Chapter 4

Shit! I must be the luckiest man in the world. All four of them wuz carrin' one of them Starr DA pistols. Later, when I looked in their saddle bags, I found four more of 'em. They must of robbed a supply depot or some such ta have that many of them valuable pistols. Ta my calculatin', that's $336 worth of guns, far an' away more than what a man, or even four men, could normally afford. I hated ta give up the nine shots an' the shotgun, but, right then, I decided ta swap my LeMats fer them Starr DA pistols an' their fast shootin.

We found $378 in their money belts, soz we had struck it rich with these galoots. We stripped off their clothes soz they couldn't be identified afore I hauled them away in my wagon ta drop their corpses in a gully on the backside of nowhere.

I took two of the pistols fer my personal use an' added the rest ta the gun rack. These eight pistols wuz almost bran' new an' .44 caliber, soz Jane wuzn't completely happy with them cuz of the recoil, but they felt mighty good ta me.

Literally, we wuz livin' high offen the hog. We had everythin' from pork roasts ta pork sausage fer our own use. My special sausage recipe what wuz adapted from a Mexican recipe by my grandpa wuz a big hit all around the countryside. It wuz so popular that several of my neighbors suggested that Jane an' I go inta the business of makin' and sellin' smoked sausage on a commercial basis. Hell, that there sausage wuz so popular that we had trouble keepin' enough on hand fer our own use.

I had ta increase the size of my smoke house twice in the first year just ta try ta keep up with the demand fer my sausage and bacon. I increased the size of my hog pens an' even had ta buy pigs from my neighbors on a couple of occasions. Hell, we wuz on our way ta gittin' rich from the smoked sausage and bacon business. Why, we cleared over $500 the first year that Burnside Sausage & Bacon wuz in business.

I even had ta hire a local kid ta he'p me with tendin' the hogs. I paid him a dollar a week, an' he wuz makin' more than most of the growed men in the county. I wish this damned war would be over in a hurry, soz the country could git back ta normal. I'm shore that we coulda made even more money ifen we could distribute over the whole county, but that wuz too dangerous right now.

Ifen we had a railroad soz I could sell in a big city, I know that we could make more money than we would know what ta do with. Oh, well, we wuzn't doin' so bad right now.

Here it wuz, 1864, an' it looked ta me like the CSA wuz doomed. I kept hearin' 'bout the stupid thin's the guvment did, an' all I could do wuz shake my head an' wonder what wuz holdin' the place together. Oh, well, as long as they left us alone, we would leave them alone. Then, sumpthin' happened that made it impossible to remain neutral.

I wuz out lookin' over a field of pumpkins what wuz scheduled ta be hog food when I rode passed a clump of brush at the edge of a small gully. I heard a human groan, soz I stopped ta investigate. At first, I didn't see nothin', but a closer look showed a nigger lyin' in the bottom of the gully. He groaned again, soz I dismounted an' slid ta the bottom of the gully ta see what kind of he'p he needed.

The nigger wuzn't wearin' no shirt nor shoes, jus' some ratty pants what wuz 'bout ta fall offen of him ifen he moved too fast. 'Cept I could see that this was one nigger what wuzn't goin far nor fast fer some time. His back wuz slashed ta ribbons by a whip, an' his front wuzn't a whole lot better. He wuz conscious, but jus' barely, soz I knelt down beside him an' said, "Ya try ta be quiet, an' I'll go git my wagon ta haul ya ta the house. I'll try ta git back as soon as I kin."

I climbed out of the gully an' rode a fast as I safely could back ta the house. I told Jane what I had found, an' she insisted on goin' back with me, cuz she wuz shore that I would need some he'p with the poor nigger. Jane bundled up Mary Elizabeth an' came out of the house carryin' a carpetbag of medical supplies in one hand and Mary Elizabeth in the other. She showed up 'bout the time I had the wagon ready. I had throwed some hay in the bottom of the wagon ta act as a cushion an' some hoss blankets over them ta keep from pokin' any more holes in the nigger's skin. We climbed aboard an' hurried out to where the nigger was lyin'.

We left Mary Elizabeth in the wagon while we both slid down to see what we could do fer the nigger. The first thing Jane did wuz ta give him a big dose of laudanum. Right then, he wuz too badly injured ta worry 'bout opium addiction. It didn't take long fer the laudanum ta take effect, an' the nigger went ta sleep.

Jane washed the dirt an' trash ofen his wounds an' we bandaged him up as best we could. We hoisted the nigger up ta the edge of the gully an' then ta the wagon. It wuz a damned good thin' that he wuz knocked out by the laudanum, cuz the rough handlin' we wuz forced ta give him would of hurt like hell. We finally got him lyin' more or less comfortably in the wagon an' covered with a few more blankets. Jane an' Mary Elizabeth rode in the back of the wagon with him while I drove back ta the house. I drove as carefully as I could, but I couldn't he'p bouncin' around some.

While I drove back ta the house, we talked 'bout what we wuz gonna do with the nigger. He looked ta us like he wuz gonna need lots of care fer a while, soz there wuzn't a whole lot of options. We quickly decided that we had ta put him in the guest room 'til he got able ta look after hisself, an' that looked like weeks away ta me. Once we got him settled in, we'd ask him what happened, but I think that we had both figured that out by now.

The nigger started ta wake up jus' afore we got home, soz Jane gave him another dose of the laudanum. She meant ta knock him out, again, an' she did. Fortunately, I wuz strong enough ta carry him inta the house and put him on the bed in the guest room. Jane put Mary Elizabeth back in her crib an' came in ta he'p me git our guest inta bed, proper-like.

We pulled off the man's pants an' both of us gasped in horror. The nigger had even been whipped on his balls! I wondered who coulda been mean enough ta do that. His hands an' feet an' face wuz about all that hadn't been whipped at least some, soz I figured that he would recover, though it would be a damned painful recovery.

The nigger wuz such a mass of wounds that we didn't put nothin' but bandages on him. A nightshirt woulda jus' gotten in the way of the doctorin', soz we figured ta leave him naked fer now. I sat with him while Jane went ta fix him some broth. He woke up jus' afore she got back, soz I told him what had happened since we found him. He said his name wuz Rastus, an' I told him our names.

Jane fed him the broth, slowly an' carefully, ta keep from drippin' on the bed, but, also, ta keep him from vomitin' it back up. Rastus said that he had not eaten for two days, an' he was right hungry. Jane gave him a bell ta ring when he needed ta use the chamber pot. I wuz ta come in an' he'p him ta manage that sort of thin'. She gave him a small dose of laudanum an' told him ta go back ta sleep.

A couple of hours later, she heard the bell ring, so she called me in from tendin' the hogs. I he'ped Rastus ta piss an' he lay back down. He wanted ta talk, soz I stayed with him. Rastus looked like he wuz of a mind ta talk, so I asked him how come him ta be beat up like that an' down in that gully.