris, it must be said that while she really descended tothe basement and made an inroad on Norah's larder to the extent of thewing of cold chicken and _one_ slice of bread-and-butter, yet shethrust both the edibles into a piece of paper and into her pocket, atthe imminent risk of greasing the latter convenient receptacle, and wasback again on the parlor floor within the space of one and a halfminutes by the little Geneva watch which she carried so bewitchingly ather belt. If mischief and sad earnest can both be blended in theexpression of one face at one and the same time, they were so blended inhers at that moment. What was in the wind and who was to suffer?--forsuffer somebody always did when Josey fairly started out on a campaign!

  From the door leading to the basement, to that opening into the parlorfrom the hall, she probably stepped lighter than she had ever beforedone since playing blind-man's buff in early girlhood; and it isdoubtful whether that parlor door had ever before opened and shut withso little noise, since the skilful hanger first oiled the plated hinges.From the door to the back part of the room she went on tip-toe--the factcannot be denied,--little noise as her light shoes would have made onthe heavy velvet. We all have something of the cat about us--man and theother animals; though the quality developes itself under differentcircumstances. Pussy treads even softer than usual, when after thecoveted cream; that larger pussy, the tiger, steals lightly towards theambushed hunter who is to furnish him the next delicious meal; and"Tarquin's ravishing strides" are undoubtedly a misnomer, for the Romanmust have been something more or less than man if he did not tip-toe hissandals or cast them off altogether, when he stole towards the midnightbed of Lucrece.

  The cream for which Pussy Harris--shame upon her for that same!--wasjust then making an adventurous foray,--was _a hearing of theconversation which might take place between Richard Crawford and hiscousin_! That conversation she had determined to hear, at all hazards;for what, she scarcely knew herself, but with an undefinable impressionthat she must hear it--that (Jesuitically, and of course most horribledoctrine!) the end might justify the otherwise indefensible means--andthat--that--in short, that she was going to do it, and this settled thematter as well as finished up the reason!

  The piano stood on the left, passing down from the parlor door towardsthe rear of the room, and behind it was a small inlaid table coveredwith books, and a large easy chair designed for lazy reading. Any personin the chair would be within twelve inches of the glass doors and notover ten feet from the two men at the sofa in the little back room.Josephine distinctly heard, through the thin glass, the hum of theirvoices as she approached the table, but not many of the words wereaudible. Confound it!--she thought--her plan of sitting in the chair,pretending to read as a safeguard against possible detection, andoverhearing by laying her head back against the door--this would neverdo. Time was pressing--finesse must give way to boldness; and in thesixteenth of a minute thereafter the sliding doors were softly parted byless than half an inch of space--too little to be readily noticed fromthe back room, which was the lighter of the two, and yet enough to seethrough if necessary, (but she did not intend to look,) and to _hear_through, which was the matter of first consequence. And there shestood--an eaves-dropper of the first order--a flush of shame and ofhalf-conscious guilt on cheek and brow, and a wild, startled look in hereyes, such as a hare might show when listening for the second bay of thehound--liable to be caught by some one entering the parlor from thehall, or by the Colonel taking a fancy to enter the room for anypurpose--and yet chained there, with her ear within an inch of theopening, as if present happiness and eternal salvation had both dependedupon her keeping that position!

  Could anything be more shameful?--anything more despicable? Was ever aheroine so placed, even by English romancers or French dramatists? Andwas not the long dissertation at the beginning of this chapter, to provethe applicability of the spy system to war time, an absolute necessity?

  What might have passed precedently, while she was looking after thechicken and the bread-and-butter, Josephine had no means of divining. Atthe time of her assuming her post of observation, Richard Crawford wasstill lying back upon the sofa, and looking up; as he had been half anhour before when she was herself conversing with him. If the spasms hadnot ceased altogether, they were at least conquered by the will andconcealed from the eyes of the Colonel, as they had not been from hers.The young girl thought she could detect, too, upon the face of theinvalid, a less hopeless look, and some evidence of more determinedinsight in the glance, than she had marked for a considerable period.Colonel Egbert Crawford was sitting with his chair drawn up reasonablyclose in front of his cousin, and conversing eagerly with him, yet withhis face partially turned away most of the time, and not meeting hisgaze directly as most honest and earnest men do the observation of thosewith whom they converse on important subjects. Perhaps that dispositionof the Colonel's face gave both his seen and his unseen listeners betteropportunities for close study of his expression than they mightotherwise have enjoyed.

  "I am sorry to say that things are _not_ as we both wish them to be, atWest Falls," the young girl heard the Colonel say. "Of course I am notless anxious than yourself to have everything arranged and theproperty--"

  "Ah, there is some _property_ involved, then! and at West Falls, of allthe places in the world!" commented the uninvited listener, speaking toherself, and with her words very carefully kept between her teeth, aswas becoming under such circumstances--always provided there could beanything "becoming" about the affair.

  "Uncle John," the Colonel went on to say, "seems to have imbibed somekind of singular prejudice against your mode of life in the city, if notagainst you, and Mary--"

  "Humph! there is a 'Mary'--a woman in the case, as well as theproperty," commented the listener. "Little while as I have been here,the thing already begins to grow interesting!"

  "Well, Mary? what of her? Why does she answer my letters no more?" askedthe invalid, calming his voice by an evidently strong effort andspeaking as the Colonel paused for an instant. "Does she too begin toshare so bitterly in the--in the--"

  "In the prejudice? I am sorry to say--yes," the Colonel went on, "thoughI do not think that either of them could give a reason. I tried to probethe matter a little when there, but the old gentleman answered me soshortly that I had no excuse to go on; and Mary--"

  "You did not say anything to _her_?" broke in the invalid, with the sameevident suppression in his voice.

  "Of course not!" was the answer. "You know me, Richard, I hope, and knowthat I would not have lost a chance of saying anything in your favor--"

  "Trust _you_ for _that_!" was the mental comment of the listener."Wouldn't _you_ glorify _him_! Wouldn't _you_ make him blue and gold,with gilt edges! I see you doing it!"

  "--If I had any opportunity," concluded the Colonel.

  "I should think not," said the invalid, his words so forced fr
om betweenhis teeth that his interlocutor, had he been less absorbed in his owncalculations, must have noticed the difference from his usual manner.

  "Richard Crawford, you are beginning to wake, for you know that man islying--I see it by your eyes!" was the comment of the young girl, thistime.

  "I am going to West Falls again in a few days--that is, if we do not getorders for Washington," continued the Colonel; "and if I have yourpermission--as you are not likely to be well enough to go out even bythat time--I shall speak to both on the subject, as it would be theworld's pity if you should be thrown out of so fine a property and thepossession of a girl who I believe once loved you, by false reports,or--"

  "False reports? eh? who should have circulated false reports?" asked theinvalid, his face firing for a moment and his voice temporarily underless command. But the momentary flush passed away, and it was only withthe querulous voice and petulant manner of sickness that he concluded:"Eh, well, no matter; we will see about all that by-and-by, when I getwell."

  "That is right--I am glad to hear you speak so hopefully," said theColonel. "All will be right, no doubt, when you _get well_." Did he ordid he not lay a peculiar stress on the two words, as the old jokersused to do on a few others when they informed the boys that the statueof St. Paul, in the niche in the front of St. Paul's church, always camedown and took a drink of water from the nearest pump, _when it heard theclock strike twelve_? If there was such an emphasis, did RichardCrawford hear and recognize it? That some one else in the immediatevicinity did, and duly commented upon it, is beyond a question.

  "You must modulate your voice better than that, Colonel Egbert Crawford,before you go on the stage!" said the wild girl. "You think he isdying--you mean he shall die--I have an impression that I did not comehere for nothing, after all!"

  "And now," said the Colonel, rising, and taking out his watch, "I mustleave you. We have a recruiting meeting at ---- Hall at six, and I mustbe there without fail. Oh," as if suddenly recollecting somethingcomparatively unimportant, that had been overlooked in the pressure ofmore interesting matter--"I had nearly forgotten. Your bandage--is itall right? I hope the Doctor and Bell have not found out the secret, soas to laugh at what they would call our _superstition_. Shall I renewit? I believe I have some of the preparation in one or another of mypockets," feeling in one and then another, as if doubtful. "Ah, here itis," and he took out from one of his pockets which he had hurriedly goneover with his hands at least half a dozen of times, a small black box,four or five inches in length and perhaps two in width by an inch deep.

  Were Josephine Harris' eyes playing fantastic tricks with her on thatoccasion; or did she see, as that little black box met the view, amomentary repetition of the suffering spasm which had crossed the faceof Richard Crawford half an hour before, when she first suggested aconflict of interests between them? At all events the spasm, if such itwas, passed away, and he merely answered, languidly:

  "Yes, thank you, Egbert--yes, if you please."

  At this stage of the proceedings, had Josephine Harris been a "reallady," or had she possessed any well-defined sense of "propriety," shewould have left her post of observation on the instant. For though theColonel was partially between her and the patient, she saw him open thelittle black box, take out a broad knife from his vest pocket, and thenproceed to other operations very improper for a young lady to witness.She saw Richard Crawford unbutton his vest, a little assisted by theColonel. What followed she could not see, very fortunately. All that shecould make out, was that some sort of narrow white bandage seemed tohave been removed from the breast or stomach of the invalid--that theColonel took out a dark paste from the box with his knife, spread aportion of it on the opened bandage, then re-folded it and assisted inreplacing it on the breast or stomach and re-arranging the disorderedclothing. This done, and the box put back into his pocket, he took hiscap and stooped down to shake hands with Richard; whereupon Josephine,knowing that his way out would be through the parlor, shoved the twodoors together by a silent but very nervous movement, and managed toescape from the room as silently, before the Colonel's hand had yet beenlaid upon the glass door to open it.

  There were half a dozen unoccupied rooms on the next floor, as she wellknew, and up the stairs and into one of these she bounded, her cheeksstill more aglow than they had been when she set out on her"reconnoissance," and her eyes still more wild and startled, while astrange tremor creeping at her heart told her that she had been witnessto much more than could yet be shaped into words or embodied even inthought! Poor girl!--how her brain throbbed and how her heart beat liketen thousand little trip-hammers!--the usual and very proper penaltywhich we pay for an indiscretion!