y who I pretended to be, finally agreed to take me to Toombs.
Riding down to Old-Town, in Jefferson County, we failed to find Toombs,
but receiving a clew that he had passed through the David Dickson
plantation in Hancock County, I accosted Mr. Worthen, the manager. 'Has
an old man riding a gray horse passed this way,' Worthen was asked. He
promptly answered, 'No.' Believing that he was deceiving me, I
questioned him more closely."

Worthen tried to persuade the young man to get down and take some plums.
He was evidently anxious to detain him. Finally he eyed the stranger
more closely, and, convinced that he was the companion whom Toombs
expected, he confessed that General Toombs had been at his place and was
then at the home of Major Gonder in Washington County.

Lieutenant Irvin had ridden over two hundred miles in this search and
lost two or three days out of his way. Toombs covered his trail so
carefully that it was difficult even for his friends to find him. Small
wonder that he was not captured by the enemy.

Lieutenant Irvin was not yet "out of the woods." Reaching the home of
Major Gonder late in the evening, he rode up to the front fence, fifty
yards from the dwelling. Mrs. Gonder and her daughter were sitting on
the piazza. Lieutenant Irvin asked the usual question about the old man
and the gray horse. The lady replied that she knew nothing about them.

Lieutenant Irvin said: "But I was directed to this place."

Mrs. Gonder: "I should like to know who sent you."

Lieutenant Irvin: "But has no one passed or stopped here, answering my
description?"

Both ladies were now considerably worked up; the younger scarcely
suppressed her amusement.

"Come, ladies," said Lieutenant Irvin, "I see you both know more than
you will confess."

"If I do, I will die before I tell it," naively replied the elder.

"Now I know you know where General Toombs is."

"Then get it out of me if you can."

Finally the young man persuaded her that he was the friend of Toombs,
and Mrs. Gonder reluctantly directed him to Colonel Jack Smith's over on
the Oconee River.

Riding up to Colonel Smith's, his valiant pursuer spied General Toombs
through the window. The head of the house, however, denied that Toombs
was there at all.

"But that looks very much like him through the window," said Lieutenant
Irvin.

"Young man," retorted Colonel Smith, "what is your name?"

Of course this disclosure led to the reunion of the fugitive