fe.
They sell horses to the army--the blue bellies." He used the term with
the concentration of one determined to say the right thing at the right
time.

Drew laughed. And with that spontaneous outburst, years fell away from
his somber face. "I take it that you do not approve of blue bellies,
Boyd?"

"'Course not! Me, I'm goin' to join General Morgan now. Ain't nobody
goin' to keep me from doin' that!" Again his voice scaled up out of
control, and he flushed.

"You're rather young----" Drew began, when the other interrupted him
with something close to desperation in his voice.

"No, I ain't too young! That's all I ever hear--too young to do this,
too young to be thinkin' about things like that! Well, I ain't much
younger than you were, Drew Rennie, when you joined up with Captain
Castleman and rode south to join General Morgan--you and Shelly. And you
know that, too! I'll be sixteen on the fifteenth of this July. And this
time I'm goin'! Where's the General now, Drew?"

The scout shrugged. "Movin' fast. Your rumors probably know as much as I
do. They plant him half a dozen places at once. He might be in any one
of them or fifty miles away; that's how Morgan rides."

"But you're goin' to join him, and you'll take me with you, won't you,
Drew?"

The lightness was gone from the older boy's eyes, his mouth set in
controlled anger. "I am not goin' to do anything of the kind, Boyd
Barrett." He spoke the words slowly, in an even tone, with a fraction of
pause between each. Men of the command had once or twice heard young
Rennie speak that way. Although difficult to know well, he had the
general reputation of being easy to get along with. But a few times he
had erupted into action as might a spring uncoiling from tight pressure,
and that action was usually preceded by just such quiet statements as
the one he had just made to Boyd.

Boyd, however, was never one to be defeated in a first skirmish of
wills. "Why not?" he demanded now.

"Because," Drew offered the first argument he could think of which might
be acceptable to the other, "I'm on scout in enemy-held territory. If
I'm taken, it's not good. I have to ride light and fast, and this is
duty I've been trained to do. So I can't afford to be hampered by a
green kid----"

"I can ride just as fast and hard as you can, Drew Rennie, and I have
Whirlaway for my own now. He's certainly better than that nag!" With an
arrogant lift of the chin, Boyd indicated the roan,