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Uncle Sam's Boys as Sergeants, a novel by H. Irving Hancock |
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Chapter 21. The Enemy Has His Innings |
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_ CHAPTER XXI. THE ENEMY HAS HIS INNINGS "I'D much better have stayed up the tree and been shot out of it!" flashed through Sergeant Hal's startled brain. "Howdy!" jeered Hinkey, leering wickedly. "Didn't expect to see me, did you?" "No," Hal admitted frankly. "It's my inning now, Overton." "It looks like it." "And I'm to have my own way with you--you officers' boot-lick!" "That's a lie, Hinkey, and you know it!" broke in the deep, indignant voice of Private Dietz. "Overton's a man, first, last and always. He's worth a million of your kind." "Good!" added Private Johnson valiantly. "And true, too! I never realized it until to-day, either." "Oh, you both hold your tongues," ordered Hinkey, glaring over at the pair of bound soldiers who lay beyond. "You fellows are no good, either. No man that'll stay in the Army is any good." "I'm glad to know why you left, Hinkey," jeered Dietz. "I've wondered a lot about that." "Oh, have you?" snarled Hinkey. "Nobody but a boot-lick would stay in the Army, and I don't lick any man's boots, not for the whole Army." "Come, hurry up, Hink, and have your grudge satisfied, and come along. We don't want to be caught by a lot of soldiers. All the shooting we've done here will be sure to attract the hunters." "No it won't," rejoined Hinkey. "We trailed the hunting parties, and they went out in three squads, in three different directions. Now, any of the hunters that hear a lot of firing will only think that one of the other parties has run into a lot of game." This was true. Hal Overton hadn't thought of it before in that light. And, in addition, it was rather unlikely that any of the hunters had chanced to see his mirror-thrown signals in the short time that had passed before the glass had been shot from his hands. The rascal floored by the revolver which the sergeant had thrown was now coming to, for one of the crew had been dashing water in his face. Not far away sat the man whose jaw Hal had damaged. He was groaning a bit, despite his efforts to make no fuss. "Look at our two mates this sergeant boy has put out of action," growled Hinkey, trying to inflame his comrades. "They were hit in fair fight," replied the leader. "The sergeant kid doesn't belong to our side, but I don't hold his fighting grit against him." "You'd hold anything and everything against him if you knew him as well as I do," retorted Hinkey. He was still standing over his young victim, gazing down gloatingly at him. "And now the time has come to square matters up with you, younker," went on Hinkey tauntingly. "It's all my way now." Hal looked up at him steadily, but without speaking. The boy knew better than to say anything foolish that would needlessly anger this brute, who now held the situation all in his own hands. "Well, why don't you talk back, Overton?" demanded Hinkey sneeringly. Just the ghost of a smile flickered over Overton's face. "Laughing at me, are you?" yelled Hinkey, trying to work himself into a more brutal rage. Hal spoke at last. "No," he answered. "If you ain't laughing," continued the brute, "what are you doing?" "Just thinking how sorry I am for you," Hal flashed back coolly. "Sorry?" echoed the fellow bitterly. "You'd better waste your sorrow on yourself! What are you feeling badly about me for?" "I was thinking," went on Hal slowly, and with no trace of taunt in his voice, "what a sad come-down you have had. You were in the Army, wearing its uniform, and with every right to look upon yourself as a man. You could have gone on being trusted. You could have raised yourself. Instead, you have followed a naturally bad bent and made yourself a thousand times worse than you ever needed to be. Hinkey, do you wonder that I'm sorry for you, when I find that you have fallen outside of an honest man's estate?" "Good! Tell him some more, Sarge," came from Dietz. "Do you hear that?" raged Hinkey, turning and catching his new leader's eye. "Do you hear what the boot-lick insinuates about the new crowd I've joined?" "It's your affair--your battle, Hinkey," replied the leader grimly. "Don't try to drag us in." "You're making such a beast of yourself, Hinkey, that even your own gang don't respect you," taunted Johnson. "A crowd of Colorado wild-cats couldn't respect such a fellow," supplied Dietz. With a snarl Hinkey ran over to where Dietz and Johnson lay, giving each a hard kick. The soldiers suffered the violence in silence. "You two mind your own affairs," warned Hinkey savagely. "Don't turn me against you. I don't want to give either of you as bad a dose as I've planned for this sergeant boy." "Hurry up, Hinkey," warned the leader impatiently. "You're wasting time that's worth more to us than money. You said that if we'd capture this boy for you, you'd cart him away on your back, to settle with him later. Now do it!" "All in a minute," promised the deserter. "But, first of all, are you going to take the other two soldiers with you?" "No. We don't need 'em." "Then I don't want this fellow Overton to go along with us with his eyes open. He'd know our whole route if he managed to get away from us, and then he'd bring the regulars down on us. You don't want that?" "Of course not." "Then I'll stun this sergeant boy, and I'll do it so hard that he won't open his eyes in ten miles of traveling," promised Hinkey. With that he turned to Hal. "Overton, I'm going to hit you, and I'm going to hit you so hard that you won't even see stars. Close your eyes if you're afraid to see the blow coming!" But Hal merely opened his eyes the wider, smiling back with a confidence in himself that maddened the brute. With a snarl like a panther's Hinkey crouched over the young sergeant, holding his hand high before striking. _ |
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