iment of honor and
conscientiousness, one to whom recapture was certain if lies were
necessary to avoid it; this was Miller.

CHAPTER XIX.

GOOD LUCK AND BAD.

We were soon out of the river bottom, and then came the question as to
whether we should keep or avoid the road. We decided to remain upon it,
because of the fact that the ferryman would probably ask the first comer
if he had met us, and a negative reply might cause questions and
suspicions; so we trudged along, in hopes of a successful issue to our
campaign.

Soon we saw an approaching horseman, and again our friend Miller became
agitated. When a nearer view developed the fact that the rider was a
rebel officer, we had hard work to keep Miller from throwing up his
hands or running, we being entirely unarmed, but he calmed down and
behaved nicely as the officer rode up and we saw that he was a major.

We saluted, said good morning, and passed on in a matter-of-fact way,
while the officer gave us scarcely a look as he returned our salute and
rode by; so Miller had a respite.

Having thus met somebody to report us at the ferry, we now left the road
and went into the woods to lay up, taking pains to go a good mile from
the road in order to avoid any possible notice.

Finding a good, thick top of a felled tree, we sought the seclusion of
its branches and indulged in a good sleep.

We were awakened along in the afternoon by a crunching sound like that
of horses walking on gravel, and, when we realized what it was, the
horses were so close to us that we fairly hugged the ground and
trembled, feeling that it must be some people looking for us.

The sound passing by, we got out to investigate, and we had not gone
fifteen paces through some bushes till we stopped and looked at each
other quizzically. There was another road, evidently more traveled than
the one we had taken such pains to avoid. As the joke was on all, we had
nothing to say.

We were now out of provisions again, and, in prospecting around, we
found that the two roads came together a short distance below.

The country in our neighborhood was a farming district, but it was now
barren. The houses and buildings were deserted, the fences down and
everything dilapidated. We could find nothing to eat, and again took to
the road.

To show how run down and deserted that section was I state as a fact
that we ransacked every stable, corn crib and vacant house in our path
that night for a distan