New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-05-31
LARCOM'S LITTLE CHAP.
BY JAMES T. NJ KAY.

The military prison at Finchley was very.
much like the rest. | suppose. LarcOm was
one of list of twenty or thirty who had
come in together more than year before
He was big, common looking fellow, not
very clever, and pretty rough. Brown was
from the same neighborho, d, and he and
LarcOm we're mates all through. He was
sharp little fellow, this Brown, quick
tempered and wiry, and might have been
anywhere between twenty five and forty.
He would have been free or dead long be-
fore that but for sticking by bis hulking
comrade - Larcom rather anchored him
Luce was a sergeant in the Twenty third
when taken; he had been a mere boy two
wears before, but he was not now, and he
looked as though little more of the same
sort would make him neither boy nor man.
Larcom had been married to a German
woman short time before his second en-
listment and Just before their capture he
had received news of the birth of child
Everybody knew about his Katy and the
boy, and by this time there was not much
left of the letter that had brought the news.
He liked to talk about them. and the men
liked to hear him in that dismal place;
laughed at him and poked weak fun at him.
He had plenty Of leisure to think about his
wife and child, and he thought and talked
so constantly about them that he gradually
built up kind Of romance about both. but
principally about the child, perhaps from
there being less troublesome groundwork
OF fact to clear away and accommodate.
He knew no more about it han his audience,
but he came to more than half believe in
the description and history he gave of the
little one he had never seen. The fellows
made standing joke of asking after the
baby's health, his weight and the number
of bis teeth and absorbing interest and
sympathy were manifested in critical
periods Of measles and hopping coughs.
The fun was weak, no doubt, and not
too fine drawn. That was in the first
months OF their imprisonment. By and by
they ceased to quiz Larcom, partly because
he took it less and less kindly, and partly
because they came to have small stomach
for pleasantly themselves. There was only
one thing that made the life tolerable at ali.
and that was the hope of escape. And they
never ceased to plot and plan for that
Some got away by dexterOus and instant
use Of fortunate chance, by desperate def
ance of risk and reason, by stratagem de-
vised and worked out with incredible means
and success. But most of the plots were
discovered at Finchley. by the cunning of
one Of the guards. He was low, brutal
fellow, with q retreating chin and forehead,
and peculiar leer for his ordinary express
sion. This fellow had habit of Swapping
his laws convuisively when he laughed, and
from that and his ferret keenness of scent
and success in uDearthlng tunnellng plots
and the like, he had got the nick name of
"Steel. trap" and was known by no other.
The hatred of the prisoners for this man was
simply murderous, and the best of the guards
themselves despised him. His ingenuity
in thwarting attempts at escape were be-
yOnd belief, and his enjoyment of success
quite inhuman. During the progress of the
great tunnel of July, which was dug with
infinite patience and skill and with the
most elaborate caution and secrecy, he was
watched by the regular system of espion-
age, and when the men lay down on the
night of the twentieth of July, to wait with
fear and trembling for the signal, not
man of them believed Trap had any sus-
picion, and twenty-One men passed through
that hundred feet Of burrOw that night.
The twenty second man was Baker, who
had sworn he would never come back alive
He thought he heard some strange noise
when Whitelaw went out just ahead of him,
and when he emerged and saw the hated
leering face, and more armed men behind
he leaped out on the guard with terrible
curse, aud the next minute lay dying on
the grass. The rest were all taken quietly
as they came out, and passed back in at
the gates, with what bitterness may be
imagined.
Larcom ceased altogether to talk of the
child and it's mother after while, and got
to be very quiet indeed, and toward the
end of the year he brooded good deal
One Thursday morning very early, those
lying near him who were awake heard him
swearing to himself. Then he turned
over to Brown, who lay next to him, and |
said:
"Browny, want to see her and the little |
chap"
Then he turned away his face and lay |
there long while quite still. That after |
noon. as Satan would have it, Luce, Brown |
and Larcom were detailed upon parole to |
bring water from a spring outside the |
walls. Wells were low from the long |
drought. They had . barrel upon hand
cart and pail apiece. and went in and out |
several times. The spring was out of sight
Of the gates. about q quarter OF mile to
the west. 1t ran ont Of trough at the
roadside in the bend of fence and behind
. clump of bushes. They were neither of
them too strong, and water lie not 90 light
~ some things. 1t was nearly sunset
Khen they came TO the spring the Last time.