d that he must think quickly, and decide on some plan of
action to cover up, if he could, any bad results from his blunder. He was
once more cool, and he returned the piercing look of the officer with
steadfast eyes. His mind was clear as to one thing. There was no need of
his trying to invent a story, on the spur of the moment, with a man like
the Captain quite ready to pick it to pieces. For it was plain that this
Confederate was shrewd--and a trifle suspicious. The boy must pursue a
different course.

"My being down South is my own concern," he said, pretending to be
virtuously offended at the curiosity of his inquisitor.

The Captain drew himself up with an injured air. "Heigh ho!" he muttered;
"my young infant wants me to mind my own business, eh?"

George flushed; he considered himself very much of a man, and he did not
relish being called an "infant." But he kept his temper; he foresaw that
everything depended upon his remaining cool. He treated the remark with
contemptuous silence.

The officer turned away from him, to look out of the window of the car.
Yet it was evident that he paid little or no attention to the rapidly
moving landscape. He was thinking hard. Not a word was spoken between the
two for ten minutes. Most of the other passengers were talking excitedly
among themselves. Occasionally a remark could be understood above the
rattle of the train. George heard enough to know they were discussing the
battle of Shiloh, which had been fought so recently.

"I tell you," cried a soldier, "the battle was a great Confederate
victory."

"That may be," answered some one, "but if we have many more such victories
we Southerners will have a lost cause on our hands, and Abe Lincoln will
be eating his supper in Richmond before many months are gone."

At this there was a chorus of angry dissent, and several cries of
"Traitor!" George listened eagerly. He would dearly have liked to look
behind him, to see what his three companions were doing, or hear what they
were saying, at the other end of the car. But he was not supposed to know
them. He could only surmise (correctly enough, as it happened) that they
were acting their part of Southerners, although doing as little as
possible to attract attention. One thing worried the young adventurer. He
distrusted the continued silence of the Captain.

It was a silence that the officer finally broke, by looking squarely into
George's face, and saying, in a low tone: "When