“Well,” laughed Watson, in unconcern, “if Wag’s to be drowned, he’ll be drowned on a full stomach—and that’s one consolation.”
“He’s the only critter among you as has got any sense,” snarled the ferryman; “for he’s the only one who didn’t ask to be taken across this infarnal river!”
CHAPTER IV
PLOT AND PLOTTERS
In after years George could never quite understand how he and his companions reached the Chattanooga shore. He retained a vivid recollection of tempestuous waves, of a boat buffeted here and there, and of Ned Jackson muttering all manner of unkind things at his passengers and the turbulent stream. They did at last reach their destination, and bade farewell to the ferryman, whom they loaded down with Confederate notes.
No sooner was the latter embarked on the return voyage than Watson said: “That was a clever ruse of yours, George. That Jackson was a brave man at heart, and you put him on his mettle. He wanted to show us that he wasn’t afraid of the water—and he succeeded.”
George laughed. He explained that it was a remark of his father’s which had put the idea into his own head, and then he wondered where that same father could be. Was he dead or was he still living, perhaps in some prison?
It was not long before the party reached the railroad station at Chattanooga. Here they purchased their tickets for Marietta, and were soon in the train bound southward for the latter place. The sun had nearly set as the engine pulled slowly out of the depot. The car in which they sat was filled with men on their way down South, some of them being soldiers in uniform and the rest civilians. Macgreggor, Watson and Jenks were at the rear end of the car, while George had to find a seat at the other end, next to a very thin man who wore the uniform of a Confederate captain.