ve me the slip? Well, Somers, I forgive you."

"I am sure, if I had not been in doubt in regard to what you were, I
would not have left you, even if I had been certain of hanging with you."

"I know you wouldn't, my boy. I confess there were a great many dark
things against me; but I assure you I am a loyal and true man. I have
suffered more for the Union than you have; for I was born in the sunny
South, and all my friends and neighbors went with the rebels. I had no
alternative but to go into the army, where my experience in the Crimea,
in Italy, and in Mexico, made me an officer. I escaped as soon as I
could, and enrolled myself on the right side."

Somers grasped the hand of his brave and devoted companion, which he
pressed with a warmth that indicated his feelings more eloquently than
words could have done. He was entirely satisfied with the explanation,
because it was fully sustained by the conduct of the captain, and by the
words of the rebel cavalry officer who had claimed his acquaintance. He
was even disposed to believe that De Banyan had been a soldier in the
European wars and in Mexico; which was a degree of credulity hardly to be
expected of a sensible young man.

"You will forgive me for my unjust suspicions, captain? I assure you it
went against my grain to believe that you were a rebel."

"You had good reason for it. I was more afraid of you, when I confessed
my sins to the rebel officer, than I was of him. We are friends again,
Somers; that's all I want."

"You have proved yourself my friend by this last act; and I should have
needed no further explanation to convince me that you were a loyal man."

"I am all that, my dear boy."

"Where have you been since I parted from you?"

"I got up to Petersburg in the afternoon. I was put in that hole where I
found you at first; but, when the provost-marshal learned my story, he
sent for me, and I was conducted to his office. Just as I came out of the
depot, you went in. He wanted to question me, he said. Well, I happened
to know him, though he did not know me. I knew his weak point; and, in a
word, I bamboozled him. I assured him I was an officer in the Third
Tennessee, and that, on further inquiry, he would find I was all right;
that I had rendered greater service to my country by going over to the
Yankees than I could possibly have done by remaining with my regiment;
which, you are willing to believe, was strictly true.

"I asked the privilege of putti