The Big Gun (Dusty Fog's Civil War Book 3) (19 page)

Briefly, Staunce wondered what
had happened to Red Blaze. None of the redhead
’s party had rejoined the main
body. However, the fact that the balloon had not been put into the
air that morning and that the big gun was being moved away from its
intended victims implied that something had been accomplished by
the three Texans. Staunce wished that he could find something to
suggest that Red had escaped after completing the assignment. The
Englishman was equally aware that Dusty was deeply concerned
regarding the welfare of his Cousin Red.

‘
Battery mounted and ready, sir,’ Sergeant Major Smalley
reported, returning on foot to his officer.

‘
Aim
for the main body of the escort,’ Staunce replied.

‘
Solid
ball, shell, or spherical case, sir?’ Smalley inquired.

For a moment, Staunce did not
reply. Solid ball would not serve their purpose, being intended for
battering holes in objects like walls. Nor was shell, which
exploded on arrival provided its fuse had been set correctly,
entirely what was required. That left spherical case; which also
detonated, but sprayed out seventy-eight musket balls. While the
balls were
ideal for use against a body of men, they flew
indiscriminately and would be dangerous to anybody in their
immediate vicinity.

Dusty and his volunteers would be within the
range of the balls.

‘
Spherical case,’ Staunce finally stated, reaching the
decision reluctantly but making it.

‘
With
respect, sir,’ Smalley warned, ‘there’s not much margin for
error.’

‘
Captain Fog and his men accepted
that
when they took up their positions.’
Staunce replied. ‘They’re game to take their chances and we’ll have
to hope for the best.’

‘
Yes,
sir,’ Smalley answered.

Both Staunce and the sergeant
major were aware of the desperate risks to which
Dusty
’s
detail must be exposed in the hope of minimizing the danger to Eli
Cable. The smooth bores and round balls of the little howitzers did
not make for extreme accuracy, particularly when using spherical
case. There were too many unpredictable factors involved for
Staunce to have been able to offer his companions complete safety
once his battery opened fire.

Crouching behind a rock that
was closer to the valley
’s bottom than the positions of his men, Dusty Fog
watched the Yankees drawing nearer. An uprooted bush was placed as
naturally as possible above him and its foliage had not yet
withered sufficiently to betray him. So far, none of the Yankees
appeared to have located any part of the ambush. That was not
surprising. There had been considerable effort put into selecting
and—although the word had not yet come into general
usage—camouflaging the hiding places of his detail. Every man whom
he had picked was a veteran Indian fighter and had learned the
value of remaining practically motionless at such
moments.

Like Staunce, Dusty was deeply
concerned over his cousin
’s fate. To divert his thoughts from how Red Blaze
might be faring, the small Texan studied Stabruck and wondered what
the Yankee captain was pondering upon.

Riding in the lead of his
command, Captain Arthur Stabruck scowled continuously to his front.
He slouched
morosely on his saddle, ignoring his two lieutenants. All
too well he could guess what they were thinking. That it had been
his disobedience of orders which was causing their withdrawal and
had lost them a valuable observation balloon. So he was trying to
decide how he might exculpate himself, or turn the blame elsewhere,
when called upon—as he was sure to be—to explain why he had
deviated so far from his original orders.

In the first place, Stabruck
had merely been dispatched to make a long tour of various outfits,
so as to display the hauling powers of the traction engine. It had
been drawing its tender, two ammunition caissons and the Parrot
rifle. Lyle
’s idea had been to impress the various regiments’
commanding officers and gain their backing for the rest of his
scheme.

While travelling down the trail
from Malvern to the river opposite Arkadelphia, one of the caissons
had broken a wheel. Intending to pass the time while letting his
men attempt repairs, Stabruck had ordered the balloon sent up. When
the lieutenant who acted as observer had reported a large number of
Rebel officers entering a building in Arkadelphia, Stabruck had
decided to show initiative. So he had ordered the bombardment.
Although he had failed to create the havoc he had hoped among the
enemy
’s
officers, he had done considerable damage to a number of buildings
before being ordered—by the commanding officer of the detachment
covering the approaches to the town—to stop the indiscriminate
shelling.

However, the sending of the
Rebels
’
cavalry company—seen and reported by the observer in the
balloon—had allowed Stabruck to avoid being called to account for
his behavior. Using the information, he had set up an ambush and
driven off his attackers with heavy losses. After which, he had
turned off the trail and headed east parallel to the Ouachita
River.

A chance meeting with a friend
who was a member of the United States Secret Service had presented
Stabruck with what had seemed
—at the time—an ideal opportunity to gain personal
acclaim and to win an important, influential supporter. Learning
that his friend had a contact on the other side of the river, he
had caused the printer of the Fordyce, Dallas County, newspaper to
produce the warning notices. By doing so, he had hoped to secure
General Culver’s release from captivity.

With the balloon stolen,
Stabruck had been fully aware of the danger. So he had set his men
immediately to breaking camp. While he was heading for the main
body of the 6th
‘New Jersey’ Dragoons, he had not sent a messenger with
word of his coming so that he might have been granted a larger
escort.

There had been two reasons for the
omission.

Firstly: if the Rebels had not sent a force
to destroy the Parrot, Stabruck would have been regarded as a
cowardly alarmist who had panicked and fled without any cause to do
so.

Secondly: the reaction of the
detachment
’s
commanding officer had warned him that his activities might not
receive a favorable reaction; especially when he had failed to
achieve his purpose.

So Stabruck intended to arrive
at the Dragoons
’ camp, as if on the mission for which he had been
dispatched. If he should be questioned about the bombardment of
Arkadelphia, he would claim he had been trying to wipe out a large
number of Confederate senior officers.

Once certain that there was no
danger, Stabruck could return to Nimrod Lake and rejoin Lyle.
Later, after a new commanding general had been appointed, they
could put up their idea to force the Confederate
States
’ Army
to return across the Ouachita River. Having brought about the
full-scale confrontation, they could use the second of Cable’s
machines to ensure a Northern victory.

Thinking about the latter
point, Stabruck saw something which he might use as an excuse for
revising Lyle
’s plan. He would claim that he had hoped to secure
Culver’s freedom so that the confrontation and defeat of the Rebels
could be accomplished without delay.

While the Union captain and his
men rode onwards along the bottom of the valley, completely
oblivious of their peril,
the crews of the four howitzers had made
everything ready to open fire.

Each chief-of-piece had aligned
his barrel and adjusted its elevation to the correct five degrees
angle for the distance over which it would be firing. The fuses had
been cut so that
—in theory at any rate—they would cause the burster charges
to detonate when the cases were a few feet above the mass of Yankee
horsemen; and the fixed rounds were rammed fully home.

Everything was now waiting for Staunce to
give the word of command.

Moving behind his battery, the
English captain took up a position between the Numbers Two and
Three howitzers. He stared into the valley, watching the traction
engine drawing level with the small Texan
’s position.

‘
Good
luck, Dusty!’ Staunce breathed, then raised his voice. ‘Get set,
men. Ready! Fire!’

On their
officer
’s
order, four hands tugged sharply at the firing lanyards. Even as
the quartet of howitzers bellowed in what came as practically a
single sound, Smalley stared towards the other side of the valley
and waved his right hand over his head.

Sitting his horse at the top of
the second slope, Sergeant Major Billy Jack was able to watch the
battery
’s
preparations. Receiving Smalley’s signal, the gangling Texan swung
his doleful features towards the waiting men of Company
C.

‘
Let’s
go and get ourselves killed,’ Billy Jack suggested, sounding as if
he believed that it was certain to happen. ‘Company, forward at a
walk. Yo!’

With that, the sergeant major started his
mount moving. The rest of the Company, formed into a single line,
followed him. When the spherical case shells exploded, he increased
the pace and they were soon galloping recklessly down the
slope.

From his place, Dusty had been
unable to make out what was happening on either rim. However, he
knew that the howitzers would speak as soon as the traction engine
was passing his position. Slowly it rolled level, but he
refrained
from moving. To appear prematurely might spoil all his
carefully laid plans.

The attack took Stabruck and
his men completely by surprise. Curving through the air, the shells
were descending towards their targets before the bellows of the
howitzers reached the bottom of the valley. One exploded too high
to be very effective, but the other three
’s fuses burned with greater
accuracy. The triple eruption of burned powder smoke were
accompanied by musket balls scattering in all
directions.

Men and horses were struck by the balls. The
animals which had not been hit displayed alarm and fright at the
sudden noises. In a moment, the four lines of blue-clad riders were
disrupted and thrown into utter confusion.

Before Dusty could start to
rise, he felt something strike the bush which was covering him and
a musket ball fanned his cheek in passing. Ignoring the thought of
how close he had come to being struck by one of his
companions
’
missiles, he hurled aside the foliage and thrust himself
erect.

‘
Yeeah! Texas Light!’ Dusty bellowed, hands flashing down
and across to draw the matched Army Colts.

The remainder of the volunteers
for the assignment also sprang into view. Each man held the
weapon
—or
weapons—of his choice and they were spaced along the bottom of the
slopes.

Twisting on his saddle at the sound of the
shells exploding, Stabruck was almost unseated as his horse
plunged. He managed to retain his seat and started to rein the
animal around.

‘
Kill
Cable!’ Stabruck screeched, right hand clawing at the flap of his
holster.

Hardly had the words left the
Yankee captain
’s mouth than a bullet, fired by one of Dusty’s detail,
ripped into his head and toppled him lifeless to the ground.
Neither of the lieutenants survived him by many seconds, for the
Texans knew the value of depriving their enemies of
leadership.

Despite the confusion and
pandemonium that raged behind them, Stabruck
’s first sergeant and the other
three-bar heard his order. They also remembered what they had been
instructed to do in the event of an attack. Sending their horses
plunging forward, they liberated their carbines from the clips of
the slings. One of them headed along each side of the traction
engine, determined to prevent the engineer from being taken alive
by the attacking Rebels.

Hurdling over the rock, Dusty
swung up and fired his right hand Colt. He sent its bullet into the
first sergeant
’s chest. Rocking backwards on the saddle, the Yankee
non-com let his carbine fall and slid after it. However, Dusty knew
that he could not hope to deal with the second would-be
killer.

Being aware of the plans laid
for his employer
’s removal, one of the Negroes acted fast, He thrust the
shovel he was holding into the furnace and brought it out again
heaped with red-hot chunks of wood. Swinging, he hurled them into
the sergeant’s face. Even as the stricken soldier started to
scream, one of Dusty’s volunteers shot him in the head.

With many of their horses rearing and
pitching wildly, none of the Yankee soldiers were in a condition to
make a fight. Some had been thrown off, others found themselves
being carried away by their bolting mounts. The remainder,
conscious of having their rifles slung in an inaccessible manner,
strove to regain control of their mounts and surrender.

Inside five minutes, the
incident had ended. The three Union officers and two senior
non-coms were all dead,
the
enlisted men who had not fled stood disarmed.
Harry Cable was enfolded in her father’s arms and the big gun was
in the possession of the Confederate States’ Army.