for
the exemption of those who were able to pay for it, thus proving the
truth of the assertion that the war of the rebellion was a rich man's
war and a poor man's fight. The fact that young Griffin was the sole
support of a widowed mother made not the slightest difference to the
Confederate enrolling officers, who would have forced him into the army
if Rodney's father had not come to his relief. According to the terms of
the law there was one exempt on every plantation employing more than
fifteen slaves. Mr. Gray owned four such plantations and he gave young
Griffin charge of one of them, at the same time handing over the hundred
pounds of bacon and beef that Griffin would have been obliged to pay as
the price of his exemption. Of course this made Randolph angry, and the
burden of his complaint was:

"Griffin is Union and I know it; and old Gray has no business to shield
him from the conscription in that fashion. My friend Drummond had to run
when the Yankees came here, and now he is starving in the Confederate
army; and is this Griffin any better than Drummond? _My_ exemption is
all right. My father is free by reason of his age, and I must look out
for the plantation; but Griffin ought to be made to light. I'd give
something handsome to know what made those Grays take such a shine to
him all of a sudden."

The knowledge that he was watched, and that the telegraph was to be
brought into operation against him, did not keep Rodney Gray awake five
minutes after his head touched the pillow. He slept soundly, ate a
hearty breakfast, and in company with his father took his way to the
telegraph office and wrote a dispatch, addressing it to Dick Graham's
father at St. Louis. Mr. Graham did not live in the city. His home was
near Springfield; but Rodney knew from something Dick said in his letter
that his father was sojourning in St. Louis watching the progress of
events. His first telegram had reached Mr. Graham all right, and it was
likely this one would also. He made a great show of writing it, and even
read it to his father in a tone loud enough for the operator to hear
it.

"'Will start for St. Louis by first steamer, and shall be glad to have
you meet me at the wharf-boat,'" was what he wrote in the dispatch. "Of
course Mr. Graham can easily find out what boats are due in the city,
and will know about what time to expect me. How much?"

The operator, who seemed to take a deeper interest in this dispatch and
the send