t be bound?"

"Yes; every one."

"Scar Markham, father?"

"Yes; you must run no risks. You might meet a party of the enemy, and
if your prisoners fought against you, what then? Let them be bound
while on the road. They will have comparative freedom when you have
given them up."

The stern school of war in which Fred Forrester was taking his early
lessons of discipline and obedience had already taught him to hear and
to obey.

This was after a halt of three days in their temporary camp, during
which the careful general of the little army had thought it better to
rest and recruit his men than to weary them in a vain pursuit at a time
when they were pretty well exhausted with previous work.

Fred had seen a great deal of the prisoners during the time, but only
for the estrangement between him and his old companion to grow greater.
For Scarlett was suffering bitterly from the reverses which had befallen
his party, and was in agony about his father's fate. He had tried to
obtain some news of the division to which they had been attached, but
all he could learn was that in the late engagement it had been cut to
pieces, and its components who remained had fled in all directions,
while he could not discover whether his father had been among the many
slain.

Stung by his sufferings, and irritable to a degree, he was in no mood to
meet Fred's advances, looking upon him, as he did, as one of his
father's murderers, and when he did not give him a fierce look of
resentment, he turned his back upon him, and treated him with the
greatest scorn and contempt.

Their relations under these circumstances did not promise well, then,
for their journey to Newton Abbott, and matters seemed to culminate for
ill when the escort was ready, the prisoners' horses brought out, and
Fred announced that the time of departure had come. Scarlett rose from
where he had been lying upon his cloak in silence; but the sight of his
old companion seemed to rouse him to speak; and in a bitterly
contemptuous way he turned to his men, saying to Nat--

"They might have sent a man to take charge of us, my lads."

Fred winced, and felt small in his military uniform. He bit his lip,
and told himself that he would not notice the petty remark, but the
words leaped out--

"I dare say I shall be man enough to take you safely to your prison,
sir;" but Scarlett turned angrily away.

The prisoners took their cue from their leader, and behaved in an
exag