



Produced by sp1nd and the Online Distributed Proofreading
Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from
images generously made available by The Internet Archive)






Transcriber's Note: Minor typographical errors have been corrected
without note. Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have
been retained as printed. Words printed in italics are noted with
underscores: _italics_.


[Illustration: "I'LL UNLOCK IT BIMEBY--MAYBE." (_See page 91._)]




THE DESERTER

AND OTHER STORIES


_A Book of Two Wars_


BY

HAROLD FREDERIC


AUTHOR OF "IN THE VALLEY," "SETH'S BROTHER'S WIFE,"
"THE COPPERHEAD," ETC.


_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY_

MERRILL, SANDHAM, GILBERT GAUL AND GEORGE FOSTER BARNES


BOSTON
LOTHROP PUBLISHING COMPANY

COPYRIGHT, 1898,
BY
LOTHROP PUBLISHING COMPANY.


_All rights reserved._

Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith
Norwood Mass. U.S.A.




CONTENTS.


CHAPTER                                                          PAGE

THE DESERTER.

  I. DISCOVERIES IN THE BARN                                        3

 II. A SUDDEN DEPARTURE                                            20

III. FATHER AND SON                                                42

 IV. THE "MEANEST WORD"                                            60

  V. THE DEPUTY MARSHAL                                            80

 VI. A HOME IN THE WOODS                                           98

VII. ANOTHER CHASE AFTER MOSE                                     117


A DAY IN THE WILDERNESS.

  I. THE VALLEY OF DEATH                                          139

 II. LAFE RECONNOITRES THE VALLEY                                 157

III. THE BOUNTY-JUMPER                                            177

 IV. RED PETE IN CAPTIVITY                                        198

  V. LAFE RESCUES AN OFFICER, AND FINDS HIS COUSIN                216


HOW DICKON CAME BY HIS NAME.

  I. THE MAKING OF A SOLDIER                                      239

 II. A BURST FOR FREEDOM                                          260

III. A STRANGE CHRISTMAS EVE                                      279

 IV. UP IN THE WORLD                                              299


WHERE AVON INTO SEVERN FLOWS.

  I. HUGH THE WRITER                                              319

 II. SIR HEREWARD'S RING                                          350

III. HOW HUGH MET THE PRINCE                                      381




ILLUSTRATIONS.


"'I'LL UNLOCK IT BIMEBY--MAYBE'"                        _Frontispiece_

                                                                 PAGE

"'SH-H! TALK LOWER!'"                                              27

"'GIMME THAT GUN!'"                                                61

"'DROP IT--YOU!'"                                                 175

LAFE AND THE BOUNTY-JUMPER                                        195

"'I'M STEVE HORNBECK'S SON!'"                                     231

"SIR WATTY CAME STALKING DOWN"                                    249

"'WHOSE BLOOD IS THIS?'"                                          285

"HE ADVANCED AND KISSED THE LADY'S HAND"                          357

"TWO DOZEN PIKE-HEADS CLASHED DOWN AS BY A SINGLE TOUCH"          385




THE DESERTER.




CHAPTER I.

DISCOVERIES IN THE BARN.


It was the coldest morning of the winter, thus far, and winter is no
joke on those northern tablelands, where the streams still run black in
token of their forest origin, and old men remember how the deer used to
be driven to their clearings for food, when the snow had piled itself
breast high through the fastnesses of the Adirondacks. The wilderness
had been chopped and burned backward out of sight since their pioneer
days, but this change, if anything, served only to add greater
bitterness to the winter's cold.

Certainly it seemed to Job Parshall that this was the coldest morning
he had ever known. It would be bad enough when daylight came, but the
darkness of this early hour made it almost too much for flesh and blood
to bear. There had been a stray star or two visible overhead when he
first came out-of-doors at half-past four, but even these were missing
now.

The crusted snow in the barnyard did throw up a wee, faint light of its
own, for all the blackness of the sky, but Job carried, besides a
bucket, a lantern to help him in his impending struggle with the pump.
This ancient contrivance had been ice-bound every morning for a
fortnight past, and one needn't be the son of a prophet to foresee that
this morning it would be frozen as stiff as a rock.

It did not turn out to be so prolonged or so fierce a conflict as he
had apprehended. He had reasoned to himself the previous