eighbors who had enlisted, and come home on a few days'
furlough. These furloughed men never came near the house, but rode by
without looking at it; while the two men who were now approaching were
headed straight for it, and their actions seemed to indicate that they
had business with some member of the family. Marcy glanced at his
mother's pale but resolute face, and then he looked up at the
Confederate banner--the one Captain Semmes hoisted at the _Sabine's_
peak when he put his prize crew aboard of her, and which Sailor Jack had
captured and brought home with him. That flag had twice taken the little
_Fairy Belle_ in safety past the rebel fortifications down the river,
and Marcy had great hopes of it now.

"It may not serve you this time as well as it did before," said his
mother, who seemed to read the thoughts that were passing in his mind.
"I was afraid you would miss it by passing those batteries in broad
daylight, but I do not understand these things, and did not think it
best to raise any objections to Jack's plans."

"Why, mother, we never could have run those works in the dark without
being seen and fired at and perhaps sunk," replied Marcy. "The very
impudence of the thing was what disarmed suspicion and saved us from
being searched. We'll soon know the worst now, for here they are at the
bottom of the steps. I shall ask them right in here."

So saying Marcy opened the door that gave entrance into the hall, and
called for Julius to run around to the front door and take charge of a
couple of horses he would find there, after which he stepped out upon
the gallery just as the Confederates were getting ready to hail the
house.

"Good-morning, gentlemen," said he. "Alight, and give your nags over to
this boy."

The officers replied in courteous tones, and when they had ascended the
steps to the gallery and turned down the wide collars of their gray
overcoats, Marcy was somewhat relieved to find that they were both
strangers, and that they did not look at him as though they had anything
unpleasant to say to him.

"I am Captain Porter, at your service, and my friend here is Lieutenant
Anderson; no relation, however, to the Yankee hero of Fort Sumter, who,
so I am told, is about to be canonized by the Northern people," said the
elder of the two; and then he waited a moment for his subordinate to
laugh at his wit. "If you are Marcy Gray and the head man of the
plantation, you are the man we are looking for. Wh