The Andre Norton Megapack - 15 Classic Novels and Short Stories

the plea that she herself had only been a child at the time Hunt Rennie came to Red Springs and knew very little about him. Odd that Cousin Merry had been so reticent, too. But Drew had pieced out that something big and ugly must have happened to begin all the painful tangle which had led from his grandfather’s cold hatred for Hunt Rennie, that hatred which had been transferred to Hunt Rennie’s son when the original target was gone.
    When Drew first joined the army and met Texans he had hoped that one of them might recognize his name and say:
    “Rennie? You any kin to the Rennies of-” Of where? The Brazos, the Rio country, West Texas? He had no idea in which part of that sprawling republic-become-a-state the Rennies might have been born and bred. But how he had longed in those first lonely weeks of learning to be a soldier to find one of his own—not of the Mattock clan!
    “Yes, I would like to see Texas!” Boyd pulled the blanket closer about his shoulders, curling up on his side of their bush-walled hole. “Wish these fool Yankees would know when they’re licked and get back home so we could do somethin’ like that.” He closed his eyes with a child’s determination to sleep, and by now a soldier’s ability to do so when the opportunity offered.
    Drew watched the river. The dusk was night now with the speed of the season. And the crisp of autumn hung over the water. This was the twenty-ninth of October; he counted out the dates. How long they could hold their trap they didn’t know, but at least long enough to wrest from the enemy some of the supplies they needed far worse than Sherman’s men did.
    General Buford had let four transports past their masked batteries today because they had carried only soldiers. But sooner or later a loaded ship was going to come up. And when that did—Drew’s hand assured him that the General’s red handkerchief was still inside against his ribs where he had put it for safekeeping.
    In the early morning Drew slipped down to the river’s edge behind a screen of willow to dip the cold water over his head and shoulders—an effective way to clear the head and banish the last trace of sleep.
    The sun was up and it must have been shortly before eight when they sighted her, a Union transport riding low in the water, towing two barges. A quick inspection through the binoculars he had borrowed from Wilkins told Drew that this was what the General wanted. He passed the signal to Boyd.
    “ Mazeppa ,” he read the name aloud as the ship wallowed by their post. She was passing the lower battery now, and there was no sign of any gunboat escort. But when their quarry was well in the stretch between the two lower batteries, they opened fire on her, accurately enough to send every shell through the ship. The pilot headed her for the opposite shore, slammed the prow into the bank, and a stream of crew and men leaped over at a dead run to hunt shelter in the woods beyond.
    Men were already down on the Confederate-held side of the river, trying to knock together a raft on which to reach their prize. When that broke apart Drew and Boyd saw one man seize upon a piece of the wreckage and kick his way vigorously into the current heading for the stern of the grounded steamer. He came back in the Mazeppa’s yawl with a line, and she was warped back into the hands of the waiting raiders.
    There was a wave of gray pouring into the ship, returning with bales, boxes, bundles. Then Drew, who had snatched peeps at the activity between searching the upper waters for trouble, saw the gunboats coming—three of them. Again Boyd signaled, but the naval craft made better speed than the laden transport and they were already in position to lob shells among the men unloading the supply ships, though the batteries on the shore finally drove them off.
    In the end they fired the prize, but she was emptied of her rich cargo. Shoes, blankets, clothing—you didn’t care whether breeches and coats were gray or blue when they replaced rags—food.
    Kirby came to their sentry post, his arms full, a beatific smile on his face.
    “What’ll you have, amigos—pickles, pears, Yankee crackers, long sweetenin’—” He spread out a variety of such stores as they had almost forgotten existed. “You know, seein’ some of the prices on this heah sutlers’ stuff, I’m thinkin’ somebody’s sure gittin’ rich on this war. It ain’t nobody I know, though.”
    They kept their trap as it was through the