would come along and sorter looking for
it," continued the man, as Rodney drew up beside the fence. "But I
didn't dast to look for such a streak of luck as this. He's waiting for
you."

"He? Who?" asked Rodney; and then he caught his breath and wondered if
he had done wrong in speaking before the man had opportunity to explain
his meaning.

"Tain't worth while for you to play off on me," replied the farmer,
leading the way along the fence and motioning to Rodney to follow. "I
know the whole story from beginning to end, but I can't take you where
he is tonight. You'll have to stop with me till morning, but you and the
critter'll have to be hid in the bresh, kase Thompson's men aint gone
away yet."

Here was one point settled, and it wasn't settled to the boy's
satisfaction, either. The man on the other side of the fence, who now
stopped and let down a pair of bars so that he could ride through into
the barnyard, was a Union man; and, to make matters worse he took Rodney
for the same. But what was that story he had heard from beginning to
end, and who was it that was waiting for him? Rodney dared not speak for
fear of saying something he ought not to say, and so he held his peace.
When he had followed his guide through the yard and into a small
building that looked as though it might have been fitted up for a
cow-stable, the latter continued, speaking now in his natural tone of
voice as if he were no longer in fear of being overheard:

"He was looking for me all the time, and I knowed it the minute I set
eyes on to him."

"Friend of yours?" said the boy, at a venture.

"In a sartin way he are a friend, but I never see him till this
afternoon. I know his uncle up to Pilot Knob, and when I see him riding
by the house and looking at it as though he'd like to say something if
he wasn't afraid, I told him to 'light, and asked him wasn't he looking
for Merrick. That's me, you know. He said he was, and you might have
knocked me down with a straw when he told me he was kin to old Justus
Percival. Why don't you 'light?"

The farmer might have knocked Rodney down with a straw too, if he had
had one handy, for the boy was very much surprised. He got off his horse
somehow and managed to inquire:

"What did he tell you about me that made you know me as quick as you saw
me?"

"He told me everything about you--how you had run away from Louisianner
kase your folks was all dead set agin the Union, and come up to Missoury
thin