d, after a long look ahead. "They will be
here in less than ten minutes."

Soon the trampling of horses' hoofs was heard, and then came the
occasional blast of a trumpet. At last a troop of cavalry swept by,
paying no attention to the Ruthven homestead.

The cavalry was followed at a distance by a company of rascally looking
guerrillas--followers of every army--who fight simply for the sake of
looting afterward.

"To the house!" cried the captain of the guerrillas, a man named Sandy
Barnes.

"Company, attention!" cried out Jack, and drew up his command across the
lawn in front of the homestead.

"Halt!" shouted Captain Barnes. And then he added; "What are you boys
doing here?"

"We are the guard of this house," answered Jack, quietly but firmly.

"Guard nothin'! Out of our way!" growled the guerrilla.

"We will not get out of your way, and you will advance at your peril."

"What, will you boys show fight?" queried the guerrilla curiously.

"We will!" came from the boys. "Keep back!"

"This is private property and must be respected," went on Jack.
"Besides, the house is now a hospital, for there are six wounded
Confederates inside, in charge of a surgeon."

The guerrilla muttered something under his breath.

"Come on, anyhow!" shouted somebody in a rear rank. "It looks like a
house worth visitin'!"

"Try to enter the house and we will shoot!" went on Jack, his face
growing white.

"Why, youngster, you don't know who you are talking to," growled Barnes.

He stepped forward as if to enter the house by a side door, when Jack
ran in front of him and raised his sword.

"Not another step, if you value your life!"

"Out of my way, boy!" And now the guerrilla raised his own sword, while
some of his men raised their guns.

It was truly a trying moment, and Marion, at the window, looked on with
bated breath. "Oh, if Jack should be killed!" she thought.

But now there came a shout from the road, and there appeared a regiment
of regular Federal troops. The guerrillas saw them coming, and gazed
anxiously at their leader.

"It's Colonel Stanton's regiment!" muttered a guerrilla lieutenant. "He
won't stand no nonsense, cap."

"I know it," growled Barnes. "Right face, forward march!" he shouted,
and, as quickly as they had come, the guerrillas left the plantation and
took to a side road leading to the distant hills.

But the Federal regiment had seen them, and as the guerrillas ran they
received a volley wh