and between Wateree and Broad
belongs to Tom Sumpter, let mad-cap Tarleton do his best! We Whigs, Mr.
Musgrove, have a little touch of the hobgoblin in us. We travel pretty
much where we please. Now, I will tell you, friend, very plainly what I
am after. I don't mean to leave these parts till I see what is to become
of Major Butler. Innis and Floyd put together sha'n't hinder me from
looking after a man that's under my charge. I'm an old sodger, and they
can't make much out of me if they get me."

"The country is swarming with troops of one kind or another," said the
miller; "and a man must have his wits about him who would get through
it. You are now, Mr. Robinson, in a very dangerous quarter. The fort at
Ninety-Six on one side of you, and Rocky Mount and Hanging Rock on the
other--the road between the three is full of loyalists. Colonel Innis is
here to keep the passage open, and, almost hourly, his men are passing.
You should be careful in showing yourself in daylight. And as for your
poor friend, Major Butler, there is not likely to be much good will
shown towards him. I greatly fear his case is worse than it seems to
you."

"There is somewhere," said Robinson, "in that book that lies open on the
table--which I take to be the Bible--the story of the campaigns of King
David; and as I have hearn it read by the preacher, it tells how David
was pushed on all sides by flying corps of the enemy, and that, seeing
he had no sword, he came across a man who gave him victuals and the
sword of Goliath--as I got my dinner and a sword this morning from the
tavern-keeper at Blackstock's; and then he set off on his flight to some
strange place, where he feigned himself crazy and scrabbled at the gate,
and let the spit run down on his beard--as I have done before now with
Tarleton, Mr. Musgrove; and then King David took into a cave--which I
shouldn't stand much upon doing if there was occasion; and there the
King waited, until he got friends about him and was able to drub the
Philistians for robbing the threshing-floors--as I make no doubt these
Tories have robbed yours, Allen Musgrove. But you know all about it,
seeing that you are able to read, which I am not. Now, I don't pretend
to say that I nor Major Butler are as good men as David--not at all; but
the cause of liberty is as good a cause as ever King David fought for,
and the Lord that took his side in the cave, will take the side of the
Whigs, sooner or later, and help them