ere about. Why, when I heard you telling your story to Mr. Westall down
there in Jeff's shanty, it was all I could do to keep from saying, right
out loud, that such a piece of foolishness had never come under my
notice before."

"Where would you be at this moment if I hadn't been in Jeff's cabin last
night?" retorted Rodney.

"Well, that's a fact," said Tom thoughtfully. "About the time I felt
that stick and revolver in my hands, I was mighty glad you were around;
but as soon as I had used them, I wished from the bottom of my heart
that you were safe back in your own State. But since you are here, I am
going to do my level best for you; and that's the reason I am going to
keep your horse a little longer. If I don't give him back to you some
day, you can keep mine to remember me by."

"And every time I look at him, I shall be reminded that I have been
taken for a horse-thief," added Rodney.

"You are no more of a horse-thief than I am. Let that thought comfort
you. How is it, Merrick?" he went on, addressing himself to the farmer
who at that moment glided into the stable with noiseless footstep. "Can
we go in and get supper, or will it be safer for you to bring it out to
us?"

"You are to come right in," was the farmer's welcome reply. "It'll be
safe, for I have cleared the kitchen of everybody except the old woman.
She's Secesh the very worst kind, but that needn't bother you none. She
knows how to get up a good supper."

"That is a matter that has a deeper interest for us just now than her
politics," said Tom. "But what shall we do with the horse?"

"As soon as I have showed you the way to the table I'll come back and
stay with him so't he won't whinny," answered Merrick. "If them
'Mergency men heard him calling they might think it was one of my own
critters and then agin they mightn't; so it's best to be on the safe
side."

That the farmer was very much afraid that the horse might betray his
presence to the guerrillas was evident from the way he acted. He took
long, quick steps when he started for the house, gave the two boys a
hurried introduction to his wife, saw them seated at the table and then
ran out again. Mrs. Merrick remained in the room to wait upon them, and
that was an arrangement that Tom Percival did not like; for although she
proved to be a pleasant and agreeable hostess and never said a word
about politics, Tom did not think it safe to talk too freely in her
presence, and took the first oppor