On the day following the incidents just related, Mary, who had been spending the afternoon with a neighbor's family, towards evening was returning to her home, when she was suddenly and most unexpectedly confronted by Dan McCowan. So startled was she by this unlooked-for meeting, that she involuntarily gave a slight scream, as she recognized who it was that stood before her.
"I see as how I have skeered you right smart now," said the fellow, grinning in her face with a wicked leer. "Your father told me as how he would be much obliged to me if I would stop my visits to his house, which, bein' a gentleman, I was bound to do, and as I had a little something to say to you, I thought this would be the time to say it."
The girl, who had now somewhat recovered her composure, yet fully realizing the character of the man with whom she had to deal, stood quietly looking him full in the face, and said, in a tone that betrayed her contempt, "I suppose I must listen to you, sir, but be brief, as it is getting late, and my folks will be uneasy at my long absence."
"Well, Miss Harcourt," he replied, "I will come to the point at once. You have a brother, who has been away from home fur some time. Do you know where he is?"
Mary was silent, and he muttered, half to himself, "I thought so; the whole family are traitors. No more than is to be expected from these d—d abolitionists. I can tell you where he is," he continued; "he is on the other side, and fighting against the South."
"And what if he is in the Federal army? He is fighting for the government you and yours are seeking to destroy," answered the spirited girl.
"It don't matter much to me which side he fights on; but suppose I tell it around, that he is fighting with the Yankees, do you think it would matter to you then?"
"While she was struggling in his grasp, he was startled by a violent clutch upon his collar from behind." P. 441.