Roxy Hastings — page 82: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ROXY HASTINGS. 73 of hismen. We are happy to state now that the President has resolved on retaliation, if Gray is put to death, and that he has sent notice of his determination to General Halleck. For this purpose an officer will be selected to- morrow, by lot, from those in confinement in the —— prison, and he will be hung within twelve hours from the time when the news of the execution of Lieutenant Gray is received.” | This news was not much of an appetizer to the prisoners, ) who tried, however, to make light of it, and were particu- larly unwilling to.appear downcast while one of their - guards remained in the room. ‘‘How many captains are there here?” the man asked. ‘‘Nine,” was the reply. “They’ll all git off.” ‘‘Oh! we will, will we?” asked one, with rather more signs of joy than a sense of propriety would have per- mitted, considering that their exemption nearly doubled the peril of each of their comrades. “Yes; they take the same rank, you know, and Gray was only a levtenant—only a second levtenant, I believe: but I am not certain about that.” ‘There are four first lieutenants here,” said one; ‘‘and if they are to be exempt, too, there are only six of us left to draw from, Lee; for Hartley, of course, doesn’t count.” “Only six,” replied Alfred. ‘‘There must be more in some other of the prisons. Why should we be the only ones to be put in danger 2?” “Perhaps not of that exactrank. They say quite a lot of officers were sent off to Columbia, a few days ago. How is the thing to be decided?” he added, turning to the keeper. ‘ Who.draws the names, and where ?” ‘‘Major Hunt says it is to be done right here, so that you can all see that it’s fair. And there ain’t to be ‘no drawin’ of names, nor nothing of that kind. All there is about it is—that they’re jist goin’ to put so many marbles in a hat or box, or something, as many as there are of you to draw. The tmarbles will all be white but one, and that will be black, and the man that draws that will swing. That’s all.” The remainder of the day was spent in dismal fore- bodings by the second lieutenants, and in a great state of uneasiness by those one degree above them inrank. Yet all tried to banish the signs of apprehension from their | countenances. © Eomicbooks:.co