r 
 
 "!
 
 
 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 u
 
 CASTLEMON'S WAR SERIES. 
 
 TRUE TO His COLORS 
 
 HARRY CASTLEMON, 
 
 AUTHOR OP "GUNBOAT SERIES," "ROCKY MOUNTAIN SERIES, 
 "SPORTSMAN'S CLUB SERIES," ETC., ETC. 
 
 Eight Illustrations by Geo. G. White. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA : 
 
 PORTER & COATES.
 
 FAMOUS CASTLEMON BOOKS. 
 
 GUNBOAT SERIES. By HARRY CASTLEMON. 6vols. 12mo. 
 
 FRANK THE YOUNG NATURALIST. FRANK ON A GUNBOAT. 
 
 FRANK IN THE WOODS. FRANK BEFOUE VICKSBURG. 
 
 FRANK ON THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI. FRANK ON THE PRAIRIE. 
 
 ROCKY MOUNTAIN SERIES. By HARRY CASTLEMON. 3 vols. 12mo. 
 
 Cloth. 
 
 FRANK AMONG THE RANCHEROS. FRANK AT DON CARLOS' RANCH. 
 FRANK IN THE MOUNTAINS. 
 
 SPORTSMAN'S CLUB SERIES. By HARRY CASTLEMON. 3 vols. 12mo. 
 
 Cloth. 
 
 THE SPORTSMAN'S CLUB IN THE SADDLE. 
 THE SPORTSMAN'S CLUB AFLOAT. 
 THE SPORTSMAN'S CLUB AMONG THE TRAPPERS. 
 
 FRANK NELSON SERIES. By HARRY CASTLEMON. 3 vols. 12mo. 
 
 Cloth. 
 SNOWED UP. FRANK IN THE FORECASTLE. THE BOY TRADERS. 
 
 BOY TRAPPER SERIES. By HARRY CASTLEMON. 3 vols. 12mo. Cloth. 
 THE BURIED TREASURE. THE BOY TRAPPER. THE MAIL-CARRIER. 
 
 ROUGHING IT SERIES. By HARRY CASTLEMON. 3 vols. 12mo. Cloth. 
 GEORGE IN CAMP. GEORGE AT THE WHEEL. GEORGE AT THE FORT. 
 
 ROD AND GUN SERIES. By HARRY CASTLEMON. 3 vols. 12mo. Cloth. 
 DON GORDON'S SHOOTING Box. ROD AND GUN CLUB. 
 
 THE YOUNG WILD FOWLERS. 
 
 GO-AHEAD SERIES. By HARRY CASTLEMON. 3 vols. 12mo. Cloth. 
 TOM NEWCOMBE. GO-AHEAD. No Moss. 
 
 FOREST AND STREAM SERIES. By HARRY CASTLEMON. 3 vols. 12mo. 
 
 Cloth. v 
 
 JOE WAYRINO. SNAGGED AND SUNK. STEEL HORSE. 
 
 WAR SERIES. By HARRY CASTLEMON. 5 vols. 12mo. Cloth. 
 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. RODNEY THE PARTISAN. 
 
 RODNEY THE OVERSEER. MARCY THE BLOCKADE-RUNNER. 
 
 MARCY THK REFUGEE. 
 
 Other Volumes in Preparation. 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1889, BY PORTER & COATES.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. ALL ABOUT THE FLAG, .... 5 
 
 II. THE STRANGE BANNER, .... 24 
 
 III. CHEERS FOR " THE STARS AND BARS," . . 44 
 
 IV. RODNEY'S THREAT, 65 
 
 V. THE PAID SPY, . 88 
 
 VI. THE STRUGGLE ON THE TOWER, 
 
 VII. OLD TOBY'S MONEY 
 
 VIII. BUD COBLE'S WATERLOO 
 
 IX. THE COMMITTEE AT WORK, 
 
 X. THE CALL TO ARMS, 
 
 XI. BUD'S MESSENGER IN TROUBLE, 
 
 XII. THE FIRST COMPANY IN ACTION, . 
 
 XIII. HAULING DOWN THE COLORS, 
 
 XIV. MARCY CHANGES HIS CLOTHES, 
 XV. FORCED INTO THE SERVICE, 
 
 XVI. SECRET ENEMIES, 
 
 XVII. MARCY GRAY PRIVATEERSMAN, . 
 
 XVIII. CONCLUSION 
 
 iii 
 
 484064 
 
 LIBRARY
 
 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ALL ABOUT THE FLAG. 
 
 T-) ODNEY GRAY, I am ashamed of you ; 
 
 J_\ and if you were not my cousin, I 
 should be tempted to thrash you within an 
 inch of your life." 
 
 "Never mind the relationship. After list- 
 ening to the sentiments you have been preach- 
 ing in this academy for the last three months, 
 I am more ashamed of it than you can pos- 
 sibly be. You're a Yankee at heart, and a 
 traitor to your State. Let go those hal- 
 liards!" 
 
 "I'll not do it. Look here, Rodney. Your 
 ancestors and mine have fought under this 
 flag ever since it has been a flag, and, if I can 
 help it, you shall not be the first of our name 
 
 5
 
 6 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 to haul it down. Let go yourself, and stand 
 back, or I will throw you over the parapet." 
 
 "But that flag doesn't belong up there any 
 longer, and I say, and we all say, that it shall 
 not stay. Here's our banner ; and if there's a 
 war coming, as some of you seem to think, it 
 will lead us to victory on every battle-field." 
 
 An exciting scene was being enacted in and 
 around the belfry of the Barrington Military 
 Institute on the morning of the 9th of March, 
 1861 ; and it was but one of many similar 
 scenes which, for some time past, had been of 
 almost daily occurrence in many parts of the 
 South. It had been brought about by the 
 efforts of a band ol young secessionists, headed 
 by Rodney Gray, to haul down the academy 
 flag, and to hoist in its place a strange banner 
 one that nobody had ever seen or heard of pre- 
 vious to the 4th of March, the day on which 
 Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated President of the 
 United States. The students who were gath- 
 ered on the top of the tower at the time our 
 story begins were Southern boys without 
 exception, but they did not all believe in 
 secession and disunion. Many of them were
 
 ALL ABOUT THE FLAG. 7 
 
 loyal to the old flag, and were not ready to 
 see it hauled down, and a strange piece of 
 bunting run up in its place. 
 
 Those were exciting times in our country's 
 history, you may be sure. Rumors of war 
 filled the air on every side. Seven States had 
 rebelled and defied the authority of the gov- 
 ernment, and for no other reason than because 
 a man they did not like had been elected 
 President. A new government had been estab- 
 lished at Montgomery, and formally inaugu- 
 rated on the 18th of February. Jefferson 
 Davis, President of the seceded States, had 
 been authorized to accept the services of one 
 hundred thousand volunteers to serve for one 
 year, unless sooner discharged, and they were 
 to be mustered to "repel invasion, maintain 
 the rightful possession of the Confederate 
 States of America, and secure the public tran- 
 quillity against threatened assault." Every 
 schoolboy who has paid any attention to his 
 history knows that there was not the slightest 
 excuse for calling this immense army into ex- 
 istence. The disunion leaders repeatedly de- 
 clared that Northern men would not fight, and
 
 8 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 they seemed to have good grounds for think- 
 ing so ; for, although Fort Sumter was sur- 
 rounded by hostile batteries, no attempt had 
 been made to send supplies to Major Anderson 
 and the gallant fellows who were shut up in 
 the fort with him, and more than five weeks 
 passed after the formation of the Confederate 
 government before President Lincoln called 
 for seventy-five thousand militia to ' ' suppress 
 unlawful combinations, and to cause the laws 
 to be duly executed." But this unnecessary 
 act of the Confederate Provisional Congress 
 had just the effect it was intended to have. 
 It "fired the Southern heart," and immedi- 
 ately every man, woman, and boy " took 
 sides." The papers had just brought the glo- 
 rious news to Barrington, and the students at 
 the military academy were in a state of in- 
 tense excitement over it. 
 
 Even at this late day there are boys bright 
 fellows, too who believe that when the war 
 broke out every one who lived in the South 
 was a rebel ; but this was by no means the 
 case. The South was divided against itself, 
 and so was the North. Horace Greeley, in his
 
 ALL ABOUT THE FLAG. 9 
 
 "Recollections of a Busy Life," tells us that 
 in the beginning there were not more than half 
 a million "Simon-pure" secessionists to be 
 found among the five millions and more of 
 whites who lived south of Mason and Dixon's 
 line. Of course subsequent events, like the 
 War and Emancipation proclamations, added 
 to this number; but even at the end there 
 were Union-loving people scattered all through 
 the seceded States, and they clung to their 
 principles in spite of everything, fighting the 
 conscript officers, and resisting all the efforts 
 that were made to force them into the rebel 
 army. The Confederates called these plucky 
 men and boys traitors, although they denied 
 that they were traitors themselves. They 
 hated them with an undying hatred, and when 
 they captured them with arms in their hands, 
 as Forrest captured the garrison at Fort Pil- 
 low, they made short work with them. 
 
 If it is true that a majority of the Southern 
 people believed that a State had the right to 
 withdraw from the Union when things were 
 not managed in a satisfactory way, it is 
 equally true that there was a party in the
 
 10 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 North who held the same opinion. They said, 
 "Let the erring sisters go" if they want to, 
 and. declared that "Whenever any consider- 
 able section of our Union shall deliberately 
 resolve to go out, we shall resist all coercive 
 measures designed to keep it in." These 
 were the rabid Abolitionists, who were per- 
 fectly willing that the nation should be de- 
 stroyed rather than that it should continue to 
 exist half-slave and half-free. One of their 
 leaders, who afterward became a Union gen- 
 eral, declared, "If slavery is the condition of 
 the perpetuity of the Union, let the Union 
 slide" for slavery must in no case be allowed 
 to continue. The Southern planters wanted 
 that their "peculiar institution" should be 
 taken into the territories, while the Abolition- 
 ists demanded that it should be blotted out 
 altogether ; and to these two parties we are 
 indebted for our four years' war. 
 
 There was still another secession party on 
 both sides of the line, who thought the gov- 
 ernment had no power to keep the Southern 
 States in the Union if they did not want to 
 stay, and that if allowed to go in peace they
 
 ALL ABOUT THE FLAG. 11 
 
 would soon get tired of trying to manage their 
 own affairs, and drift back into the Union of 
 their own free will. It was better that the 
 Union should be peacefully sundered than 
 that there should be a war about it. But 
 another party said that such talk was trea- 
 son ; that the Constitution was ordained to 
 establish a " more perfect Union," which was 
 to be "perpetuated"; that no State, or com- 
 bination of States, had any right to try to 
 break up the government because they could 
 no longer run things to suit themselves ; and 
 that there was not room enough for another 
 flag on this Continent. This was the good old 
 Union party, and fortunately it was resolute 
 enough and strong enough to run the starry 
 banner up to the masthead and keep it there. 
 This was what Marcy Gray, a North Carolina 
 boy, had done on this particular morning on 
 the roof of the Barrington Military Institute, 
 and he had done it, too, in spite of all the 
 efforts his cousin, Rodney Gray, backed by 
 nearly all the young rebels in the school, had 
 made to prevent it. 
 Ever since the day on which the news came
 
 12 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 that South Carolina had passed the ordinance 
 of secession, that flag, which up to this time 
 had been raised and lowered only at certain 
 hours, had been a bone of contention. For 
 long years it had floated over the academy, 
 and no one had ever had a word to say against 
 it ; but the moment it became known that one 
 of the Southern States had decided that she 
 would not stay in the Union if Mr. Lincoln was 
 to rule over it, there was a great change in the 
 feelings of the students regarding that piece of 
 bunting. What an excitement there was on 
 the morning of the 21st of December, when 
 Rodney Gray rushed into the hall with his 
 Charleston Mercury in his hand ! 
 
 " Hurrah for plucky little South Carolina ! " 
 he shouted, striking tip a war-dance and 
 flourishing the paper over his head. "Listen 
 to this, fellows : ' The Union is dissolved. 
 Passed at 1:15 P.M., December 20, I860, an 
 ordinance to dissolve the Union existing be- 
 tween the State of South Carolina and other 
 States united with her under the compact en- 
 titled "The Constitution of the United States 
 of America." ' There it is in black and white.
 
 ALL ABOUT THE FLAG. 13 
 
 She's out, and of course all the other Cotton 
 States will go with her. The Stars and Stripes 
 have been pulled down in the city of Charles- 
 ton, and the State flag is flying over all the 
 public buildings. Let's follow their example, 
 and haul that flag down from the tower. Come 
 on, Marcy." 
 
 These two boys, Rodney and Marcy Gray, 
 were very popular among their fellows, and 
 had been looked up to as leaders ever since 
 they arrived at the dignity of memberships in 
 the first class and company. They were cous- 
 ins, and both were Southern born. Marcy was 
 a "Tarheel," because he came from North 
 Carolina, and Rodney was called a " Pelican," 
 Louisiana being his native State. 
 
 Rodney's father was a rich sugar-planter 
 who did not want to have anything to do with 
 Northern men, some of whom would have 
 taken his slaves from him if they had possessed 
 the power, and thus deprived him of the means 
 of working his fine plantation ; and it was 
 natural that his only son should follow in his 
 lead. Rodney believed in State Rights, and 
 preached his doctrines as often as he could
 
 14 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 find any one willing to listen to him. His 
 Cousin Marcy had no father (he was lost at 
 sea when the boy and his older brother, Jack, 
 were quite young), and he believed as his 
 mother did that slavery was wrong, that the 
 Union was right, and that those who wanted 
 to destroy it were fanatics who did not know 
 what they were about. But Marcy was not a 
 passive Unionist. On the day South Carolina 
 began threatening secession, he declared that 
 she ought to be whipped into submission ; and 
 he had never ceased to proclaim his principles 
 in spite of the lowering looks he saw and the 
 threats he heard on every side. The boys de- 
 clared that they would send him to Coventry ; 
 that is, withdraw from all fellowship with 
 him ; but when they came to try it, they found 
 to their surprise and disgust, that they would 
 have to go back on more than half the school, 
 for some of the best boys in it promptly sided 
 with Marcy. The latter had many friends, and 
 the Union sentiment was strong in the acad- 
 emy ; but on the morning that Rodney Gray 
 read the extract from the Charleston Mercury, 
 showing that South Carolina had made no idle
 
 ALL ABOUT THE FLAG. 15 
 
 threat when she threatened to secede if she 
 could not have her own way, then the real 
 test came. Many of the boys were astonished 
 and shocked, for they had never believed that 
 things would come to such a pass. The mail 
 having just been distributed, they all had 
 papers, but they did not stop to read them 
 after listening to those ominous headlines. 
 They shoved them into their pockets and went 
 slowly out of the building, while Rodney and 
 his fellows, who were almost beside themselves 
 with exultation and excitement, made a rush 
 for the stairs that led to the tower. On the 
 way Rodney stopped to exchange a few words 
 with his cousin. 
 
 "You didn't think it would come, did 
 you?'' he exclaimed, walking up to Marcy 
 and snatching away the paper on which the 
 latter' s eyes were fastened. " But you see it 
 has, don't you? It seems that those furious 
 threats about secession were not all talk, don't 
 it ? But seriously, Marcy, I know you stand 
 where every other Southern boy stands, and 
 that you are with us heart and soul. All 
 I ask of you is to say so. Why don't
 
 16 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 you speak ? Which side are you on, any 
 way?" 
 
 But Marcy did not utter a word. Although 
 he looked straight at his cousin he did not ap- 
 pear to know that Rodney was talking to him, 
 for his mind was busy with other matters. 
 
 " Tell him you're neutral/' suggested Dick 
 Graham, whose home was in Missouri, and 
 whom we may meet again under different cir- 
 cumstances. " That's what I am going to be, 
 for I don't think my State will follow in 
 South Carolina's lead." 
 
 "But I am not neutral." replied Marcy, 
 arousing himself at last. " I am for the Union 
 all over, and I'm sorry we haven't a Jackson 
 in Washington at this moment to say that it 
 must and shall be preserved. I hope Buchanan 
 will send ships enough into Charleston harbor 
 to blow that miserable State out of water." 
 
 "Let him try it, and see how quickly the 
 other Cotton States will arm to help her," ex- 
 claimed Bob Cole, who was one of Rodney's 
 friends and followers. "Coerce a sovereign 
 State ? The President can't do it. The Con- 
 stitution does not give him the power."
 
 ALL ABOUT THE FLAG. 17 
 
 Bob Cole did not know it, and neither 
 did any of the other boys who were standing 
 around listening to his fiery words, but that 
 was the very argument the frightened chief 
 magistrate was going to put forth in his next 
 message to Congress. 
 
 " The President will only make a bad mat- 
 ter worse if he tries any fool thing like that," 
 continued Bob, who, like most of the boys of 
 that section of the country, had heard these 
 matters discussed so often that he had them 
 at his tongue's end. " I tell you that the 
 events of yesterday are an entering wedge. 
 We are tired of the company of those Yan- 
 kees up North, and now we are going to get 
 rid of them and have a government of our 
 own; see if we don't. Why should we not? 
 The people up there do not belong to the same 
 race we do. They are regicides and Round- 
 heads plodding, stingy folks, in whose eyes 
 a dollar looks as big as a cart-wheel. The 
 race who settled Virginia and scattered all 
 pver these Southern States, were cavaliers and 
 money spenders, and their descendants are 
 the same. We've wanted to get rid of them
 
 18 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 ever since 1830, and now we are going to do 
 it. Patrick Henry warned us against forming 
 a partnership with them in the first place." 
 
 " Whom do you mean by us and we ? " de- 
 manded Marcy, who had listened in silence to 
 this speech, which was addressed to the boys 
 gathered in the hall rather than to himself. 
 " You don't live in South Carolina." 
 
 "No, but I do," said Ed Billings, elbowing 
 his way to the foot of the stairs on which Bob 
 had perched himself when he began his ad- 
 dress. "I go with my State, and you will 
 have to go with yours or show yourself a 
 traitor." 
 
 " A traitor to what ? " inquired Marcy. 
 
 "To your State," Billings almost shouted. 
 
 "My State hasn't seceded yet ; but if she 
 does, and I go with her, how will I stand in 
 regard to the old flag the one that waves over 
 this academy ?" 
 
 Billings tried to answer, but his voice was 
 drowned in the wild shouts that arose from 
 the assembled students. 
 
 " Haul the flag down ! " they yelled, almost 
 as one boy.
 
 ALL ABOUT THE FLAG. 19 
 
 "No, no," cried some of the more reason- 
 able ones, after they had taken time to think 
 twice. "Let's wait upon the colonel and re- 
 quest him to have it taken down." 
 
 " There's one thing I want you all to bear in 
 mind," added a tall fellow, who hearing the 
 tumult in the hall had come back to see what 
 it was all about. "Those colors shall not 
 come down without the colonel's orders, and 
 I'll mix up promiscuous with any chap who 
 lays an ugly hand upon them." 
 
 So it seemed that the old flag had defenders 
 even here ; and although it may not have had 
 a very sincere friend in the person of the head 
 of the school, he positively refused to order 
 it down, or to permit the students to pull it 
 down. It would be time enough to attend to 
 that when they learned what the State was 
 going to do. The boys went away disap- 
 pointed ; but the most of them believed that 
 the day would come when they could work 
 their sweet will with that "emblem of tyr- 
 anny," as they had already begun to call it. 
 
 From that time forward there were none in 
 all the length and breadth of the land who
 
 20 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 kept a closer watch upon passing events than 
 did the three hundred students of the Barring- 
 ton military academy ; but it is a question 
 whether they did not imbibe a great many 
 false ideas along with the news they read. 
 The Southern press never did deal fairly with 
 its readers. All dispatches favorable to the 
 secessionists and their cause were published, 
 as a matter of course ; but those that were not 
 favorable were either suppressed entirely, or 
 distorted out of all semblance to the truth. 
 They began this course in the early days of 
 the Confederacy and kept it up to the end, 
 one of their generals forging a telegraph dis- 
 patch, in which he announced that he had 
 won a great battle, during which he killed and 
 raptured twenty thousand Federals, and de- 
 stroyed four of Porter's gunboats. 
 
 For three months the flag that floated over 
 the academy held its place. Persevering and 
 daring attempts were made to steal it at night, 
 but they were every one frustrated by the vigi- 
 lance and courage of the boys who had not yet 
 lost all love for it, and for the memory of those 
 whose deeds it commemorated- When the
 
 ALL ABOUT THE FLAG. 21 
 
 colonel announced that he would take charge 
 of the bunting at night the Union boys thought 
 it would be in safe hands ; but it turned out 
 afterward that they were mistaken. 
 
 The tension of brain and nerve to which the 
 students were subjected during the next few 
 weeks was something to wonder at, and every 
 day added to their suspense and anxiety. 
 South Carolina sent commissioners to other 
 States, urging them to join her in the secession 
 movement, and one of them shouted to the 
 citizens of Georgia : " Buy arms, and throw the 
 bloody spear into the den of the assassins and 
 incendiaries, and God defend the right ! " 
 But Stephens said in reply : " I tell you frankly 
 that the election of a man constitutionally 
 chosen president is not sufficient cause for any 
 State to separate from the Union." And yet 
 in a very few weeks this same Alexander H. 
 Stephens was vice-president of the Confederacy. 
 Mississippi went out of the Union first, and 
 others followed, until there were seven of them 
 to organize a new government under a new 
 flag. Then it was that the first open attempt 
 was made to haul the old banner down from
 
 22 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 the academy flag-staff ; but it was promptly 
 met, and although Rodney Gray and his fol- 
 lowers had been reinforced by nearly all the 
 students belonging to the seceded States, the 
 Union boys were strong enough to drive them 
 down stairs, through the hall, and out of the 
 building. They tried to be as good-natured as 
 they could about it, but there were a few fights 
 that took place before the peaceable ones could 
 interfere, and the result was that Rodney 
 Gray and some others found themselves in the 
 guard-house. But they were never brought to 
 trial, for, after that, events came thick and 
 fast, and the rigid discipline to which the stu- 
 dents had hitherto been subjected was so 
 greatly relaxed, that it was a wonder the 
 school held together as long as it did. Before 
 the Confederate Congress adjourned it passed 
 the act of which we have spoken, authorizing 
 President Davis to accept the services of one 
 hundred thousand one year's men, and then 
 the excitement was at fever heat. 
 
 This act was passed on the 7th of March, and 
 on the evening of the next day the papers 
 brought the news of it to Barrington. There
 
 ALL ABOUT THE FLAG. 23 
 
 was also one other act of the Confederate Con- 
 gress which excited some comment, but, with 
 the exception of Rodney Gray, no one at the 
 academy gave it a second thought. When you 
 hear what that act was, and what Rodney did 
 about it, you will perhaps realize how very 
 much in earnest thedisunionists were, and how 
 their unreasonable hostility toward those who 
 did not believe as they did led them to forget 
 their manhood, and do things they would not 
 have dreamed of in their sane and sober 
 moments. 
 
 The same mail that brought these papers 
 brought also several mysterious packages, each 
 of which contained an article that none of the 
 Barrington people had ever seen before. One 
 of them was addressed to Rodney Gray. He 
 ran the guard and went to the post-office after 
 it ; or, rather, he climbed the fence in full 
 view of the sentry, who turned his back and 
 walked off without making any effort to stop 
 him. The thing he found in that package was 
 what brought on the fight between him and 
 Marcy, to which reference was made at the 
 beginning of this chapter.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE STRANGE BANNER. 
 
 THE military academy was located a little 
 over two miles from Barrington, which 
 was a wealthy and aristocratic place of about 
 three thousand inhabitants. It was a square 
 stone building, flanked with towers at each 
 corner, and looked something like a little 
 fortress when viewed from a distance. In the 
 days when military discipline had been 
 enforced, the mail was brought to the 
 academy regularly every morning and even- 
 ing ; but after the presidential election the 
 students became so very restless and impatient 
 that they could not wait for old darkey Sam 
 and his slow-going mule to bring them their 
 letters and papers. They threw the regula- 
 tions to the winds, and openly defying courts- 
 martial and every other form of punishment, 
 climbed the fence in plain sight of the sentries 
 and went to town in a body. At least that 
 
 24
 
 THE STRANGE BANNER. 25 
 
 was what some of them did ; but a few of 
 the more obedient and easy-going ones, like 
 Marcy Gray and his particular friends, asked 
 for a pass when they desired it, and if they 
 didn't get it they had self-control enough to 
 remain within bounds. 
 
 Rodney Gray and the boys who went to 
 Barrington with him on the day we have 
 mentioned saw that there was " something 
 up" the minute they reached town. Blue 
 "nullification" badges, and red, white, and 
 blue rosettes were seen on every side, arid 
 strange banners were waving in the air ; those 
 who had no flag- staffs in their yards or on 
 their houses hanging the colors out of their 
 upper windows. Heretofore the students had 
 sometimes seen men and women walking the 
 streets with small Union flags pinned to their 
 breasts ; but there was not one in sight now. 
 
 "What's in the wind?" exclaimed Rod- 
 ney, after he had taken a glance around and 
 noted these little things. " And what sort of 
 a flag is that up there on Mr. Riley's office ? " 
 
 " It must be the new Confederate banner, 
 that made its appearance for the first time on
 
 26 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 the 4th," replied Dick Graham, who was one 
 of the party. 
 
 "Hurry up, fellows," cried Ed Billings, 
 catching the two by the arm and quickening 
 his pace. " We're going to hear great news 
 this evening, and I am impatient to know 
 what it will be. Hold on ; now we shall hear 
 all about it." 
 
 Just then a couple of young ladies with 
 whom they were well acquainted came up ; the 
 boys lifted their caps to them, and Ed con- 
 tinued, pointing first to the red, white, and 
 blue rosettes with which they were decorated, 
 and then at the new colors that were fluttering 
 over their heads : 
 
 "Anything exciting been going on lately? 
 And what has become of all the little Union 
 flags we saw yesterday ? " 
 
 " No doubt they have been concealed to 
 await the time when the Yankees shall come 
 marching through here with fire and sword," 
 replied one of the girls. 
 
 Such talk was common enough in the South 
 in those days, and the people learned it not 
 only from their own leaders, but from seces-
 
 THE STRANGE BANNER. 27 
 
 sion sympathizers who lived in the North. 
 Fire and sword were just what Jefferson Davis 
 intended to give the States that did not belong 
 to the Confederacy. This is what he said in 
 Ms speech at Montgomery on the evening of 
 February 15 : 
 
 " If war must come, it must be on Northern, 
 not on Southern, soil. A glorious future is be- 
 fore us. The grass will grow in Northern cities 
 where the pavements have been worn off by the 
 tread of commerce. We will carry war where 
 it is easy to advance, where food for the sword 
 and torch await our armies in the densely pop- 
 ulated cities." 
 
 Ex-President Franklin Pierce of New Hamp- 
 shire made use of nearly the same language 
 when he wrote to Davis, assuring him that, 
 " If there is any fighting it will be within our 
 own borders and in our own streets/' Turn 
 to your history if you want to see how these 
 confident predictions were fulfilled. 
 
 "Well, if those Yankee flags are not 
 brought to light until the Yankees themselves 
 come marching through this State, you will 
 never see them again/' said Rodney, with em-
 
 28 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 phasis. ' ' If the Northern people fool with us 
 we will keep them so busy on their own ground 
 that they will never think of coming down 
 here. But what's the use of talking about 
 war! They'll not fight. I only wish they 
 would, so that we might show them how easy 
 it would be for us to whip them. But is that 
 our flag up there ? And what is the meaning 
 of those ribbons ?" 
 
 "Oh, haven't you heard? Well, you'll 
 know all about it when you get your paper. 
 The president has been empowered to call for 
 an immense army of our gallant 
 
 "Bosh!" sneered Rodney; and then he 
 apologized for the interruption and for the ex- 
 pression he had used. 
 
 " But we need an army to hold possession of 
 our coast defences, do we not ? All the govern- 
 ment property in the Confederacy has been 
 seized, and now that we have got it, we must 
 hold fast to it." 
 
 " Certainly ; but we don't need an army to 
 do that. Qur school battalion, if the boys 
 were only united, could do it and not half 
 try."
 
 THE STRANGE BANNER. 29 
 
 " If they were united ? " repeated one of the 
 girls. "You do not mean to say that there 
 are traitors in that school ? " 
 
 Rodney replied that was just what he did 
 mean to say. He declared that the academy 
 was a hotbed of treason, and Cole and Billings 
 confirmed his words. The girls were surprised 
 to hear it. 
 
 " And even the colonel hasn't the pluck of 
 a cat or a mind of his own," continued Bill- 
 ings. "He doesn't seem to know where he 
 stands." 
 
 "Every one in town wonders why that flag 
 has been permitted to float so long, and now I 
 know," said one of the girls. "The colonel 
 is friendly to it ; but still, if you young gentle- 
 men had half the courage we have given you 
 credit for, you would have pulled it down long 
 ago." 
 
 Rodney winced. He did not like to con- 
 fess that he and his friends had tried their 
 best to haul the flag down, but the Union boys 
 had prevented them from doing it ; for he 
 knew the girls would laugh at him. They 
 might do even worse than that. They might
 
 80 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 tell him that he need not trouble himself to 
 call upon them any more (for things had come 
 to that pass already), so he brought forward 
 the best excuse he could think of on the spur 
 of the moment. 
 
 " But the colonel will not allow it," he pro- 
 tested. " He says it will be time enough to 
 bother with the flag when we find out what 
 the State is going to do." 
 
 "But I don't see how you can march under 
 those colors when your own gallant Louisi- 
 ana has followed South Carolina out of the 
 Union." 
 
 "I confess we don't like it," said Cole, 
 " but a good soldier always obeys orders, you 
 know. Wait until the State acts, and then 
 you shall hear from us." 
 
 " I hope to hear from you before that time, 
 although this State is bound to go with the 
 others. I should be ashamed to acknowledge 
 that I live within her borders if she shows 
 such a want of spirit as to be willing to re- 
 main in the Union after all that has happened. 
 The next time you come to see me, Mr. Cole," 
 said the young lady sweetly, ' ' I shall expect
 
 THE STRANGE BANNER. 31 
 
 you to tell me that that flag has been hauled 
 down in spite of all opposition, and that our 
 own Confederate flag has been hoisted in its 
 place." 
 
 "So that's our flag, is it?" said Rodney, 
 casting a glance of pride toward the Stars and 
 Bars that waved from several buildings within 
 the range of his vision. " I thought as much. 
 When did it get here?" 
 
 " We received a score or more of them by 
 this day's mail, and our patriotic citizens lost 
 no time in giving them to the breeze," was 
 the reply. 
 
 " But the trouble is, we haven't any flag of 
 that sort at the academy," said Cole. " So 
 how are we to run it up in place of the Stars 
 and Stripes ?" . 
 
 " My sister and I will see that you have the 
 flag, if you will promise to hoist it," answered 
 one of the girls. "We are at woik upon one 
 now, and will have it ready for you to-mor- 
 row at this hour, provided you can tell us 
 that the old flag has been hauled down. To- 
 morrow, mind. Shall we expect you?" 
 
 "I'll be around," replied Cole, but he did
 
 32 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 not talk as glibly as he usually did, for he 
 was thinking about something else. To-mor- 
 row at that hour. By gracious! that was 
 bringing the thing straight home to a fellow, 
 wasn't it? That meant a fight, sure ; and the 
 Union boys were not only as brave as boys 
 ever get to be, but their fists were as hard as 
 so many bricks. Cole knew that by experi- 
 ence. And if he could not tell her that the 
 old flag had been hauled down, he need not 
 take the trouble to call at her house. The 
 young lady did not say so, but Cole knew well 
 enough that that was what she meant. 
 
 "The commandant is one traitor, but who 
 are the others?" she asked, after a moment's 
 pause. " You said in effect that the school is 
 full of them. The colonel does not often 
 honor us girls with his visits, but the young 
 gentlemen do sometimes, and we should like 
 to know who the traitors are, so that we can 
 be at home or not, as circumstances seem to 
 require. Give us their names, please." 
 
 Rodney's companions would have thought 
 twice before complying with this request, but 
 Rodney himself did not see anything surpris-
 
 THE STRANGE BANNER. 33 
 
 ing in it. The girls were ardent secessionists, 
 and of course they did not care to associate 
 with those who stood up for the Yankees and 
 for the flag they worshiped. The cousin 
 whom he had always loved as a brother was 
 beneath contempt now, for he was a traitor to 
 the South, and undeserving of the slightest 
 show of respect from any one who had the 
 least respect for himself. 
 
 " Well, there's that lovely relative of mine 
 for one," said Rodney promptly. 
 
 The girls could hardly believe that they had 
 heard aright. They looked at each other in 
 silence for a moment, and then they looked at 
 Rodney. 
 
 " I didn't think that Marcy Gray was such 
 a coward," said one, at length. 
 
 " Oh, you are 'way off the track ! " ex- 
 claimed Dick Graham, who, although he after- 
 ward went into the Confederate Army and be- 
 came a partisan ranger, never forgot the warm 
 friendship he cherished for Marcy Gray. 
 *' That fellow is nobody's coward, and you 
 wouldn' t think so if you could have seen him 
 when " 
 
 3
 
 34 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 "Look here, Dick, "interrupted Rodney, 
 who was afraid that Marcy's friend was about 
 to say something compromising. " It is very 
 easy for a fellow to say that he is for the 
 Union when he is so far away from the North 
 that he can not, by any possible chance, be 
 called upon to fight for the opinions he pre- 
 tends to hold, but has Marcy the courage to 
 show by his acts that he is sincere in what he 
 says ? ' ' 
 
 "Well, yes; I think he has," answered 
 Dick. "When you fellows had that fight 
 over the flag " 
 
 "That isn't what I mean," exclaimed Rod- 
 ney, impatiently. 
 
 " What was it, Mr. Graham ? " asked one of 
 the girls, who rather wanted to see Marcy 
 Gray's courage vindicated, if there were any 
 way in which it could be done. "What did 
 he do ? Did you really have a fight at the 
 academy over the flag ? Go on, please, and 
 tell us all about it." 
 
 Rodney tried to speak, but Dick was not to 
 be put down. He knew that Rodney was 
 determined to say something to his cousin's
 
 THE STRANGE BANNER. 35 
 
 injury if he could, and Dick Graham was not 
 the boy to stand by and see it done without 
 raising his voice in protest. 
 
 "Yes; some of the boys tried their leyel 
 best to get the flag," said Dick, "but its de- 
 fenders were much too numerous and strong 
 for them. During the struggle there were 
 some middling heavy blows passed, and, if I 
 mistake not, Rodney came in for a few that 
 he'll not soon forget." 
 
 Rodney tried to laugh it off as a joke, but 
 it was easy to see that he was about as mad as 
 he could hold. 
 
 " Now go on and describe the part you 
 took in that fracas," said he, as soon as he 
 could speak. 
 
 " Who ? Me ? I didn't take any part in it. 
 I don't fight. I'm neutral. You see Missouri 
 hasn't gone out of the Union yet, and I don't 
 intend to make a move until she does. See ? 
 I was not saying a word for myself, but for 
 Marcy, who isn't here to take his own part." 
 
 " What I want to get at is this," continued 
 Rodney. "If Marcy is so devoted to the 
 Union, why does he stay here, flinging his
 
 30 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 obnoxious doctrines in our faces every chance 
 he gets? Why 'doesn't he go North and join 
 the Yankees?" 
 
 '.'He doesn't fling his doctrines in our 
 faces," Dick interposed. "He stands up for 
 them when he thinks it necessary, and so 
 would I if I believed as he does." 
 
 "I admire him for that," said one of the 
 girls. 
 
 "Oh, do you?" exclaimed Rodney, who 
 was sure of his ground now. " Will you con- 
 tinue to admire him when I tell you that he 
 hoped the Yankees would send a fleet into 
 Charleston harbor that would blow South Car- 
 olina out of water ? " 
 
 No, the girls could not admire Marcy Gray 
 or anybody else who talked that way. If that 
 was his doctrine, he had better quit the South 
 and go among those who believed as he did. 
 
 "I was sure you would say so ; and that 
 was the point I was trying to reach," contin- 
 ued Rodney. "That was what I meant when 
 I asked if he had the courage to back up his 
 opinions." 
 
 "lam sorry to hear that of Marcy," said
 
 THE STRANGE BANNER. 37 
 
 one of the girls, and her face showed that she 
 meant every word of it. " He is such a splen- 
 did horseman and looks so handsome riding 
 with his battery ! And to think that he sym- 
 pathizes with our oppressors ! I can't realize 
 it. I must have a serious talk with him, for 
 unless he conies over to our side, he will be 
 liable to arrest if he stays here much longer." 
 
 "It's a wonder to me that he hasn't seen 
 trouble of some sort before this time," ob- 
 served Billings. "He doesn't haul in his 
 shingle one inch, but blurts out his views 
 wherever he happens to be, and the first thing 
 he knows somebody will pop him over." 
 
 " I shouldn't like to be the one to try it," 
 Dick Graham remarked. "Marcy will not 
 take a whipping quietly." 
 
 "I didn't mean that he would get into 
 trouble here in Barrington, although I am 
 afraid he will, but with the government," said 
 the girl. " One other thing our Congress did 
 was to pass a law requiring all those who sym- 
 pathize with the North to leave the limits of 
 the Confederacy within ten days."* 
 
 " But don't vou know that this State hasn't
 
 38 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 joined the Confederacy yet?" asked the prac- 
 tical Dick. 
 
 "If I should forget it, you would be very 
 likely to remind me of the fact," was the re- 
 ply ; "but she will join it before many days 
 have passed, and then where will Marcy be?" 
 
 "That's the best news I have heard in a 
 month," declared Rodney, speaking before he 
 thought. Then, seeing that his companions 
 looked surprised, he hastened to add : "I say 
 it is good news, for when Marcy hears of it he 
 will understand that he must quit his non- 
 sense and come out boldly for one side or the 
 other. If he is with us, all he has to do is to 
 say so ; and if he isn't, he'll have to pack up 
 and clear out." 
 
 " Oh, we hope he'll net do that," said both 
 the girls in a breath. "Tell him to come and 
 see us, and we will turn him from the error of 
 his ways. Here we are at our gate. Thanks 
 for your escort." 
 
 " Why don't you ask us to come in?" in- 
 quired Cole. 
 
 " Because we have given you something to 
 do first. Pull down that Hag and run the ban-
 
 THE STRANGE BANNER. 39 
 
 ner of the Confederacy up in its place, and 
 then you may come as often as you please." 
 
 "Well, shall I tell Marcy to keep his dis- 
 tance until he has made up his mind to hoist 
 the right sort of colors ? " said Rodney. 
 
 "By no means. We must have a talk with 
 him, and if we fail to win him over, we shall 
 know how to punish him." 
 
 "That was rather a snub for you, old fel- 
 low," said Billings, as the boys raised their 
 caps to the girls and once more turned toward 
 the post-office. " They are sweet on Marcy, and 
 don't mean to throw him over just because 
 you have taken a sudden dislike to him." 
 
 " It was a snub for Cole as well," replied 
 Rodney, hotly. " He will never see the inside 
 of Mr. Taylor's house again, for those girls 
 have imposed upon him a task that is quite 
 beyond his powers. Couldn't you get along 
 without wagging your jaw so freely \ " he de- 
 manded, turning fiercely upon Dick Graham. 
 " For two cents you and I would mix up right 
 here in the street." 
 
 " Why, what in the world did I say ? " asked 
 Dick, in reply.
 
 40 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 "You disgraced the school by telling those 
 girls, almost as plainly as you could speak 
 it, that we Southerners are in the minority 
 there." 
 
 "If she got that impression, she got a wrong 
 one," said Dick quietly. "I said that the 
 defenders of the flag were too many and too 
 strong for you fellows who tried to haul it 
 down, and that's the truth. I stood up for 
 Marcy because I am his friend, and you ought 
 to be." 
 
 "I am a friend to no boy, cousin or no 
 cousin, who talks as he does," said Rodney 
 spitefully. " I despise a traitor, and the fel- 
 low who sticks up for him 
 
 Dick stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, 
 rested his clenched hands upon his hips, and 
 waited for Rodney to finish the sentence. For 
 a second or so it looked as though the two 
 boys were going to "mix up" directly; but 
 Cole and Billings interposed. 
 
 "This will never do," said the latter. " If 
 you are determined to have a fight, hurry and 
 get your mail, and then we'll go back to the 
 academy and fight the Yankees and their sym-
 
 THE STRANGE BANNER. 41 
 
 pathizers. That's what we've got to do to- 
 morrow, if we run that new flag up on the 
 tower, and we might as well get our hands in 
 first as last. Cole, you go on with Dick, and 
 Rodney and I will follow." 
 
 Dick laughingly declared that as he was not 
 spoiling for a fight he could get on very well 
 without an escort, but still he did not raise 
 any objection when Cole took him by the arm 
 and led him away. Rodney slowly followed, 
 with Billings for a companion, the latter using 
 his best arguments to make the stubborn Rod- 
 ney see that he could not hope to gain any- 
 thing by showing so much hostility toward his 
 cousin, who was popular both at the academy 
 and in the town, and that the Taylor girls, 
 from whom they had just parted, didn't think 
 any the more of him for what he had said. 
 Rodney saw that plainly, and it was another 
 thing that made him angry ; but he was care- 
 ful not to let Billings know it. He took no 
 little pride in his horsemanship, and was confi- 
 dent that he made a very fine looking sergeant 
 of artillery ; but none of the girls had ever told 
 him so, and he couldn't bear to hear Marcy
 
 42 TRUE TO HIS COLOES. 
 
 praised either. He was envious, as well as 
 jealous, and when Rodney got that way, he 
 was in the right humor to do something des- 
 perate. 
 
 "That new law will fix him and Graham, 
 too," he said to himself. "I'll take pains to 
 call their attention to it the minute I get back 
 to the academy, and if they don't take the 
 hint and make themselves scarce about here, I 
 will set somebody on their track. There are a 
 good many traitors in and around Barrington, 
 and I wonder that they haven't been driven 
 out before this time. I'll rid the school of 
 those two, I bet you ; but before they go I'll 
 pick a quarrel with them and whip them out 
 of their boots." 
 
 This confident assertion recalls to mind 
 something that was said by the Confederate 
 General Rosser on the morning of the 9th 
 of October, 1864, just previous to the begin- 
 ning of the fight known in history as "Wood- 
 stock Races." Having formed his line of 
 battle, Rosser sat on his horse watching the 
 movements of his old schoolmate, General 
 Ouster, who was busy getting his own forces
 
 THE STRANGE BANNER. 43 
 
 in shape to attack him. Finally Rosser 
 turned to his staff and said : 
 
 "You see that officer down there ? That is 
 General Ouster, of whom the Yanks are so 
 proud, and I intend to give him the best whip- 
 ping to-day he ever got ; see if I don't." 
 
 When Ouster was ready to fight he made 
 his charge ; the valiant Rosser fled before it, 
 and never but once stopped running until he 
 reached Mount Jackson, twenty - six miles 
 away. It was a trial of speed, rather than a 
 battle, and that is the reason the engagement 
 is called "Woodstock Races." The Confed- 
 erates lost everything they had that was car- 
 ried on wheels, and the Union loss was but 
 sixty killed and wounded. Rodney Gray was 
 not as much of a braggart as Rosser was, but 
 if he had tried to carry his threat into execu- 
 tion he might have been as badly whipped.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 CHEERS FOR "THE STARS AND BARS." 
 
 IF any boy who reads this series of books 
 believes that secession was the result of a 
 sudden impulse on the part of the Southern 
 people, he has but to look into his history to 
 find that he is mistaken. They had not only 
 been thinking about it for a long time, but, 
 aided by some of Buchanan's treacherous cabi- 
 net officers, they had been preparing for it. 
 The Secretary of the Navy ordered the best 
 vessels in our little fleet to distant stations, so 
 that they could not be called upon to help the 
 government when the insurgents seized the 
 forts that were scattered along the coast ; and 
 the Secretary of War took nearly a hundred 
 and fifty thousand stand of arms out of North- 
 ern arsenals and sent them to the South. He 
 did it openly and without any attempt at con- 
 cealment, and the Southern papers publicly 
 
 44
 
 CHEERS FOR "THE STARS AND BARS." 45 
 
 thanked him for so doing. The Mobile Reg- 
 ister said, in so many words, that they were 
 much obliged to Mr. Floyd for " disarming 
 the North and equipping the South." 
 
 After such acts as these on the part of gov- 
 ernment officials, it is not surprising that pri- 
 vate citizens began to take their local affairs 
 into their own hands. A regular system of 
 espionage and ostracism was established all 
 over the South. Everybody who was known 
 or suspected of being opposed to slavery and 
 disunion was not only closely watched, but 
 was denied admission to homes in which he 
 had always been a welcome visitor. Free ne- 
 groes were given to understand that they 
 could either clear out, or remain and be sold 
 into bondage. Northern men even those 
 who had long been engaged in business in the 
 South, and whose interests were centered 
 there were looked upon and treated with 
 contempt, and their lives were made miserable 
 in every way that the exasperated and unrea- 
 sonable people around them could think of. 
 
 But, of course, things did not stop here. 
 These suspected persons very soon became the
 
 46 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 victims of open violence. Some were taken 
 out of their houses at night and whipped ; 
 others were tarred and feathered ; and more 
 were hanged by self-appointed vigilance com- 
 mittees, or killed in personal rencounters. Up 
 to the time of which we write there had been 
 none of this violence in and around Barring- 
 ton, but it was coming now. Almost the first 
 thing that attracted the attention of Rodney 
 Gray and his companions when they went into 
 the post-office was a notice that had been fas- 
 tened upon the bulletin board. It took them 
 a minute or two to elbow their way through 
 the crowd of men and boys who were gathered 
 in front of it, reading and commenting upon 
 the startling intelligence it contained, and 
 when they succeeded they read as follows : 
 
 IMPORTANT NOTICE. 
 
 At a meeting of the citizens and voters of 
 Barrington, held this day, March 9, 1861, it 
 was unanimously 
 
 Resolved: That the excitement at present 
 existing among the people renders it prudent 
 for us to appoint a committee of the citizens 
 of Barrington to recommend what measures 
 (if any) should be adopted for the purpose of 
 suppressing any unlawful or riotous outbreak
 
 CHEERS FOB "THE STARS AND BARS." 47 
 
 in the town ; and that the following named 
 are hereby appointed a "Committee of Safe- 
 ty" who are respectfully requested to adopt 
 such measures, or to recommend any measures 
 for adoption by the citizens generally, as may 
 seem to them proper and necessary for the 
 preservation of good order. 
 
 Then followed a long list, containing the 
 names of nearly all the prominent and wealthy 
 men of the place. 
 
 "Humph!" exclaimed Dick Graham, con- 
 temptuously. "The fellows who got this up 
 wasted time and ink to no purpose. There 
 has been no outbreak in Barrington, and none 
 threatened." 
 
 " How does it come that you are so well 
 posted, Dick?" said a friendly voice at his 
 elbow; and when he faced about Dick's eyes 
 met those of Mr. Riley, one of the men whose 
 names appeared on the list. " The gentlemen 
 who framed that resolution did not mean to 
 convey the impression that there had been any 
 riotous proceedings in and around Barring- 
 ton," he continued. "But if they had desired 
 to create an uproar and excite the fears of the 
 women and children, they might have said that
 
 48 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 there has been an outbreak threatened ; and it 
 would have been nothing but the truth. You 
 boys, who are all the while shut up in the 
 academy, can not be expected to know all that 
 is going on in the country." 
 
 "Who has threatened any outbreak ?" in- 
 quired Dick incredulously. "And when is it 
 coming off?" 
 
 "Look here," said Mr. Riley, lowering his 
 voice. " You remember the John Brown raid, 
 don't you?" 
 
 " Seems to me I have heard something about 
 it. But you are not afraid of him, are you ? " 
 
 "I am not joking," replied Mr. Riley earn- 
 estly. "Brown laid out a regular campaign 
 before he started in at Harper's Ferry. He 
 had a map, and on it had marked several lo- 
 calities in which the negroes were greatly in 
 excess of the whites. Those towns and vil- 
 lages were to be destroyed, after the blacks 
 had been coaxed or forced into his army, and 
 Barrington was one of them." 
 
 " Well, what of it ? " exclaimed Dick. " He 
 didn't get here, did he?" 
 
 " Of course he didn't ; but he spread such a
 
 CHEERS FOR " THE STARS AND BARS." 49 
 
 spirit of discontent among the niggers that we 
 have been shaky ever since. And the events 
 of the last few weeks do not tend to quiet our 
 fears, I assure you." 
 
 " When is this insurrection, or whatever 
 you call it, coming off?" 
 
 " We don't know when to expect it, but we 
 mean to be ready for it at any hour of the day 
 or night. We have positive evidence that 
 there are about half a dozen too many Aboli- 
 tionists, and altogether too many free niggers, 
 in and around Barrington." 
 
 "When did you find it out ? " 
 
 " We've always known it ; but we never felt 
 so very much afraid of them before. I don' t 
 mind telling you, although I should not want 
 to post it on the town pump, that we have had 
 spies out for the last three or four days." 
 
 "That's what I thought you were getting 
 at. But who are they ? " 
 
 " There's Bud Goble, for one." 
 
 "Aw, Great Scott!" exclaimed Dick, and 
 even Rodney looked disgusted. " I hope you 
 haven' t put the least faith in anything that 
 lazy, worthless fellow has said to you." 
 4
 
 50 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 " He may be too lazy to earn an honest liv- 
 ing, but he is far from worthless in an emer- 
 gency like the present," replied the committee- 
 man. " He is with us all over, and has been 
 very active since these troubles began." 
 
 "I don't see why he should be so very ac- 
 tive. He never owned the price of a picka- 
 ninny in his life. But I'll tell you what's a 
 fact, Mr. Riley : Bud Goble has got something 
 against every Northern man in Barrington and 
 for miles outside of it, and he will do anything 
 or swear to any number of lies 
 
 "Don't you give the Committee of Safety 
 any credit for common-sense or prudence?" 
 demanded Rodney, who, although he appeared 
 to be listening to the conversation, was busy 
 thinking over a project that had suddenly sug- 
 gested itself to him. "You don't suppose 
 that anything will be done to these suspected 
 men until they have had a fair trial, do you ? " 
 
 "That's the idea," said Mr. Riley, with a 
 smile. " Rodney, you have your share of 
 common- sense, whether the committee have or 
 not." 
 
 "A fair trial?" repeated Dick, who was
 
 CHEERS FOR " THE STARS AND BARS." 61 
 
 like Marcy Gray in that lie never "pulled in 
 his shingle one inch " ; in other words, never 
 backed down from his principles, no matter who 
 might hear what he had to say about them. 
 "Who'll try these suspected men? Judge 
 Lynch ; who will order them to be strung 
 up before they can say a word in their own de- 
 fense. I tell you such work is all wrong." 
 
 "Don't let your excitement run away with 
 your reason, Dick," said Mr. Rlley soothingly. 
 "There's been no innocent person harmed yet, 
 and, moreover, such a thing never happened 
 in this county." 
 
 " No, but it is going on all over the South ; 
 and I tell you that there are plenty of people 
 of the Bud Goble stamp who would do the 
 same thing right here if they were not afraid," 
 said Dick earnestly. 
 
 "Put him out ! He's a traitor ! " cried one 
 of the academy boys; and "put him out," 
 was echoed from all parts of the post-office. 
 But the boys who uttered the words were all 
 Dick Graham's friends, and an attempt to put 
 him out would certainly have resulted disas- 
 trously to somebody.
 
 62 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 "Of course I understand that this is all 
 sport," said Mr. Riley. "But seriously, 
 Dick, the time may come when it will be any- 
 thing but safe for you to express your senti- 
 ments with so much freedom." 
 
 ' ' I assure you I appreciate your kindness in 
 giving me a friendly word of caution, and 
 thank you for it," replied the boy, "but this is 
 a free country, and I shall say what I think, 
 regardless of consequences. Wait till the time 
 for fighting conies and see " 
 
 " See what ? " interrupted Billings. " There 
 isn't going to be any fighting." 
 
 "Don't fool yourself . There'll be fighting 
 before this thing is over, and more than you 
 redhot secessionists will want to see mark 
 that! And when it comes we'll see who will 
 do the most of it, I or men like Bud Goble, 
 who have taken advantage of this time of ex- 
 citement to get innocent folks into trouble." 
 
 Having had his talk out Dick turned to work 
 his way to the window to get his mail ; but be- 
 fore he got there a wild shout arose from the 
 crowd of students who blocked his path, and a 
 moment afterward a brand new Confederate
 
 CHEERS FOR "THE STARS AND BARS." 63 
 
 flag fluttered over their heads. Rodney Gray 
 had received a package from home and this 
 was what he found in it. 
 
 " I say, Graham," he exclaimed, as soon as 
 he could make himself heard, "doesn't the 
 sight of this make you ashamed of the senti- 
 ments you have just uttered ? " 
 
 "Not a bit of it," was the prompt response. 
 "Missouri hasn't recognized that flag yet. 
 When she does, I will fight for it as long and 
 as hard as you will." 
 
 " Will you join us in a hurrah for it ? " con- 
 tinued Rodney. 
 
 "No, I won't." 
 
 "Three cheers for the Stars and Bars!" 
 shouted Ed Billings. "Long may that flag 
 wave, and may it never be polluted by the 
 touch of a hated Yankee." 
 
 The cheers that followed were not cheers ; 
 they were whoops and yells very much like 
 those with which the charging Confederates so 
 often saluted our blue-coats on the field of 
 battle. Dick had half a notion to see if he 
 could not get up a little counter-enthusiasm in 
 behalf of the Stars and Stripes, but was afraid
 
 54 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 the attempt might result in failure ; so after 
 he had secured his mail, he went out on the 
 porch and sat down to read those acts of the 
 Confederate Congress calling for one hundred 
 thousand volunteers, and ordering all who 
 sympathized with the North to leave the limits 
 of the Confederacy within ten days. His 
 secession paper told him all about them, the 
 editor enlarged upon and applauded them, and 
 Dick was forced to the conclusion that things 
 were getting serious ; how serious, he little 
 dreamed until four weeks more had passed 
 away. 
 
 Dick spent half an hour over his paper and 
 letters, and then Rodney Gray appeared. He 
 had found a stick somewhere and fastened his 
 flag to it. Although these two boys had had 
 some sharp verbal contests during the last three 
 months, they kept up an appearance of friend- 
 ship, which was real so far as Dick Graham 
 was concerned. The latter could not " swallow 
 Rodney's disunion doctrines," as he often de- 
 clared, but for all that he had a sincere regard 
 for him, and always spoke of him as one of 
 the finest fellows in school. Perhaps we
 
 CHEERS FOR "THE STARS AND BARS." 55 
 
 shall see whether or not Rodney paid him back 
 in kind. 
 
 "Give it a cheer, why don't you?" said 
 Rodney, waving his flag over Dick's head. 
 " Where in the world have you been?" 
 
 " Right here, waiting for you." 
 
 "Well, come up the road a piece. There's 
 a squad there, and we have been counting 
 noses." 
 
 "How many noses do you want, and what 
 do you want them for?" inquired Dick, put- 
 ting his paper into his pocket and getting upon 
 his feet. " What new nonsense are you up 
 to?" 
 
 " There's no nonsense about this, I tell you. 
 It's business. We want as many noses as we 
 can get, and the boys behind them must be 
 true blue. The fellows said I would be wasting 
 time if I came after you, but I want to hear 
 you say so with your own lips before I shall 
 believe it. You have said more than once that 
 if Missouri goes out and joins the Confederacy, 
 you will go with her, haven't you?" 
 
 "You bet, and I say so yet. My State, or 
 any State, has the right to go out of the Union
 
 66 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 as she came into it of her own free will ; and 
 if those fellows up North are going to fight to 
 keep her in, I shall fight to help her out. 
 That's me; but you see Missouri hasn't 
 yet-" 
 
 " I have heard that until I am tired of it," 
 inteiTupted Rodney. "Missouri hasn't gone 
 out yet, but she's going ; and in the meantime, 
 what about that flag at the academy.? Are you 
 in favor of letting it stay there ? " 
 
 " That depends entirely upon the colonel," 
 answered Dick. " If he says haul her down, 
 down she comes. If he says let her stay up, 
 up she stays. That's me." 
 
 " And will you continue to march and drill 
 under it, now that we have a flag of our own ? " 
 demanded Rodney. 
 
 " That also depends. If the other boys drill 
 under it and march after it, I will. In fact, I 
 don't know but I shall do it any way, whether 
 the others do or not. I don't know what you 
 mean when you speak of a flag of our own. I 
 don't recognize that thing you are carrying 
 over your shoulder. The old flag is my flag, 
 and will be as long as Missouri stays in the
 
 CHEERS FOR "THE STARS AND BARS." 57 
 
 Union. I don't see the least use in rushing 
 things. You and your friends are taking a 
 good deal upon yourselves when you presume 
 to act in advance of the State." 
 
 " Well, you see what the business men of 
 Barrington think of the situation, don't you ? 
 That notice in the post-office looks and sounds 
 mighty innocent, but reading between the 
 lines" 
 
 "So you read between the lines!" ex- 
 claimed Dick. "I did the same, and I tell you 
 that that Committee of Safety is a fraud. Bud 
 Goble has been carrying tales about some in- , 
 nocent men whom, for personal reasons, he 
 does not like, and Mr. Riley and a few other 
 hotheads are trying to find some excuse for 
 driving them out of town. There'll be out- 
 rages here the first thing you know and they 
 will be committed under cover of that busi- 
 ness men's meeting, and with the conniv- 
 ance of those whose names are signed to that 
 list." 
 
 " Do you mean to say that all those promi- 
 nent men are such ruffians?" cried Rodney, 
 in great excitement. "Why didn't you say
 
 58 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 as much when you were talking to Mr. Riley ? 
 You dared not do it." 
 
 " I didn't think of it ; but I will wait here 
 while you run back and tell him." 
 
 Dick looked sharply at his companion as he 
 said this, and was surprised to see the usually 
 self-possessed Rodney turn as red as a beet. 
 It was plain that he had been touched in some 
 tender spot by these chance words. 
 
 " What's he been up to?" was the question 
 Dick Graham propounded to himself. " If I 
 had known that I was going to hit him as hard 
 as that, I wouldn' t have said a word. He has 
 been doing something sneaking, and I did not 
 think that of Rodney Gray." Then aloud he 
 said : "I didn't mean to hint that you would 
 do such a thing, but you have been about half- 
 wild during the last few weeks, and I don't 
 believe you know all the time what you are 
 doing." 
 
 "Well, if I'm crazy, I have the satisfaction 
 of knowing that there are a good many like me 
 in the South," replied Rodney, with a light 
 laugh ; and he uttered nothing but the truth. 
 Taken as a body the Southern people certainly
 
 CHEERS FOR " THE STARS AND BARS." 59 
 
 acted as if they had lost their senses. Among 
 all those who rejoiced over South Carolina's 
 reckless act there were few who saw that "it 
 was but the prelude to the most terrible trag- 
 edy of the age the unchaining of a storm that 
 was destined to shake the continent with ter- 
 ror and devastation, leaving the Southern 
 States a wreck, and sweeping from the earth 
 the institution in whose behalf the fatal work 
 was done." You may be sure that Rodney 
 Gray did not see this sad picture, for just 
 at that moment there were few things he 
 could see except the elegant silk banner that 
 waved above his head, and which he was deter- 
 mined to hoist at the academy flag-staff the 
 very next morning. 
 
 "Here are the fellows," he added, as he and 
 Dick came up with the squad who were gath- 
 ered on a street corner waiting for them. 
 
 "And a fine-looking lot of lads they are," 
 was Dick's comment. "Rebels the last one of 
 them." 
 
 " Washington was a rebel, young fellow," 
 replied one of the students, " and that is what 
 he would be if he were with us to-day."
 
 60 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 "Well, seeing that he isn't here to decide 
 the matter, don't let's waste time in talking 
 about it," said Cole. " The question is, Is 
 that flag at the academy going to stay up or 
 come down which ? " 
 
 "It's going to come down," replied Billings, 
 very decidedly. " We've got a handsomer flag 
 to take its place. Let's cheer it, and see how 
 many of that crowd on the other side of the 
 street will take off their hats to it." 
 
 The cheers were given with a will ; and this 
 time Dick Graham joined in not because he 
 cared a cent for the Stars and Bars, but just to 
 help make a noise. The result was all the 
 boys could have desired. The cheers were 
 answered and hats were lifted in all directions, 
 and handkerchiefs and red, white, and blue 
 rosettes were waved from the windows of 
 neighboring houses. 
 
 "Every one in sight made some demonstra- 
 tion," said Rodney gleefully. " Dick, you are 
 out in the cold." 
 
 " I don't feel very forlorn over it," was the 
 reply. "How do you know but that some of 
 those who cheered your old rag are Union at
 
 CHEERS FOR "THE STARS AND BARS." 61 
 
 heart ? But what are you fellows going to do, 
 and what do you want of me ? " 
 
 "We intend to hoist Rodney's flag on that 
 tower to-morrow morning immediately after 
 roll-call, and we want to know if you are 
 in." 
 
 " No ; I'm not in. I'm out. That's me." 
 "There, Rodney," exclaimed one of the 
 students. " I hope you are satisfied now that 
 you wasted time when you went after Dick 
 Graham. He's a Yankee." 
 
 " You're another," retorted Dick. 
 "Do you still claim to be neutral ?" 
 " I do, for a fact. You see, Missouri 
 " Oh, Dick, have a little mercy on a fellow, 
 and don't say that again," cried half a dozen 
 voices at once. 
 
 " Well, then, what do you want me to say ? 
 I'll not help you pull down the flag, if that is 
 what you are after. I say, let her alone and 
 she will come down of herself when the sunset 
 gun is fired." 
 
 " We don't want her to come down of her- 
 self," answered Rodney. " We want the 
 satisfaction of hauling her down."
 
 62 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 " Very well, go and do it ; but don't come 
 to me whining over the broken heads you will 
 be sure to get before you are through with the 
 business. If you will let the orderly run her 
 down, I will help steal her, so that she can't be 
 run up in the morning ; but being neutral, 
 Missouri not having gone out of " 
 
 "That scheme won't work at all," Rod- 
 ney declared, with some disgust in his 
 tones. "Don't you know that the colo- 
 nel takes charge of the bunting every 
 night?" 
 
 "I believe I have heard something to that 
 effect." 
 
 "And don't you know that he keeps it 
 locked in his bureau?" chimed in Bil- 
 lings. 
 
 "Having been on duty at headquarters a 
 time or two I am not ignorant of the fact," 
 answered Dick. " All I ask of you is to do as 
 I say, and I'll get the flag." 
 
 Of course the boys were impatient to know 
 what they could do to help, and Dick at once 
 proceeded to unfold his plans ; but as they 
 will be revealed presently we do not stop to
 
 CHEERS FOR "THE STARS AND BARS." 63 
 
 tell what they were. Some of the combative 
 ones among the students did not like the 
 scheme at all, for there was not enough danger 
 and excitement in it; and if it succeeded, 
 they would be deprived of the pleasure of 
 listening to the praises which they were sure 
 the Barrington people would lavish upon 
 them, when it should become known that they 
 had hauled the flag down after a desperate 
 battle with the Northern sympathizers who 
 had tried to protect it. But these were in the 
 minority. The others had no desire to pro- 
 voke a fight with Marcy Gray and his friends, 
 and it was finally decided that Dick's plan 
 was the safest and best. 
 
 " That rather interferes with your arrange- 
 ments, Cole," said Ed Billings, as the boys 
 paired off and bent their steps toward the 
 academy, Rodney Gray leading, with the flag 
 in his hand. "Those girls were particular to 
 say that the next time you came to see them 
 you must bring word that the flag had been 
 hauled down. I don't know whether or not 
 they will be quite satisfied when you tell them 
 that it was taken from the colonel's room,
 
 64 TRUE TO HIS COLOES. 
 
 after it had been pulled down in the proper 
 way." 
 
 Cole wasn't certain on that point, either; 
 but he had said all he could against the adop- 
 tion of Dick Graham's plan, and that was all 
 anybody could do.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 RODNEY'S THREAT. 
 
 '* ~"\T~OW, fellows," said Rodney, as soon as 
 JL-N the line had been formed, "who 
 
 knows a song appropriate to the occasion? 
 
 We want to let the folks in advance of us 
 
 know that we are coming, so as to see what 
 
 they will do and say when they behold the 
 
 banner of our young Republic." 
 
 " Hear, hear ! " shouted the boys. " Strike 
 
 up something, somebody." 
 Every one looked at Dick Graham, who was 
 
 the finest singer in the squad, and the latter, 
 
 after a moment's reflection, cleared his throat 
 
 and sang as follows : 
 
 " We are many in one while there glitters a 
 
 star 
 
 In the blue of the heavens above, 
 And tyrants shall quail 'mid their dungeons 
 
 afar, 
 When they gaze on the motto of love. 
 
 5 65
 
 66 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 By the bayonet traced at the midnight of war, 
 On the fields where our glory was won 
 
 Oh, perish the hand or the heart that would 
 
 mar 
 Our motto of ' Many in One.' : 
 
 A more disgusted lot of boys had never 
 been seen in Barrington than Rodney and his 
 friends were when Dick finished singing the 
 above, which was a part of two verses of " E 
 Pluribus Unum" Of course the members of 
 the squad all knew the song, but they did not 
 suppose that Dick would have the audacity to 
 mix it up in this way. If they had suspected 
 how the song was going to end, they would 
 have drowned him out in short order. 
 
 "That's about the biggest sell that was ever 
 perpetrated on a party of confiding students," 
 said Ed Billings, as soon as the whoops and 
 yells of derision with which the patriotic 
 words were greeted had died away. "Can't 
 some good Southerner sing something that will 
 hit the spot?" 
 
 Nobody could ; for if any of the Confederate 
 songs, which afterward became so popular on 
 both sides the line, were in existence, they 
 had not yet reached Barrington ; so the only
 
 RODNEY'S THREAT. 67 
 
 thing left for the boys to do was to keep step 
 to "hay-foot, straw-foot, boom, boom, boom ! " 
 which they chanted with all the power of their 
 lungs. Dick Graham congratulated himself 
 on having said a word for the Union, and paid 
 no sort of attention to the good-natured prods 
 in the ribs which he received from the boys 
 who were marching beside him. He stoutly 
 affirmed that he had uttered nothing but his 
 honest sentiments, and hoped that every one 
 who took a hand in marring "our motto of 
 many in one" would get whipped for his 
 pains. 
 
 The students were well acquainted with the 
 people living along their line of march, and 
 were more than satisfied with the enthusiastic 
 greetings given to them and their flag. When 
 they filed through the gate into the academy 
 grounds the sentry presented arms, and the 
 commandant, who was standing at his window, 
 turned away. The boys saw it, and told one 
 another that the colonel was coming to his 
 senses, and that he would not interpose his 
 authority when they were ready to run up the 
 Stars and Bars on the following morning.
 
 68 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 "You fellows are making a heap of fuss 
 about nothing," said Marcy Gray, as his cousin 
 halted beside the camp-chair in which he was 
 sitting and waved the flag over his head, while 
 the rest of the squad trooped up the wide 
 steps that led into the hall. "Take that 
 thing away. The time may come when you 
 will be sorry you ever saw it." 
 
 "It shall gleam o'er the sea 'mid the bolts of 
 
 the storm, 
 
 O'er the battle and tempest and wreck, 
 And flame where our guns with their thunder 
 
 grow warm- 
 sang Rodney. "Look here, old fellow: 
 Couldn't you get up spirit enough to give us a 
 cheer?" 
 
 " I don't think I could," replied Marcy. 
 " Did you fellows all have passes ? I thought 
 not. If things were as they used to be you 
 would find yourselves in the guard-house in 
 less than ten minutes." 
 
 "We are aware of it," answered Rodney; 
 "but if things were as they used to be, we 
 should not have climbed the fence and gone to 
 town without permission. But these are
 
 RODNEY'S THREAT. 69 
 
 times when rules don't count. There is your 
 mail, and if you will take a friend's advice, 
 you will read that paper carefully. I think 
 there is something in it that concerns you." 
 
 " What is it, and where is it? Tell me all 
 about it, and then I shall be spared the trouble 
 of looking it up." 
 
 " Well," said Rodney, as if he hardly knew 
 how to give his cousin the desired informa- 
 tion, "Congress has passed a law command- 
 ing all Northern sympathizers to leave the 
 limits of the Confederacy within ten days." 
 
 " Has this State gone out ? " 
 
 " Not that I know of." 
 
 "Then I don't see how that law concerns me. 
 I am not in the Confederacy, am I ? As long 
 as the State does not tell me to go, I shall stay 
 where I am until mother writes me to start for 
 home. Has your father written for you yet?" 
 
 " No ; but I am looking for a letter every 
 day, and I don't see why I don't get it. But 
 it will come fast enough if the Yankees begin 
 preparations for war, as some lunatics seem to 
 think they will." 
 
 " Those same lunatics are about the only
 
 70 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 sensible people there are in the South to-day. 
 The Northern States will not stand by with 
 their hands in their pockets and see this 
 government broken up, and you may depend 
 upon it," said Marcy earnestly. "If they 
 don' t hang a few on both sides the line, there 
 will be a war here the like of which the world 
 has never seen." 
 
 " Bosh ! " exclaimed Rodney, snapping his 
 fingers in the air. 
 
 " And some of it will be in your State and 
 mine," continued Marcy. 
 
 "Haven' t you read our president's speech ? " 
 demanded Rodney, almost fiercely. "He 
 says that if war must come, it will be fought 
 on Northern soil." 
 
 "It takes two to make a bargain. The 
 Northern States are stronger than we are, and 
 they would be fools to consent to any such 
 arrangement." 
 
 " You'll see that it will be done, whether 
 they consent or not," answered Rodney. " Of 
 course they don't want us to separate from 
 them, for they have made a lot of money out 
 of us with their high protective tariff and all
 
 RODNEY'S THREAT. 71 
 
 that ; but how are they to help themselves 
 when there are no laws or ties of blood to hold 
 us together? Although we speak the same 
 language, we do not belong to the same race 
 that they do ; we are better every way than 
 they are, and we're not going to be bound to 
 them any longer. The slave-holders of the 
 South ruled the old Union for sixty out of 
 seventy years of her existence, and now 
 that the reins of power have been snatched 
 from their hands, they're not going to stand 
 it. We'll have a nation of our own that will 
 lead the world in everything that goes to make 
 a nation. If North Carolina goes out, what 
 will you do?" 
 
 " I shall go home, of course, for mother will 
 need me. Our blacks will all leave us the first 
 chance they get " 
 
 "Bosh!" said Rodney, again. "The nig- 
 gers know who their friends are, and I'll bet 
 you there are not a hundred in the South to- 
 day who would go over to the Yankees if they 
 had the opportunity." 
 
 " Whether they run away or not, mother will 
 need somebody on the plantation, and I am the
 
 72 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 only one she can call on, for Jack is at sea," 
 replied Marcy. 
 
 " And, what's more, he may never get back," 
 added Rodney. " We shall have a navy of 
 our own pretty soon, and then, if the Yankees 
 declare war against us, every ship that floats 
 the old flag will have to watch out. We'll 
 light bonfires on every part of the ocean. If 
 your State secedes, you will go with her, of 
 course ?" 
 
 "Of course I'll not do any such thing." 
 
 " Marcy Gray, are you really a traitor ? Be 
 honest, now." 
 
 " Not much. I am true to my colors the 
 same colors that your grandfather and mine 
 died under." 
 
 "But grandfather never dreamed, when he 
 fought under that flag, that it was going to be 
 turned into an emblem of tyranny," answered 
 Rodney impatiently. "I'll bet you he would 
 not fight under it now ; and neither would 
 Washington. But how will you fare when you 
 get home ? There are plenty of secessionists in 
 your county, and they will have not the first 
 thing to do with you."
 
 RODNEY'S THREAT. 73 
 
 "I don't care whether they do or not," re- 
 plied Marcy, hardly realizing how much mean- 
 ing there was in his cousin's last words. 
 "Mother will have something to do with me, I 
 reckon ; and so will Jack when he returns ; 
 and if the neighbors choose to cut me because 
 I am true to my colors, why I don't see that I 
 can help it." 
 
 " Will you fight for the Union ? " 
 
 " I hope I shall not be called upon to choose 
 sides ; but you may be sure I shall not fight 
 against it." 
 
 "Well, go your road, and I will go mine; 
 but you will yet see the day when you will wish 
 you had done differently. By the way," added 
 Rodney carelessly ; " those Taylor girls 
 hinted that they would be pleased to see you 
 at their house ; but you don't want to air any 
 of your disloyal sentiments in their presence, 
 for if you do, they will be likely to tell you that 
 you needn't come again. My paper says that 
 is what the Richmond girls are doing, and our 
 Barrington girls are following suit. And, 
 Marcy, you had better haul in a little, for if 
 you do not, you will get into trouble. The
 
 74 TEUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 citizens are waking up, and there has been a 
 Committee of Safety appointed to look out for 
 all disturbers of the peace." 
 
 " I think such a committee is needed," was 
 Marcy's quiet rejoinder. "The disturbers of 
 the peace are secessionists without exception, 
 and if the committee will shut up every one of 
 that sort they can get their hands on, they 
 will do the public a service. But as I don't 
 care to be snubbed, I don't think I shall go 
 out of my way to call upon those Taylor 
 girls." 
 
 "Of course you will do as you please about 
 that. I have simply delivered their message," 
 said Rodney, as he passed up the steps and 
 through the wide archway, waving his flag 
 and making the hall ring with his shouts as 
 he went. "Rally on the center, boys, and 
 yell defiance to the Regicides and Round- 
 heads. Keep your eye on the stairs, Billings,, 
 and if the kurn does not come down when he 
 hears the racket, we are all right for to-mor- 
 row morning." 
 
 For a few minutes the greatest confusion 
 reigned in the corridor. The secessionists
 
 RODNEY'S THREAT. 75 
 
 yelled themselves hoarse over the Stars and 
 Bars, and, carried away by the enthusiasm of 
 the moment, pledged themselves to enlist with 
 the defenders of their respective States within 
 twenty-four hours after they reached home. 
 Then followed a counter-demonstration for the 
 Stars and Stripes, led by the tall student, 
 Dixon, of Kentucky, who was backed up by 
 nearly all the boys from the States that had 
 not yet joined the Confederacy. The noise 
 was deafening, but the colonel did not come 
 out of his room to put a stop to it, and that 
 confirmed Rodney in the belief that he was 
 "all right for tomorrow morning." His 
 friends were greatly encouraged, and one of 
 them, when the evening gun was fired, jerked, 
 rather than pulled, the old flag down from the 
 masthead ; and he would have been glad to 
 show his contempt for it by trampling it un- 
 der his feet, had it not been for the presence 
 of the guard, who paced the top of the tower 
 in plain view of the open door of the belfry. 
 
 It was necessary to keep a sentry there now, 
 for when the students found that they could 
 not do as they pleased with the flag, they
 
 76 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 watched for an opportunity to pull the hal- 
 liards out of the block at the head of the flag- 
 staff. Of course the rope could and would 
 have been restored to its place, but not with- 
 out considerable trouble. The staff was so 
 very slender that the lightest boy in school 
 would have thought twice before attempting 
 to climb it, and therefore the staff would have 
 had to come down. Marcy Gray and his 
 friends, who seemed to have a way of finding 
 out all about the plans that were laid against 
 the flag, thought it would be best to ask the 
 colonel commanding to have a guard placed 
 over the halliards, and this was accordingly 
 done. 
 
 Although the sentry who was on duty at 
 this particular time had the reputation of 
 being a good soldier, he was not as friendly to 
 the flag as he might have been ; consequently 
 he offered no remonstrance when the orderly 
 gathered the colors up in a bunch and started 
 downstairs to deliver them to the head of the 
 school. But there were parties on the watch, 
 as the orderly found when he reached the up- 
 per hall, for there he encountered the tall
 
 RODNEY'S THREAT. 77 
 
 Kentuckian, Dixon, who at once took him to 
 task. 
 
 u What made yon wuzzle the flag up in that 
 shape?" he demanded, in no friendly tones. 
 "Put it down here on the floor and fold it as 
 it should be, or off comes your head." 
 
 The orderly looked at Dixon, and then at 
 the boys who stood behind him, but he could 
 not see a single one of Rodney Gray's fol- 
 lowers among them. Having no one to back 
 him up he dared not refuse to obey the order, 
 for he was well aware that he would get into 
 trouble if he did. He folded the flag, and the 
 tall student went with him to make sure that 
 he delivered it to the commandant in good 
 order. He saw it placed on the bureau in the 
 colonel's room, and then posted off to tell Dick 
 Graham all about it. 
 
 Supper was over at last ; darkness came on 
 apace, and as usual the students gathered in 
 the corridors to discuss the situation. They 
 did not seem to remember that there was a law 
 forbidding this very thing, and the guards did 
 not remind them of it, or try to send them to 
 their rooms, for, besides being interested
 
 78 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 parties themselves, they knew by past experi- 
 ence that the boys would not pay the least 
 attention to their commands. 
 
 These discussions were always conducted 
 with more or less noise and hubbub, according 
 to the humor the debaters happened to be in, 
 but now one and all seemed bent on raising a 
 row. They all talked at once, fists were 
 flourished in tfie air and pretty close to the 
 noses of some of the disputants, and finally 
 the lie was passed, and Rodney Gray and 
 several other students in the lower hall pro- 
 ceeded to "mix up" promiscuously. Dick 
 Graham was not among them. He stood at 
 the head of the stairs, where he could see all 
 that was going on without being seen himself. 
 When the leaders of the opposing sides 
 ceased their arguments and came to blows, 
 and on being separated by their respective 
 friends surged through the door toward the 
 parade, where the matter in dispute could be 
 settled by a fair fight, Dick sprang into life 
 and action and hurried to the commandant's 
 room. 
 
 " Sounds something like a row below," said
 
 RODNEY'S THREAT. 79 
 
 the orderly in a careless, indifferent tone. 
 " Who's in for a black eye this time ? " 
 
 " Run in and tell the colonel to come out, or 
 there'll be a riot here before he knows it," re- 
 plied Dick hastily. " Don't your ears tell you 
 that the fellows are all fighting mad, and that 
 the thing is going to be serious ? " 
 
 Well yes ; there was something of a racket 
 below, but the orderly said he didn't care for 
 that, provided the Southerners would use up 
 all the traitors in the gang. However, he 
 thought it best to go in with the report, in 
 order to save himself from being hauled over 
 the coals for neglect of duty. When the 
 colonel came out of his quarters, buttoning 
 his uniform coat with one hand and settling his 
 cap on his head with the other, he found Dick 
 standing at the top of the stairs with his hands in 
 his pockets, and a face as innocent as a child's. 
 
 "Graham, lam glad to see that you have 
 nothing to do with this disgraceful perform- 
 ance," said he. 
 
 "Who? Me, sir?" exclaimed Dick. "I 
 don't fight, sir. I'm neutral, sir. You see 
 Missouri "
 
 80 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 But the colonel could not wait to hear Dick 
 say that his State had not yet gone out of the 
 Union. He went down the stairs, along the 
 hall, and through the archway with all haste, 
 and then Dick went, too ; but he went down 
 the back-stairs, around the corner of the 
 building, and brought two boys to his side by 
 giving a peculiar whistle. 
 
 " Everything is all right so far," whispered 
 Dick. "But there's no telling how long the 
 fellows will be able to keep up the farce, now 
 that the colonel has gone down there, so we 
 must be in a hurry." 
 
 "Did they do it well and without exciting 
 suspicion?" 
 
 ' ' First rate. Couldn' t have done it better. 
 If I hadn't been in the plot I should have 
 thought they were in dead earnest." 
 
 While Dick talked he led the way at top 
 speed to the tool-house, and he and his com- 
 panions vanished through the door. When 
 they came out again they brought with them 
 a light ladder that had been stored there for 
 safe keeping. Moving at a run, they carried 
 it around the building and placed it against
 
 RODNEY'S THREAT. 81 
 
 the wall under the commandant's window. 
 The sash was raised, and the evening breeze 
 was gently rustling the curtains. 
 
 "Do you know whether or not the colonel 
 was alone in his room when you sent the order- 
 ly in to fetch him out ? " whispered one of the 
 boys. " Suppose he left somebody in there ? " 
 
 "Or suppose he left his door open and the 
 orderly should chance to look in?" said the 
 other. 
 
 "It's too late to think of those things 
 now," replied Dick, placing his foot on the 
 lowest round of the ladder and turning his 
 head to listen a moment to the tumult of 
 voices that came from the direction of the 
 parade-ground. " The fellows are at it yet, 
 and if they can only keep the colonel with 
 them two minutes longer we'll have the flag 
 easy enough. But, mind you, I'll not see it 
 abused." 
 
 "It's an enemy's flag," observed one of his 
 companions, who was rather surprised to hear 
 Dick say this. If he was still friendly to the 
 colors, why had he offered to steal them for 
 Rodney Gray?
 
 82 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 " No odds if it is an enemy's flag," replied 
 Dick. "We all thought a heap of it once, 
 and I don't know but I think as much of it 
 as I ever did. I say, dog-gone State Rights 
 anyhow." 
 
 This showed how much of a rebel Dick Gra- 
 ham was ; and there were plenty of others 
 just like him in the South boys and men, 
 too, who had been taught to believe that the 
 founders of the Republic never meant that the 
 sovereignty of the States should be surren- 
 dered to the general government, because they 
 said so in the Declaration of Independence. 
 "These United Colonies are, and of right 
 ought to be, free and independent States" 
 wrote Thomas Jefferson, and all the Northern 
 and Southern delegates agreed with him. If 
 they had intended to form one State or one 
 government, they would have said so in lan- 
 guage too plain to be misunderstood. That 
 was Dick's way of looking at it, and he was 
 honest in his belief that the authorities at 
 Washington had no right to order him from 
 his own State to keep another State in the 
 Union when she wanted to leave it. Dick
 
 DICK GRAHAM STEALS THE FLAG.
 
 RODNEY'S THREAT. 83 
 
 went into the Southern army after a while, as 
 we have said, and so did many others who 
 thought as he did ; but their hearts were not 
 in the work, and they were glad when the war 
 ended and the old flag once more waved over 
 our entire country. 
 
 "Now," continued Dick, "look out for 
 yourselves. If you see anybody coming, make 
 tracks for cover and leave me to take care of 
 myself. There is no need that more than one 
 of us should get into trouble over this nonsen- 
 sical business." 
 
 So saying, Dick ran up the ladder, pushed 
 aside the curtains, and, finding the room de- 
 serted, clambered in and seized the flag, which 
 he found on the bureau just where the tall 
 student told him he would find it. He made 
 his escape with it, the ladder was taken back 
 to the tool-house, and no one was the wiser for 
 what had been done. If the students who 
 presently followed the colonel back from the 
 parade-ground had looked closely at Dick, 
 they might have seen that his coat stuck 
 out a little more about the breast than it 
 usually did, but perhaps they did not no-
 
 84 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 tice it. At all events they said nothing 
 about it. 
 
 " What was the row about this time? " in- 
 quired Dick, as Rodney came to the head of 
 the stairs where he was standing. 
 
 "Politics; nothing but politics," replied 
 Rodney. "But we didn't have time to find 
 out which side was in the right, for the kurn 
 came down and put a stop to the fun. Did 
 you get it?" he asked in a lower tone, first 
 making sure that no one except those who 
 were " in the plot " were near enough to over- 
 hear his words. "Bully for you. Now we 
 will see what Marcy and the rest of the traitors 
 will say when they find another and hand- 
 somer flag floating at the masthead in the 
 morning. Where is it ? " 
 
 Dick tapped the breast of his coat. 
 
 "All right, hand it over. There's nobody 
 around except those we can trust." 
 
 " What are you going to do with it ? " 
 
 "I mean to put it where no one will ever 
 see it again, and that is in the kitchen stove," 
 answered Rodney. 
 
 1 ' That' s what I was afraid of. Well, I don' t
 
 RODNEY'S THREAT. 85 
 
 want it to go in the kitchen stove, and there- 
 fore I must decline to give it to you." 
 
 " Why, what in the name of sense do you 
 want to keep it for?" 
 
 " To show as a proof of my loyalty and de- 
 votion to the Confederate States of America," 
 replied Dick gravely. "I need some sort of 
 an heirloom to hand down to my grandchild- 
 ren, don't I?" 
 
 Of course Rodney was angry, and he had 
 half a mind to "mix up" with Dick then 
 and there and take the flag away from him. 
 But the latter was a strong, active fellow, 
 and plucky as well, and Rodney wasn't quite 
 sure that it would be safe to attempt it. 
 While he was thinking about it Bob Cole 
 spoke up. 
 
 "Let me have the flag," said he, "and I will 
 promise you, on the honor of a soldier, that 
 you shall have it again as soon as it has 
 oerved my purpose." 
 
 " What do you want to do with it ?" 
 
 "Well, if you must know, I want it to set 
 me right with my best girl. She as good as told 
 me this afternoon that I need not call at her
 
 86 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 house again until I could tell her that the flag 
 had been hauled down. I want to show it to 
 her to prove that it has been done." 
 
 "But it hasn't/' objected Dick. "It has 
 been hooked out of the commandant's room, 
 and that's not hauling it down by force. You 
 can tell her that she will never see it hoisted 
 again, and that assurance will have to satisfy 
 her. If she should get her hands on it you 
 would never see it again, and neither would I. 
 When it can float over an undivided country, 
 as it has in the past, and you rebels have been 
 whipped into subjection, then 
 
 "I say whipped ! " exclaimed Billings. 
 
 " Subjection ! " Rodney almost howled. 
 " That will never be. Southerners die, but 
 they don' t submit. Dick Graham, you are a 
 traitor, sure enough. You think more of that 
 rag to-day than you do of the rights of the 
 State you claim as your home." 
 
 "There's where you are wrong," replied 
 Dick. " I don't quite believe in State Rights, 
 but my father does, and that's enough for me ; 
 and whenever Missouri gets ready to " 
 
 " When she gets ready to join the Con-
 
 RODNEY'S THREAT. 87 
 
 federacy you won't have the pluck to go with 
 her," exclaimed Rodney hotly. " But there's 
 one thing about it. Our own flag goes up on 
 that tower after roll-call in the morning, and 
 I'll pitch the first fellow over the parapet who 
 tries to pull it down." 
 
 " Well, good-by, if you call that going," 
 said Dick, good-naturedly. 
 
 The boys all followed Rodney down the 
 stairs and Dick was left alone. He felt of the 
 flag to make sure it was safe, and after looking 
 up and down the hall to see that no one was 
 observing his movements, he went into Marcy 
 Gray's room, where Marcy himself found him 
 a few minutes later.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE PAID SPY. 
 
 IT must not be supposed that the students 
 who did not side with Rodney Gray were 
 entirely deceived by the demonstration that 
 had taken place in the corridor. Noisy politi- 
 cal discussions were of too common occurrence 
 to attract the attention of Marcy and his 
 friends, the most of whom were sitting quietly 
 in their rooms, and they gave no heed to what 
 was going on below until the shuffling of feet 
 announced that there was a fight in progress. 
 Then they rushed out in a body, but a single 
 glance at the boys who were struggling in the 
 hall was enough to show them that their 
 services were not needed. The combatants were 
 all secessionists. There were a few ' ' neutrals ' ' 
 among them Dixon for one who were trying 
 to restore order, and who finally succeeded in 
 getting them out of the building, but there was 
 
 86
 
 THE PAID SPY. 89 
 
 no Union boy there who was in want of assist- 
 ance. 
 
 " What's in the wind now, do you reckon ?" 
 said Tom Percival, whose father had cast his 
 ballot against secession with one hand, while 
 holding a cocked revolver in the other. 
 "That's a put-up job, and there's something 
 behind it." 
 
 "I believe you're right, Tom," said Marcy. 
 "Let's follow them and see what they are 
 going to do." 
 
 There was right where he and his friends 
 made a mistake. They went to the parade 
 ground and looked on while the colonel read 
 Rodney and a few others a severe lecture, and 
 Dick Graham was left free to carry out his 
 part of the programme. Then they went back 
 to their dormitories fully satisfied that if 
 Rodney had hoped to gain anything by getting 
 up that fight, he had failed to accomplish his 
 object. When Marcy opened his door he was 
 surprised to find Dick sitting at the table with 
 a paper in his hand. 
 
 " What are you doing here, you rebel?" 
 he demanded.
 
 90 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 "Rebel yourself," replied Dick. "You 
 stand ready to go back on your State and I 
 don't. But what is the use of this nonsense ? 
 You and I understand each other. Look at 
 that." 
 
 "Dick, where did you get it?" exclaimed 
 Marcy, when his visitor drew the flag from 
 under his coat. 
 
 "I found it on the colonel's bureau and 
 took it and welcome," answered Dick. 
 
 "When did you do it?" 
 
 " Just now." 
 
 " Where was the orderly ?" 
 
 "He was at his post; but he didn't have 
 anything to do with it, and will be as sur- 
 prised as anybody when he finds that the flag 
 is gone. We got a ladder and went in at the 
 window." 
 
 " Wei Who?" 
 
 " I did. You don't expect me to tell you 
 who held the ladder while I went up, do 
 you?" 
 
 " We knew that that fight was a put-up job, 
 but of course we couldn' t imagine what it was 
 got up for. If we had seen or heard anything
 
 THE PAID SPY. 91 
 
 to set us on the right track, you never would 
 have got your hands on that flag." 
 
 "Don't you suppose we knew that?" de- 
 manded Dick. " Having no taste for a knock- 
 down and drag-out, we were rather sly about 
 it. But what's the difference ? You know as 
 well as I do that it was bound to come down 
 sooner or later, and perhaps it would have 
 been lowered by some one who would not have 
 been as careful of it as I have been. Imagine, 
 if you can, what would have been done to it if 
 the news had come that this State had joined 
 the Confederacy ! There hasn't been an ugly 
 finger laid on it since I got it." 
 
 Marcy took a turn about the room and then 
 faced his visitor and looked at him in silence. 
 
 " I am sure I don't know what to make of 
 you," he said, at length. " Which side are 
 you on ? I don't believe you know yourself." 
 
 "Haven't I told you time and again that 
 I'm neutral?" demanded Dick. "You see 
 Missouri " 
 
 " You never saw two dogs fight in the street 
 without wanting one or the other of them to 
 whip," interrupted Marcy. " There can't be
 
 92 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 such a tiling as a neutral in times like these. 
 You are opposed to the flag, and yet you don' t 
 want to see it in possession of those who 
 would insult or destroy it. You handle it as 
 though you loved it." 
 
 " I did once, and I don't hate it now, or 
 anybody who stands up for it," answered 
 Dick, thoughtfully. " I am going to give it 
 to you on one " 
 
 " I wondered why you brought it in here," 
 said Marcy. " I shall be glad to have the 
 flag, and to-morrow morning we'll " 
 
 "Good-night," said Dick, getting upon his 
 feet. 
 
 " Hold on. What have I said or done to 
 send you away in such a hurry ? " 
 
 "What will you do to-morrow morning?" 
 asked Dick, in reply. 
 
 "We'll run the colors up where they 
 belong, and stand by to see that they stay 
 there. What else should we do ?" 
 
 " That's what I thought you were going to 
 say; but you must promise that you'll not 
 think of it, or you can't have the flag. You 
 see," continued Dick confidentially, " I am not
 
 THE PAID SPY. 93 
 
 exactly hand and glove with Rodney and his 
 crowd, but I come pretty near to believing as 
 they do, and that was one reason I offered to 
 steal the flag. If I hadn' t done it, they would 
 have hauled it down by force, or tried to, and 
 that might have raised a sure-enough row ; no 
 sham about it." 
 
 " I am quite sure it would," assented Marcy. 
 " That's what I was afraid of, and I think it 
 a good plan to put the fighting off as long as 
 we can. I haven't anything against the flag 
 and never shall have, not even when Mis- 
 souri 
 
 " Never mind Missouri," Marcy interposed. 
 "Tell me why you are going to give me the 
 flag." 
 
 " Simply because I know you think a good 
 deal of it, and will take care of it," answered 
 Dick. " It will be something to be proud of 
 one of these days, I tell you. After we rebels 
 get the licking we are boiind to get in the 
 end" 
 
 " If you are so sure of it, why do you favor 
 secession ?" inquired Marcy. 
 
 " Who 2 Me ? I don't favor it. I never so
 
 94 TRUE TO HIS COLOES. 
 
 much as hinted at such a foolish thing, be- 
 cause a blind man ought to see what is going 
 to come of it. Before the thing is over our 
 niggers will all be gone, our homes will be in 
 ruins, our fields grown up to briers, and we'll 
 be as poor as church mice. You'll see. I say 
 that the Southern States ought to stay in the 
 Union ; but if they are resolved that they 
 won't do it, the government at Washington 
 has no shadow of a right to compel them. 
 That's me, and that's why I tell you that when 
 Missouri " 
 
 " Why don't you give me the flag, if you 
 are going to?" said Marcy. "Some of the 
 teachers might come in, and how should I ac- 
 count for your presence here ? " 
 
 " In any way you please. I am not particu- 
 lar. Hold on a bit," said Dick, as Marcy 
 tried to take the colors from his hand. "I 
 must have your promise first. You must say. 
 in so many words, that you will not attempt to 
 hoist it in the morning, and further, that you 
 will not let anyone know I gave it- to you. A 
 certain fellow wants to shove it in the stove " 
 
 "That's my cousin," interrupted Marcy.
 
 THE PAID SPY. 95 
 
 " And another wants to show it to his girl, 
 who told him to-day, in my presence, that if 
 he had the pluck she had given him credit for, 
 the colors would have come down long ago." 
 
 " That's Bob Cole," said Marcy. 
 
 " I was taught never to tell names, and tales, 
 too. I knew that if I gave the flag to either 
 of those fellows I would never see it again. I 
 have marched and drilled under it for almost 
 four years, and shouldn't like to hear that it 
 been abused in any way ; but if you and I live 
 to see the end of the terrible times that I be- 
 lieve are coming upon us, I should like to hear 
 that it had been run up again. That's why I 
 I am going to give it to you ; but I must have 
 your promise first." 
 
 "It's a bargain, and there's my hand on it," 
 answered Marcy, without hesitation. "That 
 flag shall never go up to the top of the acad- 
 emy staff again if I can help it, and while I 
 remain in this school I'll never say you gave 
 it to me. Now hand it over, so that I can 
 hide it before anybody comes in." 
 
 Dick was rather surprised at the prompt- 
 ness with which the required promise was
 
 96 TKUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 given. Almost without knowing it he handed 
 Marcy the flag, and saw him place it in his 
 trunk and turn the key upon it. 
 
 "Say," he exclaimed, when he found his 
 tongue, "what are you up to ? " 
 
 "I am going to leave the flag there until I 
 can think of some good hiding-place for it," 
 replied Marcy." 
 
 " That isn't what I mean, and you know it. 
 I didn't think you would be so very willing to 
 make the promise, and I am afraid there is 
 something back of it." 
 
 " I have said all you asked me to say, have 
 I not ? Well, I assure you I shall remember 
 it, for I am not in the habit of breaking my 
 word. The next time these colors float it will 
 be in a breeze that is untainted by any seces- 
 sion rag, I bet you. Then, whether you are 
 living or dead, I shall think of you, Dick. 
 You and I have always been friends and I 
 know we shall continue to be so, no matter 
 where we are or what flag waves over us." 
 
 " You don't owe me any thanks," said Dick 
 hastily, and in, rather a husky voice. "I 
 don't want the old thing, for I may have to
 
 THE PAID SPY. 97 
 
 fight against it someday; but I didn't want 
 to see Rodney and his crowd trample it under 
 their feet before they destroyed it. You're 
 right, we shall always be friends, no matter 
 dog-gone State Rights anyhow. That's me. 
 Good-night." 
 
 "Just one word more before you go," said 
 Marcy. "Where did Rodney get the seces- 
 sion flag he has been prancing around with 
 ever since he came from town ? " 
 
 " It came through the post-office, but who 
 sent it I don't know. You ought to have 
 heard the fellows whoop and yell when he 
 took it out of the package." 
 
 "Does he labor under the delusion that he 
 is going to run it up on the tower in the morn- 
 ing?" continued Marcy. 
 
 "You can't prove that by me," was Dick's 
 response. "Good-night." 
 
 "Yes, I can prove it by you," thought 
 Marcy, as his visitor went out, closing the 
 door behind him. "Your face and your ac- 
 tions said plainly enough that that is what 
 Rodney means to do ; but I'll bet you he will 
 be astonished when to-morrow comes. He and 
 
 7
 
 98 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 his crowd must take us for a lot of dunder- 
 heads." 
 
 Marcy waited until he thought Dick had 
 had time to reach his own room, and then he 
 opened the door and went out into the hall. 
 He was gone about half an hour, and when he 
 came back he was smiling all over, and rub- 
 bing his hands together, as if he felt very well 
 satisfied with what he had done during his 
 absence. Then he drew a chair to the table, 
 turned up the lamp, and devoted himself to 
 another reading of the letters and papers he 
 had that day received from home. While he 
 was thus engaged some things were happening a 
 few miles away that eventually came very near 
 raising a "sure-enough fight" at the academy, 
 and opened the eyes of the "citizens and vo- 
 ters of Barrington" to the fact that they had 
 not done a wise thing when they employed 
 some of the most worthless members of the 
 community to keep watch of those who did 
 not wear red, white, and blue rosettes and 
 hurrah for President Davis. 
 
 About the time the Missouri boy and his 
 comrades made their successful raid on the
 
 THE PAID SPY. 99 
 
 commandant's room, one of the paid spies of 
 whom Mr. Riley had spoken during his con- 
 versation with Dick Graham went to the post- 
 office in Barrington and was handed a letter 
 addressed to himself. An ordinary observer 
 would have seen at a glance that the writing 
 on the envelope was disguised, but Bud Goble, 
 who seldom saw writing of any sort, did not 
 notice it. He straightened up as if he had 
 grown an inch or more when he found that he 
 had a correspondent who was respectful 
 enough to address him as "Mister," and rose 
 immensely in his own estimation when he 
 opened the letter and with much difficulty 
 spelled out the following : 
 
 "This is verry privat and perticlar bisness 
 and i wouldnt think of speaking to nobody 
 but you about it who are one of the most 
 promnent and respeckted sitizens of baring- 
 ton." 
 
 This was nothing but the truth, according to 
 Mr. Goble' s way of thinking; but up to this 
 time he had never met any one whose opinions 
 agreed with his own. If the business to which 
 his correspondent referred was so very "pri-
 
 100 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 vate and particular," it would never do, lie 
 thought, to read the letter there in the post- 
 office, while there were so many men standing 
 around ; so he straightway sought the privacy 
 of his own dwelling a little tumble-down log 
 cabin with a dirt floor and stick chimney, 
 which was situated in the outskirts of the 
 town. 
 
 ' ' One of the most respected and prominent 
 citizens of Barrington ; that's what I be," 
 muttered Bud Goble, as he stumbled along the 
 dark road toward his domicile. "I always 
 knowed it, but there's a heap of folks about 
 here who have always been down on me, kase 
 I haven't got any niggers of my own and have 
 to work for a livin' ; but I'm to the top of the 
 heap now, an' what's more, I'll let some of 
 'em know it before I am many hours older. I 
 wisht I knew what's into this letter, kase it's 
 mighty hard work for me to read it. If it's 
 anything about them babolitionists an' the 
 doctering they're preachin' up among our nig- 
 gers Well, they'll not do it much longer, 
 kase I am about ready to take some on 'em 
 outen their beds at night an' lay the hickory
 
 THE PAID SPY. 101 
 
 over their backs. There's money into it, kase 
 Mr. Riley an' the rest of the men that's onto 
 the committee said so ; an' I'm onto every job 
 where there's an honest dollar to be made." 
 
 Bud Goble was a fair type of that class of 
 people who were known to those among whom 
 they lived as "white trash." Even the 
 negroes, particularly those who belonged to 
 wealthy planters, looked upon them with con- 
 tempt. Too lazy to work, they lived from 
 hand to mouth ; and not one out of ten of the 
 many thousands of them who went into the 
 Confederate Army knew what they were light- 
 ing for. To save his life Bud Goble could not 
 have told what all this excitement was about. 
 He had a dim notion that somebody wanted to 
 free the slaves, and the idea of such a thing 
 made him furious ; although it is hard to 
 explain why it should, for, as Dick Graham 
 said, he had never owned the price of a pick- 
 aninny. He had got it into his head that if 
 the negroes were made free he would be 
 brought down to their level and compelled to 
 go to work, and that was something he could 
 not bear to think of.
 
 102 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 Bud Goble did not know what secession 
 meant, but he was strongly in favor of it, be- 
 cause the majority of the wealthy and influ- 
 ential citizens in and around Barrington 
 favored it ; and taking his cue from them, he 
 not only turned the cold shoulder upon those 
 who were suspected of being on the side of 
 the Union, but went further and became their 
 deadly enemy. Mr. Riley and the other mem- 
 bers of the Committee of Safety knew all this, 
 and yet they employed him, the most vindic- 
 tive and unreliable man in the neighborhood, 
 to keep them posted in regard to what the 
 Union men and free negroes were doing and 
 saying. It is not to be supposed that men of 
 their intelligence would put much faith in his 
 reports, but they furnished an excuse for re- 
 sorting to high-handed measures, and that was 
 really what the committee wanted. 
 
 Meanwhile Bud Goble was making the best 
 of his way homeward, guided by the blaze 
 from a light-wood fire on the hearth which 
 shone through the open door. It was not 
 such a home as the most of us would care to 
 go to at night, for it was the most cheerless
 
 THE PAID SPY. 103 
 
 place in the country for miles around. Even 
 the humblest cabin in Mr. Riley's negro quar- 
 ter, half a mile away, was a more inviting 
 spot. And as for the family who occupied 
 it well, a benighted traveler, no matter how 
 tired and hungry he might be, would have 
 gone farther and camped in the woods rather 
 than ask supper and lodging of them. 
 
 "Now, Susie," exclaimed Mr. Goble cheer- 
 fully, addressing a slouchy, unkempt woman 
 who sat in front of the fire with her elbows 
 resting on her knees and a dingy cob pipe 
 between her teeth, "punch up the blaze an' 
 dish up a supper while I read my letter an' see 
 what's into it." 
 
 "Who's been a-writin' a letter to you?" 
 queried the woman, without changing her 
 position. 
 
 "That's what I don't know till I read it. 
 It's something about them babolitionists that 
 our gover'ment has ordered to get outen here, 
 I reckon. But I'm powerful hungry. I aint 
 had a bite to eat sense I left in the mornin'." 
 
 " Well, then, where' s the meal an' bacon I 
 told you to fetch along when you come home 1"
 
 104 TRUE TO HIS COLOKS. 
 
 inquired Mrs. Goble. "I told you plain as 
 I could speak it that there wasn't a drop of 
 anything to eat in the house; an' here's the 
 young ones been a-howlin' for grub the whole 
 day long." 
 
 " Land sakes, if I didn't forget all about it," 
 said Goble regretfully. "But how on earth 
 am I goin' to get grub when I aint got no 
 money to pay for it? Our committee didn't 
 give me no money to-day kase I didn't have 
 nothing to tell 'em. 'Pears like all the traitors 
 keep mighty glum when I'm around. See two 
 or three of 'em talkin' together, an' they shet 
 up the minute I begin to sidle up to 'em." 
 
 "You aint wuth shucks to work for that 
 committee," replied his wife impatiently. 
 " If I was a man an' had the job, I'd tell 'em 
 something every hour in the day." 
 
 " How could you when there wasn't nothing 
 to tell, I'd like to know ? " 
 
 "I'd find plenty, I bet you. You haven't 
 disremembered how them babolitionists an' the 
 free niggers used to talk, about the time John 
 Brown was makin' that raid of his'n, have 
 you ? "
 
 THE PAID SPY. 105 
 
 '"Course I aint ; but them's old stories 
 now. They've kept mighty still tongues in 
 their heads sense that time." 
 
 "No odds if they have. They was Union 
 then, an' they're that same way of thinkin' 
 now ; an' the talk that would have hung 'em 
 then, if our folks hadn' t been jest the peace- 
 ablest people in the world, would get 'em into 
 trouble now if it was brung up agin 'em." 
 
 " An' would you tell them stories all over 
 agin if you was me ?" exclaimed Bud Goble. 
 
 " I wouldn't do nothing else." 
 
 " Jest as if they happened yisterday ?" 
 
 "Toby sure. You want money, don't you? 
 an' that there committee of yourn wont give 
 you none 'ceptin' you can tell 'em sunthin', 
 will they 2 " 
 
 " Now, that's an idee," exclaimed Mr. 
 Goble, gazing admiringly at his wife. "I 
 never onct thought of that way of doin'." 
 
 " You never think of nothing till I tell you 
 what to do," said Mrs. Goble sharply. 
 "You've had no end of good jobs that you 
 could have made money on if you'd only 
 worked 'em right, but you wont listen to what
 
 106 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 I tell you. I don't reckon you see how you 
 could make money two ways outen the job 
 you've got now, do you ? You might go to all 
 the Union folks, niggers art whites, an' tell 
 'em that if they don't give you some clothes 
 for your fambly to wear, an' grub for 'em to 
 eat, you will have that there committee of 
 yourn after 'em, mightn't you ? " 
 
 "So I could," exclaimed Bud gleefully. 
 "But I'll tell 'em I want money for keepin' 
 still about what I've heard 'em say." 
 
 "You wont do nothing of the sort," said 
 his wife almost fiercely. "If you get money, 
 you'll set in to loafin' around Larkinses', an' 
 I won't see none of it, nor any grub or clothes 
 nuther. Look around the house an' into the 
 cubboard an' see if you oughtn't to be ashamed 
 of yourself for swillin' so much apple-jack. 
 Get the grub, I tell you, an' give some on 'em 
 a hint that you want an order on the store 
 keeper to get me anew dress I've been needin' 
 for the last six months. That's one way to 
 make it pay. Then go to that committee 
 an' tell 'em what you've heard them baboli- 
 tionists an' free niggers say about John Brown
 
 THE PAID SPY. 107 
 
 bein' right in what he did, an' they'll give you 
 sunthin' for bringin' 'em the news." 
 
 "But them old stories wont be news." 
 
 "No odds. They're what the committee 
 wants, an' you're plumb blind that you can't 
 see it." 
 
 Bud Goble placed his elbows upon his knees, 
 fastened his eyes upon the glowing coals on 
 the hearth, and took a minute or two to con- 
 sider the matter. Then he got upon his feet 
 and went out into the darkness without telling 
 his wife where he was going or what he in- 
 tended to do. But that did not trouble Mrs. 
 Groble. She administered a hearty shake to 
 one of the ragged children who querulously 
 demanded to know why pap hadn't brung 
 home sunthiri to eat, and then filled a fresh 
 pipe and lighted it with a brand from the fire. 
 
 Bud climbed the fence that ran between the 
 road and the little barren pasture in which he 
 permitted his pigs to roam (when he had any), 
 worked his way through a narrow strip of 
 woodland, and finally struck the lane leading 
 from Mr. Riley's tobacco patch to the negro 
 quarter a double row of whitewashed cabins
 
 108 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 in which the field-hands lived. A few minutes 
 later, after making free use of a club with 
 which he had taken the precaution to arm 
 himself, and fighting his way through a bat- 
 talion of coon dogs that assembled to dispute 
 his progress, he opened the door of one of the 
 cabins and entered without ceremony. If the 
 occupants had been white folks, Bud wouldn't 
 have done that ; but who ever heard of a 
 Southern gentleman knocking at a negro's 
 door ? 
 
 "What made you-uns set there like so many 
 bumps on a log when you heard me comin' ? " 
 was the way in which he greeted Uncle Toby 
 and his family, who were sitting in front of 
 the fire resting after the labors of the day. 
 " Why didn't you come out and shoo off them 
 dogs of your'n? You'd best be mighty care- 
 ful how you treat me, kase I'm a bigger man 
 in this settlement nor you think I be. What's 
 that you're shovin' out of sight behind your 
 cheer ? Let me have a look at it." 
 
 Uncle Toby was one of the most popular 
 negro preachers in the county, and had been 
 known to boast of the fact that he addressed a
 
 THE PAID SPY. 109 
 
 larger Sunday morning congregation than any 
 white minister in Barrington. Bud Goble 
 thought he was a dangerous nigger to have 
 around, and often asked Mr. Riley why he did 
 not "shut him up." But the planter only 
 laughed and said that if old Toby could preach 
 so much better than the Barrington ministers, 
 he didn't think he ought to be deposed. So 
 long as the darkeys who came into his grove of 
 a Sunday had passes from their masters, it was 
 all right ; but there was something that was 
 not all right, and it was the occasion of no 
 little uneasiness and perplexity to Mr. Riley. 
 By some hocus-pocus Toby had learned to 
 read his Bible. There was nothing wrong in 
 that, of course, but a darkey who could read 
 his Bible would be likely to read papers as 
 well ; and from them, especially if they 
 chanced to be Northern papers, he might im- 
 bibe some ideas that no slave had any business 
 to entertain. It was said, and Bud Goble be- 
 lieved it, that Toby had a great deal to do 
 with ihe "underground railroad" that had 
 carried so many runaway negroes to freedom. 
 You will be surprised when you hear that Bud
 
 110 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 was ignorant enough to take this expression 
 literally. He really thought that some one had 
 built a railroad under Barrington for the pur- 
 pose of assisting discontented slaves to escape to 
 Canada, and some of the wags at the military 
 academy offered him a large sum of money if 
 he would find it and conduct them to it, so 
 that they might tear it up. Bud concluded 
 that somewhere in the woods there must be a 
 ladder or flight of stairs that led down to the 
 railroad, and he spent days in looking for it. 
 When Mr. Riley, taking pity on his ignorance, 
 explained the matter to him, Bud was fighting 
 mad ; and ever since that time he had been 
 watching for an opportunity to be revenged 
 upon the boys who had played upon his 
 credulity. 
 
 "Let me have a look at that there thing 
 you was a-shovin' out of sight behine your 
 cheer when I come in," repeated Bud, strid- 
 ing up to the fire-place and catching up the 
 article that had caught his eye. " Looked to 
 me like one of them 'sendiary papers, an' it is 
 too. What business you got to be readin' 
 like a white gentleman ?" he added, slapping
 
 THE PAID SPY. Ill 
 
 Toby on the head with the paper which he 
 picked up from the floor. 
 
 "Oh, Marse Gobble," began Toby. 
 
 "'Tain't my name," howled Bud, who al- 
 ways got angry whenever anybody took liber- 
 ties with his cognomen. "G-o don't spell 
 Gob, does it? You can't read or spell along- 
 side of me, but you know too much to be of 
 any more use around here. Me and Mr. 
 Biley b'long to the Committee of Safety, an' 
 it's our bounden duty to take chaps like you 
 out in the woods an' lick ye. What do you 
 say to that?" 
 
 Old Toby was so very badly frightened that 
 he could not say anything. He had been 
 caught almost in the act of reading a copy of 
 the New York Tribune, and what would Mr. 
 Blley say and do when he heard of it ? The 
 latter was known far and wide as a kind mas- 
 ter. He gave his slaves plenty to eat and 
 wear and never overworked them ; but he be- 
 lieved as most of his class did, and it wasn't 
 likely that he would deal leniently with one 
 of his chattels who would bring a paper like 
 the Tribune on the plantation, and afterward
 
 112 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 spread discontent among his fellows by 
 preaching in secret the doctrines he found in 
 it. Bud easily read the thoughts that were 
 passing in the old negro's mind, and told him- 
 self that Susie deserved a new dress in return 
 for the suggestions she had given him. He 
 saw his advantage and determined to push it.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE STRUGGLE ON THE TOWER. 
 
 TOBY was said to be the most 
 thrifty and "forehanded" darkey in 
 the settlement. Like all the rest of the black 
 people on Mr. Riley's plantation he had a 
 little garden-patch, and as he and his family 
 were industrious enough to cultivate it prop- 
 erly, they had vegetables to sell at the " great 
 house" and received cash in hand for them. 
 Being a minister, he did not think it right to 
 spend much for clothing or finery, and there 
 were those who believed that he had a goodly 
 sum of money laid by. Bud Goble knew that 
 his larder was generally well supplied, and he 
 had designs upon it now. 
 
 " What do you reckon your Moster would 
 
 do to ye if I should take this here docyment 
 
 to him an' tell him I found you a- read in' of 
 
 it ? " Bud demanded, looking sharply at Uncle 
 
 8 113
 
 114 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 Toby. "It's my duty to do it, kase I b'long 
 to the same committee that he does, bein' one 
 of the most respected an' prominent citizens 
 of Barrington. That's the way my letters 
 come." 
 
 " Marse Bud," replied the negro (he did not 
 dare venture on the surname again for fear of 
 exciting his visitor's wrath), "I didn't go for 
 to do wrong I didn't for a fac'. Dat paper 
 was gin to me oh, laws, what am I sayin' ?" 
 
 "Speak it out, nigger," exclaimed Bud 
 fiercely. " Who gin it to you, an' how did he 
 come by it in the first place ? " 
 
 " Suah I don't know how he come by it, 
 Marse Bud," replied Toby, who was greatly 
 alarmed. " I don't know what 'is name was, 
 nudder, kase I nevah seed him afo'. Dat's de 
 Lawd's truth." 
 
 "No, I don't reckon it is," answered Bud, 
 with a grim smile. "But as I am here on 
 other business, I wont say nothing more on 
 that p'int at this meetin'. I'll sorter hold it 
 over ye like an overseer's whip, ready to fall 
 when you don't hoe your row like you had 
 oughter. Do you want me to take this here
 
 THE STRUGGLE ON THE TOWER. 115 
 
 Trybune to your Moster ? Well, then, I want 
 you to sell me some of that fine tobacker of 
 your'n. You told me t'other day that you 
 didn't have none ; but I reckon you can find 
 some if you look around." 
 
 " Mebbe so, sah," replied Toby, with alac- 
 rity. His store was growing small, but if by 
 breaking into it he could purchase Bud 
 Goble's silence, he was perfectly willing to do 
 it. He knew that he would never see a cent 
 for the tobacco, for Bud was much too high- 
 toned to use " twist" when he had money to 
 invest in "store plug." He left the room, and 
 in a few minutes returned with three or four 
 big "hanks," which he handed to his visitor 
 with the request that the latter would accept 
 them with his compliments. 
 
 " Didn't mean to rob ye, Toby," said Bud, 
 as he wrenched a huge mouthful from one of 
 the "hanks" to test the quality. "But I'll 
 tell ye what's a fact. When I come home to- 
 night, after a meetin' of that there Committee 
 of Safety I was tellin' you about, I found that 
 I had plumb disremembered to fetch along the 
 bacon, meal, an' taters that my wife done told
 
 116 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 me to bring, an' so I thought I would jest run 
 over an' see if I couldn't borry some of you to 
 last me a few days." 
 
 Old Toby was astonished at the proposition. 
 It was on the end of his tongue to refuse point- 
 blank ; but when he glanced at Bud he thought 
 better of it. The latter was trying to look 
 good-natured, but there was an expression on 
 his face that brought all the negro's fears back 
 to him with redoubled intensity. He saw very 
 plainly that it would take more than a few 
 twists of tobacco to make Bud Goble keep his 
 lips closed. 
 
 " Ise got a little meal an' some few taters, 
 Marse Bud," said Toby reluctantly. "But I 
 tell you for a f ac' dat de bacon we done drawed 
 from de oberseer won't las' de week out for my 
 own folks, let alone giving you some of it." 
 
 " Oh, well, I aint so sot on havin' bacon," 
 replied Bud. " Give me two or three of them 
 yaller-legged chickens of yourn, an' they will 
 do jest as well. It's a mighty far ways back 
 to town, an' I do despise walkin' there in the 
 dark," he continued, seeing that Toby hesi- 
 tated. " It's nigher to the great house, an' so
 
 THE STRUGGLE ON THE TOWER. 117 
 
 I reckon I'll go up an' smoke a pipe with 
 Riley." 
 
 " Set down, Marse Bud," cried Toby hastily. 
 " Set down in dat cheer an' I'll have de things 
 you want directly. An' say, Marse Bud, when 
 I get 'em, will you give me dat paper V 
 
 "Oh, yes; you can have the paper," said 
 the visitor. And to show that he meant what 
 he said, he tossed it upon the nearest shake- 
 down. 
 
 "Thank you, sah ; thank you kindly," said 
 Toby, with the mental resolution that he would 
 throw that tell-tale paper into the fire as soon 
 as the visitor took his leave. "If I see dat 
 man agin I'll tell him I don't want no mo' dat 
 sort of trash to read. I'll be back in jes' a 
 minute." 
 
 Toby was gone a good deal longer than that, 
 but when he returned he brought with him two 
 meal bags, partly filled, which he placed upon 
 the floor beside Bud Goble's chair. The latter 
 thrust his arm into them, one after the other, 
 and found that the first contained corn meal 
 enough to keep him and his hungry family in 
 hoe-cake until he could earn money from the
 
 118 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 committee to buy more, and that there were 
 three chickens and about a peck of potatoes in 
 the other. 
 
 "That's what I'm a-needin'," said he, with 
 a satisfied chuckle. "I bid you a kind good- 
 night, you an' your fambly ; an' if I hear any- 
 body talk about takin' you out in the bresh an' 
 lickin' on ye, I won't let 'em;" 
 
 Toby stood in the door to "shoo off the 
 dogs," and drew a long sigh of relief when he 
 Baw his unwelcome guest disappear in the dark- 
 ness. 
 
 " Dinah," said he, when he returned to the 
 cabin, ' ' de money you' ve got in dat stockin' 
 of yourn has got to be buried in de groun' 
 somewhar de first thing in de mawnin'. Ise 
 dat skeared of having it in de house dat I can't 
 sleep. I thought sure dat Gobble white trash 
 man gwine ask for dat money." 
 
 Bud was not long in reaching home. He 
 was so highly elated that he seemed to be 
 treading on air, and the distance was passed 
 over almost before he knew it. It was the 
 source of great gratification to him to learn, 
 by actual test, that his relations with the Com-
 
 THE STRUGGLE ON THE TOWER. 119 
 
 mittee of Safety put such power into his hands. 
 There was one thing about it, he told himself : 
 From that time forward he and his family 
 would have more and better food to eat than 
 they had ever had before, and be better clothed. 
 If the scheme he had just put into operation 
 would work once, he was positive it would 
 succeed every time it was tried. 
 
 "There, now!" exclaimed Bud triumph- 
 antly, as he walked into his own house and 
 dropped the bags by the side of his wife's 
 chair. < "Two heads are better' n one, if one 
 is a woman's head. There's meal an' taters 
 an' chickens ; now go on an' dish up a good 
 supper. I'll get your dress to-morrer." 
 
 " Where you goin' to get it ? " inquired his 
 wife, knocking the ashes from her pipe and 
 rising from her seat. The knowledge that 
 there was food in the house put a little energy 
 into her, and at the same time quieted the com- 
 plaining children. 
 
 "I'm workin' this job for all there is into it, 
 let me tell you," replied Bud, taking his 
 wife's pipe from her hand and filling it for his 
 own benefit. " I ketched old preacher Toby
 
 120 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 with a babolition paper in his hand, an' that's 
 the way I come to get the grub an' tobacker. 
 To-morrer I'll go an' call on the storekeeper. 
 He told me t'other day that he wouldn't trust 
 me no more, but I kinder think he'll change 
 his mind when I tell him that I'm onto that 
 committee. An' then there's that Meth'dist 
 preacher, Elder Bowen. who I suspicion gin 
 Toby that babolition Try'bune. There's a 
 heap of hams an' side-meat in that smoke- 
 house of his'n, an' it sorter runs in my mind 
 that I can talk him into givin' me some of it." 
 
 "An' did you speak to Toby about the 
 money they say he's got hid somewheres?" 
 asked Mrs. Goble, who was dressing two of the 
 chickens preparatory to consigning them to 
 the kettle, which she had placed upon the 
 coals. "What business has he got to have 
 money when white folks " 
 
 " Set me down for a fuel ! " exclaimed Bud, 
 hitting his rheumatic leg such a slap that he 
 could hardly repress the howl of anguish that 
 arose to his lips. " There I was talkin' to him 
 for as much as ten or fifteen minutes an' never 
 onct thought of that money. Well, there's
 
 THE STRUGGLE ON THE TOWER. 121 
 
 another day comin', an' Toby '11 have to hand 
 that money over or get whopped." 
 
 " An' if I was you," continued his wife, " I 
 wouldn't say a blessed word to nobody about 
 it. Keep your business to yourself, kase if 
 you don' t, them that helps you will want to 
 share in what you get." 
 
 " Susie, you've got a long head an' that's a 
 fac'," said Bud, who wondered why he had 
 not thought of all these little things himself. 
 " I'll bear them idees in mind. Now, punch 
 up the fire a little an' let me see if I can read 
 what's into this letter. One of the most pro- 
 minent an' respected citizens of Barrington; 
 that's what I be, an' the feller who writ to 
 me knows it." 
 
 Having lighted his pipe and waited until the 
 blaze from the fire had attained sufficient 
 brightness, Bud drew the letter from his pocket 
 and read aloud : 
 
 "Dear sir and frind i take my pen in hand to 
 let you know that you aint doing as you had 
 oughter do you are' paid by the committee of 
 safety to keep an eye on all the abolitionists in 
 the kentry and you dont do it theres plenty 
 of them in barington and a hul pile of them up
 
 122 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 to the cademy wich is a disgrace to the town 
 them boys some of them is spiling for a licking 
 sich as you and your frinds had oughter give 
 them long ago but aint done it and had oughter 
 have a little sense knocked into their heads 
 why dont you send them warning to shet up 
 or clear themselves outen the federasy like the 
 
 fovment says they must do inside of ten 
 ays theres that gray boy for one and that 
 graham boy for an other but they aint no kin 
 though theyre awful sassy and need looking 
 to if you dont tend to business bettern this i 
 shall have to see that the committee gets some 
 body else in your place hurra for jeff davis and 
 the south and long may she wave that is my 
 moto." 
 
 Men of sense do not usually give a second 
 thought to anonymous communications, but 
 put them into the fire as soon as they ascertain 
 their character ; but Goble, of course, did not 
 know this, and besides he was not that sort of 
 a fellow. He was not strictly honorable him- 
 self, and was glad to receive hints, even if they 
 came from a correspondent who was too much 
 of a coward to sign his name to what he had 
 written. He saw at once that he had been 
 remiss in his duty, and the threat contained in 
 the closing lines made him a little uneasy. 
 
 u Land sakes, I plumb forgot to keep an eye
 
 THE STRUGGLE ON THE TOWEE. 123 
 
 on them boys at the 'cademy," he said, as he 
 folded the letter and prepared to return it to 
 the envelope. As he did so, he found that 
 there were a few lines written on the outside 
 which he had not before noticed. They ran as 
 follows : 
 
 " Them boys I spoke of that gray and graham 
 boy are the verry ones who fooled you about 
 that under ground rail road 
 
 When Bud read these words he hit his rheu- 
 matic leg another heavy blow, and jumped to 
 his feet with a fierce exclamation on his lips. 
 
 " So them's the fellers that fooled me, are 
 they \ " he shouted, as soon as the pain in his 
 leg would permit him to speak. " You haven't 
 disremembered how they offered me a cool 
 hundred dollars in gold if I would look around 
 in the woods an' find the ladder or the stairs 
 that led down to that railroad, have you, 
 Susie? If it hadn't been for Riley I might 
 have been lookin' for it yet. I said at the 
 time that I would get even with them for that, 
 but I couldn' t seem to find no way to do it, kase 
 I don't never have no dealin's with 'em; but 
 I've got an idee now. I wisht I could think
 
 124 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 up some way to get them two out in the woods 
 by theirselves. I'll have to have somebody to 
 help me if I try that, Susie." 
 
 As that was very evident to Mrs. Goble she 
 made no reply, but went on with her prepara- 
 tions for supper, while Bud smoked and 
 meditated. When the chickens, potatoes, and 
 hoe-cake were declared to be ready, he did not 
 change his position, but grabbed what he 
 wanted from the table, and devoured it while 
 sitting by the fire and trying to conjure up 
 some plan for making himself square with those 
 fun-loving academy boys. He inferred that 
 they had been preaching Union doctrines at 
 the school, but Bud did not care a straw for 
 that. He wanted to punish them for making 
 him search for that underground railroad. 
 When the dishes were cleared of everything 
 eatable that had been placed upon them, and 
 the table moved back to its place, Bud stretched 
 his heavy frame on the ground in front of the 
 fire and went to sleep, using his hat and boots 
 for a pillow. 
 
 At an early hour the next morning another 
 serious inroad was made upon the slender
 
 THE STRUGGLE ON THE TOWER. 125 
 
 stock of provisions Bud had frightened out of 
 old Uncle Toby, and then Bud shouldered his 
 long squirrel rifle, which he carried with him 
 wherever he went, and set out for Barrington, 
 not forgetting to assure his wife that she 
 might confidently expect him to bring that 
 new dress when he returned at night. While 
 he is on the way let us go back to the academy 
 and see what is taking place there. 
 
 The sentries who were on duty at daylight 
 took note of the fact that more than half the 
 boys in school arose without waiting for re- 
 veille. Even a stranger would have known 
 that there was something afoot. The students 
 gathered in little groups in the corridors and 
 held mysterious whisperings with one another, 
 or sauntered around with their hands in their 
 pockets, as if in search of something they 
 were in no particular hurry to find ; and while 
 some seemed scarcely able to refrain from 
 laughing outright and dancing hornpipes, the 
 faces of others wore a resolute look that had a 
 volume of meaning in it. Rodney Gray, with 
 the flag of the Confederacy tucked safely un- 
 der the breast of his coat, took a stroll about
 
 126 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 the building and grounds, looking sharply at 
 every one he met, and finally drew off on one 
 side to compare notes with some of his 
 friends. 
 
 " I don't at all like the way the land lies," 
 said he. "If Marcy and his gang haven't 
 something on their minds, they certainly act 
 like it. Graham, you know where the old 
 flag is, do you not ? " 
 
 " I do, for a fact. It is safe under lock and 
 key, and in the keeping of one who knows 
 how to take care of it," answered Dick. 
 
 "I wish I had insisted on seeing it de- 
 stroyed the minute you got hold of it," con- 
 tinued Rodney. "Then I should know that 
 there is no danger of its being hoisted again." 
 
 "I pledge you my word that you will never 
 again set eyes on that flag as long as you re- 
 main at this academy," said Dick earnestly. 
 "That assurance ought to satisfy you." 
 
 "Perhaps it ought, but it doesn't," Rodney 
 took occasion to say to Billings and Cole a 
 few seconds later, when Dick had gone off on 
 some business of his own. "I wish now that 
 some true Southern boy had had pluck
 
 THE STRUGGLE ON THE TOWER. 127 
 
 enough to steal the flag, for then we should 
 know where it is at this moment. Marcy and 
 his friends certainly suspect something ; and 
 if they know that the colors are gone, they 
 take it in an easy way I don't like." 
 
 "Dick has given his word that we shall 
 never see the flag again, and I believe him," 
 said Cole. " He is a good fellow and ought to 
 be one of us." 
 
 " Oh, he will come out all right, and so will 
 Marcy," said Billings confidently. "Wait 
 till this excitement culminates in a fight, and 
 then you will see a big change of opinion 
 among these weak-kneed chaps. They expect 
 a skirmish this morning and are prepared for 
 it. We'll see fun before that new flag of ours 
 goes up on the tower, and I'll bet on it." 
 
 "Boom!" said the gun, whereupon the 
 drums began their racket, and the fifes piped 
 forth the first strains of the morning call. The 
 boys all started on the run for the court (a 
 large glass-covered room in the center of the 
 building which was used for morning inspec- 
 tion, and for drills and parades when stormy 
 weather prevailed), and when the roll had
 
 128 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 been called, the sergeants of the several com- 
 panies reported all present or accounted for. 
 But still there were some boys missing, and no 
 report was made as to their whereabouts. A 
 familiar voice answered to Marcy Gray's 
 name, but it was not Marcy' s voice. Rodney's 
 quick ear detected the cheat, and when ranks 
 were broken he looked everywhere for his 
 cousin, but he was not to be seen. With 
 frantic gestures Rodney summoned a few of 
 his right-hand men to his side and communi- 
 cated his fears to them in hasty, whispered 
 words. 
 
 "Seen Marcy during roll-call?" he in- 
 quired. 
 
 No one had. Didn't he answer to his 
 name ? 
 
 "No, he did not," replied Rodney, hastily 
 scanning the faces of the students that filed by 
 him on their way out of the court. " Some- 
 body answered 'here,' but it wasn't Marcy. 
 The sergeant must know where he is, for he 
 reported the compatfy present or accounted 
 for." 
 
 "Doesn't that go to show that Marcy and
 
 THE STRUGGLE ON THE TOWER. 129 
 
 the chap who answered to his name, as well as 
 the sergeant himself, must be in some sort of 
 a plot?" inquired Billings. 
 
 "I'll bet they are on the tower," declared 
 Rodney. " Let's go up there, quick." 
 
 Rodney's friends did not at first see what 
 Marcy could be doing on the tower, for had 
 not Dick Graham assured them that the flag 
 was all right, and that they would never see it 
 hoisted again? But if Marcy suspected that 
 his Cousin Rodney would make an effort to 
 run up his new Confederate flag in place of 
 the Stars and Stripes, might it not be that he 
 and a chosen squad had taken possession of 
 the tower, intending to hold it so that Rodney 
 could not carry out his design ? If that was 
 the case there was bound to be a struggle 
 more or less desperate, and Rodney's adher- 
 ents would be expected to be on hand ; so 
 they followed him to the top of the tower, but 
 halted when they got there, astonished and 
 appalled at the scene that was presented to 
 their gaze. The cousins were clinched and 
 swaying about in alarming proximity to the 
 low parapet, over which they were in immi- 
 9
 
 130 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 nent danger of falling to the ground ; the sen- 
 try on duty was vainly endeavoring to part 
 them by placing his musket between the 
 struggling boys and crowding them toward 
 the middle of the tower ; and Marcy Gray was 
 clinging to the halliards leading up to the 
 masthead, from which the starry flag was 
 floating in all its glory. It was not the old 
 flag, however, but a newer and better one, 
 whose glossy folds had never before been 
 kissed by the breeze. 
 
 "Stop this ! " shouted Cole, recovering him- 
 self by an effort and darting forward to assist 
 in separating the angry and reckless boys. 
 "Haven't you any sense left? A misstep on 
 the part of one would be the death of both of 
 you. Don't you know that the academy is 
 four stories high, and that the tower runs up 
 one story higher ? Let go, Rodney. Give me 
 those halliards, Marcy." 
 
 " Stand back, both of you ! " cried the lat- 
 ter. "I'd rather go over than give up the 
 halliards. If I had two hands I would very 
 soon end the fracas, but I haven't a friend to 
 hold the ropes while I defend myself."
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR THE FLAG.
 
 THE STRUGGLE ON THE TOWER. 131 
 
 Perhaps he hadn't when he began speaking, 
 hut a second or two later he had plenty of 
 them. Hasty steps sounded in the hall below 
 and came up the ladder, and in less time than 
 it takes to write it the top of the tower was 
 covered with boys. The last one who came up 
 turned about and slammed down the trap-door 
 through which he had gained access to the 
 roof. It was Dixon, the tall student who had 
 compelled the orderly to fold the flag properly, 
 and who afterward told Dick Graham right 
 where to find it. Being a Kentuckian, he was 
 just now "on the fence," and ready to jump 
 either way, according as his State decided to 
 go out of the Union or remain in it. He was 
 opposed to secession, and that being the case, 
 it was strange that he should afterward find 
 himself enrolled among John Morgan's raiders, 
 but that was right where he brought up. Al- 
 though he was a close student, a good soldier, 
 and one of the best fellows that ever lived 
 withal, he was at any time ready for a fight or 
 a frolic, and it didn't make any great differ- 
 ence to him which it was. 
 
 
 
 "Now," said he cheerfully, as he closed the
 
 132 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 trap-door behind him, "we can have a quiet 
 squabble and no one can come up to interfere 
 with us. But look here, boys," he added, 
 stepping to the parapet and looking over. 
 "It's a mighty far ways to the ground five 
 stories or so and if you go down, you will be 
 sure to get hurt. On the whole, I think we 
 had better adjourn for a while." 
 
 Rodney knew just how to take these words. 
 Like that notice in the post-office, " there was 
 reading between the lines." Seeing that he 
 and his friends were taken at disadvantage and 
 greatly outnumbered, he thought it best to 
 handle his cousin with a little less rudeness ; 
 but he would not cease his efforts to pull down 
 that hated flag and hoist his own Stars and 
 Bars until he was compelled to do so. He let 
 go his hold upon his cousin and seized the 
 halliards. 
 
 "Never mind the relationship," he yelled, 
 when Marcy said that if Rodney were not his 
 cousin he would be tempted to thrash him 
 within an inch of his life. "I am more 
 ashamed of i^than you can possibly be. Let 
 go those halliards."
 
 THE STRUGGLE ON THE TOWER. 133 
 
 " Looks as though there might be a slight dif- 
 ference of opinion between the parties most 
 interested, and there's no telling who is Gov- 
 ernor until after the election," said Dixon 
 quietly. " But I respectfully submit that the 
 top of a high tower is no place to settle a dis- 
 pute that may end in a scrimmage. We don't 
 want to begin killing one another until we have 
 to, and there are two ways in which the matter 
 can be arranged : Wait until after dark, and 
 then go silently to the parade and have it over 
 before anybody knows a thing about it, or else 
 kiss and make friends right here." 
 
 Dick Graham, who had thus far kept him- 
 self on the other side of the belfry out of 
 sight, broke into a loud laugh when Dixon, 
 speaking with the utmost gravity, made the 
 last proposition. Dick had a cheery, whole- 
 hearted laugh, and the effect was contagious. 
 The laugh became general and finally such an 
 uproar arose that the students at the foot of 
 the tower, who had been watching proceedings 
 on the top with no little interest and anxiety, 
 pulled off their caps and joined in with cheers 
 and yells, although they had not the faintest
 
 134 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 idea what they were cheering and yelling for. 
 Marcy smiled good-naturedly as he looked 
 into his cousin's face, but Rodney scowled as 
 fiercely as ever. When anything made him 
 angry it took him a long time to get over it. 
 He was almost ready to boil over with rage 
 when he caught his cousin in the act of hoist- 
 ing a brand new flag in place of the one that 
 had been stolen, and if his friends had only 
 been prompt to hasten to his support, he 
 would have torn that flag into fragments in 
 short order. But they had held back and 
 given Marcy' s friends time to come to his 
 assistance, and now there was no hope of vic- 
 tory. This made him believe that the boys 
 who pretended to side with him were cowards, 
 the last one of them. 
 
 " If I will give you the halliards, will you 
 promise not to haul the colors down?" 
 asked Marcy, who had no heart for trouble 
 of this sort. 
 
 " I'll promise nothing," answered Rodney, 
 in savage tones. " You and your gang have 
 the advantage of me this time, but it will not 
 be so when next we meet. Mark that."
 
 THE STRUGGLE ON THE TOWER. 135 
 
 " Hear, hear ! " cried some of the boys. 
 
 " You shut up ! " shouted Rodney. " You 
 fellows are mighty ready to talk, but I would 
 like to see you do something. As for you, 
 Marcy, you are a traitor to your State. Let 
 go those halliards." 
 
 "I'll not doit. Your ancestors and mine 
 have fought under this flag ever since it has 
 been a flag, and if I can help it, you shall 
 not be the first of our name to haul it 
 down." 
 
 " But that flag does not belong up there any 
 longer, and I say, and we all say, that it shall 
 not stay there. Here' s our banner," exclaimed 
 Rodney, and as he spoke he drew the Stars 
 and Bars from under his coat and shook out 
 its folds. " It's a much handsomer flag than 
 yours, and if there's a war coming, as some of 
 you seem to think, it will lead us to victory on 
 every battle-field." 
 
 The sight of the Confederate emblem seemed 
 to arouse a little martial spirit among Rodney 
 Gray's friends. They cheered it lustily, and 
 Rodney began to hope that they would make 
 energetic and determined effort to run it up ;
 
 136 TEUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 but they lacked the courage. The disgusted 
 Rodney told them in language more forcible 
 than elegant that they were nothing but a lot 
 of wind-bags. 
 
 " Sentry, you were stationed here to protect 
 that flag," said Marcy, as he made the halliards 
 fast to a cleat beside the door leading into the 
 belfry. 
 
 "Are you officer of the day?" demanded 
 the guard. " Then you are taking a good 
 deal upon yourself when you presume to tell 
 me what my duties are. Go below, the last 
 one of you, or I will call the corporal." 
 
 "That is what you would have done long 
 ago if you had been a good soldier, but I 
 reckon he's coming without waiting to be 
 called," observed Dixon, as an imperious 
 knock, followed by the command to " open up 
 here, immediately," was heard at the trap- 
 door. "Now, Rodney, don't let's have any 
 more nonsense over the flag." 
 
 " I shall do as I please about that, and you 
 can't help yourself," replied Rodney. "I'll 
 settle the matter with you on the parade to- 
 night, if you feel in the humor. That flag
 
 THE STRUGGLE ON THE TOWER. 137 
 
 shall not float over this school with my con- 
 sent." 
 
 " Then I am sorry to say that it will have to 
 float without your consent. It will be time 
 enough to make war upon it when the North 
 makes war on us ; and you will get plenty of 
 that, I bet you. Now let's have a look at our 
 friend below, who seems to be in something of 
 a hurry to come up, and then we'll go down 
 and attend to the business of the hour, which, 
 I believe, means breakfast." 
 
 So saying Dixon raised the trap-door, reveal- 
 ing the flushed and excited faces of the com- 
 mandant and officer of the day, who were most 
 respectfully saluted when they entered the 
 belfry.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 OLD TOBY'S MONEY. 
 
 * ' "^TOUNG gentlemen, what is the meaning 
 JL of this new outrage ? " demanded the 
 colonel angrily. 
 
 "A tussle over the flag, sir," replied Dixon, 
 standing very stiffly and raising his hand to his 
 cap. " The old one having mysteriously dis- 
 appeared, it became necessary to hoist a new 
 one, sir." 
 
 Of course the commandant knew long before 
 this time that the colors had been taken from 
 his bureau, and he knew, also, that the theft 
 had been committed under cover of that sham 
 fight in the hall ; but he did not say a word 
 about it. To be candid, he did not think it 
 would be good policy to try to sift the matter 
 to the bottom, for fear of implicating some 
 profitable student whom he could not afford to 
 expel. Being proprietor of the school, he de- 
 sired to keep it intact as long as he could. 
 
 138
 
 OLD TOBY'S MONEY. 139 
 
 " And during the tussle two of your number 
 came very near being precipitated to the 
 ground," exclaimed the colonel. " I shall put 
 a stop to this insubordination if I have to or- 
 der the whole school into the guard-house." 
 
 " Very good, sir," answered the boys. 
 
 "Go downstairs, all of you," commanded 
 the officer of the day. "Sergeant Rodney 
 and Private Marcy Gray, report to me at 
 once." 
 
 The students hastened down the ladder, 
 wondering what was to be the result of this 
 " new outrage." When they reached the hall 
 one of them said, in tones loud enough to be 
 heard by all his companions : 
 
 " Graham is a traitor. He stole the old flag, 
 but lie furnished a new one to be hoisted in its 
 place." 
 
 " There's where you are wrong," exclaimed 
 Marcy promptly. "Dick had nothing what- 
 ever to do with it, and when he saw this new 
 flag, he was as much surprised as the rest of 
 you were. I have had it concealed in my room 
 for more than six weeks. I meant to be ready 
 for you, you see."
 
 140 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 "Where did you get it? if that is a fair 
 question." 
 
 "It was made by a young lady who lives 
 in Barrington, but of course you do not 
 expect me to mention her name. She is 
 true to her colors, and that's more than 
 can be said in favor of you fellows who 
 would have hauled it down if you had pos- 
 sessed the pluck." 
 
 " That was well put in, Marcy," said Rod- 
 ney. "There isn't pluck enough among the 
 whole lot of them to fit out a good-sized cat. 
 If the Yankees should come down here, they 
 could drive an army of such fellows with noth- 
 ing but cornstalks for weapons." 
 
 The tone in which these words were uttered 
 set Dick Graham going again, and he started 
 all the rest that is, all except a few who were 
 so angry they couldn't laugh. If that dread 
 functionary, the officer of the day, heard the 
 uproar, he must have thought that the cul- 
 prits who had been commanded to report to 
 him did not take their prospective punishment 
 very much to heart. 
 
 Of course the boys who remained below were
 
 OLD TOBY'S MONEY. 141 
 
 impatient to hear all about the things that had 
 happened in and around the belfry, and to 
 know what was going to be done with Rodney 
 and his cousin. But the last was a point upon 
 which no one could enlighten them, not even 
 the cousins themselves when they came from 
 the presence of the officer of the day, who had 
 given them a stern reprimand and a warning. 
 Being from Louisiana himself, and having of- 
 fered his services to her in case they should be 
 required, he bore down upon Marcy harder 
 than he did upon Rodney, and even went so 
 far as to try and convince the North Carolina 
 boy that the word "traitor," which had so 
 often been applied to him by his schoolmates, 
 was deserved and appropriate. But Marcy 
 could not look at it that way, and even in the 
 presence of the man who could have shut him 
 up in the guard-house, with nothing but bread 
 to eat and water to drink, he did not "haul in 
 his shingle one inch." He never had made 
 any trouble in the school, and, what was more 
 to the point, he did not intend to ; but neither 
 was he going to stand still and permit a lot of 
 rebels to run over him. The colonel had said,
 
 142 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 in so many words, that the flag was to be 
 hoisted every morning until further orders ; 
 and in hoisting a new one in the place of the 
 one that had disappeared, he had not broken 
 any rule. The officer knew that to be true, 
 and as he could not punish one without pun- 
 ishing the other also, he was obliged to let 
 them both go scot-free ; but he detained Rod- 
 ney a moment to whisper a word of caution 
 to him. 
 
 " Don't let this thing be repeated," said he 
 earnestly. "I think just as you do, and if I 
 could have my own way, your flag would now 
 be waving on the tower ; but it is my duty to 
 obey orders, and it is your duty as well. Don't 
 make another move until this State joins the 
 Confederacy, and then there will be no one to 
 oppose you. The hoisting of another flag will 
 break up the school, but that is to be expected. 
 You may go." 
 
 "He said, in effect, that he would keep this 
 thing hanging over our heads to see how we 
 behave in future," said Rodney to Billings 
 and Cole, who Avere in the hall waiting for him. 
 "He is on our side, but not being the head of
 
 OLD TOBY'S MONEY. 143 
 
 the school, he can't back us up as he would 
 like to. But then this will keep," he added, 
 once more shaking out his flag, which he had 
 all the while carried under his arm. " I was 
 afraid the teachers would take it away from 
 me, but as they didn't, we'll hold ourselves in 
 readiness to run it up when the other is ordered 
 down." 
 
 But the incidents of the morning, exciting 
 as they were, did not long monopolize the at- 
 tention of the students, or remain the principal 
 subjects of discussion. They were forgotten 
 the minute the mail was distributed, for of 
 course their papers contained news from all 
 parts, and the boys made it their business to 
 keep posted. There was one thing the papers 
 had already begun to do that excited derisive 
 laughter among all the sensible boys in school. 
 They called dispatches from the North "For- 
 eign Intelligence." But there were some, like 
 Rodney Gray, who could not see that that was 
 anything to laugh at, and following the lead 
 of their favorite journals in politics, they soon 
 learned to follow their vocabulary also, and 
 always spoke of the North as "the United
 
 144 TEUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 States," and of the South as " the Confederate 
 States." 
 
 When the adjutant's call was sounded Marcy 
 Gray fell in with the other members of his 
 company who had been warned for duty, and 
 marched to the parade-ground to go through 
 the ceremony of guard-mounting. Immedi- 
 ately after that he went on post in a remote 
 part of the grounds, a favorite place with the 
 sentries on hot summer days, for the woods on 
 the other side came close up to the fence, and 
 the trees threw a grateful shade over the beat. 
 The only order the boy he relieved had to 
 pass, was a simple as well as a useless one. It 
 was to "keep his eye peeled for that fence 
 and not permit anybody to climb over it"; 
 but Marcy listened as though he meant to obey 
 it. Then the relief passed on, and he was left 
 alone with his thoughts, which, considering 
 the incidents connected with that skirmish on 
 the tower, were not the most agreeable com- 
 pany. 
 
 He had been there perhaps a couple of hours, 
 out of sight of everybody, when he was brought 
 to a stand-still by a rustling among the bushes
 
 OLD T0BY'S MONEY. 145 
 
 on the other side of the fence, and presently 
 discovered old Toby looking at him over a 
 fallen log. A smile of genuine joy and relief 
 overspread the black man's features when he 
 saw who the vigilant sentry was, and he imme- 
 diately got upon his feet and came to the fence. 
 
 "The top of the morning to you, parson," 
 said Marcy pleasantly. " You act as though 
 you might be looking for some one." 
 
 "Sarvent, sah," replied Toby. "I is fora 
 fac' lookin' for you, an' nobody else. I was 
 up to de gate, an' Marse Dick Graham done 
 tol' me you down heah. You-uns gwine get in 
 de biggest sort of trouble, you an' Marse Dick, 
 an' I come heah to tol' you." 
 
 " I assure you we are grateful to you for it," 
 answered the boy, with a smile. "But how 
 are we going to get into trouble ? Talk fast, 
 for I have no business to hold any communica- 
 tion whatever with you." 
 
 "Dat white trash, Bud Gobble; he's de 
 man," began Toby. "You an' Marse Dick 
 done sont him into de woods to look for de 
 way to dat underground railroad 
 
 Marcy leaned upon his musket, threw back 
 
 10
 
 146 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 his head, and laughed heartily but silently, 
 for he did not want to bring the corporal of 
 the guard down to his post until he had heard 
 what the old negro had to tell him. 
 
 "Dat's jes' what you-uns done, Marse 
 Marcy," continued Toby. "An' now dat man 
 gwine tote you bofe out in de woods an' lick 
 you like he was de oberseer an' you two de 
 niggahs." 
 
 When Marcy heard this he did not know 
 whether to laugh again or get angry over it. 
 As time was precious he did neither, but began 
 questioning Toby, who told a story that made 
 the boy open his eyes. When it was concluded 
 the fact was plain to Marcy that somebody had 
 been trying to get him and Dick Graham into 
 trouble ; but who could it be ? He knew that 
 he had been airing his Union sentiments rather 
 freely, but he wasn't aware that he had made 
 any enemies by it. He wished the hour for his 
 relief would hasten its coming, so that he 
 might compare notes with Dick. 
 
 "You think it was the letter Bud received 
 that put all these things into his head, do 
 you?" said he, after a moment's reflection.
 
 OLD TOBY'S MONEY. 147 
 
 "You haven't any idea who wrote the letter 
 or what else there was in it?" 
 
 " No sah, I aint. I wish't I had, so't I could 
 tell you." 
 
 "Bud Goble mentioned Dick's name and 
 mine while he was threatening us, did he?" 
 continued Marcy. 
 
 " He did for a fac'. I didn't hear him, kase 
 I wasn't dar; but Elder Bowen's niggah Sam 
 was in de store when he ? buse de storekeeper, 
 an' he was at de house when he come dar an' 
 'buse de elder for a babolitionist. You-uns 
 want look out, Marse Marcy. Dat man mean 
 mischief, suah's you born." 
 
 " Don't be uneasy," replied Marcy. " If 
 Mr. Goble thinks he is going to catch us nap- 
 ping, he will find himself mistaken. I should 
 like to see him and his friends come to this 
 school and try to carry out their threats. There 
 are plenty of Union boys among the students, 
 parson." 
 
 " I'se suspicioned dat all along, sah, an' I'se 
 mighty proud to hear you say so ; I is for a 
 fac'. Dere's a few of 'em in de settlement, 
 but Fse mighty jubus what will happen to 'em
 
 148 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 when Marse Gobble gets on de war-paf, like 
 he say he gwine do. He say he gwine lick de 
 las' one." 
 
 " Then it is high time he was put under lock 
 and key," said Marcy indignantly. "I hope 
 if he goes to Mr. Bowen's house the elder will 
 turn loose on him with that double-barreled 
 shotgun of his." 
 
 "He say dat's what he allow to do ; but I 
 dunno," replied the old negro, shaking his 
 head and looking at the ground as if he felt 
 that troublous times were coming upon the 
 earth. "It's gwine be mighty hot about yer, 
 an' I dunno what we niggahs gwine do. I 
 wish dem babolitionists up Norf shet dere 
 moufs an' luf we-uns be. Dey gwine get us 
 in a peck of trouble." 
 
 " And such fellows as Bud Goble seem per- 
 fectly willing to help it on," said Marcy, whose 
 indignation increased, the longer he dwelt upon 
 the details of the story Toby had told him. 
 ' ' For two cents I would muster a squad and 
 go down to his shanty and turn him out of 
 doors. We'll do something of the kind if the 
 authorities do not put a curb on him."
 
 MARCY REFUSES TO TAKE CHARGE OF OLD TOBY'S MONEY.
 
 OLD TOBY'S MONEY. 149 
 
 " But dey hire him to do all dis meanness, 
 Marse Marcy," exclaimed the negro. "He 
 'longs to dat committee." 
 
 " Don't you believe any such stuff. It is 
 likely that he is in the pay of that committee, 
 and more shame to them, but he doesn't be- 
 long to it. Now you run away, parson, be- 
 cause 
 
 "Hoi' on, please, sah," interrupted the old 
 man. " I want ax your device. I got a little 
 money not much, but jes' a little" (here he 
 pulled from one of his capacious pockets a 
 stocking filled half-way up the leg with some- 
 thing that must have been heavy, judging by 
 the care he took in handling it), "an' I'm that 
 skeared of havin' it in de house dat I can't 
 sleep. Marse Gobble 'lows to steal bacon an' 
 taters of me now as often as he gets hungry, 
 an' de fust ting I know he ax me for dis 
 money ; den what I gwine do ? Take keer on 
 it for me, please, sah." 
 
 "Why, parson, you're rich," said Marcy, 
 reaching through the fence and "hefting" 
 the stocking in his hand. " Is this all silver ? 
 Where did you get so much ? "
 
 150 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 " I earn it ebery cent, an' sabe it, too," an- 
 swered Toby, with some pride in his tones. 
 "It's all mine, but I 'fraid I aint gwine be 
 'lowed to keep it, now dat de wall comin'." 
 
 " I think myself that it will bring you trou- 
 ble sooner or later. You ought never to have 
 told anybody that you had it." 
 
 "Who ? Me, sah ? I never tol' de fust liv- 
 in' soul in dis world. It got round de quarter 
 some way, I dunno how, an' some of dem fool 
 niggahs had to go an' blab it. Will you take 
 keer on it for ole Toby, sah ? " 
 
 " If I were going to stay in this part of the 
 country I would do it in a minute," answered 
 Marcy. " But I am liable to leave here at an 
 hour's notice, and what should I do with it if 
 I did not have time to take it to your cabin ? 
 Give it to your master, and ask him to take 
 care of it for you." 
 
 "Oh, laws! Marse Riley secession de big- 
 ges' kind," exclaimed Toby, with a gesture 
 which seemed that such a proposition was not 
 to be entertained for a moment. 
 
 " No matter for that," replied Marcy. "He's 
 honest, and what more do you want ? He is a
 
 OLD TOBY'S MONEY. 151 
 
 kind master, the best friend you have in the 
 world, and you don't want to keep anything 
 from him. Come to think of it, I wouldn't 
 take the money, even if I were going to stay 
 here. Go to Mr. Riley with it." 
 
 " You wont take keer on it for de ole nig- 
 gah?" said Toby, who was very much disap- 
 pointed. " Den I reckon I'd best bury it 
 somewhars in de ground." 
 
 " You will surely lose it if you do that," 
 protested Marcy. " Does Bud Goble know 
 you've got it? Well, if he gets after you, 
 he'll thrash you till you will be glad to tell 
 where you have concealed it ; but if you can 
 tell him that it is in Mr. Riley' s hands, he'll 
 not bother you or the money, either. Now 
 run along, parson. I see a uniform over there 
 among the trees, and I shouldn't be surprised 
 if the corporal was inside of it." 
 
 The old negro hastened into the woods, hid- 
 ing the stocking somewhere about his patched 
 clothes as he went, and Marcy brought his 
 piece to "support arms," and paced his beat 
 while waiting for the corporal to come up. It 
 wasn't the corporal, after all, but a private
 
 152 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 like himself, who had come out to study his 
 lesson and roll about on the grass. He did 
 not speak to the sentry, but he was so close to 
 him that Marcy could not have held any more 
 private conversation with old Toby. 
 
 "It is nothing more than I expected," 
 thought Marcy, recalling some of the incidents 
 the negro had described to him. " Union men 
 all over the South have been the victims of hot- 
 headed secessionists, like those who compose 
 that Committee of Safety, and now we're 
 going to have the same sort of work right here 
 in our midst. I don't believe that Bud Goble 
 has organized a company for the purpose of 
 running Northern sympathizers out of the 
 State ; he said that just to frighten Toby and 
 a few others. But if he has, I hope he will 
 bring them up here some night and try to take 
 Dick Graham and me out of the building. I 
 am glad those men had the courage to defy 
 him to his face, and wish I could have seen 
 Bud about the time the elder was walking him 
 out of the yard." 
 
 It would seem from this that old Toby had 
 told Marcy some things we do not know, and
 
 OLD TOBY'S MONEY. 153 
 
 that Bud Goble's plans were not working as 
 smoothly as he could have wished. Let us 
 return to Bud and see where he was and what 
 he had been doing since he took leave of his 
 wife in the morning. 
 
 He left home with a light heart and a 
 pocketful of bullets, and took a short cut 
 through the woods toward Barrington. A few 
 of the ballets were to be expended upon such 
 unwary small game as might chance to come 
 in his way, and with the rest, if circumstances 
 seemed to require it, intended to make a show 
 of being ready for business. He struck a 
 straight course for the little grocery and dry- 
 goods store, at which he had for years been an 
 occasional customer, and thought himself for- 
 tunate to find the proprietor in. He was busy 
 dusting the counter, but he was not alone. 
 There were three or four others present, and 
 when we tell you that they were Bud Goble's 
 intimate friends, you will know just what sort 
 of men they were. 
 
 "Mornin'," said Bud cheerfully. "Fam- 
 blies all well ? Mine's only jest tol'able, thank 
 ye. What's the news ?"
 
 154 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 " There aint none," was the reply from one, 
 to which the others all assented. "Are there 
 any with you?" 
 
 " Well," said Bud slowly, at the same time 
 edging around so that he could keep an eye on 
 the storekeeper and note the effect his words 
 produced upon him. " I don't rightly know 
 what you-uns call news. I reckon you-uns 
 heared that I was workin' for that Committee 
 of Safety, didn't you ? " 
 
 They had heard something of it in a round- 
 about way. Was there any money in the job, 
 and what was he expected to do ? 
 
 "There's a little money into it," answered 
 Bud. " Jest about enough to pay me for my 
 time an' trouble, but no more. I've gin some 
 of them loud-talkin' folks, who think a nig- 
 ger is as good as a white man, notice that 
 they had best cl'ar outen the 'Federacy be- 
 fore they are drove out, an' go up to the 
 United States among them that believe as 
 they do." 
 
 " An' it sarves 'em jest right," observed one 
 of Bud's friends, helping himself to a handful 
 of crackers. "I'd like to see the last one of
 
 OLD TOBY'S MONEY. 155 
 
 'em chucked out bag an' baggage. But s'pose 
 they wont go ?" 
 
 "I'm hopin' they wont, for that's where the 
 fun' 11 come in. That'll give we-uns 
 
 Just at this moment Bud was interrupted by 
 the entrance of "Elder Brown's nigger Sam," 
 who removed his hat respectfully and kept on 
 to the counter where the storekeeper was at 
 work. Bud and his friends listened and heard 
 him say : 
 
 "I aint got no change dis mawnin', Mr. 
 Bailey, but" 
 
 "That's all right, Sam," Mr. Bailey hast- 
 ened to reply. " You are an honest working- 
 man, and your credit is good. What did you 
 say you wanted ? A dress and a pair of shoes 
 for your old woman ? Well, how will these 
 suit you ?" 
 
 "Dog-gone the nigger, why didn't he keep 
 away a little longer?" whispered Bud. 
 " Them's the very things I wanted, an' mebbe 
 ole man Bailey wont want to trust two fellers 
 at once." 
 
 ' ' Then lick him," suggested one of his friends. 
 " He's nobody but a babolitionist, anyway."
 
 156 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 " That's what I allow to do," answered Bud. 
 
 When the negro had received the goods he 
 asked for, he leaned against the counter as if 
 he were in no particular hurry to go away. 
 This suited Bud, who drawled, in lazy tones : 
 
 "Yes; I've warned some of them nigger- 
 lovers that they aint wanted here no longer' n 
 it'll take 'em to get out, but I am hopin' they 
 wont leave, kase that's where the fun' 11 come 
 in. I'm gettin' up a company of minute-men 
 to sorter patrol the keritry hereabouts, an' 
 them that don't do to please us we are goin' to 
 lick, niggers art whites. We jest aint goin' 
 to have no more talkin' agin the 'Federacy, 
 an' them that's for the North kin go up there. 
 That's what the committee says. Will you- 
 uns jine ?" 
 
 Of course they would, to a man, and they 
 would like nothing better. They were ready 
 at any time to prove their devotion to the Con- 
 federacy by thrashing or hanging everybody, 
 white and black, who did not believe that se- 
 cession and disunion were the best things that 
 could happen for the South. Then Bud, see- 
 ing that he had plenty of backing, waxed elo-
 
 OLD TOBY'S MONEY. 157 
 
 quent and made a short but stirring speech. 
 He dwelt upon the wrongs and insults that 
 had been heaped upon the Southern States 
 ever since they had shown themselves foolish 
 enough to join the Union ; denied that a black 
 man was as good as a white gentleman ; loudly 
 proclaimed that all Northerners, as well as 
 those who thought as they did, were cowards ; 
 denounced as traitors all Southern men who 
 did not shout for President Davis, and said 
 they ought and must be whipped out of the 
 country ; and through it all he kept watch of 
 the two at the counter to see what impression 
 his patriotic words made upon them. 
 
 Mr. Bailey was a little man who carried the 
 weight of sixty-five years upon his shoulders, 
 and Bud talked for his especial benefit, hoping 
 to frighten him into compliance with the de- 
 mands he was about to make upon him. Mr. 
 Bailey was opposed to secession, and never 
 hesitated to say so when politics came up for 
 discussion, as they often did among his cus- 
 tomers ; but Bud was sure the old fellow was 
 frightened now. He did not say a word in 
 reply, but used his brush with more energy,
 
 158 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 and now and then rapped the counter with the 
 back of it; and these, Bud thought, were 
 unmistakable signs of timidity or, at least, 
 nervousness. 
 
 As for darkey Sam, there was no doubting 
 the impression Bud's eloquence made upon 
 him. He was greatly terrified, for he remem- 
 bered that his master had once denounced se- 
 cession from the pulpit, and told the members 
 of his congregation just what they might make 
 up their minds to endure if it were consum- 
 mated. Possibly Bud Goble recalled the cir- 
 cumstance, for he looked very hard at Sam 
 while he was talking. As soon as the speech 
 was brought to a close Sam sidled along toward 
 the door, looking into the show-cases as he 
 went, and presently found himself safe on the 
 porch. Then he clapped his hat on his head 
 and started for home post-haste. 
 
 ' ' I reckon he' s gwine tell the parson what yon 
 said," exclaimed one of Bud's friends. "Well, 
 I do think Elder Bowen is one of the danger- 
 ousest men in the whole kentry, an' that 
 he'd oughter be snatched outen that church 
 of his'n before he has time to preach up
 
 OLD TOBY'S MONEY. 159 
 
 any more of them pizen docterings. Warned 
 him yet?" 
 
 "No; but I allow to do it soon's I get 
 through with my business yer," replied Bud, 
 throwing his rifle into the hollow of his arm, 
 and sauntering up to the counter where Mr. 
 Bailey stood. He affected a careless, confident 
 swagger, which was by no means indicative 
 of his feelings. Now that he could look closely 
 at him he found that the storekeeper wasn't 
 frightened enough, and that his speech had 
 not accomplished half as much as he meant to 
 have it. "You don't seem to be right peart 
 this mornin'," he continued. "What's the 
 matter of ye?" 
 
 " Nothing whatever," answered Mr. Bailey. 
 " I' m as gay as a lark. Something wanted ? ' ' 
 
 ' ' I reckon," replied Bud. ' ' I want the same 
 things you gin that there nigger a minute ago 
 a dress an' a pair of shoes for my ole woman." 
 
 "Got any money to pay for 'em ? " 
 
 "Not jest this minute, but I shall have 
 plenty this evening, an' then mebbe I'll " 
 
 "Can't help it," said Mr. Bailey, shaking 
 his head.
 
 160 TIIUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 " Wont you trust me? " 
 
 " No, I wont. I told you so the other day, 
 and when I say a thing of that sort I mean it." 
 
 " Do you give credit to a nigger before my 
 face an' eyes, an' then refuse it to a white gen- 
 tleman?" shouted Bud. "What do you do 
 that-a-way for?" 
 
 ' ' I run my business to suit myself, ' ' answered 
 Mr. Bailey, without the least show of irrita- 
 tion. "If you don't like it, go somewhere 
 else with your trade. I don' t want it, any way. ' ' 
 
 "You think a nigger better' n a white man, 
 do ye?" yelled Bud, growing red in the face. 
 "What do you say to that, boys? Look a 
 here," he added. "Mebbe you don't know 
 who I am. I've got the power an' the will, 
 too, to turn you houseless an' homeless into 
 the street before you see the sun rise agin." 
 
 "I'll make moonlight shine through you 
 while you are doing it," said the old man 
 boldly. 
 
 "You will?" Bud brought his fist down 
 upon the counter with tremendous force, and 
 then he dived down into his pocket and brought 
 out a handful of bullets, which he placed before
 
 OLD TOBY'S MONEY. 161 
 
 the storekeeper. "Do you see them ? I want 
 to warn ye that they was molded a- purpose 
 to be shot into traitors like yerself ; an' I brung 
 'em along to show ye ' 
 
 " Take 'em off the counter. I've just dusted 
 it," interrupted Mr. Bailey; and with the 
 words he hit the bullets a blow with his brush 
 that sent them in every direction. 
 
 Bud Goble was astounded, and so were his 
 friends, who had never dreamed that there was 
 so much spirit in that little, dried-up man. The 
 former looked at him a moment, and then he 
 looked at the bullets that were rolling about 
 on the floor. 
 
 " Come around yer an' pick 'em up, the 
 very last one of 'em, an' say yer sorry ye done 
 it, an' that you'll never do the like agin, or I'll 
 take ye up by the heels an' mop the floor with 
 ye," said Bud, in savage tones. "Comea- 
 lumberin'." 
 
 "Pick 'em up yourself, and next time keep 
 'em off my counter," was Mr. Bailey's an- 
 swer. "What did you put them there for, 
 any way?" 
 
 A glance at his friends showed Bud that they 
 11
 
 162 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 expected Mm to do something, and he dared 
 not hesitate. He handed the nearest man his 
 rifle to hold for him, peeled off his coat, gave 
 a yell that was heard a block away, and was 
 about to jump up and knock his heels together, 
 when he happened to look toward Mr. Bailey, 
 and stopped as if he had been frozen in his 
 tracks. The old man was waiting for him. He 
 leaned against a shelf behind the counter, but 
 he held a cocked revolver in his hand.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 BUD GOBLE'S WATERLOO. 
 
 DID Bud Goble leap over the counter and 
 wrench the threatening weapon from Mr. 
 Bailey's grasp with one hand, while he throt- 
 tled him with the other ? We are obliged to 
 say that he did not. He stood quite still, for 
 something told him it would be dangerous to 
 do anything else. This was the first time his 
 courage had ever been tested, and he was 
 found wanting ; but, strange as it may appear, 
 his friends did not think any the less of him 
 for it. Under like circumstances they would 
 have showed the same reluctance to pass the 
 intervening counter. It was not Bud's lack of 
 courage, but Mr. Bailey's pluck, that excited 
 their ire. The latter had insulted their friend 
 by refusing him the credit he had granted a 
 field-hand, and now he had gone so far as to 
 threaten Bud with a weapon. It opened their 
 
 163
 
 164 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 eyes to the fact that Union men were danger- 
 ous things to have in the community, and that 
 they ought to have been driven out long ago. 
 
 " Sile, you've got the rifle," said Bud, who 
 gained courage when his friends closed about 
 him. "Why don't you draw a bead on him 
 an' make him put that thing down ?" 
 
 "Can't ye see for yourself that he's got the 
 drop?" replied Silas, who thought discretion 
 the better part of valor. 
 
 " Laws-a-massy, what's the matter of ye?" 
 exclaimed Bud. " He dassent shoot." 
 
 "I don't b'lieve in fightin' no man when 
 he's got the drop," repeated Silas. "Put on 
 yer coat an' take yer rifle, Bud. This aint 
 the onliest day there is in the world, an' the 
 next time you ax him for the credit he's 
 willin' to give a nigger, mebbe he'll hearken 
 to ye." 
 
 "Pervided he's able to hearken to any- 
 thing," observed another. "Look a-here, ole 
 man, we-uns don' t want sich chaps as you be 
 in the ken try." 
 
 "I can easily believe that, but 1 don't see 
 what you are going to do about it," answered
 
 BUD GOBLE'S WATERLOO. 165 
 
 the storekeeper, still holding the revolver so 
 that he could cover Bud or any of his friends 
 in a second of time. " I paid for this property 
 with my own money, and I intend to stay here 
 and enjoy it ; and if any of you dispute my 
 right to do so, I'll make it warm for you. 
 Now clear out, the whole of you, and don't 
 ever darken my doors again. I'll not sell you 
 any goods if you come with your pockets full 
 of cash." 
 
 " We-uns will go this time, kase we aint 
 ready to begin business jest yet," said Bud, 
 reaching out his hand for his rifle, but taking 
 good care not to point it in Mr. Bailey's direc- 
 tion. "But we'll come agin when you aint 
 lookin' for us, an' then you will want to watch 
 out. We're goin' to drive all you babolition- 
 ists outen the kentry, as well as them fellers 
 up to the 'cademy ; an' as for that Gray an' 
 Graham boy, who aint no kin if their names 
 is alike, we're goin'- 
 
 Here Bud was interrupted by a poke in the 
 ribs given by one of his companions, who did 
 not think it prudent for him to say anything 
 about his plans, if he had any in mind. But
 
 166 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 lie had already revealed enough to interest 
 Mr. Bailey, who was a firm friend to both the 
 boys whose names had been mentioned. 
 
 "Those fellows never did you any harm," 
 said he. 
 
 " Didn't, hey ? " vociferated Bud. 
 
 "No, they didn't. They bought quinine 
 right here in this store to cure your wife and 
 children of the ague when you did not have a 
 cent or credit, either ; and they paid the doc- 
 tor to go and see them when you were loafing 
 around, too lazy to do anything but eat. If 
 you fool with those students you'll get some- 
 thing you wont like. You'll have them all on 
 you." 
 
 " I aint speakin' about them things,' ' shout- 
 ed Bud, as soon as he could frame a suitable 
 reply. " They're for the Union, dog-gone 'em. 
 An' didn't they go an' offer me money to look 
 for that there underground ' ' 
 
 "Haw, haw!" roared the storekeeper, at 
 the same time raising the muzzle of his re- 
 volver to a level with Bud's head, when the 
 latter, almost overcome with rage, made a mo- 
 tion as if he were about to draw his rifle to his
 
 BUD GOBLE'S WATERLOO. 167 
 
 shoulder. " That underground railroad busi- 
 ness was a joke on you, wasn't it ? But you 
 don't want to fool with Rodney and Dick, for 
 if you do you will get the worst of it. The 
 students will all help them. Besides, Rodney 
 is as wild a secessionist as you ever dare be." 
 
 '"Taint so," exclaimed Bud. "I know 
 better." 
 
 " And Dick Graham stands ready to go with 
 his State the minute she pulls down the old 
 flag and runs up the new one," continued Mr. 
 Bailey. "He said so the other day when he 
 came in here for a pint of goobers."* 
 
 " I tell ye it aint so," repeated Bud confi- 
 dently. " Bern' one of the most prominent 
 and respected citizens of Barrington, I got a 
 letter tellin' me all about them chaps an' the 
 docterings they're preachin' up. I was told 
 that the committee wants me to 'tend to their 
 cases, an' I'm goin' to do it ; an' to your case 
 too. Hear me, don't you ? " 
 
 "Who wrote that letter?" inquired the 
 storekeeper, who did not think it necessary to 
 answer the question. 
 
 * Peanuts.
 
 168 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 "I don't know. There wasn't no name 
 hitched to it." 
 
 "Then the writer was a coward," said Mr. 
 Bailey, in a tone of contempt, " and you ought 
 not to pay the least attention to it. Some- 
 body wants to bring those boys into trouble, 
 and hopes to use you as a tool. If you will 
 take advice you will mind your own business 
 and let those students alone. Look here, 
 Goble," he added suddenly, " if this State 
 goes out of the Union, will you go with her ? " 
 
 "You jest bet I will. I'll go whether she 
 does or not." 
 
 "Will you join the army and fight for 
 her?" 
 
 "Sartingly." 
 
 "Well, we'll see who will go first you 
 or I." 
 
 " You ? Why, dog-gone it. you're for the 
 Union." 
 
 "Of course I am; always was and always 
 shall be; but as I can't control my State, I 
 shall have to do as she does. So you see, when 
 you tried to gouge me out of a pair of shoes 
 and a dress awhile ago, you tried to rob as good
 
 BUD GOBLE'S WATERLOO. 169 
 
 a friend of the South as you are yourself. I'll 
 make it my business to see some of that com- 
 mittee and find out whether or not they up- 
 hold you in such doings. Now, clear out and 
 don't bother me again." 
 
 Almost involuntarily Bud Goble and his 
 friends turned toward the door, and Mr. Bailey 
 followed them, revolver in hand, to make sure 
 that they went without trying to "get the 
 drop " on him. As they faced about, "Elder 
 Bo wen's nigger Sam " glided across the porch, 
 but they did not see him. 
 
 We said the negro, who was alarmed by Bud 
 Goble' s fiery speech, started for home, and so 
 he did ; but he had not made many steps be- 
 fore he heard Goble' s voice pitched in a high 
 key, and prompted by curiosity, and a desire 
 to learn something of the nature and purposes 
 of that company of minute-men of whom Bud 
 had spoken, he came back and took his stand 
 beside the open door out of sight. The slaves 
 were all eavesdroppers in those days, and if 
 anything escaped their notice and hearing, it 
 was not their fault. They were better posted 
 and took a deeper interest in the affairs of the
 
 170 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 day than many people supposed. The North- 
 ern papers, which now and then in some myste- 
 rious way came into their hands, just as the 
 Tribune came into'Uncle Toby's hands, told 
 them the truth ; while the white people around 
 them pinned their faith to the falsehoods dis- 
 seminated by the secession press. Sam stood 
 on the porch and heard all that was said and 
 saw all that was done in the store ; and when 
 Mr. Bailey brought the interview to a close by 
 ordering Bud and his companions to "clear 
 out," Sam made haste to get away before they 
 caught sight of him. This time he went home 
 and hunted up his master, who was at work in 
 the garden. 
 
 Bud Goble had encountered an obstacle 
 where he had least expected to find it ; but 
 although he was surprised, and a little disheart- 
 ened, he would not admit that he was beaten. 
 All Union men could not be as plucky as Mr. 
 Bailey was, and Bud determined to try his 
 plan again as soon as he could rid himself of 
 the company of his four friends. He had no 
 use for them just now, and if he succeeded in 
 frightening Mr. Bowen into giving him a ham
 
 BTJD GOBLE'S WATERLOO. 171 
 
 or a side of bacon, he did not want to be 
 obliged to share it with any one. 
 
 "That's a trifle the beatenest thing I 
 ever heared of," declared Silas, who was 
 the first to speak. "I do think in my soul 
 that that ole man oughter be dealt with. 
 When does that company of your'n meet, 
 Bud, an' how are we-uns goin' to get into 
 it?" 
 
 " We aint met nowheres yet, an' to tell you 
 the truth, I aint got the 'rangements fairly 
 goin'," was the answer. "What I meant to 
 say was, that I have been thinkin' of sich a 
 thing ; an' you can see from what happened 
 in the store that a company of that sort is 
 needed, can't you? S'pose you-uns talk it 
 up. 'Pears like we'd oughter get twenty fel- 
 lers of our way of thinkin' together, an' if we 
 can, jest see how much help we-uns could be 
 to that committee of our'n. Tell 'em what 
 you've seen an' heared this mornin', that the 
 kentry is full of sich men as Bailey is, an' that 
 we aint goin' to have 'em here no longer. 
 Now, where' 11 1 find you-uns agin in about an 
 hour so't we can talk it over ? I'll be back di-
 
 172 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 rectly I 'tend to a little private business I've 
 got on hand." 
 
 The place of meeting having been agreed 
 upon, Bud hastened away, confidently expect- 
 ing to be successful in the attempt he was about 
 to make to frighten a supply of provisions out 
 of the Methodist minister. Elder Bo wen did 
 not believe in fighting, and of course it would 
 be easy to make him open his smoke-house as 
 often as he chose to demand it. Besides, Bud 
 was made happy by a brilliant idea that sud- 
 denly popped into his mind ; and in order that 
 there might be no hitch in it at the critical 
 time, he turned toward the post-office, hoping 
 that he might find Mr. Riley there. He was 
 not disappointed. Mr. Riley and a good many 
 other planters about Barrington had taken to 
 loitering around the telegraph and post offices 
 during the last few months, and were generally 
 to be met there or in the immediate neighbor- 
 hood. 
 
 " Well, Goble, what is the news to-day ? " he 
 inquired, as Bud drew near and intimated by a 
 wink that he would like to see him privately. 
 There had been a time when Mr. Riley would
 
 BUD GOBLE'S WATERLOO. 173 
 
 have resented anything like familiarity on the 
 part of such a man as Goble, but now that he 
 wanted to use him, he was forced to treat him 
 with a faint show of friendship. 
 
 "I don't get a bit of news of no kind," an- 
 swered Bud, in a whining tone. '"Pears like 
 the babolitionists all shet up their mouths 
 soon's I come around. I've warned a few of 
 'em, but I aint seen no money for my trouble 
 yet. My time is wuth a dollar and a quarter a 
 day, an' when I give it all, it looks to me as 
 though I oughter be paid for it ; don't it to 
 you?" 
 
 "Certainly," replied the planter, putting 
 his hand into his pocket. "Our committee 
 hasn't been organized long enough to get into 
 working order yet, and so I shall have to give 
 you something out of my own funds. How 
 will that do to begin on ?" he added, slipping 
 a few pieces of silver into Bud's ready palm. 
 "Go ahead with your work and come tome 
 when you want anything. Whom have you 
 warned?" 
 
 "Sarvent, sah," said Bud, pocketing the 
 money. "Thank you very kindly, sah. Well,
 
 174 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 I've warned that there ole man Bailey, for one. 
 He's pizen." 
 
 "Let him alone," said Mr. Riley, rather 
 shortly. 
 
 "Why, he's Union the wnst kind," ex- 
 claimed Bud, who was astonished as well as 
 disappointed. He had hoped that the planter 
 would tell him to drive the storekeeper out of 
 town, and so furnish him and his friends with 
 an excuse for any act of ruffianism they might 
 be disposed to indulge in. " He'd oughter be 
 whopped, ole man Bailey had, an' drove out 
 before he has any more time to preach his doc- 
 terings up amongst the niggers." 
 
 "You let him alone," repeated Mr. 
 Riley. "He will come out all right. When 
 the first gun is fired he will be as warm a 
 secessionist as I am. Who else have you 
 warned?" 
 
 Bud mentioned the names of three or four 
 suspected men whom he had neither seen nor 
 heard of for a week or more, and finally said 
 that he was on his way to Elder Bowen's to 
 tell him that he could not get out of the coun- 
 try any too quick.
 
 BUD GOBLE'S WATERLOO. 175 
 
 "I don't care what you say or do to that 
 man," exclaimed Mr. Biley, who grew angry 
 at the sound of the minister's name. "He is 
 dangerous, and always has been. He takes 
 abolition papers. I don' t know how they come 
 into his hands, the mail being so closely 
 watched, but he gets them, and I suspect gives 
 them to Toby to read. If I could prove it 
 on him, I would have him whipped this very 
 night." 
 
 Bud Goble opened his lips to tell Mr. Riley 
 that he could furnish him with all the evidence 
 he needed, but suddenly remembered that that 
 was something he intended to use for his own 
 benefit. That was what he was holding over 
 Toby like an overseer's whip, ready to fall 
 whenever he didn't hoe his row right, and it 
 was no part of his plan to expose the old negro 
 unless the latter declined to keep him in pro- 
 visions, or refused to surrender his money on 
 demand. So he said nothing about finding 
 that copy of the Tribune in Toby's cabin the 
 night before, but came at once to the point he 
 desired to reach. 
 
 " Then there's them boys up to the 'cademy,"
 
 176 TllDE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 said he. "They need lookin' after, some of 
 'em, the very wust kind." 
 
 "I've heard that the school of which we have 
 been so proud is a hotbed of treason, but I can 
 hardly believe it," answered Mr. Riley. " No 
 doubt there is strong love for the old Union 
 there, as there is here in Barrington ; but when 
 the time for action comes, I think the majority 
 of those boys will go with their States." 
 
 "But there's that Gray an' Graham boy," 
 continued Goble ; and it made him angry to 
 notice that Mr. Riley could scarcely refrain from 
 laughing outright. "If they was poor boys 
 do you reckon they'd be allowed to hold out 
 agin the 'Federacy like they do, an' talk agin 
 it? I'll bet they wouldn't. But they are all 
 rich. I reckon them boys' paps is wnth a 
 power of money an' niggers." 
 
 "I don't know anything about Graham's 
 family, but Rodney's is wealthy. His father 
 has six hundred blacks on one plantation. You 
 want revenge, don't you? Well, I don't see 
 how you are going to get it, for if you fool with 
 any of the students the others will jump on 
 you, sure."
 
 BUD COBLE'S WATERLOO. 177 
 
 " Not if we whop the traitors," exclaimed 
 Bud. 
 
 * ' Yes, they will. They are as clannish as a 
 drove of wild hogs, and if one squeals the 
 others will rush to his assistance. You had 
 better take my advice and pocket the insult 
 Rodney and Dick put upon you when they sent 
 you to look for that underground railroad. 
 Now I think I will go to the telegraph office 
 and see if there is anything new from Mont- 
 gomery. Keep us posted, for we like to know 
 who our enemies are." 
 
 "You bet I will," soliloquized Bud as he 
 turned away, jingling the silver pieces in his 
 pocket as he went. "But I won't let them two 
 boys get off easy, nuther. Six hundred nig- 
 gers on one plantation. They're wuth eight 
 hundred dollars, I reckon, take 'em big an' 
 little, an' that would make 'em all wuth 
 
 When Bud reached this point he stopped and 
 shook his head. Finding the value of six hun- 
 dred slaves at an average price of eight hun- 
 dred dollars was too much arithmetic for him. 
 He was obliged to content himself with the 
 knowledge that Rodney's father was worth a 
 
 12
 
 178 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 good deal of money, and that Rodney would 
 give five hundred and perhaps a thousand dol- 
 lars, rather than be whipped as if he were a 
 black boy. A Southern youngster, no matter 
 how disobedient and unruly he might be, con- 
 sidered it a disgrace to be whipped, and the 
 school-teacher who ventured upon corporal 
 punishment was likely to get himself into seri- 
 ous difficulty. While Bud was turning these 
 things over in his mind, he came within sight of 
 Elder Bo wen's house. 
 
 " Riley don't care what I do to this chap," 
 said he to himself. "That means that I can be 
 as sassy as I please, an' mebbe I'll make up my 
 mind that I'd better lick him before I leave. 
 I'll wait an' see how he acts when I ax him for 
 some of the things he's got into his smoke- 
 house. Tell your moster I want to see him di- 
 rectly," he added, addressing a little black boy 
 who was playing at the foot of the steps that 
 led to the porch. 
 
 The pickaninny disappeared, but in a few 
 minutes returned with the announcement 
 
 " Marse Joe workrn' in de ga'den, an' he say 
 if you want see him you best come wha' he is."
 
 BUD GOJJLE'S WATERLOO. 179 
 
 "That's an insult that I won't put up with 
 from no babolitionist," declared Bud, who was 
 about as angry as he could hold ; and one would 
 have thought, from the vicious way he settled 
 his rifle on his shoulder and crunched the gravel 
 under his feet as he strode around the house, 
 that he would surely do something when he 
 found himself face to face with the object of 
 his wrath. 
 
 The first thing that attracted the visitor's at- 
 tention was a very broad back covered by a 
 clean white shirt (Bud detested "boiled" 
 shirts, for he had never had one of his own), 
 and when the owner of that back straightened 
 up and turned toward him, Bud was confronted 
 by a man who stood six feet four without his 
 boots, and was built in proportion. He had 
 tucked up his sleeves to keep them from being 
 soiled, and the white forearms thus exposed 
 were as muscular as a blacksmith's. He had 
 been waiting for this visit, for his boy Sam, 
 who came from town a quarter of an hour be- 
 fore, had told him just what happened in the 
 store, and warned his master that Bud had said 
 in his speech that he was on the war-path, and
 
 180 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 meant to drive every abolitionist out of the 
 country before he quit. But for all that the 
 minister greeted Bud pleasantly. 
 
 "Well, neighbor Goble, what do you find to 
 shoot this time of year?" said he. "It is 
 rather early for young squirrels, and turkey 
 and deer will not be on the game list before 
 September." 
 
 "I aint a-lookin' for little game," answered 
 Bud gruffly. "I'm huntin' for babolitionists, 
 an' you're one of 'em." 
 
 "Well, now that you have found me wliat 
 do you purpose doing about it ? " inquired the 
 stalwart minister, smiling at Bud in a way the 
 latter did not like. Perhaps it wasn't going 
 to be so easy, after all, to frighten him into 
 handing over a ham or a side of meat. 
 
 " I came here purposely to tell you that you 
 an' your kind aint wanted round yer no 
 longer," said Bud. "You take babolition 
 papers an' give 'em to old Toby to read." 
 
 " Can you prove that assertion ? " 
 
 " Yes, I can. I seen one of 'em in his shanty 
 last night, an 1 had it into my hand " 
 
 " But can you prove that I gave it to him ? "
 
 BUD GOBLE'S WATERLOO. 181 
 
 "Yes, I can," repeated End, growing bolder 
 by degrees. ' ' Everybody in town says it' s you 
 who spreads them papers around, kase there's 
 no one else who is low enough down to 'sociate 
 with niggers." 
 
 "That will do. I have heard enough of such 
 talk." 
 
 "But I aint got half through," protested 
 Bud. "One man told me, not more'n half an 
 hour ago, that if he could prove it was you who 
 give Toby them papers, he would have you 
 licked before sun-up." 
 
 " Ah ! And what would / do ? " 
 
 "What would you do?" echoed Bud, who 
 did not quite catch the minister's meaning. 
 "You'd have to cl'ar yourself or take 
 another an' wuss lickin'. Go up to the 
 United States where you b'long. You aint 
 wanted here." 
 
 "You don't understand me. If the gentle- 
 man of whom you spoke should attempt any 
 violence, would I submit to it without trying 
 to defend myself ? I don't think I should. I 
 have a double gun with fifteen buckshot in 
 each barrel, and you may say you have been
 
 182 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 assured by me that I will shoot the first man 
 who puts a hostile foot on my gallery.* Now 
 go." 
 
 4 'Then you' 11 shoot" 
 
 " Go ! " interrupted the minister ; and Bud 
 ought to have been warned by the flash in his 
 eye that he was thoroughly in earnest. 
 
 " The best men in town say 
 
 "Will you go peaceably," said the minis- 
 ter, pointing toward the gate, "or shall I be 
 obliged to pick you up and throw you off my 
 grounds ? " 
 
 He took a single step forward as he spoke, 
 and in an instant Bud Goble jumped back and 
 swung his rifle from his shoulder ; but before 
 he could think twice his antagonist, whose 
 agility equaled his strength, was upon him, the 
 weapon was twisted from his grasp, and Bud 
 buried his face in the soft earth of a flower-bed. 
 But the minister was not yet done with him. 
 Holding the rifle in one hand he seized Bud by 
 the neck with the other, jerked him to his feet, 
 and walked him out of the gate and into the 
 road at double time. Then he fired the rifle 
 * Porch.
 
 BUD GOBLE'S WATERLOO. 183 
 
 into the air and leaned the weapon against the 
 fence. 
 
 "I think this ends our interview, neighbor 
 Goble," said he, without the least sign of anger 
 or excitement, "and I will bid you good-day. 
 The next time you visit me come in a proper 
 frame of mind, and I will receive you accord- 
 ingly ; but please do not bring me any more 
 threatening messages." 
 
 "This beats me," soliloquized Goble, who, 
 after seeing the minister disappear around the 
 corner oi the house, felt of the back of his 
 neck to make sure that the strong fingers 
 which grasped it a moment before had not left 
 any holes there. "Who'd a thought that a 
 preacher could a had sich an amazin' grip ? I 
 wasn't no more'n a babby in his hands. Now 
 what's to be done ? Be I goin' to put up with 
 sich an insult ? I guess I'd best set down yer 
 an' think about it." 
 
 Bud Goble was a thoroughly subdued man 
 now. Th6 events of the morning had satisfied 
 him that open warfare was not his best hold, 
 and that if he hoped to accomplish anything 
 and retain the confidence of the committee, he
 
 184 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 must make a decided change in his tactics. He 
 must work in secret and under cover of the 
 darkness, and now when it was too late, he 
 wished he had adopted that method at the out- 
 set. If he had he wouldn't have lost his repu- 
 r tation. There were two men in the neighbor- 
 hood he was quite sure he would not trouble 
 again unless he had a strong force at his back, 
 for they had threatened to shoot, and Bud be- 
 lieved they were just reckless enough to do it. 
 When he reached this point in his medita- 
 tions he chanced to look up and saw old Uncle 
 Toby emerge from the thicket on one side of the 
 road, take a few long, rapid steps, and disap- 
 pear among the bushes on the other side. He 
 held something tightly clasped under his coat, 
 and seemed so anxious to avoid observation 
 that Bad's suspicions were aroused at once.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE COMMITTEE AT WORK. 
 
 ELDER BO WEN'S negro boy Sam, who 
 was working among the flower-beds 
 with his master, sought safety in flight when 
 Bud Goble's coming was announced, and, 
 standing concealed behind an evergreen in the 
 garden, saw and heard all that passed between 
 the minister and the man who had come there 
 to browbeat him. When Bud was ejected 
 from the grounds Sam came out from his hid- 
 ing-place grinning broadly. 
 
 "Marse Joe," said he, as soon as he could 
 make himself understood, "dat beats all de 
 sermons you ever preached all holler. It does 
 so. But, Marse Joe, I 'fraid Marse Gobble 
 gwine make ole Toby trouble all along of dat 
 babolition paper. De nex' time he go dar he 
 ax Uncle Toby whar he got dat money of his'n 
 stowed away. Dat's what I 'fraid of, sah.' 
 
 185
 
 186 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 "I didn't think of that, and perhaps it 
 would be well for you to run over and put 
 Toby on his guard," replied Mr. Bo wen. 
 "Neighbor Goble is on the war-path sure 
 enough, and he would just as soon rob that 
 old negro as to rob a white man. Tell Toby 
 to give the money into his master's keeping." 
 
 Sam obeyed instructions, but we have seen 
 that the suspicious old Toby was not willing 
 to listen to advice. He was terribly alarmed 
 when Sam told him what Bud had been about 
 that morning, and taking advantage of his 
 master's absence, and of his own position as 
 helper about the stables, he dug up his money 
 which he had buried before daylight, and 
 posted off to the academy to have a talk with 
 one of the Gray boys. He kept to the fields 
 and gave the roads a wide berth ; but he was 
 obliged to cross one highway during his jour- 
 ney, and that was the time Bud Goble saw 
 him. The old negro's actions excited Bud's 
 interest as well as his suspicions, and having 
 nothing else to do, he rose from his log and 
 followed him. 
 
 And right here it is necessary to make a
 
 THE COMMITTEE AT WORK. 187 
 
 short explanation in order that you may 
 understand what happened afterward. Rod- 
 ney and Marcy Gray had been studying at the 
 academy for almost four years, and although 
 they were popular among all classes in and 
 around Barrington, there were some, whites as 
 well as blacks, who invariably got them mixed 
 up, and never could tell one from the other 
 unless they chanced to meet them in company. 
 It was Rodney, the rebel, who helped Bud 
 Goble when his family were all prostrated with 
 the ague, and offered him. a reward for finding 
 that underground railroad, but it was Marcy, 
 the Union boy, who picked the banjo with su- 
 perior skill, danced and sung his way into the 
 affections of the plantation darkies, and saved 
 old Toby's melon-patch from being devastated 
 by the students. These two had eaten a good 
 many of old Toby's melons, and more than one 
 Thanksgiving turkey which graced his table 
 had been bought with their money. Believing 
 from what Sam told him that his hard-earned 
 wealth was not safe as long as he knew where 
 it was, Toby decided that one of these two 
 boys, the one he happened to find first, should
 
 188 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 be its custodian. Dick Graham, who was on 
 duty at the front gate, told him where Marcy 
 was, and the old man lost no time in making 
 his way through the woods to his friend's 
 beat. But Marcy declined to accept the 
 responsibility, as we have seen, and so Toby 
 took the money back and hid it in the ground 
 whence he had taken it. He would have been 
 better off almost two hundred dollars better 
 off if he had done as Mr. Bowen and Marcy 
 advised him to do ; for Bud Goble dogged his 
 footsteps every rod of the way, and Toby never 
 once suspected it. Bud did not hear what 
 passed between Toby and the sentry he dared 
 not go close enough for that ; but he saw the 
 stocking that went back and forth between 
 the iron pickets of the fence, and he was in 
 plain sight of the negro when he returned it to 
 its hiding-place. 
 
 Here again Toby made a great mistake. If 
 he had concealed the money under his cabin, 
 within hearing and scenting distance of the 
 coon dogs that were so numerous in the quar- 
 ter, it would have been comparatively safe ; 
 but he was so very much averse to having it
 
 THE COMMITTEE AT WOKK. 189 
 
 around him that he took it behind his garden- 
 patch, rolled a decayed log from its bed and 
 buried it there, covering it with his hands, 
 and rolling the log back to its place. 
 
 " Dar now," said Toby, loud enough to be 
 overheard by the man who was crouching in 
 the bushes not more than twenty yards away. 
 " Nuffin can't find it dar 'ceptin' de hogs, an' 
 dey can't eat it." 
 
 "That's a fact," soliloquized Goble, chuck- 
 ling to himself. "But a two-legged hog like 
 me can eat an' wear the things it will buy. 
 Who keers for preachers an' storekeepers 
 now ? 'Pears like this mornin's work is goin' 
 to turn out all right after all ; don't it to 
 you?" 
 
 Through the rails of the fence Bud Goble 
 watched Toby until he disappeared in the 
 quarter, and then he crept up to the log. In 
 ten minutes more old Toby's money was tight- 
 ly buttoned under the breast of his coat, and 
 Bud, highly elated with the result of his morn- 
 ing's labor was taking long strides toward his 
 cabin. 
 
 "laint got the dress an' shoes I promised
 
 190 TKUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 to have for ye when I come home," said Bud, 
 when he burst in upon his wife, whom he found 
 engaged in her usual occupation sitting in 
 front of the fire with her elbows upon her 
 knees and a cob pipe between her teeth. " Old 
 man Bailey wouldn't trust me, but Toby wasn't 
 so perticular. He hid this here stockin' under 
 a log, an' bein' af eared that the hogs might 
 come along an' root it up an' carry it away, I 
 jest thought I'd take keer on it for him," 
 added Bud, laughing loudly at his own wit. 
 
 The woman's eyes glistened as she thrust 
 her bony arm into the stocking and brought 
 out a handful of shining silver coin. She 
 would have her dress now in spite of old man 
 Bailey ; and as for Toby she gave scarcely a 
 thought to the consternation and alarm that 
 would almost overwhelm him when he discov- 
 ered his loss, for a field hand had no business 
 to have a stocking half-full of money, when 
 white folks did not know where their next 
 meal was coming from. Her only fear was 
 that Mr. Riley might somehow learn that Bud 
 had taken the money, and then there would 
 be trouble.
 
 THE COMMITTEE AT WORK. 191 
 
 " You must look out for that yourself," 
 Bud declared. "I've done my part, an' 
 if you can't hide the stockin' where no- 
 body can't find it, an' keep a still tongue 
 in your head about our havin' it, yon aint 
 the woman I take you for. Now give me 
 what you think your dress' 11 cost, an' a trifle 
 more to put in bacon an' meal, an' I'll go an' 
 get 'em." 
 
 His wife complying with the request, Bud 
 hung his rifle upon its hooks over the fire- 
 place and posted off to Barrington, where a 
 surprise, that was not altogether an agreeable 
 one, awaited him. He could not find any of 
 his friends, but every one on the street, with 
 whom he exchanged a word of greeting, seemed 
 to know all about the adventures he had had 
 that day. Bud didn't mind being told that he 
 had permitted a little old man, who could not 
 stand against a twelve-year-old boy, to scare 
 him with a revolver, for he was not the only 
 one in that scrape. Four other men had stood 
 on the outside of the counter while Mr. Bailey 
 talked to them as he pleased ; but when folks 
 came to joke him for being walked out of the
 
 192 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 yard by a preacher, it was more than he could 
 endure. 
 
 " Jest let him get the grip on you that he 
 got on me, an' he'll make the best among ye 
 walk turkey," Bud retorted sharply. "There 
 aint a man in town that's got any business 
 with him, if he is a preacher. But let me tell 
 ye : He aint by no means beared the last of 
 me yet." 
 
 Bud saw signs of suppressed excitement on 
 all sides and in the face of every man he met ; 
 but, conceited as he was, he could not believe 
 that the excitement was occasioned by the in- 
 cidents of which he had been the hero. They 
 might have had something to do with the grave 
 look he saw on Mr. Riley's face as the latter 
 hurried by him without speaking, but Bud be- 
 lieved that there was something else in the 
 wind of which he had not heard. It had such 
 a depressing effect upon him that he transacted 
 his business with as little delay as possible and 
 went home. 
 
 "There's goin' to be doin's of some sort or 
 another about yer, an' before long, too," said 
 he, as he handed his wife the articles he had
 
 THE COMMITTEE AT WORK. 193 
 
 bought for her, and deposited the bag contain- 
 ing the meal and bacon on the floor. " I don't 
 know what's up, but Riley an' among 'em look 
 sorter uneasy. Mebbe that outbreak old 
 woman, that's what's the matter, sure's you're 
 born. That outbreak's comin', an' who knows 
 but it'll be here this very night?" 
 
 "Good lands save us!" exclaimed Mrs. 
 Goble, in alarm ; and even her husband looked 
 as though he would have liked to go to a little 
 safer place than Barrington was, if he had only 
 known where to find it. 
 
 " Yes, sir, that's jest what's the matter," re- 
 peated Bud. " Riley' s somehow got wind of 
 it, an' that's what made him look so glum. 
 Why didn't he stop an' tell me all about it, I'd 
 like to know. I'll jest tell him he mustn't do 
 that a- way no more, kase it aint right long's I 
 am workin' for that committee. Say," he con- 
 tinued, lowering his voice almost to a whisper. 
 " When John Brown made that raid of his'n, 
 Barrington was one of the places that was 
 marked on his map to be burned, kase there 
 was more niggers here than white folks. 
 'Member it, don't you ? " 
 
 13
 
 194 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 "Good lands!" cried Mrs. Goble, who, if 
 she had ever before heard of the circumstance, 
 had quite forgotten all about it. 
 
 "That's what Riley says," continued Bud, 
 "an' who knows but the thing we've been 
 a-dreadin' is comin' now? They do say that 
 there's guns an' things hid somewheres in the 
 woods " 
 
 "You don't tell me!" 
 
 "It's jest what I do tell ye, kase I've heard 
 it often. Of course the niggers knows where 
 them guns is, an' when they an' the baboli- 
 tionists like Elder Bo wen get ready, they'll 
 fetch 'em out an' go for us." 
 
 In a very short time Bud succeeded in talk- 
 ing himself into a most uncomfortable frame 
 of mind. He did not feel quite safe at home, 
 for his cabin was exposed, being fully a quarter 
 of a mile from the nearest house, and he was 
 afraid to go into town. His utter ignorance of 
 the nature of the danger that threatened him 
 made the situation hard to bear. As for fight- 
 ing in case he were attacked that was some- 
 thing Bud had not yet thought of. He would 
 have preferred to run. His wife was so badly
 
 THE COMMITTEE AT WORK. 195 
 
 frightened that she could scarcely cook the 
 dinner, and Bud could eat but little of it after 
 it was cooked ; but he smoked more than his 
 share of tobacco, managed to run a few extra 
 bullets for his rifle, and to bring in a supply of 
 light- wood sufficient to keep a bright fire burn- 
 ing during the night. 
 
 As the sun sank out of sight behind the trees, 
 and daylight faded and darkness came on, 
 Bud's fears grew upon him. He dared not 
 stay in the cabin for fear that some evil-mind- 
 ed Union man might slip up behind it, and 
 shoot him through some of the cracks where 
 the chinking had fallen out, so he drew one of 
 the rickety chairs in front of the door and sat 
 upon it, with his rifle for company. That was 
 a little better than being cooped up within 
 doors, but the unwonted silence that brooded 
 over the surrounding woods distressed him. 
 
 " Durin' all the years we've lived yer I never 
 seen the road so deserted as it is to-night," he 
 said, in a whisper to his wife. "There's al- 
 ways somebody goin' one way or t'other, but 
 now they seem to have holed up." 
 
 "Mebbe they're feared the outbreak' 11
 
 196 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 ketch 'em," Mrs. Goble suggested. " What 
 does it look like, any way ? " 
 
 "Now, listen at her!" exclaimed Bud, in 
 accents of disgust. ' ' ' Tain' t a hant that' 11 run 
 after you, all dressed up in white, an' retch 
 out its hands to grab ' 
 
 " Don't, don't ! " cried his wife, shuddering 
 perceptibly and covering her eyes with her 
 hands to shut out the picture that Bud's 
 words had conjured up. "Don't talk that 
 a- way." 
 
 " Well, then, an outbreak is a-a-thing where 
 the niggers an' babolitionists run around, 
 whoopin' an' yellin' like they was wild Injuns, 
 shootin' the men an' scalpin' the women folks 
 an' burnin' an' stealin'," said Bud. "That's 
 what an outbreak is, an' you can see for your- 
 self what will happen to us if one of 'em gets 
 loose in Barrington. I wish't somebody would 
 come along from over town so't I could ax 
 him how things is goin' there." 
 
 But no one came, and for long hours Bud 
 Goble sat there, listening and peering into the 
 darkness, and in momentary expectation of 
 hearing or seeing something alarming. About
 
 THE COMMITTEE AT WORK. 197 
 
 midnight, however, the excitement began. At 
 that hour Bud mustered up courage enough to 
 start on a trip around the cabin, and when he 
 got to the back of it, where he could look 
 through the tops of the trees toward Mr. 
 Riley's house, he stopped as if he had sudden- 
 ly been deprived of the power to go a step far- 
 ther. The sky in that direction was glowing 
 with a brighter red than he had ever seen at 
 sunset, and the longer he looked at it, the 
 brighter it grew. Beyond a doubt Mr. Riley's 
 house was on fire. When this thought flashed 
 through Bud's mind, the cold chills crept all 
 over him, and instead of hastening to render 
 what assistance he could in saving the plant- 
 er's property, he turned and ran into the cabin, 
 banging the door behind him, and dropped the 
 heavy bar to its place. 
 
 "Good lands!" exclaimed Mrs. Goble, 
 whom her husband, in his excitement and 
 terror had upset, chair and all, in front of the 
 fireplace. 
 
 "Don't stop to talk, old woman," said Bud, 
 in a hoarse whisper, "but get up an' fly around 
 an' do something. The outbreak has come
 
 198 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 like I told you it would. Biley's house is a 
 mask of fire. If you don't b'lieve it peep 
 through this yer crack." 
 
 For a minute or two the deep silence that 
 reigned in the cabin was broken only by the 
 hurried breathing of its frightened inmates, 
 and then there came a sound from the outside 
 a quick, heavy step on the hard ground, fol- 
 lowed by the fumbling of a hand for the latch- 
 string. Bud's face grew as white as a sheet, 
 his knees trembled under him, and the muzzle 
 of his rifle, which he tried to point toward the 
 door, covered every square foot of surface on 
 that side of the cabin in two seconds' time. 
 
 " Who's there ? " he demanded, in quaver- 
 ing tones. "Speak up, for there's a bullet 
 comin' right through the door where you 
 stand." 
 
 " What's the matter of the fule ? " inquired 
 the man on the outside ; and Bud recognized 
 the voice of one of his friends. "Lemme in." 
 
 Bud was only too glad to comply. He threw 
 up the bar, opened the door, and Silas Walker 
 same in the man who held his rifle in the 
 gtore while he was making ready to punish
 
 THE COMMITTEE AT WORK. 199 
 
 Mr. Bailey for refusing him credit. Bud was 
 glad to see that he was not the only one who 
 had been alarmed and excited by that blaze in 
 the sky. Silas's face had no color in it to 
 speak of, and he trembled as he moved across 
 the floor. 
 
 "How did you get home so quick ?" were 
 the first words he spoke. 
 
 "Who? Me?" cried Bud. "I've been 
 home sense noon ; aint I, old woman ? " 
 
 "Then who done it?" questioned Silas. 
 
 "Done what?" 
 
 " Set the elder's house on fire." 
 
 Bud was astounded, and so was his wife. 
 The former looked sharply at his visitor for a 
 moment, and then backed toward the nearest 
 chair. 
 
 "Isn't it Riley's house?" he gasped. 
 
 "Course not. I can see it plain from my 
 door, an' there's Riley's house standin' up 
 safe an' sound as it ever was. It's Elder Bow- 
 en's, fast enough. I kinder thought you done 
 it to pay him for shovin' you outen his lot by 
 the neck, and I said to my old woman that you 
 had sarved him jest right ; but if you didn't
 
 200 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 do it, then some of that Committee of Safety 
 must be to work." 
 
 Bud hadn't once thought of that, and it put 
 an entirely different look on the matter. If it 
 was true that the "outbreak had come,'' it 
 must be that 
 
 "There's a light off this a- way, too," ob- 
 served Mrs. Goble, who to conceal her agita- 
 tion from the visitor, had moved around the 
 room until she found an opening between the 
 logs through which she could look out toward 
 Barrington. " 'Pears like there might be an 
 other house a-fire." 
 
 "Hey-youp!" yelled Bud, whose terrof 
 had given away to almost fiendish exultation. 
 "The outbreak has come, like I said it was 
 goin' to do, but it aint the babolitionists an' 
 niggers that's doin' of it. It's our own 
 friends. Come on, Sile. Me an' you mustn't 
 hang back when there's work to be done for 
 the 'Federacy an' danger to be met." 
 
 " Now's a good time to settle with old man 
 Bailey," Silas remarked. 
 
 "Couldn't find a better if we tried for a 
 whole month," replied Bud gleefully. "I
 
 THE COMMITTEE AT WORK. 201 
 
 knowed I would get even with him some day, 
 but I didn't think it would come before I'd had 
 time to sleep. Hush yer noise, old woman. 
 Course I'm goin' up there. Riley said the 
 'Federacy would look for every man to do his 
 dooty when the time come, an' if it aint come 
 now, I'd like to know what's the reason. No- 
 body won't harm you here." 
 
 In spite of the querulous protests of Mrs. 
 Goble, who strongly objected to being left 
 alone now that "the outbreak had come," 
 Bud and his companion rushed out of the 
 house and started for Barrington, running full 
 tilt all the way for fear that the fun would all 
 be over, and the home of every Union man in 
 town be destroyed before they could get there 
 to lend a hand. There was no suspicion in 
 their minds that these two fires, located so far 
 apart, could be the result of accident. If 
 there was any faith to be placed in that notice 
 in the post-office there had been an outbreak 
 of some sort threatened, and beyond a doubt 
 the menlbers of the Committee of Safety had 
 thought it wise to anticipate it by driving 
 from Barrington every man who was suspected
 
 202 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 of being implicated in it. That was the way 
 Bud and Silas reasoned it out, and although 
 they were not altogether correct, they had hit 
 pretty close to the mark. 
 
 When they reached the cross-roads, so that 
 they could look two ways and see both the 
 fires at once, they told each other that the 
 houses must have been burning for some time 
 before they knew it, for the roofs had fallen in 
 and the blaze was beginning to die away. But 
 where were the engines ? They could not hear 
 any bells or brakes at work, and if there were 
 any commands given the breeze must have 
 carried them the other way. 
 
 "That committee of our'n has got every- 
 thing cut an' dried," was Bud's gleeful com- 
 ment. "Let Biley an' them fellers alone for 
 doin' things up in shape when they get at it. 
 But it won't do for us to say that we suspicion 
 them, for I' ve kinder thought, from the way 
 they acted, that they wanted to stay behine 
 an' pay sich chaps as me an' you for doin' the 
 work. Now le's scoot off this a-way an' set 
 old man Bailey agoin'." 
 
 Bud Goble, who had taken the precaution to
 
 THE COMMITTEE AT WOKK. 203 
 
 put some matches in his pocket before leaving 
 home, led the way along the short cut, con- 
 gratulating himself on the fact that he and 
 Silas would have a clear field for their opera- 
 tions, for of course the little storekeeper, and 
 all of the rest of the men in town, were 
 congregated at the fire. So intent were they 
 on taking vengeance on Mr. Bailey that they did 
 not go a step out of their way to locate the fire 
 that was raging in town, but went straight 
 towards the store, and without taking the least 
 care to conceal their movements. 
 
 "It's all dark," whispered Silas. "But I 
 don't reckon we'd best go any f urder on the 
 road. Le's go through the field an' come up 
 behine it." 
 
 Before Bud could say a word in reply or 
 make a motion towards acting upon the sug- 
 gestion, a clear strong voice directly in front of 
 them, and but a short distance away, called 
 out : 
 
 "Halt ! Who comes there ? " 
 
 " Well, I do think in my soul ! " exclaimed 
 Silas. " Who do you reckon that is ? " 
 
 Bud was frightened again, and couldn't
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE CALL TO ARMS. 
 
 suppressed excitement which was so 
 JL apparent to Bud Goble when he made 
 his second trip to Barrington, was not confined 
 to the citizens. It extended even to the mili- 
 tary academy, but everybody there knew what 
 caused it, although they could not look far 
 enough into the future to see what the result 
 of it was going to be. It was brought about 
 by the story Marcy Gray told his friend 
 Graham when they met in the guard-tent after 
 dinner. Dick's cheery laugh ran out loudly 
 when Marcy spoke about that "underground 
 railroad business," but he looked thoughtful 
 and angry when he learned that Bud had made 
 up his mind to whip him for it. 
 
 "Didn't I say that he and his kind would 
 take advantage of this excitement to get some- 
 body into trouble ?" exclaimed Dick. "The 
 
 206
 
 THE CALL TO ARMS. 207 
 
 members of that Committee of Safety are going 
 to be sorry they ever thought of getting up 
 such an organization when there wasn't the 
 slightest excuse for it. I say bully for Elder 
 Bowen ; and I hope every one Bud interferes 
 with will serve him the same way." 
 
 " Well, Marcy," said Ed Billings slowly. 
 "I can't go your Union sentiments, and I do 
 think you ought to be slapped for preaching 
 them up the way you do ; but I'll not stand by 
 and see Bud Goble do it. Mind that. If he 
 opens his head to you, knock him down and 
 I'll help." 
 
 " All the boys in school will help," said 
 Cole. "Mr. Riley and the rest ought to be 
 ashamed of themselves for employing such a 
 man. We'll stand by Mr. Bailey, too." 
 
 "Of course we will," observed Dick. 
 " Where would we get our goobers if Bud and 
 Silas should burn him out ? " 
 
 News of all kinds travels fast among a lot of 
 boys, and in less than an hour after Marcy had 
 been relieved every student in school knew 
 what Bud Goble had threatened to do to him 
 and Dick Graham. To say that they were
 
 208 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 angry wouldn't half express it. Dixon was 
 strongly in favor of calling for volunteers that 
 very afternoon, paying a visit of ceremony to 
 Bud and Silas, and telling them in plain lan- 
 guage that if they did not stop their nonsense 
 at once and go to work to support their fami- 
 lies, they would have something further to say 
 to them at some future time. 
 
 "That underground railroad business," he 
 began. 
 
 "I didn't have the first thing to do with 
 that, ' ' Marcy interposed. ' ' I didn' t know about 
 it until it was all over. If Bud wants revenge, 
 let him thrash Rodney and Dick ; but he'll 
 have to thrash me too, while he is about it." 
 
 "What's the matter with Rodney?" said 
 Billings, in a low tone. 
 
 Rodney stood around listening but taking 
 no part in the conversation, and every one no- 
 ticed that he seemed ill at ease. When his 
 name was mentioned, he turned about and left 
 the tent very abruptly. 
 
 " He is so mad he dare not trust himself to 
 speak," said Billings. "His face is as white 
 as a sheet."
 
 THE CALL TO ARMS. 209 
 
 " That underground railroad business isn't 
 at the bottom of the matter at all," continued 
 Dixon. ' ' That proclamation in the post-office 
 suggested an idea to some loon, who told 
 Goble that this school needs looking after. I 
 don' t pretend to deny it. I say that every dis- 
 unionist in it ought to be chucked out of the 
 gate neck and heels ; but it will take more 
 men than that Committee of Safety and their 
 paid spies can muster to do it." 
 
 These sentiments were received with a howl 
 of derision from some and enthusiastic cheers 
 from the rest ; but there was one point on 
 which they were united : The man, or body of 
 men, who attempted violence toward any of 
 their number would surely suffer for it. There 
 was one among them who had not looked for 
 this condition of affairs, who was utterly con- 
 founded by it, and who would have given 
 everything he possessed if he could have un- 
 done a certain piece of mischief he had perpe- 
 trated in Barrington the day before. 
 
 During the afternoon many of the students 
 acted and felt as if they were to be called upon 
 to perform some duty outside of the usual 
 
 14
 
 210 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 routine of school work. Dick Graham was not 
 the only one among them who scouted the idea 
 of an outbreak, while others honestly believed 
 that such a thing was more than possible. It 
 was even probable. There were a good many 
 Union men round about, who were quite as 
 fearless as the secessionists were, and who held 
 to their opinions with as great tenacity, the 
 negroes outnumbered the whites more than 
 five to one, and what was there to hinder them 
 from striking a blow for the freedom that 
 would be sure to come to them if the people of 
 the North made up their minds that secession 
 ought to be resisted by force of arms ? Might 
 it not be possible that the townspeople were 
 justified, after all, in calling that meeting; 
 that they had some information that the boys 
 knew nothing about, and that the lives and 
 property of some of Barrington's "prominent 
 and respected citizens" might really be in 
 jeopardy ? If that was the case, and the stu- 
 dents were ordered out to preserve order, 
 which side would they support ? Would they 
 hang together, or would they split up into fac- 
 tions ? Somehow the students did not like to
 
 THE CALL TO ARMS. 211 
 
 dwell upon these questions, but dismissed them 
 as soon they came into their minds. 
 
 When four o'clock was struck by the bell on 
 the tower, the usual number of boys climbed 
 the fence and set out for Barrington, and al- 
 though they came back fully satisfied that 
 there was something afoot, there was not one 
 among them who had a word of news. 
 
 "The town looks as though it had been struck 
 by a panic," said Dixon. "There was hardly 
 anybody in the post-office, and the few people 
 I saw on the streets looked as if they might be 
 on their way to a funeral. I couldn't get a 
 thing out of any man I saw, so I called on the 
 Taylor girls, who told me the committee has 
 positive evidence that there is to be an uprising 
 among the negroes, led by such men as Elder 
 Bo wen. Of course that is all humbug. I don't 
 believe in running, but I really think it would 
 be pleasanter for the elder if he would sell out 
 and go up to the United States. He's got Bud 
 Goble down on him ' ' 
 
 "Did he and Bud have a squabble sure 
 enough?" 
 
 "Naw. Bud got impudent and the elder
 
 212 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 took him by the neck and showed him the way 
 to the gate. That's all there was of it. Of 
 course there are a few who are mad about it, 
 but the majority of the folks I talked with 
 think Bud was served just right. I wish 
 the colonel would call for volunteers to 
 guard the elder's house of nights. I'd go 
 for one." 
 
 As usual there was nothing said to the guard 
 runners, and neither was there another sham 
 fight in the hall, the trouble over the flag hav- 
 ing been settled for a few days at least. The 
 students were very quiet that evening, and 
 when Dick and Marcy went on post at eight 
 o'clock, there were no indications of the hub- 
 bub and confusion that one of them was des- 
 tined to create before he was relieved at 
 midnight. Dick thought it a part of his duty 
 to keep watch of the town as well as over a 
 portion of the school grounds, and when he 
 stopped to rest, he always turned his face 
 toward Barrington. Once he thought he heard 
 faint shouts, and a few minutes later he was 
 sure he saw the first rays of the rising moon ; 
 but that could hardly be, for, if he remem-
 
 THE CALL TO ARMS. 213 
 
 bered rightly, the almanac said there wasn't 
 to be any moon that night. 
 
 "By gracious!" thought Dick. "Can it 
 be a fire ? " 
 
 He glanced toward the archway to make 
 sure that the corporal was not watching him, 
 and then did a thing he had never done before 
 in his life and was never guilty of afterward. 
 He deserted his post. He opened the gate 
 without causing the iron latch to click, and 
 ran across the road until he came to the fence 
 on the opposite side. This brought him out of 
 range of a clump of trees that obstructed his 
 vision at the gate, and also enabled him to look 
 around the edge of the piece of woods behind 
 which Marcy Gray was pacing his lonely beat. 
 There was not only one fire, but there were two ; 
 and they were a mile or more apart. 
 
 " By gracious ! " repeated Dick. 
 
 He pulled off his cap and felt of his hair to 
 see if it was standing on end, and then hast- 
 ened back to his post, closed the gate, and 
 summoned the corporal of the guard. 
 
 "I was ordered to report anything that 
 looked like a blaze," said Dick, when the non-
 
 214 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 commissioned officer came up. "Just cast 
 your eye in that direction and tell me " 
 
 "Great Scott ! " exclaimed the corporal. 
 
 "See it, don't you?" said Dick. "Well, 
 now, look over that way, and tell me if there 
 isn't another just breaking out." 
 
 Dick pointed toward the woods, which were 
 so thick that not the first glimmer of light 
 could come through them, and although the 
 corporal bent almost to the ground and twisted 
 himself into all sorts of uncomfortable shapes, 
 he was obliged to confess that he could not see 
 anything that looked like a fire. 
 
 "I'm sure I saw it not more than a minute 
 ago," said Dick, who, of course, did not tell 
 the corporal that he had been several yards 
 from his post when he saw it. "Perhaps if 
 you go across the road you can get a view of it." 
 
 The corporal went, and one look was enough 
 to satisfy him. When he returned he was 
 highly excited. 
 
 "The niggers are at it, sure as you live," 
 said he. " That's right in range of Mr. Elley's 
 house." 
 
 "Too far to the right for that," replied the
 
 THE CALL TO ARMS. 215 
 
 sentry. " Looks to be more like Elder 
 Bo wen's." 
 
 "It can't be," exclaimed the corporal incred- 
 ulously. " The negroes wouldn't hurt him." 
 
 " No ; but the secessionists might." 
 
 "Well, I eh?" 
 
 " I tell you the boot's on the other foot," 
 said Dick confidently. "It's Union property 
 that's being destroyed this moment, and you'll 
 find it out to-morrow. Why don't you go in 
 and report ? " 
 
 The non-commissioned officer thought it best 
 to act upon the suggestion. He ran into the 
 building, and when he returned he was accom- 
 panied by the officer of the guard, who took a 
 long look at the two fires before he went in to 
 call the colonel. Then the latter hurried out 
 and took a look, and the two talked in low, ear- 
 nest tones ; and although Dick and the corporal 
 listened with all their ears, they could not 
 catch a word that gave them a hint of the 
 course they had decided to pursue. But they 
 found out when the long roll echoed through 
 the building, being followed almost imme- 
 diately by a shuffling of feet which announced
 
 216 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 that the students were hastening to the armory. 
 After five minutes or so of silence so deep that 
 Dick could hear the beating of his own heart, 
 two companies of boys, fully armed and 
 equipped, marching four abreast and moving 
 with a free, swinging stride that took them 
 rapidly over the ground, emerged from the 
 archway, passed through the gate and turned 
 down the road leading to Barrington. At the 
 same time a quartermaster-sergeant put ten 
 rounds of ammunition into Dick's cartridge- 
 box and ordered him to load his piece. 
 
 " Ball cartridges ? " inquired Dick. 
 
 "Correct," replied the sergeant. "If you 
 halt a fellow and he don't halt, these are the 
 things that will make him halt." 
 
 " Say," whispered Dick. " Hang around a 
 minute ; I want to ask you a question or two." 
 
 The sergeant "hung around" until the offi- 
 cer of the guard started with the corporal to 
 make his round of the posts, and then began 
 without waiting for the sentry to question him. 
 
 "There isn't any thing to tell," said he. '* The 
 colonel made a little speech to the boys in 
 which he said that some fanatics, who ought
 
 THE CALL TO ARMS. 217 
 
 to be hanged without judge or jury, were de- 
 stroying property in town, and it was our busi- 
 ness to put a stop to it if we could. He sent 
 two companies, and the others have been fur- 
 nished with ball cartridges which they are to 
 use on anybody who comes fooling around 
 here." 
 
 "Did the colonel say who those fanatics 
 were ? " asked Dick. 
 
 " Eh ? Course he didn't. We all know who 
 they are." 
 
 " Who are they ?" 
 
 " Aw ! Go up to the United States, you 
 Yankee." 
 
 " Hold on a bit," said Dick, as the sergeant 
 was about to turn away. " I ask for informa- 
 tion ; I do indeed. Does he think the negroes 
 have broken out? " 
 
 " And abolitionists ? Of course he does. 
 That' s what we all think. It' s what we know. ' ' 
 
 "Say," continued Dick. "The night is 
 quiet, and the little breeze there is stirring 
 blows toward us from town, doesn't it ? Now 
 listen. Do you hear any fire-bells ringing \ " 
 
 "That's so," replied the sergeant ; and Dick
 
 216 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 that the students were hastening to the armory. 
 After five minutes or so of silence so deep that 
 Dick could hear the beating of his own heart, 
 two companies of boys, fully armed and 
 equipped, marching four abreast and moving 
 with a free, swinging stride that took them 
 rapidly over the ground, emerged from the 
 archway, passed through the gate and turned 
 down the road leading to Barrington. At the 
 same time a quartermaster-sergeant put ten 
 rounds of ammunition into Dick's cartridge- 
 box and ordered him to load his piece. 
 
 " Ball cartridges ? " inquired Dick. 
 
 "Correct," replied the sergeant. "If you 
 halt a fellow and he don't halt, these are the 
 things that will make him halt." 
 
 " Say," whispered Dick. " Hang around a 
 minute ; I want to ask you a question or two." 
 
 The sergeant "hung around" until the offi- 
 cer of the guard started with the corporal to 
 make his round of the posts, and then began 
 without waiting for the sentry to question him. 
 
 "There isn't any thing to tell," said he. '' The 
 colonel made a little speech to the boys in 
 which he said that some fanatics, who ought
 
 THE CALL TO ARMS. 217 
 
 to be hanged without judge or jury, were de- 
 stroying property in town, and it was our busi- 
 ness to put a stop to it if we could. He sent 
 two companies, and the others have been fur- 
 nished with ball cartridges which they are to 
 use on anybody who comes fooling around 
 here." 
 
 " Did the colonel say who those fanatics 
 were ? " asked Dick. 
 
 " Eh ? Course he didn't. We all know who 
 they are." 
 
 " Who are they ?" 
 
 "Aw! Go up to the United States, you 
 Yankee." 
 
 " Hold on a bit," said Dick, as the sergeant 
 was about to turn away. " I ask for informa- 
 tion ; I do indeed. Does he think the negroes 
 have broken out? " 
 
 " And abolitionists ? Of course he does. 
 That' s what we all think. It' s what we know. ' ' 
 
 "Say," continued Dick. "The night is 
 quiet, and the little breeze there is stirring 
 blows toward us from town, doesn't it ? Now 
 listen. Do you hear any fire-bells ringing ? " 
 
 "That's so," replied the sergeant ; and Dick
 
 218 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 thought he was reluctant to say it. "I don't 
 hear a tinkle." 
 
 " That's all I've got to say," added Dick, as 
 he settled his musket on his shoulder and be- 
 gan pacing his beat. "On a still night like 
 this you can hear those big church bells four 
 or five miles, and there hasn't one of them said 
 a word since those fires began. I noticed that 
 from the start." 
 
 Dixon, the tall Kentuckian, who was march- 
 ing with his company toward Barrington, also 
 took note of the fact that the bells, which 
 usually made noise enough to arouse the plant- 
 ers for miles around when there was a fire, 
 were silent now, and he called attention to it. 
 He also noticed that the house that was burn- 
 ing in town belonged to a prominent and out- 
 spoken Union man ; that both the engines were 
 disabled (at least the foremen said they were) ; 
 that the crowd around the house stood with 
 their hands in their pockets, making no effort 
 to keep the flames from spreading to the house 
 of another Union man close by ; and that Mr. 
 Riley and a few other members of the Com- 
 mittee of Safety, who appeared to be full of
 
 THE CALL TO ARMS. 219 
 
 business, but who, in reality, were doing just 
 nothing at all, looked surprised and perplexed 
 when the students marched up and came to a 
 halt at the corner of the street. There was 
 still another thing that the observant Dixon 
 noticed and commented upon, and that was, 
 that the colonel was not in command as he 
 ought to have been. The colonel did not think 
 it would be policy to take too firm a stand un- 
 til he had learned whether his State was going 
 to stay in the Union or go out of it ; and so he 
 sent in command of the students a teacher who 
 had not yet made up his mind which side he 
 favored. Dixon had always believed that he 
 leaned toward the Union ; and when he marched 
 back to the academy the next morning about 
 daylight, he was sure of it. 
 
 " I am surprised to see you here, Captain 
 Wilson," said Mr. Riley, who was the first 
 man to meet him when he brought the students 
 to a halt. 
 
 " And I am surprised to see a man of your 
 calibre get as nervous and excited over a little 
 fire as you seem to be," replied the captain, in 
 significant tones. "If I may presume to ask
 
 220 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 the question, how does it come that yon are 
 on the ground so early when there are no 
 alarm - bells ringing ? What is the reason 
 those engines are not at work \ There's water 
 enough." 
 
 "I happened to be awake when the fire 
 broke out, and that's the way I come to be 
 here," answered Mr. Riley sharply. "And 
 the reason those engines are not playing on 
 the flames is because they can't do it with 
 their valves out of order. Really, captain, 
 this looks to me like an uprising." 
 
 "It's the way it looks to me, too. At- 
 tention." 
 
 " What are you going to do ? " 
 
 "I am going to get my men in position to 
 carry out my orders, which are to protect 
 property," answered the captain. "I shall 
 put a guard around the house of every Union 
 man in town." 
 
 "Why, Captain," exclaimed Mr. Riley. 
 " You don't pretend to say that 
 
 " I don't pretend to say anything but this," 
 interrupted the captain. "When the houses 
 of two Union men, situated more than a mile
 
 THE CALL TO ARMS. 221 
 
 apart, get on fire at the same time, and no 
 bells are rung, and the engines can't work 
 because they are out of order, and a big crowd 
 like this stands about without lifting a finger 
 to save anything when all these things hap- 
 pen, it makes me suspect that there are fire- 
 bugs around, and that they are after Union 
 men and nobody else. At any rate I shall act 
 on that suspicion. These muskets are loaded 
 with ball, and if any one attempts to apply a 
 match to a building in the presence of my 
 guards, he'll get hurt." 
 
 " Three cheers for Captain Wilson," shouted 
 some Union boys in the ranks. 
 
 " Silence ! " commanded the captain. He 
 was angry enough to put that boy under 
 arrest, but not foolish enough to try to find 
 out who he was. He knew by past experience 
 that the students would not tell tales on one 
 another. 
 
 The captain was as good as his word. Pay- 
 ing no attention to the protests of the different 
 members of the committee who gathered about 
 him, the details were quickly made, and so it 
 came about that Dixon and five others, includ-
 
 222 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 ing a non-commissioned officer, found them- 
 selves guarding Mr. Bailey's store. Another 
 and much larger squad was sent down the 
 road at double time to see what they could do 
 to assist Elder Bowen. 
 
 "Go up that by-path a piece, Dixon," said 
 the corporal, as he stepped upon the porch 
 that ran in front of old man Bailey's door. 
 "Keep your eye peeled for fire-bugs, and if 
 you see " 
 
 "Hey, there!" shouted a voice from the 
 inside of the store. " Get off that porch." 
 
 "On the watch, are you?" replied the cor- 
 poral. " Well, we'll watch too, if you will 
 give us some candy to eat while we are doing 
 it. Come out and see the Union men burn up. 
 It will be your turn next." 
 
 Mr. Bailey was astonished at least the cor- 
 poral thought he was, for he heard him talking 
 to himself as he stumbled around in the dark 
 searching for a jar of candy. The old man 
 had not looked for anything like this. Being 
 on the watch he knew when the fire in town 
 broke out, and believing that Bud Goble was 
 at work, he began patroling his store with his
 
 THE CALL TO ARMS. 223 
 
 revolver in his hand, ready to give the incen- 
 diaries a warm reception if they came near 
 him. This was what the old man told the 
 corporal when he opened the door and passed 
 out the candy and a bag of peanuts. 
 
 "The nuts are for Graham, if he is with 
 you," said he. " I never saw such an appe- 
 tite as that boy's got for goobers." 
 
 "But he isn't here," replied the corporal. 
 "He is on guard at the academy. Now tell 
 me all you know about this business. I'm 
 here to guard your property, although I can't 
 see the sense of it. Mr. Riley wouldn't let 
 Bud touch you." 
 
 "I don't think he would if he knew it, 
 for he knows just where I. stand," answered 
 Mr. Bailey. " But Bud might take it into his 
 crazy head to operate on his own hook, and 
 that is what I am afraid of." 
 
 " Halt !" shouted Dixon, who had scarcely 
 taken the position assigned him before he 
 discovered Bud and Silas coming. 
 
 " There ! " exclaimed Mr. Bailey. "Til bet 
 that's Bud. If it isn't, what is he sneaking 
 around toward the back of the store for ? "
 
 224 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 "All right," replied the corporal. "I'll 
 give him such a scare that he'll never trouble 
 you again. If he doesn't tell a pretty straight 
 story I'll march him before Captain Wilson." 
 
 As he spoke he stepped off the porch and 
 started toward Dixon's post, and it was the 
 sound of his footsteps that frightened Bud 
 and his companion into a run. He was really 
 alarmed when he heard the report of Dixon's 
 piece. 
 
 " You've played smash on your watch, old 
 fellow," said he, as he hastened to the sentry's 
 side. 
 
 " Can't help it," was Dixon's answer. "Or- 
 jlers are orders." 
 
 "Who was it?'.' 
 
 "Bud Goble for one. I recognized his 
 voice ; but I don't know who his companion 
 was." 
 
 " Did you hit either of them ? " 
 
 " Guess not. I shot to hit if they were fire- 
 bugs, and to miss if they were not. They both 
 ran away, so I reckon they were innocent of 
 any wrong intent ; but they ought to have 
 stopped when I told them."
 
 THE CALL TO ARMS. 225 
 
 The corporal walked up the road a few hun- 
 dred yards, but could not see anything of Bud 
 and his friend. They had taken themselves 
 safely off. Just as he got back to Dixon 's 
 post a sentry on the other side of the store 
 shouted out a challenge. 
 
 "I told you you had played smash," said 
 the corporal. " The captain has come up to 
 inquire into the matter." 
 
 That was just who the new-comer was, as 
 the corporal found when he responded to the 
 sentry's call ; but he did not have a word of 
 fault to find with the way Dixon had obeyed 
 orders. His men had been commanded to halt 
 everybody who came near their beat, and to 
 fire upon all who did not come in and give an 
 account of themselves. He was excited, and 
 possibly expressed his sentiments with more 
 freedom in the presence of his non-commis- 
 sioned officer than he ought to have done. 
 
 " Dixon did right," said he. "The colonel 
 told me to protect property, and if he doesn't 
 approve of the measures I have taken to do it, 
 he can send somebody else in command the 
 next time he finds it necessary to order out a 
 
 15
 
 226 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 company of students. These are terrible times, 
 corporal, and they are getting worse every day. 
 Terrible times when neighbors are turned 
 against one another as they seem to be in this 
 town." 
 
 "It's some consolation to know that they 
 can't be much worse, sir," observed the cor- 
 poral. 
 
 "My dear boy, you haven't seen the begin- 
 ning of it," replied the captain sadly. "I 
 don't think you will be troubled again to-night, 
 but carry out your orders to the letter. That's 
 all you have to do." 
 
 Whether or not the colonel's prompt action 
 in sending two hundred armed students into 
 town operated as a check upon the firebugs (if 
 there were any), the boys did not know ; but 
 when daylight came and the sentries were 
 called in, and the column formed preparatory 
 to marching back to the academy, they were 
 all satisfied of one thing : They had made any 
 number of enemies among the townspeople by 
 their night's work. 
 
 "We've made a blunder, sure's you're 
 born," said Billings angrily.
 
 THE CALL TO ARMS. 227 
 
 "Tell us something we don't know," said 
 the boy who marched at his elbow. "I saw 
 that the minute Mr. Riley came up and spoke 
 to the captain. But what got it through your 
 head at this late hour ?" 
 
 "I wouldn't have had it happen for any- 
 thing," continued Billings. "We've got every 
 member of that Committee of Safety down on 
 us, and they are the best men in town. They 
 wouldn't even look at me when they passed 
 my beat, but always turned their heads as if 
 they did not want to see me." 
 
 "Who cares for that?" demanded Dixon. 
 "If they want to get down on us because we 
 carried out our orders, let 'em get. If their 
 arrangements have been interfered with, let 
 them go up to the academy and look cross at 
 the colonel. He's the man." 
 
 "Well, I know one thing," observed Cole. 
 "If the colonel wants to send any more boys 
 into town on an errand like this, he'll send 
 somebody besides me. I'll refuse duty." 
 
 " Hear, hear ! " exclaimed every one of the 
 students who were close enough to Cole to 
 catch his words.
 
 228 TKUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 The boys who had been left at the academy 
 were not turned out to receive their returning 
 comrades, who marched to the armory looking 
 more like culprits than like boys who had tried 
 to do their duty, ordered arms spitefully, and 
 broke ranks sullenly. 
 
 " What's the meaning of this, I'd be pleased 
 to know?" Dixon demanded of Marcy Gray 
 and Dick, who were the first to greet him. 
 "Where's our speech of welcome? Why 
 doesn't the colonel pat us on the back and say : 
 * Well done, little boys ? '" 
 
 " This is the reason," answered Dick. 
 " Shortly after I was relieved, a delegation 
 from that Committee of Safety rode up and in- 
 terviewed the colonel for half an hour." 
 
 " Aha ! " exclaimed Dixon. " We stepped 
 on their toes, didn't we? Well, we suspected 
 it from the first. Some of the fellows declare 
 they'll not go another time, but I will. As 
 long as I stay here I'm going to obey orders, I 
 don't care what they are." 
 
 " I don't think you will ever be called upon 
 for like service again," said Marcy. "The 
 colonel has had a lesson of some kind. He
 
 THE CALL TO ARMS. 229 
 
 looks as though he had lost his best friend. 
 Heigh-o ! " he added, stretching his arms and 
 yawning. "What's the next thing on the 
 programme ? Will Fort Sumter be rein- 
 forced?" 
 
 Dixon couldn't say as to that, but there was 
 one thing of which he was sure : This backing 
 and filling on both sides couldn't last much 
 longer, and the first thing they knew there 
 would be an explosion of some sort, and it 
 would come from Charleston harbor. 
 
 The students were not disturbed again that 
 night, and on the following day things passed 
 off much as they usually did, only the colonel, 
 to quote from Dixon, was cross and snappish, 
 not having had time to get over pouting about 
 the lesson he had received the night before. 
 During the day it leaked out that Mr. Riley 
 and his friends had talked to him very plainly, 
 told him that it was absolutely necessary for 
 the peace and safety of the town that the Union 
 men should be driven out of it, and that the 
 colonel's interference with the committee's 
 plans was, to say the least, unfriendly to the 
 cause of the South. It was also reported that
 
 230 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 the colonel had promised he would never do the 
 like again. 
 
 " That means destruction to the Union men," 
 said Marcy, in a tone of contempt. "I believe 
 I' 11 go home. I don' t care to serve under a man 
 who has no more pluck than the colonel seems 
 to have." 
 
 If he had started at once he might have 
 saved himself some anxiety, and would cer- 
 tainly have carried away with him a better 
 opinion of his cousin Rodney than he had two 
 days later.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 BUD'S MESSENGER IN TROUBLE. 
 
 A LTHOUGH the hours from four until six 
 
 in the afternoon were devoted to recre- 
 ation, it was expected that those of the stu- 
 dents who wished to visit friends in town would 
 ask for a pass before attempting to leave the 
 grounds ; but we have seen that they didn't. 
 There were some professional guard-runners 
 among them, and on this particular afternoon 
 they appeared in full force. 
 
 "Come on, old fellow," Billings shouted to 
 Marcy Gray, who was carrying a camp-chair 
 toward a spreading maple that stood near the 
 guard tent. 
 
 "No; I think I will stay here and try to 
 read," replied Marcy. "I know this book 
 will not quarrel with me, but some of the Bar- 
 rington people might. There must be a good 
 deal of excitement down there, and I shouldn't 
 think you would care to go. " 
 
 231
 
 232 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 "It's the very reason we do care to go," re- 
 plied Rodney, who, with Dick Graham at his 
 side, was taking long steps toward the fence 
 that separated the academy grounds from the 
 woods. " We want to see what the folks think 
 of last night's work. They'll not say a word 
 to Dick and me, for we were not there." 
 
 "You'll find that that will not make any 
 difference," said Marcy. " They are down on 
 the school, and you two will have to stand 
 snubbing with the rest." 
 
 Dick laughed and said he did not believe it, 
 and he and his companion kept on to the fence, 
 which they climbed without a word of remon- 
 strance from the sentry, who was obliging 
 enough to turn his back when he saw them 
 coming. Marcy watched them until they dis- 
 appeared in the bushes, and then fastened his 
 eyes on his book ; but he could not read. The 
 air was too full of excitement for that, and he 
 could do nothing but think. How he passed 
 the time until the guard-runners and those 
 who had received passes began to return from 
 town, he could not have told. There was a 
 good deal of feeling among the best of the
 
 BUD'S MESSENGER IN TROUBLE. 233 
 
 Barrington people, they said, but the members 
 of the committee did not blame the academy 
 boys for marching into town. On the contrary, 
 they were rather gratified at the promptness 
 with which they "showed up " ; for it was an 
 indication that they would not be found want- 
 ing when the critical time came ; but they did 
 not like the way the commandant had of med- 
 dling with their municipal affairs, and had 
 sent Mr. Riley and some others to extort from 
 him a promise that he would never be guilty 
 of it again. 
 
 " So that report was true," said Dixon, who 
 brought this news to Marcy Gray, "and that 
 was the lesson the colonel has been pouting 
 over all day. He gave Mr. Riley the assurance 
 that no matter what happened in Barrington, 
 not a single boy of us should be allowed 
 outside the grounds with a musket in his 
 hand." 
 
 "Rodney didn't come home with you, did 
 he?" said Marcy. "I wish he would make 
 haste, for I should like to get my mail. Do 
 you know where he is ? " 
 
 "That reminds me of something I made up
 
 234 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 my mind to ask you the minute I got here," 
 answered Dixon ; and Marcy judged, by the 
 furtive manner in which he looked around to 
 make sure there was no one within earshot, 
 that he did not want anybody else to know 
 what he had to say. "Has Rodney anything 
 in common with that villain, Bud Goble ? " 
 
 "Not by a long shot," exclaimed Marcy in- 
 dignantly. " Why do you ask ? Don't you 
 know him any better than that ? " 
 
 "I thought I did ; but the last time I saw 
 him and Dick Graham, they were searching 
 everywhere for Bud. Graham is, or was, all 
 right ; there's no discount on him, but " 
 
 4 ' But what ? ' ' demanded Marcy, when Dixon 
 paused. " Don't say a word behind Rodney's 
 back that you would not say to his face." 
 
 "I wont," replied Dixon, who was neither 
 angry nor frightened. "I hope you have been 
 acquainted with me long enough to know 
 that I am not that sort of fellow. I say Dick 
 is all right, because he will not make a move 
 either way until his State moves ; and in the 
 mean time, he will not want to do harm to 
 those whose opinions differ from his own.
 
 BUD'S MESSENGER IN TROUBLE. 235 
 
 But, Marcy Gray, that cousin of yours is about 
 half crazy." 
 
 " That's a fact," said Marcy, after thinking 
 a moment. 
 
 "Consequently Rodney is not all right, and 
 there's a heavy discount on him," continued 
 Dixon. "He is down on everybody who does 
 not think as he does, and I am afraid Look 
 here : Why is Rodney so anxious to see Bud 
 Goble if it isn't to put him up to some mis- 
 chief?" 
 
 "That's so," replied Marcy thoughtfully. 
 "Why is he?" 
 
 "There was a time when Rodney's blood 
 would have boiled at the idea of standing by 
 and seeing helpless people served as those two 
 Union men were served by the members of Mr. 
 Riley's committee last night, but it isn't so 
 now," continued Dixon. "He believes that 
 Northern sympathizers ought to be punished, 
 and he don't care how it is done or who 
 does it ! " 
 
 "But Dick Graham is with Rodney, and 
 you think Dick is all right," Marcy reminded 
 him. "Dick wouldn't be likely to stay with
 
 236 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 him if he thought Rodney was going to put 
 any more mischief into Bud Goble's head." 
 
 "Dick was all right the last time I talked 
 with him, but how do I know but that Rodney 
 has succeeded in bringing him over to his 
 side." 
 
 "Oh, I hope not," said Marcy earnestly. 
 " I'll speak to Rodney when he comes, and tell 
 him to let all such fellows as Goble alone. 
 Don't repeat what you have said to me, will 
 you?" 
 
 "Of course not. I think too much of Rod- 
 ney for that, and if he gets himself into trouble 
 through his foolishness, I'll be one of the first 
 to jump in and help him out." 
 
 Marcy was on nettles after Dixon went away, 
 and it is a question whether he would have 
 felt much easier in his mind if he had known 
 why it was that his cousin was so anxious to 
 find Bud Goble. Rodney did not want to put 
 any more mischief into the man's head ; he 
 wanted to take out some he had put there two 
 days before. He did not feel as bitter toward 
 Marcy and Dick Graham as he did when he 
 slipped away from his friends on the evening
 
 BUD'S MESSENGER IN TROUBLE. 237 
 
 that Confederate flag came to him through the 
 post-office, and wrote that letter calling Bud's 
 attention to the fact that there were some Union 
 boys in the academy who ought to be told 
 that their room was better than their company. 
 The threats that Bud had made against Marcy, 
 and the destruction of the property of those 
 two Union men, frightened Rodney, who 
 would have given up all his worldly prospects 
 to know just how much his letter to the paid 
 spy had to do with bringing about the present 
 state of affairs. His desire now was to stop 
 Bud before he could go any further. 
 
 Marcy, depressed in spirits and fearing, he 
 knew not what, waited and watched in vain. 
 Dress parade was over, supper had been eaten, 
 and the gate closed for the night, and still Rod- 
 ney and Dick had failed to report. 
 
 " I feel a little worried myself," saidDixon, 
 to whom Marcy went for sympathy and com- 
 fort. " And I don't believe Captain Wilson is 
 altogether right in his mind, for I have heard 
 him making inquiries among the boys. In 
 fact he has been to me to find out where I last 
 saw the missing chaps, and what they were
 
 238 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 doing. But don't be uneasy. I didn't tell 
 him that they were looking for Bud Goble. I 
 almost wish I had," he added, to himself. " I 
 may have to do it yet if they don't turn up all 
 right." 
 
 " Captain Wilson doesn't think they could 
 have got into any trouble, does he?" said 
 Marcy anxiously. 
 
 " He didn't say a word on that score." 
 
 "But it looks as though he was afraid of 
 it," replied Marcy. "If he wasn't afraid 
 something had happened to them he would not 
 ask about them." 
 
 This interview with Dixon would have added 
 to Marcy' s fears, even if he had not learned, as 
 he did a few minutes later, that all the boys in 
 the hall were talking about it, and wondering 
 what had become of Rodney and Dick. Like 
 many others these two had openly defied all 
 the rules for weeks past, but they had never 
 before stayed out after dark, and some of the 
 students declared that they wouldn't doit now 
 if they were not prevented from coming back 
 to the academy. When Marcy heard this, he 
 decided that something ought to be done. He
 
 BUD'S MESSENGER IN TROUBLE. 239 
 
 went upstairs and told the orderly to ask if he 
 might speak to the colonel. 
 
 " I think I know what you want," whispered 
 the orderly, "and I tell you plainly that he 
 won't let you do it. But I'll go in with your 
 message." 
 
 There were others among the students who 
 thought they knew what Marcy wanted, and 
 who followed him to the head of the stairs to 
 "see how he would come out with the old 
 man." The orderly disappeared through the 
 colonel's door, but came out a few minutes 
 afterward to report 
 
 " What did I tell you ?" 
 
 " What did he say ? " inquired Marcy. 
 
 " He says he doesn't want to be bothered. I 
 put in a good word for you, suggesting that 
 perhaps you wanted permission to go to Bar- 
 rington and see what has become of Rodney, 
 and he said in reply that you need not trouble 
 yourself. You could not go. He will not 
 allow a boy outside the gate after dark, no 
 matter what his business is, and he'll chuck 
 Rodney and Dick into the guard-house the 
 minute they return, and keep them there."
 
 240 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 For the first time since he had been a student 
 at that school Marcy Gray felt rebellious. He 
 stood high in his class, was always on hand 
 when duty called him, never ran the guard, 
 hadn't asked for a pass for more than a week, 
 and for the colonel to send him off in this way, 
 without even listening to the request he had to 
 make, was rather more than Marcy could stand. 
 
 " I was going to ask him to let me go to town 
 and see if I could learn what has become of 
 Rodney and Dick," said he to the boys who 
 were waiting for him at the top of the stairs. 
 "But he sent word by the orderly that he 
 wouldn't see me. I'm going to Barrington all 
 the same." 
 
 " Do you want company ? " asked Dixon. 
 
 "I should like to have three or four good 
 fellows," replied Marcy, "but mind you, I shall 
 not ask anybody to go with me. I am bound 
 to get into trouble." 
 
 "Well, you can't find any better guard-house 
 companion than I am," answered Dixon. 
 
 " I'm another good fellow for that cheerful 
 hole," observed Billings. " I ought to be, for 
 I've been there often enough."
 
 BUD'S MESSENGER IN TROUBLE. 241 
 
 Bob Cole said he was a third candidate for a 
 court-martial, announced his determination to 
 go if Billings went, whether Marcy said so or 
 not, and the latter decided that three boys were 
 as many as he cared to bring into trouble on 
 account of their friendship for him and the 
 missing students. 
 
 "Now, fellows," whispered Dixon to the other 
 boys who were gathered about. " You stay in 
 the hall, and if anybody asks you where we 
 have gone, you can tell him you don't know. 
 Be quiet now, all of us, and don't act or look 
 as though there was anything in the wind." 
 
 This was easier said than done, for now that 
 these four students had decided to run counter 
 to the colonel's express orders, and find out 
 what had become of Rodney Gray and his com- 
 panion, they were impatient to be off. But 
 three of their number managed to leave the 
 hall without attracting very much attention, 
 and halted in the shade of the trees to wait for 
 Dixon, who, being an experienced guard-run- 
 ner, had loitered behind to ascertain who were 
 on posts three and four, between which they 
 would have to pass in order to reach the fence. 
 
 16
 
 242 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 1 'They' re solid boys," said he, when he joined 
 Marcy and the rest under the trees. " If we 
 can get close enough to give them a hint of 
 what we want to do before they challenge us, 
 they'll let us through. After we get a little 
 farther along, perhaps it would be best for me 
 to go on ahead." 
 
 Of course the suggestion was adopted, for 
 among all the boys in school there was not one 
 who knew how to manage affairs of this sort 
 better than Dixon. He succeeded in getting 
 within sight of one of the sentries without 
 being stopped, made him understand, in some 
 mysterious way, that secrecy was not only de- 
 sirable but necessary, and in a few minutes 
 whistled for his companions. Such a proceed- 
 ing as this would not have been successful, 
 nor would it have been attempted, at any other 
 time in the history of the academy. 
 
 "I've been thinking about those two boys 
 ever since I came on post," said the sentry, in 
 a low tone. " And I am glad you have made 
 up your minds to go in search of them, in spite 
 of the colonel. Crawl over whenever you get 
 ready, but I mustn't see you do it."
 
 BUD'S MESSENGER IN TROUBLE. 243 
 
 The sentry faced about, and the four guard- 
 runners placed their hands upon the fence and 
 were about to " crawl over," when their move- 
 ments were arrested by a sound coming from 
 the thicket close in front of them. Remem- 
 bering how old Uncle Toby had approached 
 Marcy Gray's post, they stopped and listened. 
 
 " St St ! " was the sound they heard, and 
 something told them that the person who made 
 it desired to communicate with them secretly. 
 
 " Who is it ? " whispered Dixon. 
 
 "It's me," answered a voice. 
 
 " Who's me ? If you are a friend come out 
 and show yourself. If you are an enemy, get 
 away from there or we will be down on you 
 like a shower-bath." 
 
 "It's me; Caleb Judson. Don't you know 
 me?" 
 
 " Whew ! " whistled Dixon softly, while the 
 rest of the boys nodded and winked at one 
 another. "It's one of Bud Goble's friends. 
 Are we not in luck ? I know of you," he said 
 aloud. " But what are you doing there in the 
 bushes ? Come close to the fence and tell us 
 what you want. Be quiet, for there are
 
 244 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 guards on both sides, and we mustn't let them 
 hear us." 
 
 Thus encouraged, Caleb Judson arose from 
 his hiding-place and came forward ; but, as if 
 he were afraid of treachery, he halted just out 
 of reach of the fence. 
 
 "That won't do," said Dixon. "Come up 
 close so that we can talk between the pickets. 
 It's too late for you to run now, even if you 
 wanted to. You see this fellow?" he added, 
 calling Caleb's attention to the sentry, who 
 came up holding his musket at "arms port." 
 "That gun of his has got a bullet in it, and his 
 orders are " 
 
 "Don't shoot," said Caleb; and in his ex- 
 citement and alarm he spoke so loud that the 
 boys trembled. 
 
 "Don't you know enough to keep still?" 
 exclaimed Marcy angrily. "No one is going 
 to hurt you. Come up to the fence. Now, 
 what brought you here ? Talk fast." 
 
 "Well," said Caleb, speaking slowly, as if 
 he did not know how to explain his errand ; 
 " you mind them Gray an' Graham boys, don't 
 
 ye?"
 
 BUD'S MESSENGER IN TROUBLE. 245 
 
 " We have a slight acquaintance with 
 them," answered Dixon. " What about them ? 
 Do you want to see them?" 
 
 "See 'em?" repeated Caleb. "I jest did 
 see 'em, not more'n an hour ago." 
 
 * * Um, ' ' said Dixon. ' ' Where did you leave 
 them?" 
 
 "Down in the woods on Riley's place, a 
 little piece back of nigger Toby's cabin. Bud 
 Goble's got 'em." 
 
 "Hold on, or you will spoil everything," 
 whispered Dixon, looking over his shoulder at 
 Marcy Gray, who began breathing very hard 
 and trying to work his way closer to the fence. 
 " What does Bud intend to do with them ? " 
 
 "Well, it's jest this a- way," replied Caleb. 
 " A day or two ago Bud got a letter from some- 
 body tellin' him that them two boys oughter 
 be drove outen the kentry, kase they was Union 
 all over an' preachin' np their docterings as 
 often as they got a chance. Bud, he thought 
 so too, an' this afternoon he grabbed 'em." 
 
 " Who wrote that letter? " inquired Dixon. 
 
 " There don't none of us know ; Bud himself 
 don't know, kase there wasn't no name to it."
 
 246 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 1 'It was written by some coward who was 
 afraid to let himself be known, was it ? And 
 Bud acted upon the advice that letter con- 
 tained and grabbed the boys, did he ? How 
 did he go about it ? " inquired Dixon ; and his 
 three companions, who knew how quick he 
 was to get angry, wondered that he could 
 speak so quietly and without the slightest show 
 of excitement. 
 
 "When they was in town to-day Bud sont 
 'em word that there was a sick man up the 
 road a piece, an' asked them would they get 
 some quinine an' take it to him," replied Caleb. 
 
 "And of course they went," said Dixon, 
 through his clenched teeth. "Bud worked 
 upon their feelings and caught them as easy as 
 falling off a log. When they got to that cabin 
 there wasn't any sick man there, but a party 
 of ruffians who jumped on Rodney and Dick 
 and made prisoners of them," added Dixon, 
 who was so impatient that he could not wait 
 for Caleb to tell the story. "Was that the 
 way of it?" 
 
 " It were ; but you see he got the wrong one. 
 Both of 'em are the wrong ones. "
 
 BUD'S MESSENGER IN TROUBLE. 247 
 
 * 
 
 "How so?" 
 
 " Well, you see they're the wrong ones ; not 
 the ones he thought he was goin' to get. Rod- 
 ney is secession the very wust kind." 
 
 "Of course he is; and Graham is State 
 rights, which is the next thing to a rebel. 
 Well, what of it ? " 
 
 " Rodney is the wrong one, I tell ye. We- 
 uns wanted the other Gray boy the Union 
 feller." 
 
 " What would you have done to him if you 
 had got hold of him ?" 
 
 " We-uns kalkerlated to lick him good an' 
 send him outen the kentry with a striped 
 jacket." 
 
 Caleb did not hesitate to acknowledge this. 
 He had heard it said that there were some wild 
 secessionists in the school, and taking his cue 
 from the Barrington people, who thought it 
 right to destroy the property of Union men, he 
 believed that the students who were in favor 
 of the Confederacy would be willing to take 
 summary vengeance upon those of their num- 
 ber who were foolish enough to stand up for 
 the old flag. But he thought it would be wise
 
 248 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 4 
 
 to make sure of that point before he went any 
 further. 
 
 " You're Jeff Davis men, I reckon, aint ye ? " 
 said he- 
 
 " We are for the South every day in the 
 week," replied Dixon. " When the Stars and 
 Stripes are pulled down and the Stars and Bars 
 run up in their place, I'll holler as loud as the 
 next fellow. You may speak freely." 
 
 Caleb might have had some doubts on that 
 point if he could have seen the flashing eyes 
 and clenched fists there were on the other side 
 of the fence. But Dixon spoke so calmly, in 
 spite of the towering rage he was in, that the 
 man's suspicions were not aroused. 
 
 "You calculated to whip Rodney and drive 
 him out of the country ; but when you learned 
 that he was a good rebel, you thought you 
 wouldn't do it," said Dixon. "Is that the 
 way of it ? Then what are you holding him 
 for? Why don't you let him come home?" 
 
 "All the company was in for lettin' both of 
 ' em go, ' ceptin' Bud . He wouldn' t hear to it. " 
 
 " What sort of a company have you ? " 
 
 " One we-uns got up yesterday and last night
 
 BUD'S MESSENGER IN TROUBLE. 249 
 
 while them houses was burnin' . Minute men, 
 you know, who are ready to grab their guns 
 an' fight in a minute. Bud wanted to capting 
 the company, but we-uns put in another feller, 
 an' mebbe that makes him madder t' wards the 
 boys than he would be if he was capting." 
 
 "Very likely; and it is a good idea to 
 pound them for it. What was the reason he 
 wouldn't listen when you proposed to let 
 Rodney go ?" 
 
 " Kase Rodney an' that Graham boy was 
 the fellers that offered to give him a hunderd 
 dollars if he would show them where that 
 underground railroad was that used to tote the 
 niggers off to Canady," replied Caleb. "Bud 
 says they needn't think they're ever goin' to 
 come back to the 'cademy less'n he gets them 
 hunderd dollars. He looked for the railroad 
 in good faith, an' allows that he'd oughter be 
 paid for his time an' trouble." 
 
 " And this is the way he takes to get his pay, 
 is it ? Well, he must have it, and if I have 
 any influence with the boys he will get more 
 than he asks for. But why did you come here 
 to tell us this ?"
 
 250 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 " Kase Bud sont me up here to get the 
 money." 
 
 " You know right where he is, I suppose?" 
 
 "I do, forafac'." 
 
 " Are there many men with him ? " 
 
 "Nobody but jest Silas Walker. The rest 
 of the company wouldn' t have nothing to do 
 with it, an' so they went home." 
 
 "And you expect us to send the money 
 back by you, do you ? How much of it will 
 you get?" 
 
 " Not a dog- gone cent. I don't want none 
 of it. I come kase I want to see them two 
 boys let go. Hold on, there. What you 
 doin'?" exclaimed Caleb, when he felt him- 
 self suddenly seized by the elbow and his 
 whole arm pulled through the fence. "Turn 
 me loose." 
 
 " Take hold of the other arm, Billings," said 
 Dixon quietly. "Now, old man, keep per- 
 fectly still and do just as you are told, and no 
 harm shall come to you. You are friendly to 
 Rodney and Dick, and that makes us friendly 
 toward you. Come over the fence. Up you 
 go."
 
 BUD'S MESSENGER IN TROUBLE. 251 
 
 "What for?" 
 
 "We want you to tell the officer of the 
 guard, and perhaps the colonel, just what you 
 have told us, word for word." 
 
 "By gracious, boys, you're going to get me 
 into a pretty mess," said the sentry nervously. 
 " You can't get him over without alarming the 
 whole school, and how shall I explain matters 
 to the corporal? He's a chap who will not 
 stand any nonsense. Come over that fence," 
 he added, an idea striking him ; and as he 
 spoke he drew up his loaded musket and 
 pointed it at Caleb's head. "Quick and still, 
 or I'll cut loose." 
 
 The sight of the black muzzle that looked 
 him squarely in the eye was too much for 
 Caleb's nerves. Beseeching the sentry, in 
 whining tones, to turn that weapon t'other 
 way, he shinned up the pickets, Dixon and 
 Billings shifting their hold from his arms to 
 his legs and feet as he ascended, and in two 
 minutes more he stood within the academy 
 grounds.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE FIRST COMPANY IN ACTION. 
 
 said Dixon soothingly. "I 
 -L told you you shouldn't be hurt if you 
 obey orders without making any fuss. Now 
 come with us, and don't speak above a 
 whisper." 
 
 "What do you reckon the kurn'll do to 
 me ?" inquired Caleb, who could scarcely have 
 been more frightened if the students had 
 threatened him as Bud Goble had threatened 
 Rodney and Dick. 
 
 " He'll not do the first thing to you," Bill- 
 ings assured him. " Why should he when you 
 come here as a friend to those two prisoners ? 
 We'll see you safe outside the gate as soon as 
 the officers are through questioning you." 
 
 "An' will you-uns give me the money?" 
 asked Caleb. "If you don't, them boys is 
 bound to get whopped." 
 
 252
 
 THE FIRST COMPANY IN ACTION. 253 
 
 " Did Bud say so ?" 
 
 "He made that same remark. An' he said, 
 furder, that if I wasn't back by sun-up with 
 the hunderd dollars, he would know you-uns 
 had held fast to me, an' then he would lick 
 'em, sure hope to die." 
 
 " I promise you that you shall be back there 
 before sunrise," said Dixon significantly. 
 " We can't permit those fellows to be whipped 
 on account of a joke, and we won't, either. 
 You are quite sure you can go straight to 
 him?" 
 
 Yes, Caleb was sure he could do that ; and 
 then his conductors, who had all the while 
 held fast to his arms, halted in front of Cap- 
 tain Wilson, the officer of the guard, who 
 chanced to be pacing back and forth in front 
 of the tent. The captain listened in amaze- 
 ment while the boys told their story, and the 
 light from the tent showed that there was a 
 shade of anxiety on his face when he inquired : 
 
 " Where did you find this man 3 " 
 
 " Outside the grounds, sir," Dixon prompt- 
 ly responded. 
 
 "And what were you doing outside the
 
 254 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 grounds at this hour, when you know that 
 such a thing is positively forbidden?" con- 
 tinued the officer severely. 
 
 "I had started for Barrington, sir," an- 
 swered Marcy. "The commandant wouldn't 
 give me a chance to ask permission to go." 
 
 "And so you went without it ?" 
 
 "Yes, sir, I did. I was resolved to learn 
 something about Rodney and Dick before I 
 slept." 
 
 "I shall be obliged to shut you up," said 
 the captain. 
 
 "Very good, sir," replied Marcy. "But 
 how about Rodney and Dick ? Is that villain 
 Goble to be permitted to abuse them as he 
 pleases ? " 
 
 "I am surprised at your insolence, Private 
 Gray," said the officer sternly. "Go inside 
 the tent under arrest." 
 
 Marcy went, and all the boys, as well as 
 Caleb Judson, went in with him, and Captain 
 Wilson hastened away to lay the matter be- 
 fore the colonel. 
 
 "Now, I'll tell you what's a fact," said 
 Marcy. "Captain Wilson would do some-
 
 THE FIRST COMPANY IN ACTION. 255 
 
 thing for those boys if he were in com- 
 mand, but the colonel will not do the first 
 thing." 
 
 " So be it, ' ' answered Billings. ' * Then we' 11 
 see whether or not the fellows will do some- 
 thing. They are not the lads I take them for 
 if they do not rally on center the minute they 
 find out how the land lies." 
 
 " What's up ? " whispered a student, thrust- 
 ing his head into the tent and then looking 
 back to see if there was any one coming. 
 ''Who's that gentleman" (nodding at Caleb), 
 " and what are you doing in there ? " 
 
 " In arrest for being sassy," replied Cole. 
 "Say" 
 
 Here all the boys got upon their feet, stepped 
 to the door and held a short but earnest 
 conversation with the student outside, who 
 muttered, ejaculated, and scratched his head in 
 a way that indicated the profoundest surprise 
 and bewilderment. Then he said : " You bet 
 I'll do it," disappeared around the corner of 
 the tent, and the boys ran back to the table, 
 beside which they stood, with their caps off 
 and their hands to their foreheads, when the
 
 256 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 officer of the guard came in accompanied by 
 the colonel. The latter looked and acted as if 
 the burden of his responsibility was too heavy 
 for him to carry ; and the worst of it was, it 
 was growing heavier every day. He was out 
 of patience, too, and as cross as a bear. 
 
 " What sort of a cock-and-bull story is this 
 I hear about Sergeant Gray and Private Gra- 
 ham?" said he snappishly. "I am in no 
 humor for wasting words." 
 
 "Neither are we, sir," Marcy replied boldly. 
 " My cousin is in trouble, and I should like to 
 have him helped out of it." 
 
 "If he hadn't run the guard and gone to 
 town without permission, he wouldn't be in 
 trouble," answered the colonel. " Now let me 
 hear the story from beginning to end, and in as 
 short a space of time as possible." 
 
 Marcy Gray and Dixon could talk to the 
 point when they made up their minds to it, 
 and the colonel was not kept in his chair a 
 second longer than was necessary to make him 
 understand just how Rodney and Dick were 
 situated. That the recital made him nervous 
 was plain from the way he rubbed his hands
 
 THE FIRST COMPANY IN ACTION. 257 
 
 together and tumbled his hair about his fore- 
 head. 
 
 " Well, what do you expect me to do about 
 it ? " he asked, when the story was concluded. 
 
 " We should like to have you send an officer 
 down there, under guidance of this man Jud- 
 son, and rescue those boys," said Marcy. 
 
 "That is the duty of the civil authorities, 
 and I cannot interfere with them," replied the 
 colonel, in a tone which seemed to say that the 
 matter was settled so far as he was concerned. 
 " Last night I tried to do a friendly turn for 
 the citizens of Barrington, but I will never do 
 it again. They can be burned up or whipped 
 for all I care." 
 
 "But, sir, these boys are not citizens of Bar- 
 rington," said Dixon. "They are pupils of 
 this school, and as such they are entitled to all 
 the aid and comfort it is in your power to give 
 them." 
 
 " When I think I need to be instructed in my 
 duty toward those who are placed under my 
 care, I will send for you, Private Dixon," re- 
 plied the colonel loftily ; but the boys all saw, 
 and so did the officer of the guard, that he 
 
 17
 
 258 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 could not make up his mind how to act under 
 the circumstances. The colonel knew well 
 enough that there was little dependence to be 
 placed upon the Barrington authorities, and 
 that the surest way to help Rodney and Dick 
 was to do as Marcy suggested ; but he could 
 not make a move without running the risk of 
 offending the influential members of the Com- 
 mittee of Safety. As he spoke he pointed 
 toward the door, and Dixon saluted and went 
 out. 
 
 "In order to relieve your suspense, Private 
 Gray, I will tell you what I purpose doing," 
 continued the colonel. "I will send this 
 man with a note to the police justice in 
 town, and request him to take some steps 
 looking to your cousin's release. That is all 
 I can do." 
 
 "An' will you give me the hunderd dollars 
 to hand to Bud ?" inquired Caleb. 
 
 " I shall not give you a cent." 
 
 " Then I shant go nigh Bud, an' that's flat," 
 declared Caleb, with more spirit than he had 
 previously exhibited. " Them chaps will get 
 licked if I don't have that money to hand to
 
 THE FIRST COMPANY IN ACTION. 259 
 
 Bud when I see him, an' I aint wantin' to get 
 into trouble." 
 
 Dixon, who was loitering about on the out- 
 side of the tent, did not wait to hear any more, 
 but posted off to the hall, where he found an 
 excited, almost frantic, crowd of students im- 
 patiently looking for some one to come from 
 the guard tent and tell them what the com- 
 mandant had decided to do. 
 
 " Colonel," said Marcy, whose white face 
 showed how desperate was the conflict that was 
 raging within him, and how hard it was to be 
 respectful to the man who had it in his power 
 to help Rodney, and who refused to use that 
 power because he was afraid of the Barring- 
 ton secessionists. " Your plan will not work, 
 sir." 
 
 "I can't help it," was the colonel's answer. 
 " It is the only thing I can do. If Rodney had 
 stayed within bounds he would not be in need 
 of help. Now go, all of you. " 
 
 As soon as they were safe out of the tent 
 Marcy caught Caleb by the arm and whis- 
 pered 
 
 "If the colonel hands you a note to carry to
 
 260 TRUE TO HIS COLOKS. 
 
 town, don't go away with it until I see you 
 again. If you do you may get into difficulty. 
 I'll raise some money for you." 
 
 "That's talking sense," said Caleb, in the 
 same cautious whisper. " It's the only way to 
 get 'em off without a lickin'." 
 
 "Look here," exclaimed Billings, as the 
 three moved away leaving Caleb standing near 
 the guard tent. "Are you going to raise a 
 hundred dollars for Goble ? " 
 
 " Not much. I don't think I could ; but I'm 
 going to raise something to pay Caleb for guid- 
 ing me to Bud's hiding-place." 
 
 " Bully for you. Count us in." 
 
 " I'll not ask any one to go with me," an- 
 swered Marcy. "If you want to help, you can 
 do it by telling me how I can smuggle my 
 musket and cartridge-box out of the armory." 
 
 " Now, that's an idea. Of course we'll help. 
 Great Scott ! What a crazy crowd, and what 
 do you reckon they're going to do ? " 
 
 It was no wonder that Bob Cole asked this 
 question. While he and his companions were 
 talking they walked through the archway into 
 the hall, which was filled with pale, deter-
 
 THE FIRST COMPANY IN ACTION. 261 
 
 mined-looking students, who were quietly mak- 
 ing their way up the wide stairs toward the 
 armory. 
 
 " What's up ?" repeated Cole. 
 
 "We're going after our muskets," replied 
 one. "Fall in." 
 
 " Not the whole school ? " Billings managed 
 to gasp, while Marcy Gray stood speechless, 
 wondering at the magnitude of the rebellion 
 which had been brought about by the colonel's 
 refusal to send a squad to Rodney's assistance 
 and Dick's, and by the stirring appeals to 
 which they had listened from Dixon, as well 
 as from the lips of the boy who had received 
 those hasty instructions at the guard-tent. 
 
 "Talk about rebels ! Why, this is a riot," 
 said Cole. 
 
 " It looks very like it," replied Dixon, who 
 stood at the foot of the stairs urging every boy 
 to fall in. " They're all going except the com- 
 pany officers, who have taken themselves off 
 out of sight, so that they cannot be called 
 upon to oppose us. Where's Caleb ? " 
 
 " I made sure of him by saying that I would 
 raise some money for him," replied Marcy.
 
 262 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 " If we were only outside the gate we should 
 be all right." 
 
 " We'll get out easy as falling off a log," 
 said Dixon. " If you had glanced toward the 
 gate when you came in, you would have seen 
 four good fellows there talking with the sen- 
 try. It will be their business to disarm him, 
 if he shows fight when we attempt to march 
 out, as it is his duty to do ; and if the officer 
 of the guard tries to turn the key upon us, 
 those four fellows will quietly take the gate 
 from its hinges and tumble it over into the 
 road. It's all cut and dried, and if the boys 
 keep as still as they are now, we'll be out be- 
 fore the colonel knows what we are up to. 
 Oh, I haven't been idle since the commandant 
 ordered me from the guard-tent." 
 
 There was no need that Dixon should say 
 this, for the actions of the students proved 
 that he had done a good deal of talking since 
 he was ordered out of the tent. Although 
 they were pushing and crowding one another 
 in their haste to get into the armory and out 
 of it again before some busybody (there are 
 boys of that sort in every school) could run to
 
 THE FIRST COMPANY IN ACTION. 263 
 
 the colonel and apprise him of what was going 
 on, there was not the least noise or confusion, 
 not a word spoken above a whisper, and if 
 there had been any studious scholars in the 
 dormitories, they would not have been in the 
 least disturbed. In five minutes more the 
 armory was thronged with students, who hav- 
 ing taken their muskets from the racks, were 
 buckling on their cartridge-boxes. The weight 
 of the boxes dispelled the fear that the colo- 
 nel might have had the ball cartridges that 
 were put in them the night before removed. 
 Why he hadn't done it, seeing that he had 
 promised to remain neutral in future, was a 
 mystery. 
 
 "This is a high-handed proceeding, boys," 
 observed one, "and if a shoulder-strap should 
 come in and order us to put these guns back, 
 then what?" 
 
 "Then would be the time for you, to prove 
 that you were in earnest when you promised 
 that you would stand by Rodney and Dick if 
 the colonel refused to help them," said 
 another. "Who cares? We're rebels any- 
 how, and we certainly would not go back on
 
 204 TRUE TO HIS COLOKS. 
 
 our principles at the command of anybody up 
 North." 
 
 "Don't stop to discuss politics," said Dixon, 
 who, by common consent, was the commander 
 of the expedition, there being no commissioned 
 officers present. " Some of you take muskets 
 number twenty-two, thirty-four, forty-four, 
 and fifty-six from the racks in addition to 
 your own for those four fellows at the gate. 
 Now fall in, in your places as near as 
 you can. We'll not stop to count fours or 
 to divide the companies into platoons. So 
 long as we get there, we don't care whether we 
 go in military form or not. Fours right : For- 
 ward, column left, march!" 
 
 "Charge bayonets!" shouted some half- 
 wild fellow in the ranks, when the colonel and 
 officer of the guard, both with drawn swords 
 in their hands, suddenly appeared in the door- 
 way. " Run over everything that gets in the 
 road." 
 
 "Young gentlemen! Boys! Private Dixon, 
 what are you about?" cried the colonel, who 
 was so amazed that he hardly knew what he 
 said. "I'll put the last one of you in the
 
 THE FIRST COMPANY IN ACTION. 265 
 
 guard-house. Just one moment, boys. Listen 
 to reason. I'll do everything I can to get Rod- 
 ney and Dick out of that scrape. I will, I as- 
 sure you." 
 
 "Forward, double quick 1 " somebody shout- 
 ed ; and although the command came from 
 one who had no business to give it, Dixon be* 
 ing the acknowledged leader, the most of the 
 students would have obeyed it with the great- 
 est promptness, had not the Kentucky boy 
 jumped in front of the first four and barred 
 their way with his musket, which he held at 
 the height of his shoulders. 
 
 " Halt ! " he shouted. " Colonel, this is too 
 plain a case, as you see. If you will not help 
 our friends who are in difficulty, we will. If 
 we will break ranks, will you send the first 
 company, under Judson's lead, to bring Rod- 
 ney and Dick to the academy?" 
 
 "I will," replied the colonel, who saw that 
 if he didn't agree to the proposition, the boys 
 would go without being sent. 
 
 "Very good, sir," said Dixon; while the 
 most of the rebels looked disappointed. ' ' That 
 is all we ask. Forward, column right, march.
 
 266 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 Fours, left, halt, right dress, front, order 
 arms ! " 
 
 This brought the boys back into the armory, 
 in line, and in readiness to hear what the 
 colonel had to say to them ; but the latter was 
 in no humor for making a speech. He could 
 not praise the students for what they had done, 
 and he was afraid to find fault with them, be- 
 cause there was an expression on their faces 
 which said as plainly as words that the rebel- 
 lion was not yet subdued, and that they were 
 ready to go on with it if the colonel did not do 
 as he promised without any unnecessary 
 delay. This was something new in the history 
 of the Barrington Military Institute. It was 
 the first time the students had ever taken the 
 law into their own hands, and they had showed 
 the colonel that he could not carry water on 
 both shoulders without running the risk of 
 spilling some of it. 
 
 "I shall close the school and send you 
 to your homes the first thing in the morn- 
 ing," sputtered the commandant, jamming 
 his sword into its scabbard, as if to say 
 that he had no further use for it. "This
 
 THE FIRST COMPANY IN ACTION. 267 
 
 is a state of affairs to which I will not 
 submit." 
 
 " And in the meantime, sir, permit me to 
 remind you that my cousin is in the hands of a 
 ruffian who has threatened to beat him, if cer- 
 tain demands he has made are not complied 
 with," said Marcy, who was impatient to be off. 
 
 The colonel bit his lip, glared savagely at 
 Marcy for an instant, said a few hurried words 
 to Captain Wilson, and left the armory. The 
 first thing the officer of the guard did was to 
 remove his red sash and hand it to another 
 teacher an action which all the boys in line 
 greeted with hearty cheers ; and his second 
 move was to march the first company out of 
 line, and order the others to break ranks. 
 This looked like business. Captain Wilson 
 was going in command, and that meant that 
 Rodney and his companion in trouble would 
 be found and released before the company re- 
 turned. But would the captain permit them 
 to give Bud a whack or two with the butts of 
 their muskets just to teach him to mind his 
 own business in future ? Probably not ; and if 
 Captain Wilson forbade it Bud would be safe,
 
 268 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 for the boys thought too much of him to rebel 
 against his orders. 
 
 "We will wait a few minutes for the offi- 
 cers," said the Captain, "and in the mean- 
 time count fours." 
 
 But the boy officers did not "show up." 
 They had concealed themselves so effectually 
 that the orderlies sent out by the colonel could 
 not find them, and so the captain was obliged 
 to go without them. They would be disap- 
 pointed when they came out of their hiding- 
 places and found that their company had gone 
 off with the colonel's permission, but that could 
 not be helped. Caleb Judson was much sur- 
 prised when he found himself at the head of 
 the column, surrounded by a corporal's guard 
 who were instructed, in his hearing, to see that 
 he did not give them the slip, but he did not 
 refuse to act as guide. 
 
 " : All I ask of you, capting," said he, "is to 
 let me stay back out of sight when you grab 
 Bud, so't he won't suspicion that I had any- 
 thing to do with bringin' you-uns onto him. 
 He's a bad man when he's mad " 
 
 " So I have heard," said the captain dryly.
 
 THE FIRST COMPANY IN ACTION. 269 
 
 " He must be a terrible fellow to let Elder 
 Bowen walk him out of the yard by the back 
 of the neck. But your wishes shall be re- 
 spected, and my boys will never mention your 
 name in connection with this business." 
 
 This satisfied Caleb, who strode ahead as if 
 he were in a great hurry to reach his destina- 
 tion. 
 
 "It's queer doings, this taking nearly a hun- 
 dred boys to capture two vagabonds," whis- 
 pered Dixon, who had taken pains to secure a 
 place in the ranks next to Marcy Gray. " But 
 it's the best thing that could be done. If any 
 of us had been ordered to stay behind, there 
 might have been another rebellion. Besides, 
 Bud and Silas are Injuns, and I shouldn't be 
 surprised if they slipped through our fingers." 
 
 "I hope they will," said Marcy honestly. 
 " Bad as they are, I shouldn't want to see them 
 hurt." 
 
 The students marched through the principal 
 street of Barrington, but if any one saw then! 
 they never heard of it. There was but one 
 man stirring, and that was old Mr. Bailey, who 
 devoted a wakeful half-hour to patroling his
 
 270 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 premises with his revolver in his hand. If he 
 was surprised to see the boys he did not say 
 anything about it, for the rapidity of their 
 movements and the strict silence they main- 
 tained were indications that they did not care 
 to have the citizens know they were out. Mr. 
 Bailey would have given all the candy and pea- 
 nuts in his store to know what their errand 
 was, but was forced to content himself with the 
 reflection that he would learn all about it the 
 next time Dick Graham came to town. 
 
 "Now, capting," said Caleb, after they had 
 gone a long distance down the road that led to 
 Mr. Blley's house, "Bud's camp is off that 
 a- way about a mile. The woods is tol'able 
 thick, an' I don't reckon you can go through 
 'em in a bunch, like you be now, without 
 scarin' him. He's got ears, Bud has. You-uns 
 had best scatter out an' go one at a time." 
 
 " Form skirmish line, I suppose you mean." 
 
 "I don't know what you call it. Couldn't 
 make 'em into something like a horse-shoe, 
 could ye ? " 
 
 " Certainly. Hold back the center and push 
 the flanks forward. That's easy enough."
 
 THE FIRST COMPANY IN ACTION. 271 
 
 4 'Eh?" said Caleb. 
 
 "I'll make a horse-shoe, if that's what you 
 want." 
 
 " All right. An' when you get to where his 
 fire is, you can kinder bring the heels of the 
 shoe in t' wards each other, an' there Bud an' 
 Silas' 11 be on the inside of 'em. See ? " 
 
 The captain understood, and thought it a 
 good plan to act upon the guide's suggestion, 
 although he could not make up his mind that 
 he would permit his men to make prisoners of 
 Bud and Silas. Perhaps, on the whole, it 
 would not be safe. Good-natured, obedient 
 Dick Graham could be easily controlled, but 
 how about fiery Rodney Gray, angry as he 
 undoubtedly was ? The latter, quick-tempered 
 and impatient of discipline as he was known to 
 be, when he found himself backed by nearly 
 all the boys in his class and company might 
 avow a determination to take ample ven- 
 geance upon his captors ; and if he so 
 much as suggested the thing, the students 
 were in the right mood to help him through 
 with it. 
 
 " We don't want to make captives of those
 
 272 TKUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 two men," said the captain, as he passed along 
 the ranks getting the skirmish line in shape. 
 "We'll scare them out of a year's growth and 
 show them that they cannot fool with our boys 
 with impunity, but that is as far as we will go. 
 If they can get away, let them." 
 
 It took ten minutes to form the " horse-shoe " 
 and make each boy acquainted with the signals 
 that were to be used for his guidance, and then 
 the order was given to advance. The woods 
 were pitch dark, and it was a task of no little 
 difficulty for the boys to find their way through 
 the thick underbrush, and over the fallen logs 
 that obstructed every foot of the mile that lay 
 between the road and Bud Goble's camp, but 
 they did it without making noise enough to 
 alarm him. What they were most afraid of 
 was that he would hear them coming and drag 
 his prisoners away from the fire and deeper 
 into the woods, where they could not be found 
 until Bud had had time to wreak vengeance 
 upon them. But they need not have borrowed 
 any trouble on that score. If Bud Goble had 
 had the faintest idea of the commotion his 
 senseless act had caused among the academy
 
 THE FIRST COMPANY IN ACTION. 273 
 
 boys, money would not have hired him to lay a 
 finger upon Rodney and Dick. 
 
 At the end of an hour Captain Wilson, who 
 was in the center of the line, came within sight 
 of Bud's camp-fire, and the order was passed 
 for the flanks to close upon each other. In 
 fifteen minutes more a shrill whistle coming 
 from the opposite side of the fire announced 
 that the command had been obeyed, and with a 
 charging yell, that was never surpassed by any 
 they afterward uttered in battle, the boys 
 sprang up and rushed for the fire. Not a bay- 
 onet had been fixed or a piece loaded that is, 
 by orders ; but some of the young soldiers had 
 quietly driven home a cartridge while working 
 their way through the woods, and when the 
 signal to advance was given, they fired their 
 muskets into the air with such effect that Bud 
 and Silas gave themselves up for lost, and the 
 prisoners jumped from their beds of leaves by 
 the fire, and shouted and waved their caps to 
 show their comrades where they were. 
 
 "Death to all Minute-men!" somebody 
 yelled ; and the cry was taken up and carried 
 along the line with such volume that Bud's 
 
 18
 
 274 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 frantic appeals for "quarter" could not be 
 heard. 
 
 In less time than it takes to write it the stu- 
 dents crowded into the camp, and Rodney and 
 Dick were being shaken by both hands. Their 
 captors were so completely surprised, and so 
 very frightened that they had not thought of 
 their rifles, which were leaning against con- 
 venient trees. And now came the very demon- 
 stration that Captain Wilson had been afraid 
 of. Jerking himself loose from the detaining 
 hands of his comrades, Rodney picked up a 
 heavy switch lying on the ground near the log 
 that Bud had been using for a seat. 
 
 "Turn about is fair play, old fellow," said 
 he. " You promised to use this on our backs 
 if you did not receive the hundred dollars you 
 said we owed you, and now we'll see " 
 
 "Give it to him!" shouted the students, 
 almost as one boy. "We'll stand by you. 
 Put it on good and strong. Stand back, Cap- 
 tain Wilson. We don't want to go against 
 you, but these men must have a lesson they 
 will not forget." 
 
 Thus encouraged Rodney raised the switch,
 
 THE FIRST COMPANY IN ACTION. 275 
 
 and in a second more it would have fallen with 
 full force upon Bud's head and shoulders, had 
 not Marcy Gray, dashing aside three or four 
 friends who stood in his way, jumped forward 
 and seized his cousin's arm. 
 
 "Rodney," said he, "is this your man- 
 hood?" 
 
 The angry boy glared at his cousin for an 
 instant, and then, to the surprise of all, he 
 lowered his arm and gave up the switch. 
 
 ' ' You here, Marcy 2 ' ' he exclaimed. ' ' There 
 isn' t as much manhood in my whole body as 
 there is in your little finger. Don't look at me 
 in that way. Don't speak to me; I am be- 
 neath contempt. Goble, you're free to go, but 
 don't come near me again." 
 
 "Yes, Goble, clear yourself," shouted 
 Dixon, who, although he did not understand 
 the matter at all, thought Bud had better get 
 out of danger while the students were in the 
 mood to let him go. "I'm about to stick the 
 butt of my gun through the air right where 
 you are standing, and if you're there, you'll 
 get hurt. One two 
 
 Goble turned and ran for his life, the boys
 
 276 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 dividing right and left, and jeering him loudly 
 as he passed through their ranks. 
 
 "He's a minute-man," said one. 
 
 "Yes; and he'll get there in a good deal 
 less than a minute," cried another. "Go 
 faster than that, for he's close after you. Ah, 
 He came pretty near hitting you that time ! 
 Next time you'll be a goner." 
 
 Dixon had not moved an inch from his 
 tracks, but he had accomplished his object 
 and sent Bud off without injury. Silas 
 Walker must have gone about the same time, 
 for when the boys looked around for him they 
 could not find him.
 
 H 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 HAULING DOWN THE COLORS. 
 
 AVING accomplished the work he was 
 sent out to do, Captain Wilson shook 
 hands with the rescued boys, who did not seem 
 any the worse for their short experience among 
 the members of Bud Goble's company of 
 minute-men, and commanded the students to 
 "fall in." Some of the boys were in favor of 
 smashing the rifles which the two vagabonds 
 had left behind in their hurried flight ; but 
 better counsels prevailed, and the weapons 
 were leaned against a tree where Bud could 
 easily find them, in case he should muster 
 courage enough to come after them. The re- 
 turn march through the woods was rendered 
 less dismal by the numerous light- wood torches 
 that were carried along the line ; but there was 
 not much opportunity for talking until the 
 timber had been left behind, and the ranks 
 were closed up on the road leading to Barring- 
 ton. 
 
 877
 
 278 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 "Now tell us all about it," said Marcy Gray 
 to his cousin, who marched by his side. "We 
 know that you were enticed into a cabin to see 
 a sick man who needed quinine, and that when 
 you went in Bud and some others jumped out 
 and made you prisoners. The man Bud sent 
 to the academy after the money you and Dick 
 promised to give him for finding that under- 
 ground railroad told us about that ; but what 
 happened afterward ? How did they use you ? " 
 
 ' ' We haven' t a thing to complain of, ' ' replied 
 Rodney, "except the suspense we were kept 
 in while Judson was absent. I knew he would 
 bring help, as well as I knew that Bud had 
 threatened to whip us if he did not have that 
 hundred dollars in his hands before sunrise. 
 But I didn't think the colonel would send it. 
 While I was in Barrington I learned from a 
 dozen different sources that he had agreed to 
 keep us inside, and never again interfere with 
 anything that might happen in town." 
 
 This gave Marcy a chance to tell about the 
 riot at the academy, but, contrary to his ex- 
 pectation Rodney did not seem to be very 
 jubilant over it.
 
 HAULING DOWN THE COLORS. 279 
 
 " I didn't know I had so many friends," said 
 he, sinking his voice almost to a whisper, ' ' and, 
 to tell you the honest truth, I don't deserve 
 them. You fellows ought to have stayed away 
 until Bud gave me the licking he promised, 
 and then come up in time to save Dick. He 
 was in no way to blame for what I did." 
 
 " And I reckon you didn't do anything very 
 bad," replied Marcy, with a laugh. "It was 
 no part of our plan to let either of you be 
 whipped. But, look here, Rodney. Why 
 were you so anxious to see Bud Goble the last 
 time you were in town ? " 
 
 " I had put it into his head to do something 
 to you and Dick Graham, and I wanted to stop 
 it if I could," answered Rodney. " I tell you 
 I was frightened when I saw those fires. I be- 
 gan to see what we were coming to, and I 
 wanted to warn Goble that he was watched, 
 and that he would surely bring trouble upon 
 himself if he paid any attention to that letter." 
 
 "What letter?" 
 
 " Why, the one old nigger Toby told you 
 about. I wrote it. Mean as you may think 
 me, and as I am, I wrote it. I said to myself
 
 280 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 that I would drive you and Dick from the 
 school, and that was the way I took to do it." 
 Having got fairly started on the confession 
 he had longed to make, and paying no sort of 
 attention to his cousin's efforts to stop him, 
 Rodney made a clean breast of the matter, and 
 told just how far his loyalty to the Stars and 
 Bars and his hatred for everybody who had a 
 lingering spark of affection for the Stars and 
 Stripes had led him. On the evening his new 
 flag came he slipped away from his com- 
 panions, ran into a store, wrote the letter that 
 Bud afterward read to his wife, and got it into 
 the office without any one being the wiser for 
 what he had done. That letter sent Bud on 
 the war-path, and encouraged him to impose 
 upon Mr. Bailey and Elder Bowen, both of 
 whom met his attempts in a manner so vigor- 
 ous that Mr. Riley and his Committee of Safety 
 became alarmed. They held a secret meeting, 
 and determined upon a plan of operations 
 which they hoped would drive Union men and 
 abolitionists from the country, and bring the 
 State-rights men, like Mr. Bailey, over to the 
 Confederacy. The committee was responsible
 
 HAULING DOWN THE COLORS. 281 
 
 for those two fires Rodney had heard enough 
 from his rebel friends to make him sure of 
 that ; and they had but just begun operations, 
 when .Captain Wilson and his boys put in an 
 appearance. That was what made Mr. Riley 
 so angry that he would not speak to the 
 students that night, or even look at them, and 
 it was possible that he and the others who 
 rode up to the academy had talked to the 
 colonel in very plain language. 
 
 " I supposed, of course, that I would find 
 Goble somewhere in toWTi, and kept Dick with 
 me because I wanted him to help with a word 
 now and then," said Rodney, in conclusion. 
 " He played a very slick trick on us when he 
 sent word that that sick man was in need of 
 medicine, and we fell into the trap as easy as 
 you please. He was awful mad when he 
 found that he had caught the wrong boy, that 
 it was Marcy he wanted and not Rodney, but 
 he hadn't forgotten the underground railroad 
 joke, and was resolved that we shouldn't for- 
 get it, either. I didn't think Bud would be 
 fool enough to threaten anybody with a whip- 
 ping. If I had, I never would have written
 
 282 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 that letter, I assure you. If lie had whipped 
 me for it, it would have served me right." 
 
 Marcy listened in silence to this astounding 
 revelation, and although he was intensely 
 grieved and shocked, he said everything he 
 could to make Rodney understand that he was 
 freely and fully forgiven, and that it would 
 never be remembered against him ; but Rod- 
 ney refused to be comforted. 
 
 " Dick knows it, and you know it," said he. 
 "And if the other fellows do not suspect it, 
 they must be both blind and deaf. I don't 
 care to stay longer about the academy where 
 everything I see will remind me of events I 
 should be glad to forget, and I shall start for 
 home by the first train that leaves Barrington 
 to-morrow. If the colonel will not let me 
 go-" 
 
 " I don't think he will object to any of us 
 going, ' replied Marcy. ' ' During the riot, when 
 Dixon marched us back into the armory, he 
 said he intended to disband the whole thing at 
 once. Matters were coming to such a pass 
 that he couldn't and wouldn't stand it any 
 longer."
 
 HAULING DOWN THE COLORS. 283 
 
 "I hope he will stick to it," said Rodney. 
 ' ' We might as well have been home three 
 months ago for all the good we've done in 
 school. If he won't permit me to go I'll skip, 
 if you will send my trunk after me." 
 
 Marcy said he would, provided he was there 
 to attend to it, and then gradually led the con- 
 versation into other channels ; for that letter 
 was a sore subject to Rodney, and Marcy 
 never wanted to hear it again. No matter 
 what happened, it would never get to his 
 mother's ears or Sailor Jack's either. 
 
 When the company reached the academy, 
 after four hours' absence, they learned that the 
 teachers had made repeated efforts to get the 
 boys to go to bed, but without doing much to- 
 ward accomplishing the desired end. They 
 went to their dormitories as often as they were 
 told, but leading a horse to water and making 
 him drink are two different things. As soon 
 as the teachers' backs were turned, they would 
 slip out into the hall, run downstairs, and join 
 some of the excited groups strolling about the 
 grounds. They were all up and awake when 
 the rescuers returned, and accompanied them
 
 284 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 into the armory ; but they did not cheer them 
 as they would like to have done. The cool- 
 headed ones among them thought that would 
 be carrying their triumph a little too far. 
 When ranks were broken Marcy reported to 
 Captain Wilson, and asked if he should go 
 into the guard-house. 
 
 " What for ? " inquired the captain. 
 
 "Have you forgotten, sir, that you put me 
 under arrest ? " 
 
 "Why did you not stay in the guard-tent 
 when I put you there ?" said the officer, with 
 a smile. 
 
 "Because the colonel ordered me out, sir. 
 I am glad he did so, for it gave me a chance to 
 go with my company and see Rodney and 
 Dick helped out of their scrape." 
 
 " Well, behave yourself in future, and we'll 
 not say any more about your being under 
 arrest." 
 
 Marcy knew that would be the upshot of 
 the matter. If the captain meant to put him 
 in arrest, he had no business to permit him to 
 go on that expedition. 
 
 The next morning things went on in their
 
 HAULING DOWN THE COLORS. 285 
 
 usual haphazard way, and the colonel did not 
 say a word about disbanding the school. He 
 thought better of it after he had taken time to 
 cool off ; but it was not so with Rodney Gray. 
 By allowing himself to be led away by the 
 excitement of the hour he had done something 
 he never could forget if- he lived to be a hun- 
 dred years old, and he longed to leave the 
 academy and everybody in it behind him, and 
 mingle with people who believed as he did, 
 and who did not know of the meanness of 
 which he had been guilty. And, what was 
 very comforting as well as surprising, the 
 colonel permitted him to go without asking 
 any disagreeable questions. 
 
 " I don't know that I blame you," said he, 
 in a discouraged tone. " I think I should be 
 glad to go somewhere myself. I have been 
 hoping almost against hope that these troubles 
 might be settled without a war, but I don't 
 believe they ever will be. The folks about 
 here seem to think that the people of the 
 North are cowardly, but they are not. They 
 are simply patient ; but there will come a time 
 when their patience will be exhausted, and
 
 286 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 then they will sweep over us like an army of 
 locusts." 
 
 "You don't really think they will fight, do 
 you, sir ? " said Rodney, who was surprised to 
 hear the colonel talk in this strain. 
 
 ' ' I am sure of it. When Beauregard opens 
 his batteries upon Sumter, you will see an 
 uprising that will astonish the world. I am 
 sorry to part with you, but you may go. You 
 would no doubt get a letter from your father 
 in a few days any way, so I don' t suppose it 
 makes much difference." 
 
 Rodney went, but he did not go alone. In- 
 stead of one carriage, there were four that 
 drove away from the academy an hour later, 
 and they were filled as full of students as they 
 could hold. But the departing crowd did not 
 whoop and yell as they were in the habit of 
 doing when they set out for home at vacation 
 time. They were sober and thoughtful, and so 
 were those they left behind. The events of the 
 last few hours had made them so. Rodney 
 Gray voiced the sentiments of all of them when 
 he said to Marcy and Dick, as he extended a 
 hand to each :
 
 HAULING DOWN THE COLORS. 287 
 
 " I realize now as I never did before that 
 we're not going to have the easy times we 
 looked for. I don't back down one inch from 
 my position. I say the South is right, and 
 that if the North will not give her the freedom 
 she demands, she ought to fight for it, and I'll 
 do all I can to help her ; but I don't believe, 
 as I did once, in abusing everybody who dif- 
 fers from me in opinion. So let's part 
 friends." 
 
 " We've always been friends to you," said 
 Dick, in rather a husky voice. "But your 
 abominable ideas dog-gone State rights any- 
 how ! Good-by." 
 
 " Why, Dick, you are on our side," said 
 Rodney. 
 
 " If Missouri is, I am ; if she isn't, I aint. 
 That's me." 
 
 The parting was a good deal harder than the 
 boys thought it was going to be ; but it was 
 over at last ; the carriages rolled out of the 
 gate, the sentry presenting arms as they 
 passed, and the boys who remained turned 
 sorrowfully away to take up the drudgery of 
 school routine. After that there were no more
 
 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 loud, angry discussions, no shaking of fists in 
 one another's faces, and the orderlies who 
 raised the flag at morning and hauled it down 
 at night, handled it tenderly out of respect to 
 the feelings of their Union schoolmates. They 
 could not bear to think that there might come 
 a time when they would be called upon to face 
 some of their comrades with deadly weapons 
 in their hands. Every one, from the colonel 
 commanding down to the youngest boy in the 
 academy, seemed resolved to do what he could 
 to make their few remaining school days as 
 pleasant as possible. 
 
 That afternoon the guard-runners were out 
 in greater numbers than usual. Nearly all 
 the students were anxious to go to Barrington, 
 for there were several things they wanted to 
 have cleared up. What had become of the 
 Union men who had been burned out of house 
 and home, and what did that Committee of 
 Safety intend to do next ? Marcy Gray did 
 not go. He was too dispirited to do anything 
 but lounge about and read, and long for a let- 
 ter from his mother telling him to come home. 
 He missed his cousin Rodney, and wondered if
 
 HAULING DOWN THE COLORS. 289 
 
 fate would ever bring them together again and 
 under different flags. He sat under the trees 
 and tried to read while awaiting the return of 
 Graham and Dixon, who, for a wonder, had 
 asked for passes. The first item of information 
 they gave him, when they came back with his 
 mail, was one that did not much surprise him, 
 although he did not expect to hear it so soon. 
 
 "That old darkey parson has lost his 
 money," said Dick. 
 
 "There now," exclaimed Marcy, "I told him 
 he would if he did not put it where it would be 
 safe. Who's got it?" 
 
 "I didn't hear, and don't know that any one 
 is suspected. He hid it under a log back of 
 the garden, and when he went there to see if it 
 was all right, the place looked as though it 
 had been rooted over by a drove of hogs. But 
 of course the hogs had nothing to do with it." 
 
 " Some one like Bud Goble must have been 
 on the watch when Toby put it under the log," 
 said Marcy, who thought he knew just how the 
 old negro felt when he discovered his loss. 
 "He'll not see that money again. I told him 
 to give it to Mr. Biley." 
 
 19
 
 290 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 "And that reminds me that we saw and 
 talked with Mr. Riley, who was as smiling and 
 agreeable as you please," said Dixon. "If I 
 had been guilty of burning out two innocent 
 men because they differed from me in opinion, 
 I don't think I could have had the cheek to 
 show myself on the street. But Mr. Riley did 
 not seem to mind it." 
 
 " Do you really think he had a hand in that 
 affair?" inquired Marcy. "I don't like to 
 think that he is that sort." 
 
 " When a fellow allows himself to be carried 
 away, as he and the rest of that committee 
 have, by prejudice and rage, he will do some 
 things he would not think of doing if he were 
 in his right mind. Look at Rodney," said 
 Dixon ; and Marcy wondered if he knew or 
 suspected that Rodney had written that mis- 
 chievous letter. "It's in the mouth of every 
 rebel in town whom we talk with that the com- 
 mittee burned those houses, and what every- 
 body says must have some truth in it." 
 
 " Listen to me a minute, and I will condemn 
 Mr. Riley out of his own mouth," said Dick, 
 in an earnest whisper. " When Captain Wil-
 
 HAULING DOWN THE COLORS. 291 
 
 son asked him how it came that he could reach 
 the fire so quickly, seeing that it was more 
 than a mile from his own house and there were 
 no alarm bells ringing, Mr. Riley replied that 
 it was because he happened to be awake when 
 the fire commenced. Now, if that was the 
 case, why did he run right by Elder Bo wen's 
 burning house to come up town ? I was on 
 post that very night, and know that the two 
 fires were started almost at the same moment. 
 Mr. Riley wasn't at home, I tell you. He was 
 in Barrington ; and that was the way he got to 
 the fire before we did. Put that in your pipes." 
 
 " You have made out a pretty strong case 
 against him so far as circumstantial evidence 
 will go," Dixon remarked. 
 
 " Plenty strong enough to make him prove 
 an alibi if he were prosecuted," said Marcy. 
 "Where are those Union men now?" 
 
 " Living quietly and comfortably in two of 
 the Elder's negro cabins," replied Dick. 
 "Some of the rebels we talked to think they 
 need another and larger dose, for they are as 
 independent and saucy as ever." 
 
 ' ' I glory in their spunk, ' ' said Marcy. * ' See
 
 292 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 anything of Bud or Caleb Judson ? I don't 
 care what becomes of Bud, but if you happen 
 to run across Caleb, I wish you would send 
 him to me. I promised to raise some money 
 for him that night, when I thought I should 
 have to go after Rodney and Dick alone, and 
 I want to give it to him. We couldn't have 
 found them without his help." 
 
 As we are almost, if not quite, through with 
 these two gentlemen, Bud and Caleb, we may 
 remark that, a few days after this conversa- 
 tion took place, Marcy went to Barrington and 
 found opportunity to square accounts with 
 Caleb by handing him double the amount of 
 money the man thought he ought to have for 
 acting as Captain Wilson's guide. But Caleb 
 couldn't or wouldn't give him any news of 
 Bud Gfoble. In after-years some of the acad- 
 emy boys heard of him once or twice in a 
 roundabout way not as a brave soldier of the 
 Confederacy, doing and daring for the sake of 
 the principles he had so loudly promulgated 
 when he thought old Mr. Bailey was afraid of 
 him, but as a sneaking conscript, hiding in the 
 woods and living, no one knew how, but prob-
 
 HAULING DOWN THE COLORS. 293 
 
 ably keeping body and soul together by the 
 aid of the bacon and meal that his wife bought 
 with old Toby's money. 
 
 Not another thing happened at the academy 
 that is worth recording until it became known 
 that President Lincoln, instead of surrendering 
 Fort Sumter on demand of the Confederate 
 commissioners who had been sent to Washing- 
 ton, decided that provisions should at once be 
 forwarded to the garrison. It was high time, 
 for Major Anderson and his men had nothing 
 but a small supply of bacon and flour left, and 
 the commissary was not permitted to purchase 
 provisions in Charleston. The Southern people 
 were, or pretended to be, very angry at this 
 decision, and gave notice that they would re- 
 sist it as an act of war. " My batteries are 
 ready. I await instructions," was what Beau- 
 regard telegraphed to President Davis ; and 
 on the llth of April the answer came back : 
 " Demand the immediate surrender of Fort 
 Sumter." How the brave major's reply, help- 
 less as he knew himself to be, thrilled every 
 heart in the loyal North! "I cannot sur- 
 render the fort," said he. "I shall await the
 
 294 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 first shot, and if you do not batter me to pieces, 
 I shall be starved out in three days." 
 
 Now was the time for the Confederates to 
 show to the world that they were sincere when 
 they declared that all they desired was to be 
 permitted to leave the Union in peace. But 
 they did not do it. They could not wait three 
 days. They wanted the honor of reducing 
 Fort Sumter, and of humbling the flag which 
 had never been lowered to any nation on earth. 
 They wanted to "fire the Southern heart," 
 and make sure of the secession of Virginia 
 by "sprinkling blood in the people's faces," 
 and so they opened their batteries upon the 
 fort. After a long waiting, which was "sym- 
 bolic of the patience, endurance, and long suf- 
 fering of the Northern people," the fort 
 replied, and the war between Union and Dis- 
 union, freedom and slavery, was fairly begun. 
 Major Anderson knew from the first that this 
 battle could end but in one way, and when his 
 provisions were all gone, and his ammunition 
 so nearly exhausted that he could not respond 
 to the enemy's fire oftener than once in ten 
 minutes, he hauled down his flag and marched
 
 HAULING DOWN THE COLORS. 295 
 
 his handful of men out with the honors of war. 
 It wasn't a victory to be proud of, but the Gov- 
 ernor of South Carolina must have thought 
 it was, for that night he said to the excited 
 people of Charleston : 
 
 " I pronounce here before the civilized world 
 that your independence is baptized in blood ; 
 your independence is won upon a glorious bat- 
 tle-field, and you are free now and forever, in 
 defiance of the world in arms." 
 
 So thought the aged Edmund Ruffin of Vir- 
 ginia, who claimed the privilege of firing the 
 first gun upon Sumter ; but he did not think 
 so a little while afterward, when he was pre- 
 paring to hang himself because he saw that 
 his dreams of Southern independence could 
 not be realized. 
 
 Of course this thrilling news, and the fiery 
 editorials commenting upon it, had an effect 
 upon the students at Barrington academy. 
 The Union boys were sadly depressed ; Dixon 
 and Graham shook their heads every time 
 their eyes met ; while Billings, Cole, and the 
 rest of the rebels were fierce for another fight, 
 and immediately became as noisy and aggres-
 
 296 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 sive as they had ever been in Rodney Gray's 
 time. 
 
 " ' The proud flag of the Stars and Stripes 
 has been lowered in humility before the Pal- 
 metto and Confederate flags,' " shouted Bill- 
 ings, reading an extract from the speech of 
 Governor Pickens. "Cole, where is the flag 
 those Taylor girls gave you ? K"ow is the time 
 to unfurl it to the breeze, and let the good 
 people of Barrington see that they are not the 
 only ones who can rejoice over this glorious 
 news. When it is once hoisted on the tower, 
 we will keep it there in defiance of the world 
 in arms." 
 
 This was another quotation from the Gov- 
 ernor's speech, and when Billings roared it 
 out so that it could be heard by all the boys 
 in the corridor, he looked at Marcy as much 
 as to say : "Help yourself if you can." 
 
 It did not take Cole many minutes to pro- 
 duce the flag, which he had kept hidden in his 
 trunk for just such an emergency as this ; but 
 when he and his backers got to the top of the 
 tower with it, they were rather surprised to 
 find Marcy, Graham, Dixon, and a good many
 
 HAULING DOWN THE COLORS. 297 
 
 other sturdy fellows there before them. They 
 were walking around with their hands in their 
 pockets, and Marcy's flag was still floating 
 from the masthead. 
 
 " Do you mean are you going to fight 
 about it?" faltered Cole, who began to fear 
 that his chances for receiving a standing 
 invitation to visit those Taylor girls were as 
 slim as they ever had been. " You have heard 
 the news from Charleston, and ought to see 
 for yourself that this flag can't stay up any 
 longer." 
 
 " We may be of a different opinion, so far 
 as this academy is concerned, but still we have 
 given up the contest," replied Marcy. " Hold 
 on, there ; don't touch those halliards, please. 
 This flag belongs to me, and when it comes 
 down for good, I must be the one to pull it 
 down. Major Anderson was allowed to salute 
 his flag when he lowered it, and I claim the 
 same privilege." 
 
 "I don't know that we have anything to 
 say against that," replied Billings, looking 
 around upon his friends to see what they 
 thought about it. "Holler as much as you
 
 298 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 please. That's the only way you can salute 
 it, for the colonel would go crazy if you asked 
 him to lend you the battery." 
 
 " That's the only way," said Marcy as he 
 unfastened the color-halliards from the cleat. 
 " I shall not ask for the guns, for I shall have 
 my trouble for my pains. Attention ! Three 
 cheers for the Star Spangled Banner ; and 
 may the traitors who caused it to be lowered 
 in Charleston harbor for the time being be 
 glad to turn to it for protection." 
 
 "That flag will wave over Sumter again, 
 and don't you forget what I tell you," shouted 
 Dixon. 
 
 It was not a very noisy salute that greeted 
 the flag as it fluttered down from aloft, but it 
 was a heart-felt one, and there was not a rebel 
 on the tower who dared utter a derisive word, 
 however much he might have felt inclined to 
 do so. But when the Stars and Bars were 
 bent on to the halliards and run up to the 
 masthead, the yells of its supporters were 
 almost deafening and their antics quite inde- 
 scribable. There was an abundance of enthu- 
 siasm about that time. There wasn't quite
 
 HAULING DOWN THE COLORS. 299 
 
 so much one short year later, when some of 
 those same boys learned, to their great disgust 
 and rage, that the Confederate Congress had 
 passed a sweeping conscription law, and that 
 their one year's enlistment had been arbitrar- 
 ily lengthened to three. Then they began to 
 see what despotism meant. 
 
 All hope of conciliation or peace at any 
 price was gone now. There was nothing to 
 hold them together any longer, and the follow- 
 ing morning saw another and larger exodus of 
 students from the academy who were home- 
 ward bound. Among them were Cole, Gra- 
 ham, Billings, Dixon, and Marcy Gray. It 
 was not quite so solemn a parting as the first 
 one was, for the drooping spirits of the rebels 
 had been raised to blood-heat by that glorious 
 news from Charleston. 
 
 " Shoot high, Marcy, when you meet the 
 Stars and Bars on the battlefield," said Bil- 
 lings. "There may be a Barrington boy 
 thereabouts. But you can't deny that we've 
 whipped you once in a fair fight, can you ? " 
 
 " I don't know what you call a fair fight," 
 replied Marcy. "Of course five thousand
 
 300 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 men, well supplied with grub and ammuni- 
 tion, ought to whip fifty-one soldiers and a few 
 hired mechanics. But they held out against 
 you as long as they had anything to eat or 
 powder to shoot with. I wouldn't crow over 
 it, if I were in your place." 
 
 "Well, we have given you a taste of what 
 is in store for you, at all events." 
 
 "And you have learned something that I 
 have tried to get through your thick heads 
 ever since these troubles began," chimed in 
 Dixon. "I told you the North would fight. 
 But let's jump in if we are going home. You 
 know the trains meet here, and we haven't 
 much more than time to get to the depot." 
 
 The boys once more shook hands with their 
 teachers, cheered lustily for the Barrington 
 Military Academy and everybody connected 
 with it, shouted themselves hoarse for their 
 respective flags, and then sprang into the car- 
 riages and were driven away. 
 
 "We're done playing soldier," said Dick 
 Graham. "The next time we shoulder mus- 
 kets or draw sabers, there will be more reality 
 in it than some of us will care to face. Let's
 
 HAULING DOWN THE COLORS. 301 
 
 keep track of one another as long as we can, 
 and bear always in mind that we are not ene- 
 mies, if we do march under different flags." 
 
 Marcy Gray was glad when his train came 
 along and bore him away from Barrington. 
 He wanted to settle back in his seat and think ; 
 but that was something he ,was not permitted 
 to do. The passengers, with now and then a 
 notable exception, acted as though they were 
 fit candidates for a lunatic asylum. They 
 were walking about the car, flourishing their 
 hats or fists in the air, talking loudly and 
 shaking hands as often as they met in the 
 aisle. "Glorious news," "Southern rights," 
 "Yankee mudsills," "Fort Sumter," were 
 the words that fell upon Marcy' s ear when he 
 opened the door and walked into the car. In 
 an instant his uniform attracted general at- 
 tention.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 MAKCY CHANGES HIS CLOTHES. 
 
 MARCY GRAY was blessed with as much 
 courage as most boys, but he would 
 have been glad if he could have backed out of 
 that car without being seen, and gone into 
 another. Perhaps the conviction that he was 
 "an odd sheep in the flock," and that he held, 
 and had often published, opinions that differed 
 widely from those that animated the excited, 
 gesticulating men before him, had something 
 to do with his nervousness and timidity ; and 
 it may be that the revolvers he saw brandished 
 by two or three of the half-tipsy passen- 
 gers had more effect upon him. But he could 
 not retreat. They saw his uniform as soon as 
 he opened the door, and some of the noisiest 
 among them stumbled to greet him. 
 
 "Here's one of our brave fellows now," 
 shouted one, firing his revolver out of the win' 
 
 302
 
 MAIJCY CHANGES HIS CLOTHES. 303 
 
 dow with one hand while he extended the 
 other to Marcy. "Got his soldier clothes on 
 and going to the front before our guns in 
 Charleston harbor have got through smoking. 
 Young man, you're my style. I'm a member 
 of the Baltimore Grays, and I'm on my way 
 home to join 'em in defense of our young re- 
 public. What regiment ? " 
 
 "Company A, Barrington Cadets," replied 
 Marcy, rightly supposing that the Baltimore 
 man was too far gone to remember, if indeed 
 he had ever heard, that there was a military 
 school in the town they had just left. "I'm 
 going home on a leave of absence." 
 
 "Course you are," replied the man. "Ser- 
 vices not needed at present and mebbe never 
 will be. The Yankees are all mechanics and 
 small trades-people, and there's no fight in 
 such. We're gentlemen, and there's fight in 
 us, I bet you. But you show your good will 
 in putting on those soldier clothes, and that's 
 what every man's got to do, or go up to the 
 United States. Those who are not for us are 
 against us, and we'll make short work with 
 'em. Say, we licked 'em, didn't we ? "
 
 304 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 "Of course," answered Marcy. "Fifty-one 
 soldiers without food or powder don't stand 
 much chance against five thousand well- 
 equipped men." 
 
 " It would have been all the same if there 
 had been fifty-one thousand of 'em," declared 
 the Baltimore man. "Aintgotany business 
 there. Fort belongs to So' Carolina. Why 
 didn't they get out when Beau'gard told 'em 
 to, if they didn't want to get licked ? Three 
 cheers for Southern Confed'sy ! " 
 
 Much disgusted, Marcy Gray finally suc- 
 ceeded in releasing his hand from the man's 
 detaining grasp and forced his way 'to a seat ; 
 but he was often stopped to hear his patriot- 
 ism applauded, and President Lincoln de- 
 nounced for bringing on a useless war by try- 
 ing to throw provisions into Fort Sumter. 
 
 " I don't see what else he could have done," 
 soliloquized the North Carolina boy, as he 
 squeezed himself into as small a compass as 
 possible in a seat next to a window. " The 
 fort belonged to the United States, and it was 
 the President's business to hold fast to it if he 
 could. South Carolina wanted a pretext for
 
 MARCY CHANGES HIS CLOTHES. 305 
 
 firing on the flag, and she got it. She'll be 
 sorry for it when she sees grass growing in the 
 streets of her principal city. So I am taken 
 for a rebel, am I ? What would that Balti- 
 more fellow do to me if he knew that I have 
 two Union flags in my trunk, and that I mean 
 to hoist them some day? My life wouldn't be 
 worth a minute's purchase if these passengers 
 knew how I feel toward them and their miser- 
 able Confederacy." 
 
 All the way to Raleigh, which was nearly 
 three hundred and sixty miles from Barring- 
 ton, Marcy Gray lived in a fever of suspense. 
 Although he did not know a soul on board the 
 train, he might have had companions enough 
 if he had been a little more sociable ; but he 
 did not care to make any new acquaintances, 
 especially among people who were so nearly 
 beside themselves. They all took him for just 
 what he wasn't a rebel soldier ; and being 
 ignorant of the fact that he was going toward 
 home as fast as steam could take him, they 
 suppposed that the reason he was so silent and 
 thoughtful was because he was lonely, and felt 
 sorrowful over parting from his friends ; and 
 20
 
 306 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 so it came about that now and then some one 
 would sit down beside him and try to give 
 him a comforting and cheering word. All the 
 ladies who spoke to him were eager for war 
 and disunion. They were worse than the men ; 
 Marcy found that out before he had gone fifty 
 miles on his journey. 
 
 Marcy mentally denounced these sympathe- 
 tic and well-meaning rebels as so many nuis- 
 ances, for they drew upon him attentions that 
 he would have been glad to escape. They asked 
 him all sorts of questions, and the boy adroitly 
 managed to truthfully answer every one of 
 them, and without exciting suspicion. Mat- 
 ters were even worse when the train stopped. 
 The flags that were fluttering from the locomo- 
 tive and the car windows attracted the notice 
 of the station loafers, who whooped and yelled 
 and crowded up to shake hands with the pas- 
 sengers. At such times Marcy always took off 
 his cap ; but that did no good, for some one was 
 sure to see his gray overcoat, and propose 
 cheers for him. Marcy trembled when he 
 thought of what they would do to him if they 
 learned that he was the strongest Union boy in
 
 MARCY CHANGES HIS CLOTHES. 307 
 
 the school he had left. But there was little 
 danger of that. His secret was safe. 
 
 Raleigh was reached at last, and Marcy Gray, 
 feeling like a stranger in a strange land, 
 changed cars for Boydtown, which was a hun- 
 dred and twenty miles further on. But before 
 doing that he stepped into a telegraph office 
 and sent the following dispatch to his mother : 
 
 " Will take a late breakfast with you to-mor- 
 row if you will send Morris to meet me at the 
 depot. Three cheers for the right." 
 
 " How much ? " he asked the operator, after 
 the latter had read it over. 
 
 " Not a cent to a soldier," he replied, reach- 
 ing out his hand, and taking it for granted 
 that the boy was fresh from the seat of war. 
 " Warm times in Charleston the other day, I 
 suppose ?" 
 
 "I shouldn't wonder if it was hot in the 
 fort," answered Marcy, with a smile. 
 
 "But you happened to be on the outside." 
 
 "You're right, I did. It was no place for 
 me in there." 
 
 " No ; nor for any other man who believes 
 in the right. Tell us all about it. Were
 
 308 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 you frightened when you heard the shells 
 bursting over your head, and did the Yan- 
 kees " 
 
 " I must ask you to excuse me," said Marcy, 
 hastily, " my train is ready to go, and I have 
 barely time to catch it." 
 
 " Well, good luck to you." 
 
 Marcy hastened from the telegraph office 
 before any one else could speak to him, and 
 thanked his lucky stars that before another 
 night came he would be at home where he 
 could appear in his true character; but he 
 was satisfied, from what his mother had said 
 in her letters, that he would find few friends 
 among the neighbors. They were nearly all 
 secessionists, Mrs. Gray wrote, and those who 
 were not were compelled to pretend that they 
 were, in order to avoid being driven from the 
 country. It was a bad state of affairs alto- 
 gether, but Marcy knew he would have to get 
 used to it. He slept but little that night, and 
 it was a great relief to him when the train 
 stopped at Boydtown, which was located on a 
 navigable arm of Pamlico Sound, and was as 
 far as the railroad went. As Marcy lived near
 
 MARCY CHANGES HIS CLOTHES. 309 
 
 Albemarle Sound, there was still a ride of 
 thirty-five miles before him, but that would be 
 taken in his mother's carriage, provided any 
 of the negroes had been over to Nashville and 
 got the dispatch he sent from Raleigh the day 
 before. All doubts on this point were removed 
 when the train drew up at the station, for the 
 first person he saw on the platform was Mor- 
 ris, the coachman, who greeted him heartily 
 as he stepped from the car. This faithful old 
 slave was Marcy's friend and mentor, and 
 Sailor Jack's as well ; and the boy Julius, who 
 had come with the spring wagon to bring home 
 the trunk, was their playmate. Julius was 
 just about Marcy's age. They had hunted 
 and fished together, sailed their boats in the 
 same mudhole, and had many a fight over 
 their marbles, in which, we are sorry to say, 
 Marcy did not always come out first best. 
 
 "There's my check, Julius," said Marcy, 
 handing it over, and slipping a piece of money 
 into the black boy's palm at the same time. 
 " Shut the carriage door, Morris. I am going 
 to ride on the box so that I can talk to you. 
 I want you to tell me everything that's hap
 
 310 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 pened since I have been away. You are a 
 good rebel, of course." 
 
 "Now, Marse Marcy, you know a heap 
 better'n that," replied Morris, who plumed 
 himself on being the " properest talking col- 
 ored gentleman on the plantation." " Git up, 
 heah," he shouted to his horses. "Don't you 
 know that the long-lost prodigal son has come 
 back? You don't want to say too much 
 around heah. Everything in town got ears. 
 Wait till we git in the country and then you 
 can talk. Yes, sar, your mother is well ; quite 
 well. But she's powerful sorry." 
 
 "I know she is. Do you hear anything 
 from Jack?" 
 
 "Not the first word. He's on the ship 
 Sabine, which done sailed for some place, but 
 I dunno where." 
 
 " I wish he was safe at home," said Marcy. 
 " Somehow I feel uneasy about him." 
 
 He would have felt more than simply un- 
 easy if he could have looked far enough into 
 the future to see that Jack's ship was destined 
 to be one of the first of a large number of de- 
 fenseless vessels to fall into the hands of Cap-
 
 MARCY CHANGES HIS CLOTHES. 311 
 
 tain Semmes, who, as commander of the Sum- 
 ter, unfurled the Confederate flag on the high 
 seas, June 30, 1861. But, as we shall pres- 
 ently see, the Sdbine did not "stay captured." 
 She escaped, and brought the prize crew that 
 Semmes had thrown aboard of her into a 
 Northern port as prisoners. 
 
 "There aint no secesh out on the watah, is 
 there, Marse Marcy ? " exclaimed Morris. 
 
 * ' I'm afraid there will be some there before 
 long. We're going to have war, Morris. I 
 saw by a paper I bought on the train to-day 
 that President Lincoln has called out seventy- 
 five thousand men." 
 
 "Shucks!" cried the negro. "That aint 
 half enough men. The secesh done got a hun- 
 dred thousand already." 
 
 " I think myself that he might as well have 
 mustered in half a million while he was about 
 it. But the thing that rather surprises me is 
 that he should call upon the border States for 
 troops," said Marcy, pulling from his pocket 
 the paper of which he had spoken. "Of 
 course he'll not get them. Hear what the 
 Governor of this State says : * Your dispatch
 
 312 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 is received ; and if genuine, which its extra- 
 ordinary character leads me to doubt, I have 
 to say in reply that I regard the levy of troops 
 made by the administration for the purpose of 
 subjugating the States of the South, as in vio- 
 lation of the Constitution, and a usurpation 
 of power. I can be no party to this wicked 
 violation of the laws of the country, and 
 in this war upon the liberties of a free peo- 
 ple. You can get no troops from North Caro- 
 lina,'" 
 
 "Marse Linkum oughter hang that man," 
 exclaimed Morris wrathfully. 
 
 "That's what I say. He's a pretty fellow 
 to talk about violating the Constitution when 
 South Carolina has already violated it by levy- 
 ing war against the United States. The South- 
 ern folks seem to have little sense and less con- 
 sistency. But don't let's waste any more time 
 on politics. How are everything and every- 
 body at home ? Is my schooner all right, and 
 has Bose got over the drubbing that big coon 
 gave him last fall ? How many of the boys 
 have run away 1 ? " 
 
 "Now, just listen at you" exclaimed Mor-
 
 MARCY CHANGES HIS CLOTHES. 313 
 
 ris. " Who going to run away from the 
 Missus, and where he going to run to ? " 
 
 " To the Yankees, of course. This war will 
 make you black ones all free." 
 
 " Aw ! Go on now, Marse Marcy." 
 
 " I really believe it. You darkies are the 
 cause of all this fuss, and you will have to be 
 killed off or made free before we can be a 
 united people again." 
 
 The coachman's inimitable laugh rang out 
 cheerily. The Northern folks need not trouble 
 their heads about him, he said. He was better 
 off than thousands of the poor whites in the 
 free States, and wouldn't accept his freedom 
 if it was offered to him. His subsequent 
 actions proved that he meant every word he 
 said ; for when Marcy read the Emancipation 
 Proclamation to him and his fellow-servants 
 two years later, and told them that they were 
 free to make their way into the Union lines if 
 they could, Morris refused to budge an inch. 
 A few of the slaves had already gone ; a few 
 more took Marcy at his word and slipped 
 away by night with their bundles on their 
 sho alders, but those who could get back to the
 
 314 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 plantation were very glad to come. Freedom 
 wasn' t such a beautiful thing after all, because 
 it did not bring the freedom from work that 
 they had looked for, and the Yankee soldiers 
 were really harder task-masters than the ones 
 from whom they had been so anxious to es- 
 cape. 
 
 During the ride homeward Marcy did not 
 see a single thing to remind him that there 
 was a war impending not a tent or Confeder- 
 ate flag or soldier in uniform was in sight. 
 Negroes sang as they went to their work in 
 the wide fields that stretched out on either 
 side of the road, the birds chirped, the air was 
 soft and balmy, the wheels hummed a melodi- 
 ous tune as they spun rapidly along the hard 
 road, and all his surroundings spoke of peace 
 and plenty. 
 
 At last an abrupt turn brought him within 
 sight of his home, in every respect a typical 
 Southern home, with wide, cool halls, large 
 and airy rooms, broad piazzas, and spacious, 
 well-kept grounds, in which fruits, flowers, 
 and grand old trees abounded. A few miles 
 away, but in plain view, were the sparkling
 
 MARCY CHANGES HIS CLOTHES. 315 
 
 waters of the sound, peaceful enough now, but 
 destined ere long to be plowed by the keels of 
 hostile ships, and tossed into wavelets by 
 shrieking shot and shell. On the left, and 
 about three hundred yards in front of the 
 house, was Seven Mile Creek ; and the first 
 thing in it that caught Marcy's eye was his 
 handsome schooner, the Fairy Belle, riding 
 safely at her moorings. Marcy would have 
 found it hard to find words with which to ex- 
 press his admiration for that little craft, and 
 the way she behaved in rough weather. With 
 her aid, and with Julius for a companion, he 
 had explored every nook, corner, and inlet 
 along the dangerous and intricate coast of the 
 sound for miles in both directions ; and they 
 were as familiar to him as the road that led 
 from Barrington to the academy. He and 
 Sailor Jack were good pilots for that coast as 
 far down as Hatteras Inlet, and on one or two 
 occasions had been fortunate enough to assist 
 distressed vessels in finding a safe anchorage. 
 
 Old Bose, the dog that had been so roughly 
 handled by the last coon Marcy helped dis- 
 patch, was the first to welcome him when the
 
 316 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 carriage turned into the yard, and said, as 
 plainly as a dog could say anything, that he 
 was both surprised and hurt because his usu- 
 ally attentive master had scarcely more than a 
 word and a pat for him. The boy did not even 
 hear the greetings of the numerous house-ser- 
 vants who clustered about the carriage when it 
 was brought to a stand-still, for his eyes and 
 thoughts were concentrated upon the pale 
 woman in black who stood at the top of the 
 wide steps leading to the porch. It was his 
 mother, and in a second more she was clasped 
 in his arms. 
 
 "Are you so sorry I've come that you are 
 going to cry over it ? " exclaimed Marcy, when 
 he saw that there were tears in her eyes. "I 
 know you'll not expect me to shake hands 
 with you until I have had a chance to say a 
 word to my mother," he added, addressing the 
 blacks who had followed close at his heels. 
 " I will see you all after a while. Come in, 
 mother. I told you I would be late to break- 
 fast, but I know you have saved a bite for 
 me." 
 
 After a few earnest questions had been asked
 
 MARCY CHANGES HIS CLOTHES. 317 
 
 and answered by both of them, Marcy went up 
 to his room, whither his trunk had already 
 been carried. His first task was to remove 
 some of the North Carolina dust that had set- 
 tled on his hands and face, and his next to di- 
 vest himself of his uniform and put on a suit 
 of citizen's clothes. During his long ride that 
 gray coat had brought him in pretty close con- 
 tact with some people he hoped he would 
 never meet again. 
 
 " Stay there," said he, as he hung the gar- 
 ment upon a hook in his closet. " I shall never 
 wear you again, but I'll keep you to remind me 
 of old Barrington." 
 
 The boy afterward had reason to wish he had 
 hidden that uniform or destroyed it. A de- 
 tachment of Sherman's cavalry scouted through 
 the country, after completing their famous 
 march to the sea, went all over the house in 
 search of valuables and contraband goods, and 
 one of the first things they pitched upon was 
 that gray suit. It might have been a serious 
 thing for Marcy, had it not been for the flag 
 Dick Graham gave him. What became of the 
 other, the one that was hauled down on the
 
 318 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 day the news of the surrender of Fort Sumter 
 was received, shall be told in its proper place. 
 
 " I feel like a free man once more," he said, 
 when he rejoined his mother in the parlor 
 and walked into the dining-room with his 
 arm thrown protectingly around her waist. 
 "Where's Dinah?" he added, seeing that 
 there was no one to wait at table. 
 
 "I preferred to have our first breakfast in 
 private," replied Mrs. Gray. "In times like 
 these one doesn' t know whom to trust. There' s 
 been nothing like open enmity yet," she con- 
 tinued, noticing a shade of anxiety on her son's 
 face. " I have thought it wise to keep my own 
 counsel, and have taken no part in the discus- 
 sions that have been held in my presence ; but 
 I have not escaped suspicion." 
 
 "I understand you perfectly," answered 
 Marcy. " Are there no Union people at all in 
 this country? " 
 
 "There may be, but I do not know who they 
 are. There are some who have told me, pri- 
 vately, that they are opposed to secession, but 
 having the best of reasons for believing that 
 they said so on purpose to induce me to ex-
 
 MARCY CHANGES HIS CLOTHES. 319 
 
 press my opinion, I have kept silent. You 
 must do the same, and be constantly on your 
 guard. If your friends, or those who were 
 your friends once, assure you that their sym- 
 pathies are all for the Union, you may listen, 
 but you must not say one word. If you do, 
 you may regret it when it is too late to re- 
 call it." 
 
 "Why, this is worse than Barrington," 
 Marcy declared. " There you know who your 
 enemies are ; but here you've got to look out 
 for everybody, or the first thing you know 
 some sneak may get on the blind side of you. 
 Now, mother, let's talk business. How are the 
 darkies ? ' ' 
 
 " They seem to be as happy and contented 
 as they ever were, and as willing to work. The 
 overseer hasn't a word of fault to find with 
 them." 
 
 ' ' So far so good. How' s the overseer ; Union 
 or secesh?" 
 
 " You must decide that for yourself after 
 you have talked with him,'' replied Mrs. Gray. 
 " I think he will bear watching. At any rate, 
 I do not trust him."
 
 320 TEUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 "Then if I have anything to say, he shall 
 not stay around here a minute after his con- 
 tract runs out. We don't want anybody about 
 that we are afraid of. You're going to run 
 the plantation right along. I suppose?" 
 
 "I thought I would, unless you have some- 
 thing better to propose." 
 
 1 'Well, I haven't. This is my boyhood's 
 home and Jack's. By the way, where is 
 Jack?" 
 
 "On the high seas somewhere, and that is 
 all I can tell you." 
 
 " And Rodney once said he might never get 
 back again," replied Marcy. "He thinks the 
 South is going to have a navy that will beat 
 anything the world ever saw. Yes, Rodney is 
 a rebel to the backbone," he added in response 
 to an inquiry from his mother. "Says the 
 Northern folks will be whipped before they 
 can take their coats off ; but for all that he 
 showed considerable feeling when he came to 
 say good-by. He is under a promise to enlist 
 under the Stars and Bars within twenty-four 
 hours after he reaches home, and I know he 
 will do it, if he can get to a recruiting office.
 
 MARCY CHANGES HIS CLOTHES. 321 
 
 But to return to business. I am sure we had 
 better keep right along as we have been going, 
 instead of pulling up stakes and moving to 
 some new place to meet dangers and difficult- 
 ies of which we know nothing. We've got to 
 eat, and we must have something to wear ; 
 and how are we to get things if we have no 
 crops ? Have you any money 3 " 
 
 Mrs. Gray started perceptibly at this abrupt 
 question, and before replying arose to her feet 
 and opened, in quick succession, all the doors 
 leading out of the dining-room. 
 
 "Aha ! " said Marcy, who thought he knew 
 the meaning of this pantomime. " You remind 
 me of old Uncle Toby. He had money which 
 he lost because he hid it in the ground instead 
 of putting it where it would have been safe." 
 
 " That is what I have done with ours," said 
 his mother, in a scarcely audible whisper. 
 "That is to say, I have concealed it." 
 
 "How much?" 
 
 " Nearly thirty thousand dollars, and it is 
 all in gold." 
 
 "W-h-e-w!" whistled Marcy. "What 
 put it into your head I" 
 21
 
 322 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 "I took warning ; that is all. The Southern 
 people have often threatened to secede if a 
 Republican President was elected, and I was 
 sure they meant it ; so when the election re- 
 turns came in and this excitement began, I 
 made several quiet business trips to Newbern, 
 Wilmington, Norfolk, and Richmond." 
 
 "Why, you never said a word about it in 
 your letters." 
 
 ' ' I know it. I did not think it necessary to 
 trouble you with it. I drew a little money 
 each time, brought it home in safety, and I 
 trust without exciting suspicion, though on 
 that point, of course, I cannot be sure, and hid 
 it in the cellar at dead of night, after I had 
 taken the greatest pains to assure myself that 
 every one in the house was soundly asleep." 
 
 ' ; How did you cover up the place where you 
 had been digging?" 
 
 " I didn't do any digging," his mother an- 
 swered, with a smile. " I took a stone out of 
 the wall as heavy as I could lift, and cemented 
 it in place again, after keeping out a sum suf- 
 ficient to meet our immediate wants. It took 
 me three nights to do it."
 
 MARCY CHANGES HIS CLOTHES. 323 
 
 "It's a shame that there wasn't someone 
 here whom you could trust to do the work for 
 you," said Marcy. " I am here to bear the 
 hard knocks now." 
 
 The Southerners were careful of their women. 
 If they had had the faintest conception of the 
 trials and privations their mothers, wives, and 
 sisters would be called upon to bear, they 
 never would have fired upon Sumter. The 
 patience and heroic endurance exhibited by 
 these carefully nurtured women, during the 
 dark days of the war, were little short of sub- 
 lime. 
 
 Marcy and his mother sat a long time at the 
 table, and when they arose from it Mrs. Gray 
 knew pretty nearly what had been going on at 
 Barrington during the last few months (not a 
 word was said, however, concerning the letter 
 Rodney wrote to Bud Goble), and Marcy had 
 a very correct idea of the way matters were 
 being managed on the plantation. He had 
 nothing to suggest. The only thing they could 
 do was to keep along in the even tenor of their 
 way, and await developments. There was one 
 thing for which he was sorry, and that was
 
 324 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 that he could not discharge Hanson, the over- 
 seer, that very day. He believed his mother 
 was afraid of him ; but the man was under 
 contract for a year, and could have claimed 
 damages if he had been turned adrift without 
 good and sufficient reason. It was not the 
 damages that Marcy cared for, but he was 
 restrained from urging Hanson's dismissal 
 through fear of setting the neighbors' tongues 
 in motion. 
 
 " Hanson is secesh, easy enough, 1 ' he said 
 to himself. "If he were not, some of those 
 officious planters would have demanded his 
 discharge long ago. If we turn him away 
 without a cause, they will say that we are per- 
 secuting him on account of his principles, and 
 that would be bad for us. The man will have 
 to stay for the present, and I'll make it my 
 business to know every move he makes." 
 
 Marcy devoted the first few days to renewing 
 old acquaintances among the black people on 
 the plantation, who were overjoyed to see him 
 safe at home, and in calling upon some of the 
 neighboring planters ; but the last proved to 
 be rather a disagreeable duty, and one which
 
 MARCY CHANGES HIS CLOTHES. 325 
 
 he did not prosecute for any length of time. 
 It seemed to him that something intangible 
 had come between him and those who used to 
 be on the best of terms with him something 
 that could not be seen or felt, but which was 
 none the less a barrier to their social inter- 
 course. He was not of them, and they knew 
 it ; that was all there was of it. Before he 
 had been at home ten days he began to see the 
 force of his cousin Rodney's warning, that if 
 he did not turn his back upon the Union and 
 proclaim himself a secessionist, his neighbors 
 would not have the first thing to do with him, 
 and during those ten days two things hap- 
 pened that made the situation harder to bear 
 than it was at first. 
 
 The little town of Nashville, to which Marcy 
 sent his dispatch from Raleigh, was situated 
 about three miles distant from the plantation. 
 Besides the telegraph, express, and post offices 
 it contained a court house, two hotels, and the 
 homes of about five hundred inhabitants. The 
 mail was received twice each day, and as often 
 as it came in, rain or shine, there was some 
 one from Mrs. Gray's house there to meet it.
 
 326 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 This duty was at once assumed by Marcy, who, 
 besides having a fast horse of his own which 
 he was fond of riding, was so impatient to see 
 the latest papers that he could not wait for 
 anybody to bring them to him. He always 
 read them on his way home, allowing his filly 
 to choose her own gait. On the day he reached 
 home the papers told him that President Lin- 
 coln had placed an embargo upon the seaports 
 of all the seceded States ; but Marcy did not 
 pay much attention to that. It was nothing 
 more than those States might have expected, 
 but it was a question whether or not the navy 
 was strong enough to enforce the blockade. 
 The same paper informed him that President 
 Davis was ready to issue letters of marque and 
 reprisal to anybody who would equip a priva- 
 teer, and give bonds that the laws of the Con- 
 federate States regulating the capture of prizes 
 should be obeyed. The boy didn't give a 
 second thought to that either. His schooner 
 wasn't heavy enough to engage in the business 
 of privateering, and she would not have gone 
 into it if she had been. She had always floated 
 the flag of the Union, and as long as she re-
 
 MAUCY CHANGES HIS CLOTHED. 327 
 
 mained in his keeping, she never would carry 
 any other. But when on the 29th of April 
 Marcy read that President Lincoln, two days 
 before, had included the ports of Virginia and 
 North Carolina in the limits of his proclama- 
 tion, it made him open his eyes. 
 
 "My State hasn' t seceded yet, and here he 
 has gone and shut up her ports," exclaimed 
 Marcy indignantly. " That's a pretty thing to 
 do, isn't it now? Hurry up, Fanny. Let's get 
 home and see what mother thinks about it."
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 FOKCED INTO THE 8EEVICE. 
 
 MARCY GRAY thought he had watched 
 the movements of his native State pret- 
 ty closely since the result of the presidential 
 election became known, and perhaps he had ; 
 but there were some things connected with her 
 recent history that must have slipped his mind, 
 or he would have seen at once that the govern- 
 ment at Washington was justified in closing 
 her ports to the world. The State had been in 
 armed rebellion ever since the month of Janu- 
 ary, when her local authorities committed trea- 
 son by seizing the forts along her coast. It is 
 true that her Governor disavowed the action, 
 offered to restore the forts on condition that 
 they should not be garrisoned by United 
 States troops, and that the proposition was ac- 
 cepted ; and it is also true that the State 
 forces very soon took possession of the forts 
 again, this time acting under the Governor's 
 
 328
 
 FORCED INTO THE SERVICE. 329 
 
 authority. The latter' s refusal to send troops 
 to the aid of the national government proved 
 him to be as much of a rebel as the Governor 
 of South Carolina was. 
 
 " So North Carolina is no whit better than 
 the. States that have joined the Confederacy, 
 is she ? " said Marcy, when his mother had re- 
 minded him of all these things. " But there's 
 a great difference between talking and doing," 
 he added, wisely. "Three thousand miles 
 make a pretty long coast, the first thing you 
 know, and I don't believe Uncle Sam has ships 
 enough to guard it. I'll bet you that when the 
 blockade is established, I can take the Fairy 
 Belle and slip out and in as often as I feel like 
 it. It will be nothing but a paper blockade ; 
 but if it could be made effectual, it would send 
 the price of things up so that you couldn't 
 reach them with a ten -foot pole, would it 
 not?" 
 
 Blockading more than three thousand miles 
 of sea- coast, some portions of which were noted 
 for sudden and violent storms, was a gigantic 
 undertaking, and Marcy Gray was not the only 
 one who did not think the attempt would
 
 330 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 prove successful. To begin with, there were 
 only ninety vessels of all classes in the United 
 States navy, and of the forty-two in commis- 
 sion all except twelve had been sent to foreign 
 stations on purpose to have them out of the 
 way when they were wanted. Of the vessels 
 comprising the home squadron, all except four 
 were in the Gulf of Mexico, where they stood 
 a fine chance of falling into the hands of the 
 secessionists. The officers, who had been edu- 
 cated at the expense of the government, and 
 who had taken a solemn oath to support that 
 government, were so badly tinctured with dis- 
 loyalty that the authorities did not know 
 whom to trust, some of the best men in the 
 service, the gallant Porter among the rest, be- 
 ing suspected of disunion sentiments. During 
 the time that elapsed between March 4 and 
 July 5, two hundred and fifty-nine officers re- 
 signed their commissions and went over to the 
 Confederacy. Some of them, who had been 
 entrusted with commands, had the grace to 
 give their vessels up to the government instead 
 of surrendering them into the hands of the se- 
 cessionists, and one Southern writer declared,
 
 FORCED INTO THE SERVICE. 331 
 
 with some disgust, that they carried their no- 
 tions of honor altogether too far when they 
 did it. His exact language was : 
 
 "If a sense of justice had prevailed at the 
 separation of the States, a large portion of the 
 ships of the navy would have been turned over 
 to the South ; and this failing to be done, it 
 may be questionable whether the Southern 
 naval officers in command would not have been 
 justified in bringing their ships with them, 
 which it would have been easy for them to do." 
 
 But the trouble was, the government never 
 acknowledged that there had been any " sepa- 
 ration of the States." The war-ships belonged 
 to the nation, and not to a discontented por- 
 tion of it, and were needed to aid in enforcing 
 the laws that had been trampled under-foot. 
 
 In spite of all these disadvantages the loyal 
 people of the North went resolutely to work, 
 and before the fourth day of July the blockade 
 was rendered so effectual that " foreign nations 
 could not evade it and were obliged to acknowl- 
 edge its legality. ' ' And this was done, too, after 
 Norfolk navy yard, with its immense stores of 
 munitions of war, twenty-five hundred pieces
 
 332 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 of heavy ordnance, and all its ships, save one, 
 had been doomed to destruction by the per- 
 fidious officers who surrounded and advised its 
 loyal but too credulous commander. It was 
 something to be proud of. 
 
 But we have anticipated events a little. On 
 the day Marcy Gray went to Nashville after 
 the mail the blockade was not established, ex- 
 cept on paper; there was not a ship of war on 
 the coast so far as he knew ; Hatteras Inlet 
 was still open to the world, and privateers and 
 coasting vessels were free to go and come as 
 often as they pleased. Up to this time such a 
 thing as a privateer had scarcely been heard of, 
 but they appeared as if by magic when it be- 
 came known that President Davis had invited 
 applications for letters of marque and reprisal 
 from good Southerners who were able and will- 
 ing to fit out armed vessels to prey upon our 
 commerce. The first one that attracted any at- 
 tention was the Savannah, which ran out of 
 Charleston on the 2d of June, and was shortly 
 afterward captured by a ship of war that she 
 mistook for a merchantman ; but she was not 
 the first privateer to operate in Southern waters.
 
 FORCED INTO THE SERVICE. 333 
 
 As early as May 7, several light-draught steam- 
 ers, mounting two or three guns each, were 
 hastily fitted out at New Orleans, and brought 
 in prizes that were taken off the mouths of the 
 Mississippi. There were also some along the 
 coast, principally sailing-vessels, and although 
 they did not succeed in making a name for 
 themselves or in spreading much alarm among 
 our merchant marine, they made a few good 
 hauls. One of them was fitted out in Seven 
 Mile Creek, not more than a mile from Mrs. 
 Gray's plantation, and, wide-awake as Marcy 
 thought himself to be, he never knew a thing 
 about it until she was almost ready to sail. 
 Then he found it out through her owner who 
 came up to see him. He was sitting on the 
 porch when the man came up the walk, and 
 something told him that he had come there 
 for no good purpose. 
 
 " What in the world does Lon Beardsley 
 want here?" said Marcy to his mother, who 
 was sitting near by. " He hasn't been to see 
 me since I came from Barrington, and I don't 
 think he would come now if he wasn't up to 
 some meanness."
 
 334 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 "Don't allow him to throw you off your 
 guard with any of his specious talk," replied 
 his mother, in a cautious tone. " To quote 
 from Morris, he is a mighty palavering sort of 
 fellow." 
 
 "I'll watch him. Good-afternoon, Mr. 
 Beardsley. Will you come up and take a 
 chair?" The man was a visitor, and as such 
 was entitled to civil treatment even if his com- 
 pany wasn't desired. 
 
 " Yes, I reckon I'll set while I talk," answer- 
 ed Beardsley, taking possession of the seat that 
 was placed for him. " Rough times these." 
 
 " Yes ; and they'll be rougher before we see 
 the end of them," was Marcy's reply. 
 
 "Don't reckon there'll be any fighting, do 
 you?" 
 
 The boy said he was sure of it. 
 
 "Well, what's one man's pizen is another 
 man's meat," said Mr. Beardsley, with a wink 
 that no doubt meant a great deal. " By the 
 way, Marcy, you've been to school and oughter 
 be posted in such things, what is a letter of 
 mark- we and reprisal? I've been down to 
 Wilmington a time or two on business, but I
 
 FORCED INTO THE SERVICE. 335 
 
 did not like to ask the folks there what it 
 meant. They're strangers mostly, and I sorter 
 scringed against letting 'em see how ignorant 
 I was." 
 
 "It's a commission granted by a sovereign 
 of a State to his subjects, authorizing them to 
 prey upon the property of the subjects of an- 
 other State, if they happen to find any at sea," 
 answered Marcy. " That's as near as I can 
 tell it without looking the matter up." 
 
 "It is about what I thought it meant. 
 Now, does that letter or commission give pro- 
 tection to the crew of the privateer if they 
 happen to be caught ? They wont hang 'em, 
 will they?" 
 
 " I don't think they will. A few years ago 
 some European powers tried to induce Uncle 
 Sam to enter into an agreement to abolish pri- 
 vateering, but he wouldn't do it. Our private 
 armed vessels gave England a good deal of 
 trouble while she was trying to whip us, and 
 might do the same thing again under like cir- 
 cumstances." 
 
 " So the United States wouldn't agree to no 
 such bargain," exclaimed Mr. Beardsley, with
 
 336 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 something like a sigh of relief. " Then Uncle 
 Sam can't find fault with us for going into the 
 business, can he ?" 
 
 "He'll make prisoners of you and destroy 
 or confiscate your vessel, if he can catch you," 
 replied Marcy. 
 
 " Of course. That's to be expected ; but 
 he'll have to catch us first, and even then he 
 won't treat us like we was pirates. That's 
 what I want to know." 
 
 "Why do you ask? Are you interested in 
 the matter?" 
 
 "Somewhat," answered the man, with a 
 laugh. "My schooner is fixed over and fitted 
 with bunks for twenty men and three officers, 
 and I've bargained for two howitzers in New- 
 born. That's what I meant when I said 
 that one man's pizen is another man's meat. 
 Now is the time to slip out to sea and make a 
 prize or two before that blockade comes and 
 stops the business." 
 
 Marcj^ was astonished and so was his mother ; 
 and neither of them could imagine why Mr. 
 Beardsley had taken the pains to come to the 
 house and tell them all this.
 
 FORCED INTO THE SERVICE. 337 
 
 " Make hay while the sun shines, eh?" said 
 he, with a chuckle. "I aint got my commis- 
 sion yet, and can't get it till my bond for five 
 thousand dollars, which I give to the collec- 
 tor at Wilmington to send to the Secretary of 
 State, has been approved. I've got to promise 
 to obey the laws, you know, and that's easy." 
 
 "What do you intend to do with your 
 prizes, if you make any \ " inquired Mrs. Gray. 
 
 "Take 'em into Newbern and have 'em 
 appraised and sold by a competent tribunal, 
 whatever that means. ] heard while I was 
 in Newbern that there aint no admiralty 
 court in this country like there is in England, 
 and that the district court would most likely 
 'tend to the matter. As owner of the schooner 
 I will, of course, get the lion's share of the 
 money, and the rest will be divided up among 
 the officers and crew. But I'll do the fail- 
 thing by you, Marcy." 
 
 " By me ! " exclaimed the boy. 
 
 " Yes. You know this coast like a book " 
 
 " There are plenty of others who know it 
 better," interrupted Marcy, who now saw 
 what the man's object was in coming there. 
 
 22
 
 338 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 It was two-fold : If Marcy would help him, 
 he would give him good wages and a big 
 share of prize-money to act as pilot ; but if 
 he wouldn't help him, then Mr. Beardsley 
 would denounce him among the planters as 
 unfriendly to the cause of the South, and that 
 would be a bad thing for him to do. Marcy 
 read the whole scheme as easily as he could 
 have read a printed page, and if it had not 
 been for his mother, he would have refused, 
 point-blank, any offer that the owner of the 
 privateer could have made him. But he would 
 do anything rather than add to his mother's 
 troubles. 
 
 " You must remember that I am not a pro- 
 fessional pilot, and that a good many months 
 have passed since I sailed my schooner along 
 this coast," continued Marcy. "I might run 
 you aground at the wrong time. You can get 
 plenty of better men in Newbern or Wilm- 
 ington." 
 
 " If I am willing to trust you it's all right, 
 aint it ? I don't want a professional pilot. 
 I want somebody who knows Crooked Inlet. 
 You've been through there often."
 
 FORCED INTO THE SERVICE. 339 
 
 As Marcy could not deny it he said nothing. 
 
 " I aint going to follow the reg'lar routes 
 of travel," continued Mr. Beardsley. " If I 
 was, I could sail my own vessel without hiring 
 anybody to act as pilot. My plan is to slip 
 down to Newbern some dark night, after I 
 get notice that my application has been 
 granted, take my guns aboard, ship a good 
 crew, and then run up to, and out of, Crooked 
 Inlet. That will bring me a good piece above 
 Hatteras, and out of the way of any war-ship 
 that may be prowling along the coast. If one 
 see me and gives chase, I'll put back through 
 the Inlet where she can't follow on account 
 of shoal water. What do you think of the 
 scheme ? " 
 
 Much against his will Marcy was obliged to 
 say that he thought it would work, provided 
 the pursuing vessel did not happen to be a 
 steamer fast enough to cut the schooner off 
 from the Inlet. 
 
 "And if she is, I wont go nigh her," re- 
 plied Mr. Beardsley, with a grin which was 
 intended to mean that he was altogether too 
 sharp to be caught in that way. ; ' We wont
 
 340 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 chase steamers, kase we know we can't catch 
 'em ; and 'taint no ways likely that we'll go 
 to sleep and let one of 'em get between us and 
 the coast." 
 
 " Did you have to buy the guns you intend 
 to put on the schooner ? " asked Marcy, when 
 the visitor paused and looked at him as if 
 waiting for him to say something. 
 
 "No. They came from one of the forts 
 taken by the State troops awhile ago. I bor- 
 rowed 'em on condition that I give 'em back 
 when they are wanted. They're too light for 
 coast defense, but just the thing for our busi- 
 ness. Well, what do you say ? " 
 
 " You have not yet asked my consent," Mrs. 
 Gray reminded him. 
 
 "I didn't think I'd have to," answered Mr. 
 Beardsley. " I reckoned you were like all the 
 other women folks ready and willing to do 
 anything for the cause." 
 
 " But if Marcy should be killed " 
 
 "Aw! He aint going to be killed," ex- 
 claimed the visitor rudely. "Don't I tell 
 you that we'll run the minute we sight a war- 
 vessel."
 
 FORCED INTO THE SERVICE. 341 
 
 " But you might run aground and they 
 might capture you," answered Mrs. Gray, who 
 knew as well as anybody how dangerous the 
 coast was, even to those who were acquainted 
 with it. " And if Marcy should be sent to 
 prison, as he would if he were taken on board 
 an armed schooner, what would become of me \ 
 My oldest boy is at sea, and it is my desire to 
 keep Marcy with me as much as I can." 
 
 " He can run up and see you when we come 
 into port, which will be as often as we take a 
 prize, or see signs of a blow in the clouds out- 
 side," said Mr. Beardsley, putting on his hat, 
 and getting upon his feet. "Come down and 
 see the schooner, Marcy. Stop at my house, 
 and I'll show you right where she is." 
 
 " How soon do you start ? " 
 
 " Some time this week, I hope. The sooner 
 we get outside the better our chances will be. 
 That's why I say, make hay while the sun 
 shines. Two or three hauls will make us so 
 rich that we needn't do no more work the 
 longest day we live." 
 
 ''And will you feel no sorrow for those who 
 lose their property, and perhaps their all,
 
 342 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 through your efforts to enrich yourself ? " 
 asked Mrs. Gray. 
 
 " That's why I say that one man's pizen is 
 another man's meat," replied Beardsley. 
 "Not a mite of sorrow will I feel for them 
 Yankees. Let them come under our flag if 
 they want protection. When will you be 
 along, Marcy?" 
 
 " To-morrow about this time," answered the 
 boy. 
 
 " All right. Think over what I've said to 
 you, and be ready with an answer. When 
 you learn a little more about a vessel I will 
 give you a chance as mate. Gfood-by." 
 
 Beardsley walked down the steps and out of 
 the gate, and Marcy kept his eyes fastened 
 upon him as long as he remained in sight. 
 Then he faced about and looked at his mother, 
 who had dropped her sewing into her lap and 
 sat motionless in her chair, the picture of 
 misery and dejection. 
 
 "They're going for us, mother," said he, 
 with a smile. ' ' That interview with Beards- 
 ley has satisfied me that I can't live up to my 
 principles in this country as I should like to."
 
 FORCED INTO THE SERVICE. 343 
 
 "I never dreamed of anything like this," 
 said Mrs. Gray, at length. "What are you 
 going to do, Marcy ? " 
 
 " There's only one thing I can do and keep 
 a roof over your head," answered Marcy, 
 thrusting his hands deep into his pockets and 
 striding up and down the porch. " I must 
 accept his proposition ; that's all there is 
 about it." 
 
 " Oh, Marcy ! " exclaimed his mother. 
 
 " It looks fair enough on the surface, but I 
 tell you there is something back of it," said 
 the boy, confidently. " He pretends to take it 
 for granted that I am a rebel, but he doesn't 
 really believe it, and this proposition of his is 
 intended to try me and find out where I stand. 
 Almost the last question our class debated 
 in school was : " Is a man ever justified in act- 
 ing from policy rather than principle." I took 
 the negative, and contended that he ought 
 to act from principle, let the consequences 
 be what they might ; but I don't think so now. 
 I shall join that rebel privateer, and I shall 
 do it because I am sure something will happen 
 to your house if I don't. Now please don't
 
 344 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 say a word about it. I feel bad enough 
 as it is." 
 
 If Mr. Beardsley really was testing the boy 
 hoping to find him wanting, he was doomed 
 to be disappointed, for promptly at half-past 
 two the next afternoon Marcy rode into his 
 yard and went with him to see the schooner, 
 which was hidden in a bayou half a mile away. 
 Marcy knew the little craft as well as he knew 
 his own, but her appearance had been so great- 
 ly changed that he would not have recognized 
 her if he had seen her on the sound. Her 
 black hull had been painted white, so that she 
 would not offer so fair a mark for the cannon 
 of any cruiser she might be unlucky enough 
 to fall in with ; her midship section had been 
 changed into a berth-deck, and she had gun- 
 decks fore and aft. The two white men who 
 had charge of her had hoisted her canvas to 
 give it an airing, and Marcy saw a large figure 
 "9" painted on her fore and main sails. 
 
 " That's to make folks believe that she is a 
 pilot-boat," chuckled Mr. Beardsley. "We'll 
 be almost certain to find some fellow creeping 
 along inside of Diamond shoals, thinking of
 
 FORCED INTO THE SERVICE. 345 
 
 no danger, and he'll never try to sheer off 
 when he sees us coming, kase he'll think we're 
 friendly. He'll think different when he sees a 
 puff of smoke go up from our bows, but then 
 it will be too late for him to square away. 
 Good scheme ; don't you think so ? " 
 
 Although Marcy had never felt greater con- 
 tempt for a man in his life, he managed to get 
 through the interview to his satisfaction ; but 
 whether or not Mr. Beardsley was satisfied, 
 the boy could not tell. Sometimes he acted 
 as if he was, and then again he looked and 
 talked as if he suspected that Marcy was not 
 half as enthusiastic as he pretended to be, and 
 that his heart was set on something besides 
 privateering. 
 
 "I'd like to capture this vessel, hoist Dick 
 Graham's flag over it, and give her up to some 
 man-of-war," he said to himself. "But if I 
 should try it, I'd never dare show myself 
 around home again. The game isn't worth 
 the candle. Some of Uncle Sam's boys will 
 knock her into kindling-wood if she stays out- 
 side long enough, and possibly they may send 
 me to Davy's locker along with her. It's
 
 346 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 rather a desperate chance, but it's the only 
 thing that will save mother from persecution. 
 Perhaps the neighbors will be a little more 
 civil to her when they find that I am in the 
 service of the Confederacy." Then aloud he 
 said : ' ' When she gets her guns and stores 
 aboard she will draw a good deal of water for 
 Crooked Inlet, and I'd feel safer if I could 
 have Julius at my elbow when ' ' 
 
 "Oh, that wouldn't do at all," interrupted 
 Mr. Beardsley, stamping about the deck and 
 shaking his head most emphatically. " Julius 
 is a nigger and an abolitionist, and we don't 
 want no such around. I've had carpenters at 
 work on the schooner for almost two weeks, 
 and there aint been one of my black people 
 aboard of her." 
 
 "But they must all know that you have 
 been doing something to her," replied Marcy. 
 
 " Of course. I told 'em that I was getting 
 ready to go a- trading between Plymouth, 
 Edenton. and Newbern, and that I was fixing 
 on her up so't I could carry big cargoes." 
 
 "Mebbe they believed it and mebbe they 
 didn't," was the boy's mental comment. "If
 
 FORCED INTO THE SERVICE. 347 
 
 the darkies hereabouts are as sharp as they 
 are down Barrington way, they understand 
 what this vessel is intended for as well as you 
 do yourself." 
 
 <k l wont have no niggers aboard my priva- 
 teer," continued Mr. Beardsley, who talked 
 and acted as if he had grown in importance 
 since those gun-decks were put into the 
 schooner. "I wouldn't trust the best of 'em 
 in times like these, and so I shall man my ship 
 with whites. These men belong to my crew, 
 and the rest will be just as good." 
 
 Marcy thought they might be better with- 
 out hurting anything, for he did not at all like 
 the appearance of the two fellows he had found 
 in charge of the privateer. They had probably 
 been picked up among the sailor boarding- 
 houses in Newbern ; and if the test of the 
 crew were going to be like them, Marcy thought 
 he would not care to be in their company for 
 a great while at a time. He afterward learned 
 that one of the men was deep in Mr. Beards- 
 ley's confidence. 
 
 Before the boy took leave of the owner of 
 the privateer they came to a plain understand-
 
 348 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 ing on all points, agreed upon terms, and Marcy 
 was to hold himself in readiness to sail for 
 Newbern at any hour of the day or night. 
 He felt almost like a criminal when he rode 
 home fo meet his mother, but, although he was 
 among the first, he was by no means the last, 
 to serve the cause of the Confederacy because 
 he could not help himself.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 SECRET ENEMIES. 
 
 f^TT'S done and it can't be undone," said 
 _L Marcy, after he had told his mother just 
 what passed between him and the captain of 
 the privateer. " I assured Mr. Beardsley that 
 I didn't think the government would hang his 
 men as pirates if they were taken on the high 
 seas, but since I have seen a coujjfe of them I 
 have my doubts. If the ship-keepers are fair 
 specimens of the crew, they are a hard lot, and 
 I don't want to be captured in such company. 
 This is being true to my colors with a ven- 
 geance." 
 
 That was what his mother thought, but she 
 did not say a word to add to the bitterness of 
 his feelings. Knowing the temper of the peo- 
 ple around her as well as she did, she could 
 not see that Marcy could have done anything 
 else. 
 Marcy Gray ate little supper that night, and 
 
 349
 
 350 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 as soon as it began to grow dark, he left the 
 house and went out on the road to take a 
 stroll. He wanted to be alone, even though the 
 thoughts that crowded thick and fast upon him 
 were anything but pleasant company. Almost 
 without knowing it he kept on until he arrived 
 within sight of the gate leading to Mr. Beards- 
 ley' s yard, and saw three men standing close 
 inside of it. The night was so dark he could 
 not see who they were, and without giving the 
 circumstance a second thought, he was about to 
 retrace his steps, when the men moved into the 
 road, and twb of them made a few steps in his 
 direction, but turned suddenly about as if lis- 
 tening to some parting instructions from the 
 one they had left behind. Marcy waited to see 
 no more, but walked rapidly homeward, uncon- 
 scious of the fact that the men followed a little 
 distance in his rear, although they did not see 
 him. When he reached the carriage-way Marcy 
 did not immediately go to the house, but paced 
 up and down the road in a brown study, from 
 which he was presently aroused by the sound 
 of footsteps. A few seconds later a figure 
 loomed up in the darkness, and Marcy thought
 
 SECRET ENEMIES. 351 
 
 he recognized in it one of the men he had seen 
 on board the schooner that afternoon. The fig- 
 ure discovered him at the same moment, halted 
 abruptly, and said in cautious tones, as if fear- 
 ful of being overheard : 
 
 " Who's there?" 
 
 "It's no one who will hurt you," was the 
 boy's reply. " Toddle right along about your 
 business." 
 
 1 'Any dogs layinj^around ? " 
 
 " Nary dog. I'm alone." 
 
 These answers must have satisfied the man, 
 for he advanced without further hesitation, 
 and peered sharply into Marcy's face. 
 
 " What you doing out here ?" he asked, as 
 though he had a right to know ; and then 
 Marcy saw that he had not been mistaken. 
 The man was one of the ship-keepers. 
 
 "What's that to you. and who are you?" 
 he replied, with spirit. 
 
 " I don't mean any offense I don't really," 
 said the man hastily. "But it is rather 
 strange that I should find you so easy when 
 you are the very one I was looking for. I 
 didn't know whether it would be safe to come
 
 352 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 or not, for you have dogs in plenty, like all the 
 rest of the planters about here. I am Sain 
 Tierney, and I belong toBeardsley's privateer. 
 You are Marcy Gray, and have been engaged 
 to take the schooner through out-of-the-way 
 inlets that the old man is not acquainted with. 
 Let's go down the road a piece. I'd like to 
 talk to you a minute, if you don't care." 
 
 " Why can't you say what you have to say 
 right where you stand?" inquired Marcy. 
 " There's no one to overhear you if your com- 
 munication is private." 
 
 " Private ? Well, you'll think so when you 
 hear what it is. Come down the road." 
 
 It was right on the end of the boy's tongue 
 to ask the man why he had come to see him so 
 soon after holding that conversation at Mr. 
 Beardsley's gate, and what he had done with 
 his companion ; but, on reflection, he decided 
 that he would not say a word on these points. 
 This might be an opportunity to learn some- 
 thing, he told himself, but there was one thing 
 of which he was sure : he would not trust 
 himself within reach of that missing ship- 
 keeper, who might be hidden somewhere down
 
 SECRET ENEMIES. 353 
 
 
 
 tl*e road, ready to pounce upon him the mo- 
 ment this man Tierney brought him to the 
 ambush. He would remain right where he 
 was, within earshot of the faithful Bose, who 
 would be likely to make things lively for the 
 privateersman if he attempted any violence. 
 There was something in the wind, the boy was 
 sure of that ; but he could not, for the life of 
 him, think what it could be. 
 
 "I don't care to go down the road," said 
 he. " What objection can you have to this 
 place? We can see in every direction, and 
 there are no bushes behind which an eaves- 
 dropper could hide himself." 
 
 It was plain that Tierney was not satisfied 
 with this arrangement. He walked about with 
 his hands in his pockets, kicked a pebble or 
 two out of his way, and finally wanted to 
 know if Marcy would promise, honor bright, 
 that he would not repeat a word of what might 
 be said to him. 
 
 "No; I'll not make any such promise," 
 Marcy answered promptly. "And you would 
 be foolish to put any faith in it if I did. I 
 don't want you to tell me anything confiden- 
 
 23
 
 354 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 tially, for I must be left free to do as I think 
 best about repeating it." 
 
 The ship-keeper was plainly surprised at 
 this answer, for he gave utterance to a heavy 
 oath under his breath and kicked some more 
 pebbles out of the road. Marcy waited pa- 
 tiently for him to speak, for he was positive 
 that the man had come there with something 
 on his mind, and that he would not go away 
 until he had told what it was. 
 
 "You're mighty suspicious," said he, at 
 length, "and I don't know but you have rea- 
 son to be. You are a Union man." 
 
 "Who told you that?" exclaimed Marcy, 
 somewhat startled. 
 
 "A little bird whispered it to me." 
 
 "Well, the next time you see that little bird 
 tell him to mind his own business. My polit- 
 ical views are nothing to him or you either." 
 
 ' ' I wouldn' t get huffy. The old man says ' ' 
 began Tierney, and then he stopped and caught 
 his breath. 
 
 "Aha! The old man says so, does he?" 
 thought Marcy. "And he tells his foremast 
 hands what he thinks about his neighbors,
 
 SECRET ENEMIES, 355 
 
 does he ? I must be cautious. Well, go on ; 
 what does the old man say?" 
 
 "He says he has engaged you to act as 
 pilot," replied the man, with some confusion. 
 
 " So he has ; and if he chooses to trust his 
 vessel in my hands in channels and inlets that 
 he knows nothing about, what have you to 
 say ? He wouldn't do it if he did not think I 
 would serve him to the best of my ability, 
 would he ? But what has my politics to do with 
 the position I hold aboard that privateer ?" 
 
 "Nothing much," answered Tierney, turn- 
 ing away. ' ' But they have a good deal to do 
 with the proposition I was going to make to 
 you if I had found you to be the good Union 
 I heard you were." 
 
 Now Marcy thought he began to see day- 
 light, but he said not a word. Tierney acted 
 as though he was about to go away, but the 
 boy knew he wouldn' t. 
 
 "I'm a Union man," said he. 
 
 "That's nothing to me, but if you are, I 
 don't see why you stay about here. You've 
 no friends in this State to speak of. Go up to 
 the United States."
 
 356 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 The ship-keeper was evidently waiting for 
 Marcy to ask him about the proposition to 
 which he had referred a moment before, but 
 he waited in vain. It was no part of Marcy' s 
 plan to draw the conversation back into that 
 channel. Tierney saw that he must take the 
 initiative himself, and he did it very abruptly. 
 
 "Look here, pilot," said he. "There's no 
 use in your mincing matters with me in this 
 way. Just a moment," he added, seeing that 
 the boy raised his hand as if he were about to 
 speak. "I am a Union man all over, my 
 pardner is another, and you are another. I 
 know it as well as I know anything, and the 
 old man knows it I mean, he as good as said 
 he had heard of it, too." 
 
 "Well, what of it?" inquired Marcy. 
 " What did he hire me for, when he knows 
 that it is in my power to run his schooner hard 
 and fast aground if a ship of war gets after us ? " 
 
 "But he doesn't quite believe all he has 
 heard, and he's willing to give you a chance 
 to prove that you are true blue," said Tierney, 
 with an awkward attempt to undo the mis- 
 chief he tad done by talking too rapidly.
 
 SECRET ENEMIES. 357 
 
 "lam true blue," replied Marcy, "although 
 I confess that my actions just about this time 
 do not show it," he added, to himself. "As 
 long as I remain aboard that schooner I shall 
 do my duty the best I know how." 
 
 " And will you take her out of harm's way 
 if a ship of war heaves in sight ? " 
 
 "I will if lean." 
 
 "Then it isn't of any use for me to say 
 more, I suppose ?" 
 
 " Not the slightest ; that is. if you mean to 
 propose that I shall join you in seizing the 
 vessel for the purpose of giving her up to one 
 of Uncle Sam's ships." 
 
 " I never said so," exclaimed Tierney. " I 
 never said one single, solitary word that could 
 lead you to think I meant any such thing." 
 
 " I haven't hinted that you did ; but all the 
 same that is the proposition you came here to 
 make me. I can see through a ladder as well 
 as you can." 
 
 " Well, I don't see that it's any good to beat 
 about the bush," said the ship-keeper frankly. 
 " That's just what I came here for. We could 
 get a reward for turning the schooner over,
 
 358 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 and you could run her up as far as Fortress 
 Monroe, couldn't you ? '* 
 
 " I might do it on a pinch, but I wont." 
 
 " We'll have men enough to take her with- 
 out the least trouble,*' urged Tierney. 
 
 "I hope you'll not try it, but if you do, you 
 will find me close by Captain Beardsley's side." 
 
 " Will you fight ?" 
 
 "I'll fight till I drop before I will go near 
 the Yankees with the crew of that privateer. 
 They would take one look at us, and then go 
 to work and hang the whole lot." 
 
 "Why, didn't you tell the old man that 
 they wouldn't?" exclaimed Tierney; and if 
 Marcy could have had a view of his face, he 
 would have seen that the ship-keeper was both 
 astonished and frightened. " You must have 
 changed your mind." 
 
 He certainly had, but did not feel called 
 upon to explain why he had done so. His 
 idea was that the faces of the schooner' s crew, 
 if Tierney and his companion ship-keeper were 
 to be taken as specimens, would be quite 
 enough to condemn them, and that the 
 United States authorities would be justified
 
 SECRET ENEMIES. 359 
 
 in putting it out of their power to do mis- 
 chief. 
 
 "I'll not have any hand in the mutiny, but 
 will do my best to quell it if it breaks out," 
 Marcy declared, with emphasis. " You've 
 had your walk for nothing." 
 
 "So that's the end of tliat hope," said 
 Tierney, looking down at the ground and try- 
 ing to act as though he was very much dis- 
 heartened. " You wont repeat what has 
 passed between us, of course?" 
 
 " Of course I will. I'll go to Mr. Beardsley 
 with it the first thing in the morning." 
 
 "What's that you say?" Tierney almost 
 shouted. " Take back those words or I'll " 
 
 He made a step forward and raised his hands 
 as if he were about to spring at Marcy. His ac- 
 tions were certainly threatening, and the boy be- 
 lieving that he might commit an assault just to 
 keep up appearances, thought it best to summon 
 a friend upon whose loyalty he could always 
 rely. A single shrill whistle arose upon the 
 air, an answering bark came from the direction 
 of the house, and Bose came bounding up to 
 see what was the matter. Tierney recoiled.
 
 360 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 " He'll not say a spiteful word to you if you 
 let me alone," Marcy assured him. " You see 
 now why I did not care to go down the road. 
 You have nothing to fear from me, but I shall 
 tell Captain Beardsley all about this interview 
 as soon as I can find him. And that is just 
 what I am expected to do," he added, to him- 
 self, as the ship-keeper turned around and 
 hurried away. " That fellow isn' t half as good 
 a Union man as Bose is. Beardsley sent him 
 here to test me, and I saw it almost from the 
 beginning. If I don't report the matter, 
 Beardsley will have his suspicions confirmed, 
 and then he will set something else on foot 
 against me. Oh, I'm a sharp one," laughed 
 Marcy, taking off his cap and patting his own 
 head, " but I'd give a good deal to know when 
 and how I am going to get rid of that man. 
 Whatever I do I must look out for mother's 
 comfort and peace of mind, and so I will not 
 lisp a word of this to her." 
 
 That night Marcy' s sleep was disturbed by 
 all sorts of bad dreams, during which he was 
 constantly detecting Captain Beardsley in some 
 plot to injure him, and when morning came he
 
 SECRET ENEMIES. 361 
 
 was not much refreshed. In accordance with 
 his usual custom he had his horse brought to 
 the door immediately after breakfast, kissed 
 his mother good-by, and set out for Nashville 
 to bring the mail ; but he stopped on the way 
 to have a talk with the owner of the privateer. 
 Under almost any other circumstances Marcy 
 would have thought he was playing a con- 
 temptible part ; but being as certain as he 
 wanted to be that Beardsley was trying to get 
 a hold upon him for some purpose of his own, 
 the boy thought himself justified in adopting 
 heroic measures for self-defense. The ship- 
 keeper was not the Union man he pretended to 
 be, and Marcy would tell Beardsley nothing 
 new when he revealed the plot at which Tierney 
 had hinted the night before. This was what 
 Marcy believed, and the manner in which he 
 was greeted by the privateer captain confirmed 
 him in his belief. 
 
 "Have you been over to the schooner this 
 morning?" inquired the boy, when he had 
 hitched his horse and taken possession of the 
 chair that was brought out for him. " If you 
 will not think me too inquisitive, I should like
 
 362 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 to know where you picked up the two men you 
 left in charge of her." 
 
 " I found them in Newbern, and they were 
 recommended to me, by a party in whom 
 I have all confidence, as men who could be 
 trusted," replied the captain. " What makes 
 you ask the question? Don't you like the 
 looks of 'em ? " 
 
 " No, I don't, and neither do I like their ac- 
 tions," said the boy truthfully. ' ' Tierney came 
 to see me last night, and tried to induce me to 
 take a walk down the road toward the place 
 where I think his companion was concealed." 
 
 " What did he do that for ? " exclaimed the 
 captain, who was so anxious to be surprised 
 that he could not wait until his visitor reached 
 the surprising part of his story. 
 
 " He probably wanted a witness to the man- 
 ner in which I received the plot he intended 
 to propose to me if I had given the chance," 
 answered Marcy, narrowly watching the effect 
 of his words. "But he didn't propose it ; I 
 will say that much in favor of Tierney. He 
 simply hinted at it, and I told him I wouldn't 
 have a thing to do with it."
 
 SECRET ENEMIES. 363 
 
 " Why, the the brat ! " cried the captain. 
 
 '* You wouldn't have thought it of him, 
 would you ?" 
 
 " Indeed I wouldn't. I thought he was trust- 
 worthy." 
 
 " But you see he isn't. I told him I would 
 tell you all about it and I have," continued 
 . Marcy, who had told nothing at all ; but he had 
 led Captain Beardsley on to acknowledge, al- 
 most as explicitly as words could have done it, 
 that he knew all about Tierney's plan for seiz- 
 ing the schooner. "I think you had better 
 discharge him. I don't want to sail with a 
 man who is all the while watching for a chance 
 to get me into difficulty. And then see how 
 he is going square back on the principles he 
 professes ! " 
 
 " I should say he was. I'll discharge him 
 as soon as I can get where the schooner is, and 
 tell him the next time he But what did he 
 do ? What did he propose to you ?" 
 
 "He didn't propose anything, because I 
 didn't give him time. He only hinted at it, 
 and I thought it an outrageous piece of 
 villainy."
 
 364 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 "So it was ; so it was. But what did he 
 hint at ? " 
 
 " Why, seizing the schooner and turning her 
 over to the Yankees. I told you all about it." 
 
 " So you did, and I say that hanging is too 
 good for that traitor. What would you do 
 with him if you was me ? " 
 
 " Send him up to the United States or put 
 him in jail," replied Marcy. He knew very 
 well that the captain would do neither one nor 
 the other, but Marcy wanted to get rid of that 
 man. If he would go deliberately to work to 
 get him into trouble, as he had done the night 
 before by his employer's advice and consent, he 
 might try it again when Marcy was not so well 
 prepared for him. 
 
 " It scares me to think of it," said the owner 
 of the privateer, who did not look as though 
 he were very badly alarmed. " Such a thing 
 as taking the schooner could be done easy 
 enough, and where would you be if it was 
 attempted?" 
 
 ' ' I should be on the side of the authorities. 
 There's where you will always find me. I 
 wouldn' t fall into the power of the Yankees for
 
 SECRET ENEMIES. 365 
 
 ten times the value of all the prizes that will 
 be captured on this coast during the war. I 
 should never expect to see home again. I told 
 Tierney I would fight first." 
 
 *' I guess you will do to tie to, Marcy," said 
 the captain ; and the visitor told himself that 
 those were the only truthful words he had 
 uttered during the interview. " If all my crew 
 is as loyal as you are, and if all the men in the 
 army stick up for the Stars and Bars as you 
 do, we'll gain our independence in less'n six 
 months." 
 
 Marcy was not aware he had " stuck up" 
 for the Stars and Bars, but it would not be 
 safe to set the captain right, as he would have 
 been glad to do, and besides this was the time 
 to learn something. 
 
 "I don't know where Tierney got his in- 
 formation, but he has heard from several 
 sources that I am for the Union," said he. 
 
 " That's what folks say," replied Beardsley. 
 
 " What have I said or done since I came 
 home to lead them to think so ?" 
 
 " Not a word ; not a thing. It's what you 
 haven't said and done that makes 'em suspi-
 
 366 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 cion you. You don't whoop and holler and 
 yell and slosh around with your revolver, like 
 the most of the young chaps do." 
 
 u I am not given to such antics, and these 
 are no times for monkey-shines. We need 
 sober, thoughtful men who will do their best 
 to steer us safely through the difficulties by 
 which we are surrounded, rather than whoop- 
 ing and yelling young ones who seemed deter- 
 mined to wreck us." 
 
 "That's good, sound argument," assented 
 Captain Beardsley, as the visitor pushed back 
 his chair and went down the steps to unhitch 
 his horse. 
 
 " But there's one thing I want to tell you," 
 continued Marcy. "I haven't signed any 
 papers and consequently I am still a free man ; 
 and if you want me in that schooner worse than 
 you want Tierney, well and good. If you don' t, 
 you can keep him and I will stay ashore." 
 
 Marcy had pinned a very slight hope of re- 
 lease right here. He was satisfied that the 
 owner of the privateer must think a good deal 
 of the man Tierney or he would not have placed 
 so much confidence in him ; and he hoped the
 
 SECRET ENEMIES. 367 
 
 captain would decide to keep him and let his 
 pilot go. For a time it looked as though the 
 hope might be realized, for the captain hesi- 
 
 - 
 
 tated and stammered in such a way that there 
 was no doubt left in Marcy's mind that he was 
 loth to give Tierney up ; but seeing the boy's 
 eyes fastened upon him with a most searching 
 glance Beardsley aroused himself to say : 
 
 "Of course ; of course." 
 
 "/Would you feel safe at sea knowing that 
 you had a traitor "among the crew one who 
 was waiting and watching for an opportunity 
 to turn you and your vessel over to the Yan- 
 kees ?" continued Marcy. 
 
 "No, I wouldn't," and the words came out 
 quickly and honestly. " I wouldn't live on a 
 vessel under them conditions." 
 
 " Well, whom are you going to keep him 
 or me?" 
 
 " You, of course. I couldn't get along with- 
 out somebody who knows Crooked Inlet better 
 than I do. Going to Nashville after your mail ? 
 Well, when you come back ride round to the 
 schooner and you'll find that Tierney isn't 
 there."
 
 368 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 u What good will it do to ride around to the 
 schooner?" thought the boy, as he gave his 
 horse the rein and galloped out of the yard. 
 "Of course Tierney wouldn't be there. He 
 would hear me coming through the bushes and 
 have plenty of time to jump ashore and hide 
 himself. A blind man ought to see that I did 
 right when I went to Beardsley with my story. 
 He never asked what the plot was until he com- 
 mitted himself, nor did he inquire how many 
 there were in. it, nor did he get half as mad 
 over it as he would if Tierney were a sure- 
 enough Union man. It was a put-up job, I tell 
 you, and who knows but there may be others 
 of much the same sort hanging over me at this 
 very minute ? I do despise secret enemies." 
 
 News travels rapidly when all the people in 
 a place are thinking and talking about the 
 same things, and Marcy saw the fact illus- 
 trated when he reached Nashville. The mail 
 and express packages were delayed by an ac- 
 cident to the wagon in which they were con- 
 veyed to and from the nearest stage station ; it 
 took two or three hours to repair it, so that it 
 was mid-day before Marcy was ready to start
 
 SECRET ENEMIES. 369 
 
 for home. He always dreaded an enforced de- 
 lay in town, and tried to time himself so that 
 he would reach the post-office after everybody 
 else had left it. In the days gone by he had 
 been on friendly terms with all the Nashville 
 people who were worth knowing, but it was 
 not so now. He was treated civilly enough, 
 but rather coolly, by those he met on the street 
 and in the office, and he noticed that few of 
 them took the trouble to speak to him. This 
 being the case, he wondered what influence had 
 been at work to bring about the change he 
 noticed before he was fairly inside the town 
 limits. It was "Hello, Marcy ! " here, and 
 " How are you, old fellow ? " there, and when 
 he hitched his horse and went into the post- 
 office, where there was a crowd assembled, his 
 greeting was as cordial as any that had ever 
 been extended to him. Marcy opened his eyes, 
 but said little, knowing that if he had the 
 patience to wait somebody would explain the 
 matter to him. He got a clue to the situation 
 when young Allison, after telling him that the 
 mail wagon had broken down and might not be 
 along for an hour or two, inquired : 
 
 24
 
 370 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 "How's your ship, Marcy? I suppose you 
 calculate to sweep the sea of everything that 
 carries the Yankee flag, don' t you ? I shall 
 look for astonishing reports when you get 
 among the war-ships that are coming to block- 
 ade the coast." 
 
 Allison was a loud-mouthed young rebel who 
 had made himself particularly obnoxious to 
 quiet, peace-loving Marcy Gray. He did not 
 say anything to Marcy' s face that the latter 
 could resent (he was afraid to do that, not- 
 withstanding the fact that he always carried 
 a loaded revolver in his pocket), but he 
 had said a good many insulting words to 
 others that were intended for Marcy' s bene- 
 fit. The latter turned upon him like a flash, 
 and said, so that every one in the office 
 heard it : 
 
 "We don't expect to whip the whole Yan- 
 kee navy, but we shall do the best we can, and 
 that's more than you seem inclined to do. 
 You have had a good deal to say concerning 
 the cowards who are stopping at home when 
 the South is calling for their services. Why 
 did you not go to the front yourself long ago,
 
 SECRET ENEMIES. 371 
 
 you noisy braggart ? Put a uniform on before 
 you speak to me again." 
 
 " Good for you, Marcy," cried a score of 
 voices. " Actions and not frothy sentiment 
 are what we want now." 
 
 " Hit him again and I'll help," shouted an- 
 other ; and Marcy' s old-time friend, Wat Gif- 
 ford, elbowed his way through the crowd. 
 He was in full uniform, and was the only citi- 
 zen of Nashville who had snuffed powder at 
 the bombardment of Fort Sumter. " Talk is 
 cheap, but it takes patriotism to face Yan- 
 kees." 
 
 If Marcy had had a week in which to con- 
 sider the matter, he could not have done a bet- 
 ter thing than he did right there on the spur 
 of the moment. Young Allison slunk away 
 abashed, and the privateer's pilot regained at 
 one bound all he had ever lost in the estima- 
 tion of the Nashville people.
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 MARCY GRAY PRIVATEERSMAN. 
 
 M "TTTAT, you're just the fellow I want to 
 VV see,'' exclaimed Marcy, taking his 
 friend by the arm and leading him from the 
 post-office. " When did you get home ? " 
 
 " Came last night to recruit after my ardu- 
 ous campaign, and to spread a little enthusi- 
 asm and patriotism among you stay-at-home 
 chaps," answered Wat. "But, say," he add- 
 ed, in a lower tone. " I didn't expect to find 
 you in the service. You're Union." 
 
 "Who told you that?" 
 
 "I'll be switched if I know. It's all over 
 the country and in everybody's mouth. I 
 reckon you're Union about as I am. I say 
 that secession is all wrong, that we would 
 be better without it, and that the people who 
 are urging it on don't know what they are 
 about. There's Allison for one ; and I'm 
 heartily glad you gave him such a set-back. 
 
 372
 
 MARCY GRAY PRIVATEERSMAN. 373 
 
 He'll talk himself hoarse, but when it comes 
 to shouldering a musket, he'll not be there. 
 He'll be a bully chap to stand back and holler 
 ' St-boy ' ; but he wont take a hand himself." 
 
 By this time the two friends had perched 
 themselves upon a low fence where they could 
 be alone and talk without fear of being over- 
 heard, and Gifford ;showed his Yankee descent 
 by pulling out his knife and looking around 
 for a stick to whittle. 
 
 " And is that the reason all our old friends 
 have gone back on us, mother and me be- 
 cause they think we are for the Union ? " asked 
 Marcy. 
 
 "I believe that is the reason a good many 
 have turned the cold shoulder upon you," re- 
 plied Gifford. " You asked me a fair ques- 
 tion, and I have given you a plain answer; 
 but I am sorry to have to do it." 
 
 "It's all right," Marcy assured him. "I 
 want to know where I stand 
 
 "And then you will know how to carry 
 yourself," added his friend. "But every one 
 hasn't gone back on you ; I haven't." 
 
 " You are the solitary exception."
 
 374 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 "Well, you have taken the right course to 
 show people that they were mistaken in you," 
 said Gifford. " I don't see but that you were 
 well enough treated to-day." 
 
 "And joining the privateer was what worked 
 the change ?" 
 
 "I think so. Where do you stand, any 
 way ? You need not be afraid to be honest 
 with me." 
 
 "I think as you do, only I go a little 
 farther. The Constitution says: 'Treason 
 against the United States shall consist in levy- 
 ing war against them.' Did you fellows levy 
 war against them when you fired upon Sum- 
 ter ? If you did, you are traitors the last one 
 of you." 
 
 ' ' W-h-e-w ! ' ' whistled Gifford. ' ' And you 
 think we ought to be hanged ?" 
 
 "I certainly hope you wont be, you espe- 
 cially, but you know as well as I do that the 
 penalty of treason is death." 
 
 " And you don't call yourself a traitor to 
 your State, I suppose ? " 
 
 "I don't, because I have made no effort to 
 overthrow the legal government of my State.
 
 MARCY GRAY PRIVATEERSMAN. 375 
 
 Between you and me, I joined that privateer 
 because I did not think it would be safe to do 
 anything else." 
 
 " There's where you showed your good 
 sense," said Gifford earnestly. "Judging by 
 what I have heard, you took the only course 
 that was open to you. The people here are 
 not half as crazy as they are in Charleston, 
 Wilmington, and Newbern, but they are none 
 the less dead in earnest, and you will find that 
 after the State goes out, a Union man will not 
 be safe in this country. I think you have 
 completely allayed suspicion here in Nashville, 
 but you want to look out for secret enemies 
 near home. Whatever you do, don't run 
 Beardsley's schooner aground." 
 
 " What have I got to do with running the 
 schooner?" asked Marcy, who was surprised 
 at the extent of his friend's information. He 
 began to see that he and his movements had 
 been pretty thoroughly discussed. 
 
 " You're going to pilot her," answered Gif- 
 ford. "That's what you've got to do with 
 running her, and I say again, don't run her 
 aground."
 
 376 TRUE TO ins COLORS. 
 
 "If I do accidentally, Beardsley will shoot 
 me, I suppose." 
 
 "No, he wont. He hasn't the pluck to 
 shoot a squirrel ; but you never could make 
 him believe that it was an accident, and when 
 he got ashore he would do all he could to in- 
 flame the secessionists against you. He seems 
 to have something against you. I can't imag- 
 ine what it is " 
 
 "I can," replied Marcy, coloring to the roots 
 of his hair. " He wants to marry our planta- 
 tion." 
 
 " Whew ! " whispered Gifford. " That is a 
 piece of news, I confess, but it's safe, old boy. 
 He'll not make it, of course. Then you have a 
 most implacable foe in Lon Beardsley. He is 
 one of your secret enemies, and that over- 
 seer of yours what's his name, Hanson? is 
 another. They are sworn friends, I have heard, 
 and if your mother has any money stowed 
 away Mind, I don't ask whether she has or 
 not, because it is none of my business. But I 
 understand that before you came home she 
 made several trips about the country that could 
 not have been made for nothing. If she has
 
 MARCY GRAY PRIVATEEKSMAN. 377 
 
 any money, take all the precautions you can 
 think of to keep it from Hanson's knowledge. 
 He's far more dangerous than Beardsley, be- 
 cause he's right there on the place. I'll ride 
 up and see you to-morrow or next day, and 
 then I will tell you more." 
 
 Just then the conversation was interrupted 
 by the approach of a party of young fellows 
 who wanted to shake hands with the soldier 
 who had faced the Yankees in battle, and tell 
 Marcy Gray that they were glad to hear he had 
 joined the privateer, and that they had been 
 mistaken in him, having supposed that he was 
 for the Union and dead against secession. 
 Having discharged this duty, and promised the 
 young pilot that they would surely ride out and 
 make him a visit before he sailed, they turned 
 to Gifford and demanded a complete history of 
 the battle in Charleston harbor. 
 
 " If it was a battle I hope I may never be 
 in a worse one," replied the soldier, who was 
 not as proud of that affair as were some of those 
 who had no hand in it. " The South Carolina 
 boys had everything their own way. There 
 were few outsiders in it, except some who, like
 
 378 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 myself, were doing business in the city. Five 
 thousand against fifty-one ! Shucks ! " 
 
 " But you heard the bullets whistle, and 
 that's a thing to be proud of," said one. 
 
 " I didn't hear a single bullet, but I heard a 
 shell or two, and saw the old flag come down. 
 That was something I was sorry for." 
 
 Gifford could talk in this strain as much as 
 he pleased because he had "been there"; but 
 If Marcy Gray had ventured upon it, being 
 under suspicion as lie was, beyond a doubt he 
 or his mother would have suffered for it. Dur- 
 ing the time he spent in waiting for the mail, 
 he was never alone for a single minute. All 
 his old friends seemed desirous of "making 
 themselves square " with him, and not one left 
 his side without first telling him that somehow 
 the mistaken idea had got abroad that he was 
 strong for the Union. 
 
 " And so I am," said Marcy to himself, as he 
 mounted his horse and set out for home, glad to 
 get away from the people who so misunderstood 
 him. "I utterly despise this double life, but 
 don' t see any release from it just now. I should 
 like to show myself true to my colors, but what
 
 MARCY GRAY PRIVATEERSMAN. 379 
 
 can I do among a lot of ruffians who would burn 
 the roof over ray mother's head if I gave them 
 the slightest excuse for it ? " 
 
 When Marcy rode into his own yard he was 
 surprised to see two strange carriages under 
 the shed (a sight that had been common 
 enough once upon a time, but which he had 
 not seen before since his return from Barring- 
 ton), and when he entered the room where his 
 mother was sitting, he found that those car- 
 riages had brought to the house a party of 
 ladies who had kept aloof from Mrs. Gray ever 
 since she failed to celebrate South Carolina's se- 
 cession by displaying a "nullification" badge. 
 These ladies were as friendly and sociable as 
 they had ever been, and a stranger would not 
 for a moment have suspected that they had 
 thought it advisable to drop Marcy' s mother 
 from their list of acquaintances. They fairly 
 "gushed" over the boy when they told him 
 how delighted they were to learn that he had 
 enlisted under the banner of the Confederacy. 
 
 " But I haven't enlisted, and what's more I 
 don't intend to," answered Marcy, who was 
 resolved that there should be no misunder-
 
 380 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 standing on that point. "I've got to stay at 
 home and look out for mother." 
 
 " But you and your brave comrades can run 
 out once in a while and annoy the enemy's 
 commerce, and that will be the same as though 
 you were fighting in the army. Now is the 
 time for every true son of the South to show 
 his colors." 
 
 " Then it's high time some of their sons 
 were showing their colors," said Marcy, after 
 supper had been served, and the ladies had 
 gone away and he was alone with his mother. 
 "There were- four women in that party who 
 have sons older than I am. I saw them in 
 town to-day ; and although they showed them- 
 selves to be blatant rebels, and talked loudly 
 about the good times we are going to have 
 whipping the Yankees, they never said a word 
 about going into the army. Why don't those 
 women preach their doctrines at home instead 
 of coming here to bother us with them ? " 
 
 Then he told his mother what had passed 
 between himself and Wat Gifford, and said he 
 hoped Wat would visit him as he promised, 
 for he was anxious to know what else his
 
 MARCY GRAY PRIVATEEBSMAN. 381 
 
 friend had to tell him. He had warned him 
 against two secret enemies, and Marcy was 
 sure he would feel safer if he knew who the 
 others were. But it was a long time before he 
 saw Wat Gifford again. The latter rode up 
 the very next day, but the boy he wanted to 
 see was on his way to Newbern in the priva- 
 teer, to take on board the two howitzers which 
 Beardsley fondly hoped would be the means 
 of bringing him so much prize-money that he 
 would not be obliged to do another stroke of 
 work the longest day he lived. Even while 
 Marcy was talking to his mother Captain 
 Beardsley galloped into the yard with a smile 
 on his face and an official envelope in his hand, 
 which he flourished in the air when he drew 
 his horse up at the foot of the steps. Marcy' s 
 heart sank within him, and his mother turned 
 away to- conceal her agitation. Beardsley had 
 received his commission, and there was no 
 backing out. 
 
 "Tain't nothing to turn white over, Mrs. 
 Gray," exclaimed the captain exultingly. 
 " Seems to me that you ought to feel proud to 
 know that your boy has got the chance to strike
 
 382 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 a telling blow at the enemies of his native State. 
 That's the way it makes me feel, and, Marcy, we 
 want to get the schooner out as soon as we can, 
 so as to catch the ebb tide to take us down to 
 Newbern." 
 
 "That means that you need him this very 
 night, I suppose ?" faltered Mrs. Gray. 
 
 "Yes-urn. That's what it means. The 
 sooner he gets there to lend a hand, the better 
 I'll like it." 
 
 " Has that man Tierney been discharged ? " 
 asked Marcy. 
 
 " He discharged himself," answered. Beards- 
 ley. " He must have seen you come into my 
 yard and suspicioned what was up, for when I 
 got to the schooner, he wasn't there. And his 
 partner couldn't tell me nothing about him 
 neither." 
 
 "I'll be along as soon as I can put a few 
 clothes in a valise," said Marcy ; whereupon 
 Beardsley said good-by to Mrs. Gray and rode 
 out of the yard. 
 
 " What was that man, whose name you men- 
 tioned, discharged for?" inquired Mrs. Gray, 
 who knew too well that Marcy was going away
 
 MAKCY GRAY PRIVATEERSMAN. 383 
 
 under command of a man who would bring 
 harm to him if he could. 
 
 ' ' He was discharged because I didn' t like 
 his looks," replied the boy. "He told me he 
 was for the Union, but I did not believe a word 
 of it. Now, mother, I need everything I took 
 when I went with Julius last vacation to ex- 
 plore the coast. I wish now that I had stayed 
 at home, for then Beardsley wouldn't have 
 thought of hiring me. Let us be as lively as 
 we can, for it will look suspicious if I hang 
 back." 
 
 Although the mother's heart was almost 
 ready to break, she exhibited no sign of emo- 
 tion. Like thousands of other women all over 
 the land she gave up her son, hoping almost 
 against hope that the fates would be kind 
 enough to bring him back to her ; but it is not 
 to be supposed that she called Heaven's 
 choicest blessings down upon the heads of the 
 secession leaders who had made the sacrifice 
 necessary. Marcy bustled about, doing no good 
 whatever, but just to keep from thinking, and 
 in ten minutes more there had been a tender 
 farewell at the gate, a single kiss of parting,
 
 384 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 and the pilot of the privateer was well on his 
 way toward Captain Beardsley's house. That 
 gentleman saw him coming and waited for him. 
 Perhaps he had hoped that the boy would show 
 the white feather at the last moment. If so, 
 he did not know Marcy Gray. 
 
 "We'll be short-handed going down," said 
 he, as he led the way across the road and into 
 the bushes; "but we shall be all right the 
 minute we strike Newbern. When I got my 
 commission out of the office this afternoon I 
 telegraphed to my agent telling him we would 
 start to-night, and for him to be sure and have 
 a crew ready for us." 
 
 "Why, I thought your crew was already 
 shipped," said Marcy. "You certainly gave 
 me to understand as much." 
 
 " So they were, but I don't much expect to 
 find 'em when I get there. They'll get tired 
 of waiting and go out on the first ship that 
 sails. But we'll have a crew. Don't worry 
 about that." 
 
 "Worse and worse," thought Marcy. 
 "We'll get a crew undoubtedly; but what 
 sort of men will they be? Dock-rats and
 
 MARCY GRAY PRIVATEERSMAN. 386 
 
 'longshoremen, most likely, such as a decent 
 captain wouldn't have on board his vessel. If 
 we get into trouble and I run the schooner 
 aground while trying to bring her out, they 
 will be just the sort to pitch me overboard." 
 
 As this thought passed through Marcy's 
 mind he slipped his hand into his pocket. 
 Captain Beardsley saw the motion and in- 
 quired : 
 
 " Got a pop with you ? " 
 
 "You wouldn't go on an expedition like 
 this without one, would you?" asked Marcy, 
 in reply. " Have you bargained for any small 
 arms for the schooner ? ' ' 
 
 "I have, and know right where to get 'em. 
 But I shall keep them locked up in the cabin 
 and give 'em out to the crew only when I 
 think it necessary." 
 
 "That's a good plan," observed Marcy. 
 "Do you know anything about gunnery ? " 
 
 " No, but one of the men I expect to get 
 does. He has served his time on board an 
 English man-of-war and knows all about how- 
 itzers, and such things. We couldn't get 
 along without a gunner, you know. If we 
 
 25
 
 386 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 didn't have one, how would we bring the prizes 
 to?" 
 
 Marcy wondered why the captain had so 
 much to say on this point. He asked the 
 question merely out of curiosity, and the man 
 answered it as though Marcy had objected to 
 having a gunner aboard. He learned more 
 about it after a while. 
 
 When they reached the bank of the bayou 
 in which the schooner was moored, Marcy 
 found that Beardsley had acted promptly, and 
 that the vessel was ready to be towed into the 
 river. He had stopped there on his way home 
 from the post-office to warn the ship-keeper, 
 and immediately on his arrival at his own 
 house, he had sent a dozen or more stout 
 negroes to man the yawl with which she was 
 to be hauled out. 
 
 " Come here, you mokes, and set us aboard," 
 said Captain Beardsley to the negroes who 
 were waiting in the yawl. "Now, let go the 
 fasts and stand by to take a tow-line out for'- 
 ard." Then he said to the ship-keeper, in a 
 low tone, " Is Tierney aboard ? " and the man 
 replied by pointing toward the deck, indi-
 
 MARCY GRAY PRIVATEERSMAN. 387 
 
 eating, no doubt, that the man who had "dis- 
 charged himself" could be found on the berth- 
 deck whenever his services were needed. 
 
 By the aid of the negroes, who were handy 
 with a boat, the schooner was towed from the 
 bayou into Seven Mile Creek and thence into 
 the Roarioke River a short distance above 
 Plymouth. The jib and foresail were hoisted 
 before she got there, and when they began to 
 draw and the schooner to feel their influence, 
 the darkies were commanded to cast off the 
 tow-line and make the best of their way to the 
 plantation. Marcy went to the wheel, not be- 
 cause there was any piloting to be done in that 
 open river, but for the reason that he hap- 
 pened to be nearest to it, and Captain Beards- 
 ley came aft and spoke to him. 
 
 " When she gets clear of Plymouth we'll run 
 up the mainsail and then she'll go a-hum- 
 ming," said he, rubbing his hands gleefully 
 together. " This is the first time I was ever in 
 command of a vessel sailing by government 
 authority, and I feel an inch or two taller' n I 
 ever felt before on my own quarter-deck. But 
 this is a gun-deck now, aint it?" he added,
 
 388 TKUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 stamping his foot upon it to see how solid it 
 was. "If we only had aboard the howitzer 
 that belongs here so that we could salute Ply- 
 mouth as we skim by You aint listening to 
 me at all. What you looking at so steady ? " 
 
 The captain faced about, and, following the 
 direction of Marcy's gaze, saw the man Tierney 
 slowly climbing the stairs that led to the deck. 
 When he got to the top he turned around and 
 came aft in the most unconcerned manner 
 possible. 
 
 " Well, there," exclaimed the captain, drop- 
 ping both his hands by his side and acting as 
 if he were too astonished to say more just 
 then. "If he aint got back I wouldn't say 
 so." 
 
 Marcy's first thought was to give the wheel 
 a fling, spill the sails, and demand to be put 
 ashore at once ; but he did not do it. As 
 Dixon once told the colonel of the Barrington 
 academy, it was too plain a case. Tierney 
 had been aboard the schooner all the time, and 
 Marcy might have found it out if he had been 
 sharp enough to look between decks. 
 
 '* I'm glad he's come back, for he's the gun-
 
 MARCY GRAY PRIVATEERSMAN. 389 
 
 ner I was telling you about," whispered the 
 captain. "We couldn't get along without 
 him, don't you know we couldn't? Say," he 
 added, as Tierney came up, "didn't you 
 leave word with your partner that you had 
 discharged yourself and wasn't never coming 
 back any more? Aint you a pretty chap to 
 show your face aboard my vessel, and you 
 talking of giving her up to the " 
 
 "Oh, what's the use of keeping that farce 
 up any longer?" cried Marcy, in disgust. 
 "You can't fool me. I don't know what 
 Tierney' s object was in trying to bamboozle 
 me the way he did 
 
 "Well, I'll tell you," the man interposed, 
 "and I'll be honest with you, too. I heard 
 you were a Union man, and I did not want to 
 sail with you if you were." 
 
 "That's the truth, the whole truth, and 
 nothing but the truth," chimed in the captain, 
 nodding and winking at Marcy. 
 
 "Well, are you quite satisfied with the test 
 you applied to me ?" inquired the pilot. 
 
 " I am. I know that you are as good a 
 Southern man as any body in the country."
 
 390 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 " And you are willing to acknowledge that 
 you and the captain talked the matter over be- 
 forehand, and that when you came to me, to 
 urge me to seize the vessel and turn her over 
 to the Yankees, you did it with his knowledge 
 and consent ? ' ' continued Marcy, controlling 
 himself with an effort. 
 
 *' Course he is," exclaimed Beardsley. "I 
 told him he would find you true as steel, but 
 
 113 " 
 
 ' ' But I wouldn' t believe it until I had proved 
 it to my own satisfaction," chimed in Tierney. 
 
 The man acted as though he had half a mind 
 to extend his hand to Marcy in token of amity, 
 but if he had, he thought better of it, and in 
 obedience to the captain's order called the 
 other ship-keeper aft to assist in hoisting the 
 mainsail. 
 
 "He didn't offer to shake hands, and that 
 proves that he isn't as friendly as he lets on to 
 be," thought Marcy. " He and the captain are 
 playing into each other's hands. That story 
 was all made up, and if I don't keep my eyes 
 open, they will spring another plot on me. 
 This is a lovely way to live ; but I've got to
 
 MAUCY GRAY PRIVATEERSMAN. 391 
 
 keep suspicion down in someway, and I don't 
 know how else I can do it." 
 
 Nothing exciting or interesting occurred dur- 
 ing the run to Newbern, for there were no war- 
 vessels inside the sandy bars which inclose the 
 coast of North Carolina and protect it from the 
 fury of the Atlantic storms. Aided by the 
 strong ebb tide and the favorable breeze that was 
 blowing, the privateer made a quick passage 
 along the low, swampy shores of Albemarle, 
 and finally entered Croatan Sound, which 
 runs between the eastern coast and Roanoke 
 Island, and connects Pamlico with Albemarle 
 Sound. The forts, water-batteries, and Com- 
 modore Lynch' s fleet, which were afterward 
 destroyed by Burnside and Goldsborough, 
 were not in existence now. Forts Hatteras 
 and Clark were being built at Hatteras Inlet, 
 but the Confederates wasted time in their con- 
 struction, for on the 28th day of August Butler 
 and Stringham captured them without the loss 
 of a man, and in defiance of a storm which 
 twice compelled the assaulting fleet to put to 
 sea for safety. How Marcy Gray's heart would 
 have throbbed with exultation if he had. known
 
 392 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 that the flag his Barrington girl gave him was 
 destined to float in triumph over the very 
 waters through which he was now sailing, and 
 at the masthead of a Federal vessel of war ! 
 That glorious day was only seven months in 
 the future, but the young pilot had some tight 
 places to sail through before it came around 
 to him. 
 
 Marcy Gray had so little heart for the busi- 
 ness in which he was perforce engaged, that he 
 hoped something might happen at Newbern to 
 prevent the schooner from sailing on her pi- 
 ratical mission that the collector of the port 
 might find some fault with her papers ; that 
 the howitzers and small arms might not be 
 forthcoming ; that it might be impossible to 
 raise a crew ; or that anything, no matter 
 what, would come at the last moment to knock 
 Beardsley's scheme in the head. But he was 
 disappointed. The collector could not find any 
 fault with the vessel's commission, for he him- 
 self had received it direct from the Confederate 
 capital and forwarded it to the captain ; the 
 agent had scarcely slept since he received that 
 dispatch from Nashville, and the result was
 
 MARCY GRAY PRIVATEERSMAN. 393 
 
 that when the schooner sailed up to her wharf, 
 she found the howitzers, four cases of muskets 
 and sabers, and a crew of eighteen men, includ- 
 ing two mates, waiting for her. The patriotic 
 agent unfurled a brand-new Confederate ban- 
 ner as the schooner threw out a line by which 
 her head could be drawn into the pier, and 
 jumped aboard with it the moment she touched. 
 
 " May it be the means of bringing you many 
 an honest dollar," said he, as he spread the 
 flag upon the deck so that the captain could 
 see it. " Are your halliards rove ? Then why 
 not go into commission at once, while there is 
 a crowd on the wharf to holler for you ? Come 
 aboard, you fellows," he added, waving his 
 hand to the crew, who were already tumbling 
 over the rail, "and stand by to cheer ship 
 when the banner of the Confederacy is run up. 
 Did your vessel take a new name with her 
 coat of new paint, captain ?" 
 
 " Yes, I kinder thought I would call her the 
 Fish-Hawk." 
 
 " Isn't that a queer name for a privateer? " 
 asked the agent. 
 
 "Why is it?" inquired the captain, who
 
 394 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 was busy folding the flag and getting it ready 
 to be run up to the masthead. "Don't the 
 fish-hawk get her living from the water, and 
 aint I going to get mine the same way ? ' ' 
 
 "That's true. Well, then, call her Osprey. 
 That sounds a little better, / think, and it 
 means the same thing." 
 
 "All right. Osprey she is," answered the 
 captain, as he hauled up the flag which had 
 been made into a little bundle. "You stand 
 by to set 'em going." 
 
 The crew, as well as the rapidly increasing 
 crowd on the wharf, who watched the little 
 bundle as it traveled toward the head of the 
 mast, did not wait for the agent to " set them 
 going" ! When it reached the top, and a 
 slight jerk from one of the halliards loosened 
 the flag to the breeze, they yelled vociferously, 
 and patted one another on the back and shook 
 hands as though they considered it a very aus- 
 picious occasion. 
 
 "Now, give three cheers for Captain Beards- 
 ley and his privateer Osprey, who have so 
 promptly responded to our President's call. 
 May they strike such terror to the hearts of
 
 MARCY GRAY PRIVATEERSMAN. 395 
 
 the Yankee nation that they wont have a ship 
 on the sea in six months from this day." 
 
 Of course such talk as this just suited the 
 crowd on the wharf, who yelled longer and 
 louder than before. Of course, too, Marcy 
 had to join them in order to keep up appear- 
 ances, but he almost despised himself for it, 
 and made the mental prediction that in a good 
 deal less than six months' time the people of 
 Newbern would cease to remember that such a 
 schooner as the Osprey ever existed, although 
 her arrival was loudly heralded in all the city 
 papers. Her " saucy air" and the " duck-like 
 manner in which she rode the waters," were 
 especially spoken of, and one reporter, whose 
 penetration was both surprising and remark- 
 able, discovered in Captain Beardsley a man 
 who would "do and dare anything for the suc- 
 cess of the glorious cause he had been so 
 prompt to espouse." 
 
 The rest of that day and all the succeeding 
 one were consumed in getting the provisions, 
 ammunition, and arms aboard, mounting the 
 howitzers, and stationing the crew. When the 
 work was ended late at night, Marcy tumbled
 
 396 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 into his bunk between decks, heartily dis- 
 gusted with the life he was leading. The 
 schooner was to run out with the last of the 
 ebb tide in the morning, so as to catch the 
 flood tide, which would help her up to Crooked 
 Inlet.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 IT took them the best part of the next day to 
 run to their destination, and the Avhole of 
 the following one to find and buoy the channel, 
 which changed more or less with every storm 
 that swept the coast. Marcy thought it a fool- 
 hardy piece of business to depend upon that 
 treacherous inlet for a way of escape in case 
 the schooner was discovered and pursued by a 
 ship of war, and told Captain Beardsley so ; 
 but the latter simply smiled, referred Marcy 
 to the work he had done that day, and re- 
 minded him that there were eight feet of 
 water in the deepest part of the channel, and 
 that the privateer, fully loaded, drew but lit- 
 tle more than six. 
 
 " There aint a sea-going vessel in the Yankee 
 navy that can run on six foot of water, and I 
 know it," chuckled Beardsley. "If one of 
 
 397
 
 398 TRUE TO ins COLORS. 
 
 'em gets after us we'll skim through easy as 
 falling off a log, but she'll stick, 'specially if 
 she runs 'cording to them buoys you set out." 
 This was the "work" to which the captain 
 referred. At that time the rule was for all 
 ship-masters to leave black buoys to starboard 
 and the red ones to port ; or, to put it in Eng- 
 lish, they were to pass to the left of the black 
 buoys, and to the right of red ones, or run the 
 risk of getting aground and losing their insur- 
 ance, in case their ships went to pieces. But 
 Marcy, acting under the orders of Captain 
 Beardsley (who, now that he was fairly afloat, 
 began to show that he was much more of a 
 sailor than the folks around home thought he 
 was), had changed this order of things by an- 
 choring the red buoys on the right of the 
 channel going out, and the black ones on the 
 left. Of course it was necessary for the pilot 
 to bear this in mind if he were called upon to 
 take the privateer through there in a hurry, or 
 on a dark night when the wind was blowing 
 strongly. To a landsman this may seem like 
 a very small thing, but it was enough to insure 
 the destruction of any vessel whose com-
 
 CONCLUSION. 399 
 
 mander was so daring as to try to follow in 
 Captain Beardsley's lead. More than that, 
 Crooked Inlet was not marked upon any 
 government chart. The Atlantic Ocean had 
 opened it since the last survey was made. 
 
 All things being in readiness for the cruise, 
 the Osprey ran through the inlet on the morn- 
 ing of the third day out from Newbern, and 
 spread her wings to swoop down upon the 
 first unsuspecting merchantman which hap- 
 pened to be holding along the coast inside of 
 Diamond Shoals. Now the crosstrees were 
 manned for the first time, a small pull taken 
 at tne sheets fore and aft, and with a fine 
 breeze over her quarter the schooner ran off to 
 the southeast toward the fair-weather high- 
 way leading from the West Indies to Northern 
 ports. Then the young pilot, who had given 
 up his place at the wheel, had leisure to look 
 about him and make a mental estimate of the 
 crew. If there was a native American among 
 them he could not find him. He guessed right 
 when he told himself that they must have 
 belonged to foreign vessels in port when Presi- 
 dent Lincoln's proclamation was issued, and
 
 400 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 that Beardsley's agent had induced them to join 
 the Confederacy by offering higher wages than 
 they were receiving, and making extravagant 
 promises of a wild, free, easy life aboard the 
 privateer, and unlimited dollars to spend in 
 the way of prize money. But as far as Marcy 
 could see they were good sailors, and Captain 
 Beardsley and his mates enforced discipline 
 from the first. 
 
 The young pilot was surprised at the ease 
 with which the master of the schooner threw 
 off his 'longshore manners and assumed the 
 habit and language of a seafaring man. He 
 had been a trader in a small way ever since 
 Marcy could remember, and he said himself 
 that the longest voyage he ever made was from 
 some port in Cuba to New York. He had a 
 way of going and coming at very irregular 
 intervals. Sometimes his schooner would lie 
 idle for months, and Beardsley would work 
 among his negroes with so much industry and 
 perseverance, that the planters around him 
 would come to think he had given up the sea 
 for good ; but all on a sudden he would dis- 
 appear as if by magic, and it would be a long
 
 CONCLUSION. 401 
 
 time before any one could find out where 
 he was or what he had been doing ; and they 
 were obliged to take his word for that. Marcy 
 Gray was not the only one who thought that 
 the term "smuggler " would come nearer to de- 
 scribing his vocation than the word " trader." 
 But in spite of his erratic movements and long 
 intervals of rest on shore, Captain Beardsley 
 was a fair navigator and knew how to handle 
 his schooner. He knew also, and quickly 
 assumed, the dignity befitting his station, kept 
 his quarter-deck sacred to himself, and, except 
 when they were on duty, never permitted his 
 crew to come aft the foremast This made a 
 gulf between him and Marcy, but the latter 
 did not mind that. He was content to be con- 
 sidered one of the crew. 
 
 Seventy hours passed, and the only thing 
 the lookouts saw during that time to indicate 
 that they were not alone on the ocean, was a 
 thin cloud of smoke in the horizon, which 
 might come from the chimneys of a peaceful 
 passenger vessel, or from those of a cruiser on 
 the watch for just such crafts as the Osprey 
 was ; and so Captain Beardsley prudently 
 
 26
 
 402 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 came about and sailed leisurely back toward 
 the point from whence he started. This move 
 was just what brought her first prize into the 
 clutches of the Osprey. 
 
 Land had been out of sight for almost two 
 days. In her eagerness to catch something the 
 schooner had gone far beyond the highway 
 toward which she had first shaped her course, 
 but this retrograde movement brought her back 
 to it. On the morning of the third day the 
 thrilling cry " Sail ho ! " came from aloft, and 
 in an instant the deck was in commotion, the 
 man at the wheel so far forgetting himself as 
 to allow the privateer to swing into the wind 
 with all her canvas flapping. 
 
 "Keep her steady, there," shouted the cap- 
 tain angrily. "Where away ? " he continued, 
 hailing the crosstrees. 
 
 "Broad on the weather beam. Topsail 
 schooner, and standing straight across our 
 course." 
 
 The captain seized a glass and hastened 
 aloft to take a look at the stranger, while 
 those on deck crowded to the rail and strained 
 their eyes for a glimpse of the sail, which had
 
 CONCLUSION. 403 
 
 not yet showed her top-hamper above the hori- 
 zon. No change was made in the course of 
 the privateer, and neither was anything done 
 toward casting loose the guns. There would 
 be time enough for that when the captain had 
 made up his mind what he was going to do. 
 He sat on the crosstrees beside the lookout for 
 an hour without saying a word. By that time 
 the sail was visible from the deck. To quote 
 from one of the crew she was coming up at a 
 hand gallop. Then Captain Beardsley was 
 satisfied to come down and take charge of the 
 deck. 
 
 "She's ours," Marcy heard him say to the 
 two mates. " I would not sell my chances of 
 making a rich haul for any reasonable sum of 
 money. If I know anything about vessels, she 
 is a Cuban trader bound to New York. Ease 
 the Osprey up a bit. Don't crowd her so 
 heavy, and the chase will pass by within half 
 a mile of us. But we mustn't let her get by, 
 for she is a trotter, and every inch of her mus- 
 lin is drawing beautifully." 
 
 While the second mate set about obeying the 
 last order, the captain addressed some others
 
 404 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 to the first officer, and in a remarkably brief 
 time, considering their short experience on 
 board the privateer, her crew had cast loose 
 the bow gun and trained it over the port side, 
 the magazine and shell-rooms had been opened 
 and lighted, and Tierney, who acted in the 
 double capacity of captain of the bow gun and 
 drill-master to the crews of both, had driven 
 home a five-second shrapnel. 
 
 " All ready forward, sir," said he. 
 
 u Throw that piece of canvas back over the 
 gun to hide it," commanded Captain Beards- 
 ley. " Send all the men below that are not 
 needed on deck. Gray, go aft and stand by to 
 run up the Yankee flag when I tell you." 
 
 The topsail schooner could be plainly seen 
 now, and Marcy was sailor enough to note that 
 if her captain did not suspect there was some- 
 thing wrong, he acted like it. This could 
 hardly be wondered at, for taking into con- 
 sideration the "natty" appearance of the 
 privateer, the lubberly way in which she was 
 sailed, standing so far off wind when she 
 ought to have been close to it if she were sail- 
 ing her course, was enough to excite anybody's
 
 CONCLUSION. 405 
 
 suspicions. Two of her officers were in the 
 rigging, and Captain Beardsley, who was men- 
 tally calculating her chances for running by 
 his own vessel in case she made the attempt, 
 took his glass from his eye long enough to 
 remark : 
 
 " They don't quite like our looks, do they ? 
 That proves that they are from some near port, 
 and heard something about privateers before 
 they sailed. I heard that parties in New Or- 
 leans had steamers afloat a week ago. Marcy, 
 show them the Yankee flag and see if that 
 wont quiet their feelings." 
 
 "If that isn't stealing the livery of Heaven 
 to serve the Evil One in I don't want a cent," 
 said Marcy, to himself, as with an "Aye, aye, 
 sir," he obeyed the order that was intended 
 to lure the stranger to her destruction. At 
 the same moment her own colors, the Stars and 
 Stripes, were run up to the peak. 
 
 But the sight of the friendly flag did not 
 seem to allay the suspicions of those on board 
 the topsail schooner. To the great surprise of 
 those who were watching her, her bow began 
 to swing slowly around, her sails trembled in
 
 406 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 the air for a minute or two and then moved 
 over to the other side, her yard was braced 
 forward, the sheets hauled taut, and she was 
 off on the other tack with a big bone in her 
 teeth. By this move she hoped to pass so far 
 astern of the suspicious-looking craft in front 
 of her, as to be beyond range of the light guns 
 her captain had reason to believe were con- 
 cealed under those piles of canvas which looked 
 so innocent at a distance. It was beautifully 
 and quickly done ; but who ever saw a Yankee 
 skipper who did not know how to handle his 
 ship, or who would give her up to an enemy if 
 he saw the slightest chance to escape with her ? 
 The Confederate Admiral Semmes had more 
 than one chase after a plucky Yankee cap- 
 tain, who was resolved that he would not come 
 to if he could help it, and he often goes out of 
 his way to pay deserved tribute to the skill 
 and courage of Northern sailors. 
 
 "That's his best sailing-point, and he's got 
 a breeze that don't reach us," Captain Beards- 
 ley almost howled, stamping about the deck 
 and shaking his fist at the flying schooner. 
 " Where are you, Tierney ? Fire that gun at
 
 CONCLUSION. 407 
 
 him. Pitch the ball into him the first time 
 without stopping to send it across his bows. 
 Do something, or he'll get away from us." 
 
 Tierney and his crew, who had scattered 
 themselves over the deck in obedience to an 
 order from the mate, were on hand almost be- 
 fore the angry skipper had ceased talking. 
 The captain of the gun knew that the schooner 
 was far beyond the reach of the short-time pro- 
 jectile he had in his piece, but that did not 
 prevent him from obeying orders. The canvas 
 covering was torn off and cast aside, the gun 
 trained, and the lock-string pulled. The pri- 
 vateer trembled all over with the force of the 
 concussion ; the howitzer bounded from its 
 place and recoiled as far as its breeching would 
 permit it to go, and the shrapnel went shriek- 
 ing on its way. But it did not go more than 
 a quarter of the distance that intervened 
 between the two vessels before it exploded. 
 However, it showed the crew of the fleeing 
 schooner that her enemy was fully armed, and 
 it enabled Tierney to load his gun with a shell 
 provided with a longer fuse. 
 
 " Send home another one that will go farther
 
 408 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 before it busts," shouted Captain Beardsley. 
 "And while you're doing it, we'll see if we 
 can't come around on the other tack about as 
 quick as she did." 
 
 Remember that the two vessels, pursuer and 
 pursued, had not yet passed. They were sail- 
 ing diagonally toward each other at the first, 
 and that was the relative position they held 
 when the privateer came about and stood off 
 on the other tack. If Captain Beardsley had 
 understood his business he might have had the 
 after-gun cast loose and loaded with a fifteen- 
 second shell, and fired it at the chase as the 
 stern of the Osprey swung around. Marcy 
 thought this could have been done, but of 
 course he said nothing. His sympathies were 
 entirely with the captain who had determined 
 to make a race of it. 
 
 " I do hope he'll get away," thought the 
 boy, looking first at the canvas of his own 
 vessel to see how it was drawing, and then at 
 the topsail schooner which was making such 
 gallant efforts to escape. u Suppose the cap- 
 tain owns that craft, and that it is everything 
 he has in the world to depend on for a living
 
 CONCLUSION. 409 
 
 for his family ? It will be just awful to take 
 it away from him. Why don't Uncle Sam 
 send some cruisers down here ? " 
 
 While Marcy stood on the quarter-deck 
 meditating, Tierney was working on the fore- 
 castle, and now he called out : 
 
 "All ready for' ard, sir." 
 
 " Let her have it ! " cried the captain ; and 
 then, seeing that Marcy Gray was still holding 
 fast to the halliards that kept the starry flag 
 at the peak, he shouted: " Why don't you 
 haul that thing down and run aloft the Stars 
 and Bars ? Are you asleep ?" 
 
 "No, sir," replied the boy. " Waiting for 
 orders, sir." 
 
 " Down with it then, and put our own flag 
 up there," commanded the captain. "Fire, 
 Tierney!" 
 
 The howitzer once more belched forth a 
 cloud of flame and smoke, and Marcy stood on 
 tiptoe and held his breath in suspense while 
 he waited for the result. He felt the cold 
 chills creep along his spine when, after an in- 
 terval that seemed very short for the distance 
 the shot had to travel, he saw it strike the
 
 410 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 water in line with the schooner and explode 
 a second later almost at her side. There was 
 no mistake about it this time. A fifteen-sec- 
 ond fuse was long enough, and the next shot, 
 with a single half -degree more of elevation, 
 would surely strike her. Her skipper saw it, 
 and rather than allow his vessel to be shot to 
 pieces and his men killed before his eyes, he 
 spilled his sails and gave up the contest. 
 
 "Come on deck, you lubbers below, and 
 cheer our first prize," shouted the mate, who 
 was almost beside himself with joy and excite- 
 ment. " There she is, laying to and waiting for 
 you to go and take possession," he went on, 
 as the crew tumbled up the ladder. " Count 
 your prize-money up on your fingers and then 
 give a cheer." 
 
 This was an insulting way to treat men who 
 had done all that brave men could do to elude 
 their enemy, and surrendered at last because 
 they had no means of defending themselves, 
 and Marcy was glad to notice that Tierney saw 
 it, and did not join in the cheers that followed. 
 Perhaps the man had a better heart than 
 Marcy had given him credit for.
 
 CONCLUSION. 411 
 
 "Where's that boat' screw?" inquired the 
 captain, meaning the men who had been 
 drilled in lowering the yawl and pulling off 
 to imaginary prizes. " Here's the keys to the 
 cabin, Marcy. Unlock the door and give 
 every man who comes to you a saber, revolver, 
 and a box of cartridges. And you," he added, 
 turning to the first mate as Marcy took the 
 keys and hastened below, "tumble ten men 
 besides the boat's crew into the yawl, go off to 
 the prize, and send the master and his papers 
 on board of us. Put all the schooner's com- 
 pany, except the mates, in double irons, and 
 stow them away somewhere under guard. 
 Then keep your weather eye on me and follow 
 in my wake when I fill away for Newbern. 
 That's the way we'll manage things as often 
 as we take a prize." 
 
 While these orders were being obeyed the 
 Osprey was sailing steadily toward her prize ; 
 and by the time the men had been selected and 
 the small arms distributed, she had come as 
 close to her as Captain Beardsley thought it 
 safe to venture. Having performed his duty, 
 Marcy returned to the deck just in time to see
 
 412 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 the prize crew climbing upon her deck. A 
 quarter of an hour later the boat came back, 
 bringing a strange man who certainly took 
 matters very coolly, seeing that he had lost 
 his vessel and a valuable cargo. 
 
 "Captain," said he, as he clambered over 
 the Osprey's rail, " I don't understand the sit- 
 uation at all, for all your mate would say to 
 me was that my ship was a prize to the Con- 
 federate privateer Osprey" 
 
 "What else did you want him to say?" 
 asked Captain Beardsley, with a smile that 
 must have made the merchant skipper angry. 
 "That's the whole thing in a nutshell. Where 
 are your papers ? See that flag up there ? 
 That's the one I sail under. You must have 
 heard that there were such fellows as me 
 afloat, or you wouldn't have shied off as you 
 did." 
 
 " Your appearance was all right, but I didn't 
 like the way you acted," replied the skipper. 
 "Yes, I have heard that there are some gen- 
 tlemen of your sort roaming around the Gulf." 
 
 "Your schooner is the Mary Hollins, bound 
 from Havana to Boston with an assorted
 
 CONCLUSION. 413 
 
 cargo," said Captain Beardsley. "There is 
 no attempt made to 'cover' either?" 
 
 "No, sir; it is an American vessel and her 
 cargo is consigned to an American house," 
 answered the skipper, who knew it would be 
 useless to deny it with the plain facts staring 
 Captain Beardsley in the face. " But, cap- 
 tain, I protest against your putting my men in 
 irons. They are not felons, to be treated that 
 way." 
 
 "Can't help it," said Beardsley shortly. 
 "Can't you see for yourself that I have a 
 small crew, and that I must take measures to 
 prevent your men from recapturing the prize ? 
 I'll let 'em out as soon as we get through 
 Hatteras." 
 
 The master of the privateer exchanged a few 
 words with his second mate, and in a minute or 
 two more the Osprey came about and pointed 
 her nose toward Newbern, the Mary Hol- 
 lins following in her wake. The crew stepped 
 around with unwonted alacrity, and tugged 
 at the sheets as energetically as though the 
 prize dollars the agent had promised them 
 were fastened to the other end. Everybody
 
 414 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 was happy except Marcy Gray and the unfor- 
 tunate skipper of the Mary Hollins. He took 
 his capture very philosophically, but Marcy 
 was sure he did some deep and earnest think- 
 ing while he stood on the privateer's quarter- 
 deck, pulling his whiskers, and looking back 
 at the vessel he had lost. Marcy almost wished 
 that he could change places with him so that 
 he could enter the navy as soon as he was 
 released, and assist in sweeping the sea of 
 such crafts as the Osprey. He dared not speak 
 to him, for that would excite suspicion, and 
 the prisoner, who looked at Marcy now and 
 then, probably thought the boy as good a 
 rebel as there was on board. 
 
 The low sand dunes about Hatteras Inlet, as 
 well as the unfinished walls of the forts that 
 were to defend it, came up out of the sea 
 shortly after daylight the next morning, and 
 at one o'clock the Osprey and her prize sailed 
 through, loudly cheered by the working par- 
 ties ashore. The prisoner now reminded Cap- 
 tain Beardsley of the promise he had made 
 regarding the crew of the Mary Hollins, but 
 Beardsley got out of it by saying that he had
 
 CONCLUSION. 415 
 
 no way of signaling to the prize, and could not 
 think of waiting for her to come alongside so 
 that he could hail her. The truth was Cap- 
 tain Beardsley believed that the Yankees would 
 fight if they were given half a chance. The 
 sound upon which the vessels were now sail- 
 ing was a pretty large body of water, New- 
 born was still many miles away, and if the 
 Hollins^s men were freed from their irons, 
 they might recapture their vessel and elude 
 the Osprey during the night that was coming. 
 Beardsley kept them in durance until he 
 reached port, and then released them to be 
 jeered and hooted by the crowd that followed 
 them from the wharf to the jail in which they 
 were confined. 
 
 The reception that was extended to himself 
 and his men was of different character. They 
 were cheered to the echo, and as many as could 
 get upon the decks of the Osprey and her 
 prize, insisted on shaking them by the hand 
 and telling them what brave fellows they were, 
 and how much they had done for the glorious 
 cause of Southern independence. Beardsley' s 
 agent was on hand, of course, and when he
 
 416 TJIUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 had seen the Mary Hollins turned over to the 
 collector of the port, he insisted that the 
 Osprey should run out again at once and make 
 another haul, before the seizure of the Hollins 
 became known at the North ; but, to Marcy 
 Gray's intense delight, Beardsley refused to 
 budge. 
 
 'Not much I wont go outside again and 
 leave you land-sharks to handle my prize and 
 the money she'll sell for," he declared, with so 
 much emphasis that the agent did not think it 
 best to urge him further. " Me and my men 
 have got the biggest interest in the Mary Hol- 
 lins, and right here we stay till the legality of 
 the capture has been settled, the vessel and 
 cargo sold, and the dollars that belong to us 
 are planked down in our two hands." 
 
 "Then I may go home?" said Marcy, as 
 soon as he saw a good chance to ask the ques- 
 tion. 
 
 " Course. Go by first train if you want to." 
 
 That was enough for the boy, who was dis- 
 gusted with life on board a privateer. He 
 hastened below, and in less than twenty min- 
 utes presented himself in Beardsley' s cabin
 
 CONCLUSION. 417 
 
 with his "grip " in one hand and a paper in 
 the other. 
 
 "That's a leave of absence," said Marcy, 
 placing the paper before the captain. " I don't 
 suppose it is drawn up in proper form, but it 
 will serve to show the people at home that I 
 am there with your permission. I'd be glad if 
 you would sign it." 
 
 The captain did so without a word of objec- 
 tion, gave Marcy a few messages to be delivered 
 to his friends in and around Nashville, and 
 promised to look out for his share of the prize 
 money. 
 
 " You can keep it, if you can bring yourself 
 to touch it," thought the boy, as he walked 
 ashore, after shouting good-by to the crew, and 
 bent his steps toward the nearest telegraph 
 office. " It would burn my hands." 
 
 He sent a dispatch to his mother requesting 
 that Morris might be sent to meet him at the 
 depot at a certain time, and to allay any fears 
 that might be awakened in her mind by his 
 sudden return to Newbern, he announced 
 that the privateer had just brought a valuable 
 prize into port. Those few words sent the 
 
 27
 
 418 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 dispatch through without a cent's worth of 
 expense to himself. 
 
 "So you are one of those gallant fellows, 
 are you ? " said the operator. " Well, I'll send 
 it off and call it square. You deserve a world 
 of credit." 
 
 "I can't for the life of me see where an 
 armed vessel wins credit in capturing one that 
 is entirely without means of defense," replied 
 Marcy, who had heard so much of this sort of 
 talk since he reached Newbern that he was 
 tired of it. 
 
 "But that isn't the point," said the operator. 
 " See what a blow you have struck at the 
 enemy's commerce. Keep it up long enough 
 and you will drive his hated old rag from the 
 sea." 
 
 Marcy had another ride with Morris, who 
 was at the depot waiting for him when his 
 train came in, and reached home at last to 
 receive a tearful welcome from his mother. 
 
 "You don't gush over me at all," said he, 
 as she threw her arms about his neck and laid 
 her head on his shoulder. " Don't you know 
 that I have roamed the high sea, smelled pow-
 
 CONCLUSION. 419 
 
 der, and helped capture a Yankee vessel ? It's 
 the most despicable business in the world," he 
 added, as he led his mother into the house out 
 of earshot of all the servants. And then he 
 told her how the capture had been effected, 
 and explained why Beardsley would not im- 
 mediately put to sea to try his luck again. 
 He said, with a long-drawn sigh, that he was 
 glad to get home, and hoped from the bottom 
 of his heart that the Osprey might sink at her 
 wharf before he was ordered to report aboard 
 of her .again. As for the prize-money, he sup- 
 posed he would have to take it or set Beards- 
 ley's tongue in motion ; but he would put it 
 carefully away, and send it to the master of 
 the Hollins if he ever had the chance. 
 
 " You don't feel at all as your Cousin Rod- 
 ney does," said his mother, when he ceased 
 speaking. " A long letter from him addressed 
 to you came during your absence, and I took 
 the liberty to read it. Yes, he enlisted almost 
 as soon as he reached home, and is going with 
 his company to Missouri, where he hopes to 
 join Dick Graham, who belongs to the state 
 troops under General Price."
 
 420 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 " They have both lived up to their principles, 
 but how have I lived up to mine ? " said Marcy, 
 taking the letter from his mother's hand. " I 
 told them I should be true to my colors, no 
 matter what happened, and how have I held 
 to my resolution? I can't tell them just how 
 I am situated, for suppose the letter should 
 miscarry and fall into the hands of some 
 fellow like Captain Beardsley ? This is a nice 
 way to live." 
 
 Rodney wrote as if he were full of enthu- 
 siasm, and gave a complete history of his 
 movements since the day on which he bade his 
 cousin good-by in Barrington. There was one 
 short paragraph in his letter which will serve 
 as a very good introduction to the second vol- 
 ume of this series of books, and we produce it 
 entire. It ran as follows : 
 
 11 It wouldn't be safe for you to come to this 
 country, old fellow, and talk as you did while 
 we were at school. You would be mobbed in 
 spite of all I could do to prevent it. I hope 
 you haven't got into any trouble by trying to 
 be true to your colors since you have been in 
 North Carolina. I can talk as I please here, 
 and you know I please to denounce everything 
 except secession and independence. I belong
 
 CONCLUSION. 421 
 
 to an independent company of cavalry. The 
 colonel commanding the regiment we wanted 
 to join didn't think he had any authority to 
 accept us unless we would give up our inde- 
 pendent organization, and as we were resolved 
 we wouldn't do that, we began to think we 
 would be obliged to fight on our own hook ; 
 but just in the nick of time we learned that the 
 troops serving in Missouri, under Price and 
 McCulloch, were mostly partisans, and that 
 either of those commanders would be glad to 
 accept us. So there is where we are going as 
 soon as we can get transportation, and who 
 knows but I may see our old friend Dick 
 Graham ? Shall I tell him ' Hello ! ' for you 2 
 We furnish our own horses, the government 
 allowing us sixty cents a day for the use of 
 them. If they die or are killed in action, we 
 are to get another mount from the enemy. 
 Come and join us, Marcy. Throw your Union 
 sentiments to the winds you'll have to sooner 
 or later take sides with the friends of your 
 state, swear allegiance to the flag of the Con- 
 federacy and battle for the right. Come and 
 join my company and we'll have some high 
 old times running the Yankees out of Mis- 
 souri." 
 
 But the sequel proved that the despised 
 Yankees could not be so easily driven ; on the 
 contrary they drove the rebels. Marcy' s cousin 
 manfully bore a soldier's part in some of the 
 hardest battles that were fought in Missouri ;
 
 422 TRUE TO HIS COLORS. 
 
 and just what he did, and whether or not he 
 enjoyed the " high old times " that came rather 
 sooner than he expected, shall be told in the 
 succeeding volume of this series which will be 
 entitled, "RODNEY, THE PARTISAN." 
 
 THE END.
 
 THE 
 
 FAMOUS 
 
 CASTLEMON 
 
 BOOKS. 
 
 BY 
 
 HARRY 
 CASTLEMON. 
 
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 Phil, the Fiddler; or, The Young Street Musician . i 25 
 
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 TATTERED TOM SERIES. (SECOND SERIES.) 
 4 vols., I2mo. Fully illustrated. Cloth, extra, printed 
 
 in colors. In box .... $5 oo 
 
 Julius ; or the Street Boy Out West I 25 
 
 The Young Outlaw ; or, Adrift in the World ... I 25 
 
 Sam's Chance and How He Improved it ... i 25 
 
 The Telegraph Boy i 25 
 
 LUCK AND PLUCK SERIES. (FIRST SERIES.) 
 By Horatio Alger, Jr. 4 vols., I2mo. Fully illus- 
 trated. Cloth, extra, printed in colors. In box . . . $$ oo 
 
 Luck and Pluck ; or John Oakley's Inheritance . . I 25 
 
 Sink or Swim ; or, Harry Raymond's Resolve ... I 25 
 
 Strong and Steady ; or, Paddle Your Own Canoe . I 25 
 
 Strive and Succeed; or, The Progress of Walter 
 
 Conrad I 25 
 
 LUCK AND PLUCK SERIES. (SECOND 
 SERIES.) By Horatio Alger, Jr. 3 vols., I2mo. 
 Fully illustrated. Cloth, extra, printed in colors. In 
 
 box $5 oo 
 
 Try and Trust ; or, The Story of a Bound Boy ... i 25 
 
 Bound to Rise ; or Harry Walton's Motto i 25 
 
 Risen from the Ranks; or, Harry Walton's Success I 25 
 
 Herbert Carter's Legacy ; or, The Inventor's Son . i 25 
 
 CAMPAIGN SERIES. By Horatio Alger, Jr. 7, 
 vols., I2mo. Fully illustrated. Cloth, extra, printed 
 
 in colors. In box $3 75 
 
 Frank's Campaign ; or, The Farm and the Camp . i 25 
 
 Paul Piescott's Charge i 25 
 
 C bar lie Codman's Cruise ........... 125
 
 6 PORTER & COATES'S POPULAR JUVENILES. 
 
 BRAVE AND BOLD SERIES. By Horatio 
 Alger, Jr. 4 vols., I2mo. Fully illustrated. Cloth, 
 extra, printed in colors. In box 5 oo 
 
 Brave and Bold ; or, The Story of a Factory Boy . . i 25 
 Jack's Ward ; or, The Boy Guardian I 25 
 
 Shifting for Himself; or, Gilbert Greyson's For- 
 tunes I 25 
 
 Wait and Hope ; or, Ben Bradford's Motto .... i 25 
 
 PACIFIC SERIES. By Horatio Alger, Jr. 4 
 vols. I2mo. Fully illustrated. Cloth, extra, printed 
 in colors. In box $5 oo 
 
 The Young Adventurer; or, Tom's Trip Across 
 
 the Plains I 25 
 
 The Young Miner; or, Tom Nelson in California . I 25 
 The Young Explorer ; or, Among the Sierras . . I 25 
 
 Ben's Nugget; or, A Boy's Search for Fortune. A 
 
 Story of the Pacific Coast i 25 
 
 ATLANTIC SERIES. By Horatio Alger, Jr. 4 
 vols., I2mo. Fully illustrated. Cloth, extra, printed 
 in colors. In box 5 oo 
 
 The Young Circus Rider; or, The Mystery of 
 
 Robert Rudd I 25 
 
 Do and Dare ; or, A Brave Boy's Fight for Fortune . i 25 
 Hector's Inheritance ; or, Boys of Smith Institute . i 25 
 Helping Himself ; or, Grant Thornton's Ambition . l 25 
 
 WAY TO SUCCESS SERIES. By Horatio 
 Alger, Jr 4 vols., I2mo. Fully illustrated. Cloth, 
 extra, printed in colors. In box $5 oo 
 
 Bob Burton I 25 
 
 The Store Boy i 25 
 
 Luke Walton \ 25 
 
 Struggling Upward t 25 
 
 NEW BOOK BY ALGER. 
 
 DIGGING FOR GOLD. By Horatio Alger, Jr. 
 
 Illustrated i zmo. Cloth, black, red and gold ... X 25
 
 A 
 
 New Series 
 of Books. 
 
 Indian Life 
 
 and 
 
 Character 
 
 Founded on 
 
 Historical 
 
 Facts. 
 
 Specimen Cover ol the Wyoming 
 Series. 
 
 By Edward S. Ellis. 
 
 ** Any volume sold separately. 
 
 BOY PIONEER SERIES. By Edward S. Ellis. 
 3 vols., I2mo. Fully illustrated. Cloth, extra, printed 
 
 in colors. In box $3 75 
 
 Ned in the Block House ; or, Life on the Frontier. I 25 
 Ned in the "Woods. A Tale of the Early Days in 
 
 the West I 25 
 
 Ned on the River i 25 
 
 DEERFOOT SERIES. By Edward S. Ellis. In 
 box containing the following. 3 vols., 12010. Illus- 
 trated . . . $3 75 
 
 Hunters of the Ozark i 25 
 
 Camp in the Mountains i 25 
 
 The Last War Trail i 25 
 
 LOG CABIN SERIES. By Edward S. Ellis. 
 3 vols., 1 2mo. Fully illustrated. Cloth, extra, printed 
 in colors. In box #3 75 
 
 (7)
 
 8 PORTER * COATES'S POPULAR JUVENILES. 
 
 Lost Trail $12$ 
 
 Camp-Fire and Wigwam i 25 
 
 Footprints in the Forest / 25 
 
 "WYOMING SERIES. By Edward S. Ellis. 3 
 vols., I2mo. Fully illustrated. Cloth, extra, printed 
 
 in colors. In box $37$ 
 
 Wyoming i 25 
 
 Storm Mountain i 25 
 
 Cabin in the Clearing i 25 
 
 NEW BOOKS BY EDWARD S. ELLIS. 
 
 Through Forest and Fire. I2mo. Cloth . . i 25 
 On the Trail of the Moose. 121110. Cloth , . i 25 
 
 By C. A. Stephens. 
 
 Rare books for boys bright, breezy, wholesome and instructive ; full of 
 adventure and incident, and information upon natural history. They blend 
 instruction with amusement contain much useful and valuable information 
 upon the habits of annnali, and plenty of adventure, fun and jollity. 
 
 CAMPING OUT SERIES. By C. A. Stephens. 
 6 vols., I2mo. Fully illustrated. Cloth, extra, printed 
 in colors. In box $7 50 
 
 Camping Out. As recorded by " Kit " i 25 
 
 Left on Labrador ; or The Cruise of the Schooner 
 
 Yacht " Curfew." As recorded by " Wash " .... i 25 
 
 Off to the Geysers ; or, The Young Yachters in Ice- 
 land. As recorded by <( Wade '' I 25 
 
 Lynx Hunting. From Notes by the author of 
 
 " Camping Out " I 25 
 
 Fox Hunting. As recorded by " Raed " I 25 
 
 On the Amazon ; or, The Cruise of the " Rambler." 
 As recorded by " Wash " I 25 
 
 By J. T. Trowbridge. 
 
 Theie stories will rank among the best of Mr. Trowbridge's books for the 
 young and he has written some of the best of our juvenile l.terature. 
 
 JACK HAZARD SERIES. By J. T. Trov, bridge. 
 6 vols., I2ino. Fully Illustrated. Cloth, extra, printed 
 in colors. In box $7 50
 
 PORTER * COATES'S POPULAR JUVENILES. 9 
 
 Jack Hazard and His Fortunes $i 25 
 
 A Chance for Himself; or, Jack Hazard and his 
 
 Treasure I 25 
 
 Doing His Best i 25 
 
 Fast Friends I 25 
 
 The Young Surveyor ; or, Jack on the Prairies . i 25 
 Lawrence's Adventures Among the Ice Cut- 
 ters, Glass Makers, Coal Miners, Iron Men and Ship 
 
 Builders i 25 
 
 GOOD BOOKS 
 
 Suitable for Girls between the Ages of 12 and 15. 
 
 Ways and Means. A Story for girls. By Mar- 
 garet Vandegrift. With four illustrations. 121110. 
 Cloth, extra l 2 5 
 
 The Queen's Body-Guard. A Story for Girls. By 
 Margaret Vandegrift. With four illustrations. I2mo. 
 Cloth, extra * 25 
 
 Rose Raymond's Wards. A Story for Girls. By 
 Margaret Vandegrift. Illustrated with four engravings 
 on wood. I2mo. Cloth, extra * 2 5 
 
 Doris and Theodora. A Story for Girls. By Mar- 
 garet Vandegiift. Illustrated with four engravings on 
 wood. I2mo. Cloth, extra * 25 
 
 Dr. Gilbert's Daughters. A Story for Girls. By 
 Margaret Harriet Mathews. Illustrated with four en- 
 gravings on wood. 1 2mo. Cloth, extra 125 
 
 Esther's Fortune. A Romance for Girls. By Lucy 
 C. Lillie. Illustrated. I2mo. Cloth, extra, brown 
 and gold I 25 
 
 Helen Glenn ; or, My Mother's Enemy. A Story for 
 Girls. By Lucy C. Lillie. Illustrated with eight illus- 
 trations. I2mo. Cloth, extra I 25 
 
 The Squire's Daughter. By Lucy C. Lillie. I2mo. 
 
 Illustrated. Cloth, extra I 25 
 
 For Honor's Sake. By Lucy C. Lillie. I2mo. 
 
 Illustrated. Cloth, extra I 25 
 
 Marion Berkley. A Story for Girls. By Lizzie B. 
 Comins (Laura Caxton). I2mo. Illustrated. Cloth, 
 extra, brown and gold I2 S 
 
 Hartwell Farm. A Story for Girls. By Lizzie B. 
 Comins (Laura Caxton). I2mo. Illustrated. Cloth, 
 extra, brown and gold I 25
 
 THE HANDSOMEST AND CHEAPEST GIFT BOOK& 
 
 " 
 
 Cells'' Aeries. 
 
 The " BELLS " Series has been undertaken by the publishers with a view 
 to issue original illustrated poems of a high character, at a price within the 
 reach of all classes. 
 
 Small 410 .........*.. $150 
 
 Ivory surface 150 
 
 Embossed calf, gilt edges x 50 
 
 GEMS FROM TENNYSON. 
 
 By ALFRED TENNYSON. Elegantly illustrated by Hammatt Billings. 
 
 BEAUTIES OF TENNYSON. 
 
 By ALFRED TENNYSON. Elegantly illustrated with twenty engravings, from 
 original drawings by Frederic B. Schell. Beautifully printed on the finest 
 plate paper. 
 
 FROM GREENLAND'S ICY MOUNTAINS. 
 
 By BISHOP HBBER. Elegantly illustrated with twenty-two engravings, from 
 original drawings by Frederic B. Schell. Beautifully printed on the finest 
 plate paper. 
 
 LADY CLARE. 
 
 By ALFRED TENNYSON. Elegantly illustrated with twenty-two engravings, 
 from original drawings by Alfred Fredericks, F. S. Church, Harry Fenn, 
 F. B. Schell, E. P. Garret and Granville Perkins. Beautifully printed on 
 the finest plate paper. 
 
 THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS. 
 
 By CLEMENT C. MOORE. Never before has this popular poem a favorita 
 with both the old and the young been presented in such a beautiful dress. 
 It is elegantly illustrated with twenty-two engravings, from original draw 
 ings by F. B. Schell, W. T. Smedley, A. Fredericks and H. R. Poore. 
 
 BINGEN ON THE RHINE. 
 
 By CAROLINE E. NORTON. Elegantly illustrated with twenty-two en- 
 gravings, from original drawings by W. T. Smedley, F. B. Schell, A. 
 Fredericks, Granville Perkins and E. P. Garrett. 
 
 THE BELLS. 
 
 By EDGAR ALLAN FOB. Elegantly illustrated with twenty-two engravings, 
 from original drawings by F. O. C. Darley, A. Fredericks, Granvule 
 Perkins and others. 
 
 THE DESERTED VILLAGE. 
 
 By OLIVER GOLDSMITH. Elegantly illustrated with thirty-five engravings, 
 from drawings by Hammatt Billings. 
 
 THE COTTER'S SATURDAY NIGHT. 
 
 By ROBERT BURNS. Elegantly illustrated with fifty engravings, from iraw- 
 ings by Chapman. 
 
 10
 
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