u had any business
to tell, if you don't think I can keep a secret."

"Well, that there is a fact. Look a-here. I aint said a word to nobody
about this, and you mustn't let on that I told you; but while I was
running into Crooked Inlet on my way home from the last trip I made to
Nassau, I didn't see the steam launch that I was afraid might be waiting
there for me, but I did see Marcy Gray's schooner."

"Isn't that what I said?" exclaimed Tom gleefully. "What was Marcy
Gray's schooner doing outside, and in the night-time, too?"

"Hold on till I tell you how it was," replied the captain. "The first
thing I see was that the schooner had been disguised, but that didn't by
no means fool your uncle Lon. Them two boys, Marcy and Jack, had towed
her through the inlet with their skiff and were just about to get aboard
again and make sail, when I run on to 'em in the dark. I was that scared
to see 'em that I couldn't move from my tracks, for a minute or two. I
thought the Yankees had me sure."

"It almost takes my breath to have my suspicions confirmed in this way,"
said Tom. "Did you watch them to see where they went?"

"Listen at the fule!" exclaimed the captain, in a tone of disgust. "Not
much, I didn't watch them boys. I had enough to do to mind my own
business; and knowing what brung them outside at that time of night,
didn't I know where they had started for without watching 'em? They
didn't go nigh Newbern. They went straight out to the Yankee fleet, and
there's where Jack Gray is, while me and you are riding along this
road."

"Captain, I wouldn't have missed seeing you this morning for a bushel of
money," declared Tom, whose first impulse was to whip up his horse and
carry the joyful news to Nashville. "I've got a hold on Marcy Gray now
that I shan't be slow to use."

"What are you going to do?" asked Beardsley anxiously.

"I'll let him know who he called a coward before a whole post-office
full of people," said Allison savagely. "He will take that word back on
his knees and do his best to make a friend of me, or I'll----"

"There, now!" cried Beardsley; and the tone in which he uttered the
words was quite as savage as Tom's. "I knew well enough that I had no
call to tell you all them things without first speaking to Shelby and
Dillon about them."

"Of course I shall consult you, before doing or saying anything to
Marcy," replied Tom, wishing he had net been so quick to speak the
thoughts that were in his min