sent Mr. Riley and some others to extort from
him a promise that he would never be guilty of it again.

"So that report was true," said Dixon, who brought this news to Marcy
Gray, "and that was the lesson the colonel has been pouting over all
day. He gave Mr. Riley the assurance that no matter what happened in
Barrington, not a single boy of us should be allowed outside the grounds
with a musket in his hand."

"Rodney didn't come home with you, did he?" said Marcy. "I wish he would
make haste, for I should like to get my mail. Do you know where he is?"

"That reminds me of something I made up my mind to ask you the minute I
got here," answered Dixon; and Marcy judged, by the furtive manner in
which he looked around to make sure there was no one within earshot,
that he did not want anybody else to know what he had to say. "Has
Rodney anything in common with that villain, Bud Goble?"

"Not by a long shot," exclaimed Marcy indignantly. "Why do you ask?
Don't you know him any better than that?"

"I thought I did; but the last time I saw him and Dick Graham, they were
searching everywhere for Bud. Graham is, or _was_, all right; there's no
discount on him, but--"

"But what?" demanded Marcy, when Dixon paused. "Don't say a word behind
Rodney's back that you would not say to his face."

"I won't," replied Dixon, who was neither angry nor frightened. "I hope
you have been acquainted with me long enough to know that I am not that
sort of fellow. I say Dick is all right, because he will not make a move
either way until his State moves; and in the mean time, he will not want
to do harm to those whose opinions differ from his own. But, Marcy Gray,
that cousin of yours is about half crazy."

"That's a fact," said Marcy, after thinking a moment.

"Consequently Rodney is _not_ all right, and there's a heavy discount on
him," continued Dixon. "He is down on everybody who does not think as he
does, and I am afraid--Look here: Why is Rodney so anxious to see Bud
Goble if it isn't to put him up to some mischief?"

"That's so," replied Marcy thoughtfully. "Why is he?"

"There was a time when Rodney's blood would have boiled at the idea of
standing by and seeing helpless people served as those two Union men
were served by the members of Mr. Riley's committee last night, but it
isn't so now," continued Dixon. "He believes that Northern sympathizers
ought to be punished, and he don't care how it is done or who does it!"

"But Di