aluable
services to another. I shall start for Baton Rouge to-morrow, and I and
my horse will take passage on the first St. Louis boat that comes
along."

"Hear, hear!" shouted some of the. Rangers.

"Let's go in a body," said one. "We have the assurance that our services
will be accepted, that the officers we have elected will be retained,
that our plan of organization will not be interfered with, and what more
could we ask for?"

"That won't suit me," another declared. "I don't want to leave my
State."

"How are you going to help yourself?" demanded Rodney. "If you join the
Confederate army you are liable to be ordered up to Virginia or down to
Florida. And you know as well as I do what the people around here will
think of you if you make up your mind to stay at home."

"Let's take the sense of the company on it," suggested Lieutenant
Percy.

"All right," answered the captain. "Put the thing in the form of a
motion and I will."

This was quickly done, and to Rodney's great disappointment, though not
much to his surprise, the proposition was defeated by a large majority.
The Rangers were opposed to deserting their State in a body and going
into another.

"I'll not stay at home, and that's all there is about it," said one of
the Rangers who had voted with the minority. "Does anybody here know
what course we _do_ want to pursue? I have my doubts; and in order to
test the matter I move you, Mr. Commander, that we offer ourselves as a
company to the Confederate States."

The motion was received with such a howl of dissent that if there was a
second to it the captain did not hear it. Some of the Rangers, to show
what they thought of the proposition, backed their horses out of the
ranks and rode away. Among them was Rodney, who returned to the tree
under which his father was sitting.

"Isn't it rather unusual for a cavalry company to hold a business
meeting on horseback?" inquired the latter, as the boy swung himself
from his saddle. "There seems to be a big difference of opinion among
the members, and you look as though things hadn't gone to suit you. What
have you decided to do?"

"Nothing as a company," replied Rodney. "In fact we are not a company
any longer. It is every one for himself now."

"What do you mean by that? Have you disbanded?"

Rodney explained the situation in a few words, adding that he thought he
might as well be riding toward home so as to spend all the time he could
with his mother,