Missouri, and they did not believe in neutrality as Dick Graham did.
They believed in keeping the rebellious States in the Union by force of
arms if they would not stay in peaceably. Had they joined Lyon's army,
and would he and Dick have to meet them on the field of battle? He hoped
not, but if he did, he would be careful to follow the advice Ed Billings
gave his cousin Marcy and shoot high.

The journey up the river was an uneventful one. The tables were pretty
well filled at meal time, but Rodney could not have been more alone if
he had been stranded on some sandbar in the middle of the stream. His
horse was the only companion he had, and the animal seemed to be as
lonely and homesick as his master was. Rodney visited him a dozen times
a day to make sure that he did not want for anything, and the colt
always rubbed his head against the boy's shoulder and told him by other
signs, as plainly as a horse could tell it, that he was glad to see him.
There was an utter lack of that sociability and unrestrained intercourse
among the passengers that Rodney had always noticed during his trips up
and down the river. Some of them were solitary and alone like himself,
while others, having formed themselves into little groups, had nothing
to do with the rest of the passengers, but kept entirely on their own
side of the boiler deck. Rodney thought they acted as though they were
afraid of one another. This state of affairs continued until the _Mollie
Able_ reached Memphis, where the Confederates were building a fleet of
gunboats, and then a remark made by one of the passengers broke down all
reserve, and showed some of them, Rodney Gray among the rest, that they
had been keeping aloof from their friends.

"When these boats are completed," Rodney heard the passenger say to one
of his companions, "you will see fun on this river. The first point of
assault will be Cairo, and then we'll go on up and take St. Louis away
from Lyon's Dutchmen. Those Missourians are a pretty set of cowards to
let a lot of ignorant foreigners take their city out of their hands."

Well, they couldn't help it, and besides, the loyal Germans were by no
means as ignorant as some of the men who fought against them. They were
good soldiers and hard to whip; and it was owing to their patriotism and
courage that such fellows as Rodney Gray and Dick Graham did not succeed
in their efforts to "run the Yankees out of Missouri." And as for the
Confederate gunboats of w