n: "Fall back, Major!" he shouted; "give the artillery a
chanst"]

Thomas Jefferson ran to the nearest rotting log, but one of the negroes
was before him with a blazing pitch-pine splint. There was a respectful
recoil in the opposing ranks which presently became a somewhat panicky
surge to the rear. The shovelers, more than half of whom were negroes,
had not come out to be blown from a cannon's mouth by a grim-faced
veteran who was so palpably at home with the tools of his trade.

"That's right: keep right on goin'!" yelled the iron-master, waving his
blazing slow-match dangerously near to the priming. "Keep it up, 'r by
the Lord that made ye--"

There was no need to specify the alternative. For now the panic had
spread by its own contagion, and the invaders were fighting among
themselves for place on the flat-cars. And while yet the rear guard was
swarming upon the engine, hanging by toe-and hand-holds where it could,
the train was backed rapidly out of range.

Caleb Gordon kept his pine splint alight until the echoes of the
engine's exhaust came faintly from the overhanging cliffs of the
mountain.

"They've gone back to town, and I reckon the fire's plum' out for
to-day, Major," he drawled. "Buck and a few o' the boys 'll stay by the
gun, against their rallyin' later on, and you might as well go home to
your breakfast. Didn't bring your hawss, did ye? Take the mare, and
welcome. Buddy and me'll walk."

But the Major would not mount, and so the two men walked together as far
as the manor-house gates, with Thomas Jefferson a pace in the rear,
leading the mare.

It was no matter of wonder to him that his father and the Major marched
in solemn silence to the gate of parting. But the wonder came
tumultuously when the Major wheeled abruptly at the moment of
leave-taking and wrung his father's hand.

"By God, suh, you are a right true-hearted gentleman, and my very good
friend, _Mistuh_ Gordon!" he said, with the manner of one who has been
carefully weighing the words beforehand. "If you had been given youh
just dues, suh, you'd have come home from F'ginia wearin' youh
shouldeh-straps." And then, with a little throat-clearing pause to come
between: "Damn it, suh; an own brotheh couldn't have done'mo'! I--I've
been misjudgin' you, Caleb, all these yeahs, and now I'm proud to shake
you by the hand and call you my friend. Yes, suh, I am that!"

It was, in a manner not to be understood by the Northern alien, the
acco