Read Online Far Bright Star by Robert Olmstead - Free Book Online Page B

with his slow unmoving finger at the position in their line held by Preston.
    “Him? What do they want him for?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Ransom?”
    “That’s what I’d do.”
    “I can’t see myself doing that.”
    “I already told them you wouldn’t.”
    “Tell them I ain’t giving up nobody to them.”
    “Like I said. I already told them.”
    “Then tell them again,” he said, and turned and walked away from them.
    He had little doubt the boy was capable of shooting him in the back, but he did not think he would do so. The boy answered to others and he took him to be realizing he’d gotten in over his head when he signed on with the company he traveled in. His life would be a short one.
    “What do they want?” Stableforth asked.
    “Surrender,” he barked.
    “What are we going to do?”
    “Not surrender,” he said with all serenity.
    He did not know if it were now to die, but like the ancient Greeks they would man their small citadel of wind-guttered rocks and congregated sands. They would stand and hold to the end. There was no alternative.
    He went to the wall where Bandy was positioned in the rocks. The boy’s eyes were enormous and filled with ghosts. He was gripping his collar and his thumb was in his mouth. A band of white freckled skin showed at his throat.
    Napoleon thought to explain their situation but knew how long the explanation would have to be before the boy understood. It needed to be understood by instinct and even with time he knew the boy was incapable of acquiring all that was necessary. He knew how grave and that was enough. Whether or not he’d do as he was told, that was another matter. He took the boy’s rifle as if to inspect it.
    “Have you quit yourself?” he asked him so only he could hear.
    “I’m praying.”
    “What are you praying for, or can’t you tell me?” He spoke softly to the boy lest he should come unstrung and fly away in pieces.
    “Prayers ain’t wishes,” Bandy said, and began to hiccup.
    “Then you can tell me?”
    “Peace and quiet,” Bandy said, trying to arrest the spasms. “I’m praying for peace and quiet.”
    “I sometimes wonder if heaven is open to our kind. Do you have any thoughts on that you’d want to share?”
    “They’ll take you,” he said. “They take everyone.”
    “They don’t sound too particular,” he said. “I don’t know if I’d want to be in such company as that.”
    To this, Bandy’s face colored and he smiled, an emotion suspended in time and then he asked, “What’s going to happen?”
    “I think things could get bad very soon,” he told him.
    “What are they going to do?”
    “Well, there’s going to be some noise real quick and then we are going to be in trouble.”
    He held the boy’s attention with gentle eyes the boy had not seen before. He spoke quietly, softly, adamantly. In almost a whisper he told him if he saw an opportunity he was to go up that wall and over the top without being seen. He was to run some but not far and then he was to burrow down inside the earth and rock and hide until the stars came out and even then he was to wait a good long time. From his trouser pocket he removed the compass and handed it to the boy. He told him to follow the needle north by northeast.
    “Don’t look up,” he said sharply. He did not want anyone to see him do that and draw conclusions. “It ain’t easy, but I have already looked up there and I know it can be done. I know you can do it.”
    “What about you?”
    “If I am not back before you then you will come look for me.”
    “Yessir.”
    “Don’t let me down.”
    “Nossir,” the boy said, and with his swollen mouth he made a crooked grin.
    Then he returned to the boy his rifle. The boy nodded and Napoleon let him back into the rocks where they would all close after the first skirmish.
    “Don’t kill no one yet,” Napoleon told them when he returned from the wall.
    “I will if I can,” Turner said.
    “No you won’t,” he