Richmond Rail Heist #7

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Just as Jones said this, an unseen church began to strike the hour - eight solitary bongs. "Eight o'clock, just like I said," said Jones, pulling opff his spectacles and polishing their lenses when Rufus and Will looked at him.

They walked on, climbing a small rise in silence, and below them lay a few houses, too few to be a village, really, and the church they had heard earlier. The church was stone, the houses sun-bleached wood. Two men stood in the road, in front of the church, each holding a rifle.

"Do they look like greybacks to you?" Will asked Rufus.

"Oh, yes," said Jones. "Without a doubt."

Rufus peered down the hill, squinting in the sunlight. “Yes,” he said, “I think so.”

“Well,” said Will, “it had to happen eventually. We’re escaping Federal the forces, who overran our homes in Lone Pine, and are looking for Rufus’s cousin, who is a sergeant in the Georgia 63rd. Your cousin’s name is David Porter, right?”

“Yes,” said Jones.

“Yes,” said Rufus.

“Then that’s our story,” said Will. “David Porter, Georgia 63rd.”

By now the men with the guns had noticed the northerners. They stood with their guns in hand, watching the three descend the hill. “Hello,” called the stranger on the left, a tall men with blue eyes and grey hair. He wore faded, home made shirt and pants. His companion, similarly dressed but several inches shorter and several pounds heavier, also with blue eyes but with brownish hair, said nothing, merely fingering a grizzled beard.

“Hello,” called Will. Rufus waved his hat in greeting. Jones said nothing, but licked his lips before pulling off his spectacles to polish them.

“Where you all from?” asked the first southerner.

“Lone Pine,” said Will. They were close enough to talk without shouting now and the northerners came to a stop a few strides before the two men of the South.

“That’s up North,” said the second southerner.

“Yep,” said Will. “Damn’ Federals overran us, tried to make us serve in their army.”

“You need to fight back,” said the second southerner. “Show them they can’t push you around.”

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