Mississippi Raider (12 page)

Having no desire to have the
girl
’s
identity exposed, the gambler wondered how this might be averted
without arousing objections from the audience.

The same problem had occurred to Belle and
Roxanne.

What was more, the girl and the redhead had
arrived at what they considered to be the best possible
solution.

After some eight minutes of
action, during which the pair had successfully avoided letting it
become obvious that neither was trying to hurt the other despite
each giving the impression she was determined to achieve victory,
they were showing the effects of their strenuous activities. This
went beyond each
’s hair being reduced to a sodden tangle and bodies soaked
by copiously shed perspiration, which had a detrimental effect upon
their far-from-extensive solitary surviving item of attire, now
reduced to a state of near immodesty beyond anything Belle
imagined. They were growing so exhausted that each realized she
might inadvertently give or sustain the kind of injury they wanted
to avoid being inflicted. With that in mind, after a brief and
still-unobserved discussion, they set about putting the scheme they
had produced into effect.

Coming to their feet on
genuinely wobbling legs due to their now-enfeebled state after
another session of rolling around on the floor of the ring, the
disheveled and close-to-exhausted pair staggered apart. However,
their separation was brief. Moving in, each swung a punch in a
manner redolent of their physically drained condition.
Nevertheless, like the blows and kicks they had essayed earlier,
with Belle contriving to
pull her own as effectively and comparatively
harmlessly as Roxanne was doing despite having had no training in
such matters, the punch that each launched was delivered in an
authentic-seeming fashion.

The fact that the pair swung
with much less than their earlier vigor was accepted by the
spectators as being excusable under the circumstances. Arriving
almost simultaneously in closer to a push than a blow, the
simulated attacks allowed the recipients to go down on their backs
and lie with limbs spread-eagled, as if they had been rendered
unconscious. Having examined them, Hislop declared that neither
would be able to resume the fighting and, therefore, the bout was a
draw. Calling for applause for two very gallant ladies, de-Farge
stated that in view of the indecisive result, Madame Mask would not
have her features exposed. Before any objections could be raised,
he asked whether a second bout would be welcomed and the
affirmative response ensured that Belle
’s participation would never be
discovered.

It was, although neither the girl nor the
gambler realized the point, an example of the lengths to which she
would be willing to go to achieve her ends when she became the
Rebel Spy.

“
I’m
really sorry,
Belle,” Colonel Myles Raines declared, I looking as impassively as
he could manage at the slender and straight-backed beautiful girl
who was standing on the other side of his desk. He had known her
family for years and was aware that she was not more than three
years older than his daughter, Louise.
^x
For all that, she had an air of
quietly grim determination beyond her years, and he could
sympathize with her reasons for coming to see him even though he
was unable to give her the assistance she required. “But there
really is nothing I can do to help you.”

“
But
there must be
some
way I can serve,” Belle Boyd insisted, having told her
reason for coming to Richmond, Virginia, without holding back the
fact that she wanted to find and take revenge upon the men who had
killed her parents.

With the completion of one specialized side
of her education and having repaid her debt to Captain Anatol
de-Farge for it by providing him with a very well received piece of
entertainment, the girl had felt she was at last ready to commence
her quest after Alfred Tollinger and George Barmain. Despite having
been spurred on by Mattie Jonias, whose authority had not
diminished while she was recovering from the wound received on the
night of the attack upon Baton Roy ale Manor, the Negroes who
worked the riverboats and did the necessary traveling were unable
to find out more than that the pair had gone northward for some
undiscovered destination. Therefore, especially with the
commencement of hostilities between what amounted to the Southern
and Northern states, she had accepted that she must take up the
pursuit herself.

Satisfied that she could leave
her family
’s
plantation and workforce in the capable hands of Colonel Dennis
Thatcher and his wife Margaret, Belle had gathered what she would
want for the expedition—including the garments modified as was
suggested by de-Farge and the items for self-protection he had
supplied—and had set out upon her mission of vengeance. Accepting
that to attempt anything in Baton Bayou Parish or the surrounding
area would achieve nothing, she had headed for the place she
concluded would offer her the kind of contacts to serve her needs.
Her first attempts to see the kind of senior officers her instincts
suggested were most suited for her purpose came to nothing. In each
case, a subordinate had informed her politely but firmly that the
man she wished to see was too fully occupied in the business of
vitally important matters pertaining to conducting the hostilities
against the Yankees. Being made aware of how difficult gaining
access to the people she required was almost certain to be, she had
contrived to gain admittance to Raines as an old friend of her
family.

However, the interview was not going the way
the girl had hoped might prove to be the case.

“
Well,” Raines said in tones redolent of doubt. Bareheaded
and with his dark hair tinged at the temples by a touch of white,
he was a tall, lean man in the cadet-gray dress uniform of the
Confederate States Cavalry and bore the insignia of his rank on the
stand-up collar and sleeves of his jacket. “There is always working
as a nurse. However, despite all that was said about Florence
Nightingale with the British wounded soldiers and sailors in the
Crimean War,
that
is not highly regarded by many people as a suitable
occupation for a Southern lady like yourself.”

“
I
don’t have being a
nurse
in mind,” the girl stated, aware that such an occupation
was still regarded by many men as being restricted to lower-class
women, even though she did not subscribe to the point of view.
“Necessary as I know it is and noble though I believe it to be,
becoming one won’t do anything to help me catch Tollinger and
Barmain.”

“
From
what you say, they fled north before the War started,” Raines
reminded. “Don’t you think that puts them well beyond your
reach?”

“
I’ve
heard we have some of our people working secretly in the North,”
Belle pointed out. “Is that true?”

“
One
hears such things said,” the Colonel admitted in a noncommittal
tone.

“
Then
they must be controlled by
somebody,
or at least send their information to somebody,”
the girl asserted. “And the most likely place to find that somebody
is here in Richmond, as it is the Capital of the Confederate States
and all our leading civil and military authorities are assembled
here.”

“
I
suppose this would be the most logical place to look, assuming such
people do actually exist, and I’m not saying they do.”

“
Poppa
often used to tell me about how most countries have what is known
as a secret service to do work of that kind.”

“
One
hears
of such things,” the Colonel conceded cautiously, sensing
he could be getting on dangerous ground as there were already
strong rumors that both the South and the North were operating such
organizations.

“
And I
can’t see our leaders failing to have one,” Belle declared.
“Do
you
know who the one in charge of our secret service might be,
sir?”

“
My
dear young lady,” Raines said, once more needing to control the
smile he could feel welling inside him. “I’m just one colonel of
many waiting to receive command of a regiment. I’ve
never
become involved in
such things and hope I never have to be. It’s a very dirty business
by all accounts. Anyway, I would say the main purpose of a secret
service is ensuring that it remains a secret.”

“
But
surely you can give me just a hint where to start
looking?”

“
Not
so much as the start of a hint, I’m afraid. If I were you, Belle, I
would put the whole idea from my mind and find some other way of
serving the South.”

“
And
forget what Tollinger and Barmain did to Momma and
Poppa?”

“
I
know you can never forget that,” Raines stated gently. “But it
would be a waste of a useful young life for you to spend it trying
for something you’ll never manage to achieve. I think you would be
far better advised to go home and set about rebuilding Baton Royale
Mansion and keep cotton flowing to help our cause.”

“
I
suppose that is the only thing for me to do,” Belle replied with a
sigh. “Well, I thank you for your time and advice, sir. May I wish
you every success with the regiment you receive.”

“
Only,
my advice is what you most definitely are
not
going to take,” Raines said silently to
himself as he watched the girl walk from his office. ‘There’s too
much of Electra and Vincent Boyd in you for that. In fact, I’d be
willing to bet that if anybody could run down Tollinger and
Barmain, you’d be the one to do so. It’s a pity in some ways that
you won’t ever be given the chance.”

~*~

“
Stand
still and keep your hands well clear of your sides!” Belle Boyd
ordered, having turned up the flame of the night-light on the
bedside table with her left hand. “If you make a hostile move, or
try to escape, I’ll shoot you in the stomach, and don’t think for a
moment I couldn’t do it.”

As the girl was increasing the
illumination to investigate the slight noises that had disturbed
her thoughts while lying in bed trying to get to sleep after
another abortive evening
’s activities, her right thumb deftly cocked the
Colt Model of 1851 revolver she had bought to replace the
lighter-caliber weapon brought from her bedroom by Mattie Jonias on
the night her parents were murdered. An instant later, so
excellently attuned was her coordination that she was pointing its
three-inch-long octagonal barrel—the original length of seven and a
half inches having been cut down, in accordance with her
instructions, by the gunsmith from whom she purchased it, thereby
obviating the need to return it to the company’s factory for the
modification she required in the interests of permitting greater
ease of concealment—steadily at the masculine figure who had woken
her while forcing open the window and climbing through into the
second-floor room she was occupying at the Sandford
Hotel.

Four weeks had elapsed since
the girl had had her meeting with Colonel Myles Raines. While it
had proved to be unproductive otherwise, it had taught her one
thing. She had realized
that if she could not obtain assistance from a man
who had been a good friend of her parents, she was unlikely to
achieve more positive results with strangers or even such casual
acquaintances who were in positions of much greater authority even
than a colonel awaiting command of a Cavalry regiment. She had
quickly learned the truth of her assumption. Although she had
managed to obtain interviews with a few highly placed members of
the military and civilian politicians, the results were invariably
the same. From some, she was received with politeness and had been
allowed to say something of what she hoped to receive, then was
turned away with much the same arguments used by Raines. Others
merely stated that such matters were not for a beautiful young
woman to attempt and dismissed her with a suggestion of having
matters of great importance demanding their attention.

Although dissatisfied with the outcome of
her efforts to obtain some form of official assistance and
sanction, the girl was enough of a realist to understand the
attitude behind the refusals. In every case, the man with whom she
spoke had been raised in the tradition that a Southern
woman—especially a young one from her stratum of society—should
confine her activities to the home and considered what she wanted
to do was beyond the pale, regardless of how good her motives.
Deciding she must do something positive on her own account, she had
set about trying to achieve her purpose in a way she hoped would
bring her to the favorable attention of the members of the
Confederate States Secret Service she felt certain were engaged in
seeking to counter their Yankee opposite numbers in Richmond.

Having had a good education in formal as
well as unconventional subjects, under the firm control of her
mother, Belle had always been allowed to make the most use of her
initiative instead of constantly seeking guidance from her elders.
She had put all these traits to use in seeking to attain her ends.
Having anticipated that the need might arise, she had brought the
attire appropriate to the various functions to which her standing
in the social circles of Baton Bayou Parish made her welcome. At
each, she had sought out such officers as she had thought might
lead her where she wanted to go and flirted with each in the hope
of gaining the information.