CHAPTER VII.

THE EMERGENCY MEN.

"Great Scott!" was Rodney Gray's mental ejaculation. "That is Tom
Percival if I ever saw him."

If his own father had suddenly been brought into the cabin a prisoner in
the hands of armed men, the Barrington boy could not have been more
amazed. He winked hard and looked again, but his eyes had not deceived
him; and even if there had been the slightest doubt in his mind
regarding the identity of the prisoner who had been denounced as "an
abolition horse-thief," it would have vanished when he saw the
expression that came upon Tom's face the moment their eyes met. Tom was
one of Dick Graham's firm friends, but while a student at the Barrington
Academy he had often declared that if Dick ever so far forgot himself as
to enlist in the rebel army, he (Tom) would go into the Union service on
purpose to whip him back into a proper frame of mind; and his being
there a prisoner led Rodney to believe that he had kept his promise, so
far as enlisting was concerned. But there was one thing about it: Tom
might be a Union soldier, but he was neither an abolitionist nor a
horse-thief.

"It is Percival, sure enough, but what in the name of sense and Tom
Walker is he doing here?" was the next question that came into Rodney's
mind.

His first impulse was to seize his old schoolmate by the hand, proclaim
his friendship for him and assure Mr. Westall and the rest that they had
committed the worst kind of a blunder--that they had made as great a
mistake in arresting this boy for a horse-thief, as Nels and his fellow
wood-cutters had made in suspecting him of being Tom Percival, simply
because he happened to have in his possession a watch chain that
somewhat resembled Tom's. But two things restrained him; the first was
the reflection that by following this course he would put it entirely
out of his power to help Tom if the opportunity was offered, and the
second was the way in which Tom himself looked and acted. He didn't
appear to know Rodney at all. The expression of joy and surprise that
first overspread his countenance vanished as if by magic, and from that
time forward he gave as little attention to his old friend as he might
have given to an utter stranger. Rodney was quick to take the hint and
governed himself accordingly.

"Percival always did have a level head on his shoulders," said the
latter, resuming his seat upon the nail keg and placing himself as fa