"But you won't find any Injuns here to ambush you," said Red Blaze,
"though I don't make any guarantee against bushwhackers and guerillas,
who'll change sides as often as two or three times a day, if it will
suit their convenience. They could hide in the woods along the road an'
pick us off as easy as I'd shoot a squirrel out of a tree. They'd like
to have our arms an' our big coats. I tell you what, friends, a mighty
civil war like ours gives a tremenjeous opportunity to bad men. They're
all comin' to the top. Every rascal in the mountains an' in the
lowlands, too, I guess, is out lookin' for plunder an' wuss."
"You're right, Red Blaze," said the sergeant with emphasis, "an' it
won't be stopped until the generals on both sides begin to hang an'
shoot the plunderers an' murderers."
"But they can't ketch 'em all," said Red Blaze. "A Yankee general with
a hundred thousand men will be out lookin' for what? Not for a gang of
robbers, not by a jugful. He'll be lookin' for a rebel general with
another hundred thousand men, an' the rebel general with a hundred
thousand men will be lookin' for that Yankee general with his hundred
thousand. So there you are, an' while they're lookin' for each other
an' then fightin' each other to a standstill, the robbers will be
plunderin' an' murderin'. But don't you worry about bein' ambushed.
I was jest tellin' you what might happen, but wouldn't happen. We kin
go down hill fast now, and we'll soon be in Hubbard, which is the other
side of all that fallin' snow.
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